When you only really like the "wrong" album

Following a chat with stevie and others on the Faith No More thread.

My friends and I grew up with King For A Day... Fool For A Lifetime as the FNM album that made the tape-borrowing rounds. We were all about 14 or 15 when it came out, we all loved it. I wouldn't hear Angel Dust until I was in my twenties, the album my friends' older brothers would say was even better. And I dunno, that one just never clicked for me. It surprises me to hear, in fact, that KFAD wasn't so warmly received among fans at the time. But still I stand by it.

Similar story with Alice In Chains. The only cassette by this band that was in posession by my friendship group in the 90s was the MTV Unplugged album. So this was how I came to them, and in many ways I think of these live acoustic versions as my canonical faves: The studio versions on Jar of Flies etc sound strange to me. So it was a revelation to hear that again, fans weren't too keen on the playing of these renditions, that they were considered "phoned-in" and that Jerry and Layne were struggling to keep it together during the performance.

My Dad insists that Beatles For Sale is their pinnacle. Not a bad album I'm sure, but not a position I've ever heard anyone else take.

So this isn't "I think Terror Twilight is underrated", rather the albums you might actually prefer and were surprised to hear weren't so warmly received.

With Sympathy is the only Ministry album I really like

2 posts vmic

Beatles For Sale is my favourite too. A nice middle ground for them.

Here comes a third pvmic xp - Weezer's second self-titled album (the green album) is their best in my estimation. Blue has some good stuff on it, but I wish I could never hear Say It Ain't So ever again and also I don't have time for a full album of this chaotic novelty rock. Pinkerton has a reputation of being critically redeemed after an initial backlash, but I happen to think those critics were right in the first place. The green album is just perfectly executed power-pop that gets in and out like the wind.

not sure if this is exactly the "wrong opinion" as i've never heard anyone say his early stuff is "bad" exactly, but i do think i'm in the minority for preferring elliott smith's first couple of albums to his later work. i find everything he did after the s/t album patchy - yes, even either/or, although i still find it much more consistent than XO/figure 8/FABOAH. roman candle and the s/t are totally unlike anything else i've heard before or since, and the spare, rough quality of the songs enhances rather than diminishes them in my opinion. i've always thought as time went on his lyrics got more "on-the-nose" and the beatles influence in his music, while always obvious, got more prevalent to the point where his later songs feel more generic somehow.

Can this be the thread for me to far, far prefer Black Tie White Noise to Ziggy, or where I listen to Landing on Water far, far more than 70s Neil? Cus those

The Associates' Perhaps (first without Alan Rankine) has this reputation for being a letdown but honestly I ended up preferring it to all the stuff that is (admittedly rightly) regarded as the classic stuff

Some more (it's not that I only like these albums, in fact it's very much not that, but rather albums I might actually prefer and were surprised to hear weren't so warmly received)

Bloc Party - Intimacy - I think this is so obviously their best but I understand that it had to suffer simply for being the third album by an NME band. It's a shame they had to go back2basics after this

The Cure - Mixed Up - The Top and WMS would be "I think x is underrated" but Mixed Up I actually grew up with and heard countless times before I ever knew, say, Pornography. I love the whole thing: Ibiza chillout Lullaby, London chillout Close to Me, Bristol chillout Pictures of You, Fascination Street with a deadly countermelody (and a clear as rain mix), re-recordings of the Walk and A Forest that almost equal the originals, a shuddery ambient house Inbetween Days. But harhar Robert and dance beats.

The Chemical Brothers - We are the Night - The first one released after I became a fan and the only CD I took with me on a week long holiday summer 07. I did not yet realise how coldly it was being receive elsewhere. Sure The Salmon Dance is there to deliberately fuck up the flow just as Left Right had been, but virtually everything else - especially the title track, Saturate, Das Spiegel and A Modern Midnight Conversation - is top drawer.

Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns - ha I have little time for this lot otherwise but my mum had this playing in the car constantly at the time and (a couple of ballads aside) I really got into it, as I remain to be. Dazzle Ships for Kerrang! readers. I do remember googling it maybe a month after I heard it only to discover that apparently the fans hated it and The Catalyst in particular.

real emotional trash is the best album malkmus ever made, although i like some of his other albums well enough

The only Radiohead album I like is Pablo Honey.

Its mainly down to teen nostalgia but "Boys Dont Cry" is my fave Cure album

Is "The Royal Scam" the wrong Steely Dan album to like best?

no, that would either be katy lied or gaucho (not including modern dan, which i refuse to acknowledge as canon)

royal scam is excellent. it is a contender for worst album art of all time though

sonic youth "sister"

though I think it's reputation has improved over the years, the only Beta Band album I ever really clicked with was the self-titled.

Goat's Head Soup was the first Stones album I actually owned (as opposed to borrowing my dad's records), and it still occupies, if not first place in my heart (that would go to Sticky Fingers), then probably second.

sonic youth "sister"

― massaman gai (front tea for two), Friday, September 22, 2023 1:06 PM (nine minutes ago)

mine too

Let's Make Up & Be Friendly is easily my favourite Bonzo Dog Band LP, and consensus even among fans seems to be that it's terrible.

I'm that one human on earth who slightly prefers Saturnzreturn to Timeless, fight me

Usually people take it as me just being a contrarian, but 'Transformer Man' from Trans pretty much is the only Neil Young I like.

I'm sure I'd rather listen to Cut the Crap that any other Clash album

Lock thread

Cut the Crap is damn good

And it has their best song ever

Always thought it was interesting. It's not dull.

Their Satanic Majesties Request is the only Stones album I like.

I like a few Dylan albums but the one I like best is undoubtedly Street Legal.

My favourite Dylan is by far Desire.

Black and Blue is my favourite Stones. Followed by Satanic Majesties probably.

Cut the Crap is . . . well, it's crap. Sure, "This is England" is a decent song, but it stands out from the rest of the album like a sore thumb. It's a stretch even to call it a Clash album.

Is Desire bad and hated? It's pretty much the only one I would listen to for fun. Satanic Majesty's is super fun too

"The Hurricane" is a horrible song. The rest of the album is solid.

Cut the Crap is the pop kid brother of As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade and a credible punk sound collage antecedent of hyperpop. Ahem.

Desire is generally well liked (at least outside ilx) it's just it really is the only one I ever go back to with any regularity.

I had a similar experience to my OP with Soundgarden: Came to them via Down On The Upside and its attached singles. And while I like Spoonman, Black Hole Sun etc, a lot of the earlier stuff just sounds a bit hoary and meat'n'potatoes to me

you're crazy

my favorite wipers is land of the lost

I guess the "real" iconoclast preference would be for Y Kant Tori Read (which I find mildly interesting), but I like the Tori Amos 1998 to 2009 run better than her first three albums, which have some great songs but also a lot of wandering about.

royal scam is excellent. it is a contender for worst album art of all time though

The other contenders are all also Steely Dan albums.

The Sebadoh

I suspect that a not-insignificant percentage of the answer in this thread will be the first album you owned/heard by the artist.

Angel Rat is my go-to Voivod album, which I believe is quite highly rated by the fans but seen also as an attempt to sell out to the marketplace. Needless to say it failed in that regard due to being way too odd. I tend to pull that one out over Nothingface or Dimension Hatröss though when I'm in the mood for some cyber-thrash.

"I suspect that a not-insignificant percentage of the answer in this thread will be the first album you owned/heard by the artist."

when i was a kid i knew that Genesis were supposed to be some legendary 70s prog band and that i should check them out so i went to Caldor and bought three albums that were on sale cheap: wind and wuthering, trick of the tail, and then there were three. that was my introduction to Genesis! and to this day my very favorite Genesis album is trick of the tail.

