When Was The Last Time You Were Baffled By A Record?

Josh, I was overreacting a bit: I also like "Kind a Blue" but it's more of an early ambient piece, brilliant background music. As for "Bitches Brew", I once had a very nice (non-drug) experience lying in bed "Bitches Brew" playing in the other room, I had some sort of vision, listening to the first track, of a horde of cartoonish fantasy animals just running in a chaotic happy manner, every sound corresponding with a different animal (high wacky birds, low for gentle mamals). Shit, now I sound like a hippie teacher :) I blame Swedish 70s cartoons!!

As for "On the Corner", I've played this record for all sorts of people, just hoping that one person would say "Omar, you absolutely right, this is genius!" It does not happen (although I agree with you Mark that it should be easy to get, so maybe there's some paradox lurking). But in general interesting comments on "Bitches Brew", I was under the impression that the record was already assimilated as an undeniable classic (which in turn I always find a bit suspect).

"Evening of Sitar" had quite explanitory liner notes, or at least the CD reissue I have does. I tend to tune out the incidental sounds and just focus on the quality of the tone, trying to appreciate it. I am thus surprised and delighted at every minute shift -- and there are in fact many. Sort of how I listen to Feldman. Or, you could just go to sleep with it playing low. That tends to work for me.

The album which baffled me most recently was Bud Powell's "The Amazing Bud Powell, Vol 1" but then I just got that on the third or fourth listen. I find jazz, generally, is the genre where I expect to have to work the hardest to "get" anything. But Joe Jackson's Heaven & Hell gave me a tough time at first too -- and even now, while the album coheres, I still find the lyrics fairly dense and impenetrable.

Also, the newer Lambchop stuff remains a mystery -- sure this is pretty, but... huh?

the first time i heard mr. bungle's first record, i wanted to throw up. does that count? (incidentally, 'california' was one of the records i listened to more than any other last year, although i guess the band has progressed since that first album.)

Another album that baffled me too was Scott Walker's "Tilt". Especially the fact that I wasnt expecting it from Scott Walker and I was only familiar with his 60's stuff. I've only listened to it about 4 or 5 times but its a difficult bugger of a record. It does have some fans, it was on Tom's best of the 90's list as I recall.

Can's "Tago Mago" really baffled me when I got it a year ago, and it still does in a way. It's just huge--hard to listen to in one sitting--and even more bizzare when you think about when and where it came from. Sometimes the guitar figures sound so pentatonic and bluesy (and "fawnk-y!"), and the vocals are just... out there. (You know you can't get your head around something when you have a terrible time thinking of adjectives to describe it.) The drums are simply incredible, and I think maybe that's where they had their biggest influence. Anyway, I don't know if I'll ever understand this album completely, but I sure do enjoy listening to it.

Even though it's one of Can's less weird albums 'Future Days' had a similar effect on me. I'm kinda comfortable with it now, but the only other Can CD I have is the 2 disc set 'Anthology', and whilst it could be due to being heard out of context, there are some trax which just don't fit into any known musical context. Except perhaps they make sense in Can's own world. That's probably a good thing.

I seem to recall being baffled by The Wayward Bus / Distant Plastic Trees, despite knowing most of the chords to it.

The last album to baffle me was the reissue of Belle & Sebastian's "Tigermilk". $21.00 (£14.50) for 2 fucking sides of vinyl?! Now that's baffling.

KC's 'Three of a Perfect Pair'. First listen I thought, 'What shit!' But it haunted me for the rest of the day. I couldn't make head or tail of it. My brother's done some searching of the ET website and explained it roughly to me. Now I almost understand it, especially as I've listened to the live versions of some of the songs on 'Absent Lovers.'

Saint Etienne's _The Sound of Water_. Apart from two excellent songs, "How We Used to Live" and "Don't Back Down," I thought it was bland. So I listened to it over and over, thinking "I've got to be missing something."

Nope. Bland.

i was baffled by the latest autechre. i basically assumed that the problem was me.

I just bought a compilation called Goodiepal & Friends. I like the album by Danish laptop guy Goodiepal, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

The vinyl record arrived from Forced Exposure without a cover, just the record tucked inside a white sleeve. It's easily the most beautiful colored vinyl I've ever seen, this black, brown and gold computer-looking grid that takes up all the space, including the area where the label is supposed to be.

On the vinyl are a series of letters and numbers which, I think, indicate something about the tracks on the record. Handwritten on the paper sleeve are letters and numbers that correspond with those on the vinyl, with signitures next to them. Some are in Chinese, others are in a language I can't make out (Hebrew?) There is no indication of who is on this thing or what they are doing, though I think these mysterious codes are supposed to offer some sort of clue.

More than half the music on the compilation is nothing more than a single click repeated for 2 or 3 minutes at a time, the others are pretty much just random computer noise. Some of it is kind of "interesting" I guess, but nothing there to make you want to pull it out again.

I find this record completely baffling.