Bands you keep trying to like but can't get into

I can't stop misreading as "IBS".

Lol

Fair enough, that's what they sound like.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer and The Smiths and Morrissey and anything Bernard Sumner sings on and The Clash and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and New Order for starters!

That's a heavy list.

The one that many people find surprising, knowing me and my tastes, is my inability to get into The Fall. I just don't get it.

"Critics compare them to bands and sounds I adore"

Who are ISB compared to? Was listening to Wee Tam last night, and I love the way they can shape a bunch of lyrics (esp in their longer tracks) and then put in an instrument or sounds that are almost thrown in from nowhere into this ever-growing music. The sitar can sound so integrated, whereas with other groups it's part of an arrangement.

Maybe it's just lazy critics-- back in the New Weird America shit, ISB were often mentioned in reviews of Espers and Wooden Wand and more ornate chamber folk stuff. I was just unable to hear it, and tbh hated that second Espers album, but I've tried to come back to ISB since and they've never taken

I've tried listening to Radiohead (especially Kid A) many times over the years and while they are certainly a band I respect, I'm about to give up on actually enjoying their music. I just think I might have to reckon with the idea that I dislike Radiohead in general, though I liked A Moon Shaped Pool at the time for whatever reason

It’s Radiohead for me as well. I just gave Kid A another shot, and apparently I’ll just never hear what others hear.

i think u have to be a sad youth to start with them honestly, dont know any other way

otm

u cd try thinking about how much your parents dont udnerstand u or how hard it is to talk with people u r sexually attracted to or how much capitalism sucks and -- i repeat -- u r not fucking, that is a major source of consternation

I’ve seen Radiohead twice (Bends and HTTT eras) and both times I thought they were outstanding, totally felt they were worthy of being an era-defining band - and yet I don’t have any interest in listening to their music at home

Maybe it's just lazy critics-- back in the New Weird America shit, ISB were often mentioned in reviews of Espers and Wooden Wand and more ornate chamber folk stuff. I was just unable to hear it, and tbh hated that second Espers album, but I've tried to come back to ISB since and they've never taken

― healthy cocaine off perfect butts (the table is the table), Sunday, 11 October 2020 bookmarkflaglink

From my vague recollection of that new weird America stuff ISB...isn't that, no.

Which might explain why I can't get into it! That first Espers album is sick, and I love Wooden Wand and a lot of the more free-floating, noisy New Weird America stuff.

Radiohead for me too; I make an effort every few years, most recently in response to that Guardian article about their influence on black music. I made a 4-hour playlist for a long solitary car journey and sat through the whole thing, when it ended I flipped to the radio just as "Time Is Tight" by Booker T and the MGs was played - the feeling of relief was amazing, it was like putting the car into a higher gear.

tbf, "time is tight" would probably have that effect 95% of the time.

Radiohead are very much in that Porcupine Tree vein of "they're clearly very good at this but I find it hard to enjoy this at all"

^ that's a really good comparison

Also, maybe we are veering off topic a bit here, but since someone mentioned New Order: I love New Order but every time I put on a Joy Division record I am bored to tears

I love Joy Division, but I have a hard time getting into any New Order beyond their singles.

Similarly, I like The Cure's singles, their poppy and eclectic songs, but albums like Pornography and Disintegration are completely lost on me.

Sparks keep coming up on my Discover Weekly and just no - viscerally no.

Recent Sparks, old, none whatsoever? They're one of my favorite bands of all time, but I certainly get how Russell's voice is a turnoff for many.

Sparks keep coming up on my Discover Weekly and just no - viscerally no.

Agree (but not with the "keep trying to like" part from the thread title). Very few acts are as Not For Me as Sparks.

Very few acts are as Not For Me as Sparks.

cosign

I’m not a huge fan but I dig number 1 in heaven and terminal jive a lot. and “amateur hour”. and “cool places” with jane wiedlin.

Recent Sparks, old, none whatsoever? They're one of my favorite bands of all time, but I certainly get how Russell's voice is a turnoff for many.

I think I've mainly heard older Sparks. It's strange how quickly I have to turn them off: something to do with the voice, the hyperactive bombast, the archness.

It's strange how quickly I have to turn them off: something to do with the voice, the hyperactive bombast, the archness.

