I can think of countless albums that have done this to me over the years. For instance, Im a big fan of Soul Coughing and when I listened to El Oso for the first time I thought it was complete garbage! Now, after many listens it's my fav SC album! What gives? Has this happened to you? What albums?

Never happened to me. Usually it is the other way around.

grandaddy - the sophtware slump. i just made a thread about how much i love this one, but the first time i listened to it i thought it was crap.

the beta band - hot shots II. this one is just completely different. takes awhile to warm up to.

aphex twin - selected ambient works volume II. i'm still not sure if this album is a joke like it's rumored to be, but in any case its SO sparse it can be difficult to get into. even now there are only a *few* songs i've grown to like off of it. SAW 85-92 here i come.

ryan adams - gold. got this one for xmas a few years back, and was expecting all the songs to have the same upbeat sound as "new york, new york" since i hadn't heard anything by him before. how wrong i was. the album (and his other two, which i also have) are primarily laid back. but once i started listening to the lyrics instead of the music, it grew on me.

all of the afore-mentioned albums (except for maybe SAW vol. II) are now solid favorites in my collection.

Sure.

Aerosmith, Rocks -- hardest thing I ever heard up until that time. Tyler's vocals were so over-the-top. I now relish the experience of listening to it again.

Talking Heads, Remain in Light -- it was so different from anything else I had heard from them (only familiar with "Psycho Killer" and "Take Me To The River"), much less from anyone else, that I gave it back to the friend who lent it to me. "What is this swill?" "Oh, you'll come around" he said, with a knowing gleam in his eye.

A couple days later, I found I had a rhythm stuck in my head, and couldn't figure out what it was. Then I realized. Called up my friend, "hey, can I borrow that again." He laughed, "sure."

"Nope, it's still swill." "Sure it is, you keep on telling yourself that." "It's so...awkward, what are they trying to do, white person's funk?" "Not quite. Just hold on to it for another week or two." "Okay."

Didn't play it, didn't play it, didn't play it.

"Oh, alright, one more time before I return it."

Finally "got it". Did "the robot" in my basement. Returned it to him the next day. "What? You still don't like it?" "No, I'm getting my own copy. I should probably just keep that one and get you your own new one, with the amount of mileage I put on that thing."

I got even, though: I introduced him to King Crimson's Discipline and Laurie Anderson.

Still don't like "Once in a Lifetime" that much, though.

yes very true, thats why songs that sound catchy that they play on radio are all crap

Yep

I'm very wary of any albums that sound absolutely brilliant straight away. These are the ones that after a few re-runs I'll never touch again.

I'll get back when I can think of a few!

Cheers...

Queens of the Stone Age's "Songs for the Deaf" didn't hit me until I heard it through a car stereo (stock, I might add). Listening through my JB3 -> ATH-A1000 just bore me to death. I grew to like the very first song and still loved the radio hit.

Their scaled down production makes a lot more sense on a car stereo as does the theme of the album, heh. Ever since I heard it in my friend's truck, I loved it. Since it's so mid heavy, the songs always sound better than most over radio transmission.

Beck's "Sea Change" I thought was total garbage... turns out it just wasn't a good album for work.

Fugazi's "Red Medicine" was ****... until I heard the less radical "The Argument" and kind of stepped in the shallow end. I loved "The Argument" after a few listens and then went back to "Red Medicine" and found myself loving it.

I think that goes with a lot of bands. If I had heard QOTSA's "R" before "Songs of the Deaf," I think I would've "got it."

It took a few listens + some time inbetween those listens to "get" Chemical Brothers' "Come With Us."

Christ, this actually happens to be pretty frequently but you know, everytime it happens, I figure I've broadening my horizons Hmm... maybe I should give those recent live Fatboy Slim albums a chance... god, maybe later.

dance with the devil and you don't change the devil. the devil changes you.

yeah, the new QOTSA took some time. I liked "R" so much that it was a bit of a let down at first. Now, I love it. I still prefer "R" though.

I still don't "get" the Deftones... maybe eventually, eh?

Fear Factory: Demanufacture

I actually got into this album at the strangest time, i had to get a root canal treatment done, after going to one of the follow up visits (ya know, where they drill down the tooth? ouch) i decided to take this tape with me (yep, tape!). After listening to it to and from the dentist i grew to appreciate the singer's vicious growls...it brought some comfort to me and my poor tooth

It seems like the ones that took me the longest to warm up to end up being my favorites.

deftones are bad, that's it...they are confused, they think they're hard, but they sound like crap...anyway, I originally thought toxicity was terrible, but it's o-k now...still definetely not worth buying though

This happen to me with Yes, Who and Alice Cooper, the first time I heard these guys, they suck to me, I was a kid then, now I love them all, I even have full discographies from them,

Na' this is part of the weird human nature.....

It's like food.
There's tasty food everybody likes (i.e. sweets and chips). Those are like the catchy song on the radio.
And there is an aquired taste. You'll have to get used to it before you like but once you do, you'll love it.

When you're only used to catchy tunes then it's difficult to like more complex music. It takes some time.
I found that when you listen to complex music more often it is easier to get cought by non catchy song. Your brain is trained to hear the potential of the music and after a few listens you'll get to know it enough to love it.