Follow-ups to minor classics that were a letdown at the time but turned out to be mostly pretty good 1988-91

btw re title, 3 Feet High & Rising and Daydream Nation are not minor classics

I said that above, Morbs. :)

Goo has some of Kim Gordon's best moments, as well as one of Sonic Youth's best songs in "Kool Thing". The furious guitar mantra at the end of that track is astonishing...

kool thing is not one of sonic youth's best songs...

I would add Lovesexy by Prince to this list.

its good to have you back, Tuomas...

the main thing i fathom from this poll is that one has to be pretty on the ball/presumptuous to call fugazi's bluff on 'steady diet of nothing' way back when it was released.

Many, many folks were pumped about Doolittle from the day it came out. It is also one of my all-time favorite albums, so that.

I own 15 of these and wouldn't mind owning the rest.
The one I play the most though is Beet, so that's my vote.

Good idea for a poll. I'd probably vote "Goo" or "Doolittle"- but I still need to hear "De La Soul is Dead".

Most of those minor classics are kinda major, but def. good poll.

"Green" >>> "Document".

yeah Document kinda blows
don't know about Green though

yeah Document kinda blows

Rong (aside from the mostly-insufferable It's The End Of The World As We Know It).

whats good on it? Finest Worksong? Exhuming McCarthy? Disturbance at the Heron House? (I might have repped for this song in posts past, but I just remembered that I was talking abt Welcome to the Occupation)...flaccid and unappealing, Document is reminiscent of the worst of the 80: Springsteen, U2, and Tracy Chapman...uninspiring ego-inflated rock that meant much less than it meant to mean...

Springsteen is a whole different can of worms. I loved Born In The USA, but that's not the normal Springsteen vibe that resonates with me. My two favorite Springsteen discs are Tunnel Of Love and Nebraska, both of which don't seem ego-inflated (indeed, they seem, alternatively, humbled/tortured and sinister/desperate).

What's good on Document? Welcome To The Occupation; Exhuming McCarthy; Disturbance at the Heron House; The One I Love; Fireplace; and King Of Birds.

I'm with you on U2 and Chapman, tho.

I don't find those REM songs flaccid at all. To the contrary, I think they roar in a way REM never had before or since (aside from some of Life's Rich Pagent, I guess). It's one of the few times I loved a group of REM songs after their "early," Southern-Gothic rock period.

that springsteen remark might be off the mark...the whole idea of addressing huge political issues in pop songs in the 80s struck me as very egotistical...perhaps Peter Gabriel's So is more like it?

I like Occupation, and King of Birds, and the Wire cover (and One I Love)..the rest sounds like draggy flavorless funk-pop to these ears...

I've wanted to hear Green for some time now, though...all I know is 'Stand'

Green is the first REM disc I thought was really bland (or "draggy flavorless"). I still think it had a few winners: World Leader Pretend; Turn You Inside Out; I Remember California; and especially the 11th, untitled song. Still, a fairly uninspired disc (especially considering how good they'd been to that point).

De La Soul is Dead. Better than 3 Feet if you ask me.

not too many albums piss me off more than the cheez whiz feel of oranges and lemons

I just realized how many of these are the groups' "jumping to a major" album-- Sonic Youth, REM, Eleventh Dream Day, Dinosaur Jr. Pixies too, I guess.

Green Mind, Steady Diet, Doolittle, and Goo are the first records I heard by any of these bands so they get a pass in that first-record-you-loved kind of way. None is my favorite by any of the bands but I still love them more than I might had I gotten them as follow ups.

De La Soul and Fishbone were the two that I was eagerly anticipating, and I loved both probably a bit more than their predecessors. Both came out within a couple of weeks of each other and became a big part of the soundtrack to my summer after 11th grade.

i think either de la or cvb.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

THE DE LA SOUL ALBUM!

CBV - Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart

^^^actually the worst CVB record! Terrible engineering work on that one.

Well, it's certainly their worst-engineered record. But I wish I could have a thousand more albums with songs, arrangements, playing, etc. as mind-alteringly good as this.

Had to vote KLP as well, just because on principle I have to vote for CVB whenever they come up. Could have voted for at least 75% of these albums, though, except Steady Diet, which still sounds terrible to me every time I return to it thinking "This is by Fugazi, for fuck's sake, you have to be able to find the good in it.

I cain't.

I've never even listened to Key Lime Pie even thought CBV were one of my favorite band of the 80s because I was so disappointed by the useless missed opportunity "matchstick" cover.
I never noticed an engineering problem on Sweetheart vinyl. It isn't like the two preceding it were Abbey Road or something.

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Fishbone cd was so annoying that when I tried to trade it in and no one would take it, I put it in the closet. Eventually I put it back on the shelf and occasionally recall the 3 good songs mixed in the mess.

the main thing i fathom from this poll is that one has to be pretty on the ball/presumptuous to call fugazi's bluff on 'steady diet of nothing' way back when it was released.

Why's that? Plenty of people grumbled that Repeater was a drop in quality from their first EP. I thought it was great, but I was immediately turned off by how noodly-boring Steady Diet was.

