YOU GOTTA HEAR THIS: 20 ALBUMS YOU MAYBE HAVEN’T HEARD BUT TOTALLY SHOULD
After doing that list of Great Unloved Albums By Good Artists, I was inspired once again by
bedsitter23 to do a list of “unheard” albums - i.e. albums you’ve never heard, or possibly even heard of.
Right away I noticed a key challenge:
What exactly counts as “unheard”?
The easiest criterion is obscurity, but one interesting thing I realized in putting this together is that obscurity is relative. I’ve seen a lot of “obscure albums you’ve never heard” lists that include, say, Fairport Convention, King Crimson and The Faces. So obviously, what’s well-known to me isn’t as well known to, say, Gen Z. This in turn raises the question of whether the artist should be as obscure as the album. For example, everyone knows The Kinks, but how many people have heard, say, Arthur?
That got me to thinking about how I could tweak this list for a month and still have people say, “Obscure? Dude, I have all these albums and play them regularly, and they were in rotation on MTV for like ten years straight” or the only definition of obscure or unheard they’ll accept is: “This band is so underground they’ve never heard of themselves.”
At which point I decided I was overthinking it.
So I finally decided on some guidelines that are so arbitrary I’m not even going to bother to write them down. Suffice to say I think this list fulfils the objective of the headline. If you disagree, feel free to tell me, or better yet, make yr own list.
NOTE: It’s not a comprehensive list by any means - there’s quite a few I left off because it was getting too long. Also, I have lots of stuff in my racks more obscure than this, - but one criterion I imposed was that all albums should be available on Spotify (partly so I can make the inevitable playlist, and partly because there’s no sense urging people to listen to these albums if there’s no way to listen to them).
20 ALBUMS YOU MAYBE HAVEN’T HEARD BUT TOTALLY SHOULD
1: Fanny, Fanny Hill
Fanny weren’t the first all-girl rock band, but they were the first to get a major label deal and have a moderate amount of success. But there’s not a classic-rock station in America who will put any of their stuff in rotation - you’d be lucky to hear them on a college radio block show (and one that probably specializes in women musicians). I’ll admit I find some of their songs a bit pedestrian for the era, but there’s enough good stuff that I think more people ought to hear them. The one album that truly knocks me out is their third album, Fanny Hill, which musically delivers just about everything you'd want from an early 70s rock album.
2: Michael Nesmith and the First National Band, Magnetic South
Michael Nesmith wasn’t the first of the Monkees to quit, but he was the first to go solo. Predictably, he never got a fair shake because of the Monkee label, which is a shame - partly because the Monkees eventually became a real band, and partly because he was at the forefront of the ‘country rock’ trend pioneered by the likes of Gram Parsons and Flying Burrito Brothers. His albums with the First National Band didn’t sell, nor did his work with the Second National Band, or really any of his solo albums - and that’s a shame, since in my opinion pretty much all of them have at least a handful of songs that are better than the entire Eagles discography. It’s hard to pick just one - I’m tempted to go with Tantamount To Treason (with the Second National Band) for its psychedelic edge - but I’ll go with his first album, which is as good a starting place as any.
3. Les Rita Mitsouko, The No Comprendo
Huge in France, but mostly unloved in America, Les Rita Mitsouko were one of the great 80s duos, and certainly one of the most oddball. Instrumentalist Fred Chichin drew from a reasonably wide range of musical influences, while singer Catherine Ringer wasn’t your average chanteuse, with eccentric on-stage performances and a goofy sense of humor. They never made it big in America, but Sparks and Iggy Pop were fans and made guest appearances on a couple of albums, though not this one - this is their second album (and their first collaboration with Tony Visconti), and it’s a good intro to their music. No Euro synthpop collection is complete without it.
4. Shuggie Otis, Freedom Flight
Shuggie Otis (son of Johnny) is of course most famous for “Strawberry Letter 23” (covered by the Brothers Johnson in 1977), but the song was probably more famous than he was until recently. He was a guitar prodigy who was playing in his dad’s band at age 11, and his solo career took off after releasing an album with Al Kooper. 1974’s Inspiration Information (his third and last album for Epic before he faded out of the spotlight to do session work) was cited by Prince as his greatest accomplishment, but I think it’s a little overdone - I prefer his second album, Freedom Flight, which not only has “Strawberry Letter 23” on it, but strikes a nice middle ground between the more straightforward blues of his debut and the creative excess of Inspiration Information. It was moderately successful in 1972, but I think more people should hear it today, if only to hear the original version of “Strawberry Letter 23”.
