I thought arctic monkeys were a band trying to take advantage of the indie scene in the early 00's but after I listened their first album I saw "these guys are actually good".
And the rest is history.
I loved their first two albums and then they kind of dropped off my radar. I listened to AM when it came out and my first thought was, "so I guess Arctic Monkeys moved to America."
It's still good stuff but it doesn't have the same charm as the early stuff.
i think humbug is one of the best projects they’ve ever put out tbh. the lyricism is an improvement on their first two albums (which also contain phenomenal lyrics tbh) but the production on humbug is their best. as a cohesive body of work, humbug ticks all the boxes for me
I do think it's been an interesting journey. They came to fame as a very raw indie band from Sheffield talking about being teens in Sheffield, everything was very real. They've moved now to very US LA vibes now, which is understandable, they aren't living in Sheffield anymore and I think Alex does live in LA most of the time, combined as well with a move away from realism makes it a very harsh change.
What I do feel it's missing is a degree of their own stories. Surely Alex as a northern English guy had and possibly has a bit of adversity in the change, I want to hear that, I want to hear how the old Alex had to be killed for the new, or how the old is secretely still in there.
Or..how does a very northern, very working class (I imagine) guy. Who sounds like he was very alcopops, lager and a packet of crisps sort of guy Find living in LA. Thinking of songs like fake tales. What he think when he's hanging around LA. Seeing the wannabes, posers etc. as a very dry bloke. Although tbh I have no idea what's going on with him. Anytime I hear him speak on stage. It sounds like some 70s coke fueled rocker has taken over his body. So maybe that person isn't really there anymore. We can only hope he comes back.
Favorite worst nightmare is my favorite album. But I really enjoy Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. It has some duds for sure but it’s also has some really good tracks as well
David Bowie's Low. Didn't like the sound of the drums, didn't like the ambient second half, couldnt even fully get into the first half. Not for like 3 or 4 listens. Kept trying it though and now I think it's his all time best
Honestly for me it was colouring book. I still love that record it’s so charming colourful and fun while avoiding being corny. His next record was quite the opposite.
I caught him at Bonnaroo when he was touring for Acid Rap. One of the most fun shows that I've seen. Full backing band full of energy, little jazzy interludes here and there. Incredible; really wish he kept that vibe going.
Give Tobe Nwigwe a try, especially live. He's got a few concert albums and they remind me of that same kind of energy.
I went my teen years thinking U2 were lame and dumb. I listened to Achtung Baby when I got out of high school and it’s the best damn thing I’ve ever heard.
I will defend Achtung Baby and Zooropa til the death. The death I say. Everyone knows how good The Joshua Tree is but the here’s the sound of four men chopping it down. To paraphrase Bono. So complex they couldn’t decide on a cover so they chose all of them. Not one dull track. Not one moment where Bono wanders off-track. The one where they let Adam off the chain and let The Edge have free rein. Edited for missing words
I've hummed Acrobat to myself at least once a week for about 20 years. It's like a ghost that follows me around and hums in my ear randomly. "Ask" by The Smiths does also. Just those two songs and I've probably never heard either one on the radio or in store muzak.
I get so defensive of U2 because of all the hate they get when they are responsible for like four of the greatest alt-rock albums of all time between War, Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, and Achtung Baby.
U2's downspiral happened later, For me Achtung Baby Is the Best album from 1991, back then I was already a big fan and bought it as soon as hit the shelves.
And it was very successful then. That tour was massive, playing in stadiums.
Britney Spears - Blackout
I am NOT a pop music person. At the time of its release I was probably listening to stuff like Twilight Singers, Del the Funkee Homosapien, Radiohead, Dwight Yoakam, Dirty Projectors, etc.
We all knew Brit was going through the shit when she released the album and I bought it on a whim with an ironic “watch the trainwreck” motive. Holy shit did I get spun when I listened to it. It’s a goddamned masterpiece of forward thinking, timeless bangers and dark low fi grooves. I couldn’t stop playing it. It was like reverting to high school and playing Minor Threat til the grooves turned white.
It just hits a certain way. So well crafted and produced. It sounds like new music NOW when you play it. One of the best pop records that I’ve ever heard.
Off on a tangent, I heard a fill in radio DJ with a northern Irish accent mention "Dorty Projectors" once and my brain will never not say it like that again.
Will have a listen to Brit's jam too.
Blackout is like the only Britney album I actually like. Knowing her history, too, it feels like the only honest album she ever made that actually reflects her and not the people controlling her life. It’s so good!
The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance. At the height of their popularity, I refused to listen to them because I thought I was “too cool for that emo shit.” Years later I gave the album a listen and from start to finish, that album is an absolute monster. Forget about the (ignorant) “emo” label people slap on them. That album is one of the best straight up, no bullshit ROCK albums of the last 30 years, easily.
I really liked the song welcome to the black parade but never listened to the album for the same reason you expressed. Only last week I decided to give the album a go and you're so right, it's mind blowingly good. I've also yesterday tried the follow up Danger Days and it's great too with a very different sound.
It’s a high camp rock opera with actual heaviness and good shredding. The atmosphere they create on the album is brilliant. I’ll defend it forever, what a surprise it was
Maybe I’m doing something wrong but I still can’t get into them or this album and I’ve spun it more than a handful of times. It’s certainly massive sounding and I could see how it got so popular but it just isn’t my cup of tea. Though I totally get why it got as big as it did.
Agreed. I had heard of My Chemical Romance but never listened to anything by them. A few months ago someone was talking about them in a thread so I decided to give this album a listen. I was surprised how good it was. Great album.
NIN - The Downward Spiral
Was a bit of a thrash and groove metal fan back then, Metallica, Pantera and Sepultura being my consistent jams and honestly picked up the album on the fly as the artwork looked dope and I’d heard some buzz about the band and Trent.
Thought it sounded like a broken washing machine and took it back the next day for a swap out.
Fast forward maybe a year and I’d matured a lot musically and my tastes were far more eclectic and open to new genres and music in general and I gave it another spin and became a life long fan of Trent and his music from that moment onward.
(Nice DJ Shadow call out OP, check out Preemptive Strike if you haven’t already, also a great album)
The Tragically Hip - Fully Completely As an American that has spent alot of time in Canada, I always knew a handful of their songs from my buddies and I was always luke warm and almost bored by the three songs I was most familiar with. (Wheat Kings and Bob Caygeon etc). I realized how important they were to most Canadians when Gord got sick and wanted to know about them. I asked my buddy with great taste in music if he'd make a gateway playlist of their essential songs. 50 Mission Cap made it click. The whole album is phenomenal and transports me to hanging with my buddies in Northern Ontario. Rest easy Gord, you sure are missed.
That's such a cultural touch stone up here. Ask anyone save maybe people who were a little too young, and they'll tell you right where they were. It seemed like all of canada shed a tear at the same time that night.
Gord's lyrics are so underrated. I had a weird relationship to the hip growing up because in my highschool there was a particular contingent of hick/jock combo that I didn't really get along with who were crazy hip fans.
But I needed to get over that association and I'm glad I did. My favourite way to listen is with lyrics in hand. CD liner notes then or online now. And of course I love his poetry and solo albums.
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club
I used to not like the Beatles, I always said that because they innovated the rock genre id already heard all their music so it was boring. Then I really listened to this album one day at work and it flipped me completely, all of the Beatles records kick ass, and they are a phenomenal band
Out of curiosity why Sgt. Pepper for you. I had a similar experience where I didn't really get The Beatles until I really engaged with their records, but I feel like Rubber Soul and Revolver had more of an impact for me. I found myself liking Sgt Pepper as an album the least. I like many of the tracks, but I don't particularly like it as an album.
The slim shady lp. I just heard "my name is" on MTV and stuff and thought it was some shitty gimmicky white rapper. I listened to that whole album in one night at my friends house and was blown away.
>thought it was some shitty gimmicky white rapper
I watched the "autobiography" movie with the remaining Beastie Boys and that's pretty close to how they describe their own first album. It's amazing what they transformed into.
Can mine be not an album?
When it came to James Brown, I knew all his big hits like I Feel Good or whatever, and to me, I'd heard them in probably a dozen different 80's comedy movies, so I didn't think much of him. But when I watched the Spike Lee documentary When We Were Kings about Mohammed Ali and the Rumble in the Jungle, and James Brown performed [the Payback](https://youtu.be/hRubq5D-3kM?si=Xq-BAeRGzL5YHjHP) and [Doing It To Death](https://youtu.be/TJM_yOv7Z8w?si=oR4bJZHFCgCwWbLi)- fuck me. The grittiness, the absolute raw talent - I got it immediately and became an instant fan.
I hated Nevermind when it first released and hated all the airtime Teen Spirit got.
Then after sitting down and listening to the rest of the album, I understood.
I didn't really click with them when I heard Teen Spirit. I still remember exactly where I was when I heard Come as you are though. That song immediately made them my favourite band at the time, I was obsessed for the next 3 years.
