Albums you really have to grow into liking...

Inspired by the Trout Mask Replica topic.

It only happened to me once (yet anyways) that I didn't particularly like an album the first 2-3 times I heard it and ended up being very fond of it. It was the s/t Hatfield & The North album which is strange considering I was already a huge Caravan (H&TN and Caravan both included Richard Sinclair) and early Zappa (H&TN shares the comic side of some of Zappa's albums) fan.

Pharoah Sander's Black Unity and Joanna Newsom's Have One On Me are probably the only albums it took me more than three listens to enjoy significantly

I am totally in agreement when it comes to Secrets of the Beehive by DAVID SYLVIAN.  An album with similar effect for me was "Rings of Earthly Light" by ERIS PLUVIA.  Both of them sounded beautiful from the first listen, but it took a while for me to get from there to loving every groove of each album with every fiber of my being.  "A Song for all Seasons" by RENAISSANCE was another, as were "Stationary Traveller" by CAMEL, "Ezekiel" by ITOIZ, "Thick as a Brick" by JETHRO TULL, "Planets" by ELOY, "Antiphon" by MIDLAKE, "Imaginaerum" by NIGHTWISH

It seems I'm a bit opposite of most people, but I find it's the simple albums that are hardest to get into. When I listen to something complex like Larks Tongues In Aspic or Relayer, at least I can tell that there's too much going on to digest on the first listen.

In The Court Of The Crimson King was one that had to take a bit to really get, since it seemed pretty underwhelming compared to the later prog that I was familiar with. The track listing makes it seems like it has all these complex multi-movements epics, but that really doesn't reflect how the songs were actually structured (to my knowledge, it was all just to trick the record company into thinking it was more than 5 songs so the band would get paid for a full album). So I was a bit disappointed when I first heard it; it's really an album that made me ask "Is that it?" - I've never been one to give albums more points because of historical context. But it's definitely grown on me, although I'm still convinced Moonchild's purpose is to make the title track seem that much better when it finally starts.

Cardiacs - A Little Man etc. At first I agreed with the NME review. Now I actually like (most of) it.

One of the first proper prog LPs I ever bought, at a tender fifteen years old, was GG's TPATG. Erm wtf even is this??? Is that a violin or a saxophone? Suffice to say I was in no way ready for it, but even so I was fascinated by its strangeness...listened to it periodically...and realised after only about four years that I loved it

Similar story with Spirit of Eden a bit later, though that one only took a year or so.

Funnily enough I didn't come to Trout Mask Replica until I was in my early twenties and had already listened to a lot of free jazz, lowdown blues and Tom Waits - and was able to grok it fairly easily. And I never thought quite so highly of Tom again after I discovered the Cap.

Edited by Mascodagama - September 19 2017 at 11:23

I needed some time before I could appreciate P. Hammill's voice and therefore VDGG as a whole.
Tangerine Dream's Zeit is an example for me as well, I love it now and couldn't make sense of it for at least a decade.
I'm currently making another attempt to get into NEU!; I didn't think much of them since I heard their stuff first time around 1980 when I got into prog.  I like most of their first album now, so there's some progress. I also gave La Duesseldorf another shot but they still annoy me.

Here's my more updated list of crazy complex prog. These are the types of albums that require a great deal of investment to really wrap your head around. I limited this to super complex albums but some more straight forward albums can take their time as well. For example some Porcupine Tree albums didn't rub me the right way upon first listen but found their way into my inner earworm playlists :)

Hah that is me! I can't believe I forgot. Maybe it's because we're on a prog forum but that usually doesn't stop me but yes I was that guy too! I bought Astral Weeks at about the same age as you - span it once and absolutely hated it wanting to throw my cd right out the window - try again and it's pretty much the same story - must've gone years before I gave it another chance and, unlike you, it was love at "first" listen. I remember thinking to myself 'I have never heard this album before in my life....or could it just be that I didn't LISTEN?'
After that, plus a couple of other sheer satori filled moments of pure and utter musical bliss, my life changed completely...or my mind did. Carrot carrot.

Now that I think of it, Lou Reed's Berlin had the same effect on me. Today my alltime favourite Lou record (together with Rock n Roll Animal of course but it's a live thang and doesn't count) but those first couple of listens were excrutiatingly dull to get through.