Now I like/love that X now i hate that !

The first times I heard Gentle Giants first album I didn't like it at all. After a few months I listened to it again, and now I think it's great, much better than Octopus (I liked Octopus from the start)

JesusBetancourt wrote: As a matter of fact I used to listen and love bands like Dream Theater and symphony X and hated Gentle Giant and Yes. One day I played a sample disc containing those bands and others and now I can not get enough of them. What is truley amazing is how I cant stand Dream Theater and Symphony x now and I actually sold all the prog metal albums I owned for KC, GG, Genises, ELP, and Yes (to name a few) albums. It is almost like my taste for prog has progressed. No offense to prog metal fans, this is just my own expieriance.

R U serious? OK, I like GG, JT, Camel, Genesis, ELP and Yes more than I like Dream Theater. But is it true that if you know prog metal and 70's prog, you always like 70's prog more? I don't know...

I've read somewhere that Relayer by Yes has some influences that were also used by Dream Theater. That could mean that if you are a Dream Theater fan and know nothing about 70's prog, you could start with Yes' Relayer to get into it.

And about Gentle Giant...when it gets to getting into them, this could be the order of getting into them if you have doubts about this band:

1. Gentle Giant/Acquiring the taste/Three friends

2. Octopus/In a glass house/Free hand/Interview

3. The power and the glory

If you can stand "The power and the glory" then you can stand all of Gentle Giant.

And finally a list of Gentle Giant songs of which I think might be difficult to get into:
1. So sincere
2. Proclamation
3. Valedictory
4. Knots
5. Experience

That's enough for today...

Edited by Odd24

It took me upwards of a dozen listens to get into VDGG's Pawn Hearts.  I was gonna like that album if it killed me.  And now I love it.

I was shocked when I first heard Porcupine Tree's In Absentia, but now I think it was the album of the year back in 2002.

My first couple listens to KC's Discipline brought up the following questions
Listen 1: Where's the mellotron?
Listen 2: Where's a good singer?
Listen 3: Where's a bad song?

Titan: there's a very simple explanation of what you're referring to, and most of the contributors have already explained that... The English speaking world has a simple phrase for the first situation:

Acquired taste...

forgive me for my smart ass attitude, but it's not long since I've learned about this expression, and I use it every now and then

Besides, everyone has already mentioned that this is the case with most prog works, and progarchives' definition pages also attribute this thing to certain subgenres: canterbury/RIO, Zeuhl, Krautrock etc...

It is not uncommon that this happens for mainstream prog albums, eitherexamples given already!

One thing I realise is the subject matter is revolving around same bands/albums (let's leave aside DT for a moment!), actually I went through the same phases more or less, but with a few exceptions:

1. I liked Relayer from the beginning on, with the exception of Soon, which I had heard long before in Yesyears... I usually skip that part when I'm listening from the computer... (on vinyl, I am more patient!!!). Also, I share the same point of view about To Be Over with Odd24... maybe it's another "acquired taste"?!?

2. I agree with lynton samuel about VdGG... It is symphonic prog's acquired taste...

3. Not to mention Gentle Giant, who are perfectly in line with their second album's title.
My personal view is to begin with Gentle Giant, but Three Friends is another good choice, as Odd24 suggested.

4. I will add Tangerine Dream to the list already formed by those who posted before me... I really hated them before hearing Cyclone. What a blast! After that, and Force Majeure, I began to check on one more time on other albums. Now I am (almost) a big fan...

As for the second issue: though trouserpress already admitted to have joked, I think he had a point. Some pompous acts (notably prog metal bands) lose their attractiveness as the listener grows old (both physically, and spirituallyin the prog sense)

My brother Jesus mentioned a typical experience... I feel the same, with the exception that I never had been a fan of prog-metal at all. I liked DT's a Change of Seasons when I first heard it, but did not have copy for many years, and when at last I finally had it (along with the other DT albums packed up in a mp3 disc!) it had already lost its charm for me! I also bought other prog-metal bands' mp3's, but all with an average approach... I neither hate them, nor die for them!

