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Okay, we've all read Rolling Stone and other places rate the greatest rock albums of all time, and usually they pick albums that everyone has heard of.
Well, just to be different, here is my list of the most under-rated rock albums of all time. To qualify, each album had to come from a major artist that had other hit albums that overshadowed the ones on the list.
1. RUSH RUSH
True Rush fans usually completely ignore the first album, before drummer Neil Peart joined the band. True, John Rutsey was just a drummer and not a huge influence on the band, but to my mind Rush's first album remains a virtually ignored classic. Called the "poor man's Led Zeppelin" when it was released, it nonetheless remains a gold standard in bone-crunching heavy metal music. Several tracks showcase the virtuoso playing ability of the band, and the album did manage to produce one classic song: "Working Man."
2. BLONDIE Plastic Letters
Blondie would probably never have had a hit without disco. The song "Heart of Glass" topped the charts and moved Blondie in the direction of disco and dance pop, producing other similarly dance-inflected songs such as "Call Me," "Rapture", "Atomic", and others. But there was a darker side to Blondie. They were actually on the forefront of the CBGB New York style punk rock scene, although Blondie was far more "pop" than most of their contemporaries. Their second album Plastic Letters featured song titles seemingly ripped from tabloid headlines, such as "Youth Napped As Sniper", "Love at the Pier", "Bermuda Triangle Blues", "Fan Mail", and others. The songs were dark, short tributes to obsessed fans, child snipers, pop psychics, and other nowhere people, and the album is truly the most difficult and inaccessible record the band ever made. Indeed, its only real "hit", in Europe at least, was a cover of the Randy and the Rainbows single "Denise", changed to the mail gender by turning "Denise" into the French name "Denis". Still, when the album has time to work its spell, it remains a forgotten classic.
3. INXS Listen Like Thieves
Virtually forgotten since the band's two hit albums, Kick and X topped the charts, Listen Like Thieves nevertheless represented the gelling of INXS's sound into the danceable hard rock that would eventually make their career. Most of the songs could have been singles; "What You Need", "Listen Like Thieves", and "This Time" apparently were released as such. A very listenable album and unfortunately, all but forgotten.
4. LED ZEPPELIN Physical Graffiti
Double albums never do as well as single albums, and this follow-up to Houses of the Holy has never been mined by radio DJ's to the extent that previous Zeppelin albums were. A couple of songs, such as "Trampled Under Foot" and "Kashmir" received plenty of radio play. But hard rockers such as "The Rover" and "The Wanton Song" were virtually ignored by radio, not to mention such beauties as "In the Light" and "Down By The Seaside." "Ten Years Gone" was eventually discovered by radio when it was covered by the Black Crowes, but most of the fine songs on this album have been completely ignored.
5. THE CURE Boys Don't Cry
This was the American equivalent of the British release Three Imaginary Boys and featured a totally different Cure than most of the band's audience came to know and love. Instead of moody, atomspheric pop that became the band's staple, this album was classic "two-guitars-and-a-drum-kit" rock, stripped down, with few frills. The album also contained a song almost universally condemned by the media: "Killing An Arab". According to the band's leader, Robert Smith, the song was actually an ode to the book The Stranger. The controversy over "Killing An Arab" amounted to nothing, and this underrated album remains largely forgotten.
Okay, Folks, there's my short list. What's yours?
Well, just to be different, here is my list of the most under-rated rock albums of all time. To qualify, each album had to come from a major artist that had other hit albums that overshadowed the ones on the list.
1. RUSH RUSH
True Rush fans usually completely ignore the first album, before drummer Neil Peart joined the band. True, John Rutsey was just a drummer and not a huge influence on the band, but to my mind Rush's first album remains a virtually ignored classic. Called the "poor man's Led Zeppelin" when it was released, it nonetheless remains a gold standard in bone-crunching heavy metal music. Several tracks showcase the virtuoso playing ability of the band, and the album did manage to produce one classic song: "Working Man."
2. BLONDIE Plastic Letters
Blondie would probably never have had a hit without disco. The song "Heart of Glass" topped the charts and moved Blondie in the direction of disco and dance pop, producing other similarly dance-inflected songs such as "Call Me," "Rapture", "Atomic", and others. But there was a darker side to Blondie. They were actually on the forefront of the CBGB New York style punk rock scene, although Blondie was far more "pop" than most of their contemporaries. Their second album Plastic Letters featured song titles seemingly ripped from tabloid headlines, such as "Youth Napped As Sniper", "Love at the Pier", "Bermuda Triangle Blues", "Fan Mail", and others. The songs were dark, short tributes to obsessed fans, child snipers, pop psychics, and other nowhere people, and the album is truly the most difficult and inaccessible record the band ever made. Indeed, its only real "hit", in Europe at least, was a cover of the Randy and the Rainbows single "Denise", changed to the mail gender by turning "Denise" into the French name "Denis". Still, when the album has time to work its spell, it remains a forgotten classic.
3. INXS Listen Like Thieves
Virtually forgotten since the band's two hit albums, Kick and X topped the charts, Listen Like Thieves nevertheless represented the gelling of INXS's sound into the danceable hard rock that would eventually make their career. Most of the songs could have been singles; "What You Need", "Listen Like Thieves", and "This Time" apparently were released as such. A very listenable album and unfortunately, all but forgotten.
4. LED ZEPPELIN Physical Graffiti
Double albums never do as well as single albums, and this follow-up to Houses of the Holy has never been mined by radio DJ's to the extent that previous Zeppelin albums were. A couple of songs, such as "Trampled Under Foot" and "Kashmir" received plenty of radio play. But hard rockers such as "The Rover" and "The Wanton Song" were virtually ignored by radio, not to mention such beauties as "In the Light" and "Down By The Seaside." "Ten Years Gone" was eventually discovered by radio when it was covered by the Black Crowes, but most of the fine songs on this album have been completely ignored.
5. THE CURE Boys Don't Cry
This was the American equivalent of the British release Three Imaginary Boys and featured a totally different Cure than most of the band's audience came to know and love. Instead of moody, atomspheric pop that became the band's staple, this album was classic "two-guitars-and-a-drum-kit" rock, stripped down, with few frills. The album also contained a song almost universally condemned by the media: "Killing An Arab". According to the band's leader, Robert Smith, the song was actually an ode to the book The Stranger. The controversy over "Killing An Arab" amounted to nothing, and this underrated album remains largely forgotten.
Okay, Folks, there's my short list. What's yours?
