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Post by DeepArcher on Apr 30, 2020 22:10:10 GMT
A thread to share the beloved B-sides, deep cuts, or songs that otherwise don't get enough love from the discographies that you know and treasure the most. I promise not all my picks will be The National ... but a lot of them probably will be since there are, well, a lot of them ... and lately I've been listening to the great Alligator era B-side "Driver, Surprise Me" quite a lot. It's no wonder it never made it onto an album ... the lyrics are vague and abstract, and it's a different song from anything else they've done, but that's part of why I like it so much. The way it builds, it makes it feel like one of the most emotionally cathartic songs these guys have produced ... And though it's hard to pinpoint if the song is actually "about" anything (wife troubles maybe? lol), there's something beautiful and evocative about the central lyric(s) ... Driver, never take me home...
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Archie
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Post by Archie on Apr 30, 2020 22:11:18 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2020 22:32:01 GMT
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Post by pacinoyes on Apr 30, 2020 22:37:01 GMT
Good thread idea!
Anyone who follows my music posts knows I love Bob Mould's 80s/90s work - he fronted 2 great bands which almost never happens and Husker Du was a top 10 (higher?) American band, ever.
The 2nd of those bands - Sugar - and their debut "Copper Blue" I think I put at number 3 of the the 90s.......and that was number 3 behind Slanted & Enchanted and The La's so that's serious pacinoyes fanboy stuff.
This song was left off that album, remains somewhat obscure B-side and sounds like a genuine pop explosion this is what "power pop" was always supposed to sound like in theory.
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Apr 30, 2020 23:41:09 GMT
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dazed
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Post by dazed on May 1, 2020 0:10:15 GMT
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Post by Joaquim on May 1, 2020 1:18:19 GMT
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Post by mhynson27 on May 1, 2020 2:18:29 GMT
The whole of Relapse
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Post by pacinoyes on May 1, 2020 9:06:57 GMT
I sometimes talk about bands going through hot streaks but no one ever went through a stranger, and more sustained one with only 1 great proper album than The Stone Roses. From the Sally Cinnamon single (1987) until 1990 they didn't make a false move and all this brilliant work - except "Sally" - is on their first album, and the Turns Into Stone compilation of singles/B-sides. This song - insanely chipper and fake-positive musically while lyrically sardonic perfectly encapsulates this band and their glorious contradictions - they were mean spirited hippies who would go from being really nice to really kicking your teeth in that fast - it's the nature of their appeal really. In this B side they sum up wanting to drown you (her), to their own deaths and wanting to be "where the drownings are!" through a wolf's smile. The little clues in the song "Or is it me? The one that's wrong!?!" make it a genuine outsider anthem in less than 3 minutes....... Mattsby who loves this band .........and should possibly be considered dangerous given what I wrote above.
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Post by pacinoyes on May 1, 2020 16:19:47 GMT
I've posted this song in this version before but never in this context: Dylan released this song in a watered down version as a single but this version - take 1 (!) - the first time he ever sang it with these words sung passionately, romantically to Edie Sedgwick about Andy Warhol (who he practically murders here - "cursing the dead who can't answer him back" ) wasn't released for years and sounds like the Rosetta stone of his whole catalog. When he eventually recorded it "officially" he would get self-conscious and he never got it this right or righteous again. But thank God somebody kept take 1...
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Post by DeepArcher on May 1, 2020 18:23:17 GMT
Yesterday Archie posted the great "Cuttooth" ... Radiohead really have an insane catalogue of B-sides that includes some of the very best songs. I've got another Amnesiac B-side here, the absolutely tremendous "Fog" which honestly flirts with their top ten songs. One of the most beautiful pieces of music they've ever produced, with amazingly poignant lyrics and an overwhelming emotional climax that gets to me every time. Also one of their most cinematic songs, to the point that I can't believe it's never appeared on a movie soundtrack (at least to my knowledge)...
