Entertainment For Lively Minds
Three unsung albums that you return to.....
Posted by Steve Hill on 8 April 2010 - 6:33pm.
We all have albums that we love probably more than we should, probably more than they derserve. Not the greatest albums ever, nonetheless albums we happily return to. No reasons need to be given, no background stories. Name 3. For me:-
The Blue Aeroplanes - Swagger
Shack -HMS Fable
King Creosote - Bombshell.
And the massive?
- More from Steve Hill.
- Login or register to post comments
-
:
Malcolm McLaren - Duck Rock
Lewis Taylor - Lewis Taylor
Daryl Hall - Sacred Songs
Sacred Songs
Good call! I recently picked up the CD, having pretty much worn out my vinyl copy. Robert Fripp of course regards it as the third part of his trilogy, that also includes 'Exposure' and 'Peter Gabriel II'. Excellent.
Nice to know there's another fan
How wonderful is Babs and Babs?
Sacred Songs
Robert Fripp - Exposure_Third Edition contains Daryl Hall vocals missed off the release in its original manifestation
3 from me
Waiting For The Floods - The Armoury Show
Vehicles And Animals - Athlete
Sea Of Love - The Adventures
I think they all suffered from being not particularly fashionable at the time (and perhaps even less so over time). All splendid as well.
I would have easily included HMS Fable as well - fabulous album.
hmm...
The Smiths - "Hatful of Hollow" (Their best album - fact!)
Orchestral Manouveres in the Dark - "Dazzle Ships" (or any of their first four albums - way underrated)
Nik Kershaw - "Human Racing" (personal taste)
Good call with
Dazzle Ships, I think that some kind of misguided musical snobbery stops it from getting the accolades it deserves. I saw OMD in 2008 at Bham Symphony and the start of that gig was perfect; and intro of Dazzle Ships, first song was Stanlow, then Genetic Engineering.
And I was most impressed when I went to see Black Kids around the same time (Oct 08) and their intro music was 'ABC Auto Industry'!
Don't know if you have investigated the Peel Sessions album, but it is sublime.
By the way, The Smiths are my favourite band, almost forgot to mention that, so agree with that one too!
I too saw OMD..
..at the Architecture and Morality gigs in Hammersmith 2007. The A&M section of the show really worked - very tasteful, with some Peter Saville backdrops to boot. The subsequent "greatest hits" section of the show did, however, border on the embarassing - all Stock, Aitken, Waterman sequencers and dodgy uncle at wedding dancing.
I remember the certain members of OMD panning the stuff Mclusky put out after their departure in 1990 - so humble pie must have been wolfed down in tonnes when they had to play "Seven Seas".
The OMD Peel Sessions is fantastic - I particularly love "Dancing".
RE: The Smiths - I must have lost concentration when writing the above - I meant to put "Strangeways" - but "Hatful" probably gets second place in any case
.
Eli and the 13th Confession - Laura Nyro;
Here, My Dear - Marvin Gaye;
The Virgin Suicides Soundtrack - Air.
I miss Laura
"Poverty Train" is such a great song. Loved it instantly.
Pink Floyd - The Wall Who -
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Who - Quadrophenia
Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks
Hmmmm?
Unsung? Very popular albums methinks? :)
Oops - Misread Thread Content!
Attempt Two
Henry Priestman - Chronicles Of Modern Life
Dogs D'Amour - In The Dynamite Jet Saloon
Jake Burns - Drinkin Again
Yes!!!!
That's more like it Mr. Digit :)
fishbag
Shriekback ~ Care
Shriekback ~ Jam Science
Shriekback ~ Big Night Music
Could I add
Shriekback - Oil & Gold (which is also a corker).
FACT!
but that's the one I use to get people hooked on ver 'Back
the first two are a bit intense and Big Night didn't have Carl
Nik Kershaw's The Riddle ain't too shabby either.....
.....but for me its
Dire Straits - Communique
Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene
Unsung but probably popular at the time
The Cult - Sonic Temple
Big Country - Steeltown
The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
Triple
Pooka - Pooka
Ed's Not Dead - Hammell on Trial
Disgwyl Rhywbeth Gwell i Ddod - Meic Stevens
Yes.......
.....Hammell on trial!!! Well done Sir!!!!
Hamell
Have to be "Choochtown" for me, a classic album.
Pooka
I have no idea who Graham Robert Wood is but he will always be flying in the sky to me.
Are there any other albums (like Pooka's 2nd) which have a track called Ocean that's 18 minutes long and is just the sound of an ocean (does exactley what it says on the tin). Great to go to sleep to.
I don't know...
But I love it. Ocean is magnificent - and then just when you think it's over, that final, genuinely hidden song comes ghosting in. Magic. They were also dynamite live.
These:
Screaming Blue Messiahs - Gun Shy
Misty in Roots - Roots Controller
The Black Seeds - Into The Dojo (great summer sound)
You made my day...!
finally, a mention of Screaming Blue Messiahs on the Word Blog!
Not First
I'm not going to do a search but I'm pretty sure it's not the first time. Hopefully it's not the last
And there are many more...
The Section - The Section (1972)
Meal Ticket - Three Times A Day (1977)
Les Négresses Vertes - Mlah (1988)
Mlah?
Yes!!!! Good choice. :)
Meal Ticket???
I have their single "I like your act (but don't give up your day job)
I never knew they stuck it out long enough for an album too!
Actually,
they had 3 albums - the last of which was called Takeaway in 1978. Willy Finlayson is still playing around London with the Hurters. I believe that Rick (fingerbobs) Jones is now living in America.
I mentioned them in another thread
Steve Simpson still gigging (and also, I believe, playing for theatrical productions). Not sure if Roger Chapman has really retired, but Steve is a stalwart of his band.
Ray Flacke has deservedly become a bit of a guitar legend in Nashville, having gone over to the U.S. to play with Joe Sun and then with Ricky Scaggs amongst others. Probably one of the first-call session men now.
IMHO, in the same class as Albert Lee and Jerry Donahue.
(Oh and I found some links to the albums - digitised from vinyl - a few crackles, but perfectly listenable).
3
The Cardigans - Long Gone Before Daylight
The High - Somewhere Soon
Jaymay - Autumn Fallin'
Yes to the Cardies
A very good album I think - their hit singles used to put me off but this album's got real substance.
For What It's Worth
this track gets me welling up every time...
As a band they just keep on improving, the last album "Super Extra Gravity" was wonderful too - they can rock out a bit as well.
The Cardigans, yes!
good work fella, Long Gone Before Daylight is one of my favourite albums, ever.
The Astrojet - The Astrojet - I'm not sure if this was actually released. It's Jody Porter from Fountains of Wayne's side project. I worked with them for a while and I always got on with Jody. He sent me this a while back and its absolutely great - choc full of great psychadelic pop songs
Iggy Pop - Avenue B - I could never understand why Iggy didn't get more plaudits for this album. Granted it was complete sea change after years of turbo charged rock, but its a beautiful record and features some of his finest lyrics
Another Pooka fan
Spinning - Pooka
Welcome Home - Til Tuesday
Nobody's Sweetheart - Sandy Dillon
Ocean does it.
Crackin' instumental.
My turn
Sieben - 'Ogham Inside the Night'
Mekons - 'Journey to the End of Night'
and at the risk of repeating myself
Woven Hand - 'Woven Hand'. Or 'Mosaic'. Depends.
Mine:
Tindersticks - Donkeys (a collection rather than an album I guess, but it's damn near perfect IMO)
Whipping Boy - Heartworm
Fatima Mansions - Valhalla Avenue
Good call on Whipping Boy!
A Natural is, IMHO a stunning track and When we were Young will always rock my world.
Here we go
Jade Warrior - Way Of The Sun
Spirogyra - St Radigunds
Home - The Alchemist
Here we go again
Decameron - Mammoth Special
Fruupp - Modern Masquerades
Wigwam - Nuclear Nightclub
Wigwam
Very good choice. I do love them. Have you heard Jim (from Finchley!) Pembroke's solo album Wicked Ivory by his alter-ego Hot Thumbs O'riley? It's a masterpiece. Ronnie Osterberg and Pekka Pohjola each made really good solo albums, too.
Wigwam
I haven't heard Wicked Ivory; I'll see if I can track it down. I've only recently discovered Wigwam's Some Several Moons.
In the interests of research alone...
....I'd be happy to burn you a copy. On the understanding that you'll buy an original if you can find one.
You're very kind
but I've just located a copy.
Lovely
Let me know what you think. It might need three listens.
