Underappreciated/Underdog Albums

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New Adventures In Hi Fi is a good one.

Tinderbox by Siouxsie and the Banshees is a fucking incredible album that is just sort of ignored by their fanbase because John Valentine Carruthers was the guitarist named John on that album. Hyaena as well, with Robert Smith as the guitarist not named John.

Aerial by Kate Bush.
 
Could probably count most post-Automatic REM, I guess. I like new adventures, monster, and up. I like those albums a lot. But pre-Automatic and post-Automatic REM almost seem to be separate discographies, be it major label vs IRS distinction or the "I like their earlier stuff better," comment that people cling to (out of either having discovered the band when that was all there was and thus forming an attachment to that stuff, or because it just makes you sound cooler to only like the early albums when it's a band that followed the sort of career trajectory the did).

Since I was most assuredly not an rem fan until way late, and didn't give a shit* about them in the mid 90s I have virtually no knowledge of critical/popular opinion regarding hi-fi, aside from thinking somewhere that ebow was generally accepted as one of their best or something of the sort. Monster, though, wasn't that considered to be one of the most albums commonly found in the record store bargain bin? And Up, people are always defending their picks off up for why they're good songs despite being post-Berry REM (sad professor FTW).



*i read a quote from stipe saying he didn't give a shit about the Beatles, so when I was 12 I had no time for people who said stuff like that. I was dumb. I was 12, though. Caused a minor crisis when I discovered that's who did "it's the end of the world as we know it"...
 
IWasBored said:
Could probably count most post-Automatic REM, I guess. I like new adventures, monster, and up. I like those albums a lot. But pre-Automatic and post-Automatic REM almost seem to be separate discographies, be it major label vs IRS distinction or the "I like their earlier stuff better," comment that people cling to (out of either having discovered the band when that was all there was and thus forming an attachment to that stuff, or because it just makes you sound cooler to only like the early albums when it's a band that followed the sort of career trajectory the did).

Since I was most assuredly not an rem fan until way late, and didn't give a shit* about them in the mid 90s I have virtually no knowledge of critical/popular opinion regarding hi-fi, aside from thinking somewhere that ebow was generally accepted as one of their best or something of the sort. Monster, though, wasn't that considered to be one of the most albums commonly found in the record store bargain bin? And Up, people are always defending their picks off up for why they're good songs despite being post-Berry REM (sad professor FTW).



*i read a quote from stipe saying he didn't give a shit about the Beatles, so when I was 12 I had no time for people who said stuff like that. I was dumb. I was 12, though. Caused a minor crisis when I discovered that's who did "it's the end of the world as we know it"...
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For whatever reason (a combination of reasons), Monster is when REM's bubble burst, much as with U2 and POP a few years later. Fairly so? Not particularly... with that and New Adventures I think they still definitely had creative juice in the tank. Even Up is well worth at least listening to.


Funny thing in REM's case, they never really 'went away'... if my arithmetic is right, there's never more than a two year gap between any of their albums into the early 21st century. So less of a chance for a Cure or U2-style mini generation-gap to set in, with younger listeners suddenly tuning out (and well, the Cure started sucking).
 
That makes sense.

I wish reveal would go away. Sadly, it was the first rem album I bought (I had taped pretty much everything else off library copies before this point).
 
I listened to Reveal once, in 2000 or whenever. It just sort of... do you know Bono raved at the time about what a beautiful record they'd made and how he felt like they (his own band) had a tough task to live up to... gaaaaah.
 
Not sure if 'underappreciated' is strictly the right word, maybe it is, but:

Everything Tricky did after Maxinquaye into the latter half of the nineties.

PJ Harvey's "Is This Desire"
 
nbelcik said:
Fuck, I was gonna mention Pop. I'm gonna go with Too Fast For Love by Mötley Crüe, I just saw them last weekend and they played some cuts from TFFL. It's a great punky, hard rock album with some killer songs. I'll probably get shit for liking the Crüe, but they made three great albums (TFFL, Shout at the Devil, and Dr. Feelgood). They always get lumped in with the hair metal bands, which isn't fair to them.
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Agree on TFFL, gets completely overshadowed in the mainstream, but some of their best work.
 
cobl04 said:
iYup where do you stand on Morrissey currently? Not that I've followed any of his solo work (or indeed even heard anything bar The Queen is Dead) but I'm growing mightily tired of the man. But perhaps that's because Pitchfork and their ilk know they'll get hits if they write about him.
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Not to pick on you but wth? The mans been solo for decades now and you're saying that you've not heard anything since The Queen Is Dead? How could you possibly be growing tired of him?

