Guides

Black Hole Discographies: Sorting It Out

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

The music world is filled with artists so prolific that it’s almost impossible to keep up with everything they do. But many of these same artists are either so experimental or so inconsistent that it’s almost impossible to know which albums to dive into and which to skip.

Plumbing the depth of their discographies to know which releases are worthwhile and which aren’t worth the time is such an ordeal that you might as well explore in the inside of a black hole instead.

But I’ve been down a few black holes myself, and I have lived to tell the tale. And today, I’ve come to give you some pointers on what discographies are worth plumbing and which are not.

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Bands Who Did Their Best Work While The Public Wasn’t Paying Attention

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald

Public opinion is a fickle thing.

Once you catch the public’s attention, it can be difficult to keep it. A hit single is no guarantee that you’ll maintain relevance. Just ask any of the hundreds of artists deemed “one-hit wonders.”

But a number of these alleged one-hit wonders actually have long and storied careers that the general public has largely ignored.

And by God, it makes me so irritated.

Today, I’m counting down my favorite bands whose best work went mostly unnoticed.

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Skipping Records: What You Can Do

/ Nathaniel FitzGerald
There’s nothing like digging through a crate of discarded records and finding an absolute classic—just this weekend, I found a copy of Easter by the Patty Smith Group in a stack of records meant to be used for decorations at a wedding.
But there’s no telling how well those records were taken care of. That same copy of Easter had scratches all over the title track, causing maybe a dozen skips.
There’s nothing I can do but toss it back in the garbage, right?
Wrong.
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