Looking Past the Hits

[RussellAnderson]

Hated the Kings of Leon Sex on Fire - era. Looked back recently and I fucking love their first three albums. If the Strokes were from Alabama.

[Miguel Sanchez]

Edge of the Blade by Journey

[pittsburgh phil]

Steely Dan - Not sure they had many singles hits but going beyond their well known songs like Do It Again, Reelin' In The Years etc, songs like Your Gold Teeth (tight as shit druggy groove), King Of The World (post acolyptic sci-fi druggy shit), Charlie Freak (bleak Xmas song druggy shit), Everyone's Gone To The Movies (full blown Saville beastly druggy shit) are all subversive mastergems

[Mortar Bored]

I always come back to the same two bands in these types of threads - XTC and Talk Talk.

You may remember XTC from such hits as Making Plans for Nigel, Sgt Rock, and Senses Working Overtime, but their albums are chock full of tasty morsels and hidden gems.

Similarly, Talk Talk are best know for songs like Life's What You Make It, It's My Life, Such a Shame, and Today, but their albums are brilliant - particularly the last couple of albums, Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock, which came totally out of left field.

Sgt Rock was one of the first singles I owned, and other than the tracks you mention I know nothing of XTC, this post will make me look deeper, any album you recommend as a starting point?

PS- Sgt Rock was released when I was 9!!! Bloody hell!

[WaffenThinMint]

Talking heads have a great back catalogue. Loads of live versions and most people can name only 2 or 3 of theirs. Apart from the brilliant FLOOD album i havent heard any more from They Might Be Giants and they have tons of stuff so i keep meaning to dig there.

The first two albums - "They Might Be Giants" and "Lincoln" - and the fourth album "Apollo 18" (containing the now infamous "Fingertips"...) are very similar to "Flood", so you can feel confident in buying those knowing you've made a worthy investment.

The fifth, "John Henry" - almost an hour long - is more guitar orientated - they'd decided to have a proper band behind them rather than relying on session musicians with the aim of becoming more like a normal alternative band. Thankfully that plan failed miserably & they're remained the most bonkers band this side of Sparks ever since, with that quirky "cartoon" new wave feel to all their songs.

After "John Henry" the albums were pretty patchy but still worth getting for at least half the tracks (except for "The Else" and "Nanobots"), but "Join Us" (2011) and last year's "Glean" (2015) are two of the best albums they ever made.

The children's albums are by & large crap (but they make the band shitloads on money to subsidise their real albums, so whatever...), save for "No!" which was as good as any standard TMBG album.

If you like the early stuff, the "Don't Let's Start/Miscellaneous T" compilation fills in the blanks (including the very different single version of "(She Was A) Hotel Detective"), alternate version of "The World's Address", plus "The Famous Polka" played in just about every TMBG gig since the start), otherwise "They -The Early Years" gets you everything pre-Flood.

2002's "They Got Lost" fills in the blanks for the other stuff later, and is a must have for "Certain People I Could Name", "Reprehensible" (the later B-Side of "Boss Of Me"), "Rat Patrol", "Words Are Like" & "On The Drag".

You'll also want to look into the live album "Severe Tire Damage" for the studio version of "Doctor Worm" (the single used to promote it) and the live faster versions of "Why Does The Sun Shine?" (played at every TMBG show ever since) & "First Kiss".

Look, just go out & buy the whole bloody lot. You know you want to.

[paranoid android]

Sgt Rock was one of the first singles I owned, and other than the tracks you mention I know nothing of XTC, this post will make me look deeper, any album you recommend as a starting point?

PS- Sgt Rock was released when I was 9!!! Bloody hell!

Although I liked the early hits, I didn't get into XTC in a serious way until 1992 when I heard the singles from their album, Nonsuch - I bought that album and an early singles compilation called Waxworks, which came with a companion album, Beeswax, which contained all the early B-sides. True to form, some of those B-sides were as good as the tracks that made it onto their albums. Not sure if that's still available, but there is a more comprehensive hits package called Fossil Fuel.

Between Nonsuch and Waxworks/Beeswax, I was hooked, and went on to get all of their albums.

To begin with, I'd maybe recommend the more accessible albums such as Oranges & Lemons or Nonsuch, or Fossil Fuel, but it's all great stuff!

[bob the tank]

Just buy all the xtc albums, there is one for every mood or weather condition. Skylarking and Oranges and Lemons for a summers day and I always think Nonsuch is an autumnal album. Only buy the new skylarking though, the production is so much better and its got the original risqué cover

[Gareth_Glasgow]

The first two albums - "They Might Be Giants" and "Lincoln" - and the fourth album "Apollo 18" (containing the now infamous "Fingertips"...) are very similar to "Flood", so you can feel confident in buying those knowing you've made a worthy investment.

The fifth, "John Henry" - almost an hour long - is more guitar orientated - they'd decided to have a proper band behind them rather than relying on session musicians with the aim of becoming more like a normal alternative band. Thankfully that plan failed miserably & they're remained the most bonkers band this side of Sparks ever since, with that quirky "cartoon" new wave feel to all their songs.

After "John Henry" the albums were pretty patchy but still worth getting for at least half the tracks (except for "The Else" and "Nanobots"), but "Join Us" (2011) and last year's "Glean" (2015) are two of the best albums they ever made.

The children's albums are by & large crap (but they make the band shitloads on money to subsidise their real albums, so whatever...), save for "No!" which was as good as any standard TMBG album.

If you like the early stuff, the "Don't Let's Start/Miscellaneous T" compilation fills in the blanks (including the very different single version of "(She Was A) Hotel Detective"), alternate version of "The World's Address", plus "The Famous Polka" played in just about every TMBG gig since the start), otherwise "They -The Early Years" gets you everything pre-Flood.

2002's "They Got Lost" fills in the blanks for the other stuff later, and is a must have for "Certain People I Could Name", "Reprehensible" (the later B-Side of "Boss Of Me"), "Rat Patrol", "Words Are Like" & "On The Drag".

You'll also want to look into the live album "Severe Tire Damage" for the studio version of "Doctor Worm" (the single used to promote it) and the live faster versions of "Why Does The Sun Shine?" (played at every TMBG show ever since) & "First Kiss".

Look, just go out & buy the whole bloody lot. You know you want to.

Fucking hell, that saved me a lot of effort replying.

John Henry is my absolute favourite TMBG album but I'd recommend Apollo 18 as the logical follow-up to Flood and Nanobots out of their more recent albums.