ITT: Amazing albums that are rarely mentioned on lists of amazing albums.
The first thing that comes to mind for me is Tom Petty's Wildflowers. It's absolutely fantastic but it's pretty overlooked. Let it Be by the Beatles might have a lot of praise (what by the Beatles doesn't?) but everyone seems to call it the worst of their later albums. I say it's a masterpiece. And then of course, a lot of excellent underground albums. Mother Love Bone's Apple comes to mind. If it had a hit single or two on it, it'd easily show up on most lists.
Among bands people know about, I don't feel Tool's albums garner enough attention for how fucking incredible they are
Among bands people don't know about (but should):
Who Will Survive and What Will be Left of Them by Murder by Death (still one of my favorite albums)
Crusades by The Plastic Constellations (a Minneapolis band that should have made it big and never did)
Premiers Symptômes by AIR (everything else by AIR has been overplayed to death but this little EP from their beginning never gets any attention, and is better than anything else they've released)
Pablo Honey by Radiohead (I know, I know, Radiohead gets as much praise for everything as The Beatles, but this first album of theirs is definitely overlooked as one of britpop's earliest, cleanest, most amazing entries)
The Stone Roses' Second Coming. Their first album received a lot of praise and is still rather popular, and since their second album didn't live up to the monstrous public expectations and it generally sounded quite different, the public shunned it. It's a crime, really, because it's a fucking great album. I think that it's still flawed, and I probably do like their debut slightly more, but Second Coming still deserves better than the bashing it gets.
Kaz, I thought you'd mention ELO. I was about to add that to my post, but then I decided to go eat a pizza instead. A New World Record is pretty underrated. It's definitely not a BEST ALBUM EVER OMG, but it's fucking brilliant.
Quote from: coz on August 13, 2009, 06:11:47 PM
Kaz, I thought you'd mention ELO. I was about to add that to my post, but then I decided to go eat a pizza instead. A New World Record is pretty underrated. It's definitely not a BEST ALBUM EVER OMG, but it's fucking brilliant.
Eh, well that's one of my albums I could have put in this thread, because there's honestly lots of "overlooked masterpieces" out there. I just felt like mentioning The Stone Roses because...idk because I can.
Schoenberg's Enwartung!
Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat
"Thank God for mental illness" by the brian jonestown massacre.
Quiet, retro and a little gritty, it's simplicity makes it what is is.
"Destroy all astromen" by Man or Astroman.
Surf music entwined with Sci-fi B-movie voice clips. Rock solid from start to finish.
Moby Grape's self titled album. One of the very best things to come out of the sixties. Same can be said for the electric prunes.
Syd Barret's "the madcap laughs" is also very overlooked.
I feel I might as well mention Nick Drake, as a whole. Basically his whole career is criminally overlooked.
Midlake's The Trials of Van Occupanther. It's just a really awesome album, I don't see how it never caught on with anyone. Lots of the songs on it are just true classics.
Quote from: Corporal Clegg on August 13, 2009, 07:40:39 PM
"Thank God for mental illness" by the brian jonestown massacre.
Syd Barret's "the madcap laughs" is also very overlooked.
More like everything released by those two artists
"Music from the Adventures of Pete and Pete" by Polaris, which was really Miracle Legion minus one of their guitarists. Outstanding music; it's problem my favorite album ever, but no one knows about it.
I know Jeff Buckley's Grace is by no means not popular, but I really think that it should be up there among the greatest albums of our time.
edIT's Crying over pros for no reason is easilly the best album i've ever heard...it sets me in the best mood ever and nothing is like it.
Quote from: wziard on August 13, 2009, 05:55:08 PM
Among bands people know about, I don't feel Tool's albums garner enough attention for how fucking incredible they are
holy shit am I agreeing with snorkel
Talking Heads 77
A great first album that gets left behind by Eno's work with the band/Speaking in Tongues. Still it's a great album, Honestly, not a bad song on the album. Tentative Decisions and The Book I Read are highlights.
Speak and Spell, Construction Time Again, and Some Great Reward by Depeche Mode
Many people only remember them from their songs "Personal Jesus" or "Just Can't Get Enough" but there are some terrific albums by them that just don't get recognized. These are the big three.
Speak and Spell sounds the least like Depeche Mode (when you compare it to the rest of their career). Nothing much here besides pure pop, unless you count some songs like "What's Your Name?" which led to the rumor of most of them being gay. Album sounds different from the rest mainly because Vince Clarke (or Erasure fame) wrote most of the songs.
Construction Time Again and Some Great Reward were the third and fourth albums by DM, but the first two featuring lead keyboardist Alan Wilder. I think you could call these the first "true" Depeche Mode albums. Great synth hooks and powerful ballads by Martin Gore (chief songwriter slash guitarist slash keyboardist slash alchoholic) drive Some Great Reward, while Construction Time Again is somewhat politically charged, though still full of flashing synths that the early DM is known for.
also, much of David Byrne's solo stuff gets overlooked. Rei Momo is great if you like south american rhythms, such as with Rhythm of the Saints by Paul Simon, then you'll probably like this. Also, Grown Backwards by DB is fantastic. It's got some opera pieces that kind of drag on, but the rest of the album is nothing but fantastic strings with Byrne's quirky twists tuned in.
A good way to get a feel for what he did with both of these is get his "Live, from Austin TX" album.
tl;dr =
Talking Heads: 77 - Talking Heads
Speak and Spell, Construction Time Again, Some Great Reward - Depeche Mode
Rei Momo, Grown Backwards, Live, from Austin TX - David Byrne
The Residents.
Fucking brilliant, but they don't get enough credit for it.