Unlike brother Jesus, I do not intend to get rid of any prog metal album, because of my mediocre approach to the genre... I even did not get rid of Metallica and Iron Maiden records! This is another story, I just can't give up something which I was closely associated in my childhood and teenage days! Jean Michel Jarre and Vangelis are earlier examples...

But I eventually developed a hatred towards '80's poppy material, regardless of any genre! I used to love Yes' '80's work, for instance, but now (though I still estimate 90125) I simply hate Big Generator!!! That would be the same if I ever listened to Genesis' '80's material before I went deep into (true) prog. Other good examples include Alan Paesons Project and The Moody Blues... Though I still respect, and to an extent like these bands' '70's material, I now can't stand silly pop works such as Vulture Culture and The Present! (yet, I still consider some individual tracks in these albums and the like "bearable")

(if anyone wonders why I called Jesus "brother", just bother to check our signatures)

Keep on proggin'

Edited by Bilek

lynton samuel wrote: i had a hard time getting into gentle giant and VdGG, but now they are among my alltime favourites!

I agree. I hated Still Life when I first bought it, but now I'm older and wiser (?) I can really appreciate it. This is the essence of most prog music, it's often takes repeated listening to get into. IMO that makes it last longer, some songs are easy to like on the first listening, then you get bored with them later on.

Trouserpress wrote: Blacksword wrote: Titan wrote: Blacksword wrote: Sometimes the best albums take a while to sink in. I actually hated Relayer by Yes at first. I thought it was a pointless record, a cacophony. Now I think it's great - not their best - but great nonetheless. Octopus by Gentle Giant, as already mentioned here, is a very intricate and well crafted album. When I first heard I thought it was awful, and conjured up images of Morris dancers, and men in tights, blowing horns ... As a contrast Images & Words by Dream Theater was an instant hit with me. I thought it was excellent. Now I cant be bothered with it at all. Welcome to the club Relayer, we have 4 members already :) Octopus has been mentioned 2 or even 3x tho   Octopus is an excellent example though, of a slow grower. I thought it deserved another mention.. Am I really the only person to love Octopus instantly?

I confess I haven't yet given GG a fair shot yet apart from the mp3's on this site, but out of those, the one from Octopus is for me the least enjoyable for the first few listens (sorry mr. press...).  However, it definitely does sound to me like if I had the whole album and gave it a few more tries I would love it for eternity. 

Let´s don´t turn it in another dt poll shall we?

I used to hate Vapor Trails but after some listenings as a background music I came to love it. Very inteligent album.

Edited by Cygnus

Progzilla wrote: Manunkind wrote: Progzilla wrote: Manunkind wrote: Progzilla wrote: Awake by dream theater is probably the album I've had to listen to the most in order for it to be really great. I hated it when it came out, I had so high expectations, and it sounded pretty dull. Then it gradually got better, but very slowly. It wasn't until I knew ALL the tracks in my head that the album opened, and the harvest was ready to reap. And I thought I was the only one who had felt this way about "Awake"... I was extremely enthusiastic after listening to "Images and Words" and wanted to get more of the same thing. "Awake" proved so very different and completely inaccessible at first that I wanted to throw it out of the window. Luckily I gave it another listen, and another... and voila, I love it as much as I do "I&W".  Funnily enough, the same thing happened to me with "Falling into Infinity", only that in this case I thought at first listen that it sounded too accessible and banal. Fortunately repeated listens proved that I had been wrong again, it is a very good album.    I had the same thing about FII, although it was more like I admitted to myself several years afterwards that I do infact like it. What about the following DT albums? With ToT for example, I first thought it might be a good album, because it sounded ok at first listen. But after lots of listens, it just got worse! The same thing with 6doit first cd (6doit track on cd 2 is really good though). Let's see what happens with octavarium... Well, "SfaM", for example, despite all the hype, has IMO always been an album that deserves 2.5, 3 stars at best, no change here. I really liked "ACoS" from the very first listen and it only gets better with each listen, a truly inspiring piece of music.  I seem to be one of the very few people here who absolutely love both sides of "6DoIT" and "ToT". I really can't see any change occuring here, either. "Octavarium" has so far been a disappointment for me, I do need some more time with it, but I'm fairly certain it's going to wind up as my least fav DT album. I haven't heard "When Day and Dream Unite". Interesting! I don't think SFAM is nearly as good as everybody seems to think (it might be that nowadays it is the DT album that most DT fans have heard first!)  ACOS was great from the beginning, agree with you there. If you can stand poor production and a hilarious singer, WDADU is a real gem. But it needs ALOT of listens.

