Been thinking about how to frame this post for quite awhile. But, in essence, has anyone had a really beloved, favorite musicial album, that after a time, one really changed his mind about? That is, there came a time when it was just not that special anymore and one might even wonder what they ever saw it. I guess I would say the album to not have to go all the way to bad. Let's just say it was no longer the fav album by a particular artist or something.
Or, for that matter, has anyone gone the other way with an album. An album--I suppose it has to be an album of some popularity/renown--at one point seemed insipid, or outright bad, or of no interest whatsoever, but later, perhaps years later, came to seem really special to one?
I suppose either scenario could happen with a particular artist, too.
I am trying to stay away from just really popular and/or critically acclaimed albums that a particular person happens not like from the get go. Although I think some cheating is reasonable. Say an album that many thought was great and that you may have mouthed that it was great, while still having some reservations.
I think it has to be an album, too. Not just a single cut. Too easy to get sick to death of a single song from say repetitive play on the radio or every bar one went to in a time period.
And--this one is even harder to articulate--ever have an album you once really, really liked, but there came a time when you thought you really did not like it anymore and that you personally had overrated it, but then you went back and actually listened to it again and it seemed as great as ever?
In any of these instances, what do you think was going on for you? Did you out grow the music? Perhaps grow into the music? Get sick of it from over play? or perhaps music that came later was imitative and you got sick of the entire genre. Or perhaps the music was ahead of its time when released? or did you change, become a different person, so hear the music with different ears? or did you just convince yourself that the music was good?
I actually surprise myself that most of my favorite albums completely hold up to me after all of these years! I guess I have not grown up or matured at all, and have grown into nothing!
But I have a few examples:
Or, for that matter, has anyone gone the other way with an album. An album--I suppose it has to be an album of some popularity/renown--at one point seemed insipid, or outright bad, or of no interest whatsoever, but later, perhaps years later, came to seem really special to one?
I suppose either scenario could happen with a particular artist, too.
I am trying to stay away from just really popular and/or critically acclaimed albums that a particular person happens not like from the get go. Although I think some cheating is reasonable. Say an album that many thought was great and that you may have mouthed that it was great, while still having some reservations.
I think it has to be an album, too. Not just a single cut. Too easy to get sick to death of a single song from say repetitive play on the radio or every bar one went to in a time period.
And--this one is even harder to articulate--ever have an album you once really, really liked, but there came a time when you thought you really did not like it anymore and that you personally had overrated it, but then you went back and actually listened to it again and it seemed as great as ever?
In any of these instances, what do you think was going on for you? Did you out grow the music? Perhaps grow into the music? Get sick of it from over play? or perhaps music that came later was imitative and you got sick of the entire genre. Or perhaps the music was ahead of its time when released? or did you change, become a different person, so hear the music with different ears? or did you just convince yourself that the music was good?
I actually surprise myself that most of my favorite albums completely hold up to me after all of these years! I guess I have not grown up or matured at all, and have grown into nothing!
But I have a few examples:
Pet Sounds--Brian Wilson under color of the Beach Boys. Often said to be a masterpiece. Said to be the inspiration, at least in part for Sargent Peppers. I probably would for a very long time have said that PS is among my very favorite albums. Has been frequently enough ranked the best or second best rock album of all time. Highly influential.
So, is it really that great an album? Not really, and on this one i probably had some subliminal misgivings about it all along. Rambing on, to break it down: The four cuts that open and close each album side pretty darn good, if not absolute works of pop genius. "Wouldn't It Be Nice," great Beach Boys tune. "Sloop John B" great Beach Boys song, and, to me starting to show signs of something truly great. "God Only Knows," now we are getting into genius level. "Caroline, No," we are at genius level, and it sure as heck is not because an important instrument in the early part of the song is an empty plastic bottle. Note there is interesting stuff going on in the music, but we do not exactly have tracks filled with cacaphony of dogs barking, and bicycle bells, that the rest of the album is jam packed with. So other cuts. "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" not bad. "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" more than decent. Virtually the rest of the album, do people really, honestly put the PS on and play it first cut to last? It has been a very long time since I have done that. Very dated sounding, very busy, not enticing sound effects, with two of perhaps the very best cuts ever recorded starting and finishing the second side, and really good cuts opening and closing the first side.
I know this is sacrilege, but I do not think this is all that great an album. When we thought a fully formed, finished Smile was going to come out and definitively pull it all together and show Brian to be a transcendent genius, PS seemed to be a taste of the greatness to come. But Smile never really worked out. PS was a precussor to "Good Vibrations" and that was about it. (I realize that "GV" was being worked on around the time of PS and could have been on PS
I know this is sacrilege, but I do not think this is all that great an album. When we thought a fully formed, finished Smile was going to come out and definitively pull it all together and show Brian to be a transcendent genius, PS seemed to be a taste of the greatness to come. But Smile never really worked out. PS was a precussor to "Good Vibrations" and that was about it. (I realize that "GV" was being worked on around the time of PS and could have been on PS
A different situation with Joni Mitchell'sCourt and Spark though. A long time most favorite album of mine, I got to thinking I had really overrated it. To many, big brassy jazz licks. Too many precussors to Joni's efforts to be a jazz man. What are cuts like "Raised on Robbery" even doing on the album? Or "Twisted"? Isn't "Court and Spark" a bit over blown? "Car on a Hill" a well stretched out metaphor. Also, way overplayed. However, actually listening to the album, it really is that good. And the most transcendent part to me is "Peoples' Parties" transitioning to same situation. Music, lyrics, voices, recording come together to produce something that profoundly affects me still. And most of the other cuts are extremely good. If this album had never been released, and came out tomorrow by a no name performer, my estimate it that it would hit number one on the charts and stay there for a while. [In retrospect to me "Blue" is the Joni album and I would make a case for "For the Roses" being her second best and second most important album.]
For anyone still reading, I will give an example of a performer: Karen and Richard Carpenter. Back in the day, I am sure I thought their stuff was commercial crap, and that record companies could at the snap of fingers generate as good a material song by as good a vocalists as KC, and there was not need to pay attention to these goody two shoes. However, it turns out that vocalists of that quality doing material of that quality do not pour out of record companies after all. And cleancut does not necessarily mean bad music.
Sorry for the length and I am sure typos!
) has been kind to this disc. Ronnie Wood's first outing post-Faces and the Stones sorting through the personnel change and generating classics like Memory Motel, Fool to Cry and Hand of Fate. They get Jah-may-can with Cherry Oh Cherry, they get gritty on Crazy Mama, they get bluesy on Melody. It is perhaps one of the most eclectic collection of songs the Stones ever put out and yet it is a recording that generally gets overlooked. 
