It seems like the days of flipping through vast vinyl, cassette, or CD collections is a thing of the past. And while there’s no denying the convenience of having all your favorite albums on a mobile device, it’s becoming more common for recordings to get lost in the shuffle and/or completely forgotten about.
Author/journalist Greg Prato is willing to provide some assistance, with his 12th book overall, Overlooked/Underappreciated: 354 Recordings That Demand Your Attention. Inside, you will find countless albums that you may have completely forgotten about or perhaps have never even heard of before.
Starting with AC/DC’s Flick of the Switch and wrapping up with Zombi’s Surface to Air, countless styles of music are represented in between – rock n’ roll, hard rock, heavy metal, alternative, new wave, punk, hardcore, grunge, jazz, fusion, psychedelic, prog, folk, blues, funk, soul, rap, spoken word, power pop, big band, glam, experimental, instrumental, soundtracks…the list goes on and on. But the selections stay strong!
Greg Prato is a Long Island, New York-based journalist, whose writing has appearing in Rolling Stone, among other outlets. He is also the author of several acclaimed books, including Grunge is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music, A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other: The Story of Shannon Hoon and Blind Melon, The Eric Carr Story, and MTV Ruled the World: The Early Years of Music Video, among others.
Now available as paperback ($12.99, 256 pages), Kindle ($9.99, 287 pages), and Nook.
($9.99, 256 pages) versions.
114 Responses
But, but, the most underrated, overlooked metal album in history is Fire Down Under by Riot. Alot of this ended up on Powerslave, it was recycled by Maiden.
Personally, as good as Flick Of The Switch is, I think Fly On The Wall is AC/DC’s truly overlooked gem. It’s super heavy and the songs are great (especially the title track), but in every discography I’ve ever seen on the band, it’s always listed as one of their worst, and I couldn’t disagree more. What I can’t understand is that when it first came out, it was regarded as a triumphant return to form (it even won them the Comeback Of The Year award in Circus magazine’s Readers Poll – the February 28 1986 issue if anyone doubts me), but in the years since, everyone apparently changed their minds about it, and as Bill Hicks would say, “Boy, I missed that meeting.” I still think it belongs up there with their very best, like Powerage, If You Want Blood & the Mutt-produced trilogy.
Agreed. Flick, Fly, and Powerage were 3 of their best.
heavens edge is an absolute classic album. check out “play dirty” and “bad reputation” and youll see what i mean. awesome guitarist (reggie); most importantly. sick band live on top of it. out of philly. they should have crushed britny fox and cinderella sales wise; too bad… GO FOR THE THROAT!!
Awesome choice you…bastard? “Find Another Way” is the gem of that album, imo. So melodic, and what a great guitar tapping intro with those harmonics! Keep these great posts coming, people! Bringing back lots of lost gems that I’m going to revisit!
Do you remember Sikk Vikki?
RIOT-Fire Down Under
QUEENSRYCHE-Rage for Order
STRYPER-Soldiers Under Command
SCORPIONS-Intrance or every ULI era Scorpions record for that matter.
KISS-Creatures of the Night, The record that saved Kiss from dinosaur 70 arena rock band to 80s Metal
VINNY VINCENT INVASION- Invasion, The guy that saved Kiss from dinosaur 70 arena rock band.
MERCYFUL FATE-Dont Break the Oath
Forgot about Soldiers Under Command. Musically that was a very heavy and well wrote album. Surrender was a killer track.
Agree with Point Of Entry, and Flick Of The Switch. Never understand why AC/DC doesn’t really play anything from that album, especially over the last 25 years or so. OR Fly On The Wall, for that matter.