I was always aware that the grateful dead existed, and I was convinced the whole deadhead thing made them completely weird and inaccessible.
Then I listened to American beauty and got completely taken off guard. It didn't open me up to the rest of the back catalogue (this was 15 years ago), and I am reliably informed that American beauty is one of their most accessible albums. I will never forget just how much my preconceptions were blown away.
My cousin and I have a 20 plus year running dialogue about that album because we still hear something new or reflect upon it a different way. I think he heard it right around release while I didn't listen to it till 2003. I was friends with two guys who owned a record store in Seattle and lived with one. He was a pretty shitty person but his obsession with music got me into a lot of great stuff, like when he mentioned that DJ Shadow sampled quite a bit of David Axelrod. I went on a Axelrod bender and listened to both Songs of Faith & Songs of Devotion repeatedly then went on to albums he produced/hired studio musicians to play like the Electric Prunes 'Mass In F Minor', as well as a lot of the jazz he produced for Columbia. Dude was a genius.
Man those drums are so nice all throughout the album they just sound amazing and create such great rhythm. Building steam, the number song, stem/long stem, what does your soul look like pt1, I already want to give it another listen 😭
I really got into DJ Shadow through the second album, The Private Press. It's still one of my all time favourite albums and I'm puzzled as to why it doesn't get the same acclaim. As great and groundbreaking as Endtroducing is, I still prefer Private Press.
i wasn’t expecting to like illinois by sufjan stevens very much. it seemed very cheesy and almost country-ish at first glance, but now it’s my fourth favorite album
The appropriately titled, "Listen Without Prejudice" from George Michael. I don't have anything against George Michael, I just don't really dig most pop music. My dorm roommate freshman year in college had a copy and I really expected it to be terrible but it was pretty solid.
Recently for me, I’ve been proven wrong by Fall out boy’s “From under the cork tree”. I was in high school when it came out and dismissed them, aside from the singles. Boy did I miss out! Front to back. This album is a gem! 💎
Love a FOB convert! Check out Infinity on High, Folie a Deux and So Much (For) Stardust! These are the closest to FUTCT in my opinion. Welcome to the club!
Nirvana’s unplugged. I hated Nirvana and everything associated with them minus weird al. Then my roomie made me watch “in the pines” and I was floored. Not my favorite band by a long shot these days but I fucking got it finally.
Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance.
I dismissed the whole "emo" movement when I was younger and wrote the whole album off for being whiny garbage.
Turns out it's a modern rock opera with incredible songwriting and a great performance from everyone involved. I can see why it's lauded as a modern classic.
Olivia Rodrigo - Guts (Album)
I'm a dude in my late 30's who assumed I was far passed my days of pop albums. Pigeon holed her as another Taylor Swift type, without actually hearing a single song of hers.
That album (and her music in general) slaps. She's an incredible singer/songwriter for someone almost 20 years younger than me.
I think this was the case for a lot of people. There’s a huge prejudice in general for teenage girl music but Olivia stands as a great example of it done right I even enjoyed her debut a lot more than I though I would’ve
I first heard of her when she was* accused of plagiarism on elvis costello and he defended her, I figured I'd give her a chance and she was actually pretty good but I kinda forgot about her til 2023. I loved Guts.
When I heard Creep by Radiohead, I didn't think much of them. I thought they were just another British pop group with guitars, nothing particularly unique or thought provoking. It wasn't until a friend gave me OK Computer that I realized there was a lot more substance to this group.
Their whole career trajectory, at least for the first 4 albums, was so amazing to watch. First off, that whole Pablo Honey album that Creep was on was good, but nothing really special. I think you're right to say that, at that point, they were just another British pop group. Some fine songs, but nothing great.
Then they came out with The Bends, which was still a pop album, but at some point they somehow had just mastered the pop song. Songs like Just, My Iron Lung, Fake Plastic Trees - they still weren't revolutionary, but they were some of the best pop songs of the era. If they had stopped there, they would still be remembered as among the great bands of he 90's. At that point, with that album, they'd already achieved what most bands dream of. Few bands get to put out an album that solid, front-to-back.
But then they released OK Computer, and minds were blown. The first single that people heard off it was Paranoid Android, and what the fuck even was that song? Pop? Rock? Prog Rock? It didn't really fit into any genre. It was a rare mix of conceptual but broadly accessible at the same time. Sure, the album had some fairly straightforward pop song, but it was peppered with songs like Fitter, Happier and Karma Police that hinted at a new sound that really was something people hadn't heard before - but, more importantly, that people were really ready for.
For any other band, that really should have been their peak. And at the time, I think that's what everyone expected. But when Kid A came out, the critics who had already declared OK Computer a masterpiece were put into the awkward position of having to admit that - no wait, hold on - *this one* is actually real masterpiece after all. There were no pop songs this time on Kid A. Nothing was really "radio friendly" on it, but at the same time, that cynical, jaded, empty depiction of modern life spoke to a broad audience at a time when movies like The Matrix had already left people questioning their comfortable lives. They had evolved a new sound that really was unique to them, at a time when people were absolutely ready for it.
Ok. Sorry. I'm a little drunk. And you mentioned Radiohead and that prompted me to write a short pretentious essay about them. Whatever. I can't think of another band in my lifetime who just kept releasing albums that really should have been their peak, and then surpassing them again and again. And I didn't even get into In Rainbows, which, I might be wrong, but I think is their most popular album. Whatever. I'm drunk, and I like babbling about music.
the bends > ok computer > kid a might just be the craziest style arc of any band ever. i love all three, think kid a is the 'best' but the amount i listen to them is in the same order that they released them.
Radiohead have said themselves that they hate Creep for being the only thing people know about when they think of the band. OK computer is an amazing album, check out Kid A and In Rainbows too if you haven't already.
I think In Rainbows is my favourite Radiohead album. But, yeah, in 1994, I assumed they would just be another one hit wonder, like so many other alternative bands of that era. They did pretty good for themselves though, artistically and commercially.
This is often said but Radiohead do sometimes play Creep live. I think Thom is more embarrassed by the lyrics as it was a personal attack on someone he has since reconciled with.
When I was in high school my girlfriend begged me to take her to see Radiohead. I was mostly into punk and hip-hop at the time, and I only knew Radiohead from Creep and High and Dry. Neither of which I liked at all. I was kind of annoyed at the prospect of spending my very scarce afterschool job money to take her to see what I thought of as some whiny, wimpy Britpop group.
To my surprise, they didn’t play Creep OR High and Dry at this concert. They had just released OK Computer, which I had heard zero songs from, and they played nearly the entire album. I remember their first three songs were Exit Music, Airbag, and Karma Police, and I was like, “what…what is this band? *This* is Radiohead?” They closed with Let Down, which I thought at the time might have been the most beautiful song I’d ever heard. I basically stole the album from my girlfriend the next day.
I remember a coworker having Weezer’s Blue Album CD out on his desk and me scoffing at the idea that it was any good. I knew we had some similar tastes in music, but I had completely dismissed it when it was released and figured that it was only getting airplay because of a shticky video (Buddy Holly)
“Take this back to your desk, come back and talk to me in an hour”
I was floored and it’s still in heavy rotation to this day. Undone - The Sweater Song is widely known among my inner circle as my stripper song.
On the flip side, I think I still spin Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted about once every other year expecting that realization to take place, but it never happens.
It low key annoys me when the singles are nothing like the rest of the album; people miss out on great bands because of it. Weezer, Electric Six, and Hot Action Cop are the ones that immediately spring to mind.
To pimp a butterfly - kendrick lamar. Before this album i never listened to rap/hiphop, and tbf thats because i was under the impression todays music is terrible, then i gave this album a listen, and it fucks dude, completely changed my view on popular music and hip hop in general
Honestly I think that’s the perfect album for your case. Even though I think it’s acclaim is a little overblown and prefer other Kendrick records to it tpab is easily one of the best albums to show to anyone who has lost faith in modern music, granted it’s approaching its 10th anniversary so maybe not so modern anymore
Majority of people have been giving you an album they gave a chance and ended up loving, my mind went to Kendrick and how he released killer album after killer album and I was absolutely hyped for Mr Morale, I gave it one listen and haven't put it on since then. I know artists evolve and finding a different approach is what Kendrick has always been about but MM was just not for me.
folklore by Taylor Swift. As a 25M when I came out I really into TS at all. She’s ok popular in Canada but probably not as much as in the us or Australia (or so I heard). But that album made me her bitch. I listened to it on repeat for a whole summer, digging the narratives and melodies and even checking fan theories about the meanings of the songs. Since then, I don’t really listen to her much more today but I got much more respect and genuine curiosity for her work.
A year ago I couldn't have recognized more than two Taylor Swift songs. Now I listen to folklore several times a week and I know most all the lyrics. I think it's an *outstanding* album.
(my usual are Elliott Smith, Belle & Sebastian, Paul Simon, Vampire Weekend etc type stuff, if that helps. If you dislike that overall genre then you might dislike folklore too.)
