Losing your virginity sucks
Losing your virginity sucks. Your first time is (usually) the worst. It just doesn’t work out the way you planned. Then after you give it another chance, it gets better…. then better… then BETTER. I’m talking about sex here… No, actually I’m talking about music.
Why is it that, whenever I listen to a new album (sometimes), I always think “eh…. that was… okay.” But I can’t just write the album off after only one listening. I mean I’m not paying $10 to $15, sometimes $18 for a CD just so I can try it out. I probably wouldn’t pay that much to test drive most cars. So, then I say, “I’ve got nothing better to do… (it’s Friday, I aint got no job, and I aint got shit to do) alright… I’ll listen to it again.” Of course, the second listening is (usually) better than the first, so I start to dig on it. Most of the time, the third time I listen to an album is when I really get hooked (if it ends up actually being a good album… if not, it’s toast). Why is that??? What is this phenomenon??? Why do I have to listen to an album thrice before it reels me in???
Now, don’t get me wrong… there are some albums that I can say I have liked (loved) the very first time I listened to them, even sometimes after I’ve only heard the first song. Albums like Jet’s “Get Born” or both of the Strokes albums, Green Day’s last 2 (Am Idiot, Warning) or even like Donovan Frankenreiter and Jack Johnson just hit me the very first time I heard them and I knew I liked them. But then you have albums that I have honestly all but written-off after the first listen. Then, somehow, someway I hear it again and it grows on me.
The album that prompted this discussion (with myself) is G Love’s “The Hustle.” Now, I’ve been a G Love fan for a while now. I got his first album (G Love and Special Sauce) not too long after it originally came out. Anyway, after hearing this new album once, I really only found maybe 2 songs that I actually liked on it. Then, listened again…. then again… and now I love it. It has grown on me like I couldn’t believe. (Side note, not really on the side: pick this album up and listen to it at least twice, you’ll be glad) But I can’t even name off ALL the other albums that this has occurred on. Wilco’s YHF and Ghost, the new Beck album, Lyrics Born, Pete Yorn’s music for…, even some Radiohead albums, to name a few, have all left me feeling less-than-satisfied after the first time. If it weren’t for me wanting to try to like it (so as not to just waste it) and listening again, I might never have had the pleasure of really enjoying these albums.
I think… think… think… that what happens on a lot of these albums is that as you listen again and again and again, you start to appreciate the entirety of the music. You hear little complexities that you never would have heard the first time. And then you see how these little things relate to the bigger things, and the music… starts to… make more sense, and flow better, and… sound better. Now, some albums you listen to, you like at first, but then that’s it. They don’t get better with each go-around. It’s like a fine wine… gets better with age. I think albums that don’t, don’t have much depth to them, musically. An album that, essentially, changes every time you hear it, is truly something to behold.
Anyone have any other ideas on this phenomenon?? Comments?? Or… the answer?
Why is it that, whenever I listen to a new album (sometimes), I always think “eh…. that was… okay.” But I can’t just write the album off after only one listening. I mean I’m not paying $10 to $15, sometimes $18 for a CD just so I can try it out. I probably wouldn’t pay that much to test drive most cars. So, then I say, “I’ve got nothing better to do… (it’s Friday, I aint got no job, and I aint got shit to do) alright… I’ll listen to it again.” Of course, the second listening is (usually) better than the first, so I start to dig on it. Most of the time, the third time I listen to an album is when I really get hooked (if it ends up actually being a good album… if not, it’s toast). Why is that??? What is this phenomenon??? Why do I have to listen to an album thrice before it reels me in???
Now, don’t get me wrong… there are some albums that I can say I have liked (loved) the very first time I listened to them, even sometimes after I’ve only heard the first song. Albums like Jet’s “Get Born” or both of the Strokes albums, Green Day’s last 2 (Am Idiot, Warning) or even like Donovan Frankenreiter and Jack Johnson just hit me the very first time I heard them and I knew I liked them. But then you have albums that I have honestly all but written-off after the first listen. Then, somehow, someway I hear it again and it grows on me.
The album that prompted this discussion (with myself) is G Love’s “The Hustle.” Now, I’ve been a G Love fan for a while now. I got his first album (G Love and Special Sauce) not too long after it originally came out. Anyway, after hearing this new album once, I really only found maybe 2 songs that I actually liked on it. Then, listened again…. then again… and now I love it. It has grown on me like I couldn’t believe. (Side note, not really on the side: pick this album up and listen to it at least twice, you’ll be glad) But I can’t even name off ALL the other albums that this has occurred on. Wilco’s YHF and Ghost, the new Beck album, Lyrics Born, Pete Yorn’s music for…, even some Radiohead albums, to name a few, have all left me feeling less-than-satisfied after the first time. If it weren’t for me wanting to try to like it (so as not to just waste it) and listening again, I might never have had the pleasure of really enjoying these albums.
I think… think… think… that what happens on a lot of these albums is that as you listen again and again and again, you start to appreciate the entirety of the music. You hear little complexities that you never would have heard the first time. And then you see how these little things relate to the bigger things, and the music… starts to… make more sense, and flow better, and… sound better. Now, some albums you listen to, you like at first, but then that’s it. They don’t get better with each go-around. It’s like a fine wine… gets better with age. I think albums that don’t, don’t have much depth to them, musically. An album that, essentially, changes every time you hear it, is truly something to behold.
Anyone have any other ideas on this phenomenon?? Comments?? Or… the answer?
posted by B-Qbd at 1:26 PM
1 Comments:
I don't know. I think the first listen is only troublesome when you have expectations. Sometimes listening to a band you've never heard before and never heard anything about can be refreshing and eye opening. It often takes awhile to expell those expectations and let an album exist as a whole on it's own. But you are totally right, after 3 listens if it hasn't hooked yet it never will.
I also agree that albums that change every time you listen to them are music at it's best. But sometimes the greatest records are the ones you know every word to and when one song ends you're alredy singing the melody of the next song. Good punk rock does this best in my opinion. It's not about dynamic music writing it's about energy.
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