The Shaggs. 😉
Those rare albums that are great on first listen.
You know the ones. They blow your mind and make you glad you're an audiophile.
Share your favorites.
For me it’s usually some style or vibe I haven’t heard before. My list so far is around 20, but I’ll keep it to my top 5. Feel free to share as many as you like.
!. Poe ‘Haunted’
2. Spirit “Twelve dreams of Dr. Sardonicus’
3. Midlake ‘The Trials of Van Occupanther’
4.Tori Amos ‘Little Earthquakes’
5. Skindive ‘Skindive’
121 responses Add your response
Marjorie Fair - Self Help Serenade I was mesmerized during that first listen. Each successive note and song seemed like it could not be more perfect...like the whole thing was unfolding according to some cosmic plan. Yeah, well, whatever. If you weren't right there you wouldn't know, would you. (Thanks to Pokey77 for turning me on to that one.
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Thanks soix very good choices for me ...😊 I did not have them ...
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Just thought of a couple more from Joe Sample and Oscar Peterson. Great music throughout and all well recorded… https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7wwUW-k_SGERpk2z3yTyW3tyj-iuAowg&si=FWJyw97Ue4_7qqEu |
Not for me. My entire music listening history is rife with: bands, musicians, composers, genres and subgenres of music, that took time and work to get into. Many, if not most of my favorites, did not immediately make sense to me, until I gave them multiple listens, in order to be able to wrap my mind around what they were doing. My first example of this, would be the prog band, Gentle Giant. They were recommended to me because I was already listening to quite a bit of prog at the time (Yes, Genesis, Camel, King Crimson, etc), but I was not ready for what these guys were doing: the dissonance, the unique harmonies, the stop/start rhythms, etc. A year later, after listening to a bunch of other prog, and I decided to take their LP’s off my shelf and give them another try. It was like a light went off in my head. What was I thinking?! They quickly became one of my favorite bands, and have more longevity than a lot of other bands of their time. Same thing happened again with the entire subgenre of avant-prog. These bands use even more dissonance than GG, also use atonality, extremely complex and unpredictable song arrangements, free improv, complex time signatures, etc. Again, it tool me months to wrap my head around avant-prog, but the subgenre is my favorite prog subgenre. Happened again very recently with post 1950’s (up through the current era) atonal, serial, avant-garde, experimental, classical music. Now, I can’t get enough. So, for me, much of the music that takes time and "work" to get into, seems to have the most longevity, has emotional depth, and holds up to repeat listenings better. |
Placebo 'Meds'. My daughter and I loved the line 'Let's follow the cops back home Death Cab for Cutie 'Plans'. Includes a song that'll make your spirit soar. Western States Motel. There's just something about this chill indie band I love. Neil Young 'Harvest' Uriah Heep. My and my buddies loved all of their albums. Blasting on the way to school in my '55 Ford wagon.
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Marvellous experience then... I cannot forgot the Allegri Miserere piece nor the Spem in Alium of Thomas Tallis first listening... I was and are always stunned.. 😊
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@mahgister I have seen them perform it twice. Both times in old churches necessary for the correct performance. |
Wow what a great thread, keep them coming! Forgot my favorite Pete Townsend album with small faces alumni Ronnie Lane, "Rough Mix". A real sleeper album at the time , I think I was the only person in our group at the time who had ever heard or listened to it. Mellow Yellow by Donovan, Traffic - Welcome to the Canteen, Darryl Hall and John Oats- Abandoned Lunchinette, Joe Cocker - Mad Dogs and Englishmen, and a big thumbs up for "Tea for the Tillerman" listened to all of these on a continous rotation. |
Lots of excellent choices and quite a few out of my “comfort zone” even though I have an eclectic taste in music. I have probably gleamed at least a dozen album titles from people’s recommendations that I am going to gather for headphone/2.1 stereo listening. it is always good to expand your horizons. Great topic. |
The reason why you like music the more you listen to it is called neuroplasticity. The reason why you like an album or a song right off the bat is because it reminded you of something that you liked already. The reason why we audiophiles like our own sound systems is because we listen to it so often and enjoy it. Steely Dan "Aja" |
@rocketnj ++1 The Final Cut. |
A little late to the party. I concur with many of the records mentioned already. Here are a few more that did it for me. There are many albums that captured me the first time I heard them, but the following still grab my attention listening with much, much better gear. Cat Stevens: Tea for the Tillerman Bruce Cockburn: Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws Cassandra Wilson: Blue Light ‘til Dawn Lorde: Te Ao Marama (a companion piece to Solar Power. The EP is sung entirely in Te Reo Maori - remarkable) Beyonce: act ii - perhaps the best pop album in a decade |
King Crimson - "In the Court of the Crimson King" Jethro Tull - "Thick as a Brick" Miles Davis - "Kind of Blue" Eberhard Weber - "The Colours of Chloë" Pink Floyd - "Dark Side of the Moon" There are many, many more but I also limited myself to five. I was late to the party in discovering Miles Davis and picked up "Kind of Blue" in a record store due to the partial review on a sticker on the record. Not having heard any Miles I took it home and played it having my mind blown. I think I played it every day for at least a month! "The Colours of Chloë" I heard on the radio. I heard one amazing track and thought "I have to find out what that record is". Then they played a different piece of music and I thought the same thing. I wondered when they were going to tell me what they were playing. Two more amazing pieces of music followed and then they finally gave out the play list - all four were from the same album! You can be sure I went out and bought it immediately. |
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Many albums are challenging and are an acquired taste, but ultimately the most rewarding. BUT some albums are great just from the first time!
Not expecting to break any new ground with that list. |
Some Albums I have always liked from the first time I heard them. There are a lot more if I took more time to think about it... Surrealistic Pillow, The Jefferson Airplane Truth, Jeff Beck The Pretender, Jackson Browne Rumours, Fleetwood Mac Rubber Soul, The Beatles Heart Like a Wheel, Linda Ronstadt Music for the Mind and Body, Country Joe and the Fish High Tide and Green Grass, The Rolling Stones Kind of Blue, Miles Davis Santana, Santana Aftermath, The Rolling Stones Unchained Melody: Very Best of the Righteous Brothers The Best of the Animals, The Animals CS&N, CS&N Dire Straits, Dire Straits Runaround Sue, Dion The Best of Ray Charles, Ray Charles The Doors, The Doors Beggars Banquet, The Rolling Stones East West, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel Boston, Boston Bitches Brew, Miles Davis The Koln Concert, Keith Jarrett Blue, Cassandra Wilson Sarah Vaughn, Sarah Vaughn Bright Size Life, Pat Methany Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Bill Evans
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Not sure how you are defining "great", but if a CD doesn't make a strong positive impression the first time I hear it, I pass. If I were a person who often changed their opinion of music after initially disliking it, that could warrant a different approach. However, I'm not that type of person -- it's extremely rare that I change my assessment.based upon further listening. Therefore, 99.9 % of CDs in my collection are music I liked immediately at first exposure. Why spend money on music that doesn't completely satisfy? |
