Albums Sold After One Listen

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This came to me on the thread about Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (sp). That was an album I bought when I heard it was "Like PE" and then sold after exactly one listen. That was all it took for me to realize I would never like it. Most of the time I keep something I disklike around a while to see if it's a grower, but sometimes one listen is all it takes to know I'll never enjoy a record. Any records that you purchased and then sold after one listen?

― Mark, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'Screamadelica'.

Bastard NME talked me into it, didn't they? Never trusted 'em since. NEVER! Higher Than the Sun my arse.

― DavidM, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

COME ON DIE YOUNG by Mogwai

― alex in nyc, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

One 'wrong', one 'right' decision: The original 'Metal Box', bought when I was abt fourteen years old, again on the strength of a rave review. Just didn't 'get it' at the time and exchanged it at the Virgin Megastore (for 'Drums and Wires' by XTC, IIRC.) D'oh. 'The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter' by The Incredible String Band. Still don't get what the fuck that's all abt - give me Ghost or Acid Mother's Temple any day.

Presumably the interweb and all yr napster- type sites means that people can now 'test drive' a lot more music before purchasing.

― Andrew L, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ladies and Gentle men we are FLoating in Space, Take A Picture Margo Guryan, THat suicide reunion album

― Mike Hanle y, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mike, that's strange; I just bought "Ladies and Gentlemen..." yesterday, having never heard any Spiritualized, and I find it to be quite sumptuous - the production is fucking mind-blowing. In fact, I think I'm going to put in an order to Forced Exposure for some Spacemen 3 albums. Any suggestions, you spacerock kids? I've heard "Dreamweapon" is pretty staggering.

― Clarke B., Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Spoon Girls Can Tell and Kings of Convenience Quite is the New Loud. I hardly ever test drive anything, plonk down money and take my chances. I've always been that way.

― Lesley Higgins, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I actually prefer 'Lazer Guided Melodies' much more than 'Ladies and gentlemen...'

I returned Afghan Whigs' Gentleman after a couple of listens. It was just so...mediocre. Not bad or awful, just so plain and boring.

― alex in montreal, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Spacemen 3 diversion: 'Dreamweapon' one long live drone piece - not perhaps the best example of its type. Any of the studio albs are gd - 'Playing With Fire' perhaps the finest of 'em, but the earlier albs have a very single-minded charm. There's also a really good comp of their early singles. b-sides etc. Can't remember title right this minute. Not much orchestration on their recsbtw, more Stooges/Elevators/MC5 etc. fuzzed-up guitar rock. First Spectrum alb also v. good - particularly blinding when combined w/heavy pscyhedelics - but beware of the Sonic Boom solo alb also called 'Spectrum', for it contains the worst Ray Charles cover you will ever hear. Later Spectrum albs...an acquired taste, but some of Sonic's E.A.R. stuff can be quite trippy.

If you live in the UK you should be able to pick up most S3 albs pretty cheap - they're v. common in London.

― Andrew L, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Andrew, thanks for the information. Do you mean there are better examples of 45-minute live drones? Do tell, because I like drones... Unfortunately, I live in the USA - in the boondocks of Virginia, actually - and it takes me a while to get anywhere cool. So mail- ordering is my trusted friend ;-)

Also, how does 'Lazer-Guided Melodies' differ from 'Ladies and Gentelmen...'?

― Clarke B., Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Leslie, you sold SPOON? Oh, no...

Oh, pardon me. I really have no business being on this thread. I'm terribly forgivable when it comes to music. (I gave Des'ree and Jewel WAY too much of my time.) Those Miss Alans CDs I rec'd as "records to be named later" in a big e-mail purchase have only been heard once, though. And that's probably all they're getting from me.

― David Raposa, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Daver, Spoon just wasn't my cup of tea.

― Lesley Higgins, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Incubus, whatever the latest one was. Painfully boring.

The Internet music sites do let me "test drive" a lot more music. I think it's great because I don't have a lot of extra money to spend on CDs so the ones I do buy are ones I definitely like.

