The 5 Most Underappreciated Albums In Your OWN Collection!

It sounds ridiculous, I know, but feel free to pick 5 albums from your own collection that you seem to underappreciate.

Perhaps it's an album by your favorite artist that you like yet you rarely play it (for some reason). Or maybe it's that one great album by an artist that you liked well enough to buy, yet you haven't played it in years...

For instance, here are five from my own collection of which I have no good reason for not playing more:

1. Waiting For The Sun - The Doors
2. Controversy - Prince
3. Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son - Iron Maiden
4. Moondance - Van Morrison
5. The Innocent Age - Dan Fogelberg

 

I have all the early Elton John albums, up to Captain Fantastic, on original UK vinyl in superb condition. I've only played Tumbleweed Connection once out of them all and have had them for
around four years. I got them all given from a total stranger outside a second hand record shop who'd just turned them down.

I'm not really an Elton fan but I know these records are much loved so I've kept them thinking they might click with me sometime. The packaging - gatefolds / inserts / textured sleeves are superb too.

 

Yes, I'm guilty of not enjoying Elton as much as I should as well. I seem to really gravitate to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Madman Across The Water as they just have a vibe and flow that I like best. Yet his other classic albums I just seem to dabble with from time to time but never really play them as much as I probably should.

 

Another one is Gene Clark - No Other. I am a Byrdmaniac and own all their albums on vinyl and CD. A lot of my favourite music ever is on those records. I'm also a big fan of Gene Clark. I love the Gene Clark and the Gosdin Brothers and White Light albums as well as both the Dillard and Clark ones. The outtakes on the Echoes and Flying High CDs are excellent too.

But No Other does very little for me. I always read it's his masterpiece but I find it over produced, too grandiose and unmemorable. I don't remember a single song from it and I've had it for well over 15 years!

I want to like this album and hope it clicks with me sometime.

 

It is a weird question. If I acknowledge a record's underappeciation, do I really underappeciate it? Is this a case of meta-appreciation?

 

It's a case of avoidance awareness...

Like that really smart and attractive girl in high school that everyone likes, but for some strange reason you stay away... and you don't have a logical explanation why.

 

That would be the five I never bought . . .

 

1. PET SOUNDS-I've listened to ODYSSEY AND ORACLE and WALK AWAY RENEE/PRETTY BALLERINA and all 3 Nick Drake albums way more often.
2. WALLS AND BRIDGES-I just can't get into it. "#9 Dream" is still the only song I feel is a "must hear" on this album.
3. CHAOS AND CREATION IN THE BACK YARD-it gets critical raves, but i have trouble getting all the way through it.
4. LOLA VERSUS POWERMAN AND THE MONEYGOROUND-I love all the Kinks albums directly preceding this, but just haven't put this one on very many times.
5. MUSIC FROM BIG PINK-always on lists of classic albums, but I haven't put this one on in at least 10 years.

 

Yikes. I have a *lot* of music on CD and vinyl so there's whole artists and bands I like(d) with pretty big discographies that I haven't listened to in years. So this is kind of random as I'm just glancing across the room at my records (CDs in another room), so...

Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth
Danzig - Debut album
EZO - Self titled
Moby - 18
Uli Jon Roth - Beyond The Astral Skies

 

So, perhaps one is too intimidated by the girl or the record?

Yep, sounds like A Love Supreme to me!

 

There are no under-appreciated albums in my collection. If I only want to hear a handful (or less) of the tracks from a given record, I rip them in full format and sell off the disc.

 

Ok, these would be albums (CDs) I've yet to open. Way more than five, regrettably.
Five I can think of off hand -

Ziggy Marley Live at KCRW
Verdi Anna Netrebko
Carmen Price, von Karajan ('64)
A few Brahms piano recordings
Mahler Symphonies, Tilson Thomas, Various Orchestras

Think I'll put on Ziggy now. Thanks!

 

Byrne / Eno - My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts
Talking Heads '77
Stooges - Metallic KO
Miles Davis - Filles De Kilamanjaro
Bob Dylan & The Band - The Basement Tapes

 

It was the Eurythmics, but lately I've been pulling them out.

Sweet Dreams
Touch
Be Yourself Tonight
Savage
Peace

I never really stopped listening to In the Garden.

 

Yes, I think that hits on it.

 

I was thinking more along the lines of albums where you do like every song, but for some reason you just don't get around to playing it as much as other favorites.

 

David Bowie- Diamond Dogs
Paul McCartney- the Fireman/Electric Arguments
Fripp/Eno- Evening Star
Robert Wyatt- Rock Bottom
The Waterboys- Fisherman's Blues

 

These are favorite LPs that just haven't been in heavy rotation In recent times:

David Bowie—The Man Who Sold the World
The Clash—Sandinista!
Led Zeppelin—Led Zeppelin II
Prince—Sign o' the Times
Sonic Youth—Daydream Nation

Gotta get on 'em!

 

I bought Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and The Beatles when the LPs were reissued a few years ago and they just sit there looking at me as if to say "why don't you play us?"
Same with my Led Zeppelin albums, more dust gatherers.

 

I bought a copy of White Light this summer, but it hasn't clicked yet. Despite all the praise. I think I could enjoy it.So that's my entry to this thread.

 

I am not even going to try to list five albums but, in my case anyway, I am that dangerous (from a financial and storage point of view) combination of fan and collector. Not only albums, but also books. If there is an author I really like, I will buy their books... even if I'm not currently in the proper frame of mind to read their books...

I do the same with music. I am driven to collect the works of artists I like but I also tend to binge on an artist or sometimes even certain styles of music (or literature).

The upside is I always have lots to appreciate... the downside is that there are albums and books that sit unheard or unread... which I guess defines under-appreciated.

But the knowledge that they are sitting there ready and waiting to reveal their art, gives me a feeling of comfort and anticipation...

Then again, it is useful to consider that sometimes I can be an idiot...

 

Five often touted as 'classics' that I have but must not have played in fifteen or twenty years;

Pere Ubu The Modern Dance
Muddy Waters Hard Again
Sly & The Family Stone Stand!
Massive Attack Blue Lines
Gene Clark No Other

 

There must be some misunderstanding.

 

I had Filles de Kilimanjaro for about 10 years, listened to it maybe once when I first got it.

Last year I tried it out again, it's probably my most-heard Miles album since then. I prefer it among his other 'pre-fusion' stuff such as Miles in the Sky and In a Silent Way.

 

Quite a few....here's five...

Led Zeppelin II, the only Zep album I own (bought it in '69), haven't played it in 40 years.

The Beatles Live at the BBC, bought the CD and vinyl versions upon release in 1994...listened once to the CD, have never listened to the LP

The Rolling Stones - have all the albums...been many, many years since I have listened to anything post "Exile"

Mick Jagger solo albums, one listen each....not touched since

The Beatles Live at the Star-Club (Lingasong 1977)...couldn't get all the way thru then..not touched since