Underrated And Overlooked Albums

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LoganRuckman
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Underrated And Overlooked Albums

Postby LoganRuckman » November 18th, 2017, 1:29 pm

So, in this thread, we discuss albums that either get way more hate than they deserve, or never got the attention they deserved.

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The Dwellers- Whatever Makes You Happy
Release- 1995
Genre- Power pop/glam rock

This is the album I want to talk about more than any other, simply because it's seemingly near completely unknown. I've never come into contact with anyone who's even heard of this album, let alone listened to it. Hell, I wouldn't even be aware of its existence if I hadn't spotted it at a flea market a few years back and decided to buy it out of sheer curiosity. I'm glad I did though, because it is a fantastic album. Delicious pop hooks and sleazy guitar playing make this a great listen. It's like Cheap Trick meets T. Rex. I have no idea why it never caught on, as they were signed by a major label (EMI), the album was produced by the legendary Tony Visconti, and the musicianship and songwriting is top notch. One of my personal favorite albums.

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Stalvern
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Re: Underrated And Overlooked Albums

Postby Stalvern » November 20th, 2017, 9:34 am

Overlooked:

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Woven - 8-Bit Monk (2003)

No, it's not Gregorian chant chiptunes. I don't know how they came up with the name. This is an album that definitely sounds like the time it came out, but I mean that in a good way. It's pretty similar to Radiohead's Hail to the Thief from the same year, but with a bit of Tool influence too. Very electronic. I remember the band having some decent buzz at the time, but it seems like everyone just completely forgot them after a couple of years. They deserved better than that.

This is the opener, a real blast.

Here's a long, spacey song that shows off the other side of the band's sound.

Underrated:

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Bob Dylan - Street-Legal (1978)

Everyone agrees that this album is where Bob Dylan jumped the shark. And you know what? They're right! His voice has lost a disturbing amount of the edge it had on his last album just two years earlier, his lyrics have gone from angry and tender to grouchy and sappy, most of the songs dawdle along at the same pokey tempo, and the production is bloated with horns and backup singers. This album sounds like the fat, drunk cousin of Blood on the Tracks.

And I mean all of that in the best possible way. Somehow, I find something incredibly sympathetic in this album's overcooked ugliness. The key to it all is that even though it does different things from the albums before it, undeniably worse things, Bob still means 100% of it. He's down in the dumps on this album, and he completely nails that feeling in a way that actually makes me care and makes the album perfect for when I'm down in the dumps myself. Few albums that I've heard go better with alcohol on a rainy day. Is it anywhere close to being one of my favorite Dylan albums? Nope. Is it even a good album in itself? Arguably not. But it has a real place in my heart, and I think that it probably deserves the same from other people too.

No samples here because official Bob Dylan releases are continually scrubbed from YouTube, but my favorite songs are "Changing of the Guards" and "Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)", should you ever come across them. Really, most of the tracks have something to like about them, although I do admit that "No Time to Think" is a wretchedly dull waste of eight minutes.

jon
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Re: Underrated And Overlooked Albums

Postby jon » November 20th, 2017, 2:32 pm

I'll go with Warrant's "Dog Eat Dog". Released in 1992, it got overlooked (yet still went gold) because obviously everyone was infatuated with everything grunge at that point. In retrospect, it's a shame that hair metal had to go away so quickly. While I like grunge, there certainly aren't that many bands that have done it right.

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Retrology
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Re: Underrated And Overlooked Albums

Postby Retrology » November 22nd, 2017, 3:44 pm

California by Mr. Bungle: Because it came out around the same time as Californiacation and because of the feud between Mike Patton and Anthony Kledis, this never got the recognition it deserved, but it's an amazing, brilliant album. There's so much attention to detail, and even though it's written in "pop" structure, this is pop for people who love something different. Highly recommended.

