Do you subscribe to the "grower" school of thought?

[Trollheart]

I don't mean are you into gardening! A lot of people, particularly here, seem to be happy to listen to an album multiple times before they decide if they like it. Such an album is referred here to as a "grower", presumably because it eventually grows on you. But I've more music backed up on my computer than I could ever realistically listen to in a lifetime (which doesn't stop me downloading more nearly every day!) and don't have time to let albums grow on me. Personally, if I don't hear at least some promise in an album first time out I'll usually drop it. Whether or not my opinion would change after several spins is not something I have the time or patience for: albums have one chance to impress me and that's it.

So how do you feel? If you're a believer in the grower theory, how long does it take or how many spins before an album is or isn't pronounced worthy by you? And is this a constant thing, spinning back to back or every day say, or do you put it away, come back to it, put it away, come back to it and so on?

Just interested. How do yaz all feel about this?

[Janszoon]

I don't have any hard and fast rules. Sometimes I listen to an album, don't like it and never end up listening to it again, sometimes I give it additional chances and never enjoy it, and sometimes after additional listens I end up loving it. It just depends. There are also some artists who I know tend to make albums that take me more than one listen to get into (i.e. Tom Waits) so I always give them multiple listens before passing judgement.

[TheBig3]

I do believe in it because its happened to me. Having said that, something tends to get me to give a bad album more spins than "hope" alone.

What happens most often is that I'll like a few songs and grow into the album, rather than me liking nothing and grow into it completely. The Return on Investment with a lot of albums isn't statistically in my favor. So its rare that I go from complete hate to full passion.

[Isbjørn]

I grew on Meat is Murder. It is now my favourite Smiths album. I tend to give albums new chances if I think I might grow on them, but if I think they're absolutely terrible, I'll just drop it.

[Frownland]

I usually don't return to an album after disliking it on my first try. However, I won't delete it from my iTunes library because one day when I'm listening to it on shuffle, a track from the album will come up and I'll like it because I'm coming at it from a new perspective more or less. That's how I grew to love Trout Mask Replica. Sometimes hype will push me to revisit an album though.

[Lisnaholic]

Some of my all-time favourite albums have been "growers", so yes, I´m a believer, but rather like TH, with the quantity of music that´s available now, I´m not quite so patient about letting new albums grow on me.

I guess I have a kind of checklist in my head the first time I hear an album: How noisy is it? How interesting are the lyrics? Is there some instrumental excitement there? That´s why I might replay some jazz album, for instance, to give it a chance to sink in. Would I give a Justin Bieber album a second chance? Probably not.

Mentioning a pop star makes me think of the converse of TH´s question: do you distrust an album if you instantly like it ? That´s happened to me a few times; an album seems great first off but about three plays later it sounds like a shallow piece of garbage!

[Trillian]

Yeah, but then most of my favorite albums have been growers. I think the nature of growers is that they're harder to get into initially (usually for me this means there's something challenging or unfamiliar about the music/style), but once you get into them, they stick around for longer.

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

Mentioning a pop star makes me think of the converse of TH´s question: do you distrust an album if you instantly like it ? That´s happened to me a few times; an album seems great first off but about three plays later it sounds like a shallow piece of garbage!

Yup, if I find myself immediately liking a song I'm wary. Mostly because those songs don't really have much to offer on repeated listens, so they sound good at first, but get old really quick.

[Trollheart]

To the second part I would have to say no. There have of course been times when on first listen I've been knocked out by an album but then going back to it somehow it's not as good --- I think I mentioned this in my "Fortress of Prog" thread with respect to Delusion Squared --- but generally if I really like an album first time I think it's great that I do, and I know I'll be listening to it again and again. This is how I felt with Ten, Mostly Autumn, Kamelot and Arena. No, you don't know any of them...

I don't think there's any album or song I loved immediately that later lost its sparkle for me. But maybe that's just because I'm an old codger (seriously: is that word really a shortened version of "coffin dodger"?) and set in my ways.

[djchameleon]

Originally Posted by Trillian

Yup, if I find myself immediately liking a song I'm wary. Mostly because those songs don't really have much to offer on repeated listens, so they sound good at first, but get old really quick.

Yeah that doesn't happen with me at all. When I find a song I really like. I will replay it and burn through it until I am sick of it but it doesn't mean I don't like it anymore or have grown wary. I just reach a point where I am satisfied with the song and no longer feel the need to constantly repeat it.

As for the overall topic of growers, I don't think there are albums that grow on me. If I don't like an album for a specific reason then I won't try to torture myself by replaying it until I break down and finally start liking it. That's exactly what it sounds like you guys are doing.

If I don't like the way that an album starts out I will stick it out and make sure that I listen to the whole think because I tend to end up finding tracks that are gems hiding in the rough later on or I find something about a track that sounds pleasing to my ears.

[Janszoon]

Originally Posted by djchameleon

As for the overall topic of growers, I don't think there are albums that grow on me. If I don't like an album for a specific reason then I won't try to torture myself by replaying it until I break down and finally start liking it. That's exactly what it sounds like you guys are doing.

I don't think anyone in this thread is talking about "torturing" themselves with music they hate. More like being open to giving something more than one chance.