I'm listening to Joni Mitchell's Don Juan's Reckless Daughter at the moment. When it first came out, I didn't like it at all; & have only started enjoying it over the last couple years. I like it quite a bit now.

2 others that come to mind for me are Ian Hunter All American Alien Boy & David Bowie Diamond Dogs. While I never hated DD, at the time I was horrified that he was done with glam. Today I would place DD in Bowie's top 5. When it came out, I felt that Hunter's AAAB was a mediocre rip off of Bowie's Young Americans. Again, time proved me wrong; AAAB is a good album, with at least 1 IH classic: Irene Wilde.

How about you?

When I heard the first Ramones album, all the songs sounded the same to me, and I didn't care much for it. Today, the songs still sound pretty much the same, but I like it!

Also, I now like Yoko Ono's contributions to Double Fantasy a lot more than when I first heard them.
Chip

the s/t sheryl crow for me.

i was given a promo copy months before it got hot. and i sold it at a used store.

after the album broke big, i liked what i heard and rebought it.

renny

Didn't think much of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks the first time I heard it. Now I can't imagine ever being without it. What a wonderful album. Even my 3 year old likes it.

Bought Nick Drake's Fruit Tree back in the early 90s after reading references to it for years, and the first time through, I thought some of it was kind of interesting, but I wasn't sure it was worth the investment. I can't begin to describe how much that music means to me now.

Kris Delmhorst's Songs for a Hurricane didn't impress me much at first. Now I think it's one of the very best albums I've heard in the last few years.

When I first bought Bowie's Station to Station, I loved "TVC15" but thought the rest was uninspired. Now it's one of my Top 10 albums of all time.

I wasn't too impressed with "Wind on the Water" on the first listen. I've played it a few times since, though, and now I like it.

Squeeze's "Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti" -- I thought the production (complete with Trevor Horn-style synths and a Jack Nicholson sample from The Shining) was too gimmicky on my first couple of listens, and I wasn't sure I liked the songs as well as their previous efforts. One evening a few months after I had bought it I played it on a whim and it just clicked for me.

Miles Davis -- "B****s Brew" I checked this out of the library when I was in my late teens and absolutely hated it. I had heard it was a mixture of jazz and rock and I guess I was expecting Chicago or Blood Sweat & Tears. About ten years down the road my best friend was starting to get into Miles Davis. He played me "In A Silent Way" which I absolutely loved, and I think that album was a good "gateway" into finally appreciating and even enjoying "B****s Brew" which I now think is a classic -- one that I would put on my top five Miles Davis albums.

McCartney's "Ram". I didn't hate the album, but I initially blew it off as just another half-assed effort, same as "McCartney". Over the years, I've come to appreciate the depth of the album, all the little bits that add up to a really enjoyable listen. I'm still not crazy about the debut album.

Robert Johnson-"King of the Delta Blues Singers"-I first heard this when I was around 16. I clearly wasn't ready for it. It was like nothing I'd ever heard before. After a few years, I went back to it, and I've loved the Delta Blues since. I had a similar reaction the first time I heard Howlin' Wolf. "What the hell is that?"

When Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run was first released, I hated it. At the time, his singing sounded like "mumbling" to me, and I considered the record to be a bit on the melodramatic side.

Nowadays, I know better. Although I am not a huge Springsteen fan, this album is one of my favorites (along with its predecessor, The Wild, the Innocent, and the East Street Shuffle). The record was exhilarating, catchy, spontaneous, and sounded like it was made by someone who was having the time of his life.

I would say albums like this are few and far between. Most often, when I have a problem with an album, that problem remains no matter how often I hear it (for example, Side 2 of Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic), and an album that is great upon first listen stays that way.
Chip

Charles, what's the problem you have with side 2 of Pretzel Logic?

Sorry, I meant Katy Lied. I dislike "Your Gold Teeth II" and "Throw Back the Little Ones."
Chip

I remembered an amusing story on this topic. Many moons ago when I was a teenager, I heard Eric Andersen doing More Often Then Not on the radio (can you imagine Eric Andersen getting commercial airplay today in the US??) & fell in love with it.

I had no idea what it was, & somehow when the dj announced the titles they'd played, all i heard was David (David Wiffen was the author; a great Canadian folky I later really came to enjoy).

In my teenageness, I somehow decided the album I wanted was David Bromberg's Wanted Dead or Alive. My teenage ears were so not ready for the odd combination of Folk & Jump Blues on that album, that I thought it was the worst piece of ... I'd ever heard. I remember even playing it for a friend to show them how bad it was!

Today, I consider Wanted Dead or Alive a classic, & Eric Andersen's Blue River (where I eventually found More Often Then Not) a masterpiece.

You just reminded me that my niece bought The Pretenders' first album because it had a track called "Space Invader" which she (and apparently the record store clerk) thought was going to be the silly novelty hit by the same title that was getting airplay at the time. She was mighty upset that the music was absolutely nothing like what she was expecting. I don't think she was ready for the likes of "Tattooed Love Boys" and "Precious" back then! Secretly I was thrilled at this turn of events, because it gave me a chance to hear this new group that I had only read about in Rolling Stone. I've never asked her but considering the music my niece listens to now that she is older, I have a feeling she warmed up considerably to The Pretenders.

For me, it tends to be bands. For years I greatly disliked both the Pet Shop Boys and the Grateful Dead. But after many years, I came around big-time on both bands.
As far as albums, I know my buddy will remind me that when I first listened to OK Computer I hated it.
But I was at work and it was a crappy CD player I was using. Once I got the album home and spun it a couple more times, I came to the conclusion that many others did at that time and rated it my favorite album of the year.

When my brother first played Guitar Town by Steve Earle for me, i just couldn't stand it - "hey, turn off that country sh*t". A year or so later i was hooked by the song Someday from Exit 0 and went back to Guitar Town, and it is still stands as one of my favorites.

I then went through a similar process with a friend when i first played it for him, and it is now one of his favorites also.

I listen to a lot of that country sh*t these days.

Of recent albums, I didn't care for Coldplay's X&Y at first (it didn't have a "Clocks") but that album has grown for me.

These days I can listen to it right thru and love every minute of it. Having it on an IPOD helps. Really gives you the time to explore music kinda like it was years ago when one was a teenager and let albums wash over you.

Heresy! Heresy!

Katy Lied is one of the great SD albums!

Trust by Elvis & The Attractions
The Beach Boys Love You
Temple Of Low Men by Crowded House
Cucumber Castle by the Bee Gees

Funny, I've been listening to Trust for the first time the last couple weeks & still deciding what I think of it.

Talk of Heresy. I like this album better than Pet Sounds.
And I love Pet Sounds.

Here's a weird one - earlier today I picked up a copy of The Damned - Smash It Up Anthology for my business to sell. CD #2 is pretty scratched, so I felt I needed to check it before putting it up for sale. I've never heard them before. I've always assumed from their name & look that they were a Sex Pistols type punk band. In fact I mentioned it to a friend I was talking to on the phone & said that I might just try ripping it with EAC to check it rather then listening to it.

Turns out I really like it & may keep the set! If like me, you've never heard them, think Kevin Ayers meets the 80's - it's comedic prog, not punk!

Edit: The above comments were written when I had only played disc 2. Much of cd 1 is pretty hardcore punk. These folks sure went through a huge change around 1979-1980.