c/forgotten-album-club

Vent: A guy at a record swap told me my turntable stylus was too heavy on old vinyl

He said I was damaging the grooves, so I dropped the tracking force from 3.5 grams to 2.0 and now those old 70s records actually sound clear instead of crunchy. Has anyone else had to adjust their setup after getting called out like that?

That $2 thrift store record that sounds better than my $40 reissue

I found a beat-up copy of Terry Callier's 'What Color Is Love' at a goodwill in Portland for $2 and it blows away the 2019 remaster I paid $40 for. The old vinyl has this warm, lived-in sound while the new one feels sterile and overproduced. Anyone else think older pressings actually capture more soul than these fancy reissues?

Pro tip: Check the liner notes on any 1970s jazz fusion album twice

I picked up a copy of a 1974 album by some session guys I'd never heard of last Saturday at a swap meet in Tucson. After comparing the original pressing to a 1990s CD reissue, I found the reissue had three tracks replaced with completely different takes and the credits were all wrong. Has anyone else run into this kind of bait and switch on older releases and do you trust digital remasters at all anymore?

That $60 album I found at a garage sale in Cleveland last month

I stumbled on this pressing of a 1978 jazz fusion album called "Eastern Standard" by a guy named Tom Reichman at a garage sale three weeks ago. Paid 60 bucks because the cover looked pristine and the seller said it was rare. Got it home, dropped it on the turntable, and the first track had this weird skip that repeated the same 3 seconds over and over. I checked the vinyl under a bright light and there was this tiny hairline crack right near the edge that I missed. Took it back to the address the next day but the house was empty, like they packed up and left. Now I'm stuck with a $60 coaster and wondering if anyone else has gotten burned on a supposed "rare find" from a garage sale that turned out to be damaged.

Hit 50,000 plays on a forgotten album from 1978

I was cleaning out my old iPod last week and noticed I'd played 'Willow Tree' by The Satin Bells exactly 50,012 times. That's roughly 500 hours of a baroque pop record nobody I know has ever heard of. Has anyone else got a number like that from an album that just clicked with you?

Friend swore I had to listen to the whole album in one sitting...

My buddy Mark kept telling me that albums like The Coral's debut from 2002 only make sense if you play them start to finish. So I tried it last weekend, sat down with headphones and everything. Honestly I think he was right, the flow between those first few tracks felt way more connected than when I skipped around. But part of me thinks that's just how we used to listen back then and maybe it's okay to cherry pick songs now. Anyone else feel pressured to listen to whole albums just because someone said so?

That $2 thrift store record turned out to be a rare pressing worth $80

Pulled a dusty copy of a 1978 jazz fusion album from a bin in Denver last Saturday, just thought the cover looked cool. Looked it up later and found out it's a limited pressing from a small Canadian label that only did 500 copies.

Can we talk about how 'Smile' by The Beach Boys beats 'Pet Sounds' for me?

I compared both albums side by side last week and 'Smile' just flows better as a whole piece, where 'Pet Sounds' feels like scattered singles stitched together. Has anyone else found an old album that demands a relisten after years?

Vent: Everyone told me Wilco's 'A Ghost Is Born' was their peak, but I say 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' is overrated

also just realized I forgot the actual album name in the title my bad

Rant: I used to skip The Red Krayola's 'The Parable of Arable Land' like everyone else

I always heard people say their 1967 debut was just noisy nonsense from the Texas psychedelic scene. But I found an old blog post from a record collector in Austin that broke down how the band recorded side two in one take with about 20 random musicians, and that crazy energy actually makes the whole album work for me now. Has anyone else given this one a real chance past the first track?

Found a copy of Split Lip Rayfield's 'Never Make It Home' that changed my mind about bluegrass

I picked up this album at a used store in Portland for 3 bucks last summer. Everyone I talked to said this Kansas band was just a novelty act with the one-string guitar and the fuel tank bass. But I threw it on during a long drive and man, the songwriting hits way harder than I expected. The track 'Kiss of Death' has this raw energy that most polished bluegrass stuff completely misses. I learned not to trust the gatekeepers who dismiss something just because the setup looks goofy. Have any of you given this album a fair shot or did you write it off too?

PSA: That 'rare' promo CD you found is probably a bootleg

I see people posting grainy photos of those late 90s promo CDs in here all the time, asking if they're worth something. But most of them are fake. I bought a supposed rare Smashing Pumpkins promo off eBay in 2018 for $40 and it turned out to be a CD-R with a printed label. After that I started checking the matrix codes in the inner ring of the disc. Real pressed CDs have a specific code from the factory, bootlegs usually have a blank ring or a handwritten number. Same with the inserts, fake ones have blurry text from being scanned and reprinted. Has anyone else gotten burned on one of these?

