Any albums you've had a big old change of opinion over the years?

[Master Ray]

For me, it's got to be The Love Of Hopeless Causes... I know it's a fave for some people but after the great 1-2-3 punch of TGOC, TAC and Impurity (and despite loving certain tracks on it) I always regarded it as a lesser follow-up.   

And yet I was listening to it a few weeks ago and, damn, it's a solid album.  If it came out tomorrow I'd be loving it right from the off.

Yet, in an opposite direction, I remember being really impressed with From Here at the time... but I almost never listen to it these days.

Any other opinions?   

[Guillaume]

It's curious, I find THE LOVE OF HOPELESS CAUSES quite immediately accessible, like EIGHT, for example, an album that seems to divide the fanbase a bit. I'd say that STRANGE BROTHERHOOD left me a little cold at the time, if I remember correctly, but over time I came to appreciate its qualities despite its flaws. When CARNIVAL and TODAT IS A GOOD DAY came out in 2005 and 2009, I liked them and listened to them quite a bit, but I rarely listen to them now. WINTER is an album I found uneven in 2016, and I haven't really changed my mind in almost 10 years!

The albums I've never tired of since the beginning are THUNDER AND CONSOLATION, THE GHOST OF CAIN, HIGH, THE LOVE OF HOPELESS CAUSES, and B SIDES AND ABANDONED TRACKS. Anf i listened again yesterday to NAVIGATING BY THE STARS, an album that I found magnificent in 2003 and that I still find wonderful in 2026...Justin's masterpiece.

Yet, in an opposite direction, I remember being really impressed with From Here at the time... but I almost never listen to it these days.

I think it's a really solid album, I much prefer it to WINTER for example and maybe even to UNBROKEN (although I do like most of the songs of this last album). I should probably update "The best NMA album of the 21st century" thread!

An album that greatly divided the fanbase upon its release (but which allowed NMA to return to the UK and German charts) but which for me grows with time and remains one of their best and most "mature" albums is BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF...despite a few "fillers" songs I liked it from its release in 2013 and I still listen to it often these days...I see it as a somewhat separate album in their discography, but captivating, I listen to it almost like a film score, it is not the classic rock album with anthems, it is perhaps the last sonic "revolution" of NMA even if we find traces of these sonic experiments in FROM HERE for example...these albums, like Justin's solo albums, are more moody, more atmospheric.

[cthulhu]

For me it's a no, i don't think so. I mostly listen to NMA while working and i have a list on random, not of every Album but i change it from time to time. I have my special songs i love to hear and they are widespread through the releases.
I'm still flashed by the Carnival Redux Mix, it's still astonishing that the new mixes are so different and more powerful than the older version.
At home i like to watch live recordings and the Symphony Show is just fabulous. At the last shows i fell in love again with Lust for Power, a song i haven't heard in a long time.
I also love to listen to Between Dog & Wolf when i at home, this is such a sonically nice Album, it just sounds so great and has this special atmosphere.
I did change my opinion to some songs through the years, so Orange Tree Roads became one of my favourite ones but it took a while, i skipped it often before.

[Gaijin]

To date the only album that I do not enjoy is the second solo one.

All the albums that were new to me on their release (Impurity and on), all confounded me initially. Over time though, and with many listens, they reveal themselves and I find much to love.

[Guillaume]

To date the only album that I do not enjoy is the second solo one.

All the albums that were new to me on their release (Impurity and on), all confounded me initially. Over time though, and with many listens, they reveal themselves and I find much to love.

Maybe you should listen to "Surrounded" again, because the album reveals itself after several listens and there's a lot to love! I think "Navigating by the Stars" is a magical album, and "Surrounded" is perhaps "just" an excellent album, which is already huge! I haven't listened to it all the way through in a while, but there are some really great songs on it ("Sao Paulo", "Sea Again", "Unforgiven", "1975", "Surrounded", "Stone and Heather", "Akistan"...) and actually, even though he probably won't write it, I would have loved for Justin to release a third solo album!

[Gaijin]

To date the only album that I do not enjoy is the second solo one.

All the albums that were new to me on their release (Impurity and on), all confounded me initially. Over time though, and with many listens, they reveal themselves and I find much to love.

Maybe you should listen to "Surrounded" again, because the album reveals itself after several listens and there's a lot to love! I think "Navigating by the Stars" is a magical album, and "Surrounded" is perhaps "just" an excellent album, which is already huge! I haven't listened to it all the way through in a while, but there are some really great songs on it ("Sao Paulo", "Sea Again", "Unforgiven", "1975", "Surrounded", "Stone and Heather", "Akistan"...) and actually, even though he probably won't write it, I would have loved for Justin to release a third solo album!

It's very different and not something that speaks to me.

[huwcamden]

For me it has to be the highly contentious "Between dog and wolf"...I actually disliked it at the time and thought the 3 promo video releases from it were really bad songs with even worse comedy videos..I remember heated arguments on this forum and people being really nasty and even falling out over it.
I liked the odd song particularly "lean back and fall" and "tomorrow came" but the rest was just proggie landfill to me and I just figured the band had run it's creative course and that was it forever!
But hindsight and time do very strange things occasionally.
I now see it as a landmark album...a reinvention and probably their 3rd most important release. It has a otherworldly quirky slightly disturbing feel to it and "I need more time".."pull the sun" "between dog and wolf" and "horsemen"..infact virtually the whole album is immense and claustrophobic at the same time.
It was the album "carnival" should have been in many ways and that's where it's DNA was discovered.
I hope they don't try and do make it again as it's an enigma and weird as hell.
(I still hate 7 times though..it really is rubbish!) Imo only of course!

[Guillaume]

I now see it as a landmark album...a reinvention and probably their 3rd most important release.

Which are the others two albums?

[huwcamden]

For me Gulliaume i would say their 3 most important albums are:

1 Thunder and Consolation - When they were at their commercial zenith and had single handedly  reinvented the folk/rock genre..it's pretty much like listening to a greatest hits album now to me!

2 The love of hopeless causes - The  rock album where they went back to basics..leaving all the folk instrumentation behind.. accidentally inventing British alternative rock...hugely influenced by Nirvana in that respect I reckon.

3 Between dog and wolf - Changing yet again...A post rock album of  progressive fairly uncommercial but weird and brilliant songs..unsettling..gothy and claustrophobic..a chameleon like change from the aggressive driven rock of before
 
Of course their debut album was pretty important as was No rest being the break through album but I still think these will be the 3 that history remembers...who knows though.