5 great lost albums

[gerryuk]

5 great-lost albums.

I know I don’t visit the board frequently enough, but in an attempt to get some communication going, I am asking people to give information on 5 albums they consider being great-lost albums. The theme is open to interpretation, so you can pick seriously underground records or just records that you think
Other people may not have heard but would love and that deserve to be discovered/rediscovered.

If you like you can simply list the albums, or give a little info as to why you listed them, or if you are lazy like me, just crib a review from the Internet (although I checked all the cribbed reviews to see that their opinions matched mine.)

1. Even as we speak -Feral Pop Frenzy

“Even As We Speak alternates sugary, dizzying pop songs with sinister mock-bluegrass banjo laments, bubble-gum New Wave, noisy semi-industrial grooves, surreal instructional-filmstrip narration, Mazzy Star-ish ambience and squeaky retro-funk. “Falling Down the Stairs” is one of the pop moments, a bouncy, ringing gem from their wonderfully titled studio album Feral Pop Frenzy, sprays of multi-tap guitar echo and gauzily angelic female harmonies weaving over a sturdy drum thump and, for several unsettling seconds in the middle, a writhing mock-Indian jam, like the idiosyncratic original of which the Bangles’ “Manic Monday” was a glossy reduction to stereotype.”

Not my words.

2. The Belltower - Popdropper

If you like the sound of similar bands like: Slowdive, Pale Saints, Cocteau Twins, Lush, My Bloody Valentine, and the Sundays, then this album would definately be a welcome addition. You can't go wrong, since you can probably find this CD new or used on amazon for around 3 dollars.
The first half of Popdropper takes you into a dark, trippy depressed world, but it is so enjoyable with its swirling electric and acoustic guitars overlapping each other combined with some awesome bass lines and powerful drums. The second half is more upbeat dream pop with some great guitar solos and unique song structures.
Similar to slowdive, the vocals on this album are male on some songs and female on the others. Britta Phillips sings on most of the songs either lead or backing. She has a fine voice similar to the singer from The Sundays. Jody Porter sings on a few songs. His voice, on the other hand, is a little bland, but he harmonizes quite well with Britta when they sing together.

Not my words

3.The Drop Nineteens – Delaware

Back in 91-92 I was infatuated with the shoegazer movement. I was totally lost in the gorgeous walls of sound of My Bloody Valentine, the soothing harmonies of Slowdive, the fragile beauty of the Boo Radleys, and the distortion feedback of Medicine. This album, from an unknown Boston band, soon became one of my absolute favorites of the era. Delaware, Winona and Kick the Tragedy are literally three of the best songs ive heard in my entire life (and I'm a music freak with well over a 1,000 CD's so I've heard it all and then some). Kick the Tragedy holds a special place in my heart. Its hard to describe but completely captures what was best about the shoegazer movement. The song is mostly instrumental but has a dreamy surreal quality about it. Mid-song a girl starts to ramble. It may sound incoherent at first but if you really listen it actually starts to make a lot of sense. The subject deals with growing up and loss of innocence, as well as disillusionment. I'd say its a fair candidate for best song to ever come out of the period. Check this album out. You will not be disappointed

4.Mary Margaret O’Hara – Miss America

At times bewildering, at others bewitching, Miss America remains stunning nearly 15 years on from its initial release. There's nothing else quite like it, so perhaps it's appropriate (if frustrating and mysterious) that MMoH never recorded another album (unless you count the soundtrack to 2002 Canadian movie Apartment Hunting). Trying to describe this record is almost impossible, words like 'singing' and 'vocals' don't come anywhere near capturing the effect of Mary's soaring impressionistic voice, floating and swooping from a whisper to croak and demanding to be listened to. Come on... buy it. And then buy the best stereo in the world and a faultless pair of headphones, switch off the lights, lie back and know, forever, that you will be loved again.

Not my words

5. The Throwing Muses – The Real Ramona

Just nudges out The Pixies "Doolittle" as my all-time fave. Poppy, edgy, beautiful and dark all at the same time, it's the perfect soundtrack for a hot summer night--or a dreary winter day. The various facets of the disk (starts off poppy, builds up tension, releases in equisite beauty) make it that flexible.
As a Muses fanatic, this album holds a dear place in my heart because it's the one that reeled me in and allowed me to discover a band that would literally change my musical life. After countless listens, it still holds up. If anything, it's taken on new meaning to me over time.
Some consider it overproduced, but I disagree. The production complements the songs and performance perfectly. And the fact that it is Tanya Donelly's swan song as a member of the band only adds to its depth, with tension--personally and musically--captured brilliantly throughout.
If I was stranded on a desert island with just this disk, I'd be perfectly happy, as long as I had an unlimited supply of batteries for my CD player.

Not my words

[Franck]

I know and own 2 of them (The throwing Muses/The Real Ramona & The Drop Nineteens/Delaware), heard of another one (MMoH).

And before adding my contribution of my 5 fav 'lost' albums - will do that a bit later - I must say about these :
- Real Ramona is one of the perfect indie album released at that time I think, and the review is pretty good describing the wide variety of styles perfectly mastered within this album...
- Delaware I bought this album because of the front sleeve (I think it's the only one I bought this way) : A teenager girl with a gun in the hand before a barber's shop. Lovely !
But I'm never really been into shoegazing, even if I have one or two albums of that kind. So I wouldn't be as enthusiastic as Gerry about it, especially his favorite song Kick the Tragedy. Ok, I don't get all the lyrics, but the sound and composition themselves don't move me at all.