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Post by pacinoyes on May 2, 2020 11:24:37 GMT
Shout out to the big music fans on this board - or at least the ones that post music: Mattsby Viced Archie countjohn Deceit DeepArcher chris3 cheesecake TheAlwaysClassy Lubezki Joaquim - because some days the best part of this board really is the music posts. This is to me - the greatest version of maybe their greatest song so in that way it's underrated - not released in this form until after they broke up (naturally) and is in its "official" version maybe their most famous or representative song overall to the casual fan at least (are there any casual Replacements fans anyway?). "Can't Hardly Wait" existed as far back as 1984 - didn't get officially released until 1987 - and every version of it they ever did was stupendous - electric, acoustic, horns, no horns, live, studio, suicide lyrics or optimistic lyrics......but this version (1985) of the song exceeds every other one for me. The best lyrics, the most throat shredding sung version, with the best guitar ending (that noticeably drowns the singer out) and which plays a word game with the title - and is never sung until the last lines: "Climb on the top of this scummy water tower screaming I can't hardly wait"......then later "I can't wait......... 'til it's........ over which could not ever exist in the life affirming other version. A triumphant song about throwing yourself off a water tower - that doesn't romanticize suicide in anyway and without a chorus at all - you don't know how to feel about it at first - and it's everything that made them special with all the contradictions within the band smashing into each other all at once.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on May 2, 2020 14:46:48 GMT
"Virus" by Björk. This has long been my favorite song of hers and you never see much conversation around it. Thematically this is just a brilliant song--chilling and strangely touching too when paired with the celesta-based instrumental and Björk's gentle performance, resulting in a track that tickles your ears while its themes of parasitic love and innate subconscious predation slowly lodge themselves in your brain.
"Like a virus, patient hunter I'm waiting for you, I'm starving for you"
it's a curiously beautiful thought isn't it.
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Post by DeepArcher on May 2, 2020 15:15:27 GMT
"Virus" by Björk. This has long been my favorite song of hers and you never see much conversation around it. Thematically this is just a brilliant song--chilling and strangely touching too when paired with the celesta-based instrumental and Björk's gentle performance, resulting in a track that tickles your ears while its themes of parasitic love and innate subconscious predation slowly lodge themselves in your brain. "Like a virus, patient hunter I'm waiting for you, I'm starving for you" it's a curiously beautiful thought isn't it. One of my favorites of hers as well, just a lovely song. Good mention!
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Post by Mattsby on May 2, 2020 18:42:55 GMT
Armed Forces song but the demo is from reissues of This Year's Model - studio version dazzles but the simpler acoustic back I think fits the song just as good or better, bc it's a dark (and relevant) song though very wittily written
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Post by themoviesinner on May 2, 2020 18:53:41 GMT
The whole album "Rituals" by Rotting Christ is pretty underrated, as it is generally considered their worst. But I think it is among their strongest. And especially this song, which is a musical adaptation of several verses from Euripides' play "Bacchae" is definitely one of their strongest tracks:
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Post by pacinoyes on May 2, 2020 20:34:00 GMT
Life Is White - Big StarI have talked about this album from my beloved Big Star a lot - "Radio City" - the greatest and darkest power pop album ever made and its significant improvement over their debut #1 Record but this song is almost never talked about - despite being one of the sharpest and most mean-spirited songs Bob Dylan could have written (but didn't). It has the illusion of being an Alex Chilton put down of a girl song - and he has a few great ones - but this imo is actually about former band mate Chris Bell who he links to a girl he's dumping in verse 1 (the "Ann" that bores him). He's literally calling him a bitch (not kidding), and saying "there's nobody to know" as if Bell was never that important anyway (he's kinda right tbh) and that he can't "go back to that now" when Bell is hanging around the studio after quitting. Now I may be wrong but I'd bet that the title is a mocking of Bell's religion (which Chilton found funny) and also of Bell's search for "perfect" (or "white") pop and no one really talks about this song because it gets much more brilliant very soon on this record and because it's really unpleasant (and Bell later died). But Alex Chilton was Big Star imo and for albums 2 (that's this one) and 3 (even better) a very unpleasant genius and this is one of his most brutal knockout punches. Even if it is just about some girl .....but it's totally not.