"The Hurricane" is a horrible song.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux)

He ain't no gentle man, jim (beaux)

"I suspect that a not-insignificant percentage of the answer in this thread will be the first album you owned/heard by the artist."

Almost certainly.

Oh, another one are King Crimson - I prefer In The Wake Of Poseidon to Court Of the Crimson King, even though the former is basically a retread of the other. This is entirely based on me hearing it first.

(also one has Cat Food and the other has Moonchild)

I like Angel Rat and In The Wake Of Poseidon best, too. Also America Eats Its Young and the first Jane Siberry record.

Others I like best: Human After All, Pop (on occasion), Megatop Phoenix, Bilingual, Last Night, THE FINAL CUT, Skids' Joy, Rudebox. And I think the final twelve minutes of the final Led Zeppelin album represent their peak.

Human After All is a good one. I'd really struggle to justify that as their objective best, despite a couple of nice bits.

I like Jean-Michel Jarre but to me the only time he truly sounded wildly ahead of the curve was on Zoolook. well that and the trancey sections of "Magnetic Fields". but Zoolook is the one I really like front to back.

Not sure if this is a controp, but the only Kraftwerk album I can really enjoy front-to-back is Radioactivity. Maybe The Man Machine, but even that one drags a bit

By far my favourite of the three 13th Floor Elevators albums is Bull of the Woods. Never really got the appeal of the other two.

I agree w/peace, man about Weezer (the green album is the only one I’ve ever sorta liked… not that I’ve heard each of the 27 they’ve made since)

title track and make love off human after all are two of my favourite dp tracks

Presume pop isn't referring to gas?

nope, a better-selling and less liked pop

I prefer early angsty lo-fi indie Hood to later electronic Hood

as for artists who I don't really care about too much outside a few albums, I'm fond of Gary Moore's late 90s dance-tinged stuff. Maybe I just haven't given his bloozier work enough of a go but idk, A Different Beat is just more interesting than Still Got the Blues.

Not sure if this is a controp, but the only Kraftwerk album I can really enjoy front-to-back is Radioactivity. Maybe The Man Machine, but even that one drags a bit

The first Kraftwerk album I ever heard was The Mix and it's still my favorite by a long distance. Radioactivity is second.

The Mix is my favourite too. Followed by Electric Cafe. Radioactivity probably third (mostly for its stylistic proximity to my belovd Dazzle Ships)

"I suspect that a not-insignificant percentage of the answer in this thread will be the first album you owned/heard by the artist."

Or band you’re generally not that into suffers identity crisis, tries on your favorite hat. Literally, in some cases:

Their Satanic Majesties Request is the only Stones album I like.

Is there a thread for bands who went full sikepop for one album (sophomore lp’s especially, e.g. MGMT and Panic at the disco)?

Me three on the The Mix (and also Electric Cafe and Radioactivity, so I guess this is a certain type of Kraftwerk fan subtype)

It's not the only one I like, but I strongly prefer Flowers of Romance to other PiL. I think this is more of a mainstream view these days than it used to be.

There should be a thread for 'experimental' second albums that divided people very sharply (those two I guess + Anthem of the Sun, After Bathing at Baxter's, Six, The Beat Goes On, Neither Fish Nor Flesh, Embyra, Vanguard,, Saturnz Return, Blueberry Boat, They Were Wrong So We Drowned, 10,000 Hz Legend, Audio Video Disco, Into the Unknown)

Some were one-offs and some stuck as the beginning of new directions

Yeah, I almost posted that I loved They Were Wrong So we Drowned but never cared about Liars before or since, decided it falls under “favorite hat”

It’s not the first album I liked/had from him and I like some other stuff a lot but Springsteen’s Tom Joad might be my favourite album.

Kraftwerk 1 is easily my favourite Kraftwerk album

bookmarkflaglink

Cut the Crap is . . . well, it's crap. Sure, "This is England" is a decent song, but it stands out from the rest of the album like a sore thumb. It's a stretch even to call it a Clash album.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Friday, September 22, 2023 9:43 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Wrong. It's a great song, top five Clash.

top one imo

I thought Sister was generally regarded as top tier Sonic Youth

Angel Rat is also my favorite Voivod album

my contribution to the thread is Trompe le Monde

Wrong. It's a great song, top five Clash.

That's literally insane.

for me it's Be Here Now.
i genuinely love the OTT excess of it.
tis by far the Oasis album i have listened to the most.

xxp: Trompe Le Monde is so good. It's not the only Pixies I like, but I understand how someone could feel that way.

Another vote for Trompe Le Monde.

And I'd probably choose Where You Been? if had to pick one Dinosaur Jr record.

Be Here Now is certainly the most fun to listen to, and easily the most interesting. For me playing it is to also be thinking about the whole story around it.

But then my favourite is probably Dig Out Your Soul. Err...

yeah, i agree its definitely a close call between both of those ..
especially if you include the DiV versions on the extra disc that came in the boxset for DOYS.

not sure if this is exactly the "wrong opinion" as i've never heard anyone say his early stuff is "bad" exactly, but i do think i'm in the minority for preferring elliott smith's first couple of albums to his later work. i find everything he did after the s/t album patchy - yes, even either/or, although i still find it much more consistent than XO/figure 8/FABOAH. roman candle and the s/t are totally unlike anything else i've heard before or since, and the spare, rough quality of the songs enhances rather than diminishes them in my opinion. i've always thought as time went on his lyrics got more "on-the-nose" and the beatles influence in his music, while always obvious, got more prevalent to the point where his later songs feel more generic somehow.

― tremolo, Friday, September 22, 2023 7:19 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i don't think you're alone - or, at least i feel strongly the same way, it's the only album of his i ever listen to and i know people who feel the same

Snap for:

Beatles for Sale
Kraftwerk 1
Mixed Up
The Beta Band
Their Satanic Majesties

Not quite, but:
Cut the Crap

My Penn'orth:
Wow - Moby Grape

I've talked about Cut The Crap before, so I'll just quote myself:

CUT THE CRAP is as good as any other Clash album, and better than some. Their whole discography is a goddamn mess, and as a strip-it-to-the-bone, fuck-the-pop-charts record, it more than does the job. The guitar sound is ugly as shit, but in a really interesting way, and when you combine that with the Big Black-ish drum machine, the random stabs of ultra-80s synth, and the gang vocals, Strummer was actually really onto something. People who don't like CUT THE CRAP are too attached to the mythology of four dudes in a room makin' rock 'n' roll. Listen to it side by side with the first Big Audio Dynamite album, and wise the fuck up.

The first BAD album is loads better than Cut the Crap, which is an unholy mess (and not in the good way that, say, Sandinista! is). Even Strummer admitted it was a mistake.

oh yeah Wow for me as well.

My eight paragraphs on Cut the Crap are the end of this

https://popluck736076116.wordpress.com/2022/03/24/synth-surfing-with-rock-1983-86-part-2/

Might as well post part 1 too (this was a project I created for something where I was required to be revisionist. Not difficult for me) since this all sort of fits the thread https://popluck736076116.wordpress.com/2022/03/24/synth-surfing-with-rock-1983-86-part-1/

I keep forgetting that this is the board that also voted Metal Machine Music as the best Lou Reed album.

That's literally insane

Why? I mean it. I love how Strummer calls the song into being, admire his lyrics, tip my hat to the backing vox.

