i don’t think it’s required that the albums be *bad*, just that they throw off fans of the others
― mookieproof, Thursday, 12 September 2019 04:47 (four years ago) link
Maybe a bit strange to file a band’s entire discography into this category but I think it makes sense for Tin Machine
― what else are you all “over” (Champiness), Thursday, 12 September 2019 04:48 (four years ago) link
how about
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/df/Rolling_Stones_-_Their_Satanic_Majesties_Request_-_1967_Decca_Album_cover.jpg
― mookieproof, Thursday, 12 September 2019 04:49 (four years ago) link
Sun Dial's drum machine records (Reflecter, Libertine) would fit in here.
How is Suzanne Vega's 99.9F° received these days?
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 12 September 2019 04:53 (four years ago) link
Iggy Pop's Zombie Birdhouse?
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 12 September 2019 04:56 (four years ago) link
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.
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 12 September 2019 05:01 (four years ago) link
^uh wut, that’s totally a core SY album
― #YABASIC (morrisp), Thursday, 12 September 2019 05:55 (four years ago) link
(like even if you don’t care for it, there’s nothing off-course about it)
― #YABASIC (morrisp), Thursday, 12 September 2019 05:57 (four years ago) link
Primal Scream - Sonic Flower Groove
― fetter, Thursday, 12 September 2019 09:07 (four years ago) link
Yes, but even more so This Is Your Bloody Valentine
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 12 September 2019 09:32 (four years ago) link
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.
― Cow_Art, Thursday, 12 September 2019 09:47 (four years ago) link
Every Michael Bolton album pre-1987 (incl the Bolotin albums)
― When I am afraid, I put my toast in you (Neanderthal), Thursday, 12 September 2019 13:05 (four years ago) link
There are a number of Mark E Smith side-projects not worth your time, mostly with Ed Blaney.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 12 September 2019 13:44 (four years ago) link
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.
― WmC, Thursday, 12 September 2019 13:51 (four years ago) link
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.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 12 September 2019 14:01 (four years ago) link
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
― sock fingering, baby (rushomancy), Thursday, 12 September 2019 14:02 (four years ago) link
Go-Betweens / Send Me a Lullaby?
― fetter, Thursday, 12 September 2019 14:07 (four years ago) link
OTM
― The Inner Mounting Phlegm (Tom D.), Thursday, 12 September 2019 14:08 (four years ago) link
sock fingering, baby (rushomancy) at 9:02 12 Sep 19In 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!xpZappa can't he can only be failed by the listener
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 12 September 2019 14:26 (four years ago) link
plz allow me to register my vehement disagreement over Satanic Majesty's Request being considered here
― sleeve, Thursday, 12 September 2019 14:41 (four years ago) link
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.
― henry s, Thursday, 12 September 2019 14:54 (four years ago) link
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.
― campreverb, Thursday, 12 September 2019 15:23 (four years ago) link
Horace Silver's "The United States of Mind" trilogy are afaict unlike anything else in his discography. they are also just godawful.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 12 September 2019 15:42 (four years ago) link
I'd love someone to bat for Liz Phair "Funhouse."
― Yelploaf, Thursday, 12 September 2019 15:52 (four years ago) link
Curious if Sarah Vaughan fans rep for this:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Sassplan.jpg
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 12 September 2019 15:55 (four years ago) link
AMC's Restless Stranger also has "When Your Love is Gone" which I LOVE.
― the body of a spider... (scampering alpaca), Thursday, 12 September 2019 16:55 (four years ago) link
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, Thursday, 12 September 2019 17:02 (four years ago) link
was thinking about "Funhouse" for this thread earlier. think it probably counts.
― weird ilx but sb (Doctor Casino), Thursday, 12 September 2019 17:05 (four years ago) link
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
― sleeve, Thursday, September 12, 2019 10:41 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
seconded
― “Hakuna Matata,” a nihilist philosophy (One Eye Open), Thursday, 12 September 2019 17:09 (four years ago) link
Kreator's "Endorama"
― When I am afraid, I put my toast in you (Neanderthal), Thursday, 12 September 2019 17:09 (four years ago) link
A couple of those Felt albums that Lawrence did nothing but contribute titles.
― afriendlypioneer, Thursday, 12 September 2019 17:10 (four years ago) link
VU’s Squeeze is way worse than I expected. The opening track is horrifying.
― afriendlypioneer, Thursday, 12 September 2019 17:11 (four years ago) link
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...
― weird ilx but sb (Doctor Casino), Thursday, 12 September 2019 17:14 (four years ago) link
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
― weird ilx but sb (Doctor Casino), Thursday, 12 September 2019 17:16 (four years ago) link
That Liz Phair album is called Funstyle, you guys
― #YABASIC (morrisp), Thursday, 12 September 2019 17:19 (four years ago) link
ATS is completely unnecessary.
― campreverb, Thursday, 12 September 2019 17:24 (four years ago) link
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.
― confusementalism (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 12 September 2019 17:34 (four years ago) link
I'm sure i'd get pushback from prince nerds here but most of the madhouse stuff is entirely unnecessary.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 12 September 2019 17:44 (four years ago) link
Prince’s N.E.W.S.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 12 September 2019 17:50 (four years ago) link
yeah his jazz fusion records all work here i think
― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, 12 September 2019 17:51 (four years ago) link
i will say that i think his ballet has some worth!
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 12 September 2019 17:58 (four years ago) link
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."
― Yelploaf, Thursday, 12 September 2019 18:31 (four years ago) link
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.
― bendy, Thursday, 12 September 2019 19:19 (four years ago) link
― mark e
His Miles-Gurtu album with jazz drummer Trilok Gurtu is excellent, and he did a psych/prog record with Robert Fripp too.
― Siegbran, Thursday, 12 September 2019 19:47 (four years ago) link
Keith Jarrett, 'Restoration Ruin'
― The Inner Mounting Phlegm (Tom D.), Thursday, 12 September 2019 19:52 (four years ago) link
haha someone gave me that album as a gift once. It's terrible. and definitely what this thread is about
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 12 September 2019 20:00 (four years ago) link
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).
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 12 September 2019 20:04 (four years ago) link
Wow, good story!
― The Inner Mounting Phlegm (Tom D.), Thursday, 12 September 2019 20:06 (four years ago) link
idk if Townsend would have been helpful, the album's problems are not technical in nature, it's that the songs suck
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 12 September 2019 20:09 (four years ago) link
And as for his voice...
― The Inner Mounting Phlegm (Tom D.), Thursday, 12 September 2019 20:10 (four years ago) link