I was about to look at posting my current Top 10 albums of 2006 on the other board and I noticed one of them I rate highly was the subject of some discussion as it was felt it didn't measure up to their previous two.
The band I'm mentioning is Augie March and their album this year is Moo, You Bloody Choir. It seems a harsh call that an album gets underrated due to the expectations of what came before. In my view the new album is fantastic but the previous one was for me perhaps the best album of the 00's and yes it doesn't reach those lofty heights, but in it's competition for 2006 I still play it more then most anything else I've purchased this year. For a band that is still relatively unknown for the casual observer most will pass it by having read reviews comparing it unfavourably to what came before..the forgotten album.
I thought it might be interesting to hear about anyone else's favorite artists and their wrongly convicted output. I'll add a couple more to start the discussion.
The Waterboys - Room to Roam Got slammed by the critics after Fishermens Blues but this contains some fantastic tunes and a couple of cringeworthy moments but still well worth having and my 3rd favorite waterboys album. Dream Harder on the other hand...well the critcs got it right for mine.
Elvis Costello - Punch the Clock Again contains some of my favorite Costello pop but rarely sited as one of his better albums.
The album that always makes me shake my head in this regard is the Byrds' "The Ballad of Easy Rider". I've seen some really scathing reviews of this album but I think it's their best post-Crosby album by far and the one I play most often.
Any album that contains the title track, their best Dylan cover, Woody Guthrie's "Deportees", and "Jesus is Just Alright" will do me.
Young didn't allow CDs to be made of On The Beach until very recently, so only the people who really sought out copies have heard it. Time Fades Away I think still hasn't gotten a CD. Even though these two albums were originally part of a 'trilogy' with Tonight's the Night.
Frank Black has suffered a career of albums that fail to match his bands output but one I think should have got more recognition then it did was Show me Your Tears, a return to form that got sandwiched between a couple of not so hot releases. I know I'd kinda given up on him after Teenager of the Year and he's recently disappointed again with his recent double release.
Well regarding augie marche i bought their newest album after reading many great reviews for it compared to the other album, saying it was more focused.
So far I am very pleased with it, although they didn't win anything tonight at the ARIA awards.
they got beaten by wolfmother everytime, what do you guys think of wolfmother?
The head of state has called for me, but I don't have time for him
Bevis Frond's 1993 It Just Is is often refered to as a fan's only album. I don't hear as many mentions of it among other Frondheads though. Not sure why when it's just as brilliant as Nick's other '90s releases.
Dylan's Street Legal. After Blood on the Tracks and Desire and before the run of the Christian based albums, this album feels forgotten and unappreciated. Maybe it takes a few spins to sink in, but I totally enjoy it.
Van Morrison's Veedon Fleece may only seem forgotten to me, I don't know, but I never hear or read much about it. My favorite Van song is on this masterpiece- "Linden Arden Stole the Highlights". Almost definately forgotten is the album that followed Fleece three years later, 1977's A Period of Transition. It was more R&B flavored, nothing mystical here, just a good attempt at organic funk. Though that could have made it lost among Van fans, I suppose.
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Frank Black has suffered a career of albums that fail to match his bands output but one I think should have got more recognition then it did was Show me Your Tears, a return to form that got sandwiched between a couple of not so hot releases. I know I'd kinda given up on him after Teenager of the Year and he's recently disappointed again with his recent double release.
I'm not familiar with the entirety of the Catholics' output, but another album that I really enjoy (more than Teenager of the Year) is Dog in the Sand. Great songs and great variety.
Spot on Paradox. That's the other one of his that I would rate. I think thats the album Joey Santiago plays on a handful of tracks for the first time in his solo output. From his other stuff though I can usually only salvage a few odd tracks, the rest sounds like lazy bar band tripe compared to what he can do. He has the Ryan Adams disease of releasing anything he records.
I'd say the first two albums Frank recorded with the Catholics were pretty good (Frank Black and the Catholics and Pistolero). The eponymous debut especially has some great tunes on it, like "All My Ghosts" and "Dog Gone".
----- Use all your well-learned politesse or I'll lay your soul to waste.
I'm firmly of the opinion that the Who's post-Keith Moon output, scant as it is, is unduly overlooked.
Face Dances is a solid three-star record, with some great tunes like "Daily Records" and "You Better You Bet". Daltrey's vocals aren't quite up to snuff, but Pete can still write a great tune.
You have to look a little harder for the quality stuff on It's Hard, but I've always been fond of tunes like "Cry if You Want", "One Life's Enough" and "One at a Time". From what I've seen, they've been pulling out "Cry...." on their current tour. Oh, and I'd add The Who by Numbers to the list too-if only for "How Many Friends" and "Blue, Red and Grey".
Other nominees: Pink Floyd, The Final Cut OK, they're not one of my favourite artists anymore, but I played this album to death
Elvis Costello, Punch the Clock Yeah, it's overproduced and there are a couple of clangers, but there's no disguising the high calibre of tunes like "Shipbuilding" and "Let Them all Talk."