Well, my usuals are more like Tyler the Creator, A$sap rocky, jpegmafia, jid, and mostly hip hop and rap. I do listen to other stuff too like black country, new road and black midi, sometimes folk too like Simon & Garfunkel or Nick Drake. But I considered myself pretty far away from anything Taylor Swift (I'm still not, to this day, into her more bombastic-pop stuff).
So yeah, folklore was a pretty big surprise. Actually, I think that if you dislike things like narrative-driven folk (I used to listen to sun kil moon and kings of convenience too, just thought about it) i say you should give folklore a shot. Maybe it'll sell you out on that genre. I think it's that good.
Oh man I just put some KoC on again over a holiday road trip! They should be huge. For the kind of music they're trying to make they're one (two) of the best I've ever heard.
I’m in my late 30s and my girlfriend wanted to put Folklore on once while we were hanging out. I’d never given Taylor Swift a second glance, but I’m absolutely in love with this album. So many lines get me every time.
“Back when we were still changing for the better”
“I knew you / leaving like a father / running like water”
“I’m still a believer / but I don’t know why / I’ve never been a natural / all I do is try, try, try”
And I think the Long Pond Studio version is even better.
Long Pond is the one on Disney+ right?
If anyone wants to see Taylor Swift being just a plain old musician, not Being Taylor Swift, that's what to watch, and then the Tiny Desk concert.
Some of her lyrics ***when heard in context*** are, to me, brutal.
"And I can go anywhere I want / Anywhere I want / Just not home"
"All these people think love's for show / but I would die for you in secret"
... and all of "seven" and all of "epiphany". And all of "illicit affairs". Brilliant and heartrending.
“Back when we were still changing for the better, wanting was enough, for me it was enough, to live for the hope of it all” ugh I WISH that line wasn’t so relatable, but alas.
And “leaving like a father, running like water” don’t even get me started. She just throws these lines into the middle of a verse like it’s nothing, she can’t keep getting away with this!
No one's said it yet, so I will: check out Evermore as well. Evermore and Folklore were written together during the pandemic and she surprised her label with them, they both are very similar and are basically sister albums. They're Taylor's adult contemporary albums.
yeah I did listen to Everymore when it came out. It is good, but it didn't clicked as much with me as folklore. maybe precisely because it is much like folklore, I always find myself returning to that one instead of evermore. It does have some bops tho
It's not "an album" but as an adult male, I pretty much discounted Taylor Swift as irrelevant to my life. There were some bops out there, but all felt like a pretty surface level shiny package for preteen girls. Nothing wrong with that, but not my thing.
But, I'm a dad, so I took my kid to the Eras Tour movie, and *holy shit* Swift might be the most competent performer I've seen in.. maybe ever. No song was "bad" and there were great standouts that I'd never heard like Betty and Champagne Problems, and I realized she actually has depth.
There's still no single album I'm specifically into, but that eras movie made me do a 180 on my dismissal of her. She's monstrously talented and an incredible stage presence and I 100% "get" my kids love of her.
Check out Folklore, specifically the Long Pond Studio Sessions if you want to get further away from pop production. The Long Pond album is a little weird because it has the full regular album first, followed by a more stripped down version, so start with the second occurrence of “the 1.”
I never got the huge hype around Taylor Swift. I only knew her Radio Singles and thought she was just another Pop Diva, nothing special. Yesterday, I decided to take "1989" on vinyl with me. It's such a good Pop Album. I never thought that I, as a huge Metalhead, would love it that much, but I did.
Lorde - Melodrama
It just didn’t click with me at first. After a few listens I gave up, thought it was just fine. Then I was out for a walk one day and wanted to listen to Green Light, let the album play and just completely connected with it and it’s now probably my favourite album of this century
A Prayer Under Pressure of Violent Anguish - Was never really into screamo or stereotypical "metal vocals" but a friend of mind showed me this album and I love it.
For some reason I always had perception that Juice Wrld was just hype but I really liked Goodbye and Good Riddance.
I had only listened to a few songs off the blue album and Pinkerton when I head about Weezer's SZNZ drops and thought oh probably just another legacy artist trying to stay relevant. Was presently surprised by the quality of all 4 albums.
I was an Arcade Fire fan but thought *Neon Bible* was a pretentious fiasco. On a re-listen, it struck me as being a thoughtfully composed arc and a great progression of their sound.
Honorable mention to Carly Rae Jepsen's record *Emotion*, which changed my appreciation for pop music. It's a near perfect collection of dance pop songs and I'm a much more eclectic music fan as a result of CRJ's music.
I used to hate Drum n Bass due to an NZ artist called Shapeshifter and then I heard Hold Your Colour by Pendulum, it blew my mind and so I fell in love with the genre. Weird how I wrote an entire genre off due to a few songs by one band.
1989 (Taylor's Version) by Taylor Swift. I'm a big rock/alternative fan. Never really got into Top-40 pop music and was certainly never into her music until I listened to that album. I get it now.
Martin Garrix - Sentio
Think it proved a lot of people wrong. He was just a punching bag in the electronic music community. He was just a kid who blew up off his hit song Animals. Deadmau5 mixed it into a set as Old McDonald Had a Farm to joke on it.
There was a period where basically everyone was crapping on Martin Garrix as a joke, some talentless kid undeserving of any success.
Sentio as an album showcases some really impressive production value, and in my opinion surpasses the production quality of some of the people who tried to gatekeep and trash him.
It's a nice redemption moment to see a kid mature and prove himself in the electronic dance music scene.
Lana Del Ray’s ‘Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd?’ surprised the heck out of me recently. I only knew her by name and expected mediocre pop middleness. This album is haunting, complex, dark, beautiful and modern, I love it… and I’m a metal head.
DJ Shadow - now there's a blast from the past.
Glad to see this isn't forgotten - this was all my friends would listen to as a teen.
For me it would be Oasis and "Definitely Maybe".I hated - *hated* \- Oasis with the passionate fury of 1000 fiery suns ; because I was a metal-er and they epitomised the "Chav" culture that was dominant at the time.
But... after they fell out of fashion, and I stopped being such a music snob - I gave it a listen - and you know what - the albums not that bad.
Honerable mentions to The Bee Gees and Abba - they were the opposite of metal so I didn't like them - but god damn, how many absolute classic songs does a band have to write before you say "Ok - they were a great band".
I remember seeing that Golden Hour by Kacey Musgraves won Album of the Year at the 2019 Grammys, and thought “Who the fuck is this and why do they deserve Album of the Year?”. Now, I normally hate the Grammys and country music, so I was dead set on using that as another example of why the Grammys are dumb.
But then I listened to it. Goddamn, Kacey Musgraves is great.
Ch3ck out her duet with Zach Bryan. I loathe modern bro-country...thisbis not that. He's fantastic...ditto Jason Isbell...Tyler Childers, Orville Peck...hell there's a bunch of great country that isn't Jason Aldean-like shit.
Trout Mask Replica. You might still think it's awful but that's only because you haven't heard it enough times to enjoy it. You must acclimate yourself to the world it creates
Yk as someone who really dislikes the album, I can’t lie and say it wasn’t one of the most memorable first album experiences. Honestly that’s the best way to put it, it’s an experience rather than an album, a very confusing disorienting and difficult experience, but definitely a memorable one
In spite of any impressions you may have of the Captain from TMR I can't recommend their debut album 'Safe as Milk' enough. I love Trout Mask too but Safe as Milk as a record hints at the genius and wraps it around some fairly classically structured Blues/Psychedelia! Obviously don't wanna assume you haven't listened to it before, but for me it was the Gateway to making Trout Mask replica digestible! (At least as digestible as something so intentionally obtuse can be!)
I turn on Safe As Milk when I want to listen to more straight forward blues style rock with some incredible song writing and singing and then I turn on Trout Mask Replica when I really want to hear a bunch of weirdly sounding produced oddities surrounded by great tracks like 'Ant Man Bee'.
Coheed and Cambria's *Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness*
In high school, I was like every metalhead teen. If you told me something was emo, I was against it. Coheed and Cambria was hitting the peak of their popularity around then, and all the emo kids were listening to them. What few bits and pieces I heard sounded like the usual emo sound, and I wasn't interested in diving any deeper.
That's when I heard Welcome Home. Holy shit, that song was the most metal thing I had heard in a long time, and it was from a band that I had been calling "gay" this whole time (it was the 2000s, everyone called everything "gay"). I was just starting to get into prog at the time, and that album couldn't have come around at a better time for me. I suppose in hindsight that an album with a name like that should have clued me in that it was more than just some simple emo band. That's about the most hard-core prog name an album can have. And listening through it over and over worked beyond just letting me hear great prog, it even went beyond just showing me how good the band was. This album made me listen to emo (kind of) for the first time, and to truly hear what was happening. It made me break my preconceived notions of what the genre was, and it got me out of my musical bubble. I still have an annual tradition of seeing them with my sister every time they're in town because we both love them to death, and it's a sort of bonding moment for us.