Wigwam
And have you checked out any of the late Pekka Pohjola's solo albums? Some of the best jazz-prog of the 70s, with more than a hint of Zappa at his most tuneful. Especially love B The Magpie, which has just been reissued.
Not canonical
Global Communication 76:14
Mansun Attack Of The Grey Lantern
Underworld Beaucoup Fish
Off the top of my head
1 Brian Charles - Sadderdaydreaming (a great powerpop album)
2 The Fleshtones - Powerstance (how can I pick one ? at random, that's how)
3 The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Girls Go Wild (the first album, shmokin blues)
With Auntie on Mansun.
My other two? Ooh..
Eloy - Performance
Tangerine Dream - White Eagle
Phil Campbell- Daddy's
Phil Campbell- Daddy's Table
Chuck Prophet- Let Freedom Ring
Big Star- Radio City
Quick 3...
Donny Hathaway - Live
Dave Mason - Alone Together
Beta Band - 3 EPs (not sure if this counts?)
Have an Up Arrow
for The 3 EPs. Introduced to it by friend of mine, just before the film High Fidelity (containing Dry The Rain) came out.
I'm just off to listen again, having (sadly) forgotten about it
OK
Lewis Taylor - Lewis Taylor
Boz Scaggs - Middle Man
Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Oh Gino
Black Cars - Gino Vannelli
24 Years of Hunger - Eg & Alice
Automatic Man - Automatic Man
You on my
Wavelength - Van Morrison
Cameo - Dusty Springfield
Zidane - Mogwai
Where do cantaloupes go for their holidays..?
... why, to a John Cougar Mellencamp, of course.
My 3 are
John Mellencamp - Big Daddy
T Bone Burnett - Proof Through The Night
Maria Mckee - Life Is Sweet
Another Lucky fan
Lewis Taylor - Lewis Taylor
Love and Money - Strange Kind of Love
Michael Marra - Posted Sober
Quite recent but all great in my eyes...
Shift - Lost In A Moment
Dan Arborise - Around In Circles
Jacaszek - Treny
Dan Arborise
I saw Dan supporting Lou Rhodes in Glasgow on Sunday night and was most impressed. You can't avoid the Nick Drake/John Martyn comparisons I suppose but beautiful guitar playing and a really nice voice. I may follow your advice on this one.
Shrift
That Sh(r)ift album is a cracker, isn't it. And the duo who made up the band (and are now Zeep) have never come close to topping it.
Mine
5000 htz - Air
Koyaanisqatsi - Philip Glass
Mange Tout - Blancmange
Here's mine
Al Stewart - Modern Times
Traffic - Traffic
David Kitt - The Black and Red Notebook
I return to all three of these again and again.
Let's see...
Joan Armatrading - Back To The Night
The Christians - Colours
The Stranglers - Black and White
III
The Walkabouts - Setting The Woods on Fire
Ooberman - Running Girl
The Gun Club - Pastoral Hide & Seek
Hello. I've never met anyone else
who has a copy of 'Setting The Woods On Fire'. I appreciate that we have never met, but you know what I mean.
You can add me to that very small group
Although Nighttown is probably my favourite Walkabouts' album.
I've got a copy too.
So there. I bought a couple of others but they weren't nearly as good.
My giddy aunt
I think I must have a dozen Walkabouts albums. I thought I was the UK fan.
Anyone mentioned Steve Wynn on this thread?
Two by the Grateful Dead
Workingman's Dead
Blues For Allah
always on vinyl
Phoebe Snow's 1st album
Good one
Kent - Isola
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Martin Stephenson & the Daintees - Gladsome, Humour & Blue
Kent?
I didn´t know their English albums actually managed to make any friends. Brave soul.
Kent?
yeah, Isola is a great album. I love Hagnesta Hill too. What else can you recommend Ola?
I also loved Libido's album Killing Some Dead Time. Whatever happened to them?
What else can I recommend?
It depends on if we´re taling about Kent or Swedish music in general. The two you´ve mentioned are the only two translated of theirs and at least for me are the peak of the band.
Other Swedish artists (singing in English or not singing at all):
A Camp - Colonia
http://open.spotify.com/album/61Xn4FLODGopdChqBgqKLp
Nicolai Dunger - Here´s My Song, You Can Have It, I Don´t Want It Anymore...4-Ever Yours
http://open.spotify.com/album/39Dx5HKmVAKgPZGOFhcGOB
EST - Seven Days Of Falling
http://open.spotify.com/album/5xQmfqjJTr3Hn6pCmHDVK2
Frida Hyvönen - Silence Is Wild
http://open.spotify.com/album/3Wbxsk4kcfYFfYXuUCFr5Q
The Knife - Silent Shout
http://open.spotify.com/album/4qzJV2qpd93F2Y5SkCfo8K
The Lonely Boys - The Lonely Boys
http://open.spotify.com/album/7scZmfIrPsHUVeJpWzAUbO
The Maharajas - Third Opinion
http://open.spotify.com/album/3oV6mSBOYGZmd77Zy2VZQ0
Moneybrother - Real Control
http://open.spotify.com/album/5tmIo8h8rpxpdnWX9HabMu
Mustasch - Latest Version Of The Truth
http://open.spotify.com/album/1qYiC3Hcvhby1ws9CVngzp
The Soundtrack Of Our Lives - Welcome To The Infant Freebase
http://open.spotify.com/album/3gGQcNobjSClJ6qRNg4gTR
Tages - Studio
http://open.spotify.com/album/2vDiBcqDNU2Ol7N26IGbQr
Anna Ternheim - Leaving On A Mayday
http://open.spotify.com/album/6Bq82NQOO2zWcTZrPnEdfF
Jenny Wilson - Hardships!
http://open.spotify.com/album/00avgNqb6OhpbQmh2EOdBo
I need to lie down now.
Let me now if there´s something you like.
I'm new
to Kent but really like their latest album Rod
Why
I think that a lot of people that really like their music will appreciate unsung albums more than the big popular ones and not because they're being deliberately arch. There are two reasons that the most popular albums are unlikely to be my favourites.
a. I've heard them too many times
b. The fact that they appeal to so many people suggests that they are appealing to a common denominator (not necessarily in a bad way) and not hitting one spot directly.
My albums to return to are:
1. Looking Over My Shoulder - Chris Rainbow
2. Nobody's Perfect - The Distractions
3. Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful - The Waitresses
It's interesting to wonder if I would still think the same about them if they'd been massive hits.... which of course they were never going to be.
Chris Rainbow!
Dear Brian is one of the great Brian Wilson tributes, but otherwise I've always preferred the earlier album Chris made with Cecil and Margouleff, Home of the Brave. Now there's a classic long overdue a reissue!
I am an idiot
I meant "Home Of The Brave" it's my favourite of his by miles. That's what comes of old age and only having one digital Chris Rainbow album! It's the first album that I ever made into a CD way back in about 1996 ( it took me hours to get rid of all the clicks and pops by hand with a copy of Goldwave), and there's still not been a proper UK release of it on CD. I remember when All Night came out as a single I played it full blast over and over again.
Here's Three
Van der Graaf Generator - H to He,Who Am the Only One.
Urban Species - Blanket.
The Delgados - The Great Eastern.
I'd recommend ...
Yoko Ono - 'Plastic Ono Band'
The Washington Squares - 'The Washington Squares'
Paul Simon - 'One Trick Pony'
Never heard Ono´s Plastic album.
What does it sound like? Any melodies or just sort of random noise?
My three
Sniff 'n' The Tears - The Game's Up, Aztec Camera - High Land Hard Rain, Scientist - Dub From The Ghetto.
Sorry if these are too obvious
XTC-Apple Venus Vol 1
The NInes- Calling Distance Stations
The Webb Brothers-Maroon
Sadly for the Webb Brothers
...Maroon wasn't obvious enough for the widespread success its excellence deserved. Really nice chaps too, apparently (I know the blokes they hired as a backing band when touring the album; rather than ship their instruments back across the Atlantic they simply left them with their new friends on a long-term loan).
The Electric Soft Parade's debut album Holes in the Wall still delights in its youthful exuberance:
And although he could hardly claim to be unsung, Graham Nash's solo debut Songs for Beginners is always welcome, and increasingly popular with a new generation - my eight-year-old twin daughters love it...
Actually, scratch Nash
The Bluetones' eponymous 2006 album is a thing of startling loveliness, shamefully ignored.
double post
gotta get a double post
Don't worry...
...it's only a sausage.
From a Scottish sitting room...
Trapped & Unwrapped - Friends Again
Sisters - The Bluebells
The Absolute Game - The Skids
So many, so many
But here are 3:
Sleep No More - Comsat Angels
Love At The Hacienda - Graham Fellows
Pretties For You - Alice Cooper
Comsat Angels.
