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Overlooked Albums By Popular Bands

Mr Cheese

Mr Cheese

Nov 8, 2019
453
619
Buffalo, NY
#1
What are one or two of your favorite albums that, for one reason or another, didn't get the recognition like other records the band made. What are your favorite more overlooked albums by popular bands. The albums don't have to be completely unknown, but just underrated when compared with their other stuff. Also put why you think that it got overlooked. Here's one that I thought of:

Rush - Vapor Trails
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF-LiKcpokPniWSrXGSUP7DKKQ4uEu_n2
I love this album. Its incredibly emotional, yet also has some all out rockers too. I feel the reason its somewhat overlooked is due to a few things. One, it comes as the first album Rush put out in 5 years, so many of the not so diehard fans lost interest. Two, it had some problems with the mixing. Now, I like both the original and the remix, in fact it varies by the song, but most people will say that the original is not very good. And I do see where they're coming from. It is a bit muddy and undefined, but on some songs it just feels right to me. Now that the remix has been out for some time, it has gained some more popularity I think, but is still an overlooked album that is (in my opinion) awesome.
 
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#2
The Cars' Panorama, their third. After hitting paydirt right out of the box on their debut, and continuing with Candy-O, I guess they felt that they had enough clout to go off in a more challenging direction, and take their audience with them. But as they were a hit in the first place by taking a variety of edgier new wave influences and smoothing them out for mass consumption, that same audience had no inclination to follow their experimental turn(although a Candy-O track, "Shoo Be Doo", hinted at it), and even though the album did well, it lagged behind in sales of the first two. Radio didn't wholeheartedly get behind the single, "Touch And Go", either. Their hosting of Midnight Special earlier on was along the same lines, showcasing favorites of the band like Suicide, Iggy Pop, and Robert Fripp doing solo guitar looping.
0828E6C5-CA8B-4B1D-BE4A-BDB86B243677.jpeg

After that, they played the game as the video era dawned.
 
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#3
Mr Cheese said:
What are one or two of your favorite albums that, for one reason or another, didn't get the recognition like other records the band made. What are your favorite more overlooked albums by popular bands. The albums don't have to be completely unknown, but just underrated when compared with their other stuff. Also put why you think that it got overlooked. Here's one that I thought of:

Rush - Vapor Trails
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF-LiKcpokPniWSrXGSUP7DKKQ4uEu_n2
I love this album. Its incredibly emotional, yet also has some all out rockers too. I feel the reason its somewhat overlooked is due to a few things. One, it comes as the first album Rush put out in 5 years, so many of the not so diehard fans lost interest. Two, it had some problems with the mixing. Now, I like both the original and the remix, in fact it varies by the song, but most people will say that the original is not very good. And I do see where they're coming from. It is a bit muddy and undefined, but on some songs it just feels right to me. Now that the remix has been out for some time, it has gained some more popularity I think, but is still an overlooked album that is (in my opinion) awesome.
Click to expand...
Just to touch on Vapor Trails.
I agree with everything stated. But I will also add.
Geddy had too too many layered vocal tracks. Too too many layered bass tracks! Even the guitars had more layers than usual.
I feel if they had stripped the songs down further a monster album could have emerged.
I will back that up with waiting for the release of the album. Those earlier dial up internet days. Their website had a few sound clip teases of songs. They sounded great! Then I get the album and the parts are still great but so many layers muddying everything up. One of my faves was Nocturne. Great song great lyrics, wish they played that live.
 
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#4
Funny, Vapor Trails was my first thought!

It had some great songs but the production on the original release was a mess. Not just too many layered tracks, but the overall dynamic was just utterly crushed by the compression/limiter issues. Everything just blares out of the stereo in one harsh, mushy blur. There is no separation between the tracks on that original master and the music suffers badly for it. For a more casual Rush fan, that was probably off-putting enough. You could easily give up listening because the sound quality is poor and miss out on the best songs they had written since 1991!

On that note, the fact that Counterparts and Test For Echo were not premium Rush didn't help. It was natural coming off the back of the glory days of the late 80's that the hits must stop at one point. Those two records brought us back to reality and only had a handful of good pieces between them (TFE was particularly middling). I guess by that point a lot of people felt like Rush were done, since it had looked just a year or two before that maybe they really were finished! Instead, Vapor Trails was something of a re-invigoration for them.
 
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#5
First thought: U2's "October." It was my introduction to the band when I bought it in 1982, and it's still one of my favorites. I think it's fantastic. Yet it didn't produce any hits, and it seems to be largely forgotten by everyone except the hard core fans. I don't even think the band plays any tracks from it live anymore.

Second: The Who's "Endless Wire." In terms of song quality, I think it's excellent, but tragically IMO, Zack Starkey wasn't the drummer even though he had been touring with them for several years. As I understand it, Zack was touring with Oasis, and Townshend wouldn't delay the recording for him to return. It's a shame, because the tracks would have had more punch and intensity with Zack behind the kit, and it might then be regarded as a latter-day Who classic. Even so, it's a surprisingly strong album with some great tracks that have held up over the years.
 