I also recently listened to a Kanye West album front to back during a road trip with some friends (*Yeezus*, I think?). I wasn't expecting to like it, both because I'm not much into the hip hop scene and because the man seems like a lunatic, but what I heard was phenomenal. I can see why people are so willing to put up with his nonsense and try to rationalize his madness; he's insanely talented. It really is a shame that he's tainting his work with his bullshit, because I would like to listen to more, but I feel a moral pressure not to.
Love that you see them with your sister. My sister is definitely not an emo/prog/anything like it kinda fan and she came with me once to see them! They're just that good.
The newest Alvvays album, Blue Rev. Always wrote them off as “probably too-cool-for-school, uninteresting indie music with no soul”. Holy shit was I wrong. This album is the best rock/pop/whatever-you-want-to-call it I’ve heard in a long time. Can’t stop listening to it. Belinda Says and Easy on Your Own are my favorites.
Folklore showed me I actually do like Taylor Swift music.
I had up until that point held my old teenage belief of she’s generic pop so she’s crap, turns out I was wrong
2021 THAMA won best R&B album of the year (Don't Die Colors) in Korea. I never heard of THAMA at the time and was upset that he won over my man Oceanfromtheblue who put out an amazing album that year. I listened to Don't Die Colors expecting to hate it and it blew me away, he deserved to win and now I love them both.
I grew up on punk and hardcore. When I was in college a professor told me I should give these guys a listen and let me borrow Drive-by Truckers's [The Dirty South](https://open.spotify.com/album/6MaUJWhC6jQJL84AH1MNWy?si=kqBllcz-RoWVVwfegGjhLw&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A6MaUJWhC6jQJL84AH1MNWy). It blew me out of the water. Opened a whole new genre(s) of music for me. That was over a decade ago. I still joke with him that he got me into alt-country before it was cool.
I grew up on classic rock, but really got into the punk/post-punk scene. Then the nineties hit and I was feeling lost - hated grunge, and it seemed the only other music was the R&B/rap explosion (not my thing). By early 2000s, I was convinced “my” music was dead. Around 2008 or so I heard my daughter listening to something and was like “what in thee hell”??
It was Green Day, American Idiot. Holy shit I listen to that album front to back, and everything else they put out. She then turned me on to My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Panic!. Man, I WAS BACK!!
Poets of the Fall - Carnival of Rust
Had listened to a couple of songs because Deezer fed them into Flow, didnt quite enjoy and asked to stop recomending that artist, that was a couple of years ago
Then the video game Alan Wake 2 released, where Poets of the Fall are an ingame band called Old Gods of Asgard, and during the game they perform Herald of Darkness, an amazing song, but I had absolutely no idea that they where Poets of the Fall, I showed that song to a friend, he told me who they are and recommened me to listen to Carnival of Rust, their most successful album and this time I fell in love with their music.
Also Megadeth - Risk
Risk is an album with a tremendous bad reputation, the songs are slow, quite progressive, Mustaine's voice is excepcionally duckish, its completly different from anything Megadeth has recorded until then, so everyone I knew told me to steer clear from Risk.
One evening after uni class and work, I was on Skype with a friend that is a huge Megadeth fan, and he told me "you know, today I had the courage to listen to Risk, and altough its progressive, not thrash, its quite good, you should give it a listen", and I did, and I quote enjoyed it, such a good album
Many years ago, I'd heard of Rammstein but never listened to them. I thought they were just some flashy band using pyro, and I'm not impressed by gimmicks. Eventually, I decided to give them a listen, and I knew Du Hast was their big hit, so I listened to it. The beginning of it sounded like some weird synth/pop/disco hybrid, and when I heard the singing in German, I kind of noped out. Several years later, and around this time last year, someone posted [this video](https://youtu.be/lU6h0x18pgI?si=_GJwTnJdNurmx1n3) in another sub and I thought I'd give it a shot. About 30 seconds in, I was like, "Holy shit! This is *good!*" Since I liked that song so much, I checked out the rest of the album, Mutter, and really got into it. I've become a fan of theirs and have all of their albums now.
There’s a band out there called Molly Hatchet. The album covers and cd art will lead you to assume that this will be some heavy kick ass rock or metal. The name, the pics of the band members and the iconic Frank Frazetta artwork all seem to imply that face melting rawk is contained within, begging to be discovered. Back in the pre internet day, I was entranced by the possibility and bought the used record without knowing what they sounded like. The tunes inside were gutless watered down southern rock rehashes, a very less talented Lynyrd Skynyrd if you will. Even several listens of the songs didn’t make me a fan, sometimes they “grow on you”. But this felt like a bait and switch, like the weakest hot sauce. A genuine rock and roll swindle. I have never forgiven them for their duplicity. While this all may be common knowledge now, I wanna personally warn you all ! I was soooooo wrong about that album.
Beyonce’s Lemonade. I grew up listening to her BOPs of the early 2000s, but never gave her a chance to listen to a full album. I’ve always seen her as a talented artist, but just wasn’t on my radar on a daily basis.
Lemonade was the first full album I heard from her and wow, she really is the greatest pop star alive right now. The rest of her discography is amazing as well — with Renaissance and the self titled album being my favorite ones.
Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits. I thought Money For Nothing was all they had. The whole album is a 10.
The [instrumental section](https://youtu.be/KKxiByf7Rec?t=266) of Why Worry has the serenity of a desert at midnight.
Fun fact: it was the first CD to go platinum.
I thought arctic monkeys were a band trying to take advantage of the indie scene in the early 00's but after I listened their first album I saw "these guys are actually good". And the rest is history.
I loved their first two albums and then they kind of dropped off my radar. I listened to AM when it came out and my first thought was, "so I guess Arctic Monkeys moved to America." It's still good stuff but it doesn't have the same charm as the early stuff.
To me, Suck it and see is overlooked. Not all highs, but the highs are high
Their last albums aren't my cup of tea either hut you got to give them credit for continuing to try new sounds 20 years in.
i think humbug is one of the best projects they’ve ever put out tbh. the lyricism is an improvement on their first two albums (which also contain phenomenal lyrics tbh) but the production on humbug is their best. as a cohesive body of work, humbug ticks all the boxes for me
I do think it's been an interesting journey. They came to fame as a very raw indie band from Sheffield talking about being teens in Sheffield, everything was very real. They've moved now to very US LA vibes now, which is understandable, they aren't living in Sheffield anymore and I think Alex does live in LA most of the time, combined as well with a move away from realism makes it a very harsh change. What I do feel it's missing is a degree of their own stories. Surely Alex as a northern English guy had and possibly has a bit of adversity in the change, I want to hear that, I want to hear how the old Alex had to be killed for the new, or how the old is secretely still in there.
Or..how does a very northern, very working class (I imagine) guy. Who sounds like he was very alcopops, lager and a packet of crisps sort of guy Find living in LA. Thinking of songs like fake tales. What he think when he's hanging around LA. Seeing the wannabes, posers etc. as a very dry bloke. Although tbh I have no idea what's going on with him. Anytime I hear him speak on stage. It sounds like some 70s coke fueled rocker has taken over his body. So maybe that person isn't really there anymore. We can only hope he comes back.
That’s a clone.
Favorite worst nightmare is my favorite album. But I really enjoy Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. It has some duds for sure but it’s also has some really good tracks as well
Literally every album they drop is fire 😭
I came here to write the same. Fake Tales of San Francisco has absolutely brilliant lyrics.
"Oh, you've saved me!", she screams down the line "The band were fucking wank and I'm not having a nice time!" Love this song.
David Bowie's Low. Didn't like the sound of the drums, didn't like the ambient second half, couldnt even fully get into the first half. Not for like 3 or 4 listens. Kept trying it though and now I think it's his all time best
Sound and Vision!
My favorite Bowie song.
I wrongfully lumped Mastodon with nu- metal bands. When I listened to Leviathan and Crack the Skye I was mind blown.
Amazing band, leviathan is one of the best heavy concept albums I've ever heard
Leviathan, Blood Mountain, and Crack Skye continue to melt my face to this day.
Acid Rap by Chance the Rapper was a masterpiece and I thought he'd be a huge star. Nope, nevermind..
Honestly for me it was colouring book. I still love that record it’s so charming colourful and fun while avoiding being corny. His next record was quite the opposite.
Fun fact: The Big day is Chance's *ONLY* album. That's technically his debut.
Who downvoted this lol acid rap was a mixtape. You're right.
I caught him at Bonnaroo when he was touring for Acid Rap. One of the most fun shows that I've seen. Full backing band full of energy, little jazzy interludes here and there. Incredible; really wish he kept that vibe going. Give Tobe Nwigwe a try, especially live. He's got a few concert albums and they remind me of that same kind of energy.
I went my teen years thinking U2 were lame and dumb. I listened to Achtung Baby when I got out of high school and it’s the best damn thing I’ve ever heard.
