Underrated albums

[Jerzy Bondov]

Together Alone and 12 Memories are great picks for me. Together Alone has pretty much all of my favourite Crowded House songs.

I think it's time for a re-evaluation of NIN's With Teeth. Loads of cool songs on there. Much more straightforward rock than anything else Trent's done, but there's nothing wrong with that. All The Love In the World is a real banger, up there with the best NIN album openers. Sunspots, Beside You in Time, Right Where It Belongs, Home, all brilliant. And the big commercial hits like Hand That Feeds and Only are great songs. The Fragile is my favourite NIN album but we were and are never going to get Fragile 2. The Slip is also underrated, though it's not as reviled as With Teeth.

[JohnnyCouncil]

Semi-Detached is possibly my favourite Therapy? album.

I don't really know the band but I was very much into this album Church of Noiiiiize and Lonely, Crying Only were fantastic singles. Eagerly awaiting a reissue of this one.

[lazyhour]

I don't really know the band but I was very much into this album Church of Noiiiiize and Lonely, Crying Only were fantastic singles. Eagerly awaiting a reissue of this one.

"Lonely, Crying Only" has popped into my head possibly more than any other song over the last 20 years. Gawd knows why, but i don't mind.

[Pancake]

Big fan of Together Alone, wasn't aware it was underrated, it's got one of their big US hits on it

[Pancake]

Trompe le Monde, rarely mentioned alongside the first three classics but their equal in my opinion

[Pancake]

The Charlatans Between 10th and 11th fell between the initial baggy rush and the subsequent britpop thing, but a great album

[Hat FM]

The Charlatans Between 10th and 11th fell between the initial baggy rush and the subsequent britpop thing, but a great album

is one of those 'wonderland'? great album.

[Pancake]

is one of those 'wonderland'? great album.

I jumped off after Us and Us Only, the singer moved to America and then the whole Strokes thing happened, I haven't ruled them out but I've never gone in on any post-20thC album

[Magnum Valentino]

Together Alone and 12 Memories are great picks for me. Together Alone has pretty much all of my favourite Crowded House songs.

I think it's time for a re-evaluation of NIN's With Teeth. Loads of cool songs on there. Much more straightforward rock than anything else Trent's done, but there's nothing wrong with that. All The Love In the World is a real banger, up there with the best NIN album openers. Sunspots, Beside You in Time, Right Where It Belongs, Home, all brilliant. And the big commercial hits like Hand That Feeds and Only are great songs. The Fragile is my favourite NIN album but we were and are never going to get Fragile 2. The Slip is also underrated, though it's not as reviled as With Teeth.

I didn't know it was reviled and have loved it since the day it came out. My first NIN album. Probably my second favourite after The Fragile, too. The recent vinyl reissue sounds fucking amazing.

Hesitation Marks, THERE'S an underrated album!

[sutin]

Oh, No! It's DEVO is a near perfect early '80s synthpop album but is always overlooked in favour of early, more guitar driven DEVO.

Pulp's final album We Love Life is wonderful and much more enjoyable than This Is Hardcore for my money.

Belle & Sebastian's Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance was their best album in years, but no one seems to mention it.

The Shins' last album Heartworms is very underrated and holds up to their classic '00s records damn well.

[earl_sleek]

Another person here that likes With Teeth (and Hesitation Marks). Year Zero is yet another NIN album that doesn't get much love.

[Brundle-Fly]

Blaze Of Glory - Joe Jackson (1989) Well, past his early eighties pop pomp success but for tunes and biting lyrics, it can stand shoulder to shoulder to his first run of hit albums.

[chveik]

Magma's Merci is actually very fun

[the science eel]

Pulp's final album We Love Life is wonderful and much more enjoyable than This Is Hardcore for my money.

For my money too. Fine album.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Another person here that likes With Teeth (and Hesitation Marks). Year Zero is yet another NIN album that doesn't get much love.

I've never considered Year Zero to be unloved but thinking about it that's probably just because I love it so much. I saw NIN live during the run up to its release, when the ARG was in full swing, and before they played Survivalism Trent said 'here's a new one' and some turd went 'IT'S SHIT' well he was fucking wrong as fuck, stupid idiot.