There is more than one objectively fine song on CTC

I have a few of these... in the past I've been embarrassed to admit that "Pandemonium" is the Killing Joke I reach for first, "Snivilization" is my favorite Orbital album by far, the Boo Radleys "Everything's Alright Forever" (the only one of theirs I like), and I'm pretty sure Slowdive's "Just for a Day" is my favorite of theirs.

xxp I remember getting the 12" and being hopeful for the album (I had also seen the tour the year previous, when the few new songs they had played sounded . . . pretty good). I was quite dismayed when the whole thing finally came out. Regardless, while it's a good song, the drum machine and the football chant backing vocals alone disqualify it from the "top five," even if there weren't five songs from their first album that are better than this one. The best that can be said about it is that it was a decent coda to a band career cut far too short, and a sort of preview of what Strummer's solo career eventually would sound like.

I'm too knee deep in "Giant Steps", but in position 2...

I blame Bernie Rhodes for a lot of this, btw. I think Strummer was having a nervous breakdown.

xp After Bathing At Baxter's was JA's third, not second, after thee appropriately-titled Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, with Skip Spence's drumming and songwriting contributing to noize (could be a bit diffuse, but not really a problem). "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit" and title aside, Surrealistic Pillow was mostly misty Marty Bay Area ballads. Not bad of their kind, but Baxter's was where all their specialties meshed, a sweet peak (only prob: the CD remaster brought out all these layers on top of the bass).
Some ilxors have named Self-Portrait as their fave.

I thought Sister was generally regarded as top tier Sonic Youth

it is, it's everyone's favorite that isn't daydream nation! arguably i love the wrong one the most here, a thousand leaves (and there are even wronger possibilities, idk if i'm remembering this post correctly but did fgti call the whitey album their fave?)

I've been embarrassed to admit that "Pandemonium" is the Killing Joke I reach for first,

weird as i have never been embarrassed about this admission.
such a great album.

Regardless, while it's a good song, the drum machine and the football chant backing vocals alone disqualify it from the "top five

I have no idea what you mean. Why are these demerits?

The point of the song is to denounce Thatcherism, and the football chant is esaential.

xp Football chant backing vox almost never work, and I don't think they worked here.

As for a drum machine, while it's not in and of itself a "demerit," its use in place of a live drummer (let alone probably the most talented drummer of the punk era, who, tbf, was in the throes of addiction) on this song and album just added to its slapdash feel.

After Bathing At Baxter's was JA's third, not second

Yeah I realised that when I read it back after submitting but was just waiting for it to be pointed out lol

This Is England is perfection and as such every single thing about it belongs. I can never quite manage it in prose but this was my last slightly awkward attempt.

It starts with an offbeat, an intro forcing you to align your ears to the country’s weariness, and then once your ears are in you’re very much in – in a 1985 England of violent desperation, joining Strummer stood centred and addled at the social injury. To begin with the track is much roomier than dissenters would lead you on, and you can hear him echo ruefully into the beatbox, but gradually more turns up (synthesised jugs, guitar layers, ghostly harmonies) as more inexplicable things go off in England (and with the football chants, remember this was the year of Bradford City and Heysel), all inhabiting a seemingly irresolvable bleakness, those yearning ascending synths sounding more tragic, until that time bomb beat just peters out and the punk riff just squiggles off into the grey, no more. There’ll be no catharsis for the nation tonight. It was their final single and its closing ellipsis feels particularly potent.

Is "The Royal Scam" the wrong Steely Dan album to like best?

― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Friday, September 22, 2023 5:55 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

no, that would either be katy lied or gaucho (not including modern dan, which i refuse to acknowledge as canon)

― tremolo, Friday, September 22, 2023 6:02 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

There's no "wrong" album from their original run. I think only the two reunion-era albums would qualify for this thread.

My answer to the OP is Santa Barbara by The High Llamas. One of my favorite albums ever, but probably hardly even anyone else's favorite High Llamas album? I do like other High Llamas stuff, but I wouldn't say I *really like* it.

I thought Sister was generally regarded as top tier Sonic Youth

it is, it's everyone's favorite that isn't daydream nation! arguably i love the wrong one the most here, a thousand leaves (and there are even wronger possibilities, idk if i'm remembering this post correctly but did fgti call the whitey album their fave?)

― ivy., Friday, September 22, 2023 1:19 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

imo i think sister is regarded as highly if not higher than daydream
like i dunno saying "ny ghosts and flowers" would be staking a claim for this thread

sister/daydream is more like i dunno led zep iv vs physical graffiti, you might find people who think either one but it's not going out on any kind of limb

I keep forgetting that this is the board that also voted Metal Machine Music as the best Lou Reed album.

Only good Lou Reed album, more like.

Snap for:

Beatles for Sale
Kraftwerk 1
Mixed Up
The Beta Band
Their Satanic Majesties

Not quite, but:
Cut the Crap

My Penn'orth:
Wow - Moby Grape

― Mark G, Friday, September 22, 2023 12:49 PM (forty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

in the case of kraftwerk and stones (i love both these albums) i feel like the artists' own attitudes towards the albums have poisoned the public perception of them a bit

xpost unperson has clearly never heard "hudson river wind meditations"

There's no "wrong" album from their original run. I think only the two reunion-era albums would qualify for this thread.

agreed, the first seven are unimpeachable. i do like the last two but they're a couple tiers below.

xxp! Wow! westbury's take on "This Is England" makes me think of Sandinista! 's audible anxiety factor as precursor (from my Voice review of The Sandinista! Project):

Released in late 1980 (when punk could seem as old and established as still-peaking Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, though rather less successful politically), the original Sandinista! was stoned, bold, nostalgic, speculative, outward bound, mostly coterie-produced,and stress-tested by the DIY clash of identity and adaptability.

Clash 1st album is the only one I really like.

The British version was better, but I think most Americans only heard the American edition, except for those of us who took a tip from Creem etc (so hopefully a fair amount of the target audience before they had hits over here).

The British version was better, but I think most Americans only heard the American edition

I've heard both and I definitely prefer the American version, which is probably a good fit for this thread.

I do think "Clash City Rockers" is a better opening track than "Janie Jones," which works brilliantly as the first track on side two.

Kraftwerk 1 is amazing and it's a crime they disown it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABOMrTgPNZA

idk if i'm remembering this post correctly but did fgti call the whitey album their fave?)

It certainly is the one I like the most! I also like the s/t EP.

I wouldn't say it's "my favourite" but I rank I'm Breathless as a top tier Madonna album (and it contains several of my favourite-ever Sondheim songs)

Probably my weirdest though is that Land Speed Record is by far my favourite Husker Du album

for me Ralf & Florian is the real hidden gem, it's melodically rich and playful in the same way their later stuff is, but they hadn't yet adopted that 100% electronic sound yet which allows a lot of cool things to happen

"Touch And Go" notwithstanding, The Cars' Panorama is a terrific album and the one I listen to far more than any of the others. Suicide opened up for The Cars on the Candy-O tour. Ocasek had just produced Suicide's second album and the crosstalk from all that generated a completely strange paranoid outlier album that's all the more remarkable for being released on Elektra in 1980. In the context of albums like Dazzle Ships and The Pleasure Principle though, totally classic.

Some days I think Ecstasy is better than Isn't Anything or Loveless, which seems to be extreme outlier.

I like "Touch and Go."

The Gospel According to the Meninblack is my favourite Stranglers.

dow I like that reading of Sandinista!; to me the massive, shuddering dub echo throughout the album (even on the more straight ahead songs) is like the songs being filled with plutonium. Anxiety galore.

Someone made a tape for me with Reckoning on one side and Lifes Rich Pageant on the other and they are still my two favourite REM albums. Back in the early 90s, it was the hip thing to prefer Murmur and Fables.. and maybe even Green and Document as well, although nowadays it's maybe not so 'wrong' to love my two faves.

Probably my weirdest though is that Land Speed Record is by far my favourite Husker Du album

― my best wishes to all (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, September 22, 2023 2:20 PM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

not necessarily my fav but husker du was a great, underrated hardcore band! like really distinct and chaotic feeling. there's always that attitude that exists that punk/hardcore is something to be transcended and evolved past which probably contributes to that album being underrated

I probably play "Black and Blue" more than any Stones record these days.