It just sounds like you've read more about him in mags than actually listened to him..and that to me is really strange..reading about a musician - and a brilliant one, at that - more than listening to him/her.

Also I could quite possibly be guilty of it also, when it comes to say Kanye or Gaga, but that's just because of how in the mainstream eye they are. However, I still know all their current tunes..
 
cobl04 said:
Sounds like me with Kanye. I think my latest opinion of him has been based on the lyrics that have been quoted in reviews of his latest albums, which all seem angry, judgemental and lacking any subtlety. I should look deeper.
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Kanye is an apt comparison in the sense that both are polarizing. No one seems to feel lukewarm about Morrissey.

gvox said:
Not to pick on you but wth? The mans been solo for decades now and you're saying that you've not heard anything since The Queen Is Dead? How could you possibly be growing tired of him?

It just sounds like you've read more about him in mags than actually listened to him..and that to me is really strange..reading about a musician - and a brilliant one, at that - more than listening to him/her.
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Well if you are a reader of something like Pitchfork, his name does come up a lot. Of course I would recommend hearing more from The Smiths especially, but I see where Cobbler is coming from.

Regarding R.E.M., I too feel strongly about Monster. I played the hell out of that thing when I like 14 or 15 and so still love a lot of those songs. There is something to be said for those albums you get when you are young; I remember spending every last dime I had on certain albums, so I really had no choice but to live with them and get to know them really well, whether I was immediately taken with them or not.
 
iron yuppie said:
Another for me: Morrissey's Southpaw Grammar. It is certainly a departure for him in musical terms; I guess "prog" would be the appropriate term. His voice though is in a very rich tone - a tone he seems only to have had for that album - and the 10-minute-plus bookends are both stunners. "Southpaw" in particular is one of his best solo tracks.

And speaking of Radiohead, King of Limbs is an album I hold very dear. Ironically reminds me of a very positive time I spent in London.
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Agree with both of these, especially the latter.

Regarding Moz's autobiography, a lot of the drivel written about him by the press is just that, drivel. He alludes to how, in the 00's, he was as happy as he's ever been in his life. But whenever he made comment about something, the headlines were typically something along the lines of "heaven knows, guess who is still miserable now?!" He is always scathing in how he says things, but these days, he is certainly not miserable or defeatist. He comes across as quite humble in his autobiography, and boy is he grateful for the successes that he has had in his life.


Sent from a barge floating through the docks of Dublin
 
gvox said:
Not to pick on you but wth? The mans been solo for decades now and you're saying that you've not heard anything since The Queen Is Dead? How could you possibly be growing tired of him?

It just sounds like you've read more about him in mags than actually listened to him..and that to me is really strange..reading about a musician - and a brilliant one, at that - more than listening to him/her.

Also I could quite possibly be guilty of it also, when it comes to say Kanye or Gaga, but that's just because of how in the mainstream eye they are. However, I still know all their current tunes..
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Well yeah, exactly what iYup said. I follow a million music sites, and most of them post about Morrissey because it gets hits.

Like this: Morrissey's Bodyguard Sues, Claims Morrissey Wanted Him to "Hurt" Fan Site Operator | News | Pitchfork

You can't compare it with Kanye and Gaga, their songs are everywhere...
 
I've heard two Kanye songs off the last two albums, and they were both a result of me clicking links that were on this site. I can only name 2 Gaga songs, and that's because Glee and Southpark told me about them. In the mean time, I've been stuck listening to fm radio at work and in my own car due to lack of working CD player or iPod. Yet I'm pretty sure I've heard how soon is now 4 times in the last 2 months.
 
