30 Underrated Albums From The Last 30 Years | Part 1

I’m turning 30 this year, which means very little.

I’m teaching a class on the rhetoric of nostalgia this fall, and I’ve been wondering if all this writing is inherently plagued by nostalgia. Things move very fast, and looking back forces us to slow down, at least a little bit. How do we abolish the insistent march of linear time and forgetting?

I thought it might be fun to find an album for each year I’ve been alive and give it some love. There are old stalwarts and gems I’d misplaced.

These will come ten at a time, in three parts, until my birthday. Hope you got me something nice.

1995 - Time by Fleetwood Mac

Once voted the 10th worst album of all time and so routinely dismissed from the Mac’s canon that you probably never heard it. Stevie and Lindsay aren’t on the record, replaced by Dave Mason, Billy Burnette, and Bekka Bramlett. To ask if it even counts a Fleetwood Mac record is to forget the Peter Green era. The star of this show is Christine McVie, who didn’t get along with Dave Mason, even if his licks get along with her lyrics. “Nights in Estoril” and “I Do” are excellent earworms. I think the reason this iteration didn’t land for most Fleetwood Fans wasn’t just because of the lineup changes, but because by the time the 90s rolled around, this soft rock sound wasn’t vintage, it was just dated. The seven-minute spoken word monologue from drummer Mick Fleetwood sucks, of course, but the rest of the album is an enjoyable ride. Enough time has passed that Time now rocks with a retro throwback flair one can appreciate. A reminder that even Fleetwood Mac’s worst work would be the high-water mark for most other bands.

1996 - Chaos and Disorder by Prince

Prince always said that he never let the labels get his best stuff, and we still aren’t all sure what’s hidden in those Paisley Park vaults, if he was talking shit as he was wont to do. He famously dismissed this record as just an obligation to end the contract he was bound to at the time. Of course, The Purple One still put out something better than most of his contemporaries could hope for. He’s got spitfire anger and guitar licks aplenty. I’m touched too by his dedication to Minneapolis and local rapper Scrap D who pulls out a hard as hell verse on the appropriately campy “I Rock, Therefore I Am”. Label disputes and obligations couldn’t stop Prince from being true to his word: “Right or wrong I sing my song the best I can.”

1997 - Imaginary Day by Pat Metheny Group

Most PMG records feel rooted to reality, even when idyllic, fanciful, or nostalgic. Imaginary Day, like its title suggests, moves into more surreal soundscapes. Many songs could fit neatly on a space opera’s score. PMG always worked with synthetic sounds, and still this 90s experimental era broke new ground for them. There is a cybernetic whimsy to centerpiece “Roots of Coincidence”, that rightly won the group a Grammy for instrumental rock performance. Despite its contemporary acclaim, I don’t think the record is held in as high esteem as the band’s early work, though it deserves your revisitation.

1998 - The Infinite Desire by Al di Meola

Remix culture permeated every genre in the gay 90s, and even guitar god Al Di Meola was not immune to a little experimentation. He remixed his titanic “Race With Devil on Spanish Highway” with the help of Steve Vai into “Race With Devil on Turkish Highway”, which may not achieve the same effect as the original, but is an entertaining reimagining. Drum loops track a number of songs, and there are interpolations of some trendy hip-hop sensibilities. There are misfires and dead ends. The vocal version of the title track that comes as a closing reprise is hard not to snicker at, but the instrumentals across the board are layered and energetic. Herbie Hancock himself appears on the lush “Istanbul” which I can only hope made the self-assured Di Meola Maestro geek out at least a little bit.

1999 - Bury The Hatchet by the Cranberries

The Cranberries’ first two acts were hard to follow. This record does not carry any billion-streamed single, though its promotionals get some retrospective due. Bury The Hatchet wields all the elements of their previous successes with more frenetic energy and arguably less grace. Dolores’ often aggrieved delivery has a powerful uncertainty to it, like she knows these are the right words, but isn’t sure she has the right ears bent toward her. They’d make one more record before disappointments led to a temporary disbanding, but the desperation is already palpable here. The dance of profitable rock-stardom, the paranoia of popularity had set in and driven Dolores to pen punches like “Copycat” and “Loud and Clear”. It’s a knockout record that lives unfairly in the shadows of its predecessors.

 [Not on streaming because of label disputes lol.]