Good call fella.
I attended a
Comsat Angels gig in King Tuts, Glasgow 26 June 1993 (£5). Excellent band.
How amazing to see all the Lewis Taylor mentions . . .
. . . can someone persuade this most under-rated of artists to return to the music scene?
I'll leave him out of my list (reluctantly) so . . .
Mike Nesmith - The Prison
Bill Laswell (with Miles Davis) - Panthalassa
MC5 - Back In The USA
Off the top of my head
Belle and Sebastian - Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant
The Dears - No Cities Left
Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street
What a fabulous choice
I want to listen to all three now!
My contribution
Microdisney: The Clock Comes Down The Stairs.
Freedy Johnston: Can You Fly.
Todd Rundgren: Todd.
Birthday Girl
without fear, zero years, come to seek damnation and a veil of tears
Microdisney - what a great band
hear hear
The Clock Comes Down the Stairs
A fantastic album - in my top 5, but I played it to my friend last year and he said he thought it sounded like Haircut 100!
Good to see Valhalla Avenue listed above too.
Two depressives and one stoner (guess which are which)
David Ford - I Sincerely Apologise for all the Trouble I've Caused
Leonard Cohen - New Skin For The Old Ceremony
Alabama 3- Exile on Coldharbour Lane
May I have three more...?
01. The League Unlimited Orchestra - Love and Dancing
02. Jaco Pastorius - Invitation
03. V/A - Testimonial Dinner - a Tribute to XTC
3
The Charlatans - Between 10th and 11th
Mojave 3 - Excuses for Travellers
The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth
New to this!,....Those albums in full.
The Afghan Whigs - Black Love
Ride - Going Blank Again
Simple Minds - Life In A Day
Rightity-right!
Going Blank Again - superb stuff. I think I'll stick it on my player right now... Nothing beats a bit of Twisterella.
Going Bank Again...
...awesome stuff. Funny how Ride fell out of favour during the Britpop era, almost becoming an unmentionable name, but have since regained their reputation. Leave Them All Behind and OX4 are essential tracks in any collection.
Afghan Whigs
Ride
That album was massive to me around '92... listened to it non-stop. Oddly enough, was hit with sudden urge to blast through it the other day. It's still immense, though the lyrics are still, endearingly utter nonsense. Also was reminded of just how phenomenal a drummer Loz Colbert was.
Ride
And Loz still is a terrific drummer. He's been playing with the Jesus and Mary Chain, as well as an Oxford band called The International Jetsetters and I believe he also teaches drums professionally.
Black Love
is a brilliant album. If Dave Amitri is reading this - that's a concept album worthy of investigation.
Here's my three
Wall of Voodoo - Dark Continent
Dickies - Incredible Shrinking World..
Julian Cope - World Shut Your Mouth
The Arch Drudes' stunning solo debut is still, i believe, criminally out of print, can someone sort this out pronto, my vinyl copy is on its last legs.
Like most on here could give you another half a dozen....nice thread
Minty
PM en route
Nice choices
I've seen more bands I love mentioned on this one thread than in the whole of the Word Blog over, oh, at least the last year!
I thought that the reissue
of World Shut Your Mouth (with the bonus tracks) was still available - I saw it in Head in the Merry Hill centre the other day for £3.74!!! I bought Fried from there for the same barmy price.
well
I did send this off to Mint nearly two weeks ago and haven't heard a sausage back, either he's overwhelmed by it or it hasn't arrived :(
Three from me...
1) Paradise Don't Come Cheap -New Kingdom
2) The Blue Garden - Masters Of Reality
3) Fred Neil - Fred Neil
The PT Three
Steve Forbert - Alive On Arrival
http://open.spotify.com/album/19MWxmh85J98jLwvNXRiC0
Ted Hawkins - Best of The Venice Beach Tapes
[Try this to get a sense of it:
http://open.spotify.com/album/6yGCHAZqPwWyxK7nJws8pA ]
Bronte Brothers - The Way Through The Woods
Hmmmm
Michael Penn - March
The Monkees - Head
They Might Be Giants - John Henry
Michael Penn
I agree with you about Michael Penn's "March". I was listening to it again just the other day. And the follow up, "Free-for-all", was even better. For those unfamiliar with the work of Aimee Mann's hubbie, the recent self-compiled best of "Palms and runes..." is a very good place to start.
Sorry, couldn't leave it at 3...these will never let you down
The Redskins - Neither Washington Nor Moscow.
The Psychedelic Furs - Forever Now.
Three off the top of my head
Hollywood Town Hall - The Jayhawks
Kids in Philly - Marah
No Such Place - Jim White
Hollywood Town Hall
gives me a tingle
This thread is going to fuel my listening for the next week...
Cherry Ghost - Thirst for Romance
Powderfinger - Internationalist
Elbow - Leaders of the Free World
Second two are potentially arguable, I suppose: Powderfinger are huge in Australia, but they're almost completely unsung over here; this Elbow album is one of my all time favourites but never got the acclaim it deserved.
Replace either with Tom McRae's debut (predictably) if you think they don't count.
My 3 for today
Icicle Works - the small price of a bicycle
Ian McNabb - Ian McNabb
The Ukrainians - Ukrainski Vistupi v Johna Peela
Okay...
Paul Brady - Hard Station
Lloyd Cole - Don't get Weird on me babe
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Absolutely love
Don't Get Weird On Me Babe, it is the Lloyd album I listen to most. When I saw him about 5 years ago in Wolverhampton, he asked for requests for the encore and I asked for There For Her, but he said it was difficult without the New York Philharmonic. He did my second choice of Jennifer She Said!
and from me
Jess Roden - The Player not the Game .... love him, love him
Steve Winwood - same title (it always seems to get forgotten - esp given the shocking 80's output) ... Hold On the title track is fab
Jaco Pastorius - Word of Mouth ... its gets noticed, but not enough !
J
Nice to see all the Lewis & Pooka, too
Nic Armstrong & The Thieves: Greatest White Liar
Donovan: Sutras
Joe Jackson: Night Music
The first I don't recall receiving any significant reviews; the second and third proved to be unexpectedly rewarding late-career turns, especially the Donovan. Sutras is the closest producer Rick Rubin came to replicating the American Recordings magic elsewhere.
Never understood why
'Sutras' didn't kick start a Donovan revival. Lovely.
My 3...
A Certain Ratio-Force
Paul Weller-Heliocentric (obviously he's massive, but this album is usually written off...)
Aztec Camera-Frestonia
Since the advent of the ipod...
I dont so much return to whole Albums. I listen to a far more varied spectrum of music since mp3 etc but probably dont listen to music as much in depth. A case of quantity over quality maybe? Maybe that would be a good topic for the Podcast - Having said that I do return to 3(4) albums;
Counting Crows - Augsut & everything After, Recovering The Satellites
Green Day - Dookie
The Selecter - Celebrate The Bullet
I return so often to these albums the MP3's have had their digital grooves worn out of them!
Three more (with an 80's flavour)
I'll second Mint's recommendation of Julian Cope's fabulous World Shut Your Mouth.
My other two would be Fabrique by Fashion. And Tell God I'm Here by Hurrah! Both criminally under-rated, in my view.
Fantastic thread!
So many to dig out and to investigate further. Thanks Steve.
Mine:
"Men Without Women" Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul
"Boom Town" David and David
"Nothing but a Burning Light" Bruce Cockburn
My pleasure....
....I'm really enjoying the responses. Gonna cost me a bloody fortune :)
Boomtown
Great album, had it on vinyl for years and recently got the cd, well done.
Ooh...thinks hard
Hem-Rabbit Songs
Orange Humble Band-Assorted Creams
Mirrorball-Neil Young & Pearl Jam
Rabbit Songs
is brilliant, or at least the first 8 songs are. The second album just doesn't seem to do it for me.
Three I keep
returning to:
New Order. Technique.
The first Electronic album.
Morrissey. Vauxhall & I.
arrows up due...
...Technique and Electronic were my bread and butter when I were a lad. The former is still one of my faves, while the latter has dated slightly, but I will give it another spin soon.
In both cases, Barney Sumner's lyrics still had that great quality of being largely meaningless but somehow inspiring and spiritual at the same time ("Nothing in this world could touch the music that I felt when I woke up this morning" - and "I don't know if we could get lost in a city this size if we wanted to") up there with the best of Dylan IMHO.