I think there's something to that point, where the most pure early form of a band's sound must be moved past until they've bloomed into some sort of more eclectic, versatile act. Everyone wants a band to fully bloom and release their London Calling. That goes for a lot of genres I think of course. xp

My favorite Boris album might actually be New Album.

I think there's something to that point, where the most pure early form of a band's sound must be moved past until they've bloomed into some sort of more eclectic, versatile act. Everyone wants a band to fully bloom and release their London Calling.

And yet, the Bad Brains' first two albums (the self-titled and Rock For Light, not that Black Dots thing) are absolutely perfect and unsurpassed, not only by them but by most bands on Earth.

Yeah Mixed Up is good

So is Rattle & Hum

Yeah, I said it: Rattle & Hum is good

"How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" is the U2 album that I tend to rank a lot higher than most others.

I get really into Rattle & Hum when it finally gets to Heartland and stay really into it - although GPII isn't the best day in the office Bono's lyrics have ever had.

xps yeah Ralf und Florian might be my fave Kraftwerk, def one of my 3

The only Deafheaven album I really like is their latest one "Infinite Granite" which most of their fans seem to not rate very highly. Similar situation with the Arctic Monkeys. The only one I really like is "The Car".

"How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" is the U2 album that I tend to rank a lot higher than most others.

I guess this would be Zooropa for me, which may also be "wrong" from many fans' pov (think I mentioned this in the "Companion Albums" thread)

Zooropa, Pop and NLOTH for me

The only Deafheaven album I really like is their latest one "Infinite Granite" which most of their fans seem to not rate very highly

yeah but we're right and they're wrong

I sort of want Turbo to be the only Judas Priest album I find interesting but it just isn't true because Painkiller does it for me

disdain me, hate me, profane me, discard me. the only dinosaur jr. album i've ever listened to obsessively and still love way above the others is green mind. i get that you are cooler if you're living all over me is your jam but i'm not going to lie. i picture things a certain way

^mine is the debut, but maybe there are others in the same boat? I don't know many big Dino Jr. fans

Probably my weirdest though is that Land Speed Record is by far my favourite Husker Du album

LSR isn't just my favorite Husker Du album, it's the only one of theirs I like

I think I enjoy every late 80s/early 90s electronic album by a major post-punk album

major post-punk band*

not necessarily in the spirit of the thread since it is such an outlier in their catalog, but the only Bad Religion album I've enjoyed past my teenage years is Into the Unknown.

My first Robbie Fulks album was Couples in Trouble, a genre-hopping masterpiece, so more typical Fulks records are not what I'm hoping for.

I Like It Loud aside, the only Kiss stuff I really actively enjoy are their dabbles in disco and (lesser) prog.

Probably not dissimilar to how I *like* regular Van Halen but make lovey eyes at the random experiments that dot the DLR albums (especially Sunday Afternoon/One Foot Out the Door and, well, half of Diver Down)

Love* It Loud

Maybe just read it before I hit submit...

Diver Down is the most phoned-in of the original band's albums.

I'll stan for Fair Warning.

fair warning is the 2nd or 3rd best vh album

my pick is ash’s nu-clear sounds

I also like later wipers way better than earlier wipers

Yeah, the self-titled VH debut is damn near perfect.

VH > Fair Warning > 1984 > VH II > Women & Children First > Diver Down and then they broke up and were never heard from again.

The only one of the later ones I heard was FUCK. Boring.

how to dismantle an atomic bomb is good, for me at least it gets better over time. i think the vinyl remaster helped a lot, it gives it a lot more kick.

F.U.C.K. was all over hard rock radio at the time but that's an album that truly vanished from the culture afaict

Think (esp in the spirit of this thread) I need to give van hagar a proper go because it's like people go off genesis/manics/depeche/suede/maybe even r.e.m. after certain key member leaves and how, in not one of those instances, am I one of those people

xxp I'd put Women & Children before II; I might even put it before 1984.

I'm gonna hazard a guess that it's their best selling album so not sure if it counts for the purposes of this thread but 'licensed to ill' is my favourite beastie boys album and I pretty much love em all other than 5 boroughs.

i think it fits bc it's possibly regarded by some as the fun shallow album they had to get outta their system before they became *~artists~*

Not sure about real world consensus but contrary to ilx opinion and probably the band themselves arctic monkeys debut is wonderful and their best album by miles.

I don't think any of the 80s or 90s albums are controversial favourites, still my own (Hello Nasty) was at the time a major critical favourite but now is practically fixed at fifth place in the consensus ranking of their albums.

LSR isn't just my favorite Husker Du album, it's the only one of theirs I like

I mean… same? I don’t dislike Husker Du but LSR is the only album of theirs I listen to on the regular. Maybe I just like hardcore and not so much post-hardcore or w/e it is

I know I've heard Check Your Head and Ill Communication but I have basically no memory of either one, and I've never heard any of the albums after that. The only one I listen to anymore is Paul's Boutique, and I have no idea what its cultural status is.

It still has huge currency among the white suburban dads I know.

Somewhere out there, I think there must be someone who unabashedly loves Goodbye Cruel World.

Of course I own it (because I was, at the time, an Elvis Costello completist). But if you look at the liner notes for the Ryko reissue, they begin "Congratulations. You've just purchased our worst album."

There are still a few standouts from that record; I will never not love "Peace in Our Time."

i dunno if this is “wrong” but my favorite Hold Steady record is Almost Killed Me by a country mile. the next two or three are good, but for me it’s all too far removed from what i love about the first album, which is still the only album of theirs i play on the regular

i find it hard to enjoy the later albums because i compare everything to Almost Killed Me, to the point that mr veg thinks I’m being pretentious lol

xp "The Deportees Club" too.

Jimbeaux yeah but the Christy Moore version on Lost Dogs is way better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8GmKT3vfws

Dere's a tousand years o' history drowned in dat whiskey glass

I know I've heard Check Your Head and Ill Communication but I have basically no memory of either one, and I've never heard any of the albums after that. The only one I listen to anymore is Paul's Boutique, and I have no idea what its cultural status is.

I'm the same way about anything past Paul's Boutique, but I listened to Check Your Head after finding a copy in a sidewalk giveaway pile a while back, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I was pretty into it at the time, and hadn't heard it in its entirety in decades, so maybe my enjoyment was also due to a little indulgence in nostalgia.

Yes to *Ralf und Florian* and *Infinite Granite*.

With Eno, I've always been very into *Another Day on Earth*.

I don't think it's wrong, but *Olé Coltrane* isn't necessarily a canon choice.

Side projects edition- I hate U2 but I like Passengers. I have no interest in Radiohead but I'm into The Smile

Well I mentioned BTWN > Ziggy upthread but in general I listen to 1993-97 Bowie a *lot* more than glam Bowie

I skip straight from Lodger to Blackstar. I liked The Next Day at the time but now...eh.

Let's Dance has undeniable jams

The one I still actually choose to listen to between Scary Monsters and Blackstar is The Buddha Of Suburbia

I’ll go for my wrong albums of “canon” artists:

My favorite Smashing Pumpkins album is Gish and probably the only one I still listen to.
I think The King Of Limbs is a top 3 Radiohead.
I like Loaded more than any other VU album.
I like Meddle more than any other PF album.
Sabotage might be my favorite Black Sabbath after Vol. 4
Some days I think Pygmalion is actually the best Slowdive album.
The Dreaming is the superior Kate Bush album.
Swordfishtrombones is better than Rain Dogs.
In Utero is better than Nevermind by a wide margin.
Nearly God is the best Tricky album.
Tortoise’s debut is my favorite of them.
Peng! by Stereolab has usually been my pick for best Stereolab album and it’s always a top 3.
Lost and Safe by The Books is by far my favorite album by them.
Zooropa is the only U2 album I like.
Chinese Democracy is the only great Guns n Roses album… ok this one was a joke

Loaded is my fave VU as well (and I’ve been looked at askance for that), but I do love them all so it doesn’t fit this thread…

Wait, qualmsley, are there really people out there hating on Let's Dance? That is a freaking unimpeachably classic album.

