Tell us about an album that, in your opinion, deserves greater recognition than it received at the time it was released. Please give more than simply a title, rather say WHY you feel it should gain greater credit and deserves to be played despite being criminally ignored by all and sundry.
I am kicking this off with ‘Jordan: The comeback’ by Prefab Sprout.
Arguably Paddy McAloon’s finest hour, although Steve McQueen may also be in the running for that accolade. (Both albums were produced by Thomas Dolby and clearly magic happened when they worked together). Released in 1990 as Prefab Sprout’s fifth LP, this is an absolutely stunning collection of high quality song writing. The breadth of musical styles is impressive and yet it all hangs together as a coherent whole. People who know this double album recognise its beauty and genius, but I am sure there are good folk on here who would love this, were they to give it a listen. I believe this is Stuart Maconie’s all time favourite album. So much more could be said about PS and the wonderful Paddy McAloon . . .
Ultimately this album never fails to lift my spirits whenever I play it. The relatively recent Thomas Dolby remaster also ensures that this also sounds fabulous.
Goodness, there’s a blast from the past! I think that I bought a CD of that album many years ago after I heard John Peel play it several days running on his Radio One show.
I haven’t listened to it in years. Must do so soon.
I propose as my underrated album(s) the two LPs made by Greenslade, ‘Spyglass Guest’ and ‘Time And Tide’: keyboard-led prog rock, with Roger Dean artwork to boot. I saw Greenslade as a schoolboy in Edinburgh a long time ago as support for (maybe?) Focus. I can’t find their LPs any more, but there is a 2CD Rhino re-release. I’ve bought a copy, but my CDS II needs TLC from Naim before I can listen to them.
So I have to confess to not having heard either album in over 30 years. If I’m selling turkeys, I apologise in advance!
Back in 1988 I was so impressed with an American artist called Gail Ann Dorsey and her album release “Corporate world”. It was a record I played a lot at the time on vinyl. Was she any good? Well a lot of serious pop stars thought so. Bowie chose her to be permanent fixture of his band.
I finally managed to hunt down a CD of it recently and having ripped it play it a lot, I play on my car journeys in to work plus the home system.
@graham55 Great band Greenslade, don’t think I ever managed to see them but do have the original Time & Tide on vinyl still. Not spun it for many a year.
I’m in the middle of digitising my LP collection at the moment so I’m rediscovering some of my old albums, many of which only tickled the nether regions of the charts at best. Here’s 3 that need re-discovering for starters:-
And did this one earlier today (I’m on the “M”'s). An ex Buzzcock and a future Siouxsie and the Banshees member, many of the tracks covered by more famous bands eg Radiohead but now seems largely forgotten.
Hi @mikebu
I have two of those albums!! Love that The Mighty Lemon Drops album.
Great example of a decent record that seemed to slip through the gaps unnoticed.
Now recording this one. I have to periodically remind myself how good “The Men They Couldn’t Hang” albums are but usually default to ‘Waiting for Bonaparte’ to add to the playlist but the others are just as good
Well, and @graham55 these albums are all available via streaming. It is fair to say that Spyglass Guest comes a across better than Time and Tide at first pass, but perhaps neither is an undiscovered gem……
Haway @AndyJ play the game man and pick one of them!! Totally agree they’re a spectacularly under appreciated band. I’ve seen them live a few times. My favourite album is probably Curtains.
Not so much underrated as invisible. Well recorded, great song-writing and fab arrangements. It is completely English but also deliciously fresh, a firm favourite these last few years.
The version on streaming services has a superb cover of Kate Bush’s This Woman’s Work.
‚How dare you‘ by 10cc who in my opinion are a brilliant but seriously underrated band. Love this album for many reasons. Canoodling with a very special girlfriend whilst listening to it over and over again being one! Those were the days!
For metal fans amongst us, I’d put this album forwards (Dimension Hatross by Voivod) as I rate it higher than Master, Reign in Blood, Peace Sells or any of the other mega albums of the mid 80’s. Why - it contains some amazing, weird, original unorthodox playing which marks it out as special, and a loose concept based around some very unique lyrics describing things including time travel, particle physics & tribal worship of gods. Maybe it was too strange for the metal masses at the time, maybe because they weren’t American they didn’t receive the same publicity, I don’t know but imho its the greatest metal album of all.
Perhaps taking liberties on the topic of this thread as this gentleman is the biggest rock star in Japan but it seems that relatively very few people in the west knows about him.
Anti by HYDE (real name Hideto Takarai and also front man of L’Arc-en-Ciel)