And Vauxhall - easily Mozzer's best (unless you include compilations in which case the honours go to Bona Drag)
Arrow up in turn
Technique and Electronic are both evocative of their time (speaking to me of the tail end of the 80s and the very beginning of the 90s) and yet still sound like they could be released today and gain acclaim.
Excellent albums.
Tail end of the 80s
was indeed a great time for music. Two other albums from then and the early 90s which I could have easily included were Depeche Mode's Violator and Behaviour by Pet Shop Boys.
Oh and another from the late 80s
The Cure's Disintegration album!
...not to mention...
The Pixies - Doolittle
Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
The Stone Roses - Debut
My 3 are
Global Communication - Blood Music:Pentamerous Metamorphosis
Grand Drive - The Lights In This Town Are Too Many To Count
The Icicle Works - Blind
Three from me
Jackie Leven - Defending ancient springs
Bobby Charles - Last train to Memphis (possibly my all time favourite album)
Green on Red - Here come the snakes
Good call...
... on the big man from the Kingdom of Fife
And a good call on Bobby
Don't Make a Fool of Yourself is one of those great car-on-a-warm-day blast-it-loud songs.
A further three
Alan White - Ramshackled
Pacific Eardrum - Beyond Panic
Michaal Franks - The Art of Tea
a Yo!
on Ramshackled bro
it had a nicely embossed paper sleeve with a lovely pencil sketch of AW, I don't think he wrote any of the tunes and one of them sounds like he isn't even there. Ooh Baby! (goin to pieces) is an excellent tune.
WORD!
Excellent!
Yes, and the inner sleeve - a collage of saucy ladypics, manipulated to look like the head of an old geezer - was years-later aped by a Nurofen print ad.
Yes, Ooh Baby is utterly brilliant.
WORD!
rev.2.0
Yes? Well, kinda...
"Ramshackled" is easily the least Yes-sounding solo album. It's almost too funky by far. Strange, intriguing stuff. Cannot be made today, for sure.
I take pride...
...in enjoying music that is not of the mainstream, therefore my list consists of a few more than the prescribed three.
The Black Angels - Passover
The Rain Parade - Emergency Third Rail Power Trip/Explosions In The Glass Palace
The Sound - From The Lion's Mouth
The Dolly Rocker Movement - Electric Sunshine
The Dolly Rocker Movement - A Purple Journey Into The Mod Machine
Jon & Vangelis - The Friends Of Mr Cairo
Ambulance Ltd. - Ambulance Ltd.
dEUS - The Ideal Crash
The Soundtrack Of Our Lives - Behind The Music
The Sundays - Reading, Writing & Arithmetic
Hey!
Someone actually mentioned The Soundtrack of Our Lives that wasn't either me or me logged on under an alias...! Great stuff!
The Sound - truly great
I love that album. Unfortunately swamped at the time by other similar-sounding albums from northern trenchcoat-wearers. It stands.
Check out this wondrous clip
Of The Sound in action!
They were great, but...
...for me their classic was 'All Fall Down' - it seemed to be the first one where they really established their own, erm, sound, & the songwriting was first class. So that's my first, the other 2 are
'Life's Hard and Then You Die' - It's Immaterial
'In Camera' - Peter Hammill (in truth this choice could be almost anything by PH or Van der Graaf)
Ahhh, dEUS.
What a fine band. Saw them live many times - the guitarist on the Ideal Crash is an old acquaintance from my home town, who joined well in to my fandom. Funny.
dEUS
Yes, great weren't they? Suds and Soda, Instant Street and many many more. A new album on the way this year I hear (amazing the conversations you have whilst on the piss in Belgium)
I confess...
...I worked at Island when dEUS were first signed and during the life of the first three albums. I well remember when the video for Suds and Soda was delivered. I almost fell off my chair.
They're still great
One of my favourite bands at Latitude two years ago.
Three Unsung
Todd Rundgren: Ballad Of Runt
Chris Difford: I Didn't Get Where I Am
Average White Band: Soul Searching
Factoids!
Did you know (well, you probably did) that Ron Mael took pictures for the inner sleeve of "Ballad Of Todd Rundgren"? And also the Sales Brothers played on a couple of tracks? And that "Wailing Wall" is one of the most beautiful ballads of the seventies? All facts.
And another three
Annabel Lamb - Flow
Christine Collister - An Equal Love
Ron Sexsmith - Retriever
3 to explore - I love 'em!
The Shore - Light Years
Chris Rea - Dancing With Strangers
Camel - A Nod And A Wink
Three again
Ultramarine - Bel Air
Eddie Harris - Is It In?
John Schofield - Still Warm
Ultramarine!
Love 'United Kingdoms' to bits - both unsung and I suspect unavailable
3 secrets
Union Carbide Productions "From Influence To Ignorance"
Brian Jonestown Massacre "Strung Out In Heaven"
Wire "The Ideal Copy"
Three from Julian Cope
Jehovahkill
Fried
World Shut Your Mouth
..truly THE unsung artist of the past 30 years - the fact that he is "unsung" being part of the appeal..
My threepennies worth
Deacon Blue - Raintown
Lloyd Cole - Love Story
Pink Martini - Hang on Little Tomato
I'll second Deacon Blue
A really great debut album which was followed by nothing of any consequence.
Can I commend "Lagoon Blues" by The Bathers?
I,ll go for...
The Beautiful South--"Welcome to..." , Sweet Billy Pilgrim--"Twice Born Men" , Roger Waters--"Amused to Death".
"Twice Born Men" ...
...is a marvellous album. Panoramic love paeans for the modern dude.
Oh, this is fun
Tages - Studio. Sweden´s best band in the sixties made an album that was to ambitious for the screaming teenagers and it flopped. Influenced in part by Swedish folk music. Retro Man, are you reading this?
http://open.spotify.com/album/2vDiBcqDNU2Ol7N26IGbQr
Bernard Butler - People Move On. Great combination of Phil Spector, Nick Drake, Neil Young and Pink Floyd.
http://open.spotify.com/album/2ek8848KJ7XKzeICUDvdQ7
Emmylou Harris - Red Dirt Girl. Not sure if unsung is the right word, but it´s definitely not sung enough. It´s in my all time Top 20.
Currently not available on Spotify.
One, more - please - you say?
Ron Sexsmith - Whereabouts. Beautiful melodies and lyrics that make me warm inside.
http://open.spotify.com/album/1sa8GKwf8gsnzeiITG3J0o
Yes, I'm reading...
Tages are great, there's a cool compilation of Swedish garagey psych stuff called "Searching For Shakes - Swedish Beat 65-68", recommend that one. Although these chaps are doing some nice psychedelic stuff nowadays:
Searching For Shakes - Swedish Beat 65-68, yes.
I´ll take that and raise you Who Will Buy All These Wonderful Evils. I think there are three volumes available.
I should have known you knew Tages. I really like Dungen´s music but have issues with Gustav´s voice. Don´t know what it is, but something... Frustrating.
People Move On
Whenever something turns up on my iRiver's random play that makes me stop and say "Wow that's really good - but I can't quite place who it is!" odds on it'll be from this album.
How much jazz have we had on this thread?
Not enough. So how about these three corkers, that I tend to return to...
The Joe Harriott/Amancio D'Silva Quartet - "Hum Dono"
The Don Rendell/Ian Car Quintet: "Dusk Fire"
Leo Smith: "Divine Love"
indeed !
love em, love em ... plus
Pat Metheny Group (&pretty much anything by him except Zero Tolerance !)
Jaco - s/t & "Word of Mouth"
EST - "Tuesday Wonderland"
Miles - Kind of Blue (of course !)
three hot patooties
The Perfect Prescription - Spacemen 3
The Beta Band - The Beta Band
Refried Ectoplasm - Stereolab
Great thread...
My three:
Up With The Larks - The Pearlfishers
The Golden Age of Wireless - Thomas Dolby
Wilder - The Teardrop Explodes
The Golden Age gets my vote
Wonderful suggestion. My favoutite album that mentions carrot cake.
Wistful
The Bathers - Kelvingrove Baby (I'm in love with the girl on the cover)
Tracey Thorn - A Distant Shore
Roddy Frame - The North Star
Kelvingrove Baby...
glad to know there's at least one other Chris Thomson fan out there. This is a fine album. I went to see them on 25 August 1994 at the Mitchell Theatre in Glasgow. I think that was the gig where James Grant appeared too (might have been another gig at the Tramway Theatre). Sadly, there has not been anything from Chris for a long time that I am aware of. However, I understand that he is to be one of the guests of James Grant in one of his 3 gigs at the City Halls Glasgow on 17th, 18th and 19th June. There was also talk of Chris doing something in his own right in May in Glasgow. Do you know any more Johnny?
