"A thousand violins..."

What are some of your favorite, forgotten albums that have stood the test of time?
Submitted by PeterGibbons.

The interesting part about this question is the word "forgotten"--does it mean forgotten by me, or forgotten in general? I think I'll interpret it as underappreciated albums that I really love, albums that could be underappreciated in a context as broad as the overall genre or as narrow as within the scope of the artist's own recordings.

Here's a short list just from glancing at my iTunes library:

• Black Sheep, A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
• Bryan Ferry, Bête Noire
• Manic Street Preachers, Gold Against the Soul (see this post)

The Glasgow School

But so really, my biggest forgotten favorite must be Orange Juice [1], the late 70s/early 80s pop band from Scotland featuring Edwyn Collins (later of "A Girl Like You" mini-fame), so forgotten that their albums are pretty impossible to find. [2]

With Orange Juice, it's all about the context: imagine angry bands like the Sex Pistols riling everyone up, and fighting with them & spitting on them, and just being generally unpleasant; and then imagine a group of fey popsters playing jangly guitar indie pop, dressing all camp, and getting all sorts of shit thrown at them during their performances by aggressive punks. That was the story of Orange Juice.

But it's not the whole story, because that's just all too sad & pathetic, and Orange Juice are anything but. They were funny in their misery, took pleasure in their sadness, and sang bouncy pop gems about, well, mainly, being lovesick. But, and here's the important part: they realized the ridiculousness of it all, and so spent half the time feeling sorry for themselves, and the other half making fun of themselves for it.

Take the canonical example, "Consolation Prize," sung by a narrator stuck on a girl with terrible taste in men--she prefers men who belittle her, who "crumple up [her] face a thousand times", &c. And then meanwhile we've got your narrator, who listens to her tales of woe about her various beaus, and who knows he's better than all of them, so he does everything he can to impress her--dressing up all camp, wearing his hair in an oh-so-stylish fringe ("like Roger McGuinn")--and all he can do is make her laugh. He's the funny friend that she turns to when she's down about her love prospects, but it's oh so sad, because he's got a thing for her.

And all the while, he knows how ridiculous he must seem:

I wore my fringe like Roger McGuinn's;
I wore it hoping to impress.
So frightfully camp, it made you laugh--
Tomorrow I'll buy myself a dress.
How ludicrous!

And Edwyn sings, "I'll be your consolation prize--although, I know...", and there's this pause of a second or two, and then the song builds for about thirty seconds to the rousing (well, as rousing as Orange Juice ever get) repeated outro, "I'll never be man enough for you." And there it is: it's simple & it's funny & it's sad & it's just wonderful.

Listen to "Consolation Prize".

[1] I've written about Orange Juice before.

[2] Orange Juice's original albums are very hard to come by. Every time I'm at a record store, I drift towards the O section, looking in hope to find Orange Juice albums--"maybe they've been rereleased," I think. I'm always wrong. That said, The Glasgow School is a fantastic collection of early singles & their first album, Ostrich Churchyard.