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How many times do you need to listen to an album before you're confident enough of your...

post #1 of 32
9/24/09 at 6:47am
Thread Starter 
You know, when you're listening to an album you've never heard before - be it a new release or an old one you haven't touched. How many times in general do you have to listen to it before being confident enough in saying it's good or bad or giving it a rating?
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post #2 of 32
9/24/09 at 6:53am
I usually need a good 3 times before I can say it is good or not. But sometimes, depending on if it among your favorite group for example, you will hear the magic the first run through.

My only disappointment this year, for example, is U2 No Line on the Horizon. I listened to it 6-7 times and I still cannot understand how they can release such average music/words for this super group status. I forced myself to listen it a few more times but nothing/nada....
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post #3 of 32
9/24/09 at 7:27am
3-5 times usually.It is quite often the case that when an album grabs me on first listen,its magic can quickly wear off.
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post #4 of 32
9/24/09 at 8:06am
Generally the worse albums become more evident earlier on. Some of my favorite albums have been "hard to get" at the beginning, getting better with every listening. I guess that more atypical compositions or arrangements require a period of "brain burn-in".

Soundgarden - Superunknown took me a long time before completely opening up. I remember how the tracks were of varying levels of "hard to get", and "getting" the harder song felt like an achievement. "Fresh tendrils" was the last one to be conquered, the hardest one. The easiest ones were obviously the hits: Spoonman and Black Hole Sun.

But of course this was long before MP3s. Today I'd just listen to the two singles a few times and then delete the whole album. It's all ADHD and insta-satisfaction-crap these days.

What's the "hardest" album you've come by in the last 3 years? Meaning one you listened to until you could hum every single part of the record?
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post #5 of 32
9/24/09 at 8:10am
For me its usually once. It either sticks or it doesnt. Sometimes I want to like it so give it another shot but that usually confirms it was no good in the first place. An important factor is ''the right time''. It does happen that I find out I wasnt ready for a particular album at the time of listening. Thats the influence of mood but this is quite rare in my case.
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post #6 of 32
9/24/09 at 8:11am
At least three or four times usually, there are albums i used to hate at a first listen and now love...Nursery Cryme for example...i was quite unimpressed at first, it was even the first Genesis album i heard so i didn't know the band either. Now it's one of my favourite records.
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post #7 of 32
9/24/09 at 8:44am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Comfy View Post
What's the "hardest" album you've come by in the last 3 years? Meaning one you listened to until you could hum every single part of the record?
Nothing I usually give albums a couple of go's and then off to the next. The exceptions would be the albums that I really like, which end up getting revisited until I get enough and then get revisited every now and then... plus those albums that sound really interesting (not necessarily sound good or bad) that I just have to repeat more than twice.

The albums that I can hum every single part from memory are those from when I was younger and there was no downloading or mp3s.

I'm not bummed by the insta-satisfaction-crap, really. I've already come to terms with it.

1-2 times for me.
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post #8 of 32
9/24/09 at 9:33am
I'm going with 3-5 times. For some reason, I'm usually wrong on the first listen, whether it's thumbs up or down. There have been things that spoke to me initially and stuck, though; I remember digging Beck's Mellow Gold and M.I.A.'s Arular instantly, same with jazz like Ornette Coleman's Something Else and Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane.
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post #9 of 32
9/24/09 at 10:10am
Just once.
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post #10 of 32
9/24/09 at 10:49am
I would say 3-5 times.
Every album is different, so I need some listening sessions to get all into it.
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post #11 of 32
9/24/09 at 10:52am
I didn't like Mono's albums until probably the 12th listen, but now I love them. More accessible bands only take 2-5 listens.
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post #12 of 32
9/24/09 at 11:11am
I find that many of the albums I like the best especially in jazz take more than one time through. Many of the albums that I liked immediately, I get tired of.

I suspect it is because the ones that take a few times are more complicated, and those I like immediately get boring because they are too simple.

I think this is true for popular music and rock as well. I tell my neice and nephew when they tell me how great some new song is, that they should wait a few years. If they still like it, it probably is a great song. However most of what they like now, is more likely just fun, and will fade away.

Herman's Hermits come to mind. they had several number one hits when I was much younger, but I would not listen to them now. They are my prime example between fun music that sells for a short time vs good music that can stand the test of time.
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post #13 of 32
9/24/09 at 11:20am
I usually listen 10-20 sec of the begginning of each track - more if there is a slow intro though. I am very easily bored by music. If it doesn't have me at "hello!" then what the heck. There are plenty of music that has.
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post #14 of 32
9/24/09 at 11:26am
Really depends ... I've had some albums that I "got" immediately, yet others don't for the longest time. An example would be jazz - 20+ years ago, I started listening to jazz with Miles and for half a year or so, I was spinning a compilation that did nothing for me. Then one fine day, I sudden began liking it. It was somewhat like an epiphany.
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post #15 of 32
9/24/09 at 11:34am
It depends on the album. Sigur Ros' Agaetis Byrjun, for example, after just listening to one song, I knew I had struck a goldmine. However, something like Tool's Aenima or Radiohead's Kid A took me a long, long time to appreciate.
For me, this doesn't really correlate with the quality of the music - Sometimes things just take a while to click. It depends mostly on what mindset I'm in.
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