Do you give bands more than one chance?

[reneranucci]

When I don't like a band's most recent production, I usually stop caring about what they release afterwards, still cherishing their old material while remembering the times when I discovered them and thought they were the best band in the world. This has happened with Dredg (after Chuckles), Amorphis (Skyforger), Radiohead (In Rainbows), Dream Theater and Opeth (still too early but I can't see myself listening to any new albums by them), and it almost happened with Devin Townsend after Ki (it completely killed the momentum and I haven't had the urge to get the rest of DTP, but I will probably do someday so don't burn me). All those are bands I would put in my top-10 list, but they released what I considered a very bad album and killed my motivation to get any of their new material.

This doesn't happen when I'm exploring bands that are not releasing new material anymore, since I am free to explore all of Queen's of Pink Floyd's albums and just ignore the ones I don't like. But I imagine that if I was a Rush fan in the 80's I would have stopped purchasing their albums after Moving Pictures.

I acknowledge that I could be missing a lot, and I'm not saying that this is the right thing to do, just drawing a conclusion about my behavior. Maybe because I need time and money to explore other music, and I can't afford "being patient". Or maybe I'm just weird. What about the rest of the DTF community? Do you guys and girls keep listening to bands you like even when you don't dig their new material, hoping that some day they will "recover"?

[Nekov]

I do give second and even third chances. There are lots of bands that I disliked when I listened to them the first time but I kept coming back and now I enjoy a lot. I know how you feel regarding bands you love coming up with albums you don't like but at least in my case I've learned that in time things tend to change and musical tastes vary.

I still hate Octavarium though, no matter how many chances I give it.

[yorost]

Yeah, I give many bands/albums second chances.  Tastes change, it's little different than losing interest in bands I used to love.

I still hate Octavarium though, no matter how many chances I give it.

[ZKX-2099]

Depends what you call a chance...

If you're asking if I buy something released after a flop, most likely no... unless I'm able to hear most of it and like it.

Also... whats wrong with Ki?

[Zook]

Sometimes I do and sometimes my mind is made up pretty quickly whether I like a band or not.

[lordxizor]

If a band continually comes up among people here or others that I have some things musically in common with, I'll give them more than one shot. Especially with a new album.

[reneranucci]

Also... whats wrong with Ki?

I was expecting something completely different and much more aggresive.  After becoming a big DT fan and listening to Terria, Ziltoid, Synchestra and Addicted!, I expected the madness to continue, but Ki is very soft and calm, especially at the beginning, and it never kicked with me. I could barely pass the first song for some reason. Actually I haven't listened much to it and I don't remember how any of the songs go.

Also, I usally buy albums so I was refering more to actually buying them instead of doing a casual check out of what a band is doing.

[reneranucci]

If a band continually comes up among people here or others that I have some things musically in common with, I'll give them more than one shot. Especially with a new album.

That makes sense, I imagine it usally happens when many people and reviewers say that the band has recovered their old sound or something like that.

[Nekov]

Also... whats wrong with Ki?

I was expecting something completely different and much more aggresive.  After becoming a big DT fan and listening to Terria, Ziltoid, Synchestra and Addicted!, I expected the madness to continue, but Ki is very soft and calm, especially at the beginning, and it never kicked with me. I could barely pass the first song for some reason. Actually I haven't listened much to it and I don't remember how any of the songs go.

Also, I usally buy albums so I was refering more to actually buying them instead of doing a casual check out of what a band is doing.

So, if you want aggressive get Decon right away and give Devy the second chance he deserves 

[reneranucci]

Also... whats wrong with Ki?

I was expecting something completely different and much more aggresive.  After becoming a big DT fan and listening to Terria, Ziltoid, Synchestra and Addicted!, I expected the madness to continue, but Ki is very soft and calm, especially at the beginning, and it never kicked with me. I could barely pass the first song for some reason. Actually I haven't listened much to it and I don't remember how any of the songs go.

Also, I usally buy albums so I was refering more to actually buying them instead of doing a casual check out of what a band is doing.

