At the end of the day you're addressing the wrong person about this, because clearly from my list I don't agree. Which is fine, music being completely subjective as it is
@Steve62 I enjoyed listening to some Michael Head last night. The Magical World of The Strands is an album that someone once recommended to me as a must listen. I'm not very familiar with it, but I like it. I also watched an interview with Michael talking about meeting Arthur Lee for the first time. I guess he was even part of Arthur's backing band for awhile? I came across a few of their other songs. I particularly liked this one from Shack. "I Know You Well". It would sound right at home on the compilation Children of Nuggets. Being from Liverpool, I can hear their strong Beatles and Echo and The Bunnymen influence. Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Ok, before this slides I am not suggesting anyone should or shouldn't like Low Budget as an album. I was merely pointing out that it is an interesting anomaly that the band's biggest selling album is not held in particularly high regard by many fans. Which isn't a scenario any of their contemporaries seem to face. As for a commercial bent? Lola Vs Powerman was clearly made with a mind to accessibility/commerciality (in the Kinks own way) after the somewhat progressive/alternate stylings of Village Green and Arthur, and it isn't frowned upon for it. I'm not asking anyone to agree, or disagree, I thought I was merely making an interesting observation.
@donstemple I am well aware of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. I have a friend that loved Howl. They should be right up my alley, but I never shared his enthusiasm for the band. I haven't followed them much since and I'm sure there is some great music to be heard by them. I liked "In Like The Rose" that you posted. I will have to explore some more. I think this is what initially turned me off. I thought they were too close to being Jesus and Mary Chain clones. That's probably not a fair assessment, but it was my initial reaction when hearing them years ago. I don't hear it much on Howl, but it must have been from an earlier album. Even the way they write their name BLMC is very close to JAMC. You should definitely listen to The Jesus and Mary Chain! I love them. They actually have a new album coming out next week called Glasgow Eyes. Peter Hayes also played on Give It Back! by The Brian Jonestown Massacre. I'm a huge fan of that album and band, so now I need to listen to these BRMC albums and see what I have been missing!
This thread helped me appreciate it much more. When I played my vinyl copy when we were discussing the album, I was somewhat confused as to why I thought I never liked it very much. I'm not crazy about the title track and a couple of the singles, but overall I think it's a really good album. I even love the album cover. "National Health" was on my list! I agree it seems like an underrated album these days. They hit on a lot of the popular styles of the late 70s with disco, hard rock, punk, and even new wave. Maybe this wide assortment of styles puts some people off?
Yes it is an interesting point especially compared to their peers. Maybe, but I described what put me off the album at the time it was released. Maybe some of the critics were coming from the same place at the time. Who knows. Heck, I’ve reformed my opinion about Superman after hearing the longer version.
Thank you @Steve62! I never heard of Michael Head before. Those were all great. His music is right up my alley. I probably won’t take you up on your playlist suggestion though,……..I think I may just have to pick somewhere to begin, maybe the album with Cup of Tea on it, and start listening to his entire discography, lol.
I have zero overlap on my two top 40 lists with these 18 songs, and yet I love them all. I think that that says a lot about the depth of the kinks katalogue. Perhaps we should just start a fresh and do our top 200? Also, I may not have won the INLEE award, but I kind of love the fact that my number one song, live life, didn’t even make the top 100.
I can't remember lol I'm putting something together. I'll slot in at the end I guess, but I can't remember when that is lol
I was meaning more the modern perspective on it ... and I'm almost certain it comes down to the production
But maybe all the styles don’t hold up as well to listeners these days? I don’t know! It could have also had good marketing at the time and “Superman” was nearly a top 40 hit. I think all of their 70s albums don’t get enough attention!
I was agreeing with your original premise; that the big sellers usually are where the votes come from.
Thanks for posting that song which does indeed sound like it belongs on Nuggets (it's not on the Children of Nuggets set, surprisingly). Head has disparaged that first album in interviews saying Ian Broudie's (another Liverpudlian - e.g. Lightning Seeds) production ruined it. It's also clear that it's a different style to the one Head settled on in Waterpistol. In fact, he does a similar song to that on Waterpistol, but with extra flourishes: https://youtu.be/bOr-q6pI5bI?si=LSKmbOPz1BVa-btj
Shack were Arthur Lee's backing band for Lee's 1992 visit to the UK (and France?) thanks to French Promoter Stephane Bismuth (the same guy who financed The Magical World of the Strands). To quote Uncut, "Bismouth was one of a group of fanatics who saw beyond Head's reputation as a commercial pariah." Head called Bismouth "a lovely Parisian man, a visionary." Incidentally, for our French friends, Bismouth asked Head to produce a Parisian band called Autour de Lucie. I don't know if anything came of it. As for backing Arthur Lee, I found a comment from John Head in an old Mojo (Aug 1999): "We did a few dates and you think he could be disappointing, but he was a f-cking genius."
