Albums that were shockingly impressive

[strong4PMB!]

What are some albums that you bought that ended up greatly surpassing your expectations?  Which have been shockingly impressive?

A few that come to mind for me are:


Gloria Estefan - "Gloria!"
Disco album, cheep cover, bad reviews, 1c on Ebay.  I knew it had to be a dud, but I bought it cuz I was buying a lot of albums from the same seller.  But wow!  Every track is incredible.  I can listen to it all the way through without ever being able to skip (or look in the mirror, to save myself from self-embarrassment).  It's not a very diverse album at all (all disco, except the Wyclef Jean duet), but it's perfect!  Well, save for the remixes stuck on at the end.  Her salsa is caliente! :)


La India - "Latin Songbird: Mi Alma Y Corazon"
OK, so I liked "Seduceme."  I expected the rest of the album to be really boring.  Wrong-O!  Excellent, excellent album.  Not enough to make me cite salsa as one of my favorite genres of music, but it definitely placed her on my list of favorite artists.  Viva La India!


Selena - "Ven Conmigo"
I never had any interest in buying this album until someone on these boards recommended it.  I didn't like the cover.  Selena with short hair?!  It's gotta suck.  Nope.  It could actually be Selena's best album!  Wow.  And she hardly knew any Spanish when she recorded it.  Shocking.


TLC - "Crazysexycool"
I was hesitant to buy it.  It was on my half.com wishlist, but I never pushed myself to get it.  The singles were great, but wouldn't the rest suck major arse?  Wouldn't they all sound the same?  All typical filler material inbetween the singles?  No.  Every track is fiya!  I mean, who doesn't love a good toilet interlude between hot beats and hot (uncredited lead singer) vocals?  (silence)  That's what I thought!  (Sit down, sit down!  You be hatin'!)


Toni Braxton - "Secrets"
OK, so I knew the singles.  But the rest of the album would be dead boring, right?  No way!  (Well, maybe it is boring.  But still...)  Incredible, incredible album.  Glad I bought it for a few bucks on half.com!  If only I could have gotten "More Than A Woman" for the price of this one, and this one for the price of "More Than A Woman."    Ouch.


Jill Scott - "Words & Sounds Vol. 1"
"You bought Jill Scott's album?!  Isn't it really boring?!" -Me, laughing my arse off at my sister.  Little did I know, one borrowing of the CD and a few plays later, I was addicted!  I even started to find Jill SEXY!  Now I love every single track off the album and I'm a huge fan!  Can't wait for the second studio album.  Nu Jill!


Mariah Carey - "Charmbracelet"
Just kidding.

[Jaffas85]

lol @ "Charmbracelet".

To this day I still heavily regret having spent money on "Charmbracelet".

I should have bought her debut album instead.....back when she used to sing.

[Pet Shop Boy]

Wilson Phillips 'Shadows & Light'. Considering they were critically panned, i expected a bland and uneven album. However, I loved pretty much every track and it turned me into a HUGE fan. I now have all 3 of their albums, and have ordered Chynna's solo album and the WIlson's album as well.

[allow that]

blink 182 - blink 182

I always liked blink, but was never really into any of their albums. (I have the two predecessors too but never got into them in a major way). Anyway, I bought this because I liked "Feeling This" and heard "I Miss You" and "Down" early, and liked them both too. BUt based on their other albums, I was just expecting a fun, filler album or something. But this became my favorite album of 2003, and really every song on the album gets an A grade from me, which I definitely wouldn't have expected.

[jimmy74747]

Ashlee Simpson "Autobiography" - I liked "Pieces" and expected a Hilary Duff type album of a couple strong songs with the rest being filer. Pretty much every song on this album is very good. Her voice fits the material. This album has the potential to go five or six singles deep.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Avril's 'Let Go'. I didn't really expect anything out of that. Thought it was solely a singles album but low and behold, it was an album of better album tracks!