Only what's on the unofficial Bathers website
"If Love Could Last Forever" off "Kelvingrove Baby" is a song everyone should hear
great taste
I love all three of those
Can't resist ...
... 3 more I revisit all the time
Squeeze - East side Story
Edwyn Collins - Dr Syntax
Vic Godard - The End of the Surrey People
East Side Story
"Legs up with a book and a drink" - what a great line, have an up arrow
Just three, okay then
David Baerwald - Triage
Peter Gabriel 2 - his most unloved of albums, but Fripp's influence just works for me.
Marillion - Clutching at Straws - honestly dunno why, but I think it's when Fish started really writing from experience.
A few.
Polvo - Exploded Drawing
Emiliana Torrini - Fisherman's Woman
Ten Benson - 6 Fingers Of Benson
I liked Ten Benson's "Hiss"
Fisherman's Woman
Lovely, but it makes me fall asleep. In a nice way.
I was just wondering why, as an Icelander, she has a latinesqe surname when all Icelanders use the patrynomic system. So I had a look at Wikipedia which says:
"Her father is Italian and her mother Icelandic. Because of name regulations in Iceland, her father Salvatore Torrini was forced by the Icelandic Name Committee to change his name to "Davíð Eiríksson", which also implied that Emilíana Torrini had to use the surname after her father in the traditional way; "Emilíana Torrini Davíðsdóttir". A few years later, the name regulations were changed, and she was again allowed to use her original surname"
Hmm...
OK...
Gerry Rafferty - Nightowl
Barclay James Harvest - A Concert For The People, Berlin
Bob Seger And The Silver Bullet Band - Nine Tonight
Definitely old enough to have established that I keep coming back to them. Underrated enough?
Rafferty - good call Baron
not heard that for ages. Looked it up on yt and found this studio clip, featuring Mo Foster and various other UK session stalwarts
Just 3 ?
David Baerwald - Bedtime Stories
Lloyd Cole - Mainstream and Lloyd Cole
Chris Whitley - Living With The Law
Toad The Wet Sprocket - Coil, Fear, and In Light Syrup
Bob Mould - Workbook
Workbook?
Yes. Excellent album.
My go again...
The Pineapple Thief--"Tightly Unwound" , Counting Crows--" Hard Candy" ,and Prefab Sprouts--"Jordan...".
Shoulda bin a contender
The Bible - Walking the Ghost Back Home (Graceland is a thing of beauty)
Michael Head and The Strands - The Magical World of The Strands (For the previous HMS Fable devotees, please check this out)
Royworld - Man in the Machine (Pure unadulterated hook laden pop)
Love 'em all
The Strands
seconded.
Check out this clip performed by Shack from the Strands album (Shack/Strands pretty much interchangeable).
The Bible
A truly great album that.
1986/7 for me was soundtracked by that album (amongst others!)
My three...
The Farmers Boys - Get Out And Walk
Edwyn Collins - Hope And Despair
Fashion - Fabrique (none more '80s!)
This is a tough question
(so many to consider), but I am going to go with:
It's Immaterial - Song (forget 'Driving Away From Home', which I do love, but this album is Blue Nile-esque perfection)
The Lotus Eaters - No Sense Of Sin (unforgiveably, the record company allegedly kept the masters in such poor condition that only 9 of the 12 tracks were usable on the CD issue - but there are lots of nice bonus tracks as an, erm, bonus)
Josh Rouse - Country Mouse City House
Song . . .
. . . is truly gorgeous. What would I give to hear the legendary, lost third It's Immaterial album . . .
Same here
It does exist apparently and if it's anything like that 'Just drive' song that turned up on a compilation, it will not disappoint.
Statistically. . .
. . . and quite surprisingly, my iTunes 'most played' data makes me an XTC obsessive.
1. Wasp Star
2. Apple Venus Volume 1
3. Homespun
I love them all but I had no idea that they were such a major part of my listening pleasure.
Three of the best
1. The Egg - Forwards
This is much used by TV producers for incidental music, as there are more ambient/chill out tracks than on most Egg albums, but there are some great slabs of funky electronic loveliness on this album. One of the tracks, Walking Away, got a Tocadisco remix (was used heavily in Citroen car adverts for a while) and eventually got mashed up with David Guetta's Love Don't Let Me Go reaching no.3 in the charts. For all that success, the underlying track and the album it came from are relatively unknown and one of the best things in my album collection.
2. Roy Harper - Stormcock
Where do I start? This is a masterpiece. Just four songs. Just Harper, strings arranged by David Bedford and some help from S. Flavius Mercurius (a.k.a. Jimmy Page). Why doesn't the whole world know about this album, I wonder?
3. Eels - Shootenanny!
This album contains thirteen deceptively simple tracks, apparently put together when Mark Everett got stuck with his Blinking Lights album, so it was put together pretty quickly. Simple garage band sound with a mix of rockers and ballads. I'd point you to 'Saturday Morning' for an upbeat track, 'Restraining Order Blues' for something lovelorn and 'Numbered Days' for something absolutely exquisite.
Good shout for
The Egg. You play their funky tracks to people and they assume it's all done on a computer until you explain they're actually a proper band with a real drummer. I also love Travelator, opener Number Cruncher is as funky as funky can funking well be.
3 more from me
Josh Rouse - Nashville
The Smithereens - Especially For You
That Petrol Emotion - Chemicrazy
Hooray for Josh
Nashville is a corker!
I need to go again...
Joe Jackson - Night and day 2
Crowded House - Together Alone
The Sundays - static and Silence
Night and Day 2
Me nil. That's the second vote for this album and I just don't get it.
I think his last great album was Blaze Of Glory.
The case for the defence.
Okay, this has been a wonderful thread because it started out as kinda 'I just love these albums though not not everyone does,' and turned into a mega recommendations and shared enthusiasms thread. Btw big props to ObscureBside for compiling the summary list as I now have a template to wrest me from Spotify's agony of choice. The point remains that a lot of these albums are loved by the massive not just for their musical merits but also the time of our lives evoked by them.(Delighted with myself there for avoiding the pretentious temptation to use the phrase ,'Proustian rush.')Oh,just did it; oh well, I'll stand by it.
For me, Night and Day 2 was the album that soundtracked my first (and thus far only )visit to New York City in March 2001. The cover is stunning; the lone man in the rearview mirror of a NY in the shadow of the WTC.
Then the music!The opening is a real example of a fine curious questing musician seeing where he can take rhythm all leading into Hell of a Town ('Smoke coming up through a hole in the ground' - And it did!) It has that great hook in the chorus 'I'm walkin' here. I'm talkin' here and I can just hear the angry NY voice saying it.
Stranger than you is great too and the soul-dead pcharacter voiced by Marianne Faithful on Love got Lost is heartbreakingly poignant. 'Friday night went to see la Boheme, used the spare ticket for my coat.'
happyland is also gorgeous, while admittedly, Just Because is pants.
Also JJ has released some real corkers worth serious reinvestigation since Blaze of Glory, Night Music being the best example- It's a bloody masterpiece. Volume 4 and Rain also have gems sparkling on them.
Anyway, you might re-listen and still hate them, but please give 'em a go...so far the ISRGOWH hitmaker is one of the few artists who've never let me down: occasionally challenged me, yes, disappointed me , no way.
Night Music
I Liked the CD-rom element.
Good game
Its Immaterial - Song
(A lost classic now back in print!)
Everything But The Girl - Amplified Heart
(The one just before they became trendy again, forgotten but with some of their best songs, including We Walk the Same Line which I would have loved to hear a Johnny Cash cover of)
Paul Weller - Paul Weller
(This preceded the over-praised Wildwood and is, IMO, the best thing he's ever done)
These three
Brendan Benson: Alternative to Love
Josh Rouse: Nashville
Nils Lofgren: Cry Tough
My 1st go
Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll
Julian Cope - Peggy Suicide
BT - Ima
Orf the top of me ead Guv.....
1) High Llamas - Gideon Gaye
2) The Waterboys - Dream Harder
3) Richard Hawley - Lowedges
The Captain and Me - Doobie Brothers
Classics John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman
When This Was The Future Lisa O Piu
OOh
Julian Cope (again, I know) - St Julian
Fishbone - Truth & Soul
and
Jellyfish - bellybutton
Let's party like it's 1990
Fishbone are the first band I saw where the whole band (apart from the drummer) stage dived with their instruments.
Jellyfish were amazing live and remain one of my favourite live bands (I've seen a lot of gigs and I mean hundreds), saw them play gigs promoting this album and their 2nd. Fantastic harmonies (after they sacked Roger Mannings bassist brother) and I've haven't seen a better singing (and standing) drummer.