From the bits and pieces of "WDaDU" I managed to hear it does seem to be a gem. And the term 'poor production' is almost meaningless to me.

Progzilla wrote: Manunkind wrote: Progzilla wrote: Awake by dream theater is probably the album I've had to listen to the most in order for it to be really great. I hated it when it came out, I had so high expectations, and it sounded pretty dull. Then it gradually got better, but very slowly. It wasn't until I knew ALL the tracks in my head that the album opened, and the harvest was ready to reap. And I thought I was the only one who had felt this way about "Awake"... I was extremely enthusiastic after listening to "Images and Words" and wanted to get more of the same thing. "Awake" proved so very different and completely inaccessible at first that I wanted to throw it out of the window. Luckily I gave it another listen, and another... and voila, I love it as much as I do "I&W".  Funnily enough, the same thing happened to me with "Falling into Infinity", only that in this case I thought at first listen that it sounded too accessible and banal. Fortunately repeated listens proved that I had been wrong again, it is a very good album.    I had the same thing about FII, although it was more like I admitted to myself several years afterwards that I do infact like it. What about the following DT albums? With ToT for example, I first thought it might be a good album, because it sounded ok at first listen. But after lots of listens, it just got worse! The same thing with 6doit first cd (6doit track on cd 2 is really good though). Let's see what happens with octavarium...

Well, "SfaM", for example, despite all the hype, has IMO always been an album that deserves 2.5, 3 stars at best, no change here.

I really liked "ACoS" from the very first listen and it only gets better with each listen, a truly inspiring piece of music. 

I seem to be one of the very few people here who absolutely love both sides of "6DoIT" and "ToT". I really can't see any change occuring here, either.

"Octavarium" has so far been a disappointment for me, I do need some more time with it, but I'm fairly certain it's going to wind up as my least fav DT album.

I haven't heard "When Day and Dream Unite".

  

Manunkind wrote: Progzilla wrote: Awake by dream theater is probably the album I've had to listen to the most in order for it to be really great. I hated it when it came out, I had so high expectations, and it sounded pretty dull. Then it gradually got better, but very slowly. It wasn't until I knew ALL the tracks in my head that the album opened, and the harvest was ready to reap. And I thought I was the only one who had felt this way about "Awake"... I was extremely enthusiastic after listening to "Images and Words" and wanted to get more of the same thing. "Awake" proved so very different and completely inaccessible at first that I wanted to throw it out of the window. Luckily I gave it another listen, and another... and voila, I love it as much as I do "I&W".  Funnily enough, the same thing happened to me with "Falling into Infinity", only that in this case I thought at first listen that it sounded too accessible and banal. Fortunately repeated listens proved that I had been wrong again, it is a very good album.

I had the same thing about FII, although it was more like I admitted to myself several years afterwards that I do infact like it.

What about the following DT albums? With ToT for example, I first thought it might be a good album, because it sounded ok at first listen. But after lots of listens, it just got worse! The same thing with 6doit first cd (6doit track on cd 2 is really good though). Let's see what happens with octavarium...