Albums you thought to be average, but instead you found yourself impressed?

Sorry about the title, my original was too long, so I had to shorten it to sound confusing.

So albums that gave you a low initial impression, to then blow your mind when you listen to 'em?

Folie à deux definetly made me show a hell of alot of interest in FOB.
The album, once I turned it on, completely wow'd me with the consistant change in music/vocal per-song (It's honestly something I didn't expect O_o~, especiall the end of W.A.M.S.).

I expected Escape from Planet Monday to be repetitive from what I have heard on Myspace, I was completely wrong.. Never have I heard so many songs based on giving a message: "going for it" ... being so diverse and different per song (specially in the DnB genre, where it's easy to be repetitive).

There's more, but I have Uni, ttyl~

Like...half of the Incubus albums. My mom has most of them and she listens to them a lot, but they were just another band my parents liked, didn't pay much attention. Then someone else brought it up and I was like "oh...yeah...that song is pretty good..." Then I listened on purpose and I love every song ever ever ever xDDD


Same with Boom Boom Satellites, I listened to them here and there, thought they were kinda cool in some songs, some were kinda meh, then I forgot about them. Then I think it was one of your other threads that reminded me they existed and I listened to EVERY SONG EVER AND I LOVE THEM TO PIECES xD

Tool: 10,000 Days. Honestly, the first time I listened to it it was at work with a set of headphones and though I was listening it wasn't as closely as I should have. When I got through the album my first reaction was, and I quote; "what the hell was that?"

I came to the conclusion that there couldn't be anything wrong with the album so I listened a second time, more closely this time. All of the pieces started to fit together.

By the end of the day it was becoming my favourite Tool album. By the end of the week it was my favourite Tool album, and by the end of the next week, the best album I'd ever heard. I proceeded to listen to it at least once through everyday for 7 months. I'm still not sick of it. It's still the best album I've ever heard. It just took a while for my brain to pick out most of the nuances behind the music. It's one of very few albums where I can say every song is truly more than the some of it's parts.

More albums than I can probably list. If I'm not in the right mood then things won't click, but then I listen to them at the right time and it's like damn.

Biggest example for me: Hail to the Thief by Radiohead. I thought it was mostly rubbish but now I just adore it.

Other albums:
Wu Tang Clan - Enter the Wu Tang/36 Chambers
Elliot Smith - XO (and his other albums)
Tool - Lateralus (and their other albums)
Lupe Fiasco - Food and Liquor
Killers - Sam's Town, and to a lesser extent Hot Fuss

There's lots and lots. It's just hard to remember not liking some of these after falling in love with them afterwards.

Food and Liquor is like sound having sex with my ears, soooooo good.

When I first listened to Kate Bush's most recent work, Aerial, I was unimpressed. It wasn't bad per se, but I just didn't dig it; the first CD was all over the place and the second CD had way too many intricacies and hidden meanings for me to enjoy on my initial play through. The CDs stayed in my playlist though, and eventually after multiple play throughs, the two-disc set has become one of my favorite works by any artist. The piano on A Coral Room is just sooooooo :love:

Bjork's Volta. I didn't think it was up to par with her other work, but I gave it more and more listenings, and found that it was like her other albums, a fresh new concept.

Daydream Nation is the main one. The first time I listened to it I found everything except "Teen Age Riot" to be unlistenable, but with repeated listening the intent behind the chaos became clear and it's now one of my favourite albums of all time. Also Kid A to a lesser extent, and Enslaved's Mardraum, which was more or less responsible for getting me into black metal via a process more or less the same as with Sonic Youth.

There were probably plenty of others as well, but they don't stand out as much since none of them had as radical an impact on my listening habits.

Explosions in the Sky's "The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place", my first venture into post-rock, and Joanna Newsom's "Ys" were albums I at first thought wasn't for me, but they have since became two of my favourite albums ever.

Eurodance & Hi-NRG techno is one of my favorite types music. There was a 2-disc Eurodance compilation album that I got back in late 2004 one time. It's called Maxi Power Vol. 5.

When I first listened to it, it didn't sound spectacular or anything. When I listened to it again some months later, I was quite impressed with it, and it became of my best Eurodance CD's.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cleric

Bjork's Volta. I didn't think it was up to par with her other work, but I gave it more and more listenings, and found that it was like her other albums, a fresh new concept.

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This too~ Actually, I was like that with Vespertine and Medulla, too ... I'm still not totally sure if I like Medulla.

Naw, I still don't like Volta at all. This happened to me with Medulla though.

I didnt think that Chinese Democracy was goin to be very good but i turned out to like it still wasent the bes G'n'R album though.

Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull
Opeth - Watershed
The Mars Volta - Bedlam In Goliath
Bathory - Nordland I and II
Enslaved - Vertebrae
Between the Buried and Me period
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
The Damned - Strawberries
Dead Kennedys - Frankenchrist
Electric Wizard - Witchcult Today
Dead Congregation - Graves of the Archangels
Krallice
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works (Actually, I figured this would suck)
Gorillaz - Demon Days
mewithoutYou (as a band)
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times


That's about all I can think of off hand...

I absolutely love that feeling of suddenly liking a previously unliked album. Once you actually listen properly, the pieces begin to fit together nicely, and its like an epiphany. Often you will only start liking a song once you've heard whats behind the main rythm/beat, or even whats missing (i.e. the silences between notes that can play a big role too).

This is usually the case with all classical music for me, but I dont listen to much.
This happened with Pendulums album In Silico (im not such a big DnB head, but I liked Pendulum's previous album since i guess thats more break beat?). In Silico sounded kind of boring and a little cheesy to me, but then I just let the whole album play while I was tidying my room a bit and listened intently, suddenly noticing everything the songs had to offer, the arrangement and the order in which the tracks are played (a good order will have smooth transitions of moods and motifs).
Ehmm, what else.
Muse, Black Holes and Revelations.
Nearly all electronic music thats not easy listening.

I also noticed I started liking songs more after playing on my friends Guitar Hero ^^, sometimes you just dont really listen to the guitars, especially the solos...