[markburgle]

Sex Pistols Kiss This is way better than Never Mind the Bollocks. The latter can feel a bit one-dimensional, whereas the former contains all of Bollocks while mixing it up with a few covers, a couple of the others having a go on vocals, and greater sonic variety. Win win

[NattyDread 2]

Trompe le Monde, rarely mentioned alongside the first three classics but their equal in my opinion

Absolutely. That and the first two Frank Black albums too.

[Glebe]

Trompe le Monde, rarely mentioned alongside the first three classics but their equal in my opinion

Absolutely. That and the first two Frank Black albums too.

It's amazing how good Trompe turned out, given that they weren't talking to each other at that point and recorded their parts separately.

TOTY is my favourite Frank solo album.

[Shaky]

Yes to Trompe as well! Genuinely my favourite of their's, and for my money a fair bit better than Bossanova.

[the science eel]

Agree.

'Motorway to Roswell'!

[Glebe]

Apparently Kim Deal wasn't too hot on Eric Drew Feldman's outro to 'Alec Eiffel'* come off it Kim 'tis cracking.

*And then Black buggered off to do his solo stuff with EDF.

[drummersaredeaf]

With Teeth, YZ, The Slip are decent, but I can't get into Hesitation Marks. The first four proper songs are decent, but the rest is B side grade. I saw them on every tour for those albums (but was too young for the earlier albums) and consider 05-09 to be a really good phase of the NIN canon. The return was welcomed, but the shows were only enjoyable for the big arena set up in my view.

I've liked the more recent output too, but it's a shame they don't tour in quite the same way anymore (understandable with an army of children).

[Pauline Walnuts]

For my money too. Fine album.

I am also agreeing.


I think Sky Ferreira's Night Time, My Time is the best album of the last 10 years.

So yeah.

[billyandthecloneasaurus]

Trompe le Monde, rarely mentioned alongside the first three classics but their equal in my opinion

Was a Pixies obsessive when I first got into music as a kid, and it was my least favourite of their albums.  I'm 30 now, and it's the only album I can bear to listen to (well, Bossanova is alright).  Everything else just feels a bit too much...well, just a bit too much.  Love the low-key creepy vibe of the thing.  Alec Eiffel is amazing, and the OH NO! at the end of the Navajo know is the perfect end for any song, album or band.  Good stuff.

[The Crumb]

And The Hot Rock by Sleater-Kinney, which I'm mentioning because the bastards won't play anything from it live. I appreciate it is hard to sing and play, they were going through an obsession with counterpoint at the time, but I'd rather hear Burn Don't Freeze or Get Up! or Memorise Your Lines instead of some of the garbage on The Path of Wellness.

Very late to the party, but recently discovered this excellent live recording which has most of the Hot Rock played live and sounds great. Agree that it's a fantastic abd somewhat underrated album, if it had been released a few years later during the boom in quirky, introspective indie rock I think it would have been more recognised.

[Kankurette]

Nice one!

[wrec]

Hyperborea

Yes! Exit is also particularly excellent. The track Choronzon should have been the theme for a tv show about a sentient motorbike.

My fav run of Fall albums is Cerebral Caustic - Light User Syndrome - Levitate.

For me CC was their weakest up to that point. I liked Light User a lot at the time but I find it too cluttered in retrospect. Bought it on the day of release and it was so eerie to hear about the Manchester bombing after a few days of listening to Powder Keg.

Have always had a real soft spot for Levitate though. I wasn't following the music press much at the time and didn't know they had an album out though they were my favourite band. I stumbled across it in HMV, and rushed home with it immediately, was floored by it. That tour was my first time seeing them too. 

Here's one that probably nobody will agree with: Neil Young's Landing On Water. Trans and Re-ac-tor have been reassessed as cult classics but I haven't seen anyone making similar claims for this. The first time I heard it I was horrified by the production and considered it his nadir, but in recent years I got swept up in the FM synth revival and got really into that kind of sound. So gave it another go and was surprised how much it clicked after all. Great jaded downer vibes.

[kalowski]

[shlug]

Fugazi's End Hits is incredibly underrated in that it's considered (or at least on RYM) their worst album although that's probably a testament to the quality of their output.

I'm more partial to their more experimental stuff from Red Medicine on rather than Repeater so perhaps I'm biased.

[danwho9]

Half Man Half Biscuit's 'McIntyre Treadmore and Davitt' is for me one of their finest outings.