Originally posted by Art Vandelay: Neil Young - On The Beach
Is this really overlooked? From what I gather, it's one of his most critically acclaimed albums, probably only behind Tonight's the Night.
And I'm a huge Gordon Lightfoot fan. Late in his career he made two fantastic albums that never got much love, Shadows and Waiting For You. I highly recommend both, though if you're new to Lightfoot, you've gotta start with Sundown or Summertime Dream.
-------------------------------------------------- Anatomy to me is a homesick stomach and a broken heart
Originally posted by Art Vandelay: Neil Young - On The Beach and Time Fades Away
Young didn't allow CDs to be made of On The Beach until very recently, so only the people who really sought out copies have heard it. Time Fades Away I think still hasn't gotten a CD. Even though these two albums were originally part of a 'trilogy' with Tonight's the Night.
Yeah, I agree with "On the Beach". I had a cousin who gave me that record when I was in Kindergarten and I played it for like 3 years straight. Eventually my record player broke and I got a tape deck and totally forgot about this record until it was released on CD. Great album!
An underrated classic I always plug at every opportunity is Air's second album '10,000hz Legend'. Critics mainly didn't seem to like how it's dark, proggy mood contrasted so much with the summer pop of their debut 'Moon Safari'. In fact this contrast is it's main attribute, as it shows the band weren't interested in replicating a sound which by that stage had been ripped off wholesale by lesser artists.
10,000hz Legend is definitely in my all time top 5 albums and for my money the greatest electronic album of the past 25 years. It also avoids the pitfall of taking too many cues from dance music, which means it's dated very well in comparison to electronic based albums contemporary to that period. Tunes such as 'Radian' and 'Lucky and Unhappy' are layered so deeply that it does take a little time to fully appreciate their wonderful texture, but that's why this album serves as such a good antidote to the "instant gratification" of a standard hook-laden 3 minute pop or indie tune.
It's funny, many acts are criticised for lacking innovation or developmental ambition, but as soon as they produce something truly innovative they're criticised for deviating too much the path that they themselves have created . . .
Paddy that is a great choice. Air did take some risks on that album (not least of which has to be that album cover which looked like a cheesy Stix copy). People in the City is one of my favorite songs of theirs and How Does It Make You Feel? somehow makes what is essentially a very cold premise seem incredibly personal. I was never a fan of the Beck collaboration though and I wish they hadn't screwed around with the ending quite so much on Radio #1 but minor in comparison to the rest which are top shelf.
Speaking of Beck, and not being a huge fan of Odelay, I would nominate Mutations as the one album of his that is unfairly overlooked. I'm not a huge fan of Becks but that album just has an emotional draw to it that his others besides Sea Change can't quite match. I also like Sea Change but Mutations is the one Beck album I'd always hold on to if I had to pick.
Another one a little from left field is Kitchens of Distinction, "Strange Free World". All of their albums are unfortunately forgotten but this is truly a lost classic and one to search out if you want to hear an album that expertly blends sweet guitar noise against some of the most beautiful soaring melodies you can imagine. Definately one of my Top 10 albums of all time and the most forgotten of all albums in my list (technically though it was very well received by critics at the time)
This is a great topic. For me I would go with Today! by the Beach Boys. There are a lot of Beach Boys albums that I think would qualify - Wild Honey and Smiley Smile being up high on the list. They get mentioned quite a lot though in discussions like this. Today! is the first Beach Boys album that's solid the whole way through instead of a collection of singles surrounded by throwaways. This album has hits like Dance, Dance, Dance and When I Grow Up to be a Man that are more the "classic" Beach Boys' sound, but also amazing ballads like Please Let Me Wonder and Kiss Me Baby. For me it gets played nearly as much as Pet Sounds.
Speaking of Beck, and not being a huge fan of Odelay, I would nominate Mutations as the one album of his that is unfairly overlooked. I'm not a huge fan of Becks but that album just has an emotional draw to it that his others besides Sea Change can't quite match. I also like Sea Change but Mutations is the one Beck album I'd always hold on to if I had to pick.
Yes Wax I completely agree with you about Mutations (and indeed Sea Change). It's a fantastic album and 'Nobody's Fault but My Own' happens to be my favourite Beck song, along with 'Lonesome Tears' from Sea Change. And yes, Odelay seems to be seen as almost a signature album for Beck (as Moon Safari was for Air) in the way people don't seem to understand why he just doesn't shove out Odelay sounding albums for the rest of his career, which he's done to some extent with Guero to very limited success
REM's UP is too long, but I think it's up there with their best albums.
I had some affection for UP as well, a lot of that though hinges on Daysleeper which I've always loved. I wouldn't put it in my top 5 REM albums though, but it would sit somehwere alongside New Adventures in Hi Fi just outside. I never saw an album by a major artist hit the bargain bins quicker then that album though. The new one, Around the Sun left me totally disillusioned though, I couldn't find a single track on that made me want to revisit it, quite a fall from grace, even though Reveal itself was also disappointing it at least had a couple of songs that were worthwhile.
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