Underappreciated/Underdog Albums

[lazarus]

If it wasn't for fucking WENDY TIME

Haha, yes. I love Wish, especially the more rocking tracks like End and Open. From the Edge of the Deep Blue See is my favorite track by the Cure.

I've been on record as a huge fan of Wish, and while I can't say it's objectively better than Disintegration, I enjoy listening to it more and think there's a lot of great writing and playing on it.

Wendy Time definitely sucks, though.

The Rolling Stones - Goats Head Soup

I've been listening to this more lately, and I feel safe in saying it is worthy of being included in the run of great albums that begins with Beggar's Banquet and usually concludes with Exile On Main Street. Anything was going to seem like a letdown after that latter masterpiece, but Goat's Head Soup has too many standout tracks to ignore. Angie and Heartbreaker are well known songs, but Winter, Coming Down Again, 100 Years, and Can You Hear The Music are all exceptional.

 

[Danny Boy]

From the Edge of the Deep Blue See is my favorite track by the Cure.

Hearing this live on the Wish tour was one of the best concert experiences ever. Just epic.

Spoiler

It's "green sea," though.

 

[nielsgov]

Thanks

Small brain fart there.

 

[djerdap]

Doing the Unstuck is another song from Wish that had just exploded live. Porl Thompson was the best guitar player they had.

 

[purpleoscar]

Doing the unstuck and Wendy Time made me laugh but I loved Friday (I'm in love) and Letter to Elise.

 

[liamcool]

The best guitarist in the Cure, however.

Spoiler

Super underrated lead player, as shown through his playing with the Banshees.

Another underrated album is The Golden Age of Wireless by Thomas Dolby - really great, well arranged pop songs that really pushed boundaries when it was released.

 

[greenlight7-11]

Mudhoney - Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
Soundgarden - Down on the Upside
Depeche Mode - Ultra
Pearl Jam - Binaural
R.E.M. - Up
The National - Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers
Mad Season - Above
The Cure - Bloodflowers
Nine Inch Nails - Still

 

[u2popmofo]

Isn't Wish The Cure's most commercially successful album?

 

[Danny Boy]

Isn't Wish The Cure's most commercially successful album?

...despite lack of popularity OR critical respect.

I rarely hear it mentioned as one of their best albums. I think Bloodflowers probably gets more critical respect these days, which is fine.

 

[liamcool]

Yeah, Wish is their only UK #1, although Disintegration sold more over time in the US, I believe.

Not sure about Bloodflowers getting more critical respect, considering nobody really talks about it? (It's a good album, but...I dunno, it's not amazing by any means.)

 

[iron yuppie]

I'm a fan of pretty much everything The Cure has done, but I prefer the first four albums to any other period from them. Seventeen Seconds would be my pick for their best album. Moody and ominous as hell.

 

[LemonMelon]

1979-1982 was definitely the strongest period of sustained greatness for the band, even though I would take The Head on the Door or Disintegration over any album from that era.

 

[martha]

It's not an underrated Cure album, but one of my favorite albums of all time is Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane's Rough Mix. I don't see it get discussed much, so that counts as underrated, right?

 

[lazarus]

I have that. Great stuff. Ronnie Lane was definitely the heart of The Faces.

 

[martha]

Laz, when I get home, I'll look up the name of a Ronnie Lane album of live stuff he did for a radio station in Austin. It's great.

 

[u2popmofo]

I rarely hear it mentioned as one of their best albums.

I guess I'll allow it. I GUESS.

Seventeen Seconds would be my pick for their best album. Moody and ominous as hell.

 

[MrPryck2U]

I don't know if this album is under appreciated or underrated. Perhaps it could be considered a forgotten gem:

No Jacket Required by Phil Collins


Arguably Phil's finest solo work. I can remember playing the shit out of this tape from 1985 until I bought it on CD in the early 90's. This album has been an essential part of the soundtrack of my life. Take Me Home is my favorite track on this one.

 

[The_acrobat]

I might get killed here for this, but IMO the Goo Goo Dolls fit the under-appreciated category. Superstar Car Wash is one of my favorite CDs and rarely gets a "skip" -- they put on a good concert too.

Sure, it's kind of sugary pop-rock, but what they do, they do well.

Mentions by other posters that I'd support include the Killers and the Replacements.

I haven't listened to Superstar Car Wash in possibly 15 years, but because of this post, I am right now. Holy Shit! I forgot how awesome it is, in a predictable 90's pop/rock sort of way. I was in high school in the 90's, so that kind of music always holds a special place in my heart.