BTW, I'll check Popdropper by The Belltower, sounds pretty interesting for a fan of The Sundays like me.

Soon, my top 5...

[sound world]

Good on you for trying to get some communication going,Gerry!

Well I've never even heard of three of the artists on your list,let alone any of the albums.
Since I'm much more involved with jazz,experimental music and contemporary serious composition,that's maybe not such a surprise.I'd imagine there are plenty of names that to me are lingua franca that most folk here have never and probably will never come across. Horses for courses.
It also means I'm not going to venture a list because I'd effectively be talking to myself now that Spook has departed.

I wonder what makes a 'great lost album'? Do you mean something that died commercially? If so,there are thousands of albums in my categories which could qualify!

[aermancer]

In my opinion, the most criminally overlooked album of all time is An Album, by Magga Stína, it's simply the best pop album ever created. I don't really care that no one else knows about her because I know her music so that's all that matters, but it's really sad she never made another album like it. Everything she's done since then is just mellow, mediocre folk music.

I'll definitely look up some of the albums listed in this thread though and see what they're like though!

[gerryuk]

I guess I set the boundaries fairly wide, the artistes dont necessarily have to be virtually unknown, and I kind of expected some people would have heard of the muses, but I was not sure about the others. Basically I was just hoping people would enthuse about a few albums that others would then check out. For example I will now check out the Magga Stina album because of this thread.

[d.a.walker]

For me they would be:

01. Breaker - Dislocated

Brilliant, post-brit-pop like a skewed female fronted Placebo, they got 3 singles released by warners back in 1997/98 and were then dropped after only getting an album release in Japan. I finally got a copy of the CD last year and it is an awesome record that was sorely denied everything.

02. Superior - Germ Free

Another group who got 3 singles released and they album then shelved. I've got an album master tape of this which I transferred onto CD. It comes across as Ladytron meets Portishead meets Client, and I suppose back in 1997 when that sound was not 'cool' they hadn't a hope in hell.

03. Kirsty Hawkshaw - O<U>T

A mammoth album of downtempo epics and edgy electronica from the former singer of early 90's ravers Opus III. It's 1998 release was so limited that the album now goes on Ebay for a rather handsome amount. Imagine Tori Amos at her most icy and beautiful produced by Plaid and you're halfway there. Gorgeous angelic ballads like River and Mercury are lost classics.

04. Rickie Lee Jones - Ghostyhead

The hardest album to locate from her back catalogue, and also her most interesting. Electronic soundscapes meets Rickie sounds odd, but it works so damn well and the album was again well ahead of it's time. The title track is a spellbindingly creepy slow burner as haunting as it's name suggests. Scary Chinese Movie and Vessel Of Light are among some of the best of her work.

05. Ragga & The Jack Magic Orchestra - Ragga & The Jack Magic Orchestra

This is a huge album. Each track is like a skyscraper of electronic/organic/mechanical sound. This Icelandic group met with bemusement in 1997, they toured the UK and Ragga quite often sang on stage wearing a mermaid's tail. However they were lumbered in with the post-Portishead 'trip-hop' crowd, despite being far more than anything the lazy tag suggested. EMI had no idea how to promote the group, and they sank without a trace, leaving Ragga to pursue a solo career in her native Iceland. Where Are They Now? Man In The Moon, Passion For Life are ambitious, epic songs that should have been huge.

It's so sad that the best music never gets to scratch the surface...

[pgss]

In my opinion, the most criminally overlooked album of all time is An Album, by Magga Stína, it's simply the best pop album ever created. I don't really care that no one else knows about her because I know her music so that's all that matters, but it's really sad she never made another album like it. Everything she's done since then is just mellow, mediocre folk music.

Funny, I always thought that Magga Stina's album wasn't worth the fuzz the recordcompany tried to create.

[aermancer]

In my opinion, the most criminally overlooked album of all time is An Album, by Magga Stína, it's simply the best pop album ever created. I don't really care that no one else knows about her because I know her music so that's all that matters, but it's really sad she never made another album like it. Everything she's done since then is just mellow, mediocre folk music.

Funny, I always thought that Magga Stina's album wasn't worth the fuzz the recordcompany tried to create.

I wasn't aware the album was ever fuzzed about in the first place! She's only got a handful of listeners on last.fm. It's a shame her newest album was just folk covers of Megas, she should get back together with Graham Massey.

I guess i should explain "An Album" as more than the perfect pop album. It's fun, dark, warped electronic pop. Operation is my personal favorite.

Her band Risae∂lan is bloody brilliant as well, they're like the cooler, punkier version of the Sugarcubes. "Gun Fun" is one of my favorite songs, if not my absolute favorite, it's so over the top and ecstatic.

[d.a.walker]

I love An Album, I actually bought this from a record fair when I read in the inlay that it was produced by Graham Massey and LHOOQ (another brilliant forgotten icelandic group).

I think it's such a unique off kilter record, and Feetless United is just one of the best damn songs ever!