Great Bands Where You Prefer a "Lesser" Album

I often find myself taking that position.

For Pink Floyd, all you hear about is Dark Side of the Moon over and over and over. It wouldn't even be in my top 3 Pink Floyd albums. Animals is my favorite. Meddle and Wish You Were Here would also come before t.

For the Rolling Stones, over the years, Exile On Main St. has become the album people love to recognize as their masterpiece. But it doesn't do much for me. Beggars Banquet >.

Oh and my Radiohead take would be The Bends > OK Computer and Kid A

I do this a lot.

Radiohead- I like The Bends better than Ok Computer/Kid A

The Beatles- I like Revolver and White Album better than Sgt. Pepper (Although I guess the "Revolver was better" position has become trendy lately)

The Rolling Stones- I like Sticky Fingers better than Exile. I like Between the Buttons and It's Only Rock and Roll better than a lot of their classic albums

The Kinks- Also prefer Arthur to Village Green Preservation Society

Arcade Fire- Prefer The Suburbs and Reflektor to Funeral

Elvis Costello- Prefer Imperial Bedroom and Get Happy! to My Aim is True

Combat Rock is my favorite Clash album

Television- I like Adventure better than Marquee Moon

The Beatles - I feel like, outside of Abbey Road which is my favorite, I vastly prefer a lot of their older stuff (like Help! or Please Please Me) to their more acclaimed stuff later on. Though I understand their influence and why they're highly regarded. Just felt like the songs were less easy to listen to as a whole and each album only had a couple tracks to enjoy from it (like what the fuck is "Revolution 9" on The White Album??)

The Rolling Stones - Recently went on a kick of their stuff as I realized I'd never listened to a single album of theirs. Was actually largely disappointed in Exile on Main St. and vastly preferred Sticky Fingerz, Some Girls, and Beggars Banquet, probably in that order.

Bob Dylan - Always preferred his softer side than any of his electric stuff. Blood on the Tracks is one of my top 30 favorite albums, and don't think I even cared that much for his Highway 61 Revisited.

The Kinks - I thought for sure I'd love this band when I got around to them, but was pretty disappointed. My favorite, though, far and away was Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One, far ahead of the other two mentioned so far. Would even probably take Face to Face over them.

Lastly, I think all of Lou Reed's solo albums are far superior to anything from The Velvet Underground (maybe not in terms of individual songs, but as cohesive albums). Especially Berlin, which is one of my top 20 albums. Though I do still really love Velvet Underground, particularly their debut album and Loaded.

@ countjohn - Do you consider Arthur twee because for me the whole appeal of that record is how much louder it is than the two prior - you know, Dave Davies guitar comes back on that album much more and each of the songs has a "hard driving" section to it as well. Maybe some individual tracks sound "twee" though - Drivin or something like that.

I also love the 3 prior (including F2F if only for Dandy, Fancy, Sunny Afternoon and Holiday in Waikiki) and Lola as well but Arthur to me seems distinct like a ballsier album both musically and lyrically too in its more overt defiance (and also in how Ray assumes different voices to sing through like it's like an acting performance vocally). I guess that a lot of the music that is on the Kink Kronikles in some ways eclipses the actual studio albums themselves from the 66-70 era but Arthur stands apart even from that compilation for me.

I would still say it's generally twee even if it is more rock oriented than the prior two. I'm not using it as a criticism, I love stuff like that, but some people might find late 60's Kinks a bit facile for that reason. Stuff like Yes Sir, No Sir, Drivin', Shangri-La, Mr Churchill Says, She's Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina, and nothing to say I would consider twee. "Campy" might be a better word to describe the feel of those later albums, although these days people use that word in a universally negative context. There's a smirking, mock-seriousness to them. Personally, Arthur is my favorite because it's the most musically and lyrically cohesive, and Shangri-La is my favorite Kinks song and one of my favorite songs in general. 

It's funny because I actually have grown out long ago from hard-driving rock as you say. I think if I listened to the Kinks in high school, I would've loved them. But now most of my tastes are a lot more of the latter you say. Which is why I thought for sure I'd love them. But while their influence is felt quite a lot these days, I just couldn't get into them (outside of one album as I mentioned).

Exactly. Hence why I prefer Lou Reed's Berlin, and even Coney Island Baby, to Transformer. The latter has some great individual songs, like "Satellite of Love" and "Walk on the Wild Side," but stuff like "Andy's Chest" is too nonsensical for me. White Light/White Heat was actually my least favorite album of VU's, but "Here She Comes Now" is one of my favorite VU songs. So yeah, I'm clearly in that dream-pop camp. But I do still find their noise rock to be pretty cool if I'm in the mood. So they're just kind of a finicky band for me.

So good.