This seems to be the story of my music-listening life: catching up with albums years after they are released, and only eventually having them resonate with me . Sure, there are a few records that have immediately grabbed me and then stayed at the top of my favorites list for years. But often it takes time for the music or the particular sound to grow on me. For instance:

Coldplay

My brother Ryan was first trying to get me to listen to Coldplay’s A Rush Of Blood to the Head within the first year after it was released. He’s always been the Brit Rock guy, after all, and I’ve been the slow-to-adopt older brother. I remember giving it a first listen and thinking that I wasn’t fond of it at all. A couple of years later, though, they started to make sense. And without diving into the argument of whether Coldplay’s older stuff is better or the newer stuff is better, let me just sum up their popularity in my household now by saying that whenever Laura requests a song while we’re driving, it’s “Shiver” (from Parachutes), but that if Addie requests a song, it’s “Strawberry Swing” (from Viva la Vida). I guess we’ve covered the full spectrum.

Radiohead

I never did get Radiohead. I remember downloading In Rainbows when the band first offered it for free, listening to it once, and not getting it at all. Then one day a couple of years ago I turned it back on, and BAM!, it made sense. Now I’ve gone back and gained appreciation for Kid A, The Bends, and OK Computer, too. (I’m working on Hail to the Thief… maybe someday I’ll figure it out.)

Jazz

Sure, that’s a big topic. Didn’t listen to a lot of jazz growing up, but in high school somebody gave me a copy of Harry Connick Jr.’s When Harry Met Sally soundtrack. (That was one of those albums that immediately grabbed me and never let go.) So sure, I liked Harry’s big band. But more modern jazz still left me cold. Then one day I picked up Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. (Come to think of it, I think Ryan pointed me to that one, too.) Classic jazz album. Had me hooked.

Then one day somebody mentioned that if I liked Harry Connick, I might like Thelonious Monk. I’d never heard any Monk before, but listening to some album previews… the guy was amazing! And yeah, it was obvious that Harry had picked up some things from him. And Monk led to Coltrane. Coltrane led to Charlie Parker. I think I’ve sort of hit my limit with Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come. I sort of get it, but it doesn’t grab me or leave me wanting more. Maybe someday it’ll click, too, and I’ll move on to the more modern jazz.

Let us now return to where we started this post:

Stravinsky

I vaguely remember trying to listen to Stravinsky back 10 years ago, and thinking that his stuff was a cacophonous mess. Didn’t get it at all. But for some reason I picked up a CD at the library last week of Stravinsky symphonies, and, lo and behold, it’s brilliant! I think it took me progressing through Philip Glass and Steve Reich and Sufjan Stevens' The BQE to get me ready for it.

Have you had a similar experience with a band or type of music?