which is the most overrated classic-era CAN album?

Yes... Ha ha ha... YES!

I think Monster Movie may be the one that people seem to generally like that I've never really gotten into

Future Days

S/T a.k.a. "Opener"

a.k.a. Inner Space... Opener was a compilation.

there was a time when I would've said Monster Movie no doubt but I realized lately that album has such a 60's movie star cool vibe to it. also it sounds incredible, if you played it for someone now they might think it was an imitation of that era because it's so pristine. idk how Can got all their early run sounding so perfect...around the time of Landed their records started sounding much less well defined I think

Future Days

Saw Delight is fine but I recall some discussion here that built it up too much, to me at least.

Monster Movie is underrated not overrated.

that's how I feel about Future Days!

Saw Delight was the first album of theirs I ever heard and I still love it

How can Future Days be underrated when it and Tago Mago are constantly described as their best albums?

Saw Delight is fine but I recall some discussion here that built it up too much, to me at least.

lol that's funny for me it was the opposite, I saw that album get trashed a bunch and when I heard it I was like come on how can you hate this

it's actually a funny story, my best friend was a busker in Cambridge, MA, and someone threw a copy of Saw Delight in his guitar case as a tip, so when he was done, we smoked a bunch of weed and listened to it.

hah back in the day "Fly By Night" was one of my favorite 420 songs

For reference, RYM ratings:

Monster Movie (3.71)
Soundtracks (3.70)
Tago Mago (4.06)
Ege Bamyası (4.02)
Future Days (4.10)
Soon Over Babaluma (3.58)
Unlimited Edition (3.56)
Landed (3.22)
Flow Motion (3.04)
Saw Delight (3.17)
Out of Reach (2.51)
Can (2.81)

Those ratings are far too low for the later albums.

they're too low for the early albums too :)

I dunno... if the "big three" Damo records score 4+ then Landed/Flow Motion/Saw Delight getting 3+ sounds about right (and I love those latter records).

Monster Movie and Soundtracks def underrated

YOU FINALLY, REALLY DID IT. YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!

this reinforces for me that Monster Movie is overrated because I'd much rather listen to most of those later albums that are rated considerably lower

I never feel the urge to listen to Monster Movie but maybe I should have a good binge just to confirm

I think it's impossible to overrate the first five and the others would surely never be classed as overrated. Might be a vote for (ducks)?

i love it but future days

if this was "worst" then I would have a vote, but "most overrated"? I don't think Out Of Reach is that good, but who is rating it highly? it's not terrible.

the prob with the first two is that the highs are really high but then there are songs I still can't remember after 35+ years

Oh, it’s Monster Movie easily for me. If it weren’t for Delay/Soundtracks/Unlimited I’d have thought that Mooney was a hack

he's also great on Lost Tapes! but yes the first two of these have very high high points and also some songs I still can't recall after 35 years of listening

haha the extra poll options were an accident but they work

S/T a.k.a. "Opener"

a.k.a. Inner Space... Opener was a compilation.

― Kim Kimberly

duly noted and ty as always, Fact Checking First Cuz

Tago Mago is the most overrated one. It's great but it was the last of the classic run I heard and having heard that it was a masterpiece I was a bit let down, vastly prefer Babaluma.

Now we're talking

yeah Babaluma cannot be overrated imho

Next poll: what is the most accurately rated CAN album?

I regret making this poll already j/k

I think I'm voting Ege Bamyasi, which is the good (and acclaimed) Can record I never want to listen to

it's actually a funny story, my best friend was a busker in Cambridge, MA, and someone threw a copy of Saw Delight in his guitar case as a tip, so when he was done, we smoked a bunch of weed and listened to it.

― whimsical skeedaddler (Moodles), Friday, February 20, 2026 3:06 PM

ok I thought you were just making this up but now I realize it's real and I love it

after careful consideration I am voting Tago Mago very narrowly over Soundtracks, which is ironic b/c they have my #1 and #2 fave tracks between them ("Mother Sky" and "Halleluwah")

Absolutely true story! He also once got a big tip from Eddie Vedder, and it got written about in the local paper.

xp

I think it's impossible to overrate the first five

― Position Position

what is this Soon Over Babaluma erasure lol

if this was "worst" then I would have a vote, but "most overrated"? I don't think Out Of Reach is that good, but who is rating it highly?

*cough* Soundtracks *cough*

ok well maybe not

also a lot of folks on ILM seem to be annoyed by Future Days

Agree with the votes for Tago Mago. "Halleluwah" is amazing, but the rest slides between just okay and "Fuck, is it still going?"

xp I've seen Future Days lauded as their best a lot over the years but for me the second side just kind of goes nowhere. Fgti's quote from the other thread sums it up:

It’s always been this “wha happened?” kind of album for me, like it’s on and then it’s over.

I'd say the last half of Tago Mago is more something you have to be in the mood to listen. Side 3 is pretty Ummagumma, which you know.

The first half is probably the best they ever did though. Kind of hard to beat space rawk james brown grooves.

