Your favorite "lost albums"?
 

So I finally got my hands on a copy of LA Symphony's never released Call It What You Want CD. It was never released - I think it had something to do with the sale of the record label. Luckily, some advanced copies were sent out before the acquisition. Anyway, while the CD they released last year isn't bad by any means, this album is much much better. I love it.

I've also heard Q-Tip's Kamaal the Abstract, which is nothing at all like Amplified. I could definitely see how that would alienate the fans of his jiggy (does anyone use that term anymore?), post-Tribe stuff. It's pretty different.

I also bought Large Professor's okay 1st Class from HipHopSite.com solely because they bundled it with his never released 1996 album (which he finally obtained the rights to). And that thing bumps. He was on the top of his game back then.

A thread on "lost albums" wouldn't be complete without a mention of Smile by the Beach Boys. I've never heard it, but I'm a huge Pet Sounds fan and am really curious. I know Brian Wilson performed it live recently.

I don't think Big Star's "Third" has ever had a definitive release, and it's a classic.

It's my favorite album. :)

Wasn't the 1978 release on Ardent the 'definitive' release? I know that since then there have been a few DC releases with extra tracks (I own most of them), but that original one remains my favorite and I always assumed it was definitive. Even if it's not, it's the one I fell in love with.

Splashdown's Blueshift.

What counts as a lost album? Something that was completed and then never released?

DJ Dangermouse's "The Grey Album."

That pretty much sums it up for me. I wasn't really meaning albums that are OOP or something like that.

Hmm, that's what I thought. I can't really recall any complete records that weren't released by artists I listen to.

Nine Inch Nails Broken long form video. I wish that was released commercially, if only so I would have a better source.

Brian Eno's "My Squelchy Life". Was only released as a promotional cassette before he decided to pull it. I snagged a very clean copy a while back :) A lot of it wound up on "Nerve Net" but not all of it and I think those were different versions.

Did Prince's "Black Album" ever get officially released?

-Gunshy

Dr. Dre & Ice Cube - Helter Skelter &
Yes - Commonly known as the Paris Sessions. (I don't think all the songs were available on the Re-releases)

Yep. 1994. A few months after I spent $40 on a bootleg. It was released in his rush to fulfil his Warners contract so he could get the hell out of there.

How about Powerman 5000 - Anyone for Doomsday?

dandy warhols 'black album' (they've self released this themselves)

black thought (the roots) solo that was shelved...anybody know what the working title of this was?

http://www.thebrpage.net/images/song...o/front_sm.jpg

Bad Religion - Into The Unknown

A great album that has been disowned by the band...well it is more of Mr. Brett disowning it.

Yet, it was released. Vinyl counts too.

Sworn Vengeance- "The Outstretched Arms of Damnation"

never officially released because the band broke up. one of the members of the band a while ago put it up for download on a temporary site, roughly mixed.

The Smashing Pumpkins - Machina II (rejected by Virgin Records; released on the web)

Big Audio Dynamite - Entering A New Ride (rejected by Radioactive Records; released on the web)

Elysian Fields - "The lost Steve Albini Album" - never released due to a wibble with the label...

Who is this? Is Albini in the band or did he produce it?

I totally agree with the Machina II (Friends and Enemies of Modern Music) mention. That was a hell of an album


-Paul Jacobi-

I'm not sure about the 1978 release. That was supposedley done without Alex Chilton's input or consent just as Ardent was being dissolved by Stax (or so the story goes). The 1992 Rykodisc release is supposed to be the "definitive" release and includes all the tracks that were recorded from those sessions.

Anyway, my favorite lost album would have to be "Wish You Were Here" by Badfinger. The album was released in 1974 by Warner Bros. and was selling well. But when Warner Bros. found that the band's escrow account had been raided, it pulled the album because the financial arm of Warners was seeking to recoup the money by attaching the record sales. Turns out the band's manager, Stan Polly, had been ripping off the the band all along. Shortley after Pete Ham committed suicide.

The only problem with this theory (that the Rykodisk is definitive) is that there's too much music to fit on a LP circa 1975-77. It would have either have to have been a double album or some of the tracks would have to be cut.

In the end it doesn't matter that much to me. I love all the songs on all the releases, but the Ardent release is closest to my heart, both because it's the one I fell in love with, and it's the one with my preferred track order. I cannot imagine the album not starting out with "Stroke It, Noel", and not ending with "Thank You Friends". But the thing is, anymore I can't imagine the album without the cover of "Til the End of the Day" and "Dream Lover", so it's six of one, etc.

It sounds just like "Tonight the Stars Revolt", but that shouldn't imply that it doesn't rock. "Danger is Go" and "Bombshell" are both great songs.

Sorry for the delay in my response...

Albini produced it.

The first thing I thought when I read the title was The Beach Boys' Smile. I've got a CD that reconstructs as best as possible, through studio notes, what Brian Wilson wanted. Even in its unfinished form, it is an amazing CD and would have been considered the masterpiece of 1960's art rock (so long, Sgt. Pepper), had Wilson actually been well enough to finish it.