Critically Acclaimed Artists and Albums You've Forced Yourself to Love (And Still Don't, Really)

I would do anything for love, but…

I won't listen to Ratt

I got into Kate Bush because of a girl. Lost the girl, kept Kate Bush.

i tolerated the dismemberment plan for a girl. well, tolerated travis m -- the others are fine

For me, the reason I "forced" myself to keep listening to an album is because I paid to listen to it in the first place. Back in the day when dropping $18.99 for a CD was fairly common, I'd listen to many a terrible album over and over again, praying to God something would stick.

I do think cost of music plus relative lack of music ownership did that to me too, back in the days where I'd maybe get 10 albums at most in a year.

going through music like underwear really helps you be more selective

I tried and tried but just couldn't get into Public Enemy's Nation of Millions. The production's just so chaotic and messy, while Chuck D's rhymes go in one ear and out the other. "Fight the Power" is probably the best song of the 80s though, pity their other stuff leaves me cold.

For me, this is my misguided eight month hoarding of any and all Frank Zappa albums I came across.

Such bad music.

DJ Sprinkles - Midtown 120 Blues

^ oh yeah that one too for me. It's got lots of great songs but that clicking noise that runs throughout the record (it's most prevalent in the title track) is so ear grating

I feel like a lot of albums with 33 1/3 titles about them fit quite snugly into this category:

Sly Stone - There's a Riot Goin On - When that yodeling song comes on, I always question if this is really the right Sly Stone album
Aphex Twin SAW II
Eno Another Green World
MBV Loveless (and Isn't Anything)

Also (if we're being honest here):
Elvis Costello's entire discography from '79 - '86
Electric Miles
Rap that came out in the last 10 years

the canon doesn't exist unless you let it

My Bloody Valentine, Loveless

I like Isn't Anything way better. Weird, sexy, off-kilter, it's like the sound of reckless young passion and stupidity. Loveless isn't bad, but it's not the same to me.

Or as I like to call it: Almost Loveless.

Raggett's about to Kool-Aid man some mo'fuckas itt

12-inch of feed me with your kiss is comparable to loveless though. so godly. and it sounds 400% better than the same song on the album/cd. it's like a crime against humanity how much worse it sounds on the lp/cd.

(also i kinda like emptiness inside and i believe more than anything on isn't anything too. at least i don't think they are on the album.... still a good album though. don't get me wrong. but YMMR EP + FMWYK 12-inch is also a really good album.)

The production's part of the appeal of Isn't Anything for me. It's like lighting off a bunch of homemade firecrackers. Loveless is too engineered, so I find it kind of boring and sleepy. For that sound I'll go with Slowdive.

You should try turning Loveless up. So not boring and sleepy when loud. It also sounds really different - in a good way - when loud. I love that album though. Could listen to it every day.

how loud do y'all listen to music through headphones?

I used to listen to all my shit through a regular stereo system and then when it broke in 2015, opted not to replace it and just listened to everything through headphones but LOUD as FUQ. wondering if I will be deaf in 5 years.

I don't know that this one has universal love as much as critical praise with detraction from various corners, but Ministry's Psalm 69 was one I tried, tried, tried to love and had to give up. I think the problem was that it was on the cusp of my industrial/EBM phase, where I was listening to Skinny Puppy and Frontline Assembly and Psalm was too straight up metal in places for me, but I don't know if that was it. I love "N.W.O." and "Just One Fix", as well as the title track, but can't stand "Jesus Built My Hotrod" (don't really dig the Gibby collabo here) and some of the other tracks don't click for me. pre-Psalm Ministry is my jam.

I much prefer the other side project REvolting Cocks.

-other

Psalm 69 wasn't the beginning of the end for Ministry. It was the end. Everything since has just been post-mortem twitching.

i haven't heard much from post-Psalm other than singles and the 1998-2004 era songs I heard the one time I saw them live.....