The Cure - self-titled

This was actually fairly popular in Bang and Clatter when it released, but it seems I'm the only fan of it still posting based on past threads. I personally think it had a really good mix of both dark and pop songs. I really enjoyed hearing all of the new songs on this tour, and they seemed to be excited about playing them. I didn't feel that way about any of the new songs they played on the 4:13 tour. Lost was freaking awesome as a concert opener.
 
Vlad n U 2 said:
The first album that comes to mind for me is the Manics' Know Your Enemy, it was the next album after their biggest and most commercially successful and it was this sprawling 70-odd minute mess that didn't register much positivity from the critics at all (RS gave the whole thing no stars!). The background of the album is just as interesting as the music in it, it was essentially a deliberate fuck up of substantial proportion, not much cohesiveness, a variety of ventures into different styles and most importantly, the sound of a band who at the time did not seem to give a shit about what the critics would think (although as their career went on naturally they put a bit more stock into what the critics thought). For all those reasons above, I have a strong admiration for it, it's not even near perfect, there are a few songs I don't have much of an interest in but overall it's a big thrill to listen to it.

It's not the sort of album that is mentioned among their best with any regularity, and fan opinion is still divided on it, it's the sort of album that in the context of their career can only provoke strong, love or hate reactions. For as little critical positivity as it attracted I do tend to think that it is a 'necessary' album in the space of their entire discography.
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I'm a really big fan of Found That Soul and Let Robeson Sing. Let Robeson Sing is probably one of my most listened to Manics songs, actually. EDIT: I checked Last FM, it was #3 but is now tied for #2 after listening to it as I type).

I think Radiohead's Pablo Honey is FAR better than most give it credit, and holds up better than a good deal of alt. rock or grunge albums that came out around the same time. I like Blow Out more than anything on King of Limbs other than Lotus Flower.
 
The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me
The Jesus And Mary Chain - Stoned And Dethroned
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
Brian Eno - Before And After Science
The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground
Radiohead - Hail To The Thief

And I'll second the mentions of Southpaw Grammar by Morrissey, Wish by The Cure and the post-AFTP (but also pre-Reveal) R.E.M. albums.
 
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.
 
greenlight7-11 said:
The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me
The Jesus And Mary Chain - Stoned And Dethroned
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My two favorite albums by these bands.

Pleased I love partially because of how eclectic it is, but considerably more confident than the schizophrenic Hootenanny. And with the departure of Bob Stinson, we finally get to hear how good a guitar player Westerberg is, and he's better than Bob. I'm sure many fans think the production is a little too slick but you can't fault the band for recording with Jim Dickinson at Ardent in tribute to Big Star. Not sure how underrated I'd call it, though, as it did place very high in that year's Pazz & Jop poll. And it's not too hard to defend an album that has Alex Chilton, Skyway, and Can't Hardly Wait on it.

Stoned & Dethroned is atypical in the JAMC discography because of how acoustic and mellow it is. But it's nice to hear the Reid Bros.' melodies without all the noise for once. Such a pleasant, easy listen. I know a couple other fans who really treasure this album.
 
American Life - Madonna

and I know I will get a shellacking for this but...













Rudebox - Robbie Williams
 
liamcool said:
If it wasn't for fucking WENDY TIME
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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.

As for other albums, the only one I can think of at the moment is Interpol's self-titled but I've mentioned that like ten times before on this forum. Oh and Bloc Party's Weekend in the City, which I rate equally to Silent Alarm. Both five star albums.
 
Some of these are among my favorites in general:

Mudhoney - Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
Porcupine Tree - Stupid Dream
New Order - Get Ready
Soundgarden - Down on the Upside
Depeche Mode - Ultra
Pearl Jam - Binaural/Riot Act
R.E.M. - Up
The National - Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers
Faith No More - King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime
Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
Mad Season - Above
Passengers - Original Soundtracks 1
The Verve - Voyager 1
Tool - 10,000 Days
The Cure - Bloodflowers
Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
The Rolling Stones - Goats Head Soup
Doves - Kingdom of Rust
Built to Spill - There is No Enemy
Nine Inch Nails - Still

I see New Adventures in Hi-Fi and Wish have already been mentioned, so that's covered.
 
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