[chebingeo]

O-Town - O2
Gina G - Fresh
Avril Lavigne - Let Go

[myday2005]

Avril Lavigne-Let go

[Jaffas85]

Alicia Keys - DOAK

When I first bought it I only liked 2 or 3 tracks because I wasn't used to this new "70's style" but now it's really grown on me and it's one of my favourite albums.

Hopefully it wins lots of Grammys.

[George Tropicana]

The Corrs, "Talk On Corners" - Bought it on a whim from BMG Music Club. Loved it. The lyrics and melodies wove together nicely. Now I'm a big fan.

Cyndi Thomson, "My World" - I liked her first two singles a lot. I didn't expect her whole album to be as consistently strong.

Delta Goodrem, "Innocent Eyes"

[Brethren]

Avril Lavigne's Let Go. Amazing album, and the sad thing, the top three best album tracks never see the light of day as a single (Naked, Tomorrow and Anything But Ordinary).

The incredible legs of the album's chart life showed how much positive word-of-mouth the album enjoyed.

[pito]

Nina Sky "Nina Sky"
I fell in love with "Move Ya Body". So I went out to buy the single and bought the album instead. Truly a great album. Stand-out tracks "Surely Missed", "You Deserve", "Runaway"

Kanye West "The College Dropout"
I just felt like buying an album and I knew I didn't wanna get Lloyd Banks and I already had Brandy, so I bought this one. The best rap album I own. Stand-Out tracks "We Don't Care", "Breathe In, Breathe Out", "All Falls Down"

Kelis "Tasty"
I loved Milkshake so I bought the album. Stand-Out tracks "Millionaire", "Stick Up", "Marathon"

Shakira "Laundry Service"
This album was so good, I bought it twice. My first got all scratched up. Stand-out tracks "Ready For The Good Times" "Fool" "Eyes Like Yours"

Honorable Mention: Avril Lavigne "Under My Skin" Anastacia "Freak Of Nature" Franz Ferdinand "Franz Ferdinand"

[Edf85]

TLC - "3D"
Even after the death of Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes, TLC came back with a platinum album featuring A-list producers: Neptunes, Rodney Jerkins, Missy Elliott, Dallas Austin, Organized Noise (producers of "Waterfalls"), Raphael Saadiq, Babyface. It is no doubt TLC still had the heat with the release of the first single "Girl Talk" with Left Eye spitting the rap like fire. Just like Chilli, "I can listen to this album from beginning to end"

:)

[MusicMan88]

Definitely agree on Autobiography and Let Go.

My two choices are Natalie Imbruglia's albums. You'd think with a single such as Torn that the rest of the album would be a bunch of fillers. But it's the complete opposties. The other LOTM tracks are just as good, if not better in some cases, than Torn. It's an extremely solid debut album from such a young star.

White Lilies Island followed the same suit. After LOTM, it was obvious that everyone would compare WLI to it. They are totally different albums, however. And if you really took the time to listen to WLI, you'd see that it is a much stronger effort, musically and lyrically.

[j]

1. Well, nowadays I usually preview an album first so it's hard to be shocked at the quality of the album after I buy it. The last time it happened was with a Tonic album when I was on a BMG Music Club buying spree. :)

2. I disagree with a lot of the choices above. "Secrets", "3D", "CrazySexyCool", "Left Of The Middle", "Blink-182" all contain a lot of filler. I disagree with "Let Go" and "Talk On Corners" because the quality wasn't a shock.

3. If you really enjoyed an album that much, would you seek out older albums by the same artist?

[Mega248]

Jimmy Eat World- Jimmy Eat World: there isn't one song on there that I don't love. It's a perfect mix of loud and soft, fast and slow. One of the few albums I can listen to all the way through without getting the slightest bit bored.

Fountains of Wayne- Welcome Interstate Managers: I loved "Stacy's Mom" and "Mexican Wine", so I decided to pick up the album. I couldn't believe how well-done the rest of the album was. With the exception of the first few songs, no two songs on the album sound very similar to each other. This, as well as the Jimmy Eat World album, includes a little of everything and I love albums like that. They're so much more interesting to listen to.

