Tell Us about an Album That Took a Long Time to Grow on You


I'd love to hear about records you own that left you cold or disappointed when you first heard them but really grew on you with time. I'll give two examples.
The first is Paul Simon's collaboration with Brian Eno from 2006 entitled "Surprise." I really, really disliked it at first – so much of it felt to me like noise. But over time, I came to appreciate it.
The second is Donald Fagen's "Sunken Condos." I am such a huge fan of him and Steely Dan that I was shocked by how little affection I felt for that record when I first heard it. Now, the better part of two years later, there are songs on the album that I can't get enough of. Strange how this happens…
Your examples?
rebbi
Since Peter was mentioned i would submit US . When it came out i would only play two tracks , Digging in the dirt and Steam . This was as a teenager . The album was so uncompressed that it did not show well in my car stereo or boombox . Once a proper hifi system was has it became a jewel sonically . Not a bad track on it . A desert island selection now .
I've had many records that I was initially very disappointed in for sure. Too many to remember for sure but here are a few I lovingly do remember the struggle.

Talking Heads - Little Creatures. This album was played a lot in the electronics shop I worked in while in the Navy. At some point it clicked and I've been subliminally thinking about playing it on Spotify for a few days now. First heard it over thirty years ago.

U2 - October. It was a very difficult hump to get over but boy (no partial pun intended) what a record when I could finally "hear" it. 

Wilco, several of their records but mostly Sky Blue Sky. When I began to get it I could not turn it off for weeks (and probably months). I still think this is their best effort.

Daniel Amos - Dig Here Said the Angel. I've been a fan of this band for over three decades. I played this disc three or four or five times when I bought it and really didn't like it. Then I put it away for some time before putting it in the disc player in my car. Over repeated playing I was able to crack the code. Now, after probably several months am having trouble considering it is time to put in a new disc. I don't drive to work everyday so take that into consideration but I feel so blessed to feel this way about a record. If you've never heard this band, check them out. You may just be happy you did.

Thanks Rebbi for having the thought tostart this thread. I can't wait to read others experiences.


Three that jump to mind:

"The Good Earth" by The Feelies. It was a very different application of a similar musical idea to the one that underpinned "Crazy Rhythms", the prior (debut) record from that band. At first, I just didn’t hear that or "get" it. I guess that it just took my brain a little time to understand what they were doing.

The first White Stripes record initially struck me as a weak attempt to channel Led Zep. After a couple of years, I started to hear it as a very cool job of channeling Zep.

The first Lou Reed solo album was a disappointment after hearing what he’d done with Velvet Underground. I later came to really love the record.

It’s not that Music From Big Pink by The Band took a long time to grow on me, but rather that I just wasn’t ready for it when it came out in early 1968. Some of my musician friends loved it immediately, and some particularly smart non-musician friends did as well. I was completely mystified, not at all understanding what all "the fuss" was about (the album caused quite a stir. It in fact started the "counter-counterculture", if you know what I mean).

I was loving the current leaders of the "musician’s musicians" movement in Rock (instigated imo by The Yardbirds): Cream, Hendrix, The Who, The Nice (Keith Emerson’s pre-ELP Group), and (I’m really embarrassed to say) Vanilla Fudge. Yes, I still loved The Kinks, The Beatles (though not their latest album, the vastly over-rated Sgt. Pepper’s whatever), Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, and the last two Beach Boys albums, Smiley Smile and Wild Honey. The San Francisco Groups were making a lotta noise, but out of all of them I liked only Moby Grape’s fantastic debut album.

Music From Big Pink starts with "Tears of Rage", a slow song sung in almost-falsetto voice, the snare drum played with the snare wires "off". The song was rather "low-energy" (as Trump would put it), with no guitar solo, some New Orleans horns, and funeral-parlor organ. I had absolutely NO idea what to make of it. "To Kingdom Come" follows. and I could make no more sense of it. Then comes "In A Station", which has no guitar to speak of, the drummer playing only his bass drum. WTF?! Next was "Caledonia Mission" which kept starting and stopping, the drummer playing his snare drum in "cross-stick" fashion (the tip of the stick on the drum head, the drum’s metal hoop then hit with the stick’s shaft, producing a "click" sound). This is Rock ’n’ Roll?! I tried a couple more times, to no avail. I had to agree to disagree with those who were absolutely raving about the album (including George Harrison, who carried a carton of the LP in the trunk of his car, giving a copy to everyone he visited. Eric Clapton got his copy, and upon hearing it disbanded Cream, went to Big Pink and hung with The Band, waiting, he says, for them to ask him to join. It finally occurred to him his services were not required or desired. Eric talks about The Band and MFBP "correcting" the direction music---including his own---was headed in.).

A year later (Spring of ’69) my teen combo got a gig opening for The New Buffalo (Buffalo Springfield drummer Dewey Martin leading a 4-piece Band, the bassist being Randy Fuller, formerly of The Bobby Fuller 4). The contract stipulated that we allow our amps and drumset be used by them, as they traveled with only their guitars and Dewey’s own snare drum and bass drum pedal (drummers will appreciate what I’m talking about ;-).

We finished our set, and TNB mounted the stage, plugged in and tuned up, and started playing and singing. Those who have had a genuine epiphany will understand me when I say that midway through their first song, the infamous light bulb suddenly snapped on over my head, and I in an instant understood what all "the fuss" was about. Ensemble playing! Playing for the song! Musicality! It took awhile, but I finally got it. So did Neil Young; as good as Buffalo Springfield was, and Neil’s own solo albums, Music From Big Pink, and then it’s follow-up (s/t, aka the "brown" album) raised the bar WAAAY higher than it had been. Neil’s Harvest album (by far his best) was a direct attempt to equal the second Band album. He ditched his lame band (Crazy Horse) and assembled a world-class recording band, comprised of Nashville studio drummer Kenneth Buttrey (who played similarly to The Band’s Levon Helm, and had already been on several Dylan albums), bassist Tim Drummond (also from the Nashville studios), pianist Jack Nitzsche (L.A. studios, including doing all of Phil Spector’s orchestral arrangements), and pedal-steel played Ben Keith. What "a band"! Neil even recorded the album in his barn, to get the "dead", "thumpy" sound of Levon’s drumkit. As good as it is, Harvest falls far short of MFBP and TBA. The Band had three great songwriters (plus Dylan, with whom they co-wrote), three great singers, and had been playing together for eight years, often six nights a week, before they recorded MFBP!

Having that epiphany not only allowed me to now appreciate Music From Big Pink, but to be very ready for The Band’s second album, which I eagerly awaited. But much more than that, it completely changed the way I think about musicianship, and what I value in a player. Nothing was ever the same, everything had changed---all in an instant. Thank God for that gig!