So, if you want aggressive get Decon right away and give Devy the second chance he deserves 

I'll certainly do that 

[theseoafs]

All bands put out subpar albums. Why would I give up on a band that I really like after they put out one release I didn't care for? I would never have heard ADTOE if I did that with DT.

[Dr. DTVT]

Sometimes it takes me a while to initially get into a band, it took 2 years for me to appriciate Pain of Salvation and Between the Buried and Me.  I haven't given up on a band based on one album I didn't care for too much, but if I see a trend I'll stop.  Take Metalica, after Reload I gave up on them, and came back to them when I realized that Death Magnetic was something that interested me.  I wasn't real happy with the song writing on Heritage, but I'll still get the next Opeth album on release day.  If the next album doesn't find some magic I'll get skeptical, but one album is too soon to make that decision for me, particularly when a band has a history of albums I enjoy.

[Zook]

Oh whoops I done goofed. I'm still willing to give The Offspring another chance even after such a shitty last album. Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace was the first time they truly did wrong to my ears. If they make another album like that, I'm done for good...... And if I still don't get what the thread is about, shut up, I'm tired.

[KevShmev]

Of course, especially if they have a track record of greatness.  They have to suck for many albums and years for me to totally give up on them.  For more info on this, see Queensryche.

[ZKX-2099]

Also... whats wrong with Ki?

I was expecting something completely different and much more aggresive.  After becoming a big DT fan and listening to Terria, Ziltoid, Synchestra and Addicted!, I expected the madness to continue, but Ki is very soft and calm, especially at the beginning, and it never kicked with me. I could barely pass the first song for some reason. Actually I haven't listened much to it and I don't remember how any of the songs go.

I think it would be wise of you to give Ki another go. The madness is there... it's just slightly different. Gato, Heaven Send, Disruptr, very good stuff.

[Zantera]

Yeah, I tend to give bands more then one chance, sometimes even 3-4 chances.
It's quite dumb to not do it, personally I find it that my music taste and preferences change a lot with time, for instance there are album that I might not be "ready" for the first time I hear them, but then a few months later... bam.
A good example of the "didn't like at first, love now" would be the album Frames by Oceansize. The first time I heard it (a few years ago), it didn't grab my attention at all, and it felt kinda underwhelming to be honest. I gave it another shot 1 ½ year ago, and it clicked big time, and eventually became my favorite album.
Pain of Salvation is another example of a band that took me 3 "chances" and different time periods to appreciate, but I really love them now.

Giving up on something is just silly, I think some people have crazy expectations and zero patience. They listen to a new album 2-3 times, if it hasn't clicked by then, it's shit and they wont listen to it again.


As for the OP, didn't Ki come out before Addicted? 

[wkiml]

I implore the 3 strike rule..if after 3 listens or 3 different albums by a certain artists if it does click than I move on , happens alot more frequently than I'd like to admit  with some bands /artists here that are beloved by the board.

[Nekov]

I implore the 3 strike rule..if after 3 listens or 3 different albums by a certain artists if it does click than I move on , happens alot more frequently than I'd like to admit  with some bands /artists here that are beloved by the board.

After Addicted! I go with 4 listens before I make up my mind cause that's how long it took for me to realize what a masterpiece that album is.

[Jaq]

Meshuggah. First time I listened to them, when Chaosphere was getting hyped, I hated them. Second time, they clicked and I loved them.

If you mean "do I give second chances to bands I already liked?" Yes. Right now Opeth is, for the first time, on that list. I really didn't like Heritage, so their next album will be one that makes or breaks them for me. I kept giving Iced Earth a lot of chances after I was disappointed with Glorious Burden and it took until Dystopia for that to pay off.

And of course, Metallica's been getting second chances from me since Load. 

[MasterShakezula]

It depends.

I first heard Rush through MP, but wasn't really interested until I heard some of their 70s buttrock.

Other cases, I love the first couple albums I hear and totally lose interest afterwards.  (think power metal).

In AC/DC's case, I thought a huge load of their albums were top notch for months but completely lost interest.

