Albums you have spurned

Mercury Rev's Secret Migration.

All Is Dream was kinda crap, but Secret Migration was so bad that Deserter's Songs now sounds like the beginning of the end. Thin and uninspired. It used to be an album that meant a lot to me, but I have a hard time with anything post Baker at this point.

All I can think of the third Ivy album. I loved Apartment Life so so much, and the follow up was so lousy that I sadly kinda forgot about Apartment Life until a few years ago (like, wait a second, why haven’t I listened to this album in like 15 years???)

it's not quite spurning but i guess i feel pretty decided indifference to 'blood on the tracks', which i stopped listening to sometime oh i dunno 15+ years ago, even though in the meantime i have definitely broadened my love of dylan and play pretty much anything from the 60s to the early 80s (except 'desire' for some reason) and anything after 'time out of mind' (which i've never really tried yet). some of those songs are as great as anything i like by him, and i like to hear them in other versions, live etc., but the combination of the album's stifling reputation and the production and the ruminative singer-songwritery persona and the running-order disaster of 'lily, rosemary and the jack of hearts' and too many times hearing coffeeshop covers just made me prefer to check out for greener pastures.

Ye

tarfumes . . . not quite otm but i hear you cluckin'

the albums since 'summer sun' are better imo and have a few great songs, but yeah the 'painless'-'heart beating' period will not be reached again (by anyone, maybe)

Cow_Art OTM. I must have Napster'd All Is Dream but promptly decided I didn't need any more MR. While I never actively expunged their discs from the house, the retroactive taint spread to Deserter's Songs and now is such that I'm not at all sure I've listened to *any* other Mercury Rev in the 21st century. Apart from maybe a chance viewing of the "Bronx Cheer" video on Youtube or something.

Though I'm more than twice the age I was when I bought Yerself is Steam so maybe such things were always going to happen. Can't say I listen to, say, Butterglory much either. :)

Yeah, Secret Migration for me too. I haven't checked out any MR output after that either

After Dirty got me into Sonic Youth, I thought "Bull in the heather" was such a weak single that I never sought out EJSANS. I heard the odd track on Dave Fanning's show and I didnt like what I heard either. "Washing Machine" brought me around again though.

xp j I get what you mean about Tracks and I’ve never enjoyed Desire either. I wonder what you will think of “Love and Theft” when you get around to it - a real peak for me.

Magic Whip is the best Blur album. As is Snowflake Midnight for Mercury Rev

Tim Buckley's first album. It was the third or fourth of his that I heard, after a couple of years of loving his medium period stuff. Hated it and have simply ignored it since.

Re: individual tracks, I used to skip Zoo Music Girl on the Birthday Party's Prayers On Fire, for some reason- starting the album on track 2. I'd decided it was shit. Years later I reassessed...

The Campfire Headphase

the albums since 'summer sun' are better imo and have a few great songs, but yeah the 'painless'-'heart beating' period will not be reached again (by anyone, maybe)

― mookieproof, Saturday, July 27, 2019 2:42 AM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've heard/read that the post-Summer Sun records are good, and someday I may check them out. But yeah, that run from May I Sing With Me through And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out (including all EPs and CD-singles) is so incredible.

Tim Buckley's first album. It was the third or fourth of his that I heard, after a couple of years of loving his medium period stuff. Hated it and have simply ignored it since.

I had the Morning Glory compilation as my first introduction to him, and I remember the track(s) from it sticking out like baroque sore thumbs. Never really got into it or Goodbye And Hello either. In contrast, I was so smitten with "Sweet Surrender" that Greetings From L.A. became my go-to favourite album of his

Other career-interest-killing albums for me
Fold Your Hands Child You Walk Like A Peasant
John Henry
Westside Connection

I really like most YLT albums after "Summer Sun" but that album felt like a huge letdown at the time and I never have the slightest urge to listen to it.

I wonder what you will think of “Love and Theft” when you get around to it - a real peak for me.

oh i love that, and onward, it's 'time out of mind' i have not yet gotten to.

i know the pre-electric albums but don't give them much time, so i wonder how much my reaction to 'blood on the tracks' has to do with a noticeable shift in the songwriter-oerformer persona. my impression is that on the electricish albums up through even 'new morning' and 'self-portrait', the songs work territory that is never really centered around the conventions of the drama of self-expression (even if that's in there), regardless of how pensive and ruminative they might sound. perhaps what seems true of 'blood' to me is also true of some older ones, i haven't bothered checking. perhaps of 'time out of mind', too, from what i've read about it.

in terms of mathewk's original question, i would say that for me this is not so much a 'break with covenant' thing as it is a sensitivity to what i conceive of as the audiences intended in a record or actually found by it. more often i will find that i'm discouraged when something that i like gets 'taken over' by too much of a certain kind of audience too quickly, so that it's like i have to fight against their opinions to win some space for my own. i like to feel like i have a space for myself where the music means what i feel like it does, not to the exclusion of what anyone else feels like it does, but without that holding so much sway that i feel isolated for not agreeing, either. for dylan albums that dynamic is obviously messed up to the nth power which is generally a saving grace, but 'blood on the tracks' is that rare album that combines in-the-know dylan aficionado-dom with in-the-know best-of-list-following with in-the-know deep-songwriting-appreciation and it's just not worth it to try to hold the ground.