2000 – Self-Entitled by Ghostkid

The precursor to their smash hit major-label debut and eventual immolation, Self-Entitled is the definitive Ghostkid record to me. This is a band on the edge of eternity, howling at an indifferent moon, certain their screams will leave craters. Hannah Moon’s voice is unrestrained and confident in a way future solo releases simply couldn’t recapture. Jake Jones never wrote a better riff than the one on “ThunderPerfectMind”, and he wrote some really fucking good riffs. If their long-lost 2005 opus Songs for Suicidals ever saw release and if it was half as good as Self-Entitled, Ghostkid would be a household name.

2001 - Strange Little Girls by Tori Amos

Here’s a strange little record. Tori Amos covers 12 songs originally written and performed by men. She reinterprets them mostly as thrumming, down-tempo piano ballads, though Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” becomes a ripping guitar groove. A number of winking lyrical changes sneak in; her version of Slayer’s “Raining Blood” personifies Death with a she pronoun. Occasionally when performing the cover live “she” becomes “I”. You don’t need to love or even know the originals well or at all to rock on this oddball album. Amos often treats her audiences to her quirky covers live, or as bonus tracks, and it’s a blessing to have a whole body curated here.

2002 - Live at The Caravan of Dreams by Monte Montgomery

I’ll be honest, I don’t listen to Monte Montgomery’s studio albums. He’s a live performer first and foremost. Live at the Caravan of Dreams is a feature length showcase, and while some of the longest jams dissemble and fall apart past the ten-minute-mark, the deft and dynamic guitar solos lock me in. Bassist Chris Maresh and drummer Phil Bass keep up and keep things on task most of the time; listen to the bass run in opener “1^st & Repair” or the drum solo in “Wishing Well” for a reminder why the rhythm section is what makes or break most rock bands. This album spans much of Montgomery’s best work, perhaps to a fault, it’s not as tight as 2005’s near perfect At Workplay (which clocks in at exactly half the time as Caravan), but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who can make an acoustic guitar sing like he does.

2003 - Poodle Hat by Weird Al Yankovic

Falling in between two of Yankovic’s most successful albums--1999’s Running with Scissors and 2006’s Straight out of Lynwood--2003’s Poodle Hat was a commercial and critical low point, which sucks because it features one of his best original songs: “Hardware Store.” That manic episode alone should sell the record, but there are still some gold-standard parodies too; Backstreet Boys, Avril Lavigne, Billy Joel, and Eminem all get the honor of Al’s impish mockery. The style parody of Frank Zappa “Genius in France” actually goes hard. “Bob” is a Dylan-style pastiche composed entirely of palindromes and delivered with that signature Yankovic panache, a linguistic and lyrical feat no one else would bother attempting. You’ve probably seen his clever palindromes stolen and turned into viral tweets in tumblr posts a decade and a half after the fact. “go hang a salami I’m a lasagna hog”? That’s Al. Weird Al is Eternal, Essential, and Everywhere.

2004 - Siren Song of the Counter Culture by Rise Against

This record is best remembered for setlist staples “Give It All” and “Swing Life Away”, but if you ask me those aren’t even in the album’s top five. “Paper Wings”, “State of the Union”, “Dancing For Rain”, “Rumors of My Demise…” and “Blood to Bleed” all outrank. You should read the contemporary Pitchfork review if you want a good laugh. They’re brutal, and not entirely incorrect about Rise Against’s sometimes tiresome shitlib posturing. I do, however, think even when he’s nearsighted or glib, Tim McIlrath remains sincere, and that rings true on this record too.

2005 - Between the Heart and the Synapse by The Receiving End of Sirens

For people who love the ranging epics of The Dear Hunter and tablature factories like Coheed & Cambria, The Receiving End of Sirens are essential. TREOS genuflected at the station of the Beach Boys as often as they paid homage to the thrashing rhythms of 90s hardcore. And yes that is Circa Survive’s Anthony Green caterwauling on tracks 10 and 13. This was the record the star-studded supergroup assembled under Fueled by Ramen’s Forgive Durden attempted to ape with 2008’s misbegotten Razia’s Shadow. You can’t tell me that making the album-wide refrain “It’s the last night in my body” isn’t at least a little bit trans!

Hope you’re enjoying. There will be another ten in May, and the last batch in June. If you don’t like it, just wait; it’ll pass.