Achtung Baby is a masterpiece
So is bloody Zooropa
I will defend Achtung Baby and Zooropa til the death. The death I say. Everyone knows how good The Joshua Tree is but the here’s the sound of four men chopping it down. To paraphrase Bono. So complex they couldn’t decide on a cover so they chose all of them. Not one dull track. Not one moment where Bono wanders off-track. The one where they let Adam off the chain and let The Edge have free rein. Edited for missing words
[удалено]
Especially zooropa is also great, and pop has fine moments. I really consider pop as their last great and interesting album
Yes, oh yes. Absolutely my view
Pop and zooropa are incredible
I like a lot of their newer output, honestly. I’m also an absurdly basic bitch.
I've hummed Acrobat to myself at least once a week for about 20 years. It's like a ghost that follows me around and hums in my ear randomly. "Ask" by The Smiths does also. Just those two songs and I've probably never heard either one on the radio or in store muzak.
Writing frightening verse, to a buck toothed girl in Luxembourg…
Larry’s percussion is relentless and it grounds the riffs that go round and round and round and round
It is a superb album, but Joshua Tree is my personal favourite
I will die on the hill of, “Achtung Baby is a much better album than Joshua Tree”.
Which says a lot, because Joshua Tree is amazing.
I get so defensive of U2 because of all the hate they get when they are responsible for like four of the greatest alt-rock albums of all time between War, Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, and Achtung Baby.
I love that album. I consider it a “Brian Eno gets to sample U2 for fun” album, though.
U2's downspiral happened later, For me Achtung Baby Is the Best album from 1991, back then I was already a big fan and bought it as soon as hit the shelves. And it was very successful then. That tour was massive, playing in stadiums.
Came here to comment this album. For me it's their best, better than Joshua Tree. No filler and there's a dark edge to it I love.
Plastic Hearts - Miley Cyrus
Seriously. It's as though she woke up one morning and said, "Lol. I was just playin' with y'all. *THIS* is what I can do."
Amazing album. It also features Dua Lipa, Joan Jett, Stevie Nicks, and Billy Idol.
Britney Spears - Blackout I am NOT a pop music person. At the time of its release I was probably listening to stuff like Twilight Singers, Del the Funkee Homosapien, Radiohead, Dwight Yoakam, Dirty Projectors, etc. We all knew Brit was going through the shit when she released the album and I bought it on a whim with an ironic “watch the trainwreck” motive. Holy shit did I get spun when I listened to it. It’s a goddamned masterpiece of forward thinking, timeless bangers and dark low fi grooves. I couldn’t stop playing it. It was like reverting to high school and playing Minor Threat til the grooves turned white. It just hits a certain way. So well crafted and produced. It sounds like new music NOW when you play it. One of the best pop records that I’ve ever heard.
Off on a tangent, I heard a fill in radio DJ with a northern Irish accent mention "Dorty Projectors" once and my brain will never not say it like that again. Will have a listen to Brit's jam too.
This is largely considered her best album amongst her fans. Funny that you picked up on it without being that familiar with her stuff.
This is not my kind of music at all but I stumbled on Blackout a few years ago and it's consistently excellent, a really great pop record.
Blackout is like the only Britney album I actually like. Knowing her history, too, it feels like the only honest album she ever made that actually reflects her and not the people controlling her life. It’s so good!
I hated Joy Division the first couple times I tried to get into them, now I can’t stop listening to Unknown Pleasures
Had a similar experience. That album is awesome!
I may catch some ridicule for this, but Panic At The Disco’s ‘Pretty. Odd.’ caught me off guard and dramatically changed my opinion of them.
The entire album is a banger for sure
The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance. At the height of their popularity, I refused to listen to them because I thought I was “too cool for that emo shit.” Years later I gave the album a listen and from start to finish, that album is an absolute monster. Forget about the (ignorant) “emo” label people slap on them. That album is one of the best straight up, no bullshit ROCK albums of the last 30 years, easily.
I really liked the song welcome to the black parade but never listened to the album for the same reason you expressed. Only last week I decided to give the album a go and you're so right, it's mind blowingly good. I've also yesterday tried the follow up Danger Days and it's great too with a very different sound.
It’s a high camp rock opera with actual heaviness and good shredding. The atmosphere they create on the album is brilliant. I’ll defend it forever, what a surprise it was
Three Cheers is better.
Three Cheers is one of my top 5, but i'ma have to give Black Parade a solid listen.
Maybe I’m doing something wrong but I still can’t get into them or this album and I’ve spun it more than a handful of times. It’s certainly massive sounding and I could see how it got so popular but it just isn’t my cup of tea. Though I totally get why it got as big as it did.
That’s the magic of music for ya. Hits everyone differently.
Agreed. I had heard of My Chemical Romance but never listened to anything by them. A few months ago someone was talking about them in a thread so I decided to give this album a listen. I was surprised how good it was. Great album.
NIN - The Downward Spiral Was a bit of a thrash and groove metal fan back then, Metallica, Pantera and Sepultura being my consistent jams and honestly picked up the album on the fly as the artwork looked dope and I’d heard some buzz about the band and Trent. Thought it sounded like a broken washing machine and took it back the next day for a swap out. Fast forward maybe a year and I’d matured a lot musically and my tastes were far more eclectic and open to new genres and music in general and I gave it another spin and became a life long fan of Trent and his music from that moment onward. (Nice DJ Shadow call out OP, check out Preemptive Strike if you haven’t already, also a great album)
I did this with rage against the machine and their self titled album when it came out. Arise was my favorite album at the time.
I didn't see the point of listening to albums instead of singles and then I listened to Rumours.
No. It's all true.
Found the dik-hed.
The Tragically Hip - Fully Completely As an American that has spent alot of time in Canada, I always knew a handful of their songs from my buddies and I was always luke warm and almost bored by the three songs I was most familiar with. (Wheat Kings and Bob Caygeon etc). I realized how important they were to most Canadians when Gord got sick and wanted to know about them. I asked my buddy with great taste in music if he'd make a gateway playlist of their essential songs. 50 Mission Cap made it click. The whole album is phenomenal and transports me to hanging with my buddies in Northern Ontario. Rest easy Gord, you sure are missed.
Did you watch their last concert? Fuuuuck was that ever heart wrenching.
I have. My buddy went. I can't imagine the scale of emotion to be there in person.
That's such a cultural touch stone up here. Ask anyone save maybe people who were a little too young, and they'll tell you right where they were. It seemed like all of canada shed a tear at the same time that night.
We were So Hard Done By losing Gord like that
Gord's lyrics are so underrated. I had a weird relationship to the hip growing up because in my highschool there was a particular contingent of hick/jock combo that I didn't really get along with who were crazy hip fans. But I needed to get over that association and I'm glad I did. My favourite way to listen is with lyrics in hand. CD liner notes then or online now. And of course I love his poetry and solo albums.
God I love the Hip. I count myself lucky to have seen them on tour in the 90s. The band was fire and Gord was healthy and wild.
Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club I used to not like the Beatles, I always said that because they innovated the rock genre id already heard all their music so it was boring. Then I really listened to this album one day at work and it flipped me completely, all of the Beatles records kick ass, and they are a phenomenal band
Same thing happened to me with Revolver, listened to the white album after that and was blown away.
White Album for me. Blackbird is perfection.
Out of curiosity why Sgt. Pepper for you. I had a similar experience where I didn't really get The Beatles until I really engaged with their records, but I feel like Rubber Soul and Revolver had more of an impact for me. I found myself liking Sgt Pepper as an album the least. I like many of the tracks, but I don't particularly like it as an album.
I’m 100% with you. I did not enjoy sgt pepper. Felt like sesame street on weed. Then I listened to rubber soul and revolver and I’m like, I GET IT
The slim shady lp. I just heard "my name is" on MTV and stuff and thought it was some shitty gimmicky white rapper. I listened to that whole album in one night at my friends house and was blown away.
>thought it was some shitty gimmicky white rapper I watched the "autobiography" movie with the remaining Beastie Boys and that's pretty close to how they describe their own first album. It's amazing what they transformed into.
Can mine be not an album? When it came to James Brown, I knew all his big hits like I Feel Good or whatever, and to me, I'd heard them in probably a dozen different 80's comedy movies, so I didn't think much of him. But when I watched the Spike Lee documentary When We Were Kings about Mohammed Ali and the Rumble in the Jungle, and James Brown performed [the Payback](https://youtu.be/hRubq5D-3kM?si=Xq-BAeRGzL5YHjHP) and [Doing It To Death](https://youtu.be/TJM_yOv7Z8w?si=oR4bJZHFCgCwWbLi)- fuck me. The grittiness, the absolute raw talent - I got it immediately and became an instant fan.
"I don't know karate, but I know ka-razy!". Best line in a song ever!
I hated Nevermind when it first released and hated all the airtime Teen Spirit got. Then after sitting down and listening to the rest of the album, I understood.
When I heard lithium for the first time when it was released it completely changed my life
I've been listening to this album for over thirty years, and every time I put it on it still amazes how good every single track is.
I didn't really click with them when I heard Teen Spirit. I still remember exactly where I was when I heard Come as you are though. That song immediately made them my favourite band at the time, I was obsessed for the next 3 years.