― Lyra, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

PJ Harvey's "To Bring You My Love". Felt like I was witnessing an embarrassing amateur dramatic performance. I wonder if I wasn't being a little harsh now. I should've sold Superchunk's "On the Mouth", it's terrible. Spoon, however- GRATE. At least, "A Series of Sneaks" is.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ditto on "Ladies and Gentlemen..." oddly enough. Also: Queens of the Stone Age, the Warp 10 remixes disc, Naked City, any ska disc that somehow came into my orbit (through others mind you), the list goes on and on...

― Jess, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ornette Coleman - Dancing In Your Head. I dug the Joujouka stuff but Theme from a Symphony just drives me bonkers.

― James Annett, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Spoon might not be your cup of Tea but what about Sugar?

― Mike Hanle y, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Another Coleman "In All Languages" still languishes in the used bin at my local shoppe from three years ago. People are smarter than I was.

― Jess, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

In All Languages = GRATE

― mark s, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's interesting to me how many albums mentioned here I've sold myself:

Mogwai CODY - I probably gave it ten spins and then sold it.

Spiritualized FLOATING IN SPACE - sold after 4 or 5 listens; I found the live one cheap and now I'm probably going to sell that (might give it 2 more listens though.) I can finally admit to myself that I don't like Spirtualized.

Naked City - Can't remember which I had, but sold it after 2 listens tops - bad 80s production and faux intensity.

Incredible String Band HANGMAN'S - sold after 1 listen. It just sounded awful to me from the get go.

― Mark, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Rise And Shine" by The Bears

― Chuck Tomlinson, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Whoah, Mike. Whoah.

― Nitsuh, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, wait, Mike: you forgot Cream.

― Nitsuh, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mark, that's so funny: "I can finally admit to myself that I don't like Spiritualized." I know exactly what you mean, how you try and try to like a band but you just CAN'T. I'm trying to think of examples like that for myself - maybe, to some extent, the Talking Heads, though sometimes I'm really in the mood for them.

― Clarke B., Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

But Mark, do keep me in mind if you decide to sell the live Spiritualized record, really.

― Clarke B., Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That's funny, because that's exactly what happened to me with Spiritualized. I must have kept that thing around for a couple years, get four tracks into it, and wonder why I was still hanging on to it. This is a whole 'nother thread, but I was *trying* to make myself like it. It never works.

― Jess, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm sure there's more, but the only example I can think of now is "Stranger than Fiction" by Bad Religion. This is supposed to be punk rock? Slicker than slick, with more vocal overdubs than a Jefferson Starship record. Yecch.

― Sean, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Muse. I went to school with them, felt obliged to check it out. Histrionic pants. Entertaining live, mind you.

― Nick Southall, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I returned "Come On Die Young" after listening to it carefully a few times... and coming back with nothing. I couldn't specifically remember any parts, other than that Iggy Pop rant. Now, I can't remember -anything- about it, other than Iggy Pop. It was a pleasant experience when listening, but I had been listening to a lot of other similar-sounding sparse stuff prior to purchasing it, and I'd had enough I suppose. It's probably better than I give it credit for, but I just wasn't feeling it at the time.

― Bobby D. Gray, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

kid a. not because it was avant garday but because it was not sexy. music should be sexy $ ugly/beautiful not boring.

― junichiro, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Does one really buy a Radiohead alb. looking for sexiness?

― Jess, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

peeps said it was going to sound progressive and experimental, which is always sexee. but it just was liek pink floyd b-sides.

― junichiro, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

When the pawn ...

― anthony, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Does one really buy a Radiohead alb. looking for sexiness?

That's a good definition of a Tortoise fan.

― Curt, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I, too, got rid of Girls Can Tell after one listen--might not even have been that much, to be honest. Yecch.

I get a lot of crap that I discard upon first listen, but one record I remember selling back after paying a LOT of money for was the import version of L.T.J Bukem Presents Logical Progression; thought it was watered-down crap. Most of it is, of course, but I've salvaged the four songs I like off it (all three Bukems and "One and Only") after buying it again when it came out in the U.S. four months after its initial U.K. release, so I'm happy now.

― M. Matos, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Magnetic Fields. '69 Love Songs'. It was a cold rainy morning but I still got up early and stood outside Tower Records until it opened, so I could return it.

