When things don't quite "click"...

[Analog_Kid]

Just throwing this musical question out for conversation: Do you sometimes listen to a band's album and it just doesn't "click" with you immediately? Not that it's bad or you simply don't like it, it just doesn't push your buttons the right way at the time.

Then, one random day when you least expect it, you put that same album on for the hell of it and you suddenly, inexplicably "get it"? I've had that experience a few times and tonight was one of them. When I first got Tool's 'Lateralus', I played it three or four times all the way through. Each time, it just didn't gel with me and left me feeling rather indifferent to it.

However, for what ever reason, tonight I put it on at random and its' pieces fit,(lyrical pun intended). Anyone else have a similar experience with a album or perhaps a band's body of work?

 

[lumen]

It happens to me a lot actually, especially with bands or albums I end up liking a lot. For example, that happened to me with Opeth and Katatonia, and the Amorphis song "Weeper on the Shore"...

 

[Sadistik]

Know what you mean. I've tried to force myself to listen to albums to see if It's something you need to immerese yourself in to like. Often it fails, but there are occasional successes, most recently Windham Hell's Reflective Depths Imbibe

 

[yourdeadgroom]

'Not clicking' is something I look for in an album. If I like an album instantly, I can guarantee that within 3 weeks I will quite possibly never listen to it again, or more likely on the odd occassion every 6 months or so. I need complex music, and as such the good stuff tends to take a while to sink in, I need to learn where the music is going before I can appreciate it. As such, most of the albums that I worship, I hated at first listen.
Bands I'd put in this category are My Dying Bride, Opeth, In The Woods..., Death, old Bolt Thrower, old Katatonia, Ulver, Emperor, and a whole bunch more I can't think of right now.........

Did have a more 'this album sucks but I like it and I don't know why' experiance recently with Demilich. Their album Nespithe, I posted a while back how bad it was (I still think the song titles are silly), now it's actually kinda cool. Not gonna make my top 50 of all time or anything like that, and I really am surprised that I like it now (and I mean REALLY).

 

[MetalManCPA]

Originally posted by yourdeadgroom
'Not clicking' is something I look for in an album. If I like an album instantly, I can guarantee that within 3 weeks I will quite possibly never listen to it again, or more likely on the odd occassion every 6 months or so. I need complex music, and as such the good stuff tends to take a while to sink in, I need to learn where the music is going before I can appreciate it.

I feel the same way.

If I "instantly" like something - it seems more of an impulse, and that feeling dies off after a while.

I liked Opeth when I first heard it - but their music continues to grow inside me, which indirectly means it wasn't clicking on all cylinders at the beginning.

Good music is something that needs to be listened to more than once to fully appreciate and comprehend its beauty. If you "get it" on the first listen, then it's probably too simple, and the fun wears off [IMO].

 

[Opet]

When I first found Opeth, some parts/songs didn't click. There was a time when I didn't like certain albums. That's all changed now.

 

[dittohead]

Opeth has really clicked for me the last week I think learning some of it on guitar helped. I find when i get a tab book (or tabs of the net) for an album and learn a bunch of it and just follow the tab while listening, its clicks again and brings your appreciation of it to a new level.

 

[Misanthrope]

I was getting into dt a while ago when projector was just out and i liked it but not as much as the gallery or the minds I, then i lost all my mp3 in a format and i did not got it again. Then like 6 months later out of the blue sky i remembered auctioned and how much and started to really miss the song and i got the cd again and now its my favorite DT cd and almost my all time favorite cd.

 

[D Mullholand]

Happens all the time... Opeth for sure, but it took a dumpload of listens before Jeff Buckley, Olivier Messiaen, Morbid Angel, Mr.Bungle, Arnold Schoenberg, Henry Cow and many others really "clicked" for me, as if I finally understood their music and established some sort of link between me and them. More than 50% of the music I listen to nowadays doesn't reach me yet, but one of the most exciting things for me is listening to new music and trying to understand or reach it. Only when I do understand it, I can honestly decide whether I love it or not.

D Mullholand