Is a record you love on first listen necessarily more shallow and of lesser quality than a record you have to warm up with, you have to force yourself to listen to in the beginning to appreciate?

I am not sure about the answer. There is a tendency in me which dismisses music which is easy to like like chart music as artistically inferior to music which is harder to get into. At the same time I am almost 100% sure that music which I instantly like is music which I will also instantly (after few listens) dislike. Easy getting in means also easy getting out.

Music which takes its time to sink in seems to me music which also settles in more permanently. The relation is deeper than to superficial chart pop. The investment of listening to music which wasn't amazing in the beginning pays off later. Falling in love slowly means falling in love more intensely. Or is this theory too simple to be true?

For me usually getting to like music is a slow process of discovery. By listening I try to predict if I will like music I am not sure of yet in the future. It is a little like on the stock market where you try to forecast the evolution of the future price of the stock you buy. Often it works but sometimes it doesn't at all.

Let's take Giant Sand which is one of my favourite bands right now. It was pretty difficult to fall in love with their music. I bought Center of the Universe in 1992, listened to it and thought that it was ok but nothing special. Another band trying to sound like Velvet Underground without succeeding really. I didn't hate the record but I didn't find it extraordinary. At the time I was very much into My Bloody Valentine which immediately drew me in and which I still like but not as much as in 1992. Somewhere around 2000 I got Chore of Enchantment and I was enchanted (I couldn't resist) almost immediately. Howe Gelb sounded like Lou Reed, the music was close to the third VU album but even more relaxed, more American, more wide. And I relistened to Center and was totally hooked. It was like a hard rock Neil Young album with lots of psychedelics. Gorgeous. It had taken me eight years to get it but now it was mine.

I ordered the new Howe Gelb album The Listener last week-end and I liked the piano-dominated samples I heard immediately. Is this a bad sign or does it just mean that my knowledge of the music I like just gets better and better?

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