That's a really good way to put it. Most records produced by Albini do that for me. But I like to think a good album is more like something that transports you into its own universe and you cannot help it, you are absolutely powerless.

What I don't understand is this "religious" kind of fan thing. I still adore SY (even if I don't listen to it as much as I did before, which seems natural) but I like some things more than others. Most of my favourite artists have albums I can't stand, and I truly respect that. I don't have to listen to it as much as I did before to respect it just the same. But to be frank, I'm from a different generation. I live surrounded by hipterish kind of people who talk crap, listen to crap music, read NME and wear Sonic Youth t-shirts. So I just gave all my Sonic Youth t-shirts to charity? Because I'd rather see homeless people wearing them. Although, to be fair, it's getting harder and harder to differentiate homeless people from hipsters around here so they might be my t-shirts after all.

well i've been a fan of sonic youth for almost 20 years now and i listen to them more now than ever.

I hardly listen to any guitar music these days, but it's a phase. It'll probably go when I finally buy my new guitar.

"Own Universe" is an excellent way to put it for truly good music.

Classic Music that I grew up with in the sixties can be sickening to me now. The radio ruined many a band. I can only listen to Led Zeppelin I and III the rest of their catalog can go in the rubbish. The Beatles only the white album.
Aqualung no way in hell. Eric Clapton no thank you. Yet I'll listen to every Doors, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Carlos Santana album I have. As for newer bands to me Sonic Youth, X, The Clash, Rage Against the Machine and Joy Division I can listen to any time.

My tastes always change but I am die hard sy. Must listen at least once a day.

True stu

I am in agreance with this statement. Fact is as I age I tend to go back to shit I loved a decade ago and it is like new. Sometimes we need a break and a new outlook.

It has to. People's values, priorities and overall understanding of things inevitably change over time. We may still like things we listened to in our teens but our relationship with those things is inevitably different as time goes on. That's not to say that we can't like music more as we get older but as our perspective changes on pretty much everything over time, I don't see why music should be exluded from that. I'd be more worried about anyone whose taste was fixed by a certain moment in their life.

Good point. I do see and hear new things as I age.

My tastes have changed a lot, but SY has been my favorite band for ten years. And I still like the other stuff I liked in high school (Pavement, Pixies, Ramones, Iggy/Stooges, Dinosaur jr, Big Black, Slint, Sebadoh, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails just to name a few). No, I don't listen to them every day, but I still love them.

SY are transcendent of "the phase" for me.

time flies

Time flies, as a crow flies, in a straight line,
Through you, not around you

I'm 58 and I've had all different phases of music listening starting with the Beach Boys, Motown, British Invasion, American Rock, Disco, Southern Rock,
then in the 80's I pretty much got stuck in classic rock mode then I finally got into alternative, new wave, punk, hip hop, rap and so on. So at different times I missed different groups in different time periods so I am able to go back and forth and find things I've never heard before that might be 40 years old. Still though since 91 when I bought my first SY album and proceed to buy the rest of the catalog after that they have been my favorites because they always stretching the boundaries, pushing the envelope....

I've always only listened to harsh japanese noise

from da womb to da tomb.

I used to hate Sebadoh aside from Smash Your Head. Now I like them.

Go figure.

ok.

I still like what I liked when I was 18 because I am NOT getting old.