Question about Favorite albums/songs

[Holden]

Today I was listening to Waterloo Sunset on the way to work, and I realized that I had, at one point, really not liked the song, even though now I would probably say it’s my favorite of the top 50 AMF songs. So that’s speak the question: what songs/albums blew your mind on first listen, and which ones were you slower to appreciate?

[andyd1010]

Songs that blew my mind on first listen:

Thrice - Words in the Water
FKA twigs - cellophane

Those are the two that really stand out. I listened to them so much when they first came out.

I wasn't alive when most of the AM top 50 came out, so it's different. A lot of them I vaguely remember having heard by the time I seriously listened to them, and at that point I liked but didn't love most of them. I remember going through the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time as a teenager, unable to comprehend that it included mediocre songs like Sympathy for the Devil, but dared to exclude Avenged Sevenfold (Sympathy for the Devil is now one of my top 10 favorite songs). I remember thinking God Only Knows was boring, Paper Planes was gimmicky, and David Bowie's singing sounded annoying in "Heroes"... Now I love all those songs. By the time I really got into music in college, I'd say the only song I really disliked that I now love was There Is a Light That Never Goes Out. I've mentioned before that I couldn't stand the way he sang "mine," but I've gotten over that.

[andyd1010]

Recently, one song that I didn't like at first and now love is i by Kendrick Lamar. I'm hoping I have the same eureka moment with the critics' favorite, Alright, but at this point I still think it's nowhere near i, or The Blacker the Berry, which immediately stood out back in 2015.

[Hymie]

Today I was listening to Waterloo Sunset on the way to work, and I realized that I had, at one point, really not liked the song, even though now I would probably say it’s my favorite of the top 50 AMF songs. So that’s speak the question: what songs/albums blew your mind on first listen, and which ones were you slower to appreciate?

Took me like 3 decades to like "Pet Sounds."

Most anything that blew my mind on first listen I still think is great.

[luvulongTIM]

Was listening to The First Taste by Fiona Apple. That song which I thought was a standout on the album at the time, but now omg that is a sensational song and one of her all time best. I had to put it on repeat it was so incredible and I was so glad I added to my playlist on Spotify. And she wasn’t much older than Billie Eilish is now when it came out which makes me appreciate it even more. Also going the opposite end of the spectacle The News by Carbon/Silicone. As the wrestling world would say, I’d say to Mick Jones You’ve Still Got it! Clap! Clap! Clap! clap! Clap! You’ve still got it! and also Theme to Sparta FC by the Fall, one of their later singles, probably my favorite song they’ve ever recorded. So who says you can’t teach an old.....well kind of a degrading saying but it’s definitely not the case and sucks that we had to lose Mark E. Smith when he was still making such incredible songs.

[Wisnu Tirta Aji]

When I listen to the radio, I hear any talk show programs for the first time but I didn't like any songs at all. However, when the radio station still playing popular songs of various times at the time but now playing songs from about the 2000s to now, popular songs now into my mind but not so much as of today like new music release, new songs that still popular until now, even songs that listeners didn't know so much but I still know these songs in my mind. Usually, that radio station playing popular songs every day except Sunday where it also playing local songs.

[Rob]

I didn't think much of Simon & Garfunkel The Boxer the first two or three times, but it is now my favorite song of all time.

Songs that hit me immediately like a brick to head are Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven and Lady Lamb the Beekeeper's Bird Balloons. Both are still in my top 10 and not likely to leave any time soon.
For albums this feeling came on most strongly with The Woods by Sleater-Kinney, also my introduction to the band. Also a top 10 album for me. (And they were still amazing live last week in Amsterdam!).

[PlasticRam]

I think it's important that you don't force yourself to like something that's highly ranked on AM. But of course I have some cases too where something has actually grown on me.

[Safetycat]

Never thought much of Grimes until I put on the Art Angels CD on a long car drive. Immediately hit me as a favourite.

On the other hand, one of my current favourite bands, The National, took me a long time to warm up to - I liked Exile Vilify and The Rains of Castamere because they were associated with media I liked, then I had like one song I liked from each of their albums. It was only when "The System Only Dreams..." came out that I went back and reassessed their albums and realised I liked it all.

Most of the time it takes me a while to warm up to a new song - I try to listen to a bunch of unfamiliar stuff for the year polls, but I usually only include 1 in 10 in my top 100 for those years.