Appreciation post: That dollar bin copy of The La's that sat in my car for 6 months

I grabbed a scratched up CD of The La's self titled album for a buck at a thrift store in St. Paul last fall and just left it in my glovebox. After driving with it on repeat for about 200 miles, I realized it's one of the tightest power pop records I've ever heard outside of the one hit. Anyone else find a forgotten classic just by giving it time in the car stereo?

Stopped into a used record shop in Portland last week and noticed something strange

The owner had a whole bin of forgotten 90s alt rock albums for a dollar each. I grabbed a copy of an album I loved in high school and the cashier said nobody's asked for that title in at least 5 years. Has anyone else stumbled across a bin like that where solid albums just sit unloved?

Found a bin of 90s punk CDs at a thrift store in Akron for $8 total

Picked up a stack that included Nomeansno, Screeching Weasel, and Local H but when I got home the Local H disc was actually a blank CD-R with Sharpie scribbles on it so I drove back and the lady at the counter swapped it for a different disc from the back room no questions asked, anyone else ever get burned by mislabeled thrift store finds?

Everybody keeps calling The Stone Roses' debut a perfect album...

I see it ranked top 10 all time constantly but track 9 'Don't Stop' is basically a backwards demo that someone ran through a delay pedal. It stops the whole flow dead for 5 minutes. I first noticed this back in 2012 when I tried playing the whole thing for a friend and they asked why it sounded like a broken tape machine. Am I the only one who skips that track every time?

TIL there's a hidden track on The Beatles' White Album that most people missed

I was digging through my dad's old vinyl collection last weekend and found a beat up copy of The White Album. While listening through side 4, I hit the end groove and realized there's this weird 23-second loop of gibberish called 'Revolution 9' that leads into a tiny snippet of a song nobody talks about. Turns out it's Paul McCartney saying 'Number 9' over and over, and my dad said that was a secret hidden thing for people with old turntables that auto-repeated. Has anyone else stumbled on a hidden track from an old album that surprised you?

Found a beat-up copy of The Verve's 'A Storm in Heaven' at a thrift store for 50 cents - forgot how wild that album gets around track 4

That $30 Record Store Blind Box set me back $60 in wasted cash

I bought a grab bag of 10 old albums from a shop in Nashville for $30, but every single one was warped or scratched and unplayable, has anyone else gotten burned on those mystery bundles?

Tried listening to an album on cassette in my 1998 Honda Civic and it somehow sounded better than the Spotify version

I grabbed a dusty copy of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill from a thrift store for $2 and threw it in my car's tape deck on a drive through Austin last weekend. The pops and hiss actually made the beats feel warmer and more alive compared to the clean digital version I've been hearing for years. Anyone else notice old formats like tapes or vinyl changing how an album hits you, or am I just nostalgic for bad audio quality?

I finally heard an old cassette tape in my dad's truck that changed how I listen to music

Last spring I was helping my dad clean out his garage in Austin and found a box of old cassette tapes from the 1980s. He popped one into his truck's tape deck, and it was an album called "Local Color" by a band named The Nighthawks that I had never heard of. The songs had this raw, live sound that made me realize how much modern albums get polished up in production. Has anyone else found an old tape or record that totally shifted what you look for in music?

I always thought '90s one-hit wonder albums were bad until I found a CD in a Seattle thrift store

I grabbed the 1995 album 'Fuzzy' by Grant Lee Buffalo for a dollar, figuring it was just for the single 'Mockingbirds'. Turns out the whole record is full of great, moody folk rock songs I'd never heard on the radio. It completely changed my view on digging deeper into those bands that only got one big moment. Has anyone else been surprised by a full album from an artist you only knew for one song?

I used to skip the last track on albums until I heard 'The Last Goodbye' on a 2003 indie record

For years I'd just stop listening once the single ended, but last month I found this old CD by a band called The Clocksprings at a thrift store in Tacoma. I let it play all the way through while driving and the final song, 'The Last Goodbye', completely changed the album's whole mood. It's a slow, sad piano piece that made me realize the earlier upbeat songs were all about avoiding that feeling. Now I always listen to the full album, even the hidden tracks. Anyone else have an album where the last song totally reframed everything?

Pro tip: I thought this 90s ska punk album was just a joke, but it's actually a masterpiece

My buddy kept telling me to listen to 'Turn the Radio Off' by Reel Big Fish, which came out in 1996. I was totally skeptical because I thought ska was just goofy horns and dumb jokes, you know? I finally gave it a spin last month, and man, I was so wrong. The songwriting on tracks like 'Sell Out' and 'Beer' is way smarter than it seems, mixing real bitterness about the music biz with these insanely catchy hooks. The horn lines are actually super tight and the production, for a mid-90s punk album, still sounds really clean and punchy. It completely changed my view of the whole genre. Has anyone else had a total 180 on an album they wrote off as just a novelty?

Found a mint copy of 'The Unforgettable Fire' on cassette at a yard sale in Boise last Saturday