If loving that album is wrong, I don't want to be right.

American Life is the third b-

I probably play "Black and Blue" more than any Stones record these days.

The only Liars album I've held onto is the s/t, but I'm not sure how people rank their output.

Let's Dance is 50% a great album, and also some other songs

I've always found the juxtaposition of Bowie's voice and Vaughan's guitar very gratifyingly jarring.

Loaded is my fave VU as well (and I’ve been looked at askance for that), but I do love them all so it doesn’t fit this thread…

― stylized in all lowercase (morrisp)

Oh yeah this is true for many artists I enlisted there. I took the original post to mean “albums you think are the best, but are not the canonical favorites.

I haven't heard most Robyn Hitchcock albums - I've been taking my time - but Respect is so my favourite of what I do know.

Black and Blue as a whole is a middling record, but “Fool to Cry,” “Memory Motel” and “Hand of Fate” are all-time.

I don’t care for La Roux’s debut album, but really like Trouble in Paradise.

re:Stones It's because I don't really enjoy them at their most Stonesy. I cherry pick the Miller albums for the things such as say I Just Want to See His Face. Crazy Mama is the only song on B&B I think is less than great (Hand of Fate is the other obviously Stonesy song but it is grand).

Also Led Zep III is my favorite one by them and it seems it’s usually ranked below the other number albums.

Count me in as someone who prefers the first Arctic Monkeys album.

I'd say Hello Nasty is a more unusual favorite than License, but it's true that plenty of people starting with the Beasties themselves dumped on the latter for many years. Check Your Head, otoh, is straight up amazing and my un-controversial favorite.

Also yeah count me in on the debut album by Arctic Monkeys being their best one.

They kind of lost a lot of the bratty energy of that album in their subsequent releases and that’s the thing I found the most appealing with them.

My favourite REM album is The La’s s/t

Oh, this is definitely wrong: my favourite Magnetic Fields album is i

“So you quote love unquote me” omg

The Bowie album I've listened to more than any other is Heathen (Blackstar is #2), because I got it on vinyl when it came out. Tbh, I've never properly connected with Bowie on an album level. I have a mixtape/playlist someone made me that I listened to a lot and I've heard most of the classics at least once, but never went deep for some reason, as much as I respect and like him in theory.

Someone else said it on another thread and I OTMed them but the first two Idle Race albums are, if not quite the only Jeff Lynne I need to hear, the only Jeff Lynne I listen to regularly.

I had a similar experience to my OP with Soundgarden: Came to them via Down On The Upside and its attached singles. And while I like Spoonman, Black Hole Sun etc, a lot of the earlier stuff just sounds a bit hoary and meat'n'potatoes to me

― ...eh you get the gist of it (dog latin),

I had a similar experience to this except with Superunknown instead of Down on the Upside which I view as similar in nature if lesser in quality than Superunknown.

My wrong Bowie album is Space Oddity because for a long time it was the only Bowie album I had and it became the one I’m the most fond of.

nah I think Hello Nasty is their best and I really like the 3 before it too. just so much creative shit on that album, even when they do things that totally suck it still sucks in a really fun way

album/generic by PIL is my favorite PIL album. Likewise, The Burning World is far and away my favorite Swans album. Both produced/ruined by Bill Laswell.

Not sure Sonic Youth's Sister is the wrong choice but it was the first I heard and it has never been bettered.
Similarly I heard Blue Cheer's Outsideinside first and love it way more than Vincebus. So much so that I've never bothered picking up a copy of Vincebus.

I'm not, like, against the big 60s singles but the only Kinks album I really care for is 1986's Word of Mouth

album/generic by PIL is my favorite PIL album. Likewise, The Burning World is far and away my favorite Swans album. Both produced/ruined by Bill Laswell.

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Saturday, September 23, 2023 1:09 AM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

he also produced/ruined my favorite white zombie album

Speaking of Jeff Lynne the only ELO I like is the first album.

The Burning World is a great record. Better than anything by reunion-era Swans, no question.

yeah I think most people actually like that album, it's Gira who seems to have had an issue with it

ditto PIL

It's Swans' My Nation Underground but probably a bit better

in my 80s/90s memory, SY's Sister was always the top rated album critically, interesting that this is no longer the case

besides Landing on Water the other Neil albums I listen to are Trans, Life and Sleeps with Angels

There are others I don't mind but do I ever play em, no

refuse to believe that sister is not at leats among the top four rated SY albums. I mean, it's Daydream Nation, Sister, Evol, and Goo at the top for anyone with working ears right

ummmm swap Goo for BMR and Dirty for DN and that's closer to mine

I don't really like Goo. For me it's all about that mid '80s run and I'd rank them Sister > Bad Moon Rising > Daydream Nation > EVOL.

that works for me although I LOVE Dirty

I mean, it's Daydream Nation, Sister, Evol, and Goo at the top for anyone with working ears right

I once mentioned to a friend (who is a Springsteen nut) that Nebraska was my favourite album of Bruce's, and he got derisive. "People who say Nebraska is their favourite might as well just say 'I don't like Bruce Springsteen except when he's not being Bruce Springsteen'." I thought that was harsh. I like Bruce when he's being Bruce, but I like him more when he's doing Nebraska. Same with SY, I like those "classic albums" just fine but I like the band's music more when they're not "being themselves". I think people are drawn to Pablo Honey and TKOL for similar reasons, like you wanna keep enjoying the music of Radiohead but you like it more when it's not so aggressively Radiohead-y

I don't know if it's "wrong" but I only like the first album by the following acts: Bettie Serveert, Kristin Hersh, Portishead, Hem.

Slightly more complicated: Elvis Costello. He keeps making records and some of them are interesting. Yet, he has not yet made anything that I like more than the first one.

(Maybe this is a different topic: bands whose debut albums are better than any subsequent albums.)

This compilation, which I had in high school, was all the Elvis Costello I ever needed, though I did buy Trust, King of America and Blood & Chocolate before I figured that out.

Unperson, you are, surely, right for you. I went pretty far with EC over several decades (and at least a dozen albums) but I don't think I need to hear more from that fellow. His earliest and most urgent material is enough.

I like Bruce when he's being Bruce, but I like him more when he's doing Nebraska. Same with SY, I like those "classic albums" just fine but I like the band's music more when they're not "being themselves". I think people are drawn to Pablo Honey and TKOL for similar reasons, like you wanna keep enjoying the music of Radiohead but you like it more when it's not so aggressively Radiohead-y

Went through a period of Bowie fandom when I was a teen but in the subsequent decades the only album I go back to with any regularity is Young Americans.

That one and Scary Monsters are my go-tos, along with “Life on Mars,” of which I never tire.

alternative reading of this thread, a NoMeansNo fan finally admitting he's not as into their discography as one believed

Going by RYM score the bolded Sonic Youth albums in order are:

Daydream Nation
Sister
EVOL
Goo
Washing Machine
Dirty
Murray Street
Sonic Nurse

Goo is the only Sonic Youth album that's really ever clicked with me in a serious way. I find Daydream Nation impenetrable. Rather Ripped had its moments I guess

For me Goo and Dirty are the ones that click. Daydream Nation is I guess a sort of “you had to be there” album, in the context of the late 80’s I think it makes sense for what came before and after… but for me listening to it for the first time 10 years after it was released I was a bit lukewarm about it. Still am.

daydream nation works best as an epic full album wall of sound, not something you listen to for individual "songs"

I think Dirty would be considered a top 3 album if they cut about 1/3 of the album.