― dave q, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I got it: Heart of the Congo's by The Congo's. Not maybe after exactly one listen but still 3 or 4 tops. I hate that record so much! But i blame the mindset of false expectations i.e. Perryfied porduction madness. Well, not on that one.

Off-topic (for Clarke B.):

Lazer Guided Melodies vs. Ladies & Gentlemen. I prefer the first album, far more dreamier. It glides on and on and on. Heavy Kraftwerk/V.U./Suicide/Neu! influences. No gospel singing and no bloody symphonics. :)

― Omar, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

actually, i think i prefer Pure Phase;)

i don't sell albums, after disastrously selling some olskoolhardcore ages and ages ago (including criminal minds baptized by dub, what was i thinking?)

however, i do give stuff away from time to time. got rid of boring Tarentel, and rubbish Infesticons last week. if anyone wants any old rubbish, they can probably have it

― gareth, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

junichiro - that is a really lazy definition of kid a.pink floyd b- sides? i couldn't bring myself to listen to agaetis byrjun by sigur ros all the way through when i first got it.not because i loathed it,but because i knew lots of people who loved it and i couldn't bring myself to love it,and for that reason its very presence in my room irritated me to the point i had to get rid of it.

― Damian, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I never sell records I have bought. This means I still have Colour Me Badd, New Kids On The Block and Roches records.

― nathalie, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i don't either. i almost sold back the first mr bungle album after half a listen because it made me physically ill. but then i got lazy. (NB 'california' was one of my favorite records of 1999 -- i tried listening to the first one again and really it was just pretty bad, again and still, so it's now on my shelf for archival purposes.)

― maura, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Easy!

The Action Time. U.K.'s version of the Make Up? Pfff...

U.K. bands can't rock like the Make Up it was more like the karaoke version of the Make Up.

Sold after one listen!

― Tim, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I sell loads of records. Some of them I've not even made it through once. I can't remember any exact titles though - most bad-but- acclaimed things I'll attempt to struggle through a few times, fool that I am.

― Tom, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The fact that someone sold "Heart of the Congos" makes me a little sadder today...

Records you sold and bought again later is another good thread...I went through a period a couple years ago where I sold off almost 75% of the rock in my collection...I've spent the last six months smacking myself in the head and rebuying 50% of that 75%...

― Jess, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dammit, we should have a ILM pool where we can trade albums, because there are a lot stuff listed in this thread I would pick up. Anybody want Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells :) ?

― alex in montreal, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Probably the new Built To Spill. I'm tempted to get rid of it, but there's still a nagging feeling I should give it another spin, just in case.

― JC, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'd like to make myself get rid of the Olivia Tremor Control Black Foliage CD but I think maybe if I just listen to it several more times maybe I'll like it....I love "I have been floated" but the entire remainder of the cd does nothing for me.

― Lyra, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Peaches was trashed. Take Five thrown out a third story window at some football player, later retrieved and glued to support beam. I dont think I've ever sold an album. I suppose I should.

― zacko, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i think you should listen to black foliage some more.

― ethan, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

JC: gimme.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have never sold an album but am sometimes tempted, for example:

The Flaming Lips - 'The Soft Bulletin', not bad but not as brilliant as it was made out to be. Took about two years before I really started to like it. I was kind of expecting the most wonderfully psychadelic droney experience ever, but it doesn't really deliver. Live, on the other hand...

Suckle: Can't remember what the album's called, but they're on Chemikal Underground and are yr standard glaswegian bitty indie. Singles all gorgeous, some songs on album great as well, but have somehow completely failed to listen to it as an album.

Sloan: The two I bought in good faith. That took a year as well.

Bill

― Bill, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

JC: Hang on to it for a month or two. I've had basically the same response to it that I had with Kid A -- listened, was a little disappointed, didn't really want it ... and then later (six months in the case of the Radiohead, two weeks for the Built to Spill) realized that it was perfectly worthwhile, if not as amazing as I'd been led to believe.

Also: Listening to Keep It Like a Secret immediately followed by the new one sort of helped.

