Albums that felt like you lost an hour of your life

Which album did you try because of hype from critics… only to feel like you wasted an hour of your life listening to it?

At the time, I remember thinking this about Mogwai’s Come On Die Young. Which ironically I was quite young and just didn’t get it… and took me years to revisit it.

Also get this feeling whenever I give PJ Harvey’s Let England shake another go. Just can’t connect with it at all, and I adore everything she had done up to that point. Need to try to move beyond hearing it as UB40 doing Bowie’s Labyrinth score but with serious political subject matter.

1 Like

Also, The 1975. I just do not understand all the hype they get from critics.

6 Likes

Animal Collective albums Sung Tongs and Merriweather of the 00s seemed critically acclaimed and also were fairly long albums. Just didn’t like their style and didn’t understand what there was to like about them.

I’m a big fan of 00s Low and love Things We Lost In The Fire, Trust and The Great Destroyer. Their absolutely freezing gig(s) at The Union Chapel in February 2003 have been discussed here regarding how brilliant they were and also how bloody cold it was at those. I remember that weekend well. I went to Friday’s Union Chapel gig and the next day went to the anti-war March. I think they were playing there on the Saturday which was equally as cold.
Love those albums but just couldn’t click with their recent stuff like Double Negative and Hey What.

They’re the two bands that come to mind but I’m sure there’s many others. I’m going to go back to bed now and slumber for an hour and will have a think.

5 Likes

It’s probably a pretty long list but I’ll go with the recent album by The Weather Station. The musical equivalent of a mayonnaise sandwich on white bread.

6 Likes

Ah so many. A lot more than an hour as well.

A lot of the hyped bands that feel like they appear from nowhere and a lot of established or classic acts as well. Just about got to the point where I trust my own tastes and don’t have fomo but probably still waste too much listening time tbh.

e.g. listened to 2 or 3 Frank Zappa albums not long ago and I guess it was only not a waste of time in that I now know for certain I’m never going to like Frank Zappa.

1 Like

Tried Phoebe Bridgers’ Punisher album 4 times because of all the praise on here and having really enjoyed the Boygenius EP, but every time just got angrier at having given up valuable listening time to something so offensively bad.

5 Likes

The two Black Country, New Road albums.

7 Likes

Joanna Newsom - Ys. Pre-streaming so actually bought the CD on the back of rave reviews and recommendations from others. Tried a few times, just cannot see what the fuss was about, a squeaky meandering borefest.

9 Likes

To Pimp A Butterfly

2 Likes

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Really bored me on first listen. Persisted and grew to love it, but that first go round has always stayed with me, especially, is it Radio Cure? Remember thinking “how the fuck did anyone think this song was worth five minutes of my time?”

That’s an interesting one cos a couple of friends really love her. I find the album ‘fine’ but didn’t really connect with it, none of the tracks have stuck with me, and it feels like I’ve missed something.

1 Like

I’m getting more and more into Low but also still can’t connect with Double Negative at all. It’s one of their only albums I have no interest in going back to at all and every listen feels like an endurance test.

I think Hey What does what they were going for on Double Negative far better though and is pretty strong (though wouldn’t make my top 5).

2 Likes

Dark_Side_of_the_Moon

10 Likes

Another vote for the 1975 here. Most of the wasted hour was spent reading the album title.

Because of all the acclaim I really tried listening despite feeling like I knew they weren’t for me and could have saved that time by trusting my own judgement I guess…

It does feel a bit weird thinking about time spent listening to music being wasted though, I know it’s a bit of a light hearted premise but I think time spent getting to know music is rarely wasted even if you didn’t like them after the listen (because their allegedly incredible, deep and creative ideas just sounded boringly sterile to your ears).

7 Likes

Not that many nowadays, because I don’t tend to listen to an album in full unless I really like some of the advance tracks/singles. This is mostly because of time and financial constraints. However, here are two recent ones that spring to mind.

Oxbow’s Thin Black Duke is a recent one. When I saw them support Sumac, they were incredible. Really loved A Cold and Well-Lit Place. Bought the CD and there is some other good stuff on it, and it is beautifully played and produced, but whenever I put it on I find my attention drifting, and I’m not sure what I’m missing.

Baroness’s Yellow and Green. Absolutely loved Red Album, and again, an amazing live act, and Pitchfork gave this one a good review, so I bought it. The sound overall is still there, and I appreciate the idea of stripping back the complexity to let the songs shine, but this has the opposite problem of Thin Black Duke- the songs and lyrics are too simple and I feel they lost that amazing instrumental interplay that made those initial albums so special.

Probably my favourite PJ Harvey album (something I don’t say lightly), and the lyrics connected almost instantly (All and Everyone is just heartbreaking). Don’t get the UB40 comparison at all- it sounds bright and spacious. I would say if you’ve listened a few times and it hasn’t connected, it might not connect at all. That’s OK though- she’s got loads of great albums.

4 Likes

Idlewild by Everything But The Girl. Came up on the 1001 Albums list, absolute crap.

What did you dislike about it in particular? Any love for Kendrick’s other stuff?

They don’t call him The Kendrick Chastiser for no reason…

3 Likes

Must have missed that DiS meeting :grinning:

1 Like

Admittedly, I only picked this because we “lost” an hour for daylight savings :wink:

1 Like