‘Great’ Albums that you’ve never listened to?

[Mullardman]

I have not listened to a much higher class of albums than the rest of you have not listened to.

I still have not listened to Dark Side of the Sodding Moon... for e.g.

I've never listened to an album by Elton John!

Try his first, eponymous album. It is rather good.

Never listened to a single Stones album. Really.

I suppose you had to be there, but the first two or three were excellent. Almost exclusively covers..but encapsulating what gave the UK sound an edge in the early 60s.

I have never heard an album by

• Bruce Springsteen
• The Ramones
• The Band
• Guns n Roses
• AC/DC
• Neil Young
• Van Morrison
• The Stone Roses
• Oasis
• The Verve
• Coldplay
• Bon Jovi
• Black Sabbath

and many many more.

I don’t feel that I am missing anything.

You are missing something with The Band, Van, and early Neil Young. I'll allow the rest.

 

[tiggers]

I can’t imagine how you’ve avoided that! I assume you don’t have a television for a start?

Or ears?

 

[Yank]

Never listened to the No. 1 best selling album of all time, Michael Jackson Thriller.

I've never listened to it, but I've heard it.

 

[kjb]

There are quite a few records other people rate very highly that I've always avoided. I've never knowingly heard a Genesis LP.

In terms of stuff I might like that is considered great by some, I've never listened to any Kanye's West records, including My Beautiful Dark, Twisted Fantasy . I like a lot of R&B / RAP stuff and have friends who think Kanye is to rap what The Beatles were to rock/ pop but I've never got beyond a single song.

 

[Jono_13]

On a whim I dug up a list of ‘best albums of the 21st century’ as I thought I would probably never have heard a lot of those. I was right - ninety out of 100 in fact.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/13/100-best-albums-of-the-21st-century

(and a couple of those that I do know were released in 2000, so don’t strictly qualify!)

Is 6 out of 100 a suitable score?

Never heard - Astral Weeks...

 

[gavreid]

Her album ‘21’ is apparently 74 places better than Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, 91 places better than Joni Mitchell’s Hissing Of Summer Lawns, 95 better than John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, and a whopping 280 better than Ornette Coleman’s The Shape Of Jazz To Come. Quite the talent.

I think that was the 2nd refresh of the RS list, the original being from 2003. This was much two heavy on the Beatles and just a bit of fun really but 500 pre-2000 albums is a good starting point for a discussion of what we haven't listened too albeit with a very American slant. The order changed significantly in the latest version as the panel shifted in age profile. I don't think there are more than about 10 albums from the last 20 years that really compete with pre-2000 list but then I didn't grow up with it. In the late 70s and early 80s the Beatles, the hippies, classic rockers etc were all irrelevent

 

[AllyD]

I have not listened to a much higher class of albums than the rest of you have not listened to.

I still have not listened to Dark Side of the Sodding Moon... for e.g.

Mull, I wish I had never listened to Dark Side of the Moon. In my opinion a candidate for most overrated album of all time.

Ally

 

[Marchbanks]

Mull, I wish I had never listened to Dark Side of the Moon. In my opinion a candidate for most overrated album of all time.

Ally

I quite like DSOTM, in small doses. I listened to it a few months ago for the first time in years, and thought it held up reasonably well - musically at least. I think you had to be there at the time - what were then groundbreaking sonics can now probably be achieved by a teenager on a laptop while waiting for the kettle to boil. ‘Money’ is still as boring as ever, of course. And WYWH is a better album.

 

[slavedata]

I think Back to black is the only album I recognised on that list.

 

[paulfromcamden]

I quite like DSOTM, in small doses. I listened to it a few months ago for the first time in years, and thought it held up reasonably well - musically at least. I think you had to be there at the time - what were then groundbreaking sonics can now probably be achieved by a teenager on a laptop while waiting for the kettle to boil. ‘Money’ is still as boring as ever, of course. And WYWH is a better album.

