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Underground > Radio & Music >

Great lost albums

  
 
lord nuneaton savage
10:35 / 29.07.05
I'm sure everyone into their music has a favourite album that they feel has been unjustly ignored or was critically reviled in it's time.
I was reminded of this when I was having a conversation with a bunch of friends the other day and I mentioned my love for the Boo Radley's mighty "C'mon Kids" only to be greeted with hoots of derision.

I've always thought that in a just world "C'mon Kids" would be thought of as one of the great lost British psychedelic records. It's staggeringly ambitious (occasionally over ambitious, but so what?), completely unique and unlike anything else they ever did.

One supposes that after the "Wake up Boo" nonsense no one even gave it a proper listen and as a result it languishes in obscurity, but I defy anyone who gives it the time of day not to be overawed by it's sheer reach.

The singles pulled off it ("Look in the box", the title track and, I think, "Ride the tiger") unsurprisingly flopped. I say unsurprisingly because it's one of those albums where the elements are impossible to subtract from the whole. The overall effect of the album is that of a mosaic. It only works when all the pieces are in the right place.

At it's best it sounds like the migrained fever-dreams of a child home from school, hallucinating in front of daytime television. It is utterly baffling and beautiful and reveals more each time you listen to it. A Brit-psych masterpiece.

Right that's (one of) mine, anyone got any more? Say something about each one as well. Let's not just have lists.

Bring it...
 
 
agent darkbootie
15:54 / 29.07.05
A difficult topic, this, because in Our Modern World (tm) so much great music is ignored in the shadow of the Corporate Noise Pump.

But if I had to spotlight one album mostly overlooked by hipsters and media alike (though, full disclosure, it did rank high in some big-ass "Spin" poll years back) I'd have to pick Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea."

(And here's the obligatory Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000019PA/qid=1122653518/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-1273104-2405553?v=glance&s=music&n=507846)

An album both haunting and full of raw joyful noise, it sounds like a group of divine retarded angels started a garage band.

I was going to paste some lyrics in here, but nah. Lyrics without music are like lingerie without the girl. But trust me, it's great, rare, and worth loving.
 
 
This Sunday
18:19 / 29.07.05
Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen's 'Lost in the Ozone' is just a helluva thing, but there's only one song on it ever gets played anywhere('Hot Rod Lincoln' cover), so the rest of the album has dropped off dead. Fun, relaxed and energetic.
Was listening to this when, oddly enough, when trying to call into NYC just after the 9/11 stuff hit the news, and remember the airline hijacking striking a strange and un-subtle chord, yes.

And, The Shaggs must show up on this list, yes indeed they must. This isn't a 'oh it is old and cute, I will wallow in nostalgia' thing, either... this could come out tomorrow and I'd buy it and love it. Strange sound, strange background, excellent music like you couldn't studio-engineer without being a young white-girl P Funk - but, y'know, better than 'young white girl P Funk' sounds. There's mp3s on www.theshaggs.com, so go, download, listen in awe.
 
 
+#'s, - names
19:49 / 29.07.05
Manfred Mann & the Solar Earth Band's Solar Fire is teh awesoma!!!¡!!!¡¡¡¡!!!!!
 
 
TeN
20:18 / 29.07.05
I wouldn't call In The Aeroplane... "lost, ignored, or underapreciated" in the least. But God damn if it isn't the greatest thing ever put to tape!