5. Loudon Wainwright III, 10 Songs For The New Depression
With John Prine’s recent passing, I couldn’t help but thinking about Loudon Wainwright III - another of the “New Bob Dylans” who got a record deal around the same time Prine did. I never got into Dylan or Prine, but I did like Wainwright - admittedly because I first heard his songs on a couple of early episodes of MASH when he did a few guest appearances. He can be a mixed bag - he’s an underrated lyricist, but he tends to wear his heart on his sleeve to devastating effect in his confessional songs, and even his humorous songs sometimes have an uncomfortable edge to them. Maybe that’s why he’s remained more of a cult figure while his children Rufus and Martha are probably more famous than he is. But I keep coming back to him. I was tempted to go with Attempted Mustache, which is one of his best early-career albums, but instead I’ll go with 2010’s 10 Songs For The New Depression. It’s just him and a guitar (and occasional ukulele), and it’s probably the best protest album about the 2008 economic crash you’ve never heard.
6. eX-Girl, Back To The Mono Kero!
The great thing about eX-Girl is that they’re almost impossible to describe in just a couple of adjectives - psychedelic space-opera noise punk? From Japan? Or the planet Kero Kero? Whatever you call it, it’s pretty bonkers, and I adore them. So did Mike Patton and Jello Biafra, which is why if you’ve heard them at all, it’s either via their 2001 album Back To The Mono Kero! (on Patton’s Ipacec label) or their 2004 album (and final one) Endangered Species on Alternative Tentacles. Both are a lot of fun, but I recommend Back To The Mono Kero! - partly because it’s weirder, and partly because it has a wonderful cover of “Pop Muzik”.
7. The Monks, Black Monk Time
The story of the Monks is the stuff of legend - US soldiers stationed in West Germany playing primitive satirical rock while dressed as monks, released one album that Polydor refused to distribute in the US because of songs criticizing the Vietnam war, and broke up two years later. Virtually ignored at the time, the Monks are pretty much heralded as proto-punk pioneers these days. But have you actually heard the album? It’s wonderfully and joyously unhinged, and possibly the only garage-rock band to feature a banjo. And Gary Burger is arguably the source material for Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist of The Hives. It’s absolutely nutso glorious.
8. The Undisputed Truth, Higher Than High
The Undisputed Truth were one of the outliers of the Motown empire circa 1970 in that they were (1) a full band, not a singing group, and (2) were assembled by producer Norman Whitfield partly because he needed a band that he could use to hone his psychedelic-soul production techniques. They were good, but they tended to mostly do psychedelic-soul covers of Motown hits, particularly the ones originally recorded by Whitfield’s other cash cow, The Temptations. This album was the first to feature an altered line-up that included former members of The Magic Tones, a Detroit group similar musically to George Clinton’s Parliament. And it makes a big difference - the music is heavier and funkier than UT Mk1 and oh so much fun.
9. The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, The Doughnut In Granny’s Greenhouse
I don’t know how many people are aware The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band even existed - maybe they saw their appearance in the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour film, but might have assumed they weren’t a real band. They were, and they were as delightfully oddball as the name suggests, as prone to playing Dixieland jazz and lounge music as psychedelic garage rock, with surreal spoken-word vignettes thrown in for no real reason - and sometimes all of that was just one song. More often than not, their rockier songs parodied the hits of the day - which would serve member Neil Innes well in his later work with Monty Python and The Rutles. I like all of their albums, but their second album, The Doughnut In Granny’s Greenhouse, is one I seem to come back to quite a bit.
