15 Underrated Albums From Legendary Bands
Some albums define, not only a band, but an entire sound. Rumours, Ten, and The White Album are but a few of many albums that fans know, and love, just by name alone. Who, after all, doesn’t know that those albums are the definitive ones by Fleetwood Mac, Pearl Jam, and The Beatles, respectively?
Some other albums, meanwhile, languish in obscurity and remain known only to the nearest and dearest of a band’s fans. These 15 albums by rock’s biggest superstars may have flown under the radar at the time of their release but are getting their long-overdue flowers today. Even the most casual rock fan will enjoy these musical hidden treasures.
Dig deep in the crates and check out…
1. Flash Gordon — Queen
Queen only released two soundtrack albums throughout their career: Highlander and Flash Gordon. The latter album, released in 1980, accompanied the proto-superhero film of the same name and featured Freddie Mercury at the height of his campy glory.
The album reached No. 10 on the U.K. charts, and No. 23 on the Billboard charts. “Flash,” one of only two songs with lyrics and the theme song to the film, reached No. 42 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Incidentally, Flash Gordon director Dino De Laurentiis — yes, that Dino De Laurentiis — hired Queen for the soundtrack, even though he had no idea who they were. And had King Features granted an up-and-coming director named George Lucas the rights to the film — as was his dream — Star Wars would never have been made.
2. Sap — Alice in Chains
Alice in Chains’ debut album, Facelift, was a sonic boom for the band. “Man in the Box” introduced lead singer Layne Staley to the world thanks to his wild, heroin-fueled caterwauling screams and Jerry Cantrell’s crunching guitars.
The band’s sophomore album, Sap, was the exact opposite. It was a stripped-down, introspective, and mostly acoustic album featuring the heartbreaking “Got Me Wrong,” plus guest appearances by Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, Ann Wilson of Heart, and Mark Arm of Mudhoney.
3. Get Your Wings — Aerosmith
Aerosmith didn’t “hit it big” until 1975, with the release of their third album, Toys in the Attic. The year before, the then-struggling band released their second album, Get Your Wings. Popular fan lore suggests the name derives from an initiation rite in a notorious motorcycle gang, though “getting your wings” is also slang for “becoming a pilot.”
The album contains now-classic Aerosmith tracks, including “Same Old Song and Dance,” “Seasons of Wither,” and “Lord of the Thighs.” Lead singer Steven Tyler notably plays with the double entendre of Get Your Wings on “Pandora’s Box.”
4. Wild Honey — The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys’ California surfer-rock sound is often imitated, but never duplicated. And the warm, lugubrious sounds created by Brian Wilson — manifested in albums like Pet Sounds — reverberate throughout music history.
The band’s thirteenth album, Wild Honey, saw them exploring Motown-like sounds, with tracks like “Mama Says,” “I Was Made To Love Her,” and the title track competing with some of the Motor City’s best. This album probably wouldn’t be released in the modern era due to heightened racial sensitivities, but it’s a product of its time, and that’s not quite a bad thing in this case.
5. Sabotage — Black Sabbath
In 1975, Black Sabbath found themselves in an acrimonious legal battle with their former manager, Patrick Meehan. The lawsuit tensions were causing fractures within the band, ultimately leading to Ozzy Osbourne being tossed out shortly thereafter. Worse yet, the lawsuit resulted in Black Sabbath forfeiting the rights to their music, plus they had to pay an undisclosed amount to Meehan for breaking their contract.
It’s a miracle, then, that Sabotage was made in the first place. And all things considered, it’s quite a good album, despite what Tony Iommi rightly called a “nightmare” brewing in the band’s professional life.
6. Diver Down — Van Halen
Critics panned Van Halen’s fifth studio album, Diver Down, as being chock full of covers with not enough original tracks. Their contemporaries excoriated them, but their fans loved them, and Diver Down remained on the Billboard charts for over 65 weeks.
In fairness to everyone, though, the band’s covers of “Pretty Woman,” “Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now),” and “Dancing in the Street” are absolutely amazing, and still get plenty of spins on classic rock radio. What’s more, today’s rock intelligentsia is a lot more forgiving to Diver Down than their elders.
7. No Code — Pearl Jam
No Code was Pearl Jam’s fourth studio album and the first that didn’t reach multiplatinum status. The album left both the band’s critics and fans unsatisfied, as it eschewed Pearl Jam’s stadium rock formula in favor of a more “garage band” style. (David Fricke of Rolling Stone infamously said that the album was “a big, awkward leap from the burnished, arena-ripe sheen of Ten.”)
