It’s been a while since a Davey-moderated ‘Sputnik Discusses’ went interactive and took a look at the best album art of all time, but fear not; I’m still sitting in a dark room somewhere thinking up discussion topics. Filling the breach for one of my missing weeks was our very own Lord of Brostep, Sir. Will Robinson, with his blog concerning life in college and a lot of cursing. I kid, I kid. Thanks to Will for stepping in, and if you are yet to read his thought-provoking discussion on hip-hop lyrics, I urge you to do so by clicking here
Today’s topic is a genuinely tough one for me to write about. I mean, I’m never wrong… So how the hell can I personally convey any situation where I was incorrect on anything? I guess that if I had reached school-age yet, I would have been wrong on Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson, but even the statute of limitations would have forgiven me for that one by now. Plus, this is a music website.
I guess the closest time that such a music-related phenomena occurred was back in the mid-2000s when I heard Toronto punk rockers Billy Talent for the first time. Call me narrow-minded, but I just felt that it would be near impossible to overcome such negative first impressions of a band. Owning a voice that will be despised much more than it is liked, it’s an under-statement to suggest that it takes a while to get used to Ben Kowalewicz’s shriek. But once/if you can get past the lead vocals, a cavalcade of catchy choruses, relatable lyrics, fist-pumping sing-alongs and tight musicianship await you on the other side.
What else? I guess there was that one time when I sung along to a metal album… And then there was that other time where I stayed awake all the way through a post-rock LP. Stop writing the hate mail, I’m yanking your chain. And what about specific albums? Weezer’s ‘Pinkerton’ grew two whole stars in the space of 8 years for Rolling Stone Magazine! Not that I can think of one right now personally, but some albums can tend to age well, while others age dreadfully. Some mid-80s nu-wave has probably done both in the thirty years that have passed!
You guys know the drill by now… When can you admit that you have been wrong on something music related? Whether it be a particular song, album or musician(s) in general, please don’t be shy and let us know when your first impressions have let you down.
As they say at the end of those dreaded English essays: DISCUSS…..
05.20.15
05.20.15
For some reason, I can't stop singing The Killers' 'When You Were Young' now, but I just replace "young" with "wrong" and think of all of Brandon Flowers' outlandish predictions for his band.
05.20.15
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - This one went from 3 stars to 4.5 i really was wrong
05.20.15
Good call adr. In general, bands like The Velvet Underground just take a while to get used to. I guess that since that particular LP came off the back of Nico, it had a bit to live up to as well.
As for NMH, don't shoot me, but I'm yet to delve into them... No matter how much Sputnik loves '... Aeroplane...'.
05.20.15
And now around 65% of my pie chard is hardcore, post hardcore and metalcore
05.20.15
also my biggest one has to be the National. That was a swing and a miss for like three months until I completely 360'd and realised the error of my ways
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aaaaaaand Jane Doe, but everyone has that hurdle to overcome when they first start using Sput.
05.20.15
Rowan, great suggestions that I expect to pop up a lot. In all honesty, I'm still in your initial phase re: The National. But it's more that I haven't had the time to immerse myself in their discog.
LivingThrowaway, you're more of a trooper than I am. Any kind of harsh noise just gives me a headache. Hell, even some noise-pop/rock does.
Daddy, I'm too cool to even try listening to 'Jane Doe'. It's like an anti-establishment thing. As for Mingus, jazz isn't my area of specialty, but you actually have me intrigued re: the complexity of his music.
Have I mentioned before that Sowing has been trying to dissect 'Jane Doe' in a blog for the past, like, 18 months? I had. Yeah, just trying to put more pressure on him to do it.
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Really manosg? Metallica or Megadeth, I can understand. But Maiden. I guess we're all easily influenced at that age. Arcade is right, it's all our mates' fault.
05.20.15
Used to love celldweller and now he makes me cringe hard
05.20.15
Yeah that would be more logical lol. But the debate was which was the best metal band of all time. Iron Maiden and Metallica were the two bands most guys would bring up. Genres and Dave Mustaine were mere details haha. Mind you it was mid '90s.