So many new possibilities
The 3 albums I keep coming back to:-
The Tenderfoot - Save the Year
Adrian Johnston - Gideon's Daughter / Friends & Crocodiles (Soundtrack)
GB3 - Emptiness Is Our Business
On the grounds that the albums on his thread that I’ve heard of are mostly top stuff, I look forward to exploring the other 250 or so. I made a little list, which I thought might be worth sharing. (I'm new here - is summarising helpful or arsey?)
A Certain Ratio - Force
Adrian Johnston - Gideon's Daughter / Friends & Crocodiles (Soundtrack)
Air - 5000 htz
Air - The Virgin Suicides Soundtrack
Al Stewart - Modern Times
Alabama 3 - Exile on Coldharbour Lane
Alan White - Ramshackled
Alice Cooper - Pretties For You
Ambulance Ltd. - Ambulance Ltd.
Annabel Lamb - Flow
Athlete - Vehicles And Animals
Automatic Man - Automatic Man
Average White Band - Soul Searching
Aztec Camera - Frestonia
Aztec Camera - High Land Hard Rain
Barclay James Harvest - Berlin: A Concert For The People
Bathers - Kelvingrove Baby
Belle and Sebastian - Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant
Bernard Butler - People Move On
Beta Band - 3 EPs
Beta Band - The Beta Band
Big Country - Steeltown
Big Star- Radio City
Bill Laswell (with Miles Davis) - Panthalassa
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Blancmange - Mange Tout
Bob Mould - Workbook
Bob Seger And The Silver Bullet Band - Nine Tonight
Bobby Charles - Last Train to Memphis
Boz Scaggs - Middle Man
Brendan Benson - Alternative to Love
Brian Charles - Sadderdaydreaming
Brian Jonestown Massacre - Strung Out In Heaven
Bronte Brothers - The Way Through The Woods
Bruce Cockburn - Nothing but a Burning Light
BT - Ima
Camel - A Nod And A Wink
Cherry Ghost - Thirst for Romance
Chris Difford - I Didn't Get Where I Am
Chris Rainbow - Looking Over My Shoulder
Chris Rea - Dancing With Strangers
Chris Whitley - Living With The Law
Christine Collister - An Equal Love
Chuck Prophet - Let Freedom Ring
Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll
Comsat Angels - Sleep No More
Counting Crows - August & Everything After
Counting Crows - Hard Candy
Counting Crows - Recovering The Satellites
Crowded House - Together Alone
Dan Arborise - Around In Circles
Daryl Hall - Sacred Songs
Dave Mason - Alone Together
David and David - Boom Town
David Baerwald - Bedtime Stories
David Baerwald - Triage
David Ford - I Sincerely Apologise for all the Trouble I've Caused
David Kitt - The Black and Red Notebook
Decameron - Mammoth Special
dEUS - The Ideal Crash
Dickies - Incredible Shrinking World..
Dire Straits - Communique
Disgwyl Rhywbeth Gwell i Ddod - Meic Stevens
Dogs D'Amour - In The Dynamite Jet Saloon
Donny Hathaway - Live
Donovan - Sutras
Doobie Brothers - The Captain and Me
Dusty Springfield - Cameo
Eddie Harris - Is It In?
Ed's Not Dead - Hammell on Trial
Edwyn Collins - Dr Syntax
Edwyn Collins - Hope And Despair
Eels - Shootenanny!
Eg & Alice - 24 Years of Hunger
Elbow - Leaders of the Free World
Electronic - Electronic
Eloy - Performance
Emiliana Torrini - Fisherman's Woman
Emmylou Harris - Red Dirt Girl
Everything But The Girl - Amplified Heart
Fashion - Fabrique
Fatima Mansions - Valhalla Avenue
Fred Neil - Fred Neil
Freedy Johnston - Can You Fly
Friends Again - Trapped & Unwrapped
Fruupp - Modern Masquerades
GB3 - Emptiness Is Our Business
Gerry Rafferty - Nightowl
Gino Vannelli - Black Cars
Global Communication - 76:14
Global Communication - Blood Music: Pentamerous Metamorphosis
Graham Fellows - Love At The Hacienda
Grand Drive - The Lights In This Town Are Too Many To Count
Grateful Dead - Blues For Allah
Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead
Green Day - Dookie
Green on Red - Here Come the Snakes
Hem - Rabbit Songs
Henry Priestman - Chronicles Of Modern Life
High Llamas - Gideon Gaye
Home - The Alchemist
Hurrah! - Tell God I'm Here
Ian McNabb - Ian McNabb
Icicle Works - Blind
Icicle Works - The Small Price of a Bicycle
Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
It's Immaterial - Song
Jacaszek - Treny
Jackie Leven - Defending Ancient Springs
Jaco Pastorius - Invitation
Jaco Pastorius - Word of Mouth
Jade Warrior - Way Of The Sun
Jake Burns - Drinkin Again
Jaymay - Autumn Fallin'
Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene
Jess Roden - The Player Not the Game
Jim White - No Such Place
Joan Armatrading - Back To The Night
Joe Jackson - Night and Day 2
Joe Jackson - Night Music
John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman - Classics
John Mellencamp - Big Daddy
John Schofield - Still Warm
Jon & Vangelis - The Friends Of Mr Cairo
Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Josh Rouse - Country Mouse City House
Josh Rouse - Nashville
Julian Cope - Fried
Julian Cope - Jehovahkill
Julian Cope - Peggy Suicide
Julian Cope - World Shut Your Mouth
Kent - Isola
King Creosote - Bombshell
Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street
Laura Nyro - Eli and the 13th Confession
Leo Smith - Divine Love
Leonard Cohen - New Skin For The Old Ceremony
Les Négresses Vertes - Mlah (1988)
Lewis Taylor - Lewis Taylor
Lisa O Piu - When This Was The Future
Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul - Men Without Women
Lloyd Cole - Don't Get Weird On Me Babe
Lloyd Cole - Lloyd Cole
Lloyd Cole - Mainstream
Love and Money - Strange Kind of Love
Malcolm McLaren - Duck Rock
Mansun - Attack Of The Grey Lantern
Marah - Kids in Philly
Maria Mckee - Life Is Sweet
Marillion - Clutching at Straws
Martin Stephenson & the Daintees - Gladsome, Humour & Blue
Marvin Gaye - Here, My Dear
MC5 - Back In The USA
Meal Ticket - Three Times A Day (1977)
Mekons - Journey to the End of Night
Michaal Franks - The Art of Tea
Michael Head and The Strands - The Magical World of The Strands
Michael Marra - Posted Sober
Michael Penn - March
Microdisney - The Clock Comes Down The Stairs
Mike Nesmith - The Prison
Misty in Roots - Roots Controller
Mogwai - Zidane
Mojave 3 - Excuses for Travellers
Morrissey - Vauxhall & I
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Neil Young (with Pearl Jam) - Mirrorball
New Order - Technique
Nic Armstrong & The Thieves - Greatest White Liar
Nik Kershaw - Human Racing
Nils Lofgren - Cry Tough
Ooberman - Running Girl
Orange Humble Band - Assorted Creams
Orchestral Manouveres in the Dark - Dazzle Ships
Pacific Eardrum - Beyond Panic
Paradise Don't Come Cheap - New Kingdom
Paul Brady - Hard Station
Paul Simon - One Trick Pony
Paul Weller - Heliocentric
Paul Weller - Paul Weller
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel 2
Phil Campbell - Daddy's Table
Philip Glass - Koyaanisqatsi
Polvo - Exploded Drawing
Pooka - Pooka
Pooka - Spinning
Powderfinger - Internationalist
Prefab Sprout - Jordan: the Comeback
Richard Hawley - Lowedges
Ride - Going Blank Again
Roddy Frame - The North Star
Roger Waters - Amused to Death
Ron Sexsmith - Retriever
Ron Sexsmith - Whereabouts
Roy Harper - Stormcock
Royworld - Man in the Machine
Sandy Dillon - Nobody's Sweetheart
Scientist - Dub From The Ghetto
Screaming Blue Messiahs - Gun Shy
Shack - HMS Fable
Shift - Lost In A Moment
Shriekback - Big Night Music
Shriekback - Care
Shriekback - Jam Science
Shriekback - Oil & Gold
Sieben - Ogham Inside the Night
Simple Minds - Life In A Day
Sniff 'n' The Tears - The Game's Up
Spacemen 3 - The Perfect Prescription
Spirogyra - St Radigunds
Squeeze - East side Story
Stereolab - Refried Ectoplasm
Steve Forbert - Alive On Arrival
Steve Winwood -Steve Winwood
Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Twice Born Men
T Bone Burnett - Proof Through The Night
Tages - Studio
Tangerine Dream - White Eagle
Ted Hawkins - Best of The Venice Beach Tapes
Ten Benson - 6 Fingers Of Benson
That Petrol Emotion - Chemicrazy
The Adventures - Sea Of Love
The Afghan Whigs - Black Love
The Armoury Show - Waiting For The Floods
The Beautiful South - Welcome to...
