Ever listen to something, go "nah..." and move on? Or maybe you picked up a CD at random because you vaguely remembered hearing something good about the band, or a friend hyped it up until you finally got a copy, or it was a birthday present... in any event, you listened to it once and it left you cold. Not horrible stuff, just nothing worth your time.
And then you dig it up out of a crate some time later -- maybe years later -- and you finally get it. Great music, brilliant playing, whatever, but this time it all works. This happens to me now and then, and it happened to me again just this evening.
I'm listening to the Tin Hat Trio's Helium. I had first gotten it within a year of its release, and I think I listened to it once. Maybe fast-forwarded a second time. I don't know what I was expecting at the time, but it wasn't delivering on those expectations.
As I write this I'm listening to it for the second time in eight or nine years and... what a beautifully dark little thing. I'm sorry I hadn't twigged to this earlier.
It's an intimate session of violin, guitar and accordion, with musical roots in many soils: Hot jazz, tango, blues, cabaret, swing, cafe music... It has a lot of the musical playfulness I associate with the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, complemented with a gothic, theatrical grit reminiscent of Tom Waits.
So are there any albums that finally clicked for you, years after your first listen?
It helps if you've had "Dusk at Cubist Castle" sink in, too.
