Albums you think got unfairly treated upon release

Under Wraps, the much-maligned and quintessentially of its time Jethro Tull album.  When I put it on I am still blown away by a number of the tracks, think the rest are mostly solid, and that there are only one or two clunkers (which is much lower than for any Tull album after A Passion Play).  I still maintain that were this record made with Barrie Barlow, it would be seen alongside 90125 as a way for prog to embrace the innovations of the 80s while still serving the heart of the genre.

Any and all brickbats accepted of course, I know i utter sacriledge 

1. There were many, and probably the first one was YES and TFTO, when the tour was announced it was fine but 2 weeks later, many magazines did not like the new thing, and put it down. When a few weeks later I got to see them at the Long Beach Arena, it was a magnificent show, but already you were seeing the signs of the press all over it ... the audience was VERY appreciative of the show, and they took a break after TFTO and then came back to do CTTE that got a massive reaction ... and then one more encore got a massive reaction from Roundabout. The "press" had won, and immediately the LATimes said that the audience was more able to show the band what their good material was ... in other words the trashing continued.

2. When TLLDOB was released, the album had not gotten to the station yet, and my roomie, the Space Pirate, had gotten a copy of it, and when he went on the air that Friday Night, he did not say anything, and put the album on and he played both albums, non-stop and in its entirety. The saddest thing happened ... at the station the folks didn't know what to play ... there was no "hit" listed and the press did not help and was disappointed because there wasn't an important single on the album!

3. PF's DSOTM did not get a lot of reviews, but one famous one specifically said that it was fat, and over done, and pretentious. A month later the tour started in the USA and the band went GAZILLION, and a lot of these folks that trashed it had to change their tune. But everyone already knew they were Kiss, BS and Crapper fans anyway .... and should not have reviewed PF.

A few more disappointments was reading about DT and one album, that was different, but still DT ... Six Degrees ... that many did not like, and I was fine with it, though at the time the band was new to me. By this time, album reviews, did not dominate the market like they had 30 years earlier so a band could be more independent and not have to suffer bad moments and consequences at the mouth of an idiot. I, honestly, think that the band's fans, were not happy and were still thinking about the previous guy and what he helped put together. It was not too different of a band, but the previous albums (for me) were over rated by the fans compared to some of the things they did later.

Nowadays, it's almost like ... no one even knows or cares if there is a new album and the news releases are almost invisible and the only excitement you see is three or four posts on PA glad to see it coming ... and the rest ... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz .... which is kinda sad in my book ... any artist deserves the credit for their work, but when it is not something you like, or prefer (!!!!) all of a sudden the album is merde unpopulaire.

I kinda wish there was an unwritten rule that albums can not be reviewed until they are 3 months old so some folks have a chance to review them ... but my widest and largest complaint is some folks reviewing an album and it is fairly obvious that they don't have it and did not listen to it, but just "needled" a few moments off the Tube or somewhere else ... and honestly ... I don't think that person should be reviewing anything and should go back and post comments on his favorites, instead.

I think initially CTTE sold better than the two before it but then maybe because it didn't get as much radio play as the songs in the albums before it it became less popular throughout the rest of the decade. I'm not really sure. Also, it's just this one guy's opinion based on his one store so maybe it's not really representative in general. I think over all it has sold more than TYA but less than Fragile. These days it seems to be their highest rated albubm and most talked about but if that translates to signicant sales I have no idea. People don't seem to buy albums much more these days anyway so even if a lot of younger people are discovering it(including the 6 million views on youtube)then they are probably just streaming it or watching it on youtube.

I saw the CTTE tour (22 September, 1972) without having heard the LP first, I'm not even sure it was being sold at the time....I went expecting to hear "America," which was a huge AM radio hit in Chicago!  However, they didn't play it.  I went away hugely impressed. 

"Circus" magazine consistently gave CTTE their highest score, in hearts (five hearts), and they quite raved about it.   However, as pointed out, many rags (i.e. Rolling Stone) didn't like it.  

Ok, how about tales from topographic oceans then?

Hi,

By 1972, in Southern California, AM was no longer the big seller. FM radio, specially in LA with the 2 famous and really big stations was helping sell massive numbers of albums ... there once was an article that said that in 3 months, Tower in the Strip sold something like a quarter of a million YES albums ... and that would have been on account of FM radio ... not AM, which was fast losing its touch. The big "names" were no longer anyone in AM radio, other than (maybe) Wolfman Jack. It is possible that a portion of those album sales were Fragile and the Yes Album, but I imagine that CTTE was a very wide margin.

Solling Rtone, already, was not the magazine that would matter and was NOT at the fore front of the new music ... by this time it was about the established stars ... and they were the grunts that posted that review of TD and washing machines. Were I in Brazil, I would have used that paper for TP!

richardh wrote: ... Pink Floyd - Animals prog fans rightly recognise this as a masterpiece but again the critics just were not having it. ...