as for my own list...
- I've always felt that Hello Nasty by the Beastie Boys was unfairly outshined by their other albums.
- The older stuff by Deerhoof is rather unheralded (despite my loving it as much as if not more than their more recent output).
- ...Manitoba's (now Caribou's) debut album, Start Breaking My Heart, shares a similar fate.
- ...As do many of Of Montreal's older works (my favorite of theirs is actually their lowest rated on AMG - The Early Four Track Recordings).
- Simian's album We Are Your Friends is underappreciated alright, but even that is better known than their (better in my opinion) debut, Chemistry is What We Are.
- Daydream Nation is not Sonic Youth's best album. I'm not quite sure which is (my thoughts change daily... scratch that... hourly), but I think Daydream gets an unfair share of praise for a band with such an extensive catalog of great music.
- The Velvet Underground is better than The Velvet Underground and Nico.
- ...that's not blaming the Chanteuse herself though. Her album Chelsea Girl has been unfairly ignored in it's own right.
- I'm not sure if a soundtrack can be called "ignored" or "reviled," but the Solaris (George Clooney version) one is fucking brilliant and beautiful and you should all pick up a copy.
- even if they broke the top 100, The Books would still be underappreciated in my mind. Their first two albums are especially incredible.
- Tests, an early album by The Microphones, has alot of great songs on it. it's worth picking up.
- The Kinks are underrated in general.
- Clouds Taste Mettalic and In a Priest Driven Ambulance by The Flaming Lips are both pretty damn good... possibly as good as the two the band is best known for: Transmissions from the Sattelite Heart and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.
- I've never understood why Kettle Whistle by Jane's Addiction is so hated. Sure, it has alot of old material, but you also get some great new songs, along with odds and ends, alternate versions, and live tracks. AMG calls "My Cat's Name is Maceo" "embarrassing" and claims it "detract[s] from the Jane's myth." I love that song! Oh, and as long as we're talking about underrated albums, I might as well mention an overrated one: Strays is a sad, sorry, pitiful excuse for a comeback album.
- Gilberto Gil: '60s tropicalia genius, beautiful (danceable) music maker, Creative Commons supporter, and Brazillian minister of culture, needs to be given more praise.
- It is my personal belief that Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is the Smashing Pumpkin's best album. Nothing you say to me will change this.
- And last but not least, I couldn't leave this thread without mentioning Beauty and the Beat, which currently claims the position of favorite hip-hop album ever.
 
 
Haus of Mystery
20:28 / 29.07.05
I lost my copy of Raekwon's 'Only built for Cuban Lynx' the other day. That was annoying...
 
 
This Sunday
20:56 / 29.07.05
What I want to understand is: Why are The Kinks so underappreciated and ignored? So good... and yet, I get so many blank stares when I mention them.
 
 
Benny the Ball
21:27 / 29.07.05
I have been desperately trying to get a hold of two Temptations albums of late, one of which is on a limited edition CD release, but I can't get a copy for some reason, the computer doesn't like the UK as a sending address (even though the IOM and just about every small island in the world is there). A lot of their later stuff is actually great, and very under-rated - stuff like Masterpiece, and A Song For You - But my unjustly ignored album would be Here, My Dear, by Marvin Gaye. To many folk go to What's Going On, and completely ignore this fantasticlly bitter sweet album about love and divorce - it has three or four brilliant tracks that sizzle with Gaye's cross-mixed vocals and is just great, okay.
 
 
TeN
22:00 / 29.07.05
Daytripper: I'd like to know as well. I think part of it has to do with being outshined by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who simultaneously in their day and basically being turned into one hit wonders ("You Really Got Me"). But is that really an excuse? I've been on a major Kinks-fix lately... can't stop listening to "All of My Friends Were There" and "People Take Pictures of Each Other." Such lovely, catchy music and fantastic lyrics to boot (I'd post some, but, what shaft of gigsville said).
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
23:12 / 29.07.05
Yes. As Ray Davies goes to the post office to collect his meagre pension, thence to purchase some cup-a-soup that will be his only meal this week, he must wonder at the cruel god that starved him of public acclaim and commercial success.

Have you kids been hitting the dog crack again?
 