Did any of them ever have any relations to the ECM scene of the 70s & 80s? I'd figure some of those northern Europeans liked some Can.

"It’s always been this “wha happened?” kind of album for me, like it’s on and then it’s over."

I kinda dig how Future Days sounds like one big long song on CD. It's kinda their Dark Side in a way with some of the ambient touches.

i kinda take TM as a single LP and the last 3 are bonus tracks

xp both? It's a good album, but it feels to me like a dreary post-Future Days hangover (except for the insane psychedelic supernova of "Chain Reaction"). Probably the only album here I would actually call "overrated"

Future Days is underrated btw

I don't think any of these are overrated, and I don't enjoy thinking of music in this way to begin with. Voting ducks.

So when I was getting in to Can it was very much Tago Mago or Ege Bamyasi - those two were the revered hipster choices, spoken of as holy grails, so it has to be between them. Love them both, of course, but hmmmm... going for Tago Mago.

― emil.y, Saturday, February 21, 2026 8:37 AM (one hour ago)

same, only voted opposite. i almost never actively listen to EB bc i feel like i have already heard it too much.

Ege Bamyasi. It's a bit like a mix of all their greatest albums, and therefore ends up feeling pretty superfluous. Future Days is the best, obviously.

Conversely I like Ege for the same reason - it's a distillation of the classic Can sound. It's the Can equivalent of Computer World. It has tricky drumming, catchy tunes, noisy freakouts, and it doesn't waste time. Each song is built on one good idea, and it never gets boring or overstays its welcome.

From my point of view Can's early albums were made by a man who was learning to ride a motorcycle. They're unpolished and erratic, with flashes of greatness. Whereas Tago Mago was made by a man who has just passed his test. Unfortunately the only thing he can talk about is motorcycles. He knows the safety drills. But he's boring because he can only talk about motorcycles. That's what Tago Mago is like. It's as if the band suddenly clicked, but they hadn't learned restraint.

Imagine being trapped in a comment thread with a man who can only talk with motorcycling metaphors. There's more to life than motorcycles. Ege on the other hand comes across as an album that was made by people who had been motorcycling for several years. They have learned to talk about other things.

Such as for example the relative merits of transporting your motorcycle to Europe on the Eurostar vs the ferry. Can you practically take the ferry to St Malo, then ride through France into Spain or Italy? How long is that going to take. Etc. But the point still stands.

Odd metaphor but yes I agree. CAN really found their groove until Ege Bamyasi. Every record after it exudes a confidence on their talents that wasn’t quite there before.

Tago Mago is slightly overrated. Everything else is about right. And it’s only slightly overrated because of Aumgn.

Aumgn is the vegetables you have to eat after your 1st side t-bone steak. You can't just eat steak, okay.

Ege is a greatest hits album of completely new material. It's a generalist album: great at everything so nothing stands out. Voting ege.

Ege is also an incredible album and this poll is stupid (but good stupid)

I wonder if Tago Mago is basically like Wowee Zowee (for *me*, specifically) - the first album I heard by a band I would come to love, and thus singular and special.

My introduction to Can came through a college classmate as part of a general “you should read this Julian Cope book, borrow as many Krautrock CDs as you like” education that I’m still very thankful for. I’m pretty certain that Tago Mago was just the first Can LP I borrowed but it may have been the first one that clicked so hard it left a mark; I do remember hearing Future Days and Ege and maybe one other record in that batch and not getting into them at all. Which may have had something to do with where my musical maturity was in ‘97 or ‘98 — constant indie rock listening that was veering into Stereolab and Tortoise and broadening in other subtle ways, but long before any interest in improv/jam. Bought my own copy of TM as soon as I could. And then would buy various other Can records and compilations and try to get into them at the same intensity and never quite could.

Years later, maybe a bit before the live releases or around the time Malkmus covered Ege with Von Spar, I started to try again in earnest. I have a greater appreciation for the early stuff in particular, and adore The Lost Tapes. But Tago Mago remains a go to above them all with the live releases right after because there’s that primordial jammy energy, one track kinda flowing into the next.

People will post a random Can track on social media - from a record that isn’t Tago Mago - and I’ll listen to it and it will be awesome! Then I’ll listen to that record, and the songs will be great, but they won’t … cohere as a unit?

For me! This is a me problem lol

Also, you know, hours and hours listening to TM late at night when I couldn’t sleep/was studying, etc. It’s an album that immediately places me into that state of mind, no matter when I hear it: the rest of the world is out cold except me and this band.

But I should stop typing in this thread and start my day.

I never go straight to "Aumgn". "Halleluhwah" puts me in the right kind of trance to drift into it.

don't think any of the first five are really overrated but gonna go with tago mago because "aumgn" is one of the few can songs i just don't ever feel like listening to and it takes up about 18 mins of the album

still remember clear as day the first time I heard "Peking O" laughing my ass off in disbelief they actually released this

yeah i get peking o a little bit more but that's a good 30 mins of mostly-skippable runtime that the other classic albums don't really have

Damn right

There’s definitely a narrative arc from Tago Mago through to the first couple of post-Damo albums where they’re getting progressively “better” at not merely exhibiting their skill and their creativity but also making it all sound effortless, like this is music that anyone could make if they just locked into the right mystic wavelength. I feel like often when people talk about their favourite Can music from that stretch they’re mostly talking about how they react to that dynamic, and whether they want to use Can’s music to be soothed or to be shaken or some particular admixture of those two states.