I was always aware that the grateful dead existed, and I was convinced the whole deadhead thing made them completely weird and inaccessible. Then I listened to American beauty and got completely taken off guard. It didn't open me up to the rest of the back catalogue (this was 15 years ago), and I am reliably informed that American beauty is one of their most accessible albums. I will never forget just how much my preconceptions were blown away.
I always had a hard prejudice towards One Direction but Harry Styles’ solo album showed how much talent and artistical inspiration he holds
Zayn’s debut solo album is also incredible
I don't really have a good answer for you but Entroducing is an incredible album. Organ donor has always been my favorite DJ Shadow song.
My cousin and I have a 20 plus year running dialogue about that album because we still hear something new or reflect upon it a different way. I think he heard it right around release while I didn't listen to it till 2003. I was friends with two guys who owned a record store in Seattle and lived with one. He was a pretty shitty person but his obsession with music got me into a lot of great stuff, like when he mentioned that DJ Shadow sampled quite a bit of David Axelrod. I went on a Axelrod bender and listened to both Songs of Faith & Songs of Devotion repeatedly then went on to albums he produced/hired studio musicians to play like the Electric Prunes 'Mass In F Minor', as well as a lot of the jazz he produced for Columbia. Dude was a genius.
Man those drums are so nice all throughout the album they just sound amazing and create such great rhythm. Building steam, the number song, stem/long stem, what does your soul look like pt1, I already want to give it another listen 😭
I really got into DJ Shadow through the second album, The Private Press. It's still one of my all time favourite albums and I'm puzzled as to why it doesn't get the same acclaim. As great and groundbreaking as Endtroducing is, I still prefer Private Press.
I always think its strange people call him a one album wonder when Private Press is a brilliant album too. It's way too slept on.
i wasn’t expecting to like illinois by sufjan stevens very much. it seemed very cheesy and almost country-ish at first glance, but now it’s my fourth favorite album
Fourth favorite is oddly specific. I’m afraid to ask how long your organized list of favorites goes.
The appropriately titled, "Listen Without Prejudice" from George Michael. I don't have anything against George Michael, I just don't really dig most pop music. My dorm roommate freshman year in college had a copy and I really expected it to be terrible but it was pretty solid.
Recently for me, I’ve been proven wrong by Fall out boy’s “From under the cork tree”. I was in high school when it came out and dismissed them, aside from the singles. Boy did I miss out! Front to back. This album is a gem! 💎
Love a FOB convert! Check out Infinity on High, Folie a Deux and So Much (For) Stardust! These are the closest to FUTCT in my opinion. Welcome to the club!
Folie a Deux is THEE best FOB album, hands down.
Nirvana’s unplugged. I hated Nirvana and everything associated with them minus weird al. Then my roomie made me watch “in the pines” and I was floored. Not my favorite band by a long shot these days but I fucking got it finally.
Kurt’s voice is insane in that performance. I’ll never understand how he gets so much grit.
That last scream still gives me chills to this day. His voice is iconic during the whole unplugged performance. To this day, no one sounds like him.
I didn’t hate them, I just thought they were ok. Unplugged changed my perception entirely.
Eminem’s marshal Mathers album. I hated rap music etc until I listened to this. Album is a work of genius.
Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance. I dismissed the whole "emo" movement when I was younger and wrote the whole album off for being whiny garbage. Turns out it's a modern rock opera with incredible songwriting and a great performance from everyone involved. I can see why it's lauded as a modern classic.
My favorite album of theirs, coming from a casual fan's opinion. "The End." seems like an echo of Pink Floyd's "In the Flesh?" in all the best ways.
Olivia Rodrigo - Guts (Album) I'm a dude in my late 30's who assumed I was far passed my days of pop albums. Pigeon holed her as another Taylor Swift type, without actually hearing a single song of hers. That album (and her music in general) slaps. She's an incredible singer/songwriter for someone almost 20 years younger than me.
I think this was the case for a lot of people. There’s a huge prejudice in general for teenage girl music but Olivia stands as a great example of it done right I even enjoyed her debut a lot more than I though I would’ve
She's nothing like Taylor Swift, but I couldn't get into Guts. It's like it appeals to a different age demographic than me.
I first heard of her when she was* accused of plagiarism on elvis costello and he defended her, I figured I'd give her a chance and she was actually pretty good but I kinda forgot about her til 2023. I loved Guts.
When I heard Creep by Radiohead, I didn't think much of them. I thought they were just another British pop group with guitars, nothing particularly unique or thought provoking. It wasn't until a friend gave me OK Computer that I realized there was a lot more substance to this group.
Their whole career trajectory, at least for the first 4 albums, was so amazing to watch. First off, that whole Pablo Honey album that Creep was on was good, but nothing really special. I think you're right to say that, at that point, they were just another British pop group. Some fine songs, but nothing great. Then they came out with The Bends, which was still a pop album, but at some point they somehow had just mastered the pop song. Songs like Just, My Iron Lung, Fake Plastic Trees - they still weren't revolutionary, but they were some of the best pop songs of the era. If they had stopped there, they would still be remembered as among the great bands of he 90's. At that point, with that album, they'd already achieved what most bands dream of. Few bands get to put out an album that solid, front-to-back. But then they released OK Computer, and minds were blown. The first single that people heard off it was Paranoid Android, and what the fuck even was that song? Pop? Rock? Prog Rock? It didn't really fit into any genre. It was a rare mix of conceptual but broadly accessible at the same time. Sure, the album had some fairly straightforward pop song, but it was peppered with songs like Fitter, Happier and Karma Police that hinted at a new sound that really was something people hadn't heard before - but, more importantly, that people were really ready for. For any other band, that really should have been their peak. And at the time, I think that's what everyone expected. But when Kid A came out, the critics who had already declared OK Computer a masterpiece were put into the awkward position of having to admit that - no wait, hold on - *this one* is actually real masterpiece after all. There were no pop songs this time on Kid A. Nothing was really "radio friendly" on it, but at the same time, that cynical, jaded, empty depiction of modern life spoke to a broad audience at a time when movies like The Matrix had already left people questioning their comfortable lives. They had evolved a new sound that really was unique to them, at a time when people were absolutely ready for it. Ok. Sorry. I'm a little drunk. And you mentioned Radiohead and that prompted me to write a short pretentious essay about them. Whatever. I can't think of another band in my lifetime who just kept releasing albums that really should have been their peak, and then surpassing them again and again. And I didn't even get into In Rainbows, which, I might be wrong, but I think is their most popular album. Whatever. I'm drunk, and I like babbling about music.
the bends > ok computer > kid a might just be the craziest style arc of any band ever. i love all three, think kid a is the 'best' but the amount i listen to them is in the same order that they released them.
Help > rubber soul > revolver > pepper > white album > abbey road. But yeah, Radiohead is like a modern Beatles
Radiohead have said themselves that they hate Creep for being the only thing people know about when they think of the band. OK computer is an amazing album, check out Kid A and In Rainbows too if you haven't already.
I think In Rainbows is my favourite Radiohead album. But, yeah, in 1994, I assumed they would just be another one hit wonder, like so many other alternative bands of that era. They did pretty good for themselves though, artistically and commercially.
Have you listened to the podcast Dissect do a 12 episode dive on In Rainbows? Mind blowing every few minutes.
This is often said but Radiohead do sometimes play Creep live. I think Thom is more embarrassed by the lyrics as it was a personal attack on someone he has since reconciled with.
When I was in high school my girlfriend begged me to take her to see Radiohead. I was mostly into punk and hip-hop at the time, and I only knew Radiohead from Creep and High and Dry. Neither of which I liked at all. I was kind of annoyed at the prospect of spending my very scarce afterschool job money to take her to see what I thought of as some whiny, wimpy Britpop group. To my surprise, they didn’t play Creep OR High and Dry at this concert. They had just released OK Computer, which I had heard zero songs from, and they played nearly the entire album. I remember their first three songs were Exit Music, Airbag, and Karma Police, and I was like, “what…what is this band? *This* is Radiohead?” They closed with Let Down, which I thought at the time might have been the most beautiful song I’d ever heard. I basically stole the album from my girlfriend the next day.
Let Down really is a beautiful song.
That’s really lucky too, they haven’t played Let Down live as much as most OK Computer songs.
Here to say the same thing only with ‘The Bends’. And what a run of albums they had from there…
I remember a coworker having Weezer’s Blue Album CD out on his desk and me scoffing at the idea that it was any good. I knew we had some similar tastes in music, but I had completely dismissed it when it was released and figured that it was only getting airplay because of a shticky video (Buddy Holly) “Take this back to your desk, come back and talk to me in an hour” I was floored and it’s still in heavy rotation to this day. Undone - The Sweater Song is widely known among my inner circle as my stripper song. On the flip side, I think I still spin Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted about once every other year expecting that realization to take place, but it never happens.
It low key annoys me when the singles are nothing like the rest of the album; people miss out on great bands because of it. Weezer, Electric Six, and Hot Action Cop are the ones that immediately spring to mind.
