Albums Bought On A Whim...

[emdot_ambient]

Have you ever bought an album on a whim, either having never heard that artist/group's work or after only hearing one track?

Are you kidding? Almost my entire record collection was built up that way. Back when I was in college and vinyl was our only option, I used to hit the record shop and just browse the Import section (yeah, they had one of those back then with stuff not released in the States). I'd also buy from import catalogs as well, based on a one or two sentence description, that was sometimes accurate, sometimes not. "Spacy, electronic, classical, jazz rock" is how one catalog described the Symphony album by Clearlight. Guess what? It turned out to be spacey, electronic, classical, jazz rock. (and actully it was damn good).

I had a set of standards by which to find my music:
1) Album cover art: it had to attract me, surreal imagery being the most sought after.
2) # Of songs on the album: fewer the better, as I tended to gravitate toward long works.
3) # Of band member: fewer the better, as I was really enthralled by the one-man-does-all idea made feasible by multi-track recording and made popular by Mike Oldfield.
4) Synthesizers: the more band members playing synths, the better.

A few of the groups I discovered by buying on a whim:
Tonto's Expanding Head Band
Kraftwerk
Klaus Schulze
Sensations Fix
Clearlight
Tim Blake
Jade Warrior
Ash Ra Temple
Popul Vuh
Cluster
Tomita
Hawkwind

[bluedad]

've noticed that with Pet Sounds, it's a love/hate relationship. I'm listening to it very often, but some people I know simply can't stand it. Others say 'oh, I know/like this song' when 'Wouldn't it be Nice' or 'God Only Knows' comes on, but other than that it does absolutely nothing to them.

yeah, those are the only two songs in 'pet sounds' that I like.
and I enjoyed putte's version of 'God Only Knows'

[start/select]

the exploited, i threw an album by this group out my car's window after hearing what i wasted my hard earned money on.

on a more positive note i bought budakhan mindphone by squarepusher on a whim when it came out and it remains to this day one of my favorite albums.

[start/select]

I bought 'Spiderland' by Slint because some people thought it was a classic. Well, it's not a total classic, but it contains one of the greatest songs I've ever heard [perhaps even the greatest] called 'Good Morning Captain'. It was worth the price just for that one song. Brilliant. And the other songs don't suck either.

oooh, i bought this one without hearing it too because i heard albini "recorded" it (it turns out that this wasn't the one he recorded for the band). good morning captain is one of my favorite songs too.

[Whoomph]

Talking Heads 77 and most people who I meet who like Talking
Heads (the band) they often don't know it , anyway it's close to being my favourite all time album , though I seem to still have a few of those .....

[blaster78]

i've not come across many that really dissapoint me, i've bought a few albums for a couple of songs and found the rest to be filler but this is far outweighed by the good stuff that i've bought on a whim.

steve.

[Lawnmower Of The Damned]

My girlfriend's father bought a Canibal Corpse album many years ago at a yard sale because he liked the cover. Mind you, he was a 45 year old conservative republican, and he obviously hated the music. My girlfriend found it and fell in love with metal, and years later introduced me to black metal which is mostly what I listen to now.

[geoffrey]

Ok, admit it ... Who bought the Blind Faith album way back when just for the picture of Ginger Baker's topless daughter?
Me? Guilty as charged!(I was like 11 or 12 at the time)

[hvaring]

My most successful "whim" buy was Gran Riserva by dZihan & Kamien. The record shop had it playing on outdoor speakers as I passed, and I went right in and bought it. Never heard of
D&K before. Didn't regret it, great album

[Jbravo]

I've bought dozens of albums based on only the vaguest familiarity. The last one I bought having heard only descriptions, was "A strangely isolated place" by Ulrich Schnauss. It was described as Insides-era Orbital (which it wasn't) so was nevertheless quite disappointed. It did grow on me eventually but still too syrupy and vanilla for my taste, it sounds more like William Orbit.

I bought "music has the right to children" based only on rave reviews and one excellent track (roygbiv). I really didn't get the album at first but it slowly worked it's magic on me and now it's a prized posession

having said that I refuse to pay HMV prices and get most of my stuff on ebay for a few quid a time so you can afford to be a bit adventurous (though I did pay £20 for a one track promo of Phil Hartnoll remixing Jarre)

[CypherOne]

(though I did pay £20 for a one track promo of Phil Hartnoll remixing Jarre)

Jesus man, you must be as obsessed as me...I paid about £12 for a 7" jukebox vinyl of Satan that I've never played (cos I've got 4 diff versions on CD )

[bluedad]

Mind you, he was a 45 year old conservative republican

hey, you make that sound like it's a bad thing!
(and I'm a 50 yr old conservative Republican)

[bluedad]

and speaking of cannibal corpse; I don't mind the music, but every time I hear the vocalist I've just got to laugh!

[vurt]

quite often ill hear something in one of the local record shops while browsing and pick up a copy of something ive never heard of.
thing is tho with the smaller specialist shops you can normally take the shit back if you dont like it.
to be honest tho its very rare i get a shit one altho ive made a few mistakes
you gotta take chances tho or you just end up listening to the same cds and bands forever

[vtx]

the very first Queen album, it was thought to be religous so it was tossed to the bargain bin soon after its release, I remember getting it home and hearing Brian May for the first time,
phoned all of my friends, come hear this nowww