I once mentioned to a friend (who is a Springsteen nut) that Nebraska was my favourite album of Bruce's, and he got derisive. "People who say Nebraska is their favourite might as well just say 'I don't like Bruce Springsteen except when he's not being Bruce Springsteen'." I thought that was harsh. I like Bruce when he's being Bruce, but I like him more when he's doing Nebraska.

I guess I don't really see it as a binary. Nebraska is sort of my favorite Bruce album, in that it's the one that got me obsessed with him, but for me it functioned as a gateway to Bruce rather than a detour. Like, I don't think of it as Bruce not being Bruce, I think of it as a concentrated essence of one of his defining qualities as a songwriter. Seeing that kind of dangerous dark isolation on its own, undiluted by the compulsive search for hope and joy and community that is also part of Bruce's music, made me more conscious of that dark thread running through the rest of his material and how it shows up differently on every album but is always there.

Oh, here's mine! I kind of missed the boat on Taylor Swift and only really started listening to her with Lover. Then I didn't really like any of the albums that followed, so when I think of a Taylor Swift album that I want to listen to most of the way through, I think of Lover, which doesn't seem to be anyone else's favorite. I suspect that if I had given all her albums a proper try from the beginning, my favorite would be Red, but my brain only has room for so much Taylor Swift appreciation, so I'm stuck with the "wrong" album as my favorite.

I thought Nebraska was widely considered his best album after Born to Run

The talk about mixes in the Replacements thread leads me to admit here that I actually like the reviled 1997 remix.

I feel like there's a few instances where I only like the "wrong" album, but the only one that comes to mind at the moment is the Move's Message from the Country, especially the reissues that add the last few singles. The rest of their catalog does nothing for me, and certain band members have been dismissive of Message from the Country for various reasons, but I love it.

Yeah, talk about the "wrong" album - from Wikipedia:

By the time of Message from the Country, the band members had long since lost interest in the Move, and had already joined a newly formed band, Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)...The lengthy sessions for this album mostly involved only Wood and Lynne, because of all the overdubbing. During these sessions, bassist Rick Price quit The Move after he realized he was no longer needed, reducing it to a trio. Instead of replacing him, Roy Wood added bass duties to his other roles, as well as erasing Price's tracks on the existing songs and then re-recording the bass parts, but exactly why Wood re-tracked Price's parts is unclear. Drummer Bev Bevan, in the liner notes for the 2005 reissue of Message from the Country, is quoted as saying that it is his least favorite Move album, while Wood has said "It was probably the best one we ever did."

I think it might be more highly regarded now, but King by Belly is probably my pick. I much prefer to it to Star which at the time sold a lot more and was way more critically acclaimed. I've never understood why it was considered a disappointment by some.

Judging by polls on here (and elsewhere), I'm in a minority in thinking that The Firstborn is Dead is Nick Cave's best album after the Birthday Party era.

ooh that's a good one

I feel like I must have one of these but I can't think of it

I think there's a distinction to be made here between "only liking the wrong album" and "thinking the wrong album is their best."

Like, I have an unpopular opinion that the best John Prine album is Common Sense, but I like plenty of his other albums too.

But if I had heard a lot of his work but only liked his duets with Iris DeMent, that would be only liking the "wrong" album from the POV of your average John Prine fan.

The talk about mixes in the Replacements thread leads me to admit here that I actually like the reviled 1997 remix.

Me too, fwiw #WhenYouLikeTheWrongMix

I've been pondering this since the thread appeared but the closest I can get is Scritti Politti's Early compilation being a massive enduring favourite. But I'm not dismissive of any of the other records and it's a weird sort of "wrong" in that the different configurations of the band weren't trying to do remotely the same thing.

Hah, yeah, me too, though again, I avoid the CD release like the plague - egregiously the worst mastering you'll ever find on a CD. It wasn't until someone made a digital copy of the vinyl edition from 2010 that I listened to it again, and the 50th anniversary remaster also forgoes any compression in the mastering stage. (The new mix has enough compression as it is.)

(Raw Power, that is)

I firmly believe that Help is the best Beatles movie, and by extension I enjoy that album more than one should.

Also the one Harrison song ("I Need You") is severely underrated.

But I guess "I like this one particular thing a bit more than other people do" isn't quite the thread topic

Not sure it's the "wrong" album, but the only Ryan Adams I've ever liked is Gold.

I loved Super Furry Animals' Mwng as a teenager (along with to a lesser extent Fuzzy Logic and a few other singles), and still love it now. Didn't hear any other albums til much later and just can't connect with or even really process them, like the window has completely closed.

finally thought of one - Stink is the *only* Replacements album I like

That’s a good choice

(also one has Cat Food and the other has Moonchild)

― ...eh you get the gist of it (dog latin)

same sitch with you re: hearing wake of poseidon first... sure, side one are all weaker retreads of the best tracks on their first record, but then there's side two, which starts with a retread of come together featuring keith tippett on piano and goes into a retread of mars that's all kinds of epic fucked up.

i don't know if there's a "wrong" fleetwood mac, but mostly i hear about people talk about peter green fleetwood mac vs. bob welch fleetwood mac vs. buckingham/nicks fleetwood mac and my favorite is danny kirwan fleetwood mac... "dragonfly/the purple dancer" is possibly the best thing they ever did imo

my favorite blossom toes (the only blossom toes i ever listen to; neither of their albums really click with me) is also poli palmer-era blossom toes, which actually only released one single. there's some archival stuff as well.

Oh, my favourite Beethoven symphony is arguably his “worst”: No. 1. Not that the others are bad, I just prefer Ludwig in light Viennese mode rather than later Teutonic mode

I dislike the Chilis as much as the next person, but I have a soft spot for One Hot Minute, which is definitely NOT the fan fave

Folk Implosion's One Part Lullaby qualifies here, no?

(xp) Misread that as The Chills and frowned furiously for a second or two.

Daydream Nation is I guess a sort of “you had to be there” album, in the context of the late 80’s I think it makes sense for what came before and after…

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Saturday, 23 September 2023 19:29 (yesterday)

I don't think there's any difference in what younger Sonic Youth fans prefer, Daydream Nation is by far my favourite and I probably heard it 2005 or so

Totally mystifies me when some people treat it like a difficult album

The New Folk Implosion would probably be the 'wrong' one. One Part Lullabye got rave reviews I recall

Totally mystifies me when some people treat it like a difficult album

Luke said in a recent interview that ppl come up and tell him how much they love One Part Lullaby, and he says to them… “??? It was a total flop”

*Lou (not Luke)

Someone made a tape for me with Reckoning on one side and Lifes Rich Pageant on the other and they are still my two favourite REM albums. Back in the early 90s, it was the hip thing to prefer Murmur and Fables.. and maybe even Green and Document as well, although nowadays it's maybe not so 'wrong' to love my two faves.

I hear you. I think 15-year-old me thought those were the best two albums so I was dismayed to read (a year or two later) that Reckoning was considered a substandard follow up to Murmur.

I don't know if it's "wrong" but I only like the first album by the following acts: Bettie Serveert, Kristin Hersh, Portishead, Hem.

For me it’s the opposite. I never could get into Palomine (except Tomboy ofc) but love their third album Dust Bunnies (which I bought used for $1) which I thought no one really cared about either way. There are at least 6 songs on there that could go on my Top 10 list of the 90s.

(Maybe this is a different topic: bands whose debut albums are better than any subsequent albums.)