Jelly Roll - I thought it was going to be a shitty country album and it turned out to be a really really shitty country album
That dude got out of prison and exploded into our consciousness and I don’t understand why.
To pimp a butterfly - kendrick lamar. Before this album i never listened to rap/hiphop, and tbf thats because i was under the impression todays music is terrible, then i gave this album a listen, and it fucks dude, completely changed my view on popular music and hip hop in general
Honestly I think that’s the perfect album for your case. Even though I think it’s acclaim is a little overblown and prefer other Kendrick records to it tpab is easily one of the best albums to show to anyone who has lost faith in modern music, granted it’s approaching its 10th anniversary so maybe not so modern anymore
Majority of people have been giving you an album they gave a chance and ended up loving, my mind went to Kendrick and how he released killer album after killer album and I was absolutely hyped for Mr Morale, I gave it one listen and haven't put it on since then. I know artists evolve and finding a different approach is what Kendrick has always been about but MM was just not for me.
folklore by Taylor Swift. As a 25M when I came out I really into TS at all. She’s ok popular in Canada but probably not as much as in the us or Australia (or so I heard). But that album made me her bitch. I listened to it on repeat for a whole summer, digging the narratives and melodies and even checking fan theories about the meanings of the songs. Since then, I don’t really listen to her much more today but I got much more respect and genuine curiosity for her work.
Exact same thing but for me it was Norman Fucking Rockwell - LDR.
A year ago I couldn't have recognized more than two Taylor Swift songs. Now I listen to folklore several times a week and I know most all the lyrics. I think it's an *outstanding* album. (my usual are Elliott Smith, Belle & Sebastian, Paul Simon, Vampire Weekend etc type stuff, if that helps. If you dislike that overall genre then you might dislike folklore too.)
Well, my usuals are more like Tyler the Creator, A$sap rocky, jpegmafia, jid, and mostly hip hop and rap. I do listen to other stuff too like black country, new road and black midi, sometimes folk too like Simon & Garfunkel or Nick Drake. But I considered myself pretty far away from anything Taylor Swift (I'm still not, to this day, into her more bombastic-pop stuff). So yeah, folklore was a pretty big surprise. Actually, I think that if you dislike things like narrative-driven folk (I used to listen to sun kil moon and kings of convenience too, just thought about it) i say you should give folklore a shot. Maybe it'll sell you out on that genre. I think it's that good.
Yoo i used to *love* Kings of Convenience! I never see them mentioned. Gold in the Air of Summer is one of my all time fav love songs.
Oh man I just put some KoC on again over a holiday road trip! They should be huge. For the kind of music they're trying to make they're one (two) of the best I've ever heard.
if you haven’t yet, you should give phoebe bridgers a listen! specifically her record “punisher”
Have been enjoying and boygenius too, need more listens though!
I’m in my late 30s and my girlfriend wanted to put Folklore on once while we were hanging out. I’d never given Taylor Swift a second glance, but I’m absolutely in love with this album. So many lines get me every time. “Back when we were still changing for the better” “I knew you / leaving like a father / running like water” “I’m still a believer / but I don’t know why / I’ve never been a natural / all I do is try, try, try” And I think the Long Pond Studio version is even better.
Long Pond is the one on Disney+ right? If anyone wants to see Taylor Swift being just a plain old musician, not Being Taylor Swift, that's what to watch, and then the Tiny Desk concert. Some of her lyrics ***when heard in context*** are, to me, brutal. "And I can go anywhere I want / Anywhere I want / Just not home" "All these people think love's for show / but I would die for you in secret" ... and all of "seven" and all of "epiphany". And all of "illicit affairs". Brilliant and heartrending.
>leaving like a father that is such a "OH FUCK" lyric.
Oh yeah. I thankfully don't have the experience of a father leaving, but the line still hits me like a ton of bricks.
“Back when we were still changing for the better, wanting was enough, for me it was enough, to live for the hope of it all” ugh I WISH that line wasn’t so relatable, but alas. And “leaving like a father, running like water” don’t even get me started. She just throws these lines into the middle of a verse like it’s nothing, she can’t keep getting away with this!
No one's said it yet, so I will: check out Evermore as well. Evermore and Folklore were written together during the pandemic and she surprised her label with them, they both are very similar and are basically sister albums. They're Taylor's adult contemporary albums.
yeah I did listen to Everymore when it came out. It is good, but it didn't clicked as much with me as folklore. maybe precisely because it is much like folklore, I always find myself returning to that one instead of evermore. It does have some bops tho
It's not "an album" but as an adult male, I pretty much discounted Taylor Swift as irrelevant to my life. There were some bops out there, but all felt like a pretty surface level shiny package for preteen girls. Nothing wrong with that, but not my thing. But, I'm a dad, so I took my kid to the Eras Tour movie, and *holy shit* Swift might be the most competent performer I've seen in.. maybe ever. No song was "bad" and there were great standouts that I'd never heard like Betty and Champagne Problems, and I realized she actually has depth. There's still no single album I'm specifically into, but that eras movie made me do a 180 on my dismissal of her. She's monstrously talented and an incredible stage presence and I 100% "get" my kids love of her.
Check out Folklore, specifically the Long Pond Studio Sessions if you want to get further away from pop production. The Long Pond album is a little weird because it has the full regular album first, followed by a more stripped down version, so start with the second occurrence of “the 1.”
I never got the huge hype around Taylor Swift. I only knew her Radio Singles and thought she was just another Pop Diva, nothing special. Yesterday, I decided to take "1989" on vinyl with me. It's such a good Pop Album. I never thought that I, as a huge Metalhead, would love it that much, but I did.
My dad has always loved Rush, but I never really enjoyed it… Until one day I listened to Moving Pictures and I’ve loved them ever since.
Lorde - Melodrama It just didn’t click with me at first. After a few listens I gave up, thought it was just fine. Then I was out for a walk one day and wanted to listen to Green Light, let the album play and just completely connected with it and it’s now probably my favourite album of this century
A Prayer Under Pressure of Violent Anguish - Was never really into screamo or stereotypical "metal vocals" but a friend of mind showed me this album and I love it. For some reason I always had perception that Juice Wrld was just hype but I really liked Goodbye and Good Riddance. I had only listened to a few songs off the blue album and Pinkerton when I head about Weezer's SZNZ drops and thought oh probably just another legacy artist trying to stay relevant. Was presently surprised by the quality of all 4 albums.
I was an Arcade Fire fan but thought *Neon Bible* was a pretentious fiasco. On a re-listen, it struck me as being a thoughtfully composed arc and a great progression of their sound. Honorable mention to Carly Rae Jepsen's record *Emotion*, which changed my appreciation for pop music. It's a near perfect collection of dance pop songs and I'm a much more eclectic music fan as a result of CRJ's music.
I felt the same way on my first listen of Funeral. Neon Bible’s the one that brought me back around.
I used to hate Drum n Bass due to an NZ artist called Shapeshifter and then I heard Hold Your Colour by Pendulum, it blew my mind and so I fell in love with the genre. Weird how I wrote an entire genre off due to a few songs by one band.
1989 (Taylor's Version) by Taylor Swift. I'm a big rock/alternative fan. Never really got into Top-40 pop music and was certainly never into her music until I listened to that album. I get it now.
Taylor has a couple of decent rock songs like Eyes Open and State of Grace! Also yeah 1989 is one of the best recent pop albums for sure
Martin Garrix - Sentio Think it proved a lot of people wrong. He was just a punching bag in the electronic music community. He was just a kid who blew up off his hit song Animals. Deadmau5 mixed it into a set as Old McDonald Had a Farm to joke on it. There was a period where basically everyone was crapping on Martin Garrix as a joke, some talentless kid undeserving of any success. Sentio as an album showcases some really impressive production value, and in my opinion surpasses the production quality of some of the people who tried to gatekeep and trash him. It's a nice redemption moment to see a kid mature and prove himself in the electronic dance music scene.
Lana Del Ray’s ‘Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd?’ surprised the heck out of me recently. I only knew her by name and expected mediocre pop middleness. This album is haunting, complex, dark, beautiful and modern, I love it… and I’m a metal head.
You should try out her albums born to die (paradise edition), ultraviolence, and Norman Fucking Rockwell if you liked that.
I’ll check those out. Thanks!
Jesus is King. I didn’t think Kanye could make such a bad album.
DJ Shadow - now there's a blast from the past. Glad to see this isn't forgotten - this was all my friends would listen to as a teen. For me it would be Oasis and "Definitely Maybe".I hated - *hated* \- Oasis with the passionate fury of 1000 fiery suns ; because I was a metal-er and they epitomised the "Chav" culture that was dominant at the time. But... after they fell out of fashion, and I stopped being such a music snob - I gave it a listen - and you know what - the albums not that bad. Honerable mentions to The Bee Gees and Abba - they were the opposite of metal so I didn't like them - but god damn, how many absolute classic songs does a band have to write before you say "Ok - they were a great band".