The Bible - Walking the Ghost Back Home
The Black Angels - Passover
The Black Seeds - Into The Dojo
The Blue Aeroplanes - Swagger
The Blue Garden - Masters Of Reality
The Bluebells - Sisters
The Cardigans - Long Gone Before Daylight
The Cardigans - Super Extra Gravity
The Charlatans - Between 10th and 11th
The Christians - Colours
The Cult - Sonic Temple
The Dears - No Cities Left
The Distractions - Nobody's Perfect
The Dolly Rocker Movement - A Purple Journey Into The Mod Machine
The Dolly Rocker Movement - Electric Sunshine
The Don Rendell/Ian Car Quintet - Dusk Fire
The Egg - Forwards
The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Girls Go Wild
The Farmers Boys - Get Out And Walk
The Fleshtones - Powerstance
The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
The Gun Club - Pastoral Hide & Seek
The High - Somewhere Soon
The Jayhawks - Hollywood Town Hall
The Joe Harriott/Amancio D'Silva Quartet - Hum Dono
The League Unlimited Orchestra - Love and Dancing
The Lotus Eaters - No Sense Of Sin
The Monkees - Head
The Nines - Calling Distance Stations
The Pearlfishers - Up With The Larks
The Pineapple Thief - Tightly Unwound
The Psychedelic Furs - Forever Now
The Rain Parade - Emergency Third Rail Power Trip/Explosions In The Glass Palace
The Redskins - Neither Washington Nor Moscow.
The Section - The Section (1972)
The Selecter - Celebrate The Bullet
The Shore - Light Years
The Skids - The Absolute Game
The Smithereens - Especially For You
The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow
The Sound - From The Lion's Mouth
The Soundtrack Of Our Lives - Behind The Music
The Stranglers - Black and White
The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth
The Sundays - Reading, Writing & Arithmetic
The Sundays - Static and Silence
The Teardrop Explodes - Wilder
The Tenderfoot - Save The Year
The Ukrainians - Ukrainski Vistupi v Johna Peela
The Waitresses - Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful
The Walkabouts - Setting The Woods on Fire
The Washington Squares - The Washington Squares
The Waterboys - Dream Harder
The Webb Brothers - Maroon
They Might Be Giants - John Henry
Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wireless
Til Tuesday - Welcome Home
Tindersticks - Donkeys
Toad The Wet Sprocket - Coil
Toad The Wet Sprocket - Fear
Toad The Wet Sprocket - In Light Syrup
Todd Rundgren - Ballad Of Runt
Todd Rundgren - Todd
Tom Mcrae - Tom Mcrae
Tracey Thorn - A Distant Shore
Traffic - Traffic
Ultramarine - Bel Air
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish
Union Carbide Productions - From Influence To Ignorance
V/A - Testimonial Dinner: A Tribute to XTC
Van Morrison - Wavelength
Vic Godard - The End of the Surrey People
Wall of Voodoo - Dark Continent
Whipping Boy - Heartworm
Wigwam - Nuclear Nightclub
Wigwam - Some Several Moons
Wire - The Ideal Copy
Woven Hand - Mosaic
Woven Hand - Woven Hand
XTC - Apple Venus Volume 1
XTC - Homespun
XTC - Wasp Star
Yoko Ono - Plastic Ono Band
I think summarising here is helpful
so - thanks!
I wonder how much of this stuff is on Spotify?
It'd make a good playlist.
Thanks for the list.....
A couple of artists/album titles are the wrong way round. The Meic Stephens and Hammell on trial albums. Thanks for the list though, good work:)
Would this make Julian Cope, with three entries
More unsung than most artists in general? Or are the truly unsung the ones that didn´t even make the list? Groovy, dude!
Appreciated
Definitely worth looking at. Always difficult to decide whether a band requires 'the' definite article in front for listing purposes!
Ramshackled is there
Oooh Baby http://open.spotify.com/album/6928MZkl6iOXJhapecavaP
3x3 more...
Vini Reilly - The Sporadic Recordings
Throwing Muses - University
Sylvie Lewis - Translations
Stephen Duffy - I Love My Friends
Spoon - Kill The Moonlight
Maria McKee - Maria McKee
Matthew Jay - Draw
Engineers - Engineers
The Chameleons - Strange Times
My 3c. worth + the Dan
Always and ever in the car, round the house (even the GLW likes it - high praise indeed):
Steve Winwood - Arc of A Diver - and I hate synths.
In recent times an album to focus the wondering mind:
Herbie Hancock - The Joni Letters.
and from the past:
The Incredible String band - Big Tam and Wee Huge - brings sunshine even in the rain.
I must add I will listen to anything by Seely dan at any time and any place(Tragically the GLW does not get them).
and more again
Celtic Frost ~ Vanity/Nemesis
The Strawbs ~ From the Witchwood
Genesis ~ Trespass
I don't have a huge pool
of albums to draw from but I think I can manage three unsung albums that I can't keep away from
Justin Currie "What Is Love For" (now there's a surprise)
Roddy Frame "Surf" (acoustic heaven)
Ian Dury and The Blockheads "Mr Love Pants" (lyrical genius)
perhaps a bit gloomy
But ones that i constantly return to without quite knowing why
Deal Gone Down - Michael Chapman
Music for a New Society - John Cale (which seems to have entirely disappeared in any affordable form...anyone know why?)
and the endlessly mysterious Bukowski by Rheinalt h Rowlands..bought on a whim in B flat records in Adelaide about ten years ago and listened to often even though largely in Welsh. Weird
Cale
Seconded. Criminally out of print at the moment.
Interestingly, it is one of the 50 greatest lost albums featured in this months UNCUT magazine. Go check it out...
My Three
Amused To Death - Roger Waters
Buried amidst the blitz of the reincarnated Momentary Lapse Floyd aftermath and the following tour, but still brilliant
Zoolook - Jean Michel Jarre
One of the great lost albums of the 1980's and every bit as good as anything [the also ace] Kraftwerk ever did
Armchair Theatre - Jeff Lynne
Sounds not like a lot of other stuff he's produced in recent years. some great original songs and some nice versions of old standards. The version of Stormy Weather is just lovely.
Also mentioned in dispatches:
Charlotte Gainsbourg 5.55
Jellyfish - Bellybutton and Spilt Milk
And, actually the first Kula Shaker album, K (but the second one stank)
Coming late to the party but...
...why not?
Fear Of The Dark - The Gordon Giltrap Band (a bit of folk acoustic guitar meets 70s orchestral prog)
That Girl - Stephanie Kirkham (dreamy, trippy, indie-pop by a singer with a delightful voice and a really sideways view of the world. One of the last albums Hut released before it went belly up, IIRR)
Johnny The Fox - Thin Lizzy (not one of their most celebrated albums but some cracking tunes which later made their way onto L&D)
Three More
The Lyres "Lyres On Fyre"
Redd Kross "Show World"
New Pornographers "Mass Romantic"
The Adventures
had at least two tremendous albums "Sea of Love" and "Trading Secrets With The Moon"; I never heard "Theodore and Friends" but I bet that's good too.
Wonderful thread
which appears to be still alive, just. So if I may just add three more to the love for Julian Cope:
Skellington Chronicles - eccentric but loveable
20 Mothers - not that far behind the untouchable Peggy and Jehovahkill
Black Sheep - showing that behind the ever increasing bonkersness there are still some cracking tunes
And three from others:
Felt - Me and a Monkey on the Moon. Practically perfect in every way (bar the title). My most listened to album ever.
Auteurs - New Wave. Rediscovered this recently and it has aged not a jot.
Calexico/Iron & Wine - In the Reins. Bringing out the best in each other.
...I love 20 Mothers...
..especially "Wheelbarrow Man" about his dicey relationship with his brother and Black Sheep was a true return to form after a string of slightly unlistenable albums. Interesting that you should also mention the Auteurs as Luke Haines and Julian Cope are have both been repsonsible for producing outstanding autobiographies.
Felt
my 1st thought on reading the initial post on this thread was "Me and the Monkey on the Moon". Pleasantly surprised to see someone else loves that album. Loads of great tracks on that album, Mobile shack probably just pips it as my favourite.