[Zook]

Ok, I'm not a big fan of Rush, but their 70s output does not sound like it came out of Chad Kroeger's butt.

[EstyMaJ]

Yup , the most recent being Transatlantic , took me from when they first came out till last year several time but now love it and pretty much anything Neil Morse does !
Opeth took my a few but im still not big on the growls
There are a few others but those took me the longest.

Oh and on the flip side of this question , for some reason i remember buying Metallica Load cd , and listening to it once threw at work took it out of the cd player and whipped it against the wall , and never changed my mind on that , True story  !!

[Gadough]

If I didn't give Coheed and Cambria a second chance (turbine blade) they wouldn't have become one of my favorite bands. I hated them on first listen.

[reneranucci]

Thank you for the answers. Just to clarify, this is not about repeated listens to an album or trying to get into a new band for the first time. It is about a band you already love releasing an album you're not satisfied with, and becoming altogether indifferent to that band's future releases.

Giving up on something is just silly, I think some people have crazy expectations and zero patience. They listen to a new album 2-3 times, if it hasn't clicked by then, it's shit and they wont listen to it again.

As for the OP, didn't Ki come out before Addicted? 

The reasons you mentioned are the most likely causes of the scenario I pictured 

And I remember listening to Addicted! first, maybe I was mistaken thinking that it was released first. But maybe that contributes to the point I'm trying to make: Addicted! felt like a very natural continuation of DT's evolution, and more in the line of what I expected from him, while Ki was a dissappointment. Therefore, in my mind, Addicted! was released first

[reneranucci]

Another reason that I forgot to mention is that maybe I don't like bands making big changes. When a band clicks, I build my expectations about them, because I fell in love with a very definite sound, production, etc. If a band takes a significant departure from that, it's like listening to a different band which I have no reason to like, and therefore it feels natural to me not to follow that band anymore. I know it sounds silly, but it makes some sense to me. Opeth with neither growls nor head-crunching riffs, Rush with overwhelming synthetizers, Amorphis without melodic brutality, Radiohead doing something I can't even describe, Dream Theater without the in-your-face and enthusiastic* music every second... those are not the bands I like. 

*Thanks to emindead for giving me the word I was looking for.

[ZeppelinDT]

I very rarely consciously write off a band, but a lot of times if a band starts putting out stuff I don't like I tend to just sort of forget about them... unless I'm reminded again by an unusual amount of hype around a particular new album or something.

[theseoafs]

Another reason that I forgot to mention is that maybe I don't like bands making big changes. When a band clicks, I build my expectations about them, because I fell in love with a very definite sound, production, etc. If a band takes a significant departure from that, it's like listening to a different band which I have no reason to like, and therefore it feels natural to me not to follow that band anymore. I know it sounds silly, but it makes some sense to me. Opeth with neither growls nor head-crunching riffs, Rush with overwhelming synthetizers, Amorphis without melodic brutality, Radiohead doing something I can't even describe, Dream Theater without the in-your-face music every second... those are not the bands I like.

But the artists are still the same. They don't want to be stuck doing the same thing for their entire careers.

In most of these examples, there wasn't a huge personnel change. They just matured and thought different things sounded interesting. The music of Synth-era Rush is decidedly different than that of prog-era Rush, but Rush hasn't fundamentally changed, so there should still be something there for you to appreciate.

I bolded the DT example because I didn't understand it. DT has never been about in-your-face music. The only in-your-face DT album is TOT, and that's a recent one.

[Zantera]

Yeah I think it depends a lot on your "view" of music, and the band.
Personally I love change, and bands that change their sound (not to become popular) but in order to experiment, that's something I really appreciate. I'd rather have something new and fresh, then the same watered out sound with new songs. Opeth is an interesting experience here. While all their albums before Heritage are amazing in their own ways, I love it that Mikael wanted to do something new, instead of growls, acoustic guitars and the soft/heavy thing. Opeth has already done albums like Ghost Reveries, Blackwater Park and Still Life in that old "style". How do you top that? Instead of trying to do it, and fail, I'd rather see the band do something else. I'm not saying that Heritage was as awesome as it could have been, but at least something new.

