Help! Scared of trying new music

[Tin Bird]

Interesting thread for sure...I've been a music nut for so long at this point I can't remember...while I certainly have gone through phases where my interest has waxed and waned...I continue to be intrigued and impressed by at least a small sector of new artists and bands out there. I, like many of you, have my standard faves that I always have close by Sylvian, Talk Talk, Depeche, Beatles (since I was 5 years old!) and have gone on to college degrees, a career, a family and kids ...etc. For me, though, I still find great joy in "discovering" a new artist/band that blows me away. The only thing I can compare the high of a new album that really enraptures me to, is the start of a new, loving relationship...the skys open up, the sun shines, birds sing, and all is good w the world for a time. Just sort of rewinding the past couple of years in my head and trying to think of a few of those moments (forgive me as I've already listed a few faves elsewhere) Sufjan Stevens - Illinois, Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights, British Sea Power - Open Season, The National - Alligator, Foals - Antidotes, Portishead - Three, Thomas Feiner and Anywhen - The Opiates, Editors - An End Has a Start, Hood - Cold House, Roddy Frame - Surf, The Decemberists - Castaways and Cutouts, Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism, The Postal Service - Give Up, Polyrock - Changing Hearts, I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - Fear is on Our Side, Bed - The Newton Plum, Burial - Untrue, Sea Wolf - Leaves in the River, Shearwater - Palo Santo...the list could go on....most of these albums were released in the past 5 years or so and are newish bands. For me the search is part of the fun and I'm still very much enjoying it. There is a lot of junk out there...always has been...and, I recognize that many of these artists are 10, 20 years younger than I am...nevertheless, on these albums listed here (and quite a few others I didn't list) the universal connection of love, loss, pain, sadness, happiness, peace, introspection, questioning, anger, frustration, and longing come through and I feel blessed to have been there to hear it.

[tallulahtaurus]

Almost every band I passionately love and listen to began in the Eighties or before.

My overpowering problem with liking new bands is that I can only be passionately devoted to something substantial so if a band has only released one album then I find it really hard to be so enthusiastic about them.

Cos I mean I don't like the experience of investing in something to potentially be disappointed by their next album...

That said the modern (still operational) bands that I have picked up are Maximo Park, Bat for Lashes, the Klaxons, CSS and overwhelmingly obsessively the Queens of the Stoneage.

I really don't know how I picked up a love of these bands given that I don't buy music magazines, read papers or watch TV I think the Internet is a very good place to pick new things up.

Go to lastfm as there are a lot of full tracks on there. Then again don't feel bad for not liking anything trendy I would sooner light myself alight than listen to the Artic Monkeys alive, usually those bands that are beloved of the music media create the poorest music - I mean not always but sometimes....

[heartofdavid]

Cos I mean I don't like the experience of investing in something to potentially be disappointed by their next album...

That can happen with a long time favorite too, and I think in that case the disappointment might be worse. Happened to me with the last Porcupine Tree album. I've been following this band for about 12 years, loved everything they've done except for Fear of a Blank Planet. The songs are good, the playing is good, but I found it...predictable - what I would have expected, and one of the things I'd always liked best about them is that each album was fresh and exciting (imo) - offered something new. To me, FOABP didn't. I'll still checkout any new music they make, but now I feel a little hesitant about pre-ordering - don't think I'll do that anymore - I'll listen before buying.

[tallulahtaurus]

You're right that it can cut worse though because there is even more investment. I really hope that never happens to me with Queens of the Stoneage.....*prays silently*

Overally I liked FOABP but then I haven't listened to much previous to it, so I can't gauge it's repitition. See Porcupine Tree are of such interest to me, I like everything I've heard through YouTube/Lastfm but I haven't investigated them yet as their CD's are hard to get hold of.

One day they will come down in price....one day...

Thinking about it I tend to be massively devoted to bands that have already split/musicians that don't really release much nowadays, like the Smiths/the Police (I know they are reunited but so far no new music) and Kate Bush and Sylvian and such like.

Lol stuck in a rut

[Melaszka]

Thinking about it I tend to be massively devoted to bands that have already split/musicians that don't really release much nowadays, like the Smiths/the Police (I know they are reunited but so far no new music) and Kate Bush and Sylvian and such like.

