Albums that became heralded as masterpieces years after release

Led Zeppelin III

 

Apologize if it has already been mentioned but... Slowdive - Souvlaki.

 

The Cure- Pornography
Jawbreaker- Dear You (yeah, ok, so "masterpiece" is going too far, but critics/fans seem to like/appreciate it more now than they did when it was released)

 

That does seem to be the case also being released just 10 months later Pepper did get all the attention

 

Kate Bush's The Dreaming? Does that one already count as the genius masterpiece it is?

 

As I recall, Skylarking was perceived as a masterpiece except by almost everyone except XTC especially Andy Partridge.

 

I've always thought of Pepper as the louder, brasher younger brother who got all the attention.

 

Weren't most of Zeppelin's early records PANNED upon first release?
Similarly, didn't Exile on Main St. get a lukewarm to mildly negative reception by critics in '72?

 

I love and always thought Ram was great but I was 11 and didn't listen to critics but only to what interested me. It wasn't until I read The Beatles An Illustrated Record by Roy Carr that I realized others saw it differently. Even then, I thought he totally missed the boat.

 

Except in Artiste-Cliques like the few I was a part of in the late 60s everything the VU released was shamelessly ignored/shunned.It was the 1980s that finally brought their genuis to the masses.It began in the punk era but came full circle in the 80s and Lou Reed's masterpiece The Blue Mask kick started the whole thing.Now that being said the same thing only different eras happened to the IMO best band of the 1970s.The fantastic Pere Ubu.Of course anyone vaguely familiar with RnR has to be aware of the Stones EOMS saga.

 

Yes.LZ was treated as bad as VU until the 4th album.Stones were talked about in a lot of RnR mediums less than favorable on the EOMS album.

 

BOTT was critiqued by numerous people in Rolling Stone upon release it was more favored than not.I still have that issue on my wall in a frame.It is probably the greatest RS issue along with the Lennon Remembers issue of which I also own.Over 2/3 of that issue was donated to BOTT.In other words the LP was critiqued in depth by the top critics of the day.Paul Nelson in the issue heralded it as a masterpiece and a superb musical work on the loss of the 60s&love which actually go hand to those of us who lived those times first hand.

 

Christgau gave it an A+, not sure about other critics.

 

any beach boys seventies releases like sunflower, etc??? no!

 

Materpieces? No. Unfairly ignored and unappreciated upon release? Yes IMO.

 

Pablo Honey has never been acclaimed as "masterpiece". To this day, it's regarded as the worst Radiohead album

 

sunflower is a masterpiece for me!

 

"English Settlement" - XTC (its overall impact at the time was overshadowed by Andy Partridge's decision to stop touring; also if I recall correctly, Rolling Stone initially only gave it 3 stars)
"The Flat Earth" - Thomas Dolby (languished in obscurity for years, only recently being recognized for its brilliance)
"Chill Out" - The KLF (a lot of people didn't quite get it at the time of its release; now recognized as a foundational proto-ambient-house classic)

 

Love-Forever Changes

Nick Drake-All 3 albums

 

Wire - Chairs Missing

This album was regarded as a huge departure from the sound of Pink Flag but was a huge precursor to bands many 80s bands like REM.

Husker Du - New Day Rising
Meat Puppets - II

The impact of both of these was only felt years later with Nirvana and Green Day.

Mission of Burma - Vs.

Widely appreciated by artists like Sonic Youth, REM and Moby, no one has been able to duplicate their combination of artistic exploration and pure energy.

Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me

Big precursor album for both grunge and the lo-fi movements in the 90s.

 

No, I lived thru this in real time - only took 6 months to a year but there was a definite change re Exiles.

 

Lotsa people disagree, nowadays. Rolling Stone on the reissue of RAM in 2012 gave it a 4.5 star review, a famous reversal of opinion 40 years after having hammered it at the time of release. Pitchfork, 9.2 out of 10 review. Lots of other "initially severely misjudged masterpiece" reviews also in the years since its release - they use those actual words.

Obviously you may disagree individually, which is fine/understandable, not trying to convince you or anyone individually to like it - but the point is that critical consensus on this one has most definitely shifted over time to be largely favorable with quite a few feeling it was a masterpiece.

The reviews from the 1970s on RAM I found to be almost laughably unfair. John Lennon released excruciating recordings of himself and Yoko doing such musical things as saying each others' names repeatedly and somehow got a pass from the critics; Paul recorded an album of great tunes that happened to be borne of a period of domestic retreat and the critics shredded him for going soft...

 

Odessa and A Good Feelin' to Know....two FANTASTIC records! Love them both!

 

Love-Forever Changes...