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What's your best ever punt?

I've bought many things unheard, but guided by a review. One genuine punt was Propellers In Love by Arnold Dreyblatt And The Orchestra Of Excited Strings. Sadly it didn't live up to the promise of the title.
 
Samantha Fish album Faster, never heard of her before seeing this album in HMV, who wouldn’t take a punt on a blonde bombshell licking the neck of her guitar, and she can play it just fine, awesome album.

 
The only one, I think, that I've bought from a magazine review recommendation and thought it worthwhile;

Armageddon (6) – Armageddon


Label: A&M Records – AMLH 64513, A&M Records – AMLH.64513
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Country: UK
Released: 1975
Genre: Rock
Style: Hard Rock, Prog Rock

The review in Beat Instrumental described it as being up there with the best debut albums of all time, putting it in the same slot as Led Zeppelin 1, and a few others they named but I can't recall. I think I'll go looking on eBay for 1975 issues of the magazine to see if I can find the original review.

It's a stonker. It's major league heavy rock without sounding like any other heavy rock. One of my Desert Island Discs.


In contrast, what did I buy from magazine reviews/top 10 recommendation/albums you must hear before you die that I grew to hate?

Gram Parsons - Greivous Angel
Love - Forever Changes
Anything by Joni Mitchell
Carole King - Tapestry
Blue Nile - Hats
etc etc
 
Buying Van Halen S/T debut. I was a sixteen year old rocker at the time (1978), living in a small town in the west of Ireland.. There was one small record store and as I was flicking through the albums, the Van Halen one jumped out at me. The cover looked super cool, I bought it and OMG. It sounded like nothing else I had ever heard, literally out of this world. The following evening I played it to a dozen school friend rockers. Our jaws were on the floor. It still sounds great and gets played regularly. An Astonishing recording IMO
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Discovered Tord Gustafsen by taking a punt on his first trio album, totally unheard and unknown. Been a fan ever since.
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Taking random punts on ECM stuff seldom disappoints IME. This being how I found Tord Gustafsen too!

PS I actually stuck a ‘wanted ECM CDs’ thread up in the classified room a few years ago. Ended up with a bucketful of the stuff, most of which I still have and enjoy.
 
The one that sticks in my head is Manifest Destiny by The Dictators. Bought for £1.50 from the bargain bins in a secondhand record shop in St Mary's St in Southampton when I was 14 or 15 purely because I was curious to hear what a punk band with the bloke from Manowar would sound like. I loved it, but it turned out their other two LPs were way better and remain firm favourites
 
Tony L said:
After my first real jazz album, A Sample Of Blue Notes mentioned on the recent compilation thread, itself a blind punt for £1.99, I swiftly concluded buying jazz blind was actually really, really easy. It is exceptionally hard to find a bad jazz album on Blue Note, Impulse, Riverside, Prestige, Columbia, Verve, or Atlantic.
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Just beware of anything that mentions 'orchestra' or 'arranged by' on the sleeve.
 
paulfromcamden said:
Just beware of anything that mentions 'orchestra' or 'arranged by' on the sleeve.
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That’s certainly enough to warrant further research, though I do like some of the Jimmy Smith/Oliver Nelson collaborations on Verve, plus obviously Gil Evans. My main trigger is versions of pop songs, e.g. if there is a Beatles cover it will stay in the rack (unless I’m just buying-in for the shop).
 
Tony L said:
My main trigger is versions of pop songs, e.g. if there is a Beatles cover it will stay in the rack (unless I’m just buying-in for the shop).
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That's a useful indicator I hadn't though about. I think on balance you're right though it comes down to personal taste. Or in my case lack of. Everyone will tell you Reach Out is Hank Mobley's worst record, the nadir of hard bop... I quite like it!

And Coltrane made a fair stab at a few show tunes : )
 
Interesting, don’t think I’ve ever once done this. When I was younger I was too skint to risk buying without a review or personal recommendation, or experience of the label, or listening in the shop, and now that I have spare cash there’s Spotify and the internet generally. I still hate getting a dud.
 
I've bought blind many times, but this is possibly my favourite punt:
LTM4NDEuanBlZw.jpeg


Eg & Alice debut album, '24 years of Hunger'. An absolute classic.
 
iu


Bought this on a whim (79'ish) - only regret was lending it to my brother and never seeing it again when he moved to Belgium
 
Bought this for, I think, 50p new in a remainder bin in a record shop in Beverley. Never heard of it , never heard of them and have no idea what made me buy it but I absolutely loved it at the time ( 52 years ago...where did that go ? ) It joined the likes of Black Sabbath , Deep Purple, Pink Floyd , Genesis, Vashti Bunyan and the Incredable String Band amongst others in my slight collection of records.

( This is the band called " Air " that I think of whenever the name is mentioned )

R-2171827-1689450446-3033.jpg
 
Joe said:
Bought this for, I think, 50p new in a remainder bin in a record shop in Beverley. Never heard of it , never heard of them and have no idea what made me buy it but I absolutely loved it at the time ( 52 years ago...where did that go ? ) It joined the likes of Black Sabbath , Deep Purple, Pink Floyd , Genesis, Vashti Bunyan and the Incredable String Band amongst others in my slight collection of records.

( This is the band called " Air " that I think of whenever the name is mentioned )

R-2171827-1689450446-3033.jpg
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I need to check them out. Apparently they were Herbie Mann's backing band for a while.
 
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