I saw the CD in a charity shop a few years back, realised I'd never heard it and invested 50p. I think it only got played the once but I didn't find it offensive and did really enjoy the production.

 

[Euan]

I quite like DSOTM, in small doses. I listened to it a few months ago for the first time in years, and thought it held up reasonably well - musically at least. I think you had to be there at the time - what were then groundbreaking sonics can now probably be achieved by a teenager on a laptop while waiting for the kettle to boil. ‘Money’ is still as boring as ever, of course. And WYWH is a better album.

And Atom Heart Mother and Meddle trump them all.

 

[foxwelljsly]

I have! I listened to it seven times in a week once just to prove it could be done, and to try to see that it isn’t just a load of random feedback (it isn’t). I think the experience went some way to making me the well-balanced individual I am today.

(Part three is the best bit, BTW.)

I'm just waiting until I get a convertible. It's the kind of album that has to be listened to really loudly in a built up area with the top down.

 

[Nagraboy]

Never listened to:

What’s Going On? - Marvin Gaye

Bitches Brew - Miles Davis (which is weird because I’ve heard most of his)

Pet Sounds - Beach Boys

Forever Changes - Love

Any Joni Mitchell apart from a few excruciating minutes of Blue

Any John Martyn apart from a few minutes of Solid Air

Any Kraftwerk

Tapestry - Carole King

Live At Leeds - The Who

Just a few of the many things I’ve not heard.

 

[Marchbanks]

I'm just waiting until I get a convertible. It's the kind of album that has to be listened to really loudly in a built up area with the top down.

I remember opening the front door to a delivery driver during my week of total immersion. His eyes widened when he heard the racket coming from the next room and he beat a hasty retreat.

 

[Nagraboy]

Is 6 out of 100 a suitable score?

I got 12, although I’ve mostly just heard snippets from them in passing, don’t actually have the albums here

…that moment you realise you’re an old git…

 

[Marchbanks]

…that moment you realise you’re an old git…

I think it’s healthy. I still find the idea of people enjoying pop music made by someone forty years younger than they are a bit strange.

 

[Nagraboy]

I think it’s healthy. I still find the idea of people enjoying pop music made by someone forty years younger than they are a bit strange.

I agree, it also works the other way round where old pop stars keep try to recapture their younger days with trendy producers etc.

 

[Paul L]

Crikey, I scored 3 or 4 if you include the Bjork album I have but have forgotten to try. But what a list, I don’t think it’s aimed at many of us.

I would have a bunch of different stuff to this such as (at random)
Joe Cocker Sheffield Steel
Prefab Sprout Steve McQueen
Joe Satriani Flying in a Blue Dream
Ben Webster Soulville
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Academy of St Martin etc.
Numerous classical symphony or piano collections
Nanci Griffith Late Night Grand Hotel
Fleetwood Mac Rumours
Jesse Cook The Rhumba Foundation
Lyle Lovett Joshua Judges Ruth
Supertramp Crime of the Century
Willie Nelson God’s Problem Child
De Lucia eat al A Night in St Francisco

and these probably wouldn’t make any sensible consensus list of countless well known all time great albums whether pop, rock, jazz, indie, ad infinitum.

EDIT - I was too hasty having realised that link is 21st century albums

 

[Jono_13]

I agree, it also works the other way round where old pop stars keep try to recapture their younger days with trendy producers etc.

See Elton John’s slightly vampiric interactions with younger singers.

 

[Tony L]

Is 6 out of 100 a suitable score?

I’ve got 20 of them. I’ve heard many more (even owned a few but later flipped them) and decided they weren’t for me. There are certainly a few more that aren’t on my radar at all. There is also a lot of stuff from that period I really rate that is nowhere to be seen, but that is always the case with these lists. I find them totally dumb to be honest. Far more use to me are the various end of year lists from certain record shops (Rough Trade, Piccadilly, Bleep etc) as they tend to be the places to find interesting stuff you may have missed.