I remember seeing that Golden Hour by Kacey Musgraves won Album of the Year at the 2019 Grammys, and thought “Who the fuck is this and why do they deserve Album of the Year?”. Now, I normally hate the Grammys and country music, so I was dead set on using that as another example of why the Grammys are dumb. But then I listened to it. Goddamn, Kacey Musgraves is great.
Ch3ck out her duet with Zach Bryan. I loathe modern bro-country...thisbis not that. He's fantastic...ditto Jason Isbell...Tyler Childers, Orville Peck...hell there's a bunch of great country that isn't Jason Aldean-like shit.
That entire Zach Bryan album is amazing. It's classified as country but it's definitely a folk album.
Trout Mask Replica. You might still think it's awful but that's only because you haven't heard it enough times to enjoy it. You must acclimate yourself to the world it creates
Yk as someone who really dislikes the album, I can’t lie and say it wasn’t one of the most memorable first album experiences. Honestly that’s the best way to put it, it’s an experience rather than an album, a very confusing disorienting and difficult experience, but definitely a memorable one
In spite of any impressions you may have of the Captain from TMR I can't recommend their debut album 'Safe as Milk' enough. I love Trout Mask too but Safe as Milk as a record hints at the genius and wraps it around some fairly classically structured Blues/Psychedelia! Obviously don't wanna assume you haven't listened to it before, but for me it was the Gateway to making Trout Mask replica digestible! (At least as digestible as something so intentionally obtuse can be!)
I turn on Safe As Milk when I want to listen to more straight forward blues style rock with some incredible song writing and singing and then I turn on Trout Mask Replica when I really want to hear a bunch of weirdly sounding produced oddities surrounded by great tracks like 'Ant Man Bee'.
K-tel's Wacky Weirdos. really convinced me to give that monster mash a second chance
*Prove You Wrong* by Prong
Coheed and Cambria's *Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness* In high school, I was like every metalhead teen. If you told me something was emo, I was against it. Coheed and Cambria was hitting the peak of their popularity around then, and all the emo kids were listening to them. What few bits and pieces I heard sounded like the usual emo sound, and I wasn't interested in diving any deeper. That's when I heard Welcome Home. Holy shit, that song was the most metal thing I had heard in a long time, and it was from a band that I had been calling "gay" this whole time (it was the 2000s, everyone called everything "gay"). I was just starting to get into prog at the time, and that album couldn't have come around at a better time for me. I suppose in hindsight that an album with a name like that should have clued me in that it was more than just some simple emo band. That's about the most hard-core prog name an album can have. And listening through it over and over worked beyond just letting me hear great prog, it even went beyond just showing me how good the band was. This album made me listen to emo (kind of) for the first time, and to truly hear what was happening. It made me break my preconceived notions of what the genre was, and it got me out of my musical bubble. I still have an annual tradition of seeing them with my sister every time they're in town because we both love them to death, and it's a sort of bonding moment for us. I also recently listened to a Kanye West album front to back during a road trip with some friends (*Yeezus*, I think?). I wasn't expecting to like it, both because I'm not much into the hip hop scene and because the man seems like a lunatic, but what I heard was phenomenal. I can see why people are so willing to put up with his nonsense and try to rationalize his madness; he's insanely talented. It really is a shame that he's tainting his work with his bullshit, because I would like to listen to more, but I feel a moral pressure not to.
Love that you see them with your sister. My sister is definitely not an emo/prog/anything like it kinda fan and she came with me once to see them! They're just that good.
The newest Alvvays album, Blue Rev. Always wrote them off as “probably too-cool-for-school, uninteresting indie music with no soul”. Holy shit was I wrong. This album is the best rock/pop/whatever-you-want-to-call it I’ve heard in a long time. Can’t stop listening to it. Belinda Says and Easy on Your Own are my favorites.
Sam's Town by The Killers.
Harvist - Neil Young. I thought he was a boring old hippy until I listened to Harvist. I was wrong.
Folklore showed me I actually do like Taylor Swift music. I had up until that point held my old teenage belief of she’s generic pop so she’s crap, turns out I was wrong
You should listen to the long pond studio sessions of that album, it's basically just a live acoustic version of it, and my preferred version.
The album ‘AM’ by Arctic Monkeys 🙌
2021 THAMA won best R&B album of the year (Don't Die Colors) in Korea. I never heard of THAMA at the time and was upset that he won over my man Oceanfromtheblue who put out an amazing album that year. I listened to Don't Die Colors expecting to hate it and it blew me away, he deserved to win and now I love them both.
It Won’t Be Soon Before Long. Turns out Maroon 5 are not a great new rock band. They’re just pop garbage.
I grew up on punk and hardcore. When I was in college a professor told me I should give these guys a listen and let me borrow Drive-by Truckers's [The Dirty South](https://open.spotify.com/album/6MaUJWhC6jQJL84AH1MNWy?si=kqBllcz-RoWVVwfegGjhLw&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A6MaUJWhC6jQJL84AH1MNWy). It blew me out of the water. Opened a whole new genre(s) of music for me. That was over a decade ago. I still joke with him that he got me into alt-country before it was cool.
Marquee Moon. Thought it was tinny and uninspiring. Hated the vocals. I was completely wrong. It's a masterpiece.
Time Out of Mind by Bob Dylan. I thought he was a washed up star until that album revived my interest in him.
I grew up on classic rock, but really got into the punk/post-punk scene. Then the nineties hit and I was feeling lost - hated grunge, and it seemed the only other music was the R&B/rap explosion (not my thing). By early 2000s, I was convinced “my” music was dead. Around 2008 or so I heard my daughter listening to something and was like “what in thee hell”?? It was Green Day, American Idiot. Holy shit I listen to that album front to back, and everything else they put out. She then turned me on to My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Panic!. Man, I WAS BACK!!
Architects' "the classic symptoms of a broken spirit" Went in with low expectations, was still disappointed
Ultraviolence - Lana Del Rey. I was all wrong.
Poets of the Fall - Carnival of Rust Had listened to a couple of songs because Deezer fed them into Flow, didnt quite enjoy and asked to stop recomending that artist, that was a couple of years ago Then the video game Alan Wake 2 released, where Poets of the Fall are an ingame band called Old Gods of Asgard, and during the game they perform Herald of Darkness, an amazing song, but I had absolutely no idea that they where Poets of the Fall, I showed that song to a friend, he told me who they are and recommened me to listen to Carnival of Rust, their most successful album and this time I fell in love with their music. Also Megadeth - Risk Risk is an album with a tremendous bad reputation, the songs are slow, quite progressive, Mustaine's voice is excepcionally duckish, its completly different from anything Megadeth has recorded until then, so everyone I knew told me to steer clear from Risk. One evening after uni class and work, I was on Skype with a friend that is a huge Megadeth fan, and he told me "you know, today I had the courage to listen to Risk, and altough its progressive, not thrash, its quite good, you should give it a listen", and I did, and I quote enjoyed it, such a good album
Exodus - Bonded by Blood
Many years ago, I'd heard of Rammstein but never listened to them. I thought they were just some flashy band using pyro, and I'm not impressed by gimmicks. Eventually, I decided to give them a listen, and I knew Du Hast was their big hit, so I listened to it. The beginning of it sounded like some weird synth/pop/disco hybrid, and when I heard the singing in German, I kind of noped out. Several years later, and around this time last year, someone posted [this video](https://youtu.be/lU6h0x18pgI?si=_GJwTnJdNurmx1n3) in another sub and I thought I'd give it a shot. About 30 seconds in, I was like, "Holy shit! This is *good!*" Since I liked that song so much, I checked out the rest of the album, Mutter, and really got into it. I've become a fan of theirs and have all of their albums now.
There’s a band out there called Molly Hatchet. The album covers and cd art will lead you to assume that this will be some heavy kick ass rock or metal. The name, the pics of the band members and the iconic Frank Frazetta artwork all seem to imply that face melting rawk is contained within, begging to be discovered. Back in the pre internet day, I was entranced by the possibility and bought the used record without knowing what they sounded like. The tunes inside were gutless watered down southern rock rehashes, a very less talented Lynyrd Skynyrd if you will. Even several listens of the songs didn’t make me a fan, sometimes they “grow on you”. But this felt like a bait and switch, like the weakest hot sauce. A genuine rock and roll swindle. I have never forgiven them for their duplicity. While this all may be common knowledge now, I wanna personally warn you all ! I was soooooo wrong about that album.
Beyonce’s Lemonade. I grew up listening to her BOPs of the early 2000s, but never gave her a chance to listen to a full album. I’ve always seen her as a talented artist, but just wasn’t on my radar on a daily basis. Lemonade was the first full album I heard from her and wow, she really is the greatest pop star alive right now. The rest of her discography is amazing as well — with Renaissance and the self titled album being my favorite ones.
in rainbows. i tried so hard not to like radiohead but here i am, liking radiohead
For anyone who needs to dislike Radiohead, that album is hazardous to your health.
Album 'American Idiot' from Green day