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Post by DeepArcher on May 2, 2020 22:00:15 GMT
It might not be totally accurate to call any song on this album "underrated" ... but this one doesn't get talked about nearly enough and has become one of my favorite tracks on the entire album.
I just love the emotion that comes through in the way Julian sings these lyrics, and by the last thirty seconds it just becomes exhilarating...
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Post by TheAlwaysClassy on May 2, 2020 22:57:14 GMT
top five Animal Collective for me.
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Post by pacinoyes on May 3, 2020 8:00:42 GMT
Today's song is like yesterday's but for a rival band R.E.M. - Ages of You a song they cut for their first EP (wilder and faster!) and kept playing with but eventually kind of gave up on - releasing it as a B-side from their 3rd full length 3 years later. It also got overshadowed by one of their greatest songs (Murmur's Sitting Still) which borrowed this songs framework musical formula.
The 82-84 REM are still a fave band of mine - I guess they to me are the way some people talk about The Smiths - and this song is how I like to remember them - surprisingly laid back where you notice every instrument - including the vocals - and never seems forced or inorganic which in many ways marred them for me with each release post-1984.
Along with Wolves, Lower, West of the Fields, Don't Go Back To Rockville it's one of the songs that defines them in this period and makes me wish they treated it better too.
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Post by pacinoyes on May 3, 2020 19:13:36 GMT
Spoon - Agony of Laffitte single
Not merely an underrated song but a song that pinpoints exactly when a good band became a great one - you can even locate it in a specific line:
"It's like I knew two of you man The one before and after we shook hands"
Ouch.........that's the exact moment a cool band stopped caring about being cool and burned hot instead. In this one off single that assessment of Ron Laffitte - their label rep who swore he'd support and then bailed on Spoon's major label deal - Britt Daniel sort of summed up the better artist he'd become.
The song also started something Daniel would specialize in - the naming of real people in songs - using full names or clearly identifiable first names - not just Laffitte - who is not named except in the title - but who is "no better than Sylvia" (for Sylvia Rhone - the label head).
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avnermoriarti
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Post by avnermoriarti on May 3, 2020 19:38:46 GMT
In fact, the entire album, which is normally dismissed because she didn't wrote it. This is a commited experiment, I think she fails in a couple of songs ( Heart of Gold ) but when I think of giving new life to existent material, this is my answer
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Post by TheAlwaysClassy on May 4, 2020 13:31:24 GMT
I don't know if this is considered underrated by the general public or not, but I know it was the first song voted off on a Reddit poll for In Rainbows awhile back, and I've always thought it was the best song on the album, so... here ya go.
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Post by DeepArcher on May 4, 2020 14:25:59 GMT
I don't know if this is considered underrated by the general public or not, but I know it was the first song voted off on a Reddit poll for In Rainbows awhile back, and I've always thought it was the best song on the album, so... here ya go. Yeah it's interesting because this song seems to be more popular with more casual Radiohead listeners than it is with diehard fans ... I would say it's one of the weaker among In Rainbows but I think every track on the album is great so that's not saying much ... but still how the fuck does it get voted off before Faust Arp But yeah good choice, a song that definitely deserves more appreciation from the fanbase at least.
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Post by pacinoyes on May 4, 2020 15:58:51 GMT
"Dignified and Old" - The Modern Lovers
How underrated is this song?
Well, it was treated as a non-album track (later restored to the 12 track album version), and it's very representative of the bands entire POV. Plus Jonathan Richman's best joke is often missed within this song (My friends say I deceive myself and I contradict myself............But I can take a challenge...... and so........ I won't die!).
A wise love song to himself and to someone else and - hey kids - to you too. It subversively contradicts the "live fast, die young, have a good looking corpse" myth of Rock - and fnck THAT because dying is you know.......... actually dying and your corpse looks pretty much like all the rest.
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