What are those albums that are so off-course even the hardcore fans needn't bother

Magma's Merci probably fits into this, a poor attempt at crossover pop-funk that pleased no-one and fell awkwardly between their previous album (from some 5 years before) and Vander's soon-to-follow project Offering.

yeah that's a good example though it's probably the album in this thread I dig the most. Side 2 is very nice.

you could almost argue that Attahk belongs here as well although that album's fucking great. they haven't referenced that era of the band in a long, long time have they?

Agree with Rushomancy that "Left-field records worth checking out by musicians you wouldn't expect!" would be a more worthwhile thread, but I'm glad this exists for tipping me off to the existence of Peggy Lee's Sea Shells, which is gently blowing my mind at the moment. Thanks for that, Josefa.

xpost I get why Merci is so divisive and reviled by many Magma fans, but I can’t comprehend writing it off entirely; “Eliphas Levi” is one of the most beautiful pieces of music in the world imo

i think they were doing "maahnt" live a couple years back, I haven't kept up with them because fascism.

Merci is a shitty crossover sell-out album but this being Magma it's a shitty crossover sellout album that includes a 12 minute piece dedicated to the 19th century occult mystic Eliphas Levi which contains a note for note rendition of McCoy Tyner's piano solo on "My Favorite Things".

Maybe 'The Sin of Pride' by the Undertones? They'd certainly moved away from where they started, seemingly without taking too many fans with them. When they made a couple of new albums in the mid-2000s they looped back to a more straight-up rock sound. Have to admit I've not listened to 'TSOP' for quite a while.

This thread has reminded me that I have Kraftwerk 2 on one of the Italian "reissue" CDs (not listened to it since buying it in the Virgin Megastore I worked in).

It's also made me realise that I don't have a copy of 'Soon Over Babaluma' despite thinking I did. I like 'Flow Motion', does it have its fans? Of the last three, I don't have 'Out of Reach' but did pick up 'Inner Space' and 'Rite Time' recently. I didn't mind 'Inner Space' on its own terms, but didn't think much of 'Rite Time'.

I enjoy it occasionally but one could say Ciccone Youth "The Whitey Album."

I really like "I Must Return", it's like Magma doing a musical. and "The Night We Died" too. something about that one melody is just golden.

I like 'Flow Motion', does it have its fans?

I think it does! I got to talk with James Murphy once and he went on a bunch about how much he loved the tune "I Want More"

Yeah, it was probably a bit daft of me to suggest 'Flow Motion' considering it contains one of their best-know songs!

Teenage Fanclub - The King. Is almost never mentioned and seems barely regarded as canon, even when it gets an RSD reissue

Was it even "canon" at the time of release?

I've never actually heard it, and it got a retrospective Pitchfork appreciation recently, but perhaps The Secret Life of Plants?

Nah its got its charms

i'd say it fits the 'nothing to do with their classic style' and 'roundly ignored in the context of their larger discography' well enough even if it's not terrible in the way most of the stuff here is?

80s Pantera

i don’t think it’s required that the albums be *bad*, just that they throw off fans of the others

Maybe a bit strange to file a band’s entire discography into this category but I think it makes sense for Tin Machine

how about

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/df/Rolling_Stones_-_Their_Satanic_Majesties_Request_-_1967_Decca_Album_cover.jpg

Sun Dial's drum machine records (Reflecter, Libertine) would fit in here.

How is Suzanne Vega's 99.9F° received these days?

Iggy Pop's Zombie Birdhouse?

I enjoy it occasionally but one could say Ciccone Youth "The Whitey Album."

I'd go with Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star over that, but arguing over which SY album fits here is like arguing over Neil Young.

^uh wut, that’s totally a core SY album

(like even if you don’t care for it, there’s nothing off-course about it)

Primal Scream - Sonic Flower Groove

Yes, but even more so This Is Your Bloody Valentine

As a huge Smog/Bill Callahan fan, it took me a while to track down his first couple of albums: Sewn to The Sky and Forgotten Foundation. Both out of print and fairly expensive. I've only listened to each once and quickly realized why he's let them languish. They're definitely part of a progression, but they're not very good.

I'm not sure that an artist's earliest albums should count, since no course had been established.

Every Michael Bolton album pre-1987 (incl the Bolotin albums)

There are a number of Mark E Smith side-projects not worth your time, mostly with Ed Blaney.

Frank Zappa: Francesco Zappa (Synclavier record of Classical works by Zappa's maybe/maybe not ancestor).

― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain),

Good one. I'd also say the entire Flo & Eddie period, when FZ seemed to put more time and energy into being a Johnny Otis-style impresario and A&R guy than into his own music.

They're not stylistically off-course, as far as I know, but the Small Faces two late-'70s "reunion" (no Ronnie Lane, who quit after the first rehearsal) albums are largely ignored by their fans, and never represented in any Small Faces compilations.

In fairness, he was attempting to make a film and get a major symphony orchestra to record his orchestral music while being the leader of a touring rock band at the same time!

xp

Go-Betweens / Send Me a Lullaby?

I'm not sure that an artist's earliest albums should count, since no course had been established.

OTM

sock fingering, baby (rushomancy) at 9:02 12 Sep 19

In fairness, he was attempting to make a film and get a major symphony orchestra to record his orchestral music while being the leader of a touring rock band at the same time!

xp

Zappa can't he can only be failed by the listener

plz allow me to register my vehement disagreement over Satanic Majesty's Request being considered here

xp I was thinking of Send Me A Lullaby, and also The Restless Stranger by American Music Club. Not off-course compared with the rest of their output, but skeletal and demo-y. Pretty much ignored by the fans, who more or less see Before Hollywood and Engine as Year Zero for these bands.

well I mean it has Room Above The Club, and a bad take on I'm in Heaven Now, so there is a flicker.
Big Top Halloween by Afghan Whigs is what comes to mind as a particularly lacking any hint of what was to come.

Horace Silver's "The United States of Mind" trilogy are afaict unlike anything else in his discography. they are also just godawful.

I'd love someone to bat for Liz Phair "Funhouse."

Curious if Sarah Vaughan fans rep for this:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Sassplan.jpg

AMC's Restless Stranger also has "When Your Love is Gone" which I LOVE.

Robert Miles - Organik

gone are the cheese filled dance/trance/pop anthems, in comes Nitin Sawhney/Bill Laswell/downtempo cinematic excess, and very few beats.
needless to say, its the only album of his i have ever been interested in listening to.

was thinking about "Funhouse" for this thread earlier. think it probably counts.

plz allow me to register my vehement disagreement over Satanic Majesty's Request being considered here

― sleeve, Thursday, September 12, 2019 10:41 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

seconded

Kreator's "Endorama"

A couple of those Felt albums that Lawrence did nothing but contribute titles.

VU’s Squeeze is way worse than I expected. The opening track is horrifying.

would Elton John's Victim of Love count? even among "pop-rock artist goes disco" moves, i feel like it stands out for total commitment to the bit and total musical mediocrity such that you could be a "hardcore" fan and still not need to hear it, and get nothing out of it if you did.

REM's Around the Sun also might squeak in here? dunno how wild of a sonic departure it has to be to be "off-course."

maybe Paul Simon's Capeman? sort of in the Joel/McCartney classical-album zone maybe...

tbf there i might be reacting to the rarity of albums so offcourse that even hardcore fans needn't bother, by trying to fudge it into "albums that pretty-big fans quickly learn aren't essential," which is a different animal

That Liz Phair album is called Funstyle, you guys

ATS is completely unnecessary.