10. The Cambodian Space Project, Electric Blue Boogaloo
The Cambodian Space Project (CSP) was started by Cambodian nightclub singer Kak Channthy and Australian musician Julian Poulson around 2011 in Phnom Penh, with the intention of celebrating local singers like Ros Serey Sothea, Pan Ron, Sinn Sisamouth and other artists who were pop stars in the 60s and early 70s whose careers (and lives) were ended in the Khmer Rouge. CSP did a mix of covers and originals, and recorded six albums before Channthy was killed in a traffic accident in 2018. Pretty much all their albums are worth investigating, but this one is among the best - it’s a dance party end to end.
[Also, I would highly recommend listening to the original artists that inspired Cambodian Space Project. For that, the place to start is the Cambodian Rocks, the original Cambodian pop comp that initially emerged in 1994 on limited vinyl (featuring 13 songs taken from old cassettes). At the time it came out, none of the songs or bands were identified - it was like listening to a distant radio station with no DJ to explain it. Since the emergence of the internet, we now know all the song titles and artist names, and the current version has 22 songs, many of which have been enhanced with overdubbed drums and such. I have MP3s of the original, which I found fascinating. The Cambodian style of singing may not be for everyone, but it’s a great window into the pop culture of another time and place.
11. Ivor Cutler Trio, Ludo
Ivor Cutler was the eccentric poet’s eccentric poet, writing surreal child-like verse that were sometimes serious but often humorous, and often performing them accompanied by a harmonium. His albums are a mix of spoken-word and songs, and they’re all reasonably obscure outside of the UK, but I’ll pick Ludo, which was my intro to him via an office colleague. Released in 1967 and produced by George Martin, it’s his only album credited to the Ivor Cutler Trio (comprising Cutler and two other musicians) so that it’s more of a trad-jazz approach to Cutler’s material. But it’s just as delightfully bonkers.
12. Lee Hazlewood, The N.S.V.I.P's (Not So Very Important People)
Lee Hazlewood has to be one of the most underrated singer/songwriters ever. He had some fame in the 60s via his work with Duane Eddy and Nancy Sinatra, but his solo work is largely unknown outside of his cult fanbase. He never fit comfortably in the pop-rock landscape, and his sense of humor was too oddball for the country music scene, and he was often morose enough to make Townes Van Zandt sound like Roger Miller. I could pick any one of his albums without Nancy Sinatra’s name in it and odds are you haven’t heard it. A favorite of mine is his second album, The N.S.V.I.P's (Not So Very Important People), where he starts each track with a humorous anecdote that typically has almost nothing to do with the song that follows.
13. Dog Party, P.A.R.T.Y!!!
Dog Party was started in 2005 by sisters Lucy and Gwendolyn Giles when they were both in primary school, and the band was as stripped down as it gets - one guitar, one drum kit, two singers. So far so White Stripes, but musically it’s a different story - Dog Party started off playing pop-punk influenced by Ramones, X and Bikini Kill. Eleven years later, they’re still doing that, but mixing it up with more classic rock influences like the Beatles and Wanda Jackson. Even though they’re not exactly innovators musically, they're every bit as good as whoever your favorite SoCal pop-punk band is right now, and it’s a shame they’re not as big as (and I’m gonna pull a name right out of thin air here) Blink-182. I like all their stuff, but I recommend their second record (and first full-length album) P.A.R.T.Y!!! partly for the joy of listening to kids clearly having a blast rocking out, but also to show how even junior-high kids can make a fun rock album.
14. Ken Nordine, Colors
With his lush, deep, mellow voice, Ken Nordine made a good living working in radio and doing voice-overs for TV commercials - but on the side he also did spoken-word albums, reciting surreal and satirical story poems set to beatnik jazz - sort of like Lord Buckley, but without the stream-of-consciousness theatrics. Somewhere back in the 90s I got a copy of the re-release of his 1967 album Colors, which features short word-riffs about 34 different colors. It got its start as an ad campaign for a paint company but the ads were so popular that Nordine wrote and recorded an album’s worth of them. It made me an instant fan, and while I could recommend some of his more seminal records, I’ll go with this one, which is one of his more playful albums.