I feel like this is not uncommon.

I think most everything Hersh does is amazing under any name, but I can totally see why someone would only love Hips and Makers as it's definitely the best album she ever released under just her own name

Dust Bunnies (which I bought used for $1) which I thought no one really cared about either way. There are at least 6 songs on there that could go on my Top 10 list of the 90s.

one of my favorite albums ever. at least 6 sounds about right! imo: Geek, The Link, What Friends, Rudder, Co-Coward (especially), Heaven.

The first Portishead album is great and I feel it’s the consensus pick?

The second self one is very dim and hard to get into. I think this one would actually be the “worst” pick for favorite album by them.

The third feels like a completely different band, it’s their most accomplished one - artistically speaking - but I can see how fans of Dummy wouldn’t be crazy about it.

Palomine was not very well mastered and it sounded rough, but that was part of its charm. I know Carol Van Dijk got voice lessons before Private Suit and I remember kinda wishing she hadn't.

Dummy is easily my least favourite and that is my 0.02

Ooh ooh - for a long time I only had (and loved) the *live* Portishead album.

I don't like the majority of Led Zep's albums. Physical Graffiti is ok.

I really like "Houses of the Holy". I believe that is the wrong one.

But then again, I believe that is the consensus for LZ nonfolls, and the true wrong would be "in through the out door" or "Coda" or "The song remains the same" or something.

humbly submit the wrong one is Presence

sure love that Object though

I like In Through the Out Door

The first Springsteen album I got into was The Rising and it’s still my favourite. Some filler but a ton of good tracks, even though it never really sounds like an E Street record - it’s a tad overformal

Nebraska reminds me of the Hitchcock Vertigo thread in that it’s an over-serious outlier, perfect for people who get embarrassed by goofy Springsteen. Personally I like the goofy playing-guitar-on-a-trampoline stuff.

Presence is my favorite by a huge margin.

I think the wrong Zep album to like is IV, as in, it's the easy one for non-fans to say is the best but everyone knows the true answer is Houses of the HOly or II

The true answer is Plant's Shaken 'n' Stirred.

It's hard to rank LZ albums, isn't it? II is the best blues barnstormer, III is the best exotic weed-smoking album, IV is seven classic songs (and "Battle Of Evermore"), Houses Of The Holy is 'really neat' throughout, Physical Graffiti is too long but the b-side is basically "the three best LZ songs in a row", and idk about the later ones but I liked them when I listened to them

IV is really Bonham's album and despite it being ridiculously overplayed I'd still comfortably say it's probably their best... maybe tied with II

seven classic songs (and "Battle Of Evermore")

oh man u are killing me here fgti

I is great.

Led Zeppelin I that is.

Led Zeppelin You are

Hah I was going to mention Shaken 'n' Stirred in my very first post here. Except I do like most of the Zeps and even other Plants

I have it lumped in my mind with Landing on Water see

I is fine, I think I just amn’t attracted to such blues-pastiche and never developed a fondness for like You Shook Me or Dazed And Confused. I like stuff like Heartbreaker

As for Evermore idk I’m a mandolin fan and it’s probably the weakest mandolin-rock submission my ears have received. Losing My Religion is good. Actual mandolin music is best of all, why wouldn’t I just listen to Planxty or something

cont. Having read what I had to say about it and relistening to Too Loud a certain critic whom I was partly writing for told me in no uncertain terms that it was beyond irredeemable, awful and presented not just a mere unspoken hint of 'why are you wasting your time on this'

So you know, hell yeah

As for Zep I is easily my least favourite. HOTH and then Out Door for me (Out Door's final twelve minutes are the best Led Zep twelve minutes as I am wont to say)

Neil McCormick's 1/5 Telegraph review quoted on Wikipedia: "Muddy production, perky synths, jaunty pop rhythms and an orchestral ballad make these songs barely recognisable as the heaviest band in history."[23]

Except for muddy production (which I disagree with anyway) this could easily be a five-star review 8)

II is much "muddier" than I.

Battle of evermore slays primarily because of the vocals imo.

I have a bunch of these that comes from when I got into music. The only Beck album I love is Midnite Vultures, the only Nick Cave album Iove is No More Shall We Part, my favorite Mercury Rev album is All Is Dream, and Bloodflowers is a top 3 favorite Cure album.

The other one that is probably really wrong is that Assume Form is the one James Blake album I complete fell for, after disliking him before and not really feeling it afterwards.

II is much "muddier" than I.

That's interesting, I've always heard II as being much bigger and open and wider, clearer all around better sounding. Every time it gets remastered it gets more squashed, though. I'm not trying to be one of those DR numbers guys whatsoever, I love compression and heavy compression has always been a part of the LZ sound.

I first bought vinyl copies of both records in the mid-70s. No idea when or where they had been pressed. I always thought I was a lot clearer than II, though.

I think for this thread to work, it's about only really liking the one album by a band and it being the album that most fans don't consider especially canon. This is as opposed to thinking a specific album in a band's discography is underrated

I got into Ride from a cassette a school friend made with Going Blank Again on one side and Carnival of Light on the other. (I usually just listened to GBA but CoL at least starts strongly)

Never managed to really get into Nowhere.

I just noticed that the only Depeche Mode album I’ve kept around is A Broken Frame. I suppose the others are OK…

My favorite Presidents of the United States of America album growing up was their B-Sides collection, Pure Frosting. I never actually owned their debut.

I love a few GBV albums but for me Do The Collapse is right up there!

In terms of Springsteen, I've tried and tried (I own Born to Run and Nebraska and have tried with others) but have only ever clicked with Tunnel of Love which I love unreservedly.

m b v is the only My Bloody Valentine album I'll ever throw on... does that count(?)

This thread is making me weirdly happy for all these artists. Like, maybe this album wasn't a hit with your established fans, but there are still people out there for whom this was the album that made them connect with your work.

oh yeah the only Springsteen I care about is the second album.

I wish he hasn't been dissuaded from making that electronic album in the mid-90s.

I'm peripherally aware of their cooler earlier work but 'Get Close' is the only Pretenders album I'm familiar with, and this 1987 AOR offering holds a special place in my heart despite it being probably not that well loved

xp Well that '90s stuff he recorded is apparently coming out soon!

Oooh I didn't realise! I imagine that stuff being similar in construction to Streets of Philadelphia??

I think that's the idea.

I can totally see why someone would only love Hips and Makers as it's definitely the best album she ever released under just her own name

Uh, no, that's Strange Angels.

Anyway, Phantasmagoria by the Damned.

not an artist with enough of a cultural imprint to maybe have this be "wrong" but the only Best Coast album i'm really into is California Nights. i kinda like the others but that one hits a sweet spot.

for Sinatra I only really care about L.A. Is My Lady

Listening to the Courtney Barnett/Kurt Vile record yesterday, it occurred to me that it's the only physical disc I own from either of them. I seem to dig it more than pretty much any reviewer I ever read. But I'm not even sure I've made it through an entire LP by either of them otherwise! (I might have, given the low barrier to streaming, and I've obviously encountered plenty of individual tracks, but it's largely a blur.)

I know XTC’s catalogue has quite a consistent reputation but The Big Express is probably my favourite album of theirs.
Back to the Egg is my favourite Wings album and, along with London Town, the one I listen to most.

actually, ignore me. I *love* both those bands so I’m missing the point of the thread.

Meat Puppets I was my favorite for a long time until Up on the Sun became a desert island album later on in my life

Although I guess the wrong album would be something from the 90s…I was just thinking the “right” album must be II

"Up on the Sun" isn't really a wrong album though.

... oh right, you just said that!

Up On the Sun is the Gaucho of Meat Puppets.

