An artist you bought 'blind' because you thought you would love them, but you didn't ....

axisus

These days we don't have to buy 'blind', it's so easy to check music out with Spotify, Youtube etc. In the old days it was far less easy.

I thought I was onto a sure fire winner with John Scofield's Pick hits live. I like blues, fusion, jazz etc. Couldn't find anything in it that I liked at all! I should give it a spin again, it's been untouched for over a decade. It was highly recommended on some fusion thread on some old forum, but really didn't do it for me. Any fans?

munckee

I heard a great piece of guitar in a record shop once and the guy told me it was steely dan. I bought the greatest hits on the spot and it's not for me. 

ICBM

The first Maroon 5 album. I'd heard the first single (can't even remember what it's called now) and thought it was pretty good, so bought the album. Absolutely hated everything else on it, didn't even manage to listen to it all the way through, and then realised I didn't even like the single...

Even stranger, a friend of mine did exactly the same thing. If we'd only done so a week apart we could at least have saved the price of one copy!

Also Train - I saw one of their albums in a charity shop before I'd heard them, thought the artwork and what I guessed the style of music (looked like Americana) to be was worth a go. No... bland pop-country. Utter shit - another one I didn't manage to get to the end of before it went into the next week's charity bag.

fandango

Two:

Kate Bush - Aeriel - bought because of the single King of the Mountain. So not that blind. Alas that track was the only thing worth listening to. Gave the album one shot. Ugh. Quickly passed it to a colleague who admitted liking Kate Bush. Never looked back.

Gil Scott Heron - a 'best of' or something. Thought he was worth a punt. Actually threw this away after listening to it the once. Don't get me wrong, I can listen to jazz every now and then, but could't dig this at all.

Snags

Two Gallants - What The Toll Tells.
Bought on the strength of a review in Uncut. Decided the reviewer was either an affected ponce or delusion, although there are a couple of good tracks on it and it's not unlistenable, just not what I was expecting at all.

TV On The Radio - Dear Science
No idea where from, but picked up that people who generally like stuff I like were raving about them. Bought an album. No idea why people were raving about them.

thecolourbox

ICBM said:

Also Train - I saw one of their albums in a charity shop before I'd heard them, thought the artwork and what I guessed the style of music (looked like Americana) to be was worth a go. No... bland pop-country. Utter shit - another one I didn't manage to get to the end of before it went into the next week's charity bag.

Yes - that Drops of Jupiter song is very misleading, I still quite like that one but everything else I've heard of theirs has been awful dross

thecolourbox

For me, Razorlight. Quite liked Golden Touch and they seemed to be the kind of band I'd have liked at that time, but without the rough edges of say Libertines. 

Bought the album, Christ almighty it was dull as dishwater. I think I actually bought their first two at the same time, which in hindsight was a silly move.

"When I go out, and I come home again"
"She asked me my name, I told her what it was"

And "Before I fall to pieces" sounds like Katrina and the Waves

Grumpyrocker

I bought a couple of CDs by The Church because I was a big All About Eve fan and wanted to hear some of Marty Wilson-Piper's stuff.

Hated both albums.

I should have known better, much preferred Tim Bricheno's style.

Sesh

I bought a 10000 maniacs album just because Michael Stipe guested on a song. I wish I hadn't bothered. It was unlistenably dull.

Philly_Q

Smash and Scatteration - Bill Frisell and Vernon Reid.

Also a Defunkt compilation album, again because it had Vernon Reid on it (on one track, or something).

Outloud - Outloud.  It had cartoon artwork and pictures of people with guitars on the back cover.  I thought ooh, it's Nile Rodgers doing a rock album.  It was Nile Rodgers but it sure as hell wasn't a rock album.

Creed_Clicks

Snags said:

Two Gallants - What The Toll Tells.
Bought on the strength of a review in Uncut. Decided the reviewer was either an affected ponce or delusion, although there are a couple of good tracks on it and it's not unlistenable, just not what I was expecting at all.