 
This Sunday
00:37 / 30.07.05
I'm not saying the Kinks are totally gone, dead, lost to the ages and never to be heard again in public, or that they're the sort of thing you don't want to be seen purchasing at a CD shop, but still... If I mention Jagger or Lennon to a random person, odds are they'll connect the name to the musician, same with well, The Beatles or The (Rolling) Stones, but The Kinks and Ray Davies seem to just garner blank stares and groping like I'd said, "Y'know, Men at Work was a brilliant concept killed by bad marketing and should have gone on to become the most wonderful ambassadors of creativity and world peace - but they didn't have Bootsy Collins, so, eh fuck'em."
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
00:59 / 30.07.05
(It's all a bit like the "why's Kurt Vonnegut so underrated" stuff that was going on in Books a while back, isn't it?)

My favourite "lost" album is Assassins by Into A Circle. Bee, then late of Psychic TV and Getting The Fear, now of Futon, dragged his icy cheekbones through ten of the most beautiful goth-pop interpretations of Burroughs I've ever heard, with Rose McDowall bringing the lovely. It's fucking impossible to get hold of now, and Christ knows what happened to my vinyl, but if any 'lithers have it, I'll swap you a copy for tons of cool stuff.

Despite its target audience probably drawing it away from the realms of large sales, it's actually really rather lovely and I think could have sold a hell of a lot better than it did.
 
 
Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo
20:03 / 31.07.05
My favorite "lost" album is one that was actually lost for a while, then came out, and is now lost again.

Prince's "Black Album"...it was yanked from stores right before it was supposed to come out, travelled as a bootleg, and then got a VERY limited pressing in the early 90's. After it was pulled, Prince's work did a serious downturn for me, and I don't think he's ever really artistically recovered.
 
 
lord nuneaton savage
07:47 / 01.08.05
Regarding the idea of an underrated Sonic Youth album I would go for "Experimental jet set trash and no star". My fondness for it may just be because it was the first SY album I ever bought but it does seem to get left out of the lists.

When does that mega-expanded version of "Goo" come out anyhoo?
 
 
haus of fraser
12:50 / 01.08.05
The kinks- Underated? eh? am I the only one who remembers br*tp*p?! ray davies's name was constantly being dropped by everyone from Blur to Menswear- even Cathy Dennis did a cover of Waterloo Sunset in a vague attempt to cash in on their popularity at the time- Loads of number one singles and loads of albums sales- they went a bit crap in the 70's and have been peddling the nostalgia circuit since the mid 80's- maybe this is the reason they're not mentioned in the same breath as the Beatles & The Stones- but who else is?

Anyway...
My underated album is Pavement Wowee Zowee- a comercial flop- where they were meant to carry on with the pop formula of cut your hair they came out with this, in the middle of the heady Ray Davis inspired br*tp*p years- needless to say it didn't do brilliantly in terms of sales- but imho its their last great album- I remember seeing them at Reading in 94 and they previewed a couple of the tracks- and i remember being very very excited about it having done that rare thing of playing new songs and they don't sound like shit! They hardly ever did songs from it live- but they opened with grounded at there last ever show at Brixton Academy- and it was fucking ace.

Other tracks on the album seemed to progress from the first two in a natural way that I always felt was a bit forced on the last couple of records. Oh yeah and I liked that when they did press for the first single 'Rattled By La Rush'- they said it was 'an ode to Ian Rush's wife...'
 
 
TeN
17:50 / 01.08.05
you know what I forgot to mention? there are alot of great Boards of Canada tracks and even whole albums, that most people have never heard because they're out of print, or had incredibly limited runs. Hooper Bay, In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country, and (the slightly more well known) Twoism are all on equal footing with their two full lengths. The stuff before that (A Few Old Tunes, Hi Scores, etc.) isn't quite as good (it's more conventional electronica territory), but others might like it.
 
 
agent darkbootie
21:20 / 10.08.05
OK... I'll jump in and admit admit a closeted secret: I don't own a single Kink's album. So while I can't call them "lost," I will ask the flat-out question:

Which Kinks Album Should I Get First?
 
 
lord nuneaton savage
10:26 / 11.08.05
Get the remastered and expanded 3cd "Village green preservation society". It's their best album from their golden period, but, while your in the shop, have a look in the rack for a cheap singles collection of theirs, 'cos you definitely need to get hold of the early singles as well, especially "Til the end of the day" which is one of the best pop songs of all time.
 
