Call me a smelly hipster; call me a pretentious non-conformist; call me a snob. I appreciate the underappreciated. I'll freely admit that I have a certain kind of attraction to things outside of the popular sightline; this applies to public policies, movies, people, and the medium at hand, music.
Thankfully though, an album's non-notoriety is not by any means the only factor which determines my enjoyment of it. On several occasions, I've picked up a random CD at a thrift store, given it a listen, and never played it again. But, every once in a while, an unassuming and not particularly successful record will truly become a personal favorite. Not just one song, but an entire studio recording. That doesn't happen often, but through the years I've come across enough of them to make up a short list of my favorite anomalies. And so, I present to my non-existent readers, Joe's Top Five Un-Heard-Of Albums.
(Note: I have excluded from consideration those albums which are not known by the general public, but have a large music-lover fan base. Great albums like 'Grace' by Jeff Buckley fit that mold. The below albums, however, are ones which I would guess only a tiny fraction of music lovers would even have heard of, much less listened to.
Also, these aren't in any ranking order. I'm not good enough at picking favorites for that stuff.)
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1. "Underneath," by David Wilcox
Genre: Singer-Songwriter
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I still remember the day I first heard this album. It was fall, and my Dad had just picked up a bunch of CDs at some sort of sale. I believe it was a Sunday afternoon, and I was helping myself to a piece of apple pie. Dad stuck "Underneath" into our sound system and continued to go about his day. I think I stopped mid-bite when the first seconds of the first track played. An unaccompanied baritone voice cut through the dining room, musing, "I know that compassion is all out of fashion, and anger is all the rage." Soon, a low yet bright acoustic guitar joined the slow dance. That day I had my first taste of David Wilcox's clear, thoughtful lyrics and wistful, sweet instrumentation. Since then, "Underneath" has accompanied me on late-night walks, afternoon study-sessions, and train rides. This album always makes me think of grand, quaint sunsets in the suburbs and moonlit trees in the country. Wilcox plainly observes and describes the beauty and mystery of inner thoughts on this record, thoughts like those in the first track's chorus: "What is it really that's keeping me from living a life that's true? When the worries speak louder than wisdom, it drowns out all the answers I knew." With Wilcox's signature fingerstyle acoustic guitar playing as a guide, "Underneath" makes you really think about greed, love, figuring out one's place in the world, and maturity. Overall, an amazing record.
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2. "Punch," by Punch Brothers
Genre: Alternative Bluegrass
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Don't be scared by the wacky genre name. This album is really quite something. The mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile (of Nickel Creek fame) is a big fan of classical music. As such, he wrote a series of four long-form pieces in a classical style (recurring melodies, dynamics, etc), but written for a bluegrass group. Then he got a group of musicians together who had both the technical ability to perform what he had composed, and the bluegrass background to really feel what he was going for. What came out of this unorthodox combination of sensibilities is, I think, a truly remarkable and enjoyable album. It begins with an introduction song, "Punch", in which the band swings through an uneasy and almost angry-sounding bluegrass rhythm while Thile sings about a woman who's "gonna ride it off to bed" with another man, then claims "I'm not saying.. I'm just sayin'". Then the album enters the first movement of "The Blind Leaving The Blind," which just takes me on a beautiful trip through wheat fields and blue skies as Thile round-about-edly describes the fallout of a divorce. The way this piece so fluidly weaves expert composition into ear-pleasing bluegrass style and instrumentation is mind-boggling. In addition, certain passages of the piece contain blindingly fast banjo or fiddle solos which don't fall prey to the trap of being fast for the sake of being fast; rather they are tastefully composed and mesh perfectly with the piece as a whole. Three standalone songs are placed at the end of the album, each a self-contained and unique short work. The last of which, "It'll Happen," is a favorite of mine; it's gorgeous as it expertly relays feelings of dejected relational frustration. Highly recommend this record to anyone who's into folk as well as composed music.