Yep. All of this.

this discussion is funny. i was working at a used record store and the owner was a huge sparks fan. would often commandeer the store stereo to play them. one time he did that and he was all into it and singing along and i thought it was funny but i remarked, "it's like they're being annoying on purpose." to which he replied, all excited, "yeah, exactly!"

pretty much sums up my disinterest in them.

I love Sparks but didn't really "get" them until Hello Young Lovers, specifically 'Perfume', but they are like the definition of an acquired taste and I totally get all the folks here who can't hang

Ha, Sparks is me, but opposite-land!

Like, I can't imagine a band who were so more completely tailor-made as something I should completely adore, with all the hyperactively arch camp bombast - and I just cannot get into them at all.

this conversation is bananas

People who think they might like Sparks but don't like the most well-known stuff should try listening to Sparks and A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing, the first two records made when they were an LA-based quintet. Songs like Fletcher Honorama, Saccharin and the War and Angus Desire have a post-psychedelic weirdness to them that they pretty much abandoned by 1974.

sleeve: I'm exactly in the same boat! All I knew about Sparks was annoying better-than-Zappa-but-not-much-and-with-a-whiff-of-Meatloaf 70s stuff, and then 2006 came along and "Dick Around" destroyed my brain. A friend of mine (avid Sparks fan) told me I should check out the 80s albums and ya they're great, I like them too, and all the recent albums of theirs

Still don't care for their "classic" stuff aside from being weird camp curios

The only song of theirs I can make it more than 30 seconds into is The Number One Song In Heaven because there's so little ~~Sparks!~~ and so much arpeggiated synth wibbling.

what is "most well-known" sparks stuff? for a long time, i thought it was kimono my house, the earlier more operatic stuff? but i think that's just how i first became familiar with them.

but then there's also the moroder-produced no. 1 in heaven, which has "Beat the Clock" on it. somehow, i thought that was a massive worldwide smash, because i feel like i've always known that song. but it didn't even chart in the US?

No 1 in Heaven is pretty spectacular imo, if you have any interest in giorgio moroder and haven't heard it

i have an extremely soft spot for them in my heart because they were my first literal "what is THIS playing?" moment in a record store. i wish i knew which sparks it was, but at the time, as a scared teen escaping my dorm room for a few minutes, it sounded like otherworldly avant pop. i didn't really track anything down by them for a few more years, but i mentally noted them as cool stuff

"being annoying on purpose" is pretty much my favourite type of music

I remember hearing "Tryouts For The Human Race" as pre-show music for Har Mar Superstar and thinking it was some of the greatest music I've ever heard...but I didn't know what it was!! Discovering Sparks a year later and going..."hey...it's that fuckin' song!" was a pretty cool experience

they're definitely a polarizing group - I pretty much loved them right away. like, two songs into Kimono My House I thought surely this was one of the best bands to ever exist. but I understand the opposite reaction. I played them for one of my friends and his reaction was "never play that band for me again". later he said he was frustrated because he couldn't get "As I Sit Down to Play the Organ at the Notre Dame Cathedral" out of his head. I thought that was pretty impressive - even people with an allergic reaction to their music still get their songs stuck in their head

Propaganda was a favorite as a kid and I still enjoy it when in the right mood, but I’ve never been able to get into anything else they’ve done.

I listened to a bit of Sparks last night (I only previously knew 'TTABEFTBOU', 'Beat The Clock' and 'Number One Song In Heaven'. I can confirm that this is exactly my thing and I'm confused about why people would hate on some fun upbeat glam/disco/new-wave with flamboyant singing and esoteric lyrics really.

I like Sparks but have never understood the rabid reactions pro- or anti-. Some good songs and records, but nothing to get too excited about, IMHO.

Everyone has always, always said I'll absolutely love Sparks, but it hasn't quite happened yet

I like them in small doses, don't quite get the fanaticism

I think I have similar with Zappa. Everyone sees that I'm a Cardiacs fanatic and assumes I'll also love their supposed American progenitors, but it's a completely different vibe

you just haven't heard the right albums /lol

The problem is you have to complete a set of increasingly tedious quests to unlock the right albums

zappa cannot fail he can only be failed

The secret connection is that Ron Mael had a thick Zappa-style moustache in 1971.