Appreciating prog / music .. how?

What i sometimes wonder is how you learn to appreciate an album?

It's quiet obvious now that everybody has different tastes... but how exactly do you come to liking something? Is it because it's being highly recommended that you automaticly will like it more yourself? I think that's just a small factor ...

I think first of all i need to listen a few times to an Album to even be able to judge it. Since i don't listen to this prog stuff for a long time already i can still remember how I bought close to the edge. It was because it came so highly recommended, but when i listened it to the first time i thought what the hell ... present yet,  it's like my favorite album.

I now still get this feeling with many albums, some i come to like after a few runs, others ... well, i just put them away fast! Now those albums I put down fast don't always get bad reviews here,... for example, i once listened to this album from faust, called faust. Even though it gets good reviews, i think .. what the hell is this? I gave it like 2 more tries later (not getting to the 3th track to be honest), but still it doesn't get to me... Some people even claim the Faust album to be the best EVER... do they mean because it really gets them emotional, or just because it's artistically excellent and has a great composition ...?

Does this all mean i should listen to it some more? Or what's the deal?

And additional, for the people who review CD's, ... after how many listenings do you review a record? 3, 4 .. or is it more like 30, 50, 1000 times?

greetings

When I buy a new album I use to listen to it three consecutive times. It's amazing how much your mind can change between the first and the third time. Then I usually let some days pass and after that I listen to it the fourth time: that time usually represents for me my definitive opinion about the album. So I never would make a review before that fourth listening.

I think that to genuinely like an album or to genuinely dislike it you need to give it some time. But you also have to take care not to fall into the Acquired-taste-trap, because it is an unevitable fact that the more you listen to an album the more your ears get used to it, and the more you catch its different pieces, and eventually you will find yourself anticipating the next chord, melody, solo, or vocal line. If this happens, your mind will automatically register this album as "good", just for the simple fact that it knows it well, and therefore feels comfortable with it.

In other words, to best "judge" an album, you need to (actively) listen to it between 3 and 5 times. Then you can rate it using the star-system. But to "review" it, you will need to listen to it another 3 or 5 times (without changing the rating previously given).

Also... to get over the Acquired-taste-trap, I usually distance myelf from the album in question for a couple of months, maybe even a year or more, depending on how strongly I feel I have fallen in the trap. Of course this doesn't work for albums that are connected with a specific personal experience or memory, but other than this you will often find yourself changing your mind about the abum after this "probation period".