[thedualityofman]

Yes, BLEED AMERICAN from Jimmy Eat World is a great cd, and greater than what I expected it to be.

I'm still irritated that they made it self titled when they already have a self titled album.

I consider myself lucky as far as picking it up while it was still known as Bleed American and retailers were selling it as such.

I was also pleasantly surprised at how much ass Clarity kicks.  I'd say between Clarity and Bleed American, Clarity is the better cd.

[GoWVUGo]

jimmy74747 said:

Ashlee Simpson "Autobiography" - I liked "Pieces" and expected a Hilary Duff type album of a couple strong songs with the rest being filer.  Pretty much every song on this album is very good.  Her voice fits the material.  This album has the potential to go five or six singles deep.

Ditto + Ludacris' "Word of Mouf"

[Miguelín]

Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind
Live - Throwing Cooper
Counting Crows - August And Everything After
...
...
and far form these three:
Creed - Weathered
Splender - Halfway down the sky
Live - The Distance to here
Staind - Break the cycle

[thedualityofman]

I didn't really have any impressions on these before I bought them, but they blew my mind.

At the Drive In - Relationship Of Command
Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
...Trail Of Dead - Source Tags and Codes
Something For Kate - Echolalia
Hope Of the States - The Lost Riots
Metric - Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?
Pretty Girls Make Graves - The New Romance
Hot Hot Heat - Make Up the Breakdown
Cooper Temple Clause - See This Through and Leave
Grandaddy - Sumday
Abandoned Pools - Humanistic
Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3
Idlewild - The Remote Part

[Miguelín]

The said:

Idlewild - The Remote Part

Great!!!

[MysterVegas]

All of these albums punched me in the jaw with a right hook I didn't see coming.

[Gorminako]

Blue: all 3 CD's - The fact that practically every song from this boy band is so good.

Tori Amos: Scarlett's Walk - Never a Tori Amos fan, I was amazed that it had so many really good songs.

Seal's latest - Very nice all the way through, its 4 best songs have not yet been released.

[myday2005]

JOJO

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Oh! Melissa McClelland's CD. I bought it because she looked like Sarah Slean and thought the CD might be good. Boy, was I wrong! It wasn't just good, it's my favourite CD of the year!!

[thedualityofman]

Judging from how Leaving New York sounds, R.E.M.'s new cd, Around the Sun is probably going to be much much greater than anyone could ever imagine. To the point of where its shocking.

[halo19]

VAST - all 3 albums: WOW! With most artist's I am not amazed by most of their songs, but I am with all 36 tracks from VAST, for sure.

The White Stripes - White Blood Cells: Wow, was this ever good! I wasn't familiar with them beforehand, but this album hasn't worn off on me at all. The tracks are diverse enough for that.

Harvey Danger - King James Version: I liked Where Have All the Merrymakers' Gone? and all, but I had NO idea that they'd do THIS. Artists should do this with their sophomore albums. This has a bunch of musical growth, more than expected. I love every song on here, and the wit is even better than it once was. If this came out in 2002, it would have been big, since it's got John Goodmanson as the producer, also behind Hot Hot Heat and Sleater-Kinney, but more mainstream than those two (not too much more than HHH, tho).

PJ Harvey - Is This Desire?: Wow, brilliant! You just have to listen..

[organizednoize]

Kelis, 'Tasty'
Koffee Brown, 'Mars|Venus'

[Miguelín]

The said:

Judging from how Leaving New York sounds, R.E.M.'s new cd, Around the Sun is probably going to be much much greater than anyone could ever imagine. To the point of where its shocking.

I think that I will listen to it before buying it. I own every R.E.M. album, but "leaving New York" doesn't impress me much

[laguy03]

Kelis' 'Tasty' came as a shock because I liked her previous albums so much and I thought she couldnt get better, but i havent shockingly impressed by anyones album