Ref: “your emotional reactions to it can be very subjective, very personal, and sometimes influenced by factors other than the music itself.” I’d disagree. Surely not ‘can be’ but ‘are always’?

I see real passion when people use phrases like ‘masterpiece’, ‘album of the year’ etc. OK, ‘classic’ for a new release is pushing it and technically incorrect, but you get my drift.

I’ve seen these sorts of phrases occasionally used for music I’ve tried to listen to and just don’t get. I wonder to myself what that person hears when I hear strained vocals, or what they mean by masterpiece when I hear amateurish tuneless formulaic generi-prog, but I don’t consider them wrong. I just guess they have different tickboxes.

I do think a listener can be considerably engaged by an album on the very first listen, and that it can continue to grow even more on subsequent listens – but for me that doesn’t happen very often. Wonderful when it does.

I also think that some albums can grab your attention on first listen but for some reason can put you off over time. Thankfully that’s even more rare for me.

Most tend to build my affection steadily, and through several plays.

Maybe some records are hyped for reasons only known to those people saying them, but I’d like to think they’re simply being enthusiastic about hearing something they love. After all, we don’t have to take their word for it.

- You never completely hear what a good record is about the first time.
- Great music is deceptively simple. “Kind of Blue” barely sounds like anything at all the first time you hear it. Then you listen closely, and … well, see #1 above.
- The thrill of first exposure is also deceptive, as noted above. The shock of the new is not by itself enough to produce greatness.
- It is too easy to think well of a record for reasons that have nothing to do with its actual qualities.