 
Mistoffelees
19:55 / 11.08.05
The Trees were a wonderful band, that I recently discovered. They´re a bit like Fairport Convention (folk with amazing female singer), but with long eguitar solos like the Dead.

I found this description (I´m not so good at describing music):

Trees was a five-person folk-rock band who produced two albums for CBS in 1970 and then faded away to do other things.

Richie Unterberger in the 'All Music Guide' writes ~ “ In 1970, this British quintet released a couple of albums that made no bones about aping the approach of Fairport Convention (then at their peak). A mixture of traditional folk songs and originals, extended electric-guitar heavy arrangements, and a female singer who took many of the lead vocals -- it worked for Fairport. It didn't work as well for the Trees, for several reasons … The group broke up after two similar albums for British CBS, although they continued to play for a while in the early '70s with some personnel changes. Boshell, in an unlikely turn of events, joined Kiki Dee's Band, and wrote her biggest hit, "I've Got the Music in Me."

Those two albums are amazing!
 
 
uncle retrospective
20:35 / 11.08.05
I'd have to put forward Regular Fries' Accept the Signal.
It's a mess of an album, mixing indie rock, dub and post rock. It shouldn't work, but my God it does, it's a chilled out, swaggering mess of a master piece. From the dubbed up madness of King Kong (with it's chant "gotta be a monkey if you like King Kong") to the post rock intro of Dream Lottery, it shuffles round like a clubber at 8 in the morning not quite sure where it is. Then it turns creepy with a cover of "The Pink Room" and they show up the fact Angelo Badalamenti forgot to put a therimin in. They finish the album with a Mercury Rev remix of Anno Domini (which for some reason has a lot of Whale song in it) which morphs into the original version a huge upbeat if Madchesterish ending number which ends with a house Diva trying to build the mood of the Great Gig in the Sky.

It's a magic, magic album. You should all own it.
 
 
Not Here Still
08:11 / 12.08.05
With regard to the Boo Radleys: have you heard Brave Captain? It's Martin carr's solo project after the Boos, a little more electronic but still fairly classic Carr songs. Worth checking out.

Anyways, seeing the publicity for his second album in the Gruniad today reminded me just how good Baxter Dury's first album, Len Parrot's Memorial Lift, was.

I don't know if I can categorise it easily, which may well be a good thing; kind of sounds like a band trying to play quietly to avoid waking the landlady upstairs at 3am, with Baxter's voice a cracked whisper in among gorgeous tunes. It sounds very vintage, but in a good way; it's a nicely faded pair of jeans or a charity shop top which you can't stop wearing.

It quotes from people like the Velvet Underground (Oh Sweet Nuthin...) but without wearing its influences on its sleeve; it has some top-class people playing on it from bands like Portishead*, but without any "hey, we've got Portishead on the record, let's go wicky-wicky!" stuff. It's the kind of album you could put on when ypu couldn't sleep which wouldn't make you annoyed you couldn't sleep, in other words. Well worth a listen.

*Thinking of Portishead, I reckon the Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man record didn't get the recognition it deserved too, though it did get a lot of favourable noises made about it at the time...
 
 
rizla mission
13:34 / 12.08.05
I'm increasingly of the opinion that The Kinks are so good that they could be the most popular band in the world and STILL be under-rated.
 
 
rizla mission
14:23 / 12.08.05
And while I'm here;

Party of One - 'Caught the Blast'

Got bugger all press coverage, mixed reviews and I'm informed by a FatCat records associate that it sold "about 8 copies".