My other album choices are Don't Stand Me Down by Dexys Midnight Runners and the 2nd Sugarcubes album.
Late to this I know...
Three from me...
Uh! Tears Baby (A Trash Icon) - Win! - probably best known to Scottish folk of a certain age. Having been without it for a long time, I was able to find it in an obscure dusty corner of the internet and joyously found it to be as good as I remember. Pop fluff at it's finest....
Sea of Love - Adventures - mentioned by a few others, so I'll not recap.
Attack of the Grey Lantern - Mansun - great tracks with wacky lyrics that didn't grate on the third or fourth listen. Wide Open Space remains in my top 10 songs ever ever ever....
*snap* with Win
# It may be a beautiful sky tonight
but it's only a shelter for a world at risk #
Wonderful title, wonderful pop song... never really sure why the rest of the record buying public just didn't "get it"
The singles were re-packaged over & over but just never took off :-(
A la recherche du temps perdu, or summit like that
That Proust fella would have somethin to say about this, methinks. Fascinating stuff. My three were imprinted on me early on and have survived discovery of a myriad of masterworks over the ensuing 30-something years:
10cc - How Dare You! (first LP I bought)
XTC - Mummer
Squeeze - East Side Story
Here's my 3
Sound on Sound - Bill Nelson's Red Noise
Almost Here - Unbelievable Truth
Too Blind to Hear - Budapest
Almost Here
would have been on my three if I hadn't gone straight for the vinyl. Still stuns. I remember Gideon Coe regularly played Higher Than Reason for a few weeks as I headed into work along the Kingston ByPass in - what - 1997?
Thanks for the Proustian rush!
and three more...
Jackie Lomax Three
Be Good Tanyas Blue Horse
BB King Take It Home
Not three, but one...
...this track popped up on the iPod today, from a recent overlooked gem by Liverpool band The Maybes? The album's called 'Promise'.
I teach the bass player
Nick Otaegui, he's a good lad... tonnes of great stories about being bruised by the music industry down in that London.
They are yet another of the great lost nearly was stories of Merseyside.
Galliano
Any of their 4 albums but especially The Plot Thickens
Joni Mitchell - Paprika Plains
B52s - Mesopotamia
3 for Me
. Duplicate post
3 for Me
Talk To Your Daughter - Robben Ford
Blue Slipper - Helen Watson
Moonchild- Celtus
Another 3
David Sylvian - Secrets of the Beehive
The Pernice Brothers - Overcome by happiness
Brian - Understand
Two others that slipped my mind,
but unsung and I definitely play to death :
Grant Lee Buffalo - Jubilee, great melodies and interesting shifts
Tonic - Lemon Parade, big crunchy guitars
3 + 3
Currently unable to take off the playlist:
Robert Pollard - From a compound eye
Guided by Voices - Isolation Drills
Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand
Oldies but goldies:
John Martyn - One World
Kevin Coyne - Bursting Bubbles
Husker Du - Everything Falls Apart
3 of a kind?
Unusual Places to Die - The Bathers
Pacific Street - The Pale Fountains
Uh! Tears Baby (A Trash Icon) - Win
All from my College years & first job as an Our Price Manager and frequently revisited
My 3
Top of my head:
More You Becomes You – Plush
Mighty Joe Moon - Grant Lee Buffalo
Nonsuch - XTC
My three for free
Beulah -The Coast is Never Clear
Lloyd Cole - Love Story
Paul Westerberg - 14 Songs
Late in the day albums
Hobotalk - Beauty In Madness
[Couldn't find a track from the album]
Brian Kennedy - The Great War Of Words
Eg & Alice - 24 Years Of Hunger
Some more suggestions
Fairport Convention - Unhalfbricking
Lucinda Williams - Essence
Steely Dan - Can't Buy a Thrill
With the emphasis
on the original question (unsung and return to) mine are:
Full Sail - Loggins & Messina
Wild Tales - Graham Nash
Nice BAby and the Angel - David Blue
for various reasons.
Criminally neglected
Louis Philipe - Azure: you will believe a symphony orchestra can be put to good use on a 'pop' record!
The Nits - Giant Normal Dwarf: they're Dutch, so people assume they must be crap. They're not.
Stackridge: Friendliness: one of the most inventive bands ever, cruelly thwarted by the popular assumption that they were a comedy band. And best of all, they're back together again.
Three is hard..
Thin Lizzy - first album
Keith Jarrett - Survivors' Suite
Janne Schaffer - first album aka The Chinese
sub's bench:
Frank Zappa - Grand Wazoo
3 more thrown into the ring
It was hard to pick just 3 but here are my choices:
Dawn of the Replicants - “Wrong town, wrong planet, three hours late”
Beck – “Mutations”
The Chameleons - “Strange Times”
Oldish n new
It's difficult to come up with 3 so.
Oldish
Furslide - Furslide. Saw them support Ben Folds about 1999, loved the album but they disappeared without trace back to US.
Longpigs - Mobile Home. My favourite vocalist last seen in Mayonnaise.
XTC - Skylarking. The synthetic Bee at the start of Summers Cauldron puts me in a great mood, don't know why.
Newish
Sky Larkin' - The Golden Spike. Matador is brilliant.
Young Knives - Superabundance. More XTC than XTC.
Man Like Me - Man Like Me. Most entertaining live band around today. Not a Word band in any shape or form.
Let's have a bit of science...
According to last.fm, I keep coming back to the following albums (apart from a couple already mentioned above):
And it's right -- I would have chosen those (and I often listen to them as full albums, rather than just selected tracks on a shuffled playlist).
And three more
Swearing at Motorists - number seven uptown
Knife In The Water - Plays One Sound and Others
David Sylvian - Brilliant Trees
Now that I've gone through the posts
so many things I'd forgotten about. Microdisney - only had some singles but must have worn out Loftholdingswood. Still have it but nothing to play it on. And the mentions of Todd remind me I never replaced my Utopia - Oops Wrong Planet.
oooh choices!
Having considered at length and read all the above, I'm going to plump for:
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman
Yo La Tengo - I can hear the heart beating as one
The Rain Parade - Explosions in the Glass Palace
First albums on the iPod and still played all the way through to this day....
Regularly come back to these
Moving Targets (Penetration)
Oceans Will Rise (The Stills)
Manic Pop Thrill (That Petrol Emotion)
Three angels
Lets see now, keep on coming back to....well, on the basis of the amount of time that has elapsed since I first bought them:
Kate & Anna McGarrigle (eponymous - didn't sell much at the time)
Sir John Betjeman - Late Flowering Love
bob Dylan - Street Legal (think this qualifies as not usually regarded as one of his best dozen or so)
3 Unsung Albums
I Did'nt Get Where I Am / Chris Difford. One of England's Finest Songwriters At His Peak.
Letters From Utopia / Kayak. Europe's Best Kept Secret. An Album that Demands Repeat Listening As There Is So Much To Discover.
A Victory For Common Sense / Stackridge. Unquestionably The Best Album Of 2009.
Honestly...
Seven, Laid and Strip Mine...all by James. Marvellous they are. Even when not a student.
three of many
Seventh Wave - Psi-Fi
Thomas Dolby - Astronauts & Heretics
Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin - The Big Idea
his and his...
David & David - "Boom Town"
Martha & The Muffins - "This Is The Ice Age"
Cathal Coughlan - "Grand Necropolitan"
Very late entry but...
...I haven't seen any mention of my favourite yet;
Texas Fever by Orange Juice.
Agree with all the love being poured over Julian Cope, the man is a genius.
Marc Almond - Enchanted. Not for everyone; play someone Toreador In The Rain and see their reaction. They either laugh or become a lifelong fan.
Aimee Mann - Lost In Space. The one after the breakthrough soundtrack. Much better, but got very blasé reviews.
Queens Of The Stone Age - Era Vulgaris. Bloody outstanding!
Sorry; were you only supposed to write down three...?
Great thread - just lost
Great thread - just lost about an hour checking out some of the favs
Daryl Hall thing sounds very interesting and listened to Love & Money for the first time in ages. Fantastic...
Another one for the Lewis Taylor debut
XTC - Oranges & Lemons
Michael Landau - Tales from the Bulge
Aimee Mann
As I scrolled down I was just thinking - why hasn't anyone mentioned 'Lost in space' yet? And then you did. Superb.
Also great:
Hall & Oates 'Abandoned Luncheonette'
Islands 'Arm's Way'
My 3
Alan Stivell - Renaissance of the Celtic Harp
Van Dyke Parks - Discover America
Man Jumping - World Service