Here's one: (sort of) good albums you never listen to!

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Kieran McConville

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Hi, Violet
In my case this would be the album 'Gulag Orchestar' by Beirut. It's probably pretty good; I know I bought the CD on the strength of a single called 'Postcards From Italy' which had this gorgeous horn arrangement. I also know that I have not taken that CD off the shelf since the night the Rudd government won office.

What does this mean? It means that music excites a pavlovian response. Sure I enjoyed the Rudd government attaining office and John Motherfucking Howard losing his own seat in parliament, but other things going on at the same time, were less pleasant, and so, I just blank on that whole era. In short, I never want to hear Beirut again ever.

There's probably a certain amount of late nineties and mid to late 2000s electronic(ish) music that gets a pass it might not otherwise get from me, for the same reasons, only in the other direction. Ie. warm memories. Or at least not sour ones. It's not a nostalgia thing, it's just the difference between being contaminated and not.
 
Tonight by Franz Ferdinand. That album was hugely important to me in 2009 but I've hardly listened to it since. Probably just gonna leave it in 2009 and remember the good times instead of forcing it back into my rotation where it doesn't belong at this point.

Also, anything by Stars of the Lid. Their albums are great but over 2 hours long. I'm good with only hearing them once in a great while.
 
See, I get that. I can totally not-listen to Stars of the Lid once in a while, and have absolutely no sensitive memories attached to their rather rarefied work.
 
Tonight by Franz Ferdinand. That album was hugely important to me in 2009 but I've hardly listened to it since. Probably just gonna leave it in 2009 and remember the good times instead of forcing it back into my rotation where it doesn't belong at this point.

Also, anything by Stars of the Lid. Their albums are great but over 2 hours long. I'm good with only hearing them once in a great while.

Agreed on Franz Ferdinand. Their albums have largely been collecting dust on my shelf for quite awhile.
 
I've become this way with Pink Floyd, which is a very important band to me personally, but not one I really reach for anymore.

Of those "classic" English bands, I find myself going the Stones most frequently. Beggars Banquet - Let It Bleed - Sticky Fingers would probably be my choice for best three-album run by anyone ever.
 
I'd swap Exile for Beggars Banquet. If an album is meant to be more than the sum of its parts, Exile has to be quintessential for the medium. Obviously there are classic songs on Beggars, but as a whole it comes up short of its three successors.
 
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Oh man Beggars is hands-down my favorite Stones album - probably the closest they ever got to the delta blues thematically but still with their signature layer of grit on it. It balances sin and heart wonderfully as well. It's nearly perfect.
 
For me, it's a couple of the 70s classics I don't really listen to much anymore: Who's Next and Ziggy Stardust.

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There's a heap of albums that fall into this category for me, good albums that I just never return to, but strangely it also happens quite a bit with my favourites - I hardly ever listen to Dark Side of the Moon, Achtung Baby, Joshua Tree, Quadrophenia...
 
I can't remember the last time I listened to OK Computer. I mean, it could happen at any time, but so far, in recent years, has not.
 
Exile is way too long for my taste. Sticky Fingers is their masterpiece as far as I'm concerned.

As far as original question goes, I can't recall the last time I've heard Who's Next, which was a big album for me in high school. But I've grown out of The Who for quite some time now.
 
Sometimes I've bought an album just because of it's high praise and rave reviews. For instance, I rarely spin My Bloody Valentine - Loveless, Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, and Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun.
 
What do you mean by that? Tons of rock records with amazing atmosphere out there...

Obviously you can expand rock to any number of subgenres (including extremely atmospheric post-rock), but I meant a fairly straightforward hard rock record, perhaps even classic rock. I certainly don't listen to those genres for their ambiance, but Sticky Fingers has it.
 
Sigur Ros' () is one of my all-time favorite albums but I rarely listen to it. I have to be in exactly the right mood for that one.
 
An earlier post made me think of In Rainbows. Love the album, but I forget it exists for long periods of time.

Kieran, my daughter is a huge Beirut fan. I think she counts one of their shows as the best concert she's ever attended.
 
An earlier post made me think of In Rainbows. Love the album, but I forget it exists for long periods of time.

Kieran, my daughter is a huge Beirut fan. I think she counts one of their shows as the best concert she's ever attended.

I still think Beirut is pretty good, based on all I've heard of him. It was just bad timing, buying 'Gulag Orchesta' in 2007. Cause I fucking hated 2007.
 
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