^ I got into BOTT in high school, via my mom’s LP collection, and didn’t really know anything about its reception or rep. It was... interesting to get to college and hear frat guys blaring the album as they prepped the grill on a Saturday morning.

great, great post j, thank you

Yeah, I have somehow avoided that problem with that particular album but am otherwise quite familiar with it.

I stopped listening to Therapy? when they released Infernal Love.

It took this deep into the thread for someone (me) to say Metallica's s/t ("black") album??

Infernal Love was so lousy.. But it was kind of their commercial peak - I remember it getting a lot of press at the time. But it was a very serious, broody record compared to everything they'd done before and I'm not sure they pulled it off.

Crikey, I'm just rooting through Therapy's Wikipedia entries. So many albums! And each entry says something like 'the album was seen as a return to their punk-metal roots as heard on Troublegum'

I really like most YLT albums after "Summer Sun" but that album felt like a huge letdown at the time and I never have the slightest urge to listen to it.

Yeah summer sun is a good example of this kind of album for me - a record that causes me to think "I'm going to have to rethink how I follow this band and what I expect from them."

(Although tbh that changed with their last record, their first once since And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out that I actually find exciting and interesting all the way through - feels like the album that Summer Sun wanted to be or should have been, shame it took them 15 years to get it right.)

Speaking of spurning, I didn't bother listening to Therapy? when they appeared because they were (initial consensus opinion) "a poor Big Black rip off".

I actually find this kind of ridiculous but I'm an early SY guy and they really lost me with the Geffen records. I'm sure I'm missing out.
Kind of.

Crikey, I'm just rooting through Therapy's Wikipedia entries. So many albums! And each entry says something like 'the album was seen as a return to their punk-metal roots as heard on Troublegum'

"Their best since Some Girls"

I’m not sure I became aware of the name Therapy? until the late 90s, and for a while I thought they were a nu-metal group? Their name just seemed right at home on the back of a Family Values tour T-shirt for some reason.

I was a huge Pixies fan, but Bossanova was a big letdown for me. Weirdly though, I've listened to it a ton, and still do. But I have never, ever listened to Trompe Le Monde and don't ever intend to, no matter how good or bad it may be.

I didn't bother listening to Therapy? when they appeared

i never even considered listening to therapy? because what the fuck is that, a question mark in a band name, that's irregular, likely a sign of poor musical sense

otm

except Neu!

that's exciting

so new it had to be in german

I was a huge Pixies fan, but Bossanova was a big letdown for me. Weirdly though, I've listened to it a ton, and still do. But I have never, ever listened to Trompe Le Monde and don't ever intend to, no matter how good or bad it may be.

I am a huge Pixies fan, love Bossanova and Trompe le Monde, could not give one shit about Surfer Rosa.

I'm with Moodles, sort of. Bossa Nova was patchy and Tromphe le Monde seemed like a mess at the time. I vowed not to squander any more of my pocket money on them and it seemed entirely appropriate that they broke up! (This thread is reminding me that 1991-92 was an big era for disappointment with US indie rock stalwarts for schoolkid me. I turned to the UK for solace.)

Er, Trompe, obv.

I well remember the realisation that “less Kim, more UFOs” was actually where they were headed, rather than a one-album glitch. It was years before I bought a (used) copy of Trompe and I reckon I’ve listened to it a dozen times in three decades.

I love all the original Pixies albums but I like to forget that those Kim-less reunion records exist, even though I have listened to them once each (see also: the '00s Big Star and Stooges albums).

I also love the original Pixies albums, and had pretended the reunion albums didn't exist until now, but I just bought tickets to see them in September, so I'm going to give them both a listen before then. wish me luck

Hello Nasty basically changed me from a Beastie Boys superfan to never wanting to hear then again.

I’ve definitely spurned the modern-day Stooges albums.

pre-cats and dogs royal trux albums. i have lots of love for this band but zero interest in ever listening to their early stuff.

why? it’s great

what i've heard was just more shambolic than i enjoy.

fair enuff

If a band splits then reforms I'm not interested in anything they subsequently release, even if I really loved them before and they weren't split for long (eg Go-Betweens).

I'm pretty fickle with bands generally - they're not sports teams, you don't have to support them for life. One dud album and I'm moving on.

Yeah I used to be really loyal with bands up to my early twenties but I got burned too many times and eventually realised there was no point. On the other hand Spotify has made it really easy to catch up on things I skipped and I've found myself listening to a lot of records that way just out of curiosity.

If a band splits then reforms I'm not interested in anything they subsequently release

Agree with this generally. The only exception is King Crimson, who have always been Robert Fripp + whoever can stand to be around him, so in that case there are just particular eras of the band I choose to ignore (everything involving Adrian Belew).