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#6
India_Sierra said:
On that note, the fact that Counterparts and Test For Echo were not premium rush.
Click to expand...

no flame war here. Just stating the facts. Counterparts not premium Rush?? It debuted at #2 in top 40 albums (10/1993)It would have been a number one album if released just one week prior. Pearl Jam released VS the same week as Counterparts.
Counterparts singles sat high on the rock radio charts deep into 1994. I remember Nobody's Hero holding steady top 20 rock singles during the summer of 94'.

I agree though that T4E just never clicked. Production was fine, but no real I dunno. Hits?
Now back to our regular scheduled program.
 
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#9
King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime by Faith No More.
Might possibly be their best album, but it's definitely their most diverse. They cover all sorts of different genres from metal to boss nova to RnB to cheesy big band swing and the title track might possibly be thier best song with one of the coolest rock basslines ever.
It's got some of Mike Patton's best singing, also Billy Gould and Mike Bordin really show what a tight rhythm section there are, and Billy's bass tone is sick. Trey Spruance delivers some pretty tasteful guitar work throughout and the production by Andy Wallace is great (awesome drum sounds).
But it doesn't seem to get the attention that The Real Thing or Angel Dust got for whatever reason.
 
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#10
As an Amazon Associate, TalkBass may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via links on this site.
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#11
India_Sierra said:
Funny, Vapor Trails was my first thought!

It had some great songs but the production on the original release was a mess. Not just too many layered tracks, but the overall dynamic was just utterly crushed by the compression/limiter issues. Everything just blares out of the stereo in one harsh, mushy blur. There is no separation between the tracks on that original master and the music suffers badly for it. For a more casual Rush fan, that was probably off-putting enough. You could easily give up listening because the sound quality is poor and miss out on the best songs they had written since 1991!

On that note, the fact that Counterparts and Test For Echo were not premium Rush didn't help. It was natural coming off the back of the glory days of the late 80's that the hits must stop at one point. Those two records brought us back to reality and only had a handful of good pieces between them (TFE was particularly middling). I guess by that point a lot of people felt like Rush were done, since it had looked just a year or two before that maybe they really were finished! Instead, Vapor Trails was something of a re-invigoration for them.
Click to expand...
Agreed. T4E is probably my least favorite album. I have to disagree on Counterparts though, I thought the songwriting was next level. A lot of Rush fans are at odds on that album though.
 
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#12
Nedmundo said:
First thought: U2's "October." It was my introduction to the band when I bought it in 1982, and it's still one of my favorites. I think it's fantastic. Yet it didn't produce any hits, and it seems to be largely forgotten by everyone except the hard core fans. I don't even think the band plays any tracks from it live anymore.

Second: The Who's "Endless Wire." In terms of song quality, I think it's excellent, but tragically IMO, Zack Starkey wasn't the drummer even though he had been touring with them for several years. As I understand it, Zack was touring with Oasis, and Townshend wouldn't delay the recording for him to return. It's a shame, because the tracks would have had more punch and intensity with Zack behind the kit, and it might then be regarded as a latter-day Who classic. Even so, it's a surprisingly strong album with some great tracks that have held up over the years.
Click to expand...
Seems like the Who has quite a lot of underrated music.
 
#14
Yes : Talk.

While not quite Fragile or Close to the Edge, it's much better than Big Generator or Union, which immediately preceded it. Generator went platinum, Union gold, and Talk flopped, apparently from lack of promotion. (The label went bankrupt around that time IIRC.)

GT
 
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#16
GoesThump said:
Yes : Talk.

While not quite Fragile or Close to the Edge, it's much better than Big Generator or Union, which immediately preceded it. Generator went platinum, Union gold, and Talk flopped, apparently from lack of promotion. (The label went bankrupt around that time IIRC.)

GT
Click to expand...
I'll definitely listen to that, I like Yes. I've probably heard some of it from my dad's playlist, he loves Yes.
 
#19
Michedelic said:
The Cars' Panorama, their third. After hitting paydirt right out of the box on their debut, and continuing with Candy-O, I guess they felt that they had enough clout to go off in a more challenging direction, and take their audience with them. But as they were a hit in the first place by taking a variety of edgier new wave influences and smoothing them out for mass consumption, that same audience had no inclination to follow their experimental turn(although a Candy-O track, "Shoo Be Doo", hinted at it), and even though the album did well, it lagged behind in sales of the first two. Radio didn't wholeheartedly get behind the single, "Touch And Go", either. Their hosting of Midnight Special earlier on was along the same lines, showcasing favorites of the band like Suicide, Iggy Pop, and Robert Fripp doing solo guitar looping.
View attachment 4106807
After that, they played the game as the video era dawned.
Click to expand...
My wife is a huge fan of The Cars...and she doesn't like Panorama , especially "Touch And Go".
Which, to me, sez a lot! :)
 

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