15. 50 Foot Wave, Free Music EP
Throwing Muses are well known in alt-rock circles, as is frontwoman/songwriter Kristin Hersh via her solo albums - perhaps less known is Hersh’s power-trio side project 50 Foot Wave, which she started in the early 2000s. It’s a form of riff-heavy math rock that’s more louder and complex than anything else Hersh has done, which might throw off people who came into Throwing Muses via “Not To Soon” or Hersh via Hips and Makers. But for my money it’s every bit as good as her other stuff (which is to say, it’s good to great). Consequently, I’m spoiled for choice in picking an album, although there aren’t many to choose from. But I’ll select their second EP Free Music, which is the first one I heard, thanks to the band being one of the first to embrace the internet and Creative Commons, offering much of their music as free downloads.
16. Shel Silverstein, Inside Folk Songs
Shel Silverstein was a polymath of the first order, known for his cartoons, poems, children’s books, and songs like “A Boy Named Sue” - to say nothing of Dr Hook & The Medicine Show’s first few albums and hits like "Sylvia's Mother" and "The Cover Of The Rolling Stone". He wrote a number of famous songs, actually, but his own music albums are relatively obscure - possibly because he couldn't really sing, but he made up for it with over-the-top storytelling pizazz. Still, he may not be for everyone, but you can either start with some of his children’s records, or this (his second album), which proves that folk music doesn’t have to be serious to be good.
17. Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Gospel Train
It’s only recently that Sister Rosetta Tharpe has gotten her due recognition as a progenitor of rock and roll - and rightfully so. A great singer and an underrated guitarist, Sister Rosetta influenced a lot of white kids to pick up guitars, but was still pigeonholed as a gospel singer - between that and her being a woman, she never became as big as she probably should have. And while she’s certainly getting a lot of posthumous respect, I don’t know how many people are actually listening to her music beyond what’s on YouTube. Personally I recommend her third album, Gospel Train - it’s an exhilarating listen that rocks as well as anything else that came out in 1956 (or much of the 50s, for that matter). If nothing else, it’s proof that Christian songs can rock if you really want them to.
18. Caterwaul, Pin And Web
Phoenix-based Caterwaul was one of several late 80s indie bands that probably should have been bigger than they were. Or maybe it’s just me - I have yet to meet someone who remembers them or have even heard of them, let alone liked them. I’ve always been knocked out by their “gothadelic” musical style, particularly Betsy Martin’s unearthly vocals and Mark Schafer’s wobbly Edge-ish guitar sounds. They had a minor college-radio hit from this album (their first full-length for IRS), “The Sheep’s A Wolf”, which is one of my favorite songs ever, but the whole album is worth a listen. I suppose their sound was too rooted in its time to transition past the grunge era, but I still love the sound of it.
19. David Lynch, Crazy Clown Time
This entry might be a bit of a risk, as David Lynch is pretty well known. On the other hand, he’s known far more for his films than his music, for a few reasons: (1) his musical projects tend to be collaborations with other people, (2) he didn’t start doing solo albums until 2011 (and has only done two of them), and (3) his music is as accessible and mainstream as his films - possibly less so, as I know plenty of people who love his films and Twin Peaks but have never tried his musical albums apart maybe from soundtracks to his films and TV work. But if you like those, I recommend checking out his solo albums - they’re characteristically dark twisted and surreal takes on electro-pop, blues and Roy Orbison-era rockabilly, and all of them would fit perfectly with any of his movie soundtracks. And you may as well start with his debut, Crazy Clown Time, which starts off easy with a Karen O guest vocal and just gets weirder from there.
20. Bodeco, Bone Hair and Hide
Huge in Louisville, KY, and perhaps nowhere else, Bodeco were doing indie roots rock in the late 80s/early 90s around the same time as Southern Culture On The Skids and (over in Australia) The Cruel Sea, but didn’t make it nearly as big, for whatever reason. Which is too bad - Bodeco traded in unwashed, stripped-down, straight-up, Bo Diddley-inspired rock’n’roll, and there was nothing remotely innovative about it. But then Bodeco never claimed to be geniuses. It’s like a restaurant that only makes one dish, and it’s fundamentally the same dish lots of other restaurants offer, with no fancy innovations or special sauces. But it makes that one dish well and you always come back for more. Possibly the most criminally underrated band on this list.
And now, as promised the Spotify playlist of sample tracks from each entry.
Not only has this playlist been crafted to provide exactly one hour of music, but consists entirely of tracks that are completely different from the tracks posted here.
Feels like the first time,
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