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3. "Mark Hollis," by Mark Hollis
Genre: Alternative
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I'm not sure what to call this record: Jazz? Experimental? Singer-songwriter? It really captures its own mood and atmosphere. Firstly, the way the instruments sound natural and close makes one wonder if the record was recorded in a living room somewhere, with only a few microphones. But more relevant than the production is the actual performance and composition of the songs. In my eyes, this album exemplifies what it's like to use silence and space as an instrument of its own. Hollis does not simply make really slow, meandering chord progressions and play them lightly on a solo piano. He uses the quietness and space to its full potential. On tracks like "Inside Looking Out," there are actually a number of instruments: upright bass, acoustic piano, acoustic guitars, clarinet, flute, and drums. However, they don't always all play at once. Notably, around the 2:40 mark, an acoustic guitar begins a pattern of silencing itself so that only the pluck of the upright bass rings out for a beat. The whole album is full of fascinating uses of silence, punctuated every so often by pointed clarinets and flutes, and carried along by mellow guitar, piano, and harmonium. In addition, Hollis's voice really is used like another instrument, with careful whispering vibrato and dynamics contributing not necessarily a set-in-stone melody, but more a guiding front to the group. The lyrics (as with Hollis's work with Talk Talk) are mostly abstract, though the last track "New Jerusalem" quite poignantly describes a soldier returning from war, his psyche and outlook on life altered. All in all, this record makes me think of beautifully detailed pencil sketches of nature.
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4. "The Way Up" by Pat Metheny Group
Genre: Progressive Jazz
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At fourteen years old, I thought I knew what I liked about music: jazzy grooves, virtuoso guitar players, and rock music. But listening to this single album, alone with my big headphones on the top bunk in my bedroom, was as if I had lived indoors all my life and just now saw the blue skies. Pat Metheny Group's "The Way Up" is an hour-long epic instrumental composition, filled to the brim with energy, gorgeous chords and melodies, cinematic shifts in mood, recurring themes, and too many instruments to count. It's true that 'jazz' can be viewed as the main genre, but the record explores so much more than what one normally thinks of upon hearing that word. And not only is it a mere mashup of different genres and influences, but critically it utilizes this diversity to create what practically is a movie for the ears. For example: in the first seconds of the second track, we come upon a kalimba (African thumb piano) calmly introducing a theme. Pat's guitar doubles the melody, and drums, keys and bass begin to softly accompany. Then the leads unassumingly state a new idea while interlocking background guitars repeat the theme from the Opening track. Before too long, there is a light and contemplative swing rhythm building up, and the kalimba theme is repeated, this time with a subdued power, echoing what is to come. Really, I could go on for quite some time about all the little details of how the piece moves and communicates ideas. Instead of doing that, though, I will simply say that 'The Way Up' opened my eyes to many things: to the grandeur music can create in long intervals (not just short songs), to the beautiful intricacy that can be formed with repeated themes, to the limitlessness of music (many many different instruments and parts), and to the joy of listening to something over and over and noticing new details and perspectives. In short, "The Way Up" showed me that music can do so much more than I had previously thought. Complexity and technicality do not have to be lifeless and grey; rather, they can be formed into a cohesive flying carpet ride that sends your mind plunging into swirling colors and landscapes unexplored.
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5. "Brother's Keeper," by Rich Mullins
Genre: Christian Alternative
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'Christian music' can be heard on FM radio 24/7 in most of America. Just tune your radio and there you have it, a steady flow of 'music with a message' or whatever tagline your local Christian station is pushing. Having grown up in evangelical Christian culture, I have been exposed to a fair amount of radio-play Christian contemporary music, aka CCM. And I must admit: I dislike most of it. Sure, what the lyrics are saying may be Biblical, or good advice, but it always seemed to be getting increasingly shallow. There's only so many times I can repeat lines like "Holy Spirit, fall fresh on us" before I wonder if there's perhaps something more that Christians can do with this wonderful gift from God called 'music.' Rich Mullins answers that question with a resounding yes. All his work is amazing, but I've picked "Brother's Keeper" because it's one of my favorites (and isn't as well known as his eighties albums, which had a few radio hits). The title track really embodies the album's overall feel. It's a memorable, energetic song which speaks about real-life relationships from a heavenly perspective, while still remaining down-to-earth. "The plumber's got a drip in his spigot, and the mechanic's got a clink in his car," Mullins sings. "..My friends ain't the way I wish they were; they are just the way they are. And I will be my brother's keeper, not the one who judges him; ..I won't take away his freedom, I will help him learn to stand." Remembering that we all have our own 'clinks in our car' and that we should lift up our fellow man rather than judge him are really prescient topics, but I've rarely heard them expressed in Christian radio-play music. Maybe nowadays people just want to think and sing about heaven, not earth. But, importantly, Rich's music isn't just preaching, by no means. It's real artistic expression, it's worship, it's poetry. And I almost forgot to mention: the style of music on the album is a great blend of alternative and folk-rock influences, with just the right touches of jangly electric guitar, tasty organ and accordion, and acoustic rhythm guitar. In sum, this album shows us a Christian writing awesome songs about his struggles, his prayers, and his daily life.
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