It’s the opposite of a New Jersey. A follow up to a beloved album that is generally less regarded and less financially successful but the real heads know it’s better.

A Keep the Faith (if NJ can count as beloved, which it was at the start)

Led Zep 1 - I just thought the Small Faces did that sort of thing better.

(And yes, I know that song is on 2)

Which song, "Whole Lotta Love" or "Thank You"?

Can Wu-Tang Forever/The W/Iron Flag be the wrong Wu-Tang album, or is that reserved for 8 Diagrams and A Better Tomorrow?

I like their earlier stuff too, but Air’s 10,000 Hz Legend is a peerless masterpiece for me.

Yus. I agree. That's the one for me too. The other stuff is very lovely but a bit anodyne by comparison

I said on another, similar thread that merely a few bars of Keith Jarrett's piano irritates me, while I love his church organ album Hymns/Spheres.

The only T.S.O.L. album I like is Change Today?, the first one right after the original singer left. I think it's actually pretty well-liked, but it seems like fans (understandably) tend to see the Jack Grisham version of the group as the "real" T.S.O.L.

I like a lot of individual cuts, especially live, but the only Captain Beefheart record I really like is Unconditionally Guaranteed because Beefheart attempting to be "commercial" just sounds extra insane to me and is really funny and I love it so much

Also Love You is my favorite Beach Boys record, for sort of similar reasons, I can't believe after all the to do about the Smile sessions that everyone signed off on Love You, what a weird hilarious record

for a few years my favourite Beefheart LP was Bluejeans & Moonbeams, but that ended when I got into The Mirror Man Sessions, which is a much more standard choice I guess.

'Love You' is a really good choice here. I could imagine it somehow being someone's "only" Beach Boys record, seeing as it's a late-era record and it's sort of great in a quaintly janky way while also not really sounding much like their other albums.

My favorite Caravan album is 'Waterloo Lily.' I don't know if that's controversial, but it seems to be a popular choice for when they began falling off.

All the Tom Petty talk reminded me I only really like his first album. Aside from a few songs, the rest is merely pleasant at best to me.

The Mirror Man Sessions, which is a much more standard choice I guess

Probably still in the lower half of Beefheart records in terms of acclaim, though.

The only Coltrane album I love is the one with Johnny Hartman.

Holland is near the top of my favourite Beach Boys albums, I think of it as their prog album

Got another one: Song X. It's the only album credited under Pat Metheny that I really, really like, a masterpiece IMHO. The catch is that it's also credited to Ornette Coleman, and I think Metheny kind of defers to him.

To a lesser extent, there's also the one he did with Charlie Haden, Beyond the Missouri Sky (it includes the standard "Spiritual" - Johnny Cash cut a great version with American Recordings). It's pretty lightweight, but it's easy to see why it was such a huge seller in the jazz world though because it is easy to digest. Enjoyable nonetheless.

i'm not sure if Song X is the "wrong" album - I think Metheny fans generally love it too - but it's more of a Coleman album to me, so in that respect, it doesn't seem like THE one fans would pick.

Also John Scofield's Quiet - atypical of his work, but it's the one album under his name I like a lot.

Most Metheny fans I have known hated Song X, so that tracks.

This is not quite on topic, but I've always loved Recovering the Satellites, which (I think) is usually regarded as a letdown sophomore effort.

Boys Don’t Cry (the US version of the debut with the revised track list) is my favorite Cure album.

very different from Song X, but my favorite Pat Metheny in jazz ripper mode is Question and Answer with Dave Holland and Roy Haynes

I thought Rejoicing was pretty cool.

Not "ripper mode," obvs.

Tim Buckley's Greetings from LA, which seems to have a mixed-at-best rep among his fans, is the only Buckley album I really like.

not quite as unsung as the next 2 Buckley lps though

Yes, it's got plenty of admirers!

I don't exactly *like* it all that much but the only Vanilla Fudge album I'm at all interested in is The Beat Goes On

Not that dissimilarly, Anthem of the Sun is the only Grateful Dead project I care all that much about* other than Garcia's self-titled record.

(*that I've heard. I ought to hear Grayfolded)

My fav Yes is Topographic Oceans
My fav Crimson is Lizard

Tim Buckley's Greetings from LA

It's prob my favourite of his tbh!

Like some upthread, Kraftwerk's The Mix was my one album of theirs, a "wrong" album, but it's been supplanted by Minimum-Maximum, which seems to have a better rep

re: xtc-
mummer fucking slays.

My fav Yes is Topographic Oceans

TFTO is a fucking great album. About 15 years ago I had a morning commute that allowed me to listen to it in its entirety and it was a fantastic way to start the day.

my fav uncle acid album is mind control

agree about topographic oceana

Mummer def not wrong.

I had a deep Jean-Michel Jarre phase when I was 13-14, I was heavy into logging into BBSes and downloading Modtracker music and he kinda scratched that itch

Considering that my ears didn’t really know any better, for the longest time my favourite Jarre was “Chronologie”; had the best melodies, the biggest silly-payoffs, it sounded like the best Modtracker album ever made

I wouldn’t say “it’s the wrong album” from the guy (that’d be like Tio and Tea or whatever it’s called, I haven’t listened, only read about it), but for an artist whose roots were analog to go so wholly digital on Chronologie wasn’t popular with his fanbase. It remained my favourite for a long, long time, it might still be, idk. (Zoolook prob beats it these days)

tremolo otm upthread about the first couple Elliott Smith albums, too

like i dunno saying “ny ghosts and flowers” would be staking a claim for this thread

I was gonna say this myself before I saw it already mentioned. But even nyc ghosts and flowers isn’t bad or egregious, really; it just wasn’t what people wanted at the time, maybe? Murray Street got everyone back on board, but I like both of them.

Just realized I do have one these: 90125 by Yes. I haven't listened to all their highest-regarded albums but I've done at least 3 or 4 and 90125 is by far my favorite. I am a pop guy at heart tho

I only like weirdo post-1995 Scott Walker, particularly Tilt. Never got into his '60s albums.

I love a fair bit of Yes and really like a great deal more but loving 9012Live: The Solos is odd, right? But I do.

Chronologie is def one of Jarre's better albums, yes its digital but it actually sounds good which def wasnt true for a lot of the original analog guys (thinking specifically of Tangerine Dream here)

I like 70s Scott but Weirdo Scott is not the wrong albums. Dare anyone to rep only for Stretch or something from his lost country-pop era

stoned & dethroned

Maybe not the same as only liking the wrong album, but I'm pretty good at having the wrong favorite albums:

Talking Heads: Talking Heads 77
Replacements: Hootenanny
Led Zeppelin: LZ II
Radiohead: In Rainbows
Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic

Pretzel Logic is my favorite Dan, too.

It's the one I play most, ditto 77 ... and LZII is my favourite.

Xtc White Music

CTE, Pretzel Logic, and Aja were the consensus picks for years. Is Pretzel Logic the weird pick?

Based on ILX discussions, I thought SD connoisseurs judged Pretzel Logic as a somewhat basic entry point. Maybe I'm wrong?

I don't know why Pretzel Logic would be a consensus pick, it's a pretty weird album with a lot of tracks that don't particularly sound like Steely Dan.

As a wise person posted above:

There's no "wrong" album from their original run. I think only the two reunion-era albums would qualify for this thread.

Seems OTM.

pretzel logic is mostly leftovers from the first two albums but it still rules!!

"Any Major Dude" is my favorite Dan track. It just . . . sends me.

Sergio Mendes' Primal Roots. Features a sidelong exploration of The Circle Game (Edu Lobo's, not Joni's), beautifully untethered Brazilian jazz. Nothing else he released was even remotely like this.

If loving this is wrong, etc

ELO's No Answer is the only ELO I listen to.