My high school girlfriend was OBSESSED with the Goo Goo Dolls, so I pretty much know every note of "A boy named Goo" and "Dizzy up the Girl", and we saw them in 1998 or so, and it was a great show (of course I didn't have make to compare to at the time). Years later, around 2007, I went with a different girlfriend (now my wife) to see Goo Goo Dolls with the Counting Crows, and GGD were definitely the weaker of the 2 bands.

Most of you have probably never heard Flickerstick's "Welcoming Home the Astronauts", but it's a great album by a great band who just couldn't quite break on through to the other side. It's fairly obvious they wrote a bunch of stadium ready anthems that seemed ready for radio play, but what can I say? I'm a sucker for a good stadium anthem… hence why I'm at a U2 site!

Also, give Boston's first album a listen, and Aerosmith's "Rocks".

 

[lazarus]

I don't know if this album is under appreciated or underrated. Perhaps it could be considered a forgotten gem:

No Jacket Required by Phil Collins

I believe this is the appropriate category:

http://www.u2interference.com/forum...-iii-friggin-cobbler-vs-the-world-210653.html

Or maybe just file under "crap".

 

[iron yuppie]

I like Phil Collins. Of all those 80s balladeer guys (Don Henley, Bryan Adams, etc), Collins was the best and most consistent.

 

[lazarus]

Yeah...that's not saying much.

 

[LemonMelon]

Boys of Summer > Phil Collins' entire solo career and 80s Genesis.

 

[IWasBored]

File all under why? Why did this have to exist?

 

[lazarus]

Boys of Summer > Phil Collins' entire solo career and 80s Genesis.

I'd agree with the first part but there are a handful of great Genesis tracks from that period that surpass Henley at his best. Boys Of Summer has a good melody but his vocal is disposable as always, and the music (Bruce Hornsby!) ain't much either. The David Fincher-directed video is better than the song itself.

 

[U2DMfan]

Faith No More - King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime

One of the most lazily shrugged off albums of the entire 90's by one of the best bands of the 90's. I'm not saying it's on par with Angel Dust or probably even The Real Thing, but it's got some damn good stuff on it. Title track is great.

 

[LemonMelon]

I'd agree with the first part but there are a handful of great Genesis tracks from that period that surpass Henley at his best. Boys Of Summer has a good melody but his vocal is disposable as always, and the music (Bruce Hornsby!) ain't much either. The David Fincher-directed video is better than the song itself.

I'm not saying it's the greatest song of the 80s or anything, but that chorus really is something else. It's hard to find any 80s pop songs with nuance, let alone a track that captures the feeling of nostalgia and sexual tension as well as that one does.

80s Genesis songs I like a lot: Tonight Tonight Tonight, Mama, That's All, Land of Confusion (to an extent). 70s Genesis was brilliant.

 

[liamcool]

One of the most lazily shrugged off albums of the entire 90's by one of the best bands of the 90's. I'm not saying it's on par with Angel Dust or probably even The Real Thing, but it's got some damn good stuff on it. Title track is great.

Anything Mike Patton touches get ragged on for some reason. Mr. Bungle are currently blowing my fucking mind - California is actually a really well done art pop album that everyone overlooks.

 

[LemonMelon]

Got another one for this thread: Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ. Pure charm and class songwriting all over the place here. Not the Bruce that took the world by storm, instead it's just a great batch of lovingly performed songs that stands out in his discography and delivers left and right. Though it doesn't quite have the E Street sound, all fans know what these songs sound like when performed by the band and they hold up with his best material.

Blinded by the Light, Growin' Up, Lost in the Flood, For You, Spirit in the Night and It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City are all great songs and I love Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street as well. The remaining weak points are still way more interesting than most anything on his weaker albums.

 

[djerdap]

One of the most lazily shrugged off albums of the entire 90's by one of the best bands of the 90's. I'm not saying it's on par with Angel Dust or probably even The Real Thing, but it's got some damn good stuff on it. Title track is great.

It's much, much better than The Real Thing. It's their most versatile, fucked up, over-the-top and emotionally charged record. Title track is indeed a classic, although stuff like Evidence, Just a Man, Ricochet, Take This Bottle and Cuckoo for Caca (closest they got to sounding like Mr. Bungle) aren't too far behind. The amount of genres they cover on this one is just insane.

Anything Mike Patton touches get ragged on for some reason. Mr. Bungle are currently blowing my fucking mind - California is actually a really well done art pop album that everyone overlooks.

Retrovertigo is one of his most beautiful songs.

 

[lazarus]

better than The Real Thing

Retrovertigo

Clearly paying homage to The 2