I actually prefer my first listen to be "with half an ear" a lot of the time because it gives me a sense of what kind of mood I'll want to be in when I give the album a closer listen.

I think maybe the key thing might be that people who will give an album more than one chance are also people who are less likely to hate an album right off the bat.

My attitude to re-listening to see if something is a grower meshes pretty well with Janszoon´s and SATCHMO´s (even down to his example of Topographic Oceans).

I also agree with Ninetails and his/her mention of moods. Happened to me yesterday with a Mike Bloomfield album which I´ve had for about three years. I´d played it and felt disappointed about four times, but yesterday, it just suited my mood perfectly. So now I have a new listening policy; if I play an album when I´m sad, then I should try it again when I feel energized. If I don´t like it when I´m wearing black shoes, play it again in tennis shoes -maybe it´ll sound better.

I´ve also had the feeling that Darrenaj9 describes so neatly:-

My personal experience with some well-known albums and artists:-

Growers that rewarded my patience: Trout Mask, Tago Mago, Topographic O,
Tried to like but never have: Sun Ra, Bitches Brew, Tubular Bells,
"My mind just falls off it": most Pink Floyd and T Dream albums
Great, but I have to be in the mood: Nick Drake , Dixie Dregs

Very strange. Musically affects me differently depending on how I'm feeling. I love ambient music but I wouldn't want to listen to it when I'm going partying.

I can understand this and I'm sure everyone has albums they've heard once and shelved. But, atleast in my case, it's more about my music tastes expanding and so I'll revisit albums that previously hadn't hit me. When I first listened to Spiderland i didn't really like it much. As I started to like new things like Talk Talk and Godspeed and such I thought may as well try it again. It had been atleast a year since my last listen. And so maybe this was another first listen for me. I just remember not liking it but nothing specific on why. And this new listen hit me hard. And I've loved it ever since.

It's easy to dislike something immediately but it's also easy to hold that initial reaction longer than you even remember what it was you disliked about it in the first place. It's like how you can say you hate mushrooms but if you haven't eaten a mushroom in years how does that opinion have any legs? Sure you can continue to not eat them, and that's probably reasonable, but hey maybe you've grown to like them.

My main point is it's less about forcing yourself like something, but rather giving it time for a fresh start. I refuse to believe that anyone's music taste stays stagnant and never changes throughout their whole life. Idk maybe I just value music growth more than the average person

For me it's not even dependent on what I'm doing. Some days I'm really in the mood for bebop and I'm really not going to enjoy grindcore if I listen to it on those days. But then there are days when all I want to listen to is grindcore and bebop just wouldn't do it for me.

Yeah I guess that's what I mean when I say "mood". It's not as simple as happy/sad. I'm into slower, calm music at the moment so yeah I'm not going to listen to death metal. But it might not even last a day. Could be listening to Behemoth in a matter of hours who knows!

I'm pretty volatile in what I feel like listening to so it makes sense that a first and second listen could be vastly different.

Well, there ARE albums that have "grown" on me. Several. But I also feel sometimes that anything will grow on you if you listen to it enough number of times!! LOL.