TV On The Radio - Dear Science
No idea where from, but picked up that people who generally like stuff I like were raving about them. Bought an album. No idea why people were raving about them.

TV On The Radio are brilliant!

Grumpyrocker

Oh totally forgot Slipknot - Iowa. Bag O'shite. 

Snags

Creed_Clicks said:

Snags said:

Two Gallants - What The Toll Tells.
Bought on the strength of a review in Uncut. Decided the reviewer was either an affected ponce or delusion, although there are a couple of good tracks on it and it's not unlistenable, just not what I was expecting at all.

TV On The Radio - Dear Science
No idea where from, but picked up that people who generally like stuff I like were raving about them. Bought an album. No idea why people were raving about them.

TV On The Radio are brilliant!

Is "Dear Science" a representative album?  If so, I'll try to summon up the enthusiasm to give it another go. If not, I'll trawl YouTube for signs of anything that might dissuade me from the view that they are not my pot of coffee.

Rocker

Seasick Steve.  His sound is definitely not for me but is seemingly well liked by many.

Eric Claptopn - The Beano Album.  Very dated and disappointing for an album that is name checked by almost everyone.

ICBM

Rocker said:

Seasick Steve.  His sound is definitely not for me but is seemingly well liked by many.

Ditto, but it's not so much his sound that puts me off, it's his fake 'hobo' persona, along with the expensive custom-made 'dumpster find' guitars he uses...

(I know someone who built at least one of them.)

steven70

...

equalsql

axisus said:

These days we don't have to buy 'blind', it's so easy to check music out with Spotify, Youtube etc. In the old days it was far less easy.

I thought I was onto a sure fire winner with John Scofield's Pick hits live. I like blues, fusion, jazz etc. Couldn't find anything in it that I liked at all! I should give it a spin again, it's been untouched for over a decade. It was highly recommended on some fusion thread on some old forum, but really didn't do it for me. Any fans?

I was a big fan of Scofield in the late 80s when the live album was released. Still Warm, the album he released before Pick Hits is just amazing, but this live cut was horrible, too jarring and metalic  with all the soul sucked out thanks to the agressive mixing of the over the top slap bass and matching uber-punch drums. It was a recipe for a headache.

Philly_Q

The only Scofield album I have is Uberjam, I really haven't heard much of his other material to compare but I assumed it was some sort of sidestep for him into funky jam-band territory.  Went to see him on that tour too, it was great but for some reason I never investigated more of his other stuff.

Schnozz

I bought Frank Zappa's 'We're only in it for the money' and was so pissed off.

I quite like him now, but I still think that album is a poor joke.

Blueingreen

fandango said:

Two:

Kate Bush - Aeriel - bought because of the single King of the Mountain. So not that blind. Alas that track was the only thing worth listening to. Gave the album one shot. Ugh. Quickly passed it to a colleague who admitted liking Kate Bush. Never looked back.

Gil Scott Heron - a 'best of' or something. Thought he was worth a punt. Actually threw this away after listening to it the once. Don't get me wrong, I can listen to jazz every now and then, but could't dig this at all.

It's all subjective but I loved Aerial - more so than The Hounds of Love, in fact, which is generally considered her best.  I agree the rest of it doesn't sound much like King of the Mountain but that's no bad thing -   KOTM is great but far from the best thing on it.

My one crticism is that it was an album I listened to a lot for a while and when I went back to it a bit later it was like all the juice was sucked out of it and I didn't need to hear it again.

I suppose having Rolf Harris on one track would make people feel a bit queasy now.

Agree with Gil Scott Heron though, a guy I've always though is overrated because he pushes certain buttons (politically correct proto-rap) that prevent some people from judging him on whether his music is actually any good.  I wouldn't call it jazz though.

mart

Blueingreen said:

It's all subjective but I loved Aerial ...

I suppose having Rolf Harris on one track would make people feel a bit queasy now.

...

I’m with you about how good Aerial is. And if you’re bothered by Rolf Harris, then buy the 2018 remaster that has Rolf replaced by Kate’s son.