Only a numbskull thinks he knows things about things he knows nothing about.

26 July 2006

surprise, sometimes, will come around

So there's Bad Apple Syndrome, where a bad album (INXS' X, for example) will sour you on an artist's entire catalog. That's well-documented (although, luckily, I've recently come back around to earlier INXS albums with much elation).

But what do you call it when you don't like a particular artist in the first place, only to be turned on to their work after subsequent releases by other bands?

I didn't think much of Interpol when I first heard their debut record. It sounded forced and pretentious and really did nothing for me. But for a while now, my A-rotation has been filled with Editors, I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, Elefant, Black Tie Dynasty, etc., along with the progenitors of all of the above (Echo/Bunnymen, Joy Division, Bauhaus, New Order, Furs, etc.). And in the context of all of that, I gave the Interpol record another chance last night, and I love it. It still sounds a little forced and a little pretentious, but it also sounds like a damn good record that got me jumping around late last night in my room with the curtains drawn.

It's not just a regular late pass that I need, but I don't know what to call it.

Oh-Now-I-Get-It Syndrome?
Well-When-You-Put-It-That-Way Perspective?
Now-That-I-See-It-In-Context Condition?

There must be a good way to talk about this.

1 Comments:

Blogger Reid said...

Maybe you can use each of those for different situations. For instance, I never understood the appeal of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds until I started listening to Stereolab and the High Llamas, so that would be Oh-Now-I-Get-It Syndrome. But what you have with Interpol is Well-When-You-Put-It-That-Way perspective.

Sometimes, it's Like-Putting-On-My-Glasses syndrome.

26 July 2006 at 21:11:00 GMT-4

 

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