Tell Us about an Album That Took a Long Time to Grow on You

Dionne Warwick's Greatest Hits--not something I cared for at the time it came out, but in recent years I have come to find that I love the combination of her voice with the Bacharach/David songs, the arrangements and the production. 

I thought of another one, genre actually, finally I'm starting to get into classical music. It's wonderful. Helps having a recording not done half arse. Although I had bought a few audiophile ReferenceRecordings releases  that didn't help to turn me on either. Robert Ludwig and Bill Kipper mastering as well on a few MHS and Nonesuch titles in vg condition I've grabbed from used or thrift store bins have been part of the key I think. 

Celebrating the Music of Weather Report SACD on Telarc.  Always liked weather report since before Jaco but this compilation has really grown on me and sounds great. 

I'm still not sure I have warmed up to Ummagumma. Maybe in another 50 years it will grow on me? I'm sure there were some albums that were a slow burn but I just can't remember which ones, seriously. Most of the time, I can tell in the first 5 minutes if an album has a chance. I always play them through 3 times just to make sure but usually I know right away.

Having been a perhaps too big a fan for Aqualung it took me a few years to wrap my head around Thick As A Brick by Tull. I was expecting Aqualung Part Two but instead received something that made me re-listen to their entire - back then - catalogue. (Stand Up, Benefit...)

That more or less changed when I heard the record on a decent stereo system not long after it was released. That also more or less started me on high fidelity as well. I am not a purist audiophile in the sense that it's the artist, not the sound reproduction, that grabs one by the short hairs and has an impact. It's not the clubs, Laddie. 

Anyhoo, once I heard Thick As A Brick on a decent stereo I was hooked.  It remains in my rotation to this day, ahead of Aqualung, right along with Revolver, Exile On Main Street, and as an ode to my father, Classical Music Symphonic Orchestra Volume Two or something like that - a series that my mother would pick up at the A&P when she did out weekly marketing. 

It's never the clubs, Laddie.