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LoganRuckman
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Re: Underrated And Overlooked Albums

Postby LoganRuckman » November 28th, 2017, 7:15 pm

I'll have to check out that Woven album. Radiohead+Tool sounds like a wonderful combination. Also, now I would love to hear Gregorian chant chiptune. I also need to check out Mr. Bungle in general. I love Faith No More, but I haven't really heard any of Mike Patton's other stuff. Now, some more of my picks:

Overlooked:

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Hum- You'd Prefer An Astronaut
Release- 1995
Genre- alternative rock, space rock, shoegaze, post-hardcore, post-rock

Another overlooked masterpiece from 1995? Perhaps it was just a great year for musical hidden gems. You may notice that I listed a lot of genres up there. That's because the band mixed together a lot of different styles to form one cohesive whole. Hum achieved some level of chart success with their single from this album, Stars (which would later achieve additional success for its usage in a Volvo commercial from 2008), but the album never even went gold. It's a damn shame, because the sound they create on this album is superb. Lots of reverb, and their usage of atmospherics and texture really hits the mark. A lot of the songs sound spacey and otherworldly, as the title would suggest. There's a real dreamy quality to the album, and Deftones frontman Chino Moreno would later state that this album is where they get a lot of their sound from. It's been compared a lot to the Smashing Pumpkins but heavier, but honestly, You'd Prefer An Astronaut is every bit as good as Siamese Dream, perhaps even more so.

Underrated:

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AxCx (I'm just going to refer to them as AxCx, as using their actual name would ensure my post wouldn't get approved)- It Just Gets Worse
Release- 1999
Genre- grindcore

AxCx is a band that gets a lot of flack even from grindcore fans. They were often criticized for their simplicity and lack of musical proficiency. In fact, you could say that the band had zero musical talent. And you would be right, to a degree. But that's not really what's important here. AxCx is an important early grindcore band known for super short songs (this one clocks in at 39 songs in just over half an hour, meaning the average length is less than a minute), and for playing paint peelingly raw, incredibly noisy, ultra chaotic, aggressive, savage grindcore, and It Just Gets Worse is their peak. The lack of musicianship is honestly a positive quality on this album and only adds to the overall cacophony. Then there are the lyrics and song titles, which were the source of a lot of controversy back in the day. With songs like "I Lit Your Baby On Fire," "You're Pregnant So I Kicked You In The Stomach," "Hitler Was A Sensitive Man," "I Convinced You To Beat Your Wife On A Daily Basis," and "Your Son Committed Suicide Because You Suck," (about Eric Clapton's son), they were bound to offend a few people (https://www.discogs.com/AC-It-Just-Gets ... ase/463917 for a full track listing). But the thing is, they were so over the top and ridiculous that it's pretty clear they were being tongue in cheek and not meant to be taken seriously. So with all that in mind, it is my opinion that Anal C-word's It Just Gets Worse is a misunderstood noisy, offensive grindcore landmark.

jon
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Re: Underrated And Overlooked Albums

Postby jon » November 28th, 2017, 10:43 pm

I love the Hum recommendation Logan. And wow, a grindcore record. That just brings a smile to my face. I love the surprises I get on these forums. Ok I can't help it, since we're talking grindcore I'll recommend to whoever can handle it, Lockup's 2 amazing albums "Pleasures Pave Sewers" and "Hate Breeds Suffering".

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Stalvern
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Re: Underrated And Overlooked Albums

Postby Stalvern » November 29th, 2017, 1:50 pm

The best AxCx album is Picnic of Love. ;)

Robotrek
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Re: Underrated And Overlooked Albums

Postby Robotrek » November 30th, 2017, 8:12 pm

The first Kix album never got the credit it deserved for being a fantastic rock n roll album.

lynchie137
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Re: Underrated And Overlooked Albums

Postby lynchie137 » December 3rd, 2017, 11:30 pm

One album I always thought that has been criminally overlooked and under appreciated was Point of Entry by Judas Priest. Probably because it was sandwiched between two of their most well known albums. Those being British Steel and Screaming for Vengeance. Also, P.O.E has a slightly more experimental sound than the hard as nails sound of it's predecessor and it's successor, which probably caught some of their fans off guard when it was first released back in 1981. A shame, really, as I think it has some really cool songs on display, like Solar Angels, Heading out to the Highway, Hot Rockin', Desert Plains, and my personal fave On the Run. All of which not only stand up to some of Priest's better and more well known songs in their catalog, but also are some of the best recorded metal songs of all time. If you haven't checked this album out, please do. I guarantee you that you will not be disappointed.

lynchie137
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Re: Underrated And Overlooked Albums

Postby lynchie137 » December 3rd, 2017, 11:32 pm

Retrology wrote:California by Mr. Bungle: Because it came out around the same time as Californiacation and because of the feud between Mike Patton and Anthony Kledis, this never got the recognition it deserved, but it's an amazing, brilliant album. There's so much attention to detail, and even though it's written in "pop" structure, this is pop for people who love something different. Highly recommended.


Wasn't that album originally also supposed to be called Californication as well?


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