Re: Albums You Disliked Previously But Love Now?
For me, it's usually a case of albums that are so emotionally dense that it takes several listens to really penetrate. These albums packed a punch, but it took a while for the blow to be really felt:
Marquee Moon by Television. A year ago, if you had asked me, I would have said that I didn't like Television, or that they were "ok" at best. Now, this is one of my top 5 albums of all time. There so much here, so much poetry and beauty. The guitar work is far more complicated than most punk albums, and there's a lot going on in the background that it takes a long time to hear. The lyrics are minimalistic, but when combined with the music, create swirling whirlpools and other worlds.
Bob Dylan's "Latter-Day Trilogy;" Time Out of Mind, "Love and Theft", and Modern Times. When most people think of Dylan at his best, they tend to point directly at his electric years, from 1965 to 1966. And I used to agree. These three albums seemed like footnotes on a long career. Nowadays, I've realized that this is the kind of music that Dylan's always wanted to make, but it took him an entire lifetime to get there. They provide a tour of 20th Century American music, spanning genres ranging from rock 'n roll, to blues, to rockabilly, to swing/jazz to country. The lyrics compose a vast philosophy touching upon a great many facets of life, with a world weariness that only the aging songwriter could manage.
Exile on Main St. by the Rolling Stones. I used to think it was too long, I never felt like bothering with it. As my attention span has grown over the years, I've had an easier time listening to these sorts of albums from beginning to end. This is groundbreaking and powerful in so many ways that have been chronicled so many times that there's not much I can add. It's not only a culmination of everything the Stones had been trying to do up to this point, it's a culmination of rock 'n roll as a whole. To my ears, it stands unequaled as the single greatest example of the musical movement. It's fun, it's smart, it drags you through the mud, it pulls you back up, and then it kicks off the dust and throws you back down.