― Nitsuh, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i bought black foliage about a year and a half ago and it put me to sleep every time i put it on, but just last week i started to spin it frequently, and now whenever i approach the player, that's ALL i want to put on. if you've got time try to listen to it all at once, or at least one of the four sides at a time. im VERY into that record right now

― andrew, Thursday, 9 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh yeah, the Make Up. Just sold that one last week, played it maybe 3 times.

― Sean, Thursday, 9 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Salako - "Musicality". It tried too hard to sound "nice". Exchanged it for the first SFA album.

― fernando, Thursday, 9 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

five years pass...

Don't ask me why but I actually bought that Lifted crapfest by Bright Eyes used. I don't think I even made through the whole thing. I think I owned it for like half an hour before I ditched it.

― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Saturday, 26 August 2006 19:17 (nineteen years ago)

being nice is salako's thing. they release an otter into the wild each time their records come out.

― keyth (keyth), Saturday, 26 August 2006 21:31 (nineteen years ago)

So that's why Hull's swarming with otters.

― Pier Paolo Semolina (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 August 2006 21:33 (nineteen years ago)

I bought some Danielson Famile record, listened to half of it, and then gave it to some stoned kid I had just met

POSTSCRIPT: last time I talked to him he said that he and his girlfriend both love the record

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Saturday, 26 August 2006 21:48 (nineteen years ago)

that i'm from barcelona record, downloaded it and then trashed it after the third or fourth track. this is atypical as i normally archive every single piece of music i can get my hands on.

― Jena (JenaP), Saturday, 26 August 2006 22:32 (nineteen years ago)

i used to do this all the time back in my critic days. one time that sticks out is the 5rc shipment with xiu xiu's a promise and the first young people album. i was in such a foul mood after sitting through that xiu xiu nonsense-- i took the c.d. out of the player halfway through the tracy chapman cover and never even heard the album's only redeeming song "ian curtis wishlist." because of xiu xiu, i didn't give young people the thoughtful listen it deserved and sold both the next day. soon after, that young people album became one of my favourites of this decade and i had to actually buy a copy.

― Godfrzej Ljang (godfrzej), Saturday, 26 August 2006 23:54 (nineteen years ago)

i had to actually buy a copy.

You poor thing! ;,,,(

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Saturday, 26 August 2006 23:57 (nineteen years ago)

'connected' by the foreign exchange.

― gear (gear), Sunday, 27 August 2006 00:05 (nineteen years ago)

"You should listen to this new group...they're called The Ordinary Boys!"

Shortly afterwards, having listened to tuneless rubish and the worst Specials cover ever, I threw this fucker out the window and went mad.

Some would argue that this was the birth of the ESTEBAN BUTTEZ character.

― Domenico Buttez (ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!!), Sunday, 27 August 2006 00:07 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think I've ever gotten rid of anything after ONE listen, but I do remember the last CD I took out of the player and smashed: The Vines "Highly Evolved".

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Sunday, 27 August 2006 00:12 (nineteen years ago)

I do remember the last CD I took out of the player and smashed

You might've been kidding. But I actually did this once, with a Mogwai EP. Most things I figure someone out there genuinely enjoys and that's good and well; but that was one I didn't want to be responsible for leaving a copy out in the world for someone to hear.

― I.M. (I.M.), Sunday, 27 August 2006 00:16 (nineteen years ago)

No, I really smashed the Vines.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Sunday, 27 August 2006 00:33 (nineteen years ago)

AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH

http://www.urbanawebsite.com.br/vines/vines_red_craig.jpg http://www.kimball.k12.sd.us/FIRE/home%20alone.jpg

― Domenico Buttez (ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!!), Sunday, 27 August 2006 02:35 (nineteen years ago)

Exactly.

― Marmot (marmotwolof), Sunday, 27 August 2006 02:38 (nineteen years ago)

summer sun is to yo la tengo what it's hard was to the who. i knew they were on the downslope; i just didn't think they would slide so quickly and dramatically. it was so depressingly bad that it took me two days to get through one listen. i gave up halfway through, then convinced myself the next day to finish it off.

