The Incredible String Band - The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (Is there anything more moving than Mike Heron singing from the point of view of an amoeba? Well, maybe when neil covered it, perhaps).
The Incredible String Band - Wee Tam & The Big Huge
MGMT - Congratulations (Still love this, even though I have little interest in the albums they did before and after. I was baffled by the incredulity it was received with at the time, as it just sounds like wonderful psychedelic pop to me).
The Monkees - The Monkees
The Monkees - More Of The Monkees
The Monkees - Headquarters
The Monkees - Pisces Aquarius Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (So much great stuff on these albums, you can forgive the odd moments of dross. I'd love to hear a remixed version of the debut, as it really sounds like the hired hands were trying to inject a bit of punk attitude here and there, but the mix buries these tendencies somewhat. The arrangements of songs such as 'Take A Giant Step' and 'This Just Doesn't Seem To Be My Day' are still way stranger than you'd expect from Don Kirschner-controlled manufactured pop).
Manuel Göttsching/Ash Ra Tempel - New Age Of Earth
The Beach Boys - Keepin' The Summer Alive
The Beach Boys - The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys - Still Cruisin'
The Beach Boys - Summer In Paradise
The Beach Boys - That's Why God Made The Radio
(Not sure if my critical faculties become weakened when it comes to The Beach Boys, but I find a lot of merit in their supposed 'nadir' albums. 'Keepin' The Summer Alive' may mark the moment when they were at their least relevant, but it does feature the wonderful 'Santa Ana Winds'. Plus songs such as 'Oh Darling' and 'Goin' On', while admittedly a bit tepid by Brian Wilson's song-writing standards, are still pleasant enough and blessed with inventive vocal arrangements. The almost universally hated 'Summer In Paradise' actually got 6/10 from Vox Magazine on its release, and I'm inclined to agree this is a fair rating. It certainly has some cringeworthy moments, and Mike Love's lyrics seem to have been created using a computer programme - how often can one man rhyme 'nice' with 'paradise'? But there are a couple of genuinely good new compositions, notably 'Strange Things Happen' and Bruce's 'Slow Summer Dancing', the arrangements are occasionally nice (Van Dyke Parks plays accordion!) if you can get past the programmed drumming and, most importantly, the vocals are almost universally wonderful. Just check how great the singing is on the otherwise tinny cover of Sly & The Family Stone's 'Hot Fun In The Summertime'. Weird that in an act of damage limitation, they re-recorded some of the tracks for the UK release and actually made them worse. 1985's eponymous album is surely their actual worst album due to Steve Levine's horribly sterile production; even the harmonies sound flat and lacking in the usual warmth. Only Carl's rather wonderful 'Where I Belong' stands out from the horrible 80s digital stew. Funnily enough, I find the more highly regarded 'That's Why God Made The Radio' more disappointing than its predecessors, because there is too much fakery - bits of autotune and other voices filling in for the absentees (i.e. Carl Wilson's wonderful voice and Brian's long-gone falsetto), and it's a shame that only 3 songs were used from a potentially magnificent side-long suite when much of the rest of the material that made the cut is trite bordering on naff).
Elton John - Rock Of The Westies
Elton John - Blue Moves
Elton John - A Single Man
The Style Council - Introducing (dug this out for the full-length version of 'Long Hot Summer', when of the great summer singles, and perfect for the current heatwave).
Amon Düül II - Pyragony X
Amon Düül II - Almost Alive
Klaus Dinger - Néondian (Phallus Dei's Unsung reviews of Klaus Dinger's post-Neu! stuff have really piqued my interest. Really enjoyed this album - miles better than the Neu! 4 sessions from around the same time. Just wish I could find all of them complete on YouTube).
Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse Of Reason (...made me play this album again before I remembered how boring it is).
Fleetwood Mac - Mystery To Me
Flo & Eddie - Moving Targets (Flo & Eddie's quartet of albums from the early 70s are the very definition of Unsung. Absolutely superb songcraft that deserves to be better known - but many might be put off by the cruel streak of humour they occasionally indulged in).
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