Which is a crying shame cos it's fucking brilliant - a great set of catchy, intelligent songs about man's inhumanity to man dealing with various taboo subjects like the holocaust, gulf war syndrome, Iraq, suicidal depression etc. in a way that's neither sanctimonious nor tasteless. It's bitter and funny and fucked up and honest and cool, and it has some awesome tunes.

"Shotgun Funeral" and "Six Million Anonymous Deceased" sound kinda like early Pavement if they were really pissed off and should have been the crowd-pulling indie-rock hits of the post-9/11 era.

I'm making it sound really bad, aren't I? Fuck it, just download it for goodness sake and have a listen.
 
 
Mouse
15:24 / 12.08.05
How about Bark Psychosis' 1994 record "Hex"? Very few people seem to know it, and all the people I play bits of it too become very interested. It's some kind of missing link between Talk Talk and Hood, and is one of the most delicious shoegazerish records I know. The recent (ten years late) follow-up "Codename Dustsucker" is also well worth a listen.
 
 
matthew.
17:15 / 12.08.05
Is this the thread where we get to name drop the most obscure crap in the universe so that we all look way smarter because only losers listen to anything mainstream?

Or is this thread where music geeks jerk each other off saying "No, Zappa wasn't too self-indulgent!" or "No! Anything that's on rock radio is just insipid copies of the good ol'days!"

Anyways, my favorite lost album is Honey by Richard Gorge. Great timeless album with lyrics that do fucking matter.
 
 
GogMickGog
16:26 / 13.08.05
Gay Dad's superlative "Leisure Noise".

Overlook the fact that Cliff Jones buried himself deep beneath a landslide of graniose self-love, and you have an unloved gem of a record. The big singles "Joy", "To earth with love", and "Oh Jim!" are impeccable, funny wee nuggets of condensed pop genius, and hey even do sensitive on "Jesus Christ", the album's closer. I will carry my love of this album to the grave.
 
 
Haus of Mystery
16:31 / 13.08.05
No Matt, this is the thread where you turn up and act like a prick.
 
 
lord nuneaton savage
10:41 / 16.08.05
Right, I'm going to name drop a completely obscure piece of crap and further give this thread a bad name.

Comus-First utterance.
A completely ignored acid-folk record from t'early 70s, that has since been dropped as a reference by Current 93, Nurse With Wound and all that World Serpent bunch.

Quite simply it is one of the most aggresively WRONG records I have ever heard. Subject matter includes hanging, necrophilia, rape and incest all sung using vari-speed on the vocals. The effect is somewhat unsettling, like being surrounded by an enclosing ring of pinky & perkys holding burning brands and shrieking at you. Horrid.

I love it, needless to say.

Musically, I suppose, it's close to folk, but played with a hard strumming aggression that doesn't bear much resemblence to the Incredible String Band.

It's also the only record I've ever put on in the warehouse at work that has been forcibly removed by my co-workers. It is the very essence of eeevil.

It's just been reissued on CD as well so it shouldn't be too hard to find if your interested. Just don't play it if your trying to impress your sweetheart.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
21:32 / 16.08.05
Ooh, I'll second you on the Comus album. (Although it DID remind me of the Incredible String Band in many ways). I can totally see why the World Serpent crowd dig it- it's pretty much the definition of "apocalyptic folk", isn't it?
 
 
Not Here Still
08:19 / 18.08.05
Little more than a year after Wake Up! was released, The Boo Radleys released a denser follow-up, C'mon Kids, which harked back to their more experimental roots.

At the time they were accused of trying to ditch fair-weather fans.

"I'm not even going to answer that," Carr says.

"It was a bunch of songs that I had written that we recorded; it only seems inaccessible because everyone had given up and started listening to dreary pub rock records. Some things haven't changed."

Martin Carr on C'mon Kids - more from him here
 
 
_Boboss
10:00 / 18.08.05
they were on bbc four the other night. i love those funny little scouser guys.
 
  
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