― Lawrence the Looter (Lawrence the Looter), Sunday, 27 August 2006 20:18 (nineteen years ago)

The Knife - Silent Shout

― Stephen Bush (Stephen B.), Sunday, 27 August 2006 20:43 (nineteen years ago)

Scritti Politti - Cupid & Psyche '85

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Sunday, 27 August 2006 21:14 (nineteen years ago)

(but i think i miss it now)

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Sunday, 27 August 2006 21:14 (nineteen years ago)

(you wouldn't if you heard it again)

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Sunday, 27 August 2006 21:18 (nineteen years ago)

Do you two have any fucking taste in music?

But that's a moot point because you guys don't belong here.

― Domenico Buttez (ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!!), Monday, 28 August 2006 04:40 (nineteen years ago)

Magnetic Fields. '69 Love Songs'. It was a cold rainy morning but I still got up early and stood outside Tower Records until it opened, so I could return it.
-- dave q (scrape100@....), August 8th, 2001.

Why the hell or how, even, on earth did you get it in the first place, then?

― tiit (tiit), Monday, 28 August 2006 19:45 (nineteen years ago)

I threw a cassette of "Brotherhood" by New Order out the car window last week. It wasn't the first time listening though, more like the third.

― everything (everything), Monday, 28 August 2006 20:05 (nineteen years ago)

Chavez, Ride the Fader. I was a Matador geek in the mid-90s, but this one didn't take.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 28 August 2006 20:23 (nineteen years ago)

Brotherhood is a fantastic album.

You must be deaf.

― Stephen Bush (Stephen B.), Monday, 28 August 2006 21:01 (nineteen years ago)

Dated, adolescent junk in my opinion. I'm too old to waste time on such stuff anymore.

― everything (everything), Monday, 28 August 2006 22:18 (nineteen years ago)

Kinda like YOUR POSTS, asshole!

― Domenico Buttez (ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!!), Monday, 28 August 2006 22:33 (nineteen years ago)

joanna newsome
gave it away actually

― ()()()---()()() (internet), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 00:16 (nineteen years ago)

Geraldine Fibbers - Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home

Bought into the good reviews, listened to it once, sold it when I had a chance.

― Sean Robison (yaratnam), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 04:43 (nineteen years ago)

I can't believe anyone tossed out 'Brotherhood'. I mean, for Every Little Counts, alone....

"Oh, you say we've got to record something for American hype? How about we just jam out sublimely and then I sing a bunch of lyrics on why you all suck for taking us seriously."

Weirdo? Angel Dust? AIIWIW? There's a lot of gems on there - only dated in that 'doesn't sound like EVERYTHING ELSE OUT THERE' kind of way. I think the only thing I could give you is that BLT sounds a bit lame because dance clubs have overplayed it since release. But just that. ;)

― mh (melsh), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 05:04 (nineteen years ago)

bump

― Jena (JenaP), Saturday, 2 September 2006 13:59 (nineteen years ago)

Sonic Youth's "NYC Ghosts & Flowers".

Been a big fan since buying "EVOL" the year it came out, but "NYCG&F" just left me cold. Usually there's maybe one track on each of their albums that i find unlistenable ("Creme Brulee" from "Dirty" springs to mind), but to my ears the whole of "NYCG&F" was unlistenable. I actually burned a copy before i took it back to the shops and gave it a spin years later just the once. I know i should have probably persisted with it and gave it a few more listens but i just couldn't be arsed.

― Neil FC (Neil FC), Saturday, 2 September 2006 17:43 (nineteen years ago)

Fucking SPIRITUALIZED PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT GUITAR LOOPS SHIT

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Saturday, 2 September 2006 22:12 (nineteen years ago)

Afro finger and Gel

― bad hair day house (fandango), Saturday, 2 September 2006 22:17 (nineteen years ago)

okay not quite one listen... but enough to find myself bored rigid with the schtick. I may have made a mistake though.

― bad hair day house (fandango), Sunday, 3 September 2006 15:26 (nineteen years ago)

i just listened to the first minute of an album by a band called !Forward Russia! and it's definitely going in the trade pile. there is no way i could listen to the whole thing.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 3 September 2006 19:12 (nineteen years ago)

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