Nearly 30 years after its release, however, No Code still receives recognition for the groundbreaking work that it truly was. The band still includes songs like “Smile,” “Hail, Hail,” and the Stone Gossard-led “Mankind” in their live sets regularly. As with Diver Down, No Code is much more kindly received by today’s rock critics.
8. Fables of the Reconstruction — REM
In 1985, REM were a long way away from the super-smash success of “Losing My Religion,” but they were still considered the pioneers of alternative rock. This was the era when they were playing clubs, not arenas, and fans still felt like a concert was a communal gathering rather than an overblown production.
Fables of the Reconstruction was the band’s third studio album and featured classics like “Driver 8,” “Can’t Get There From Here,” and the heartbreaking “Wendell Gee.” Critics lauded the album for its “pastoral” feel, calling it a “triumph” in the band’s repertoire.
9. 7800 Degrees Fahrenheit — Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi perhaps holds the title of arbiters of hair metal cool, as rock radio stations continue playing songs from the Slippery When Wet album in 2024 and beyond. Who can’t help but sing along to “Livin’ on a Prayer,” after all? Bon Jovi’s music has stood the test of time, making them one of the few bands from the 1980s that is still relevant today. (Of course, having a famous daughter-in-law doesn’t hurt.)
But 7800 Degrees Fahrenheit, the band’s woefully overlooked second album, is the true rock masterpiece. The boys from New Jersey avoid the squealing guitars and excessive hair spray, opting instead for straight-ahead rockers like “In & Out of Love” and “Only Lonely.”
10. Obscured by Clouds — Pink Floyd
Today’s Pink Floyd fans can’t picture a time when the English rockers would do a soundtrack album, especially given their work on The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon. But that’s exactly what they did on 1972’s Obscured by Clouds. The album, which was the soundtrack to the French film La Vallée, featured a myriad of diverse tracks like “Burning Bridges” and “Free Four.”
Critics noted that the album felt “rushed,” and for good reason: Pink Floyd was also recording Dark Side of the Moon, and Obscured by Clouds was getting in the way. What’s more, the Pink Floyd fandom wasn’t exactly accepting of the album at the time of its release, because it was a sharp departure from their more notorious psychedelic-style fare.
11. Outside — David Bowie
David Bowie and Brian Eno reunited for the first time since the 1970s on Bowie’s album, Outside, which he released in 1995. Bowie explored jagged and disjointed themes like art crimes and murder.
Critics were absolutely venomous about the album, with one reviewer remarking that the album was “an album based on the most pretentious and preposterous, most deliberately gross and grotesque and least cohesive concept story ever created by an artist.” (Really, though?)
Today, though, music critics and fans recognize the album for its groundbreaking sound, praising songs like the title track and “Hallo Spaceboy” for their critical and commercial success.
12. In Through the Out Door — Led Zeppelin
When Led Zeppelin recorded In Through the Out Door and released it in 1979, they had no idea that drummer John Bonham would die shortly after. Alas, Bonham died of alcohol poisoning — brought on by an eye-watering 40 shots of vodka — right before the band embarked on their North American tour.
In Through the Out Door deserves a permanent place in everyone’s record collection because of the anthemic “All My Love,” which was written for Plant’s son Karac Pendragon. In 1977, young Karac died of what was dubbed an “unknown illness,” but later revealed as a stomach virus, at just five years old. Plant’s grief is evident throughout the song.
13. Burn — Deep Purple
Deep Purple’s legacy will always include the iconic song “Smoke on the Water.” The song is a retelling of the time when Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention started a fire with a flare gun onstage in France.
But 1974’s Burn — the band’s eighth studio album — was historic for introducing a new voice to the rock pantheon: David Coverdale, who would later find fame in Whitesnake (and the song “Here I Go Again”).
14. Load — Metallica
Metallica’s self-titled breakthrough album — colloquially known as “The Black Album” — polarized heavy metal fans all over the world. Some fans cheered their speed-metal heroes for achieving great success. Others, though, criticized them for compromising their values.
However, 1996’s follow-up, Load, brought even more than that. The band cut their hair and diversified their sound on songs like “Outlaw Torn,” “King Nothing,” and “Hero of the Day,” causing bouts of screaming, crying, and throwing up in the Metallica fandom as a whole.
15. Caravanserai — Santana
In ancient Persia (modern-day Iran), a caravanserai was a respite stop for world-weary travelers. Such, then, was the inspiration behind Santana’s final album in its original lineup, released in 1972. The album, according to Santana himself, wasn’t “career suicide” despite causing divisiveness within the fandom.
The album struggled on the charts, eventually stalling at No. 8, but featured a critically acclaimed collection of jazz fusion sounds on such songs as “Stone Flower” and “Just in Time to See the Sun.”
