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Originally Posted by greedrex
huh i listened to WLWH for the first time yesterday. I was not impressed at all. weird.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by greedrex
huh i listened to WLWH for the first time yesterday. I was not impressed at all. weird.
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White Light/White Heat was my first VU album, and I bought it very early in my interest in "out" music, aged only 15. I don't think I've ever hated an album more. Seriously, I just detested it. I remember just being so angry that I'd been duped by the hype into wasting money on 40 minutes of boring and unlistenably distorted garage rock with only one good track (Here She Comes Now) and one other that was half-way enjoyable (White Light/White Heat). I then thought maybe I should give it one more chance before I returned it to the store in exchange for something less horrible (and I never return albums), and I think I liked it even less.
However, I was working at home that week, and couldn’t go the shop until Monday, and something about it was just so horrible that I decided to spin it a couple more times. I just couldn’t believe that something this lacking in any merit could be loved by so many people. Third listen, I still didn’t like it, but I kind of dug on the riffage a little more and guessed I could sort of see the appeal, even though I didn’t get it at all. I’d also been listening to Neil Young’s electric records a lot in that period, so I think that helped draw some links. Based on that tiny kernel of enjoyment, I kept on putting it back on while I worked, determined to get the most out of it before I returned it, and slowly I surprised myself by coming to enjoy it a little more. About 5-6 listens in it really started to click for me, and after that I just kept on listening until I was completely taken over. I just couldn’t believe I hadn’t liked it before. It’s was deliciously blown out and beautiful and melancholy and arty and transcendent and many other things I couldn’t name at that point in my musical education.
It’s now pretty much my favourite record of all time (I flip-flop between WLWH, DDN and Blonde on Blonde), the record I have listened to the most,
definitely my favourite VU, and probably the primary reason I’m in to most of the stuff I subsequently came to love, Sonic Youth included. I can’t possibly describe my love for it, or how much I owe to it terms of my musical understanding. Needless to say, I never returned it.
So I suppose the short version of that is:
Persevere, it will reward you for it.