05.20.15
I'll throw Glassjaw in the Billy Talent category. Haha. Well, I'm talking about the initially off-putting voices.
manosg, I'm disappointed. The answer is Def Leppard. :-)
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But the most wrong I've ever been about something music related was having a disdain for The Tallest Man On Earth. It took me forever to get past the grating vocals, but once I did he became one of my favorite artists of all time.
05.20.15
Sorry Sowing, no-one here is buying what you're selling re: your .Tay-Tay. You're trying to pull a swifty over us.
Wow, I did not expect TTMoE from you. I can see why many others would suggest it though. I was actually surprised with how quick I got over his voice.
05.20.15
05.20.15
Thinking that Of Natural History was SGM's only worthwhile album and that's only a 3.5-4 (worst one, I was very wrong.).
Disregarding Yanagi Nagi's Euaru because it wasn't her work in Supercell
For giving Judas Priest's no attention for ages.
For thinking Dream Theater's Octvarium was actually good when I was younger, fuck that album.
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I do like you have gone in the opposite direction there though. But you weren't supposed to, so if you've opened the floodgates, I'll organize a banning. ;-)
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I also thought I would never get into jazz but now I more or less listen to that fairly regularly as well.
These days I say that I'll never get into hip hop, but who knows...
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Lmao I was a dumbass.
Now metal is almost all of my piechart
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I even love Creep now
05.20.15
Valkyrion, I'm still in your early stages re: those genres. And apart from hip-hop, I don't think I'll ever change.
Hep kat, we need another power metal review from you... Just for the sense of nostalgia.
Well said NightProwler. The best is sometimes the hardest to get into. You can't just jump straight into it. It's a strange analogy but I guess it's like quitting smoking cold turkey. It can be done, but it's probably best to build up (or should that be down) to it.
I understand Klapper. A Davey hype review usually puts everyone off for at least 1 year. Then everyone comes back to it claiming "classic" status. At least you're one of the few who admit it. :-)
Doofus, 'Creep' is a great example of the singles machine. It achieved its objective by getting the band out there & noticed. Who knows? Without its success, subsequent Radiohead LPs may never have happened, or at least turned out to be something completely different. As they say, don't always judge an album by its singles.
05.20.15
and then there's T Swift. I just assumed her new album was shit based on "Shake it off" but I now have it at a 4 cuz it's sick as hell
05.20.15
I'm not sure there's anything I've felt super wrong about yet - normally if something is really critically acclaimed and I don't like it, I just assume that it's either not for me or that I'm not at the right point in my music listening career to fully enjoy it. On that note, I feel like at some point deep house will click for me, but it just hasn't yet. People talk about DJ Sprinkles and Frankie Knuckles as kind of deities, but I can't listen to their music for more than ten minutes or so without getting bored yet. I assume that will change in the near future, and then I'll have no idea what younger me was on about
05.20.15
Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly as I grew older, I suddenly gained this utmost hatred for Erotic Diarrhea Fantasy (best that you don't ask). Listening to the other bands such as Gut, The Mung, Libido Airbag, and Rompeprop made me realize what this one group couldn't do what the former managed to do: have fun. From my POV, TF basically missed the point of this offshot of grindcore entirely. I still get a chuckle or two from reading the retarded lyrics and the track titles, and that's just barely a redeeming factor.
05.21.15
Well deserved Will. But sorry man, you're wrong... Because one day you will realize how wrong you are on Kesha. ;-)
Angel, I'm seriously unsure if you're talking about music or something very very wrong... Or both!
05.21.15
Alright, but in all seriousness here, the album exists and is on the Sput database. Be forewarned, though, that you'll be left speechless after you finish the entire thing. Me? I was outright furious.