You've got great taste

Posted by heartofdavid
That can happen with a long time favorite too, and I think in that case the disappointment might be worse. Happened to me with the last Porcupine Tree album. I've been following this band for about 12 years, loved everything they've done except for Fear of a Blank Planet. The songs are good, the playing is good, but I found it...predictable - what I would have expected, and one of the things I'd always liked best about them is that each album was fresh and exciting (imo) - offered something new. To me, FOABP didn't. I'll still checkout any new music they make, but now I feel a little hesitant about pre-ordering - don't think I'll do that anymore - I'll listen before buying.

Interesting. FOABP is the only thing of theirs I've heard to date, but what you've said makes me even more keen to check out their earlier stuff.

I'm slightly worried that I'm inclined to do the opposite - make myself like anything my favourite artists do and completely switch off my critical taste where they're concerned.

This can be a good thing - e.g. I don't think I would have persisted with Blemish if it had been by almost anyone else, but I'm so glad I did, as it really paid dividends after repeated listenings.

And I don't always leave my critical faculties in the cloakroom where my favoruite artists are concerned - e.g. I still think Michael Gray's "The Weekend" is one of the most execrable pieces of drivel ever inflicted on the music-listening public, even though it was written by one of Furniture.

But I sometimes worry that you could play me a recording of a fart and, as long as you told me it was by David Sylvian or Tim Whelan, I'd start thinking it was a really daring, ground-breaking experiment in sound. After a while I'd probably start detecting technical skill in the farting and I'd certainly start contemplating what they were trying to "say" through this piece of avant-garde "music".

[anortherncod]

I'm surprised that some people feel FOABP was a letdown - but that's just my opinion I suppose...

Tallulah, I'm surprised you find PT stuff hard to get hold of - or did you mean that the prices were prohibitive?

Natasha

[tallulahtaurus]

Tallulah, I'm surprised you find PT stuff hard to get hold of - or did you mean that the prices were prohibitive?

Natasha

Yeah I just meant that I couldn't afford any of it, I want it so bad it hurts. May have to just stop eating so much or stop paying my bills to get them - as if they are actually solutions to the problem...

LOL FAIL

[godisinthesilences]

hhmm i just checked the prices on amazon... seemed pretty cheap to me. However there are a lot of cds so i can see if you were trying to buy the entire collection at one time it would be wildly expensive.

I'm intrigued by the deadwing cover image....

[tallulahtaurus]

Woo yeah prices seem to be less on Amazon than when I checked last, thats pretty sweet. Although I don't know how that happened. Last time I looked the cheapest I could get Lightbulb Sun on there for was 11 quid and it wasn't that long ago.

I will work towards getting them all, slowly but surely.

[inkinthewell]

I'm slightly worried that I'm inclined to make myself like anything my favourite artists do and completely switch off my critical taste where they're concerned.

Same here. But that's only natural. I mean: I don't think anybody here has had many opportunities of being forced to love David Sylvian's music, or Japan's, or Mick Karn's, or Steve Jansen's, or Richard Barbieri's, or Porcupine Tree's, (have I forgotten anyone?). If we love their music, it's not because all the media talk about them for any fizzy fuzzy reason; we love their music because it appeals to us in a way I can't describe nor explain. For me it's like it was part of me before I ever even listened to it. When I heard David Sylvian for the first time (1985), I said: "Hang on a minute! That's it! That's what I want to listen to. Give me it!!!"
So, my verdict is that nothing will ruin your relationship with your favourite artists.
...Unless they trod on your corns!

As to discovering new artists/music I would end up adoring, my experience is very weird. It's like they came knocking at my door. One example for all: the internet was centuries away; although I loved David Sylvian's music I didn't know anything about him; plus, I have the nasty habit of not reading the booklets in the CDs I buy... The thing is, I was in a record shop, and my attention got caught by this CD with the picture of a weeping/pondering statue on it: Stone To Flesh - Jansen & Barbieri. It was cheap, I got it, it blew me away. (Btw, when I went back to the shop to get whatever else they had by these two never-heard-of-guys, I found Rain Tree Crow. The rest is history.)