CDs you don't listen to in a long time then listen to . . .

In My Humble Opinion
1

. . . and you forgot how good they were.

Every day, I bring a bunch of CDs to work with me to listen to while I work. Everyone has CDs on their rack that they just haven’t listened to in years, or they forgot they even had them, etc., then they pop them in and remember what a great purchase they were.

Today I brought along, among others, three CDs that I haven’t listened to in probably two years:

The Go-Betweens, “1978-1990.” One of the great unsung bands, and it’s a shame, because they were unbelievably talented. Every once in a while, I get a snatch of one of their radio hits caught in my head, but the rest of their stuff is just as good.

Superchunk, “On the Mouth.” This album rocks, from beginning to end. I literally cannot think of a weak song on it. “Precision Auto,” “Package Thief,” “Mower,” “New Low” . . . damn, what a great band.

R.E.M., “Life’s Rich Pageant.” I stopped listening to a lot of my R.E.M. albums a while ago. There are a lot of really, really good songs on here. It’s my impression among R.E.M. fans that this is one of the less-listened-to, but “I Believe,” “These Days,” “Begin the Begin,” “Flowers of Guatemala,” and “Fall on Me” are among the best of their work.

Anyone else had an experience like this lately?

2

You will be happy to know, Phil, that I brought the first Posies disc out recently for the first time in a long time. Damn that’s a strong record…

Yer pal,
Satan

[sub]I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Four months, 13 hours, 45 minutes and 57 seconds.
4902 cigarettes not smoked, saving $612.86.
Life saved: 2 weeks, 3 days, 30 minutes.[/sub]

"Satan is not an unattractive person."-Drain Bead
[sub]Thanks for the ringing endorsement, honey!*[/sub]

3

In this weeks sack of ye olde chestnuts I have:

“Screamadelica” - Primal Scream.

“Dusk” - The The

“Tigerlily” - Natalie Merchant

I love going through the rack and finding something that brings up half forgotten memories.

4

I recently dusted off Synchronicity by the Police, what a great listening CD that is. Also Robert Plant - Now & Zen makes it into rotation every 6-9 months because I forget how much I like it.

5

I whip out the entire “Thick as a Brick” about once a year and love it every time.

6

This thread came just at the right time for me - I’ve just moved house, which means I’ve been re-sorting my CDs, and listening to a bunch that haven’t done the rounds for a while, including:

Fates Warning - Awaken the Guardian: Still one of the strangest records I’ve ever heard - it’s the record not even Fates Warning fans know exists.

John Cale - Words for the Dying: Beautiful orchestral pieces played by a Russian orchestra, combined with the poetry of Dylan Thomas. I just put this on a couple of hours ago and drifted away for the full 50 minutes.

Kraftwerk - Autobahn: I have great memories of this record, but I went through a stage of thinking it was too elevator-musique for my current tastes. I was way off. Hypnotic and full of what the band called “Cold Feeling”.

Suicide - S/T: Scary music - the first electro-punk group; hell, maybe the first EVER punk group.

Lou Reed - Take No Prisoners: Everyone writes this off as a comedy record, and Lou is hysterical as he puts down the journalists in the audience, and hangs s**t on the characters who inpired his songs, but it also features one of his best bands, including great female backup singers.

HenrySpencer

7

Satan - Ah, the Posies. Failure is a great record. All of theirs are great records.

Here are a few I’ve dusted off recently:

Pixies - Doolittle
and
Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville

8

HenrySpencer - I haven’t listened to Take No Prisoners in years. I put it on as soon as I saw your post. I love that version of “Street Hassle”.

The Bends by Radiohead and Gentlemen by the Afghan Whigs have recently returned to my rotation.

9

I don’t even know Awaken the Guardian. Well, I’ve heard of it :wink:

There’s so many CD’s I rarely play that surprise me every time. Let’s list some.

  • Dire Straits - Love over Gold
    Played this in the car last weekend, after not hearing it for about a year. Hot damn, this seriously should be in my album top 10. Tell you what, it IS.

  • It Bites - Eat me in St. Louis
    Free beer for any other fans of this great band. They’ve split up, but Francis Dunnery, the singer, still makes awesome solo stuff. But this It Bites CD plain rocks, and I should play it more often.

  • Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
    Jesus, this is one classic album. Popped it in on a rainy sunday afternoon a few weeks ago. Listened in amazement at the brilliant compositions.

Also, Rush’s Moving Pictures amazes me every single time I play it. The best album ever made. But then, it doesn’t count, because I play it at least every two weeks.

10

Frente’s first album, just a couple of weeks ago. I like it a lot more now than I did when I bought it 7 years ago…

11

Weezer/Weezer. I went to their website with all the lyrics, and now that I understand them I like it even better.
I think I’m going to get out Radiohead & The Pixies again too, and The The (I think I’ll go for Mind Bomb,though.) Thanks for reminding me.

12

The Cult - Sonic Temple

Mother Love Bone / Temple of the Dog

13

Infected by The The, Blue Lines by Massive Attack.

Nice to see Australian bands cropping up: to the Go-Betweens I’ll add The Church’s Of Skins and Heart. (The idea that anyone should be nostalgic for Frente I find quite disturbing.)

I’d say The Police’s Synchonicity too, but I’ve listened to it at least once a week since it came out.

picmr

14

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon.
I had forgotten that I owned a cd copy of this and bought another, all the time thinking “I can’t believe I never bought this on cd.”

15

October Rust - Type-O-Negative
Add it Up - Violent Femmes
Skylarking - XTC
Electric - The Cult
Angel Dust - Faith No More

 All 5 of these CD's, have just in the past month, made it back into the disc player after too long (at least 2 years) of a hiatus at the back of the shelf. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I could forget about such great CD's as these and MOST of the one's named in this thread.
16

Well right now im listening to an opera called Le Grande
Macabre by György Ligeti. If anyone cares it is the
English version recorded in 1998.

17

Time - ELO
Woodface - Crowded House
Dead or Alive - DAAS
A Kind Of Magic - Queen

18

One CD that I haven’t picked up in a long time that I played tonight was Boys for Pele by Tori Amos. It got stashed at the bottom of the pile because it was the CD I played the most during my divorce (lots of angry female breakup songs), so it has a tendency of bringing a little sadness. No matter what, it’s still a fantastic album.

19

I’ll listen to OK Computer by Radiohead nonstop for weeks, then kinda forget about it. Of course, I end up recommending it to someone a month later and remembering how much I love it.

20

I recently pulled out my cassette of Next Position Please - Cheap Trick. (I have a cassette player in my car.) My kids ask for Cheech the Schoolbus Driver or Trout Fishing In America, but I say not until you learn all of the words to You Say Jump. I’m just kidding, but I did really pull it out recently and I had forgotten how much I used to enjoy listening to it. That Robin Zander can sing I tell you! :wink: