What's your fave albums that you wish more people knew & loved the way you do?
 

Hi guys

Random thread title but I was recently asked this on a formspring site and thought it was a great question! Also a fantastic way to get to know what everyone likes and discover some new music.

So - what are those albums that you love and can never believe that others don't know and love like you do??

A lot of mine arise from the fact that I like so much music that isn't mainstream/popular/known at all in the UK so apologies if people here don't think ther're really random.

There are a few albums that I always try and get people to listen to but my first instincts are either:

Judee Sill - Judee Sill (1972),
Kylie Minogue - Impossible Princess (1997)
The Alice Band - The Love Junk Store (2002).
Aimee Mann - Bachelor No. 2 or The Last Remain Of The Dodo (1999)

Here's a track from each of them:

Judee Sill - Lady O (She gave it to The Turtles then released her own version)



Kylie Minogue - Did It Again (really hard to choose one from this album but I just love this video!)



The Alice Band - Nothing On But The Radio (a real favourite!)
These girls only had the one album in 2002 and then disappeared without a trace!



Aimee Mann - Red Vines (Album version is better but couldn't find it on youtube)



Ok - thoughts??

Great topic!

If I had to pick only one, I'd have to say it's Neko Case's 2006 album Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. It's a brilliant album. It inspires a strange feeling in me, almost like a nostalgia for a time in my life that has never existed. That's the best way to put it.

Another one that's been very important to me personally is Jessie Baylin's You. It's no longer in print, and was a self-issued release. She was signed to a major label after that and re-recorded many of the songs for her debut album. I am one of the lucky few that have the original Jessie Baylin album.

YES. Her best album, IMO. I listen to it on a weekly basis.


Here are some of my hidden gems:

Erik Hassle: Hassle
Original Broadway Cast: [title of show] (if you like showtunes, this is a great album. very underrated)
Jay Brannan: goddamned
Kelly Clarkson: My December
Kish Mauve: Black Heart
The Submarines: Love Notes/Letterbombs and Honeysuckle Weeks

My picks are either from lesser known artists, or a big artist's underrated album.

Lucinda Williams - West
Roseanne Cash - Interiors
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Amon Amarth - With Oden on Our Side
Opeth - Ghost Reveries
Metallica - Load
Evanescence - The Open Door
Rammstein - Herzeleid
Pink Floyd - The Division Bell
Kylie Minogue - X
Spice Girls - Forever
Alice Cooper - Brutal Planet
Heaven and Hell - The Devil You Know
Black Sabbath - Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules --Their stuff with Dio was soooooo good, yet the majority only think of Ozzy.
Dio - Lock Up the Wolves, Strange Highways, Killing The Dragon

and many more...

Oh ok hmmmmmm.

The Gate to the Mind's Eye-Thomas Dolby
Shangri-La-Mark Knopfler
Rick Danko-Rick Danko
Pro's and Cons of Hitchhiking-Roger Waters
The first 4 Peter Gabriel albums
Contact From the underworld of Redboy-Robbie Robertson
Out of the Cradle-Lindsey Buckingham
Tambu-Toto

Mick

Basically, everything by Hanson after Middle of Nowhere and This Time Around.

Underneath


The Walk


Thinking About Something

Melanie Safka - Born To Be



Racing Cars - Downtown Tonight



The Beach Boys - Surfs Up (Definitely not their most appreciated, especially in comparison with Pet Sounds)



^ This song is pretty damn eery to me...

Rupert Everett - Into The Vortex



R.E.M. - Reckoning



Eva Cassidy - American Tune
John Martyn - Solid Air
Nick Drake - Bryter Layter
Rufus Wainwright - Want One
Loudon Wainwright III - Last Man On Earth

Seriously impressed that you know and love Impossible Princess - particularly because you're in the US where that album did no business at all at the time - if ot was even released! The only place it did well was Australia. My favourite track from it is Cowboy Style - it's incredible!

I really like My December too.


I tried with West but I just couldn't get into it much. I do own it though and still break it out ocassionally. Good call on Interiors, such a statement from Rosanne! I've been a huge Kylie fan for over 20 years and, try as I might I can't love X as an album, other than The One, Wow and In My Arms, all of which she did when I saw her last month. What on earth is going on in Nu-di-ty?! I used to like Spice Girls Forever but now I think that, other than Holler which I still like, it's aged badly. :sorry:

Not really just an Album but i always wanted to find more Mariah fans, especially when i was younger and real crazy about her. :o :blob2:

Oh! How can I have forgotten to add Belinda Carlisle - Real (1993). Perhaps her best album and way, way underrated and forgotten about!

Belinda Carlisle - Goodbye Day (fan-made video) from Real (1993). I have never met anyone else who owns this album!

I loved early Mariah - everything up until Butterfly. I still really like Emotions, Someday and Dreamlover. Her Unplugged album is brilliant and I still play it.

I'm now waiting for someone to say they love Neil Young's 80s stuff and say that Landing On Water and Trans are underappreciated masterpieces - pfffft!

I lived on the unplugged album when i was 13. :) :thumbsup:
I like the more recently ones too , but sometimes a little too much annoying rappers. I dont know why she always gets them. Sometimes the Songs would really be much better without them ! :shrug:

Whats your favorite by her ?

Joseph Arthur: Redemption's Son. Actually, anything by Joseph. It's unfortunate he has never broken out as a star. He's got more talent as a musician/singer/songwriter/producer than any one person I can think of. He's the whole picture, a whole talent. And he's one of the most prolific and varied artists I know too. I will admit in some ways I enjoy having Joseph as my private pleasure, though. It makes the music seem even more personal to me.

Madonna: Bedtime Stories. I really hate this album is glossed over because of it's successor, Ray Of Light. To me, this is probably Madonna's most honest, real work. And I think the way it slowly transitions from being an R&B album, to a very existential, ethereal, almost Spanish influenced album as it wraps up is just so genius. It's such an unlikely transition, but it is still striking to hear every single time I listen to the album.

Sheryl Crow: Wildflower. This album was pretty much universally lampooned, even by Sheryl fans, and it didn't sell very well compared to it's predecessors. I still stand by my opinion that it was absolutely the perfect album for Sheryl to make at the perfect time. And it's tremendously enjoyable as a folksy concept album to boot.

Amy Winehouse: Back To Black. Yes, over 10 million people have bought this album, and Amy's a bona fide superstar because of it. But do you ever hear anyone discuss the music? The album is sublime. Amy's the real deal... she just oozes talent. This one album single handedly sparked a revival in roots-style Soul and R&B. And for just reason... it's THAT good. I hate Amy's personal problems have wholly overshadowed her immense talent.

Oh, there are a LOT...here is a SMALL sampling:


Leon Russell - 1st album (the blue one)
Leon Russell - Leon & The Shelter People
Leon Russell - Leon Live
Leon Russell - Carney
Leon Russell - Stop All That Jazz
Leon Russell - Asylum Choir II
Joe Cocker - Mad Dogs & Englishmen
Dave Mason - Split Coconut
Traffic - On The Road
Traffic - Welcome To The Canteen
Blind Faith
Fleetwood Mac - Time
Fleetwood Mac - Then Play On
Fleetwood Mac - Heroes Are Hard To Find
Peter Green Splinter Group (any of them)
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - A Hard Road
Robert Johnson - The Complete Robert Johnson
Muddy Waters - Live At Newport
Howlin' Wolf - London Sessions
Little Feat - Feats Don't Fail Me Now
Little Feat - Dixie Chicken
Little Feat - Sailin' Shoes
Allman Bros Band - Shades Of Two Worlds
Allman Bros Band - Wipe The Windows, Check The Oil, Dollar Gas
Allman Bros Band - Hittin' The Note
Allman Bros Band - Live At The Fillmore
The Derek Trucks Band - Already Free
ZZ Top - Rio Grande Mud
ZZ Top - Tres Hombres
Derek & The Dominos - In Concert
The Cruzados - 1st album
Todd Sharp - Walking All The Way
Delaney & Bonnie and Friends w/Eric Clapton - On Tour (the box set)
George Harrison - Cloud Nine
The Beach Boys - Holland
The Beach Boys - Sunflower
The Rolling Stones - Steel Wheels
Keith Richards - Talk Is Cheap
Humble Pie - Rockin' The Fillmore
Humble Pie - Smokin'
Prince - LotusFlower
Prince - Around The World In A Day
Prince - Sign O' The Times
Billy Preston - That's The Way God Planned It
Billy Preston - Encouraging Words
The Challengers - Surfbeat
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Miles Davis - Tribute To Jack Johnson
Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
Dave Brubeck Trio - Take Five
Modern Jazz Quartet - Under The Jasmine Tree
Modern Jazz Quartet - Space
Ravi Shankar & Friends
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Kaya
Peter Tosh - Legalize It
Smetana - The Moldau
Holst - The Planets
Michael Hoenig - Departure From The Northern Wasteland
Pentangle - Sweet Child
Steeleye Span - All Around My Hat
Gentle Giant - In A Glass House
Gentle Giant - Octopus
Gentle Giant - Free Hand
Jethro Tull - Stand Up
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Welcome Back, My Friends
King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King
Orbit Service - Space & Valium
Orbit Service - Songs From Eta Carinae
Orbit Service - Asphyxia

YES YES YES YES YES!!! :blob2::blob2::blob2: This album is too amazing for words, High Hopes is one of the best songs ever. And speaking of Black Sabbath, it's the Tony Martin albums and Gillan's album which I think are really underrated. I love Headless Cross and some songs on Born Again like Trashed and Zero the Hero. Can't stay Ozzy-era because of the vocals but love the Dio, Gillan and Martin albums :nod: The less said about Seventh Star though the better...

Just Enough Education to Perfrom-Stereophonics
Blind-The Sundays
Sound of Lies-The Jayhawks

Very fun topic! :thumbsup: Here are a few of mine:

Sarah Jarosz - Song Up in Her Head (2009)
This kid is talented. She's a fantastic mandolin player, plays a mean clawhammer style banjo and has a very evocative voice. And she writes most of her own songs. Almost too talented. :p But I got to meet her and she's super nice and humble, so it's cool.


And a great cover of The Decemberists "Shankill Butchers"


Michael Nesmith & The First National Band - Magnetic South (1970)

My favorite Monkee! :thumbsup: I listened to lots of Monkees music as a kid, and I was always drawn to Mike's country-tinged tunes. Last year I found out he had quite a run of solo albums post-Monkees, so I tracked some down, and I was very pleasantly surprised. If you like country rock in the vein of Gram Parsons/The Flying Burrito Brothers and some of the Byrd's later albums, I think you'll dig this (awesome pedal steel incoming!):



Absolutely love his voice.




Harry Nilsson - Pandemonium Shadow Show (1967)

I never knew Nilsson was such a great songwriter before someone loaned me this album. I knew him from his covers of Everybody's Talkin & Without You, so I knew he had a great voice, but he could definitely write a song:




The Millennium - Begin (1968)

Just gorgeous sunshine pop. The first track (Prelude)sounds like it'd be heavily sampled in hip-hop, not what I was expecting at first but it segues nicely into the first song.

Louie - you know I'm a fan of Bedtime Stories too. I think it was just last week that I was appreciating your random choice when we somehow got on to it. I also really like Wildflower - but you know I'm a Sheryl fan. It was very different than anything she'd done before and I think that shocked a lot of people but if I'm in the right mood Ieally enjoy it. Hey, it's better than Detours, which I think is her worst album (some good somgs but bery patchy).

I know hardly anyone here likes country, but there's relatively new guy, named David Nail. His CD is called I'm About To Come Alive.
While the music is really leaning towards pop country, there's this sadness in his voice, that just haunts me. That CD, is my favorite CD of the past 5 years, hands down. And he's playing a big club in Indy, a week from Friday. I'm working that night, but I'm going to hire my coworker to cover for me, until I can get there, after his show.

No one knows or probably has heard of her, but I've been a HUGE fan of Toni Childs since the late 80's. She had 1 minor hit and her 1st album was almost pure perfection. She was nominated best new artist in 1988 I believe. She continues to record here and there, but her 1st cd "Union" will always be in my top 5 must have albums

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S00HHzXZUrg

Lisa Marie Presley-Now What

She was also a member of Berlin before Terri Nunn! ;)

good trivia heart! She performed a few shows when terri was not available. check her out, great voice!

Inside Job-Don Henley

Mick

Terri Nunn ~ Moment of Truth
Richie Sambora ~ Stranger in this Town
Wilson Phillips ~Shadows & Light
Heart ~Desire Walks On
Heart ~Jupiters Darling
Richard Marx ~ Rush Street
Hardline & The Storm ~ Bands by members of Journey in the early 90's.
Tami Shaw ~ Tami Shaw

so many....

opps, you said 'fave'? these are just albums that weren't that popular that are great!

These aren't necessarily obscure artists, but the albums are some of their lesser known & appreciated:

1. Lady Sings the Blues - Billie Holiday
From 1956, this is a late-period Holiday album which mostly contains re-recordings of several of her classic songs - Good Morning Heartache, God Bless the Child, etc. I actually prefer several of the renditions here to the earlier versions (especially Good Morning Heartache and No Good Man).

2. The Glow - Bonnie Raitt
Not one of her most celebrated albums for sure, but really underrated. No, it's not as gritty as her earlier stuff, but she does knock-out versions of Sleep's Dark & Silent Gate and Your Good Thing (Is About to End). The title track is nothing short of fantastic.

3. Money Jungle - Duke Ellington
'60s collaboration between Ellington, Charles Mingus, & Max Roach. Probably my favorite Duke Ellington album that I own or have heard. Mingus is brilliant on this, IMO. Fleurette Africaine is a really beautiful song.

4. I Just Dropped By to Say Hello - Johnny Hartman
Sigh. I dunno what to say about this one. He's the only man who could take on In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning and (at least) match Frank Sinatra.

5. Smile - Laura Nyro
This was her "comeback" album after she retired in 1971. Kinda jazzy - reminds me of the music Joni Mitchell was making around this time ('76). Just beautiful. Eli & the 13th Confession gets all the raves, but I really like her later works.

I adore Bedtime Stories. I can't decide if that or Erotica is my favorite Madge album.

As for Amy Winehouse, all I can say is, AMEN.

West is sublime just for the mere fact that it features Unsuffer Me.

And boo to you. The Spice Girls are perfection.

Homer - I've actually been meaning to listen to I'm About To Come Alive for a while so thanks for reminding me!

Markolas - I also think The Glow is a really good album! It wasn't successful and gets fairly harsh reviews but I don't understand why. It was very different, coming after Green Light, so maybe that's the reason? I love Bonnie!

trackaghost - Oh I do love Freedom but Trans... I just can't.

I haven't played them in a while but I still love -

T-Rex - Electric Warrior

Uriah Heep - Demons and Wizards

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

The Cat Dancer- Sandy Stewart




Horses- Patti Smith (Of course fans of this genre own this album, but not a lot of people from my generation)




Heroes and Thieves- Vanessa Carlton

Believe me, I want to like it. But it's just SO bad. :lol:

On the other hand, her follow-up, Detours, is amazing. I love how she returned to the sound of her earlier albums.

See my earlier post in the thread. I'm with louie on this one and I'm not especially keen on Detours.

I'm also a huge Sheryl fan, but it does not matter what mood I'm in, I just cannot get into that album. It's too melodramatic and whiny. I like an upbeat, feel good album by her. I think that's what she's best at. :shrug:

I think Erotica is my favorite. But Bedtime Stories is right there. I love 90s Madonna.

I saw him in Louisville last year. He's really good live. :thumbsup:

Great choice and very underrated.

One name I've rarely seen mentioned here is Shannon McNally. I think she opened some shows for Stevie in the 1990s. She is phenomenal.... sort of similar to Sheryl Crow, but much better IMO. I highly recommend her album Geronimo.

Also, No Exit by Blondie. Most people are familiar with the song "Maria," but the rest of the album is even better.

And people need to check out John Brannen. He's kind of a southern Bruce Springsteen.

I really like the Erotica album. I've said before that I think it's unfortunate that it got swallowed up in the whole Sex book furore. Some great tracks on there: Rain, Erotica, Bad Girl, Deeper and Deeper...

Nice to see someone appreciating solo Richie!

Shannon McNally and John Brannen sound great! See - this is why this thread was a good idea...:nod:

\

Easily her best album. :nod:

I love this album. Haven't listened in a really long time.


Patty Griffin - Living With Ghosts
Patty Griffin - Children Running Through
The Trews - Friends & Total Strangers

Kathleen Edwards: Failer, Back To Me, and Asking for Flowers

Edie Brickell: Volcano

Aimee Mann: The Forgotten Arm

Reigning Sound : anything and everything they've ever done.

Yes!! I love Aimee and this really is The Forgotten Album. One of her best.

Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours

Daniel Lanois - Shine

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Up From Below

Jenny Lewis - Rabbit Fur Coat

LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening

Richard Ashcroft - Alone with Everybody

Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight

Steely Dan - Gaucho

Talking Heads - Remain in Light

Theivery Corporation - Radio Retaliation

Vampire Weekend - Contra

The XX - XX