Throwing Muses and Game Theory were good suggestions. I could never stand They Might Be Giants. I thought it was pretty widely agreed that ...And Justice sounded weak, thin and brittle compared to their previous two. It would have helped if they'd let the bass in. Glad to see some EDD love. Lots of disagreement here, which is good, hard to guess what will come out on top!

Doolittle is a truly great record, Goo a good one. Amazingly, I have never heard any of the others, though I understand that people speak highly of And Justice For All.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I could never stand They Might Be Giants.

Haha. I used to love that jittery novelty song, Don't Lets Start. Great video, too.

who are the Woodentops? (does anybody know?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woodentops

I thought that Public Enemy would be on this poll.

lolz was not expecting De La to win this but that's cool

I was. It is.

I didn't realize that 1) Bug is considered a "minor classic" or 2) that people consider Green Mind to be pretty good (outside of "The Wagon", which is still a stone-cold classic.)

I've never even listened to Key Lime Pie even thought CBV were one of my favorite band of the 80s because I was so disappointed by the useless missed opportunity "matchstick" cover.

from the Woodentops' wiki page

Generally well received by critics, the album's sound was characterised by acoustic guitars, but also featured accordion, marimba, strings, and trumpet sounds, showing influences of Suicide.

?!!

Doesn't Paul's Boutique fit this criteria (although it seems more like a late blooming rather than just being let down, I gather).

search the woodentops ep which featured dark and occasionally hyperkinetic percussive stuff. giant was more expansive with kind of a strummy folkpoppy feel at times. i dont remember wooden foot cops at all.

also, ive not heard any woodentops since at least 1990.

If any good comes from this poll, it'll be that someone discovers The Woodentops. I wrote this when I picked up a remaster of their 1986 debut (unknown to some, minor classic to others, stone fucking cold classic for me):

The Woodentops took bits of Suicide, The Talking Heads, XTC, Echo & the Bunnymen and especially the frenetic rhythms of The Feelies, all treated with acoustic folk, twisted with other instrumentation like marimbas, accordian and trumpet. While The Feelies also tackled acoustic guitars on their second album, The Good Earth, The Woodentops still sounded quite different. Their songs had a perfect balance of diverse experimentalism and pop hooks. Morrissey constantly talked them up at the time, which was a brave gesture, considering the strong possibility that Giant more consistently great than The Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead. If it weren’t for Morrissey’s clever lyrics and two untouchable singles from that album, I’d even say Giant crushed it. So why didn’t they become huge? Probably because their magic only lasted through their debut album. They were on Rough Trade, an indie label unable to push a band without help from a string of hit singles like The Smiths had. Columbia did release the album in the U.S., but it didn’t catch on. The 1988 followup, Wooden Foot Cops On The Highway, while actually very good, wasn’t able to measure up to Giant.

“Get It On,” gives a sense of the propulsive energy of much of the album, along with “Love Train,” Hear Me James,” “Shout,” and “Travelling Man.” “Good Thing” is wonderfully original love ballad that made it onto several high school era mix tapes. The album gets better and better, peaking with “Last Time” and “Everything Breaks,” two of their most distinct songs. I desperately don’t want it to end, and the four bonus cuts collected from the Well Well Well EP provides some relief. I also downloaded the out of print singles collection (“Steady Steady” is a heavy dirge about terminal cancer, and one of their most atypical, but powerful songs) and their 1987 live album, Hypno Beat Live (where they play three times as fast! Who needs Slayer?) to extend my buzz.

Turned out they reunited a couple years ago, toured the UK, and are supposedly working on new music.

I got "Giant", never really got into it.

One of those "should have liked them more than I did on paper" things.

I picked it up the cassette while in hs because of a review in Spin or RS and loved it, but had sort of forgotten about it by the end of college, and listened again for the first time while putting together a mix for 20 yr reunion. I feel like I get them more than the first time around.

OK, Fasty, on the strength of your review above (mention the Feelies and I get all hotnbothered) I'm downloading Giant now from eMu.

Neither Fish Nor Flesh owns this thread.

[q] Goo has some of Kim Gordon's best moments, as well as one of Sonic Youth's best songs in "Kool Thing". The furious guitar mantra at the end of that track is astonishing...

― Dan S, Saturday, April 4, 2009 5:19 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

kool thing is not one of sonic youth's best songs...

― jagged-electronically mäandernden underbody (Drugs A. Money), Saturday, April 4, 2009 12:24 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark [q]

Me: Kool Thing is one of Sonic Youth's best songs.

you: Kool Thing is not one of Sonic Youth's best songs.

Probably I'm inviting trouble by even commenting, but I truly love, love, love, these simple assertions of opposing opinions. I don't know why. PS I am old, therefore none of these albums means anything to me in comparison to, say, "White Music," "Soul Mining," oh, never mind (NOT "Nevermind").

Cool poll question; however, one album here sticks out for me and that's Doolittle. I remember the feeling at that time being more along the lines of, "How could they possibly make ANOTHER album this good?" If that album let you down you had some crazy inflated expectations.

Kool Thing might be better than I give it credit, but I usually go under the assumption that in the early 90s the worst SY songs usually got released as singles...clear that b.s. away (along w/ the vox) and Kool Thing actually has a delirial ghoulishness that I find endearing...