In my head, EB is best (and one of my favourite albums ever) because its permanent hyper-alertness feels like it matches my own headspace, evoking (for a while) a suspicion that you might never have to come down, might never have to drift off or fall apart in order to come back together again, the metamphetamine hit that never has to end. But that says more about me than about the music, I think.

I can go with Future Days too I think. obv I like it but it's probably my least favourite of the "classics"

definitely not Tago Mago, I've listened to that a lot recently and love it more than ever

first 10 seconds of 'halleluwah' have been stuck in my head since this thread was started. the best intro to any can song i can think of.

They have got lots of good intros tbf

I never got into Soon Over Babaluma! But I am enjoying listening to it now, so no worries, I won’t vote for it. Not voting for any of them.

I will say I feel like my appreciation of it tends to be in spite of Holger’s seeming unwillingness by this point to actually play bass notes on the bass? Sometimes maybe I like what he’s doing? So that’s my caveat.

Monster Movie

- annoying voice
- dangerously close to Blues Rock
- fucking nursery rhyme lyrics

Tago Mago

- lovely voice
- groove located
- something about mushrooms then a lot of Japanese

sorry this is a no-brainer for me

Damo Suzuki is a big part of what makes Tago Mago great - other Can vocalists just weren’t on the same level for me

Surprised at the peking o hate it was my fave as a teen! Still love it...

Also ... hahahah ... Out of reach was the first i heard (omg a can lp in a cheap rack in 1970s shopping arcade western suburbs sydney. Same place i got lorca!). I mean god it is transcendentally better than Australian Crawl.

also yeah pfft overratings for sure but always happy to hear you all talk about can

as a nerdy 15 year old switching from prog to punk, I distinctly recall being in a shabby shopping mall book & record store, and picking up Soon over Babaluma in the rack (lord knows how it made it's way to southern New Hampshire in 1983) and being very intrigued by the cover. But I got the Damned garage rock side project Naz Nomad instead. After only getting around to Can in the 00s, I really wonder what that road not taken could have lead to at such an age.

idk if the original cover was like this but the reissue of Soon Over Babaluma has this really cool foil sheen to it that makes the stars on it actually shine when it's next to light, its definitely my favorite album cover of theirs

I think I’m glad for any early Can with Malcolm that might get “close to blues rock,” although I have to think about when that was. “Nineteen Century Man,” I suppose.

(xp) Yes that's the original cover.

xp to be clear I'm really just gently trolling but also gently serious

I dearly love Tago Mago but it does have that thing like Sandinista or the White Album where I habitually try to puzzle out a shorter "better" version. "Aumgn" and "Peking O" rarely make the cut in that thought experiment, so maybe (per voodoo chili's logic) ironically TM might get my vote since it can survive the most cutting and still be amazing

Monster Movie is incredible, <3 Malcolm

i will not stand for malcolm mooney slander. that dude invented can

They'd have been happily plinky-plonking about, doing their little Ethnological Forgery doodads, without him.

I love overloaded maximalist albums like Tago Mago and Sandinista and All Things Must Pass and Zen Arcade. The form-follows-function of the LP era really comes into play. They got appendices where you only gotta go there when you're in the mood. Disc one of Tago Mago is about the best and most cohesive trip ever made by anyone, offsetting whatever can be offputting about disc two.

But I love Ethnological Forgery

i will not stand for malcolm mooney slander. that dude invented can

― c u (crüt), Tuesday, February 24, 2026 10:55 AM (thirty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Mooney definitely laid the template for how the band went with their eccentric vocal choices

They all said he pushed them towards doing more rock based material instead of the aforementioned plinky-plonking about.

...or groove based or whatever.

just building my case against him here

Disc one of Tago Mago is about the best and most cohesive trip ever made by anyone, offsetting whatever can be offputting about disc two.

Exactly how I feel about Physical Graffiti.

Agilok and Blubbo is rock music, but not with the repetition!

the shorter better version of tago mago is just the first lp, you don't need to over think it

disc 2 of tago mago is the most psychedelic they ever got

I said on the other thread— Disc 2 of Tago Mago got massively upgraded with the 2011 remaster; I was an Aumgn/Peking O naysayer based on the 90s Spoon CDs but I’ve changed my feelings 100 percent. Amazing music

the 2nd disc isn't bad or anything it's just much more in 'interesting experiment' territory than 'some of the best music ever made' which the first lp is

it's not like faust's "why don't you eat carrots" which i can't stand

ufo otm imo. Aumgn and Peking O are half an hour of experiments that keep Tago Mago from being “a double album without a wasted note” (Ned’s AllMusic review) for me. The comparison to Ummagumma upthread is apt, I never play sides 3 and 4 of that one either.