05.21.15
The biggest turnaround for me was when I listened to Sonic Youth's Goo and didn't care for it at all and ended up thinking they were kind of boring... Then I heard Daydream Nation and fell in love with the band. :)
05.21.15
Radiohead is probably the biggest one, I couldn't stand Thom Yorke for the longest time; recent ex really brought me over to them/him though (especially Kid A). Can't say I can listen to the group right now, memories hurt too much, but I can't completely complain about Radiohead anymore.
Rush is another one, the older I get the more and more I find myself liking their tracks and vocal range (though as a Coheed and Cradle of Filth fan I tend to think this was bound to happen, upper vocal ranges have to stick together).
Hip hop as a genre, and raggae, are both becoming more entertaining though it's highly situational (also thank the ex for this one).
05.21.15
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Ars, give it 8 years & 'Pinkerton' will grow by 2 stars for you. As for Sonic Youth, I'm like that with a lot of 90's alternative. It takes a while for the groove to settle in.
Awww Acanthus, come here & give me a cuddle. Gee, you've been wrong a lot. Radiohead is popping up more often than I thought they would. But I can see why 'Kid A' would come into the equation.
As for AnCo, 'MPP' is their most accessible LP, so I'm interested as to whether you've come around to their other releases.
05.21.15
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Are you sure? I always found Pinkerton's lyrics to be super immature.
05.21.15
Also thought White Pony sounded like generic post-grunge/alt metal for a long time until it clicked.
I also thought In The Court of the crimson king was mediocre at best, oh wait, I was right.
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Rise Against & System of a Down: Fair call actually. Tim's voice took a while for me to clock as well.
05.21.15
I still can't ant get through Lateralus, not sure if its the music or the fans that killed it for me though.
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Interesting pick Irving, because reunion albums tend to be judged differently by different people. It's that old nostalgia factor clouding our judgement one way or the other.
Great choice Davil. I haven't dived into Opeth's discog properly as yet, but I can see my thoughts being similar to yours. It's another interesting point as to how live performances can make us take that subsequent look at bands. I was like that with Muse's 'Origin of Symmetry, which was difficult to get my had around at first. But, of course, you usually have to like that band enough to see them live in the first place, so it's a bit of a catch-22.
05.21.15
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1. When I first listened to "Boxer" by the National I thought it was generic and pretty boring so I ignored it for the best part of a year before finally coming back 'round to it.
2. For a couple of years I thought "Animals" by Pink Floyd was their weakest album in their heyday between Meddle and The wall.
3. Once upon a time I thought "The Earth is not a cold dark place" by Explosions in the sky was the best post-rock album ever.
4. Until 2 years back I hated Neil Young because he's got a silly voice
5. Until 2-3 years back I basically thought that electronic music was pretty much worthless, because I was only thinking of David Guetta and the likes.
So yeah. Get fucked RadicalEd.
05.21.15
05.21.15
Some other minor changes in my taste have let to not really listening to some stuff and so on but nothing fancy really. Things i loved before usually tend to hold a tiny spot in my heart EXCEPT for fucking die aerzte. Srsly, stay away from this shit (mostly germany related tho)
05.21.15
Im always like "if i cant appreciate it till now I have to listen again cause I dont get it yet".
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Haha elephant. Dare I say it, but you're doing it wrong.
05.22.15
Six or seven years later, The Mars Volta would become one of my favorite bands. Now that they are broken up, I will forever lament the time I did not enjoy the only performance I'll ever get to hear from them.
05.23.15
05.23.15
I think it's been good to get into artists less middle-of-the-road and music that's a bit rougher around the edges. Uh, not including the aforementioned Torsofuck in that tho haha.
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No VC, where you went wrong was not listening to the gospel of Rudy Klapper. ;-)
05.30.15
Same thing with post hardcore-- i couldn't stand the screaming and now many of my favorite bands inhabit the genre.
Also i was totally wrong about the whole genre of post grunge. I used to think the whole genre was brilliant and that bands like breaking benjamin, three days grace and seether were the top of the music scene. Ughh. That was before i discovered good...well everything. Now i hate those bands
05.31.15
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