What album(s)/artist(s) did you not embrace until years after their release?

Willie Nelson

The Killers and Modest Mouse.

I thought they were shitty and a passing phase when they first became popular, but they’ve had an enduring sort of popularity and talent that has made me enjoy them.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra recordings of, Beethoven’s nine symphonies. I wasn’t even born when they started recording them.

Elton John.

T. Rex, never liked their songs for the longest time as my dad played them constantly. Recently, I’ve found 20th Century Boy to be quite catchy.

Johnny Cash- Got hooked when I heard him cover “Hurt”.

I got seriously into Johnny Cash (and June Carter) about three or four years ago, on seeing the biographical movie “Walk the Line”.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard . . . Hot Fuss kinda took hold of me out of nowhere. The first time I heard The Killers I thought they were an 80’s tribute band.

for the record, i’ve always loved Modest Mouse and always will.

Elvis.
My father (or my mother? have to ask them who bought it) had some records of him and when I was young and played them they were already a decade or more before published.
Now I love it! much more than I did in those early years

Although I’ve been into punk/hardcore punk since I was 13, it took me more than 20 years to give the Ramones an honest listen. Totally love them now.

Grateful Dead…..took me 20 years to even sit through a whole song as I usually had to go to work before the song ever ended!

I never paid attention to R.E.M. until a couple of years ago.

Another late Johnny Cash fan here. When I first heard his song about zombie cows last January, I was like, I must hear more. And I was not disappointed.
He has a way with words, and always has such catchy music with good moods to them. And this is totally isn’t even my kind of music, nor are the subject matters he often sings about, especially in the later years. But he rocks.

I read somewhere that he didn’t actually write the Ghost Riders song though. :/ But eh wtv lol.

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros. I wish I listened to them back when so I could have seen Strummer live.

Led Zeppelin 1. It wasn’t until years later that I realized the sheer brilliance of the album.

Frank Sinatra

Slayer, Metallica, and Roy Ayers.

@Blackberry Yay for Metallica! :D

Wu-tang killah bees, we on a swarm!
Check out GZA’s Liquid Swords. Holy fuck. And ODB’s Return to the 36 Chambers.

Four Way Street by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young; about 40 years after its release.

@Brian1946 Well worth the wait!

The Doors in 1991.

I am sure it had something to do with the movie and my being a teenager at the time. I fell so in love with The Doors that I wrote most of my English papers about their music, drew pictures of them in art class, and devoured everything I could get my hands on about Jim Morrison, including his incongruous yet amazing poetry.

Jim Morrison died 3 years before I was even born.

First off, let me say that I have pretty consistant tastes in music. The stuff I loved when I was 20 still sounds great to me, and the stuff I didn’t like then, I don’t like now.
Here is the exception:
I have always felt that Karen Carpenter was a passible singer with an unemotional voice. Every friggin’ song sounds the same. I like the song Superstar, because the tone of her voice is right for it, but most of the other songs the Carpenters did bore me.
I still feel this way.
In the last 10 years, I have turned around on their Christmas album. It has become a welcome addition to my collection of Christmas music, and I do look forward to hearing it again this year.

Most of Motown I didn’t like when it first came out but now love – Smokey Robinson, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye….

@janbb . . . In the same vein I am probably one of the last people embracing James Brown. It just never clicked until recently.

@Blondesjon , Im glad you’ve entered the WU TANG!

clan in the front, let your feet stomp. haha. epic.
If you want to go one back further check out grave diggaz, theyve got
quite a few wu tang members in there including ODB

When i was in highschool I discovered Nas’ -illmatic album. holy shit. gold….
also, Neutral Milk Hotel and Jeff Mangum in general…

BTW @Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard , I am slightly overly in love with modest mouse.

@boxer3 . . . I keep meaning to get some Neutral Milk Hotel. Gotta a suggestion for a starter album?

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
I AAAAAM LISTENING TO HEAR WHERE YOU AAAAARRREEEE

@Blondesjon, Yes! start with In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. It’s a really heartwrenching album- but it’s beautiful. It has alot to do with Anne Frank- If you read or re-read her diary, you’ll catch a lot of the refrences outside of the obvious ones. for example there’s a track Holland 1945….great stuff :]

annddd, since I just read you also love modest mouse, if you haven checked out wolf parade you should. Isaac produced a couple of their albums. I’d reccomend starting with Apologies to the Queen Mary

@Michael_Huntington you beat me to the punch. but. yesss. so good. and Jeff Mangum’s solo album of him playing live. gets me every time.

The Carpenters.

Although they were a big act in the 1970s, it wasn’t until I was in university, in the 1990s, that I came to love them, and by chance too. I was going through some of my older brother’s junk when I found an old cassette of The Carpenters. I played it, and immediately fell in love with Karen’s voice. I don’t think my university buddies knew who The Carpenters were! Erg.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwxsWIYJI2A

Earth Wind and Fire. Lotta flava in there.

Dave Mathews band. Its a really unique sound, to me anyway.

All of John Lennon. I’m 23 so to hear someone talk about love and world peace is rare now a days. Also, Ricky Nelson is really awesome. I’m literally downloading all these bands from the past because, well to be frank, although I really love music, I don’t feel like synthesizers make for timeless sounds. Well they do, but I feel like I feel it more when a human is strumming.

Tool. I now bum them… so hard.

I was (and still am) obsessed with the Pixies’ “Surfer Rosa”. When “Doolittle” was finally released, I nearly cried I was so disappointed. It was years before I could appreciate “Doolittle” for what it was. Although I still feel it is by far one of the most poorly produced albums of all time.

I was a later-comer to Modest Mouse (discovered them with “Good News..”), having completely missed their great years of 1996 to 2000. “This is a Long Drive..”, “Lonesome Crowded West”, and “The Moon & Antartica” are a few of my favorite albums of all time.

Sneaker Pimps