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

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.

I agree with Victim of Love, it's wretched. Total stylistic shift (and not a good one) with songs he neither wrote nor played piano on.

I'm sure i'd get pushback from prince nerds here but most of the madhouse stuff is entirely unnecessary.

Prince’s N.E.W.S.

yeah his jazz fusion records all work here i think

i will say that i think his ballet has some worth!

Haha, i immediately saw that I called it Funhouse and not Funstyle. Wish ILX had an edit option. I'll double down though and say Stooges "Funhouse."

There's dismissal of Lindstrom's Six Cups of Rebel, but I love it, and hear it staying the course with his kraut/italio stuff, towards 80s Eno/Conny Plank productions. But his collab with Todd Rundgren just doesn't work at all, drives into a ditch.

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.

― mark e

His Miles-Gurtu album with jazz drummer Trilok Gurtu is excellent, and he did a psych/prog record with Robert Fripp too.

Keith Jarrett, 'Restoration Ruin'

haha someone gave me that album as a gift once. It's terrible. and definitely what this thread is about

Jarrett got the idea to make a one-man-band record by reading about how Pete Townshend recorded his demos. Prior to recording it, he tried to contact Pete for advice on how to approach the project; Pete refused to speak with him (but later admitted to being a big fan).

Wow, good story!

idk if Townsend would have been helpful, the album's problems are not technical in nature, it's that the songs suck

And as for his voice...

I have tried and tried with The Age of Adz but for me it belongs in this list.