I know a lot of people go under the "same old routine for 40 years", and that is fine. But it also changes their opinion about the topic.

[reneranucci]

To the Seoaf: I agree with you, and that's my point: they're the same band, but producing very different music, so they are like another new band I have to decide if I like or not.

Regarding DT, I don't know how to put it in words, but to me they were all about clicking inmediately, with no pauses or delays: a direct kick to the face. When I first listened to OTBOA, that factor was missing, there was not much enthusiasm. Everything felt so slow, and... tame? I don't know, too much under control. Sadly, I found the rest of the album (except for BITS) to have the same vibe,

[KevShmev]

Another reason that I forgot to mention is that maybe I don't like bands making big changes. When a band clicks, I build my expectations about them, because I fell in love with a very definite sound, production, etc. If a band takes a significant departure from that, it's like listening to a different band which I have no reason to like, and therefore it feels natural to me not to follow that band anymore. I know it sounds silly, but it makes some sense to me. Opeth with neither growls nor head-crunching riffs, Rush with overwhelming synthetizers, Amorphis without melodic brutality, Radiohead doing something I can't even describe, Dream Theater without the in-your-face and enthusiastic* music every second... those are not the bands I like. 
 

I think AC/DC is the perfect band for you.  Seriously.

[Phoenix87x]

Almost half of my current music collection consists of bands which I gave a 2nd chance. And even some that I gave a 3rd and 4th chance including:

1. Yes
2. Rush
3. Frank Zappa
4. Porcupine Tree
5. Pain of Salvation
6. King Crimson
7. Genesis
8. NIN

Upon first listen, I didn't think that I would really like any of these bands, but after 2 or 3 chances and multiple listenings, they have become some of my very favorites.

[theseoafs]

Another reason that I forgot to mention is that maybe I don't like bands making big changes. When a band clicks, I build my expectations about them, because I fell in love with a very definite sound, production, etc. If a band takes a significant departure from that, it's like listening to a different band which I have no reason to like, and therefore it feels natural to me not to follow that band anymore. I know it sounds silly, but it makes some sense to me. Opeth with neither growls nor head-crunching riffs, Rush with overwhelming synthetizers, Amorphis without melodic brutality, Radiohead doing something I can't even describe, Dream Theater without the in-your-face and enthusiastic* music every second... those are not the bands I like. 
 

I think AC/DC is the perfect band for you.  Seriously.

My point is that if a minute change in style turns you off, you don't really like the band, because the band is the same. At that point you're just a Moving Pictures fan or an Images and Words fan.

[reneranucci]

Another reason that I forgot to mention is that maybe I don't like bands making big changes. When a band clicks, I build my expectations about them, because I fell in love with a very definite sound, production, etc. If a band takes a significant departure from that, it's like listening to a different band which I have no reason to like, and therefore it feels natural to me not to follow that band anymore. I know it sounds silly, but it makes some sense to me. Opeth with neither growls nor head-crunching riffs, Rush with overwhelming synthetizers, Amorphis without melodic brutality, Radiohead doing something I can't even describe, Dream Theater without the in-your-face and enthusiastic* music every second... those are not the bands I like. 
 

I think AC/DC is the perfect band for you.  Seriously.

I don't know. I'm sure you'll want to come to El Salvador to hunt me down after reading this, but I'll say it anyway: Porcupine Tree is a perfect example of a band that makes my life easy by not taking major departures from their sound. When I listen to Signify, Stupid Dream and Fear of a Blank Planet, I know it is the same band, all the elements of excellence are there, the atmosphere is there, and I feel that the sound is familiar and I know what to expect. Maybe they're heavier now, and the drums are different, and some people say they are truly progressive and change a lot, but to me they're a safe haven of stability.

Yeah, I'm crazy.

[Nekov]

 

Wow. For me PT has changed significantly over the years. I think you need to get your ears checked 

[KevShmev]

I think you are crazy , because, while, yes, PT has been extremely consistent in regards to quality, they are all over the place with their sound and styles.  They are probably one of the most diverse bands you'll ever hear.