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

FelineGuitars

Alan Holdsworth........

Lots of players I liked including Van Halen raved about him, so I expected something tasty, but couldn't enjoy any of the albums I listened to . Maybe my tastes aren't developed enough for his avant-garde stuff, just wasn't for 

Johnnyseven

I love Tool so was looking for other prog metal type stuff. Bought a copy of Images and Words by Dream Theatre and IMO it was the biggest load of cheesy 80's rock garbage i'd ever heard. Nothing like Tool at all.

axisus

Johnnyseven said:

I love Tool so was looking for other prog metal type stuff. Bought a copy of Images and Words by Dream Theatre and IMO it was the biggest load of cheesy 80's rock garbage i'd ever heard. Nothing like Tool at all.

I&W was their most melodic album. Try Train of Thought, a much more metal CD. 

EricTheWeary

I must have bought loads and loads of things 'blind' pre internet. Having spent the money I'd always give them a few spins. I remember bands like Legs Diamond ( can't remember the album title) which was very soft rock and even a terrible cover of You've Lost That Loving Feeling. Possibly top of the pile NWOBHM supergroup Lionheart who made an album ( from my distant recollection) of namby pamby tunes aimed at US AOR fans. 
But, FFS, Gil Scott Heron was great. I have albums, I saw him live all with no idea that he was hip because he was the grandfather of rap. Just a unique voice who worked with great musicians. The revolution will not be televised, the revolution will be live. 

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

I must have bought loads and loads of things 'blind' pre internet. Having spent the money I'd always give them a few spins. I remember bands like Legs Diamond ( can't remember the album title) which was very soft rock and even a terrible cover of You've Lost That Loving Feeling. Possibly top of the pile NWOBHM supergroup Lionheart who made an album ( from my distant recollection) of namby pamby tunes aimed at US AOR fans. 

I don't think you and I have very similar musical tastes nowadays, but there seems to be a lot of overlap in our back-catalogues.  Crikey, Legs Diamond!   

I did actually like a lot of that namby pamby US AOR (or wimphem, as Dave Reynolds in Sounds/Kerrang used to call it) for a while. 

Stuckfast

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.

The first two tracks on that album are brilliant, especially Steady Rolling. The rest of it is pretty forgettable though.

Stuckfast

I bought the first Fleet Foxes album after reading all the adulatory review. It's shite.

Haych

Shivaree with I ought to give you a shot in the head.

I bought it on the strength of Goodnight Moon, which is to be fair a damn good song, but the rest of the album is just dire.

MrBump

The Noisettes - Wild Young Hearts.

Their first album - What's The Time, Mr Wolf - is a work of genius.  Utterly brilliant.  So without hesitation I bought WYH without taking a breath.

Utterly dreadful in every way.

thecolourbox

MrBump said:

The Noisettes - Wild Young Hearts.

Their first album - What's The Time, Mr Wolf - is a work of genius.  Utterly brilliant.  So without hesitation I bought WYH without taking a breath.

Utterly dreadful in every way.

Yeah I was gutted about them as well, a lot of promise on that first record

ICBM

thecolourbox said:

MrBump said:

The Noisettes - Wild Young Hearts.

Their first album - What's The Time, Mr Wolf - is a work of genius.  Utterly brilliant.  So without hesitation I bought WYH without taking a breath.

Utterly dreadful in every way.

Yeah I was gutted about them as well, a lot of promise on that first record

I don't hate Wild Young Hearts, but it's not remotely as good as What's The Time Mr. Wolf.

I also have to mention World Party. Karl Wallinger was in The Waterboys (who I love), but I've tried more than once to like World Party, and failed... I just them/him annoying. Picked up a couple of albums in a charity shop last weekend, and they're going back.

historyisjunk

Like @EricTheWeary I must have bought a ton of crap based on the cover, reviews, some vague notion of what the music should be like. Two of the worst that come to mind are Tarkus by ELP. I'd never heard ELP at all, but at that age thought the cover was pretty great. Unfortunately it turned out to contain music by ELP. I think I bought quite a lot of stuff back then actually hoping that I'd find something else that sounded like Hawkwind.

I also bought Seconds Out by Genesis after hearing a very small section of it on the radio, probably Tommy Vance or something. It was a beautiful solo, probably at the end of a song & I'd guess by Steve Hackett. Until then I always thought Genesis were really not for me. I was right, the rest of the album contained Genesis. (I like Peter Gabriel's first 2 solo records though)

@Haych I also bought that Shivaree album, had never heard of them or anything on it, really because I liked the cover & the title. I was lucky though, mine was a charity shop or very cheap. It's bizarre isn't it?! Goodnight Moon is a stunner, the rest is just very well played dullness. Ambrosia Parsley is a fantastic name though.

ICBM

historyisjunk said:

Two of the worst that come to mind are Tarkus by ELP. I'd never heard ELP at all, but at that age thought the cover was pretty great. Unfortunately it turned out to contain music by ELP.

The cover looks like it was done by a thirteen-year-old in a school art class.

Ironically the album contains one of my favourite guitar sounds ever recorded, on ‘Battlefield’... I’m not sure it’s worth owning for that reason alone though.

Brain Salad Surgery has a much better cover - by H.R. Giger, who inspired the film Alien among other things - but the music is sadly equally dodgy.

EricTheWeary

historyisjunk said:

Like @EricTheWeary I must have bought a ton of crap based on the cover, reviews, some vague notion of what the music should be like. Two of the worst that come to mind are Tarkus by ELP. I'd never heard ELP at all, but at that age thought the cover was pretty great. Unfortunately it turned out to contain music by ELP. I think I bought quite a lot of stuff back then actually hoping that I'd find something else that sounded like Hawkwind.

I also bought Seconds Out by Genesis after hearing a very small section of it on the radio, probably Tommy Vance or something. It was a beautiful solo, probably at the end of a song & I'd guess by Steve Hackett. Until then I always thought Genesis were really not for me. I was right, the rest of the album contained Genesis. (I like Peter Gabriel's first 2 solo records though)

@Haych I also bought that Shivaree album, had never heard of them or anything on it, really because I liked the cover & the title. I was lucky though, mine was a charity shop or very cheap. It's bizarre isn't it?! Goodnight Moon is a stunner, the rest is just very well played dullness. Ambrosia Parsley is a fantastic name though.

A chunk of my early listening was my oldest brother’s album collection. He had some stuff that I fell in love with like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and even Grand Funk Railroad ( although later explorations lead to finding out they had a pretty patchy back catalogue). In amongst that were Genesis and Yes and Gentle Giant... it seems like the funkier the cover the less likely I was to like it. I still have an aversion to most prog rock - just play the bloody song! 

https://i.imgur.com/YyCCBwi.jpg

Haych

ICBM said:

Ironically the album contains one of my favourite guitar sounds ever recorded, on ‘Battlefield’... I’m not sure it’s worth owning for that reason alone though.

Ouch, that was a painful experience. Had to listen for the guitar sound but yep, never going to own that.