Suggest one obsure album we all should hear


I love when I discover an album that's new to me, and great.Please share one so we can all broaden our musical horizons.

Mine is:
Wishbone Ash  'Argus'
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The Residents - The Commercial Album
(40 songs - each is exactly 60 seconds long.)
I have a few but to narrow it down: Al Stewart- Past Present and Future. This is an earlier stage album when Jimmy Page was still doing guitar work and Alan Parsons was entering the frame and it's rich in historical reference and just incredible every listen. 
The Church- Heyday. Just before their commercial success and it's an album that keeps rewarding you with sonic bliss over and over.
stilljim and Reubent, I must agree.
I bought Puzzle when Dizz Knee Land was getting limited airplay and was blown away by the shear number of great tracks, SQ and great engineering.
I’ve been trying, unsuccessfully, to get it on vinyl as well.
@mwinkc  - I'm a big fan of early '90's music, but I don't recall ever hearing that one. Thanks for sharing it.....
Chris Rea - Road to HellElbow - Little FictionsTravis - Invisible Band (and since I am am still waiting on a reissue on this one go for "The Man Who"
Nice thread.
Face To Face (Boston) - "Face to Face" & "Confrontation"
Fetchin' Bones (Charlotte) - "Monster"
The Reivers (Austin) - "Saturday" & "End of the Day"
Rhythm Corps (Detroit) - "Common Ground" & "The Future's Not What It Used To Be"

These four bands probably arrived on the new wave scene a little too early for their own good..

Lori Sargent (Face To Face) might be better known as the vocalist of Twinemen, the group Mark Sandman formed after Morphine broke up.
Face To Face also had to deal with a Washington DC punk band taking over their name and becoming much better known. Talk about adding insult to injury!

Rhythm Corp and The Reivers had to change their names (from Rhythm Method and Zeitgeist respectively) because two other bands beat them to their original names. 



Yeah, Frank Zappa... Such clean recordings, true genius. Anything Direct to Disc just for the sound QUALITY!
Esther Satterfield :) you can only find her on used vinyl but she has sang with Chuck Mangione. Beautiful voice and talent that disappeared. 
Thanks again for opening my eyes to all this great stuff.
Shout out to Toy Matinee. Just listened again last night. Hard to find, but worth the hunt/expense. And DaDa, Wow I forgot just how good they were.
Took me this long to realize I misspelled Obscure in the original post!one more suggestion: Emitt Rhodes.
Townes Van Zandt, Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Tx 1973.

Obscure? Maybe . . .  Certainly didn't sell like Abbey Roads or Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

I have it on CD but expect vinyl would sound decent if you could find it. 

Kind of a spare arrangement, and as a vocalist he was a good songwriter, but he is in pretty decent voice here.  
Michael Stanley-“Friends & Legends”
Ozark Mountain Daredevils-“It’ll Shine When It Shines”
Rare Earth-“Get Ready”
William Topley-“Black River”
Pousette-Dart Band-“Amnesia”
Gram Parsons-“Grievous Angel”
dbp24 -- Not that Song Cycle is my favorite LP of all time, but when I lived in the San Fernando Valley in L.A., I'd regularly drive down Laurel Canyon to Vine street to go my barber, who alternately worked on Melrose Avenue and Beverly Blvd. Every once in a while I'd also drop in at a high-end stereo shop that was on one of those streets.  At any rate, the Van Dyck Parks record would be coursing through my brain the entire time. I'd put on my most nasal voice and intone, "Nyoral Nyanyon."
The Spring Standards - Yellow/Gold 
The best band not many know! Cheers,
Spencer
Maryann faithful Blazing Away live album has a fantastic band and I had some very emotional singing here. Wonderful fun 

@edcyn, small world: I too lived in the Valley for years. Sherman Oaks, Burbank, and Glendale, mostly. I then bought a house up in the Foothills above Glendale, in Tujunga. A lot of musicians live up there.

Van Dyke’s Song Cycle is an acquired taste, way too odd for most folks I imagine. It was his inclusion of Randy Newman’s "Vine Street" on the album that alerted me to Newman’s existence. Thank you VDP!

@1111art, good choice in Emitt Rhodes. His debut is a perfect album, after which the brutality of the music business soured him. He finished a couple more okay albums, then retreaded to his home studio, making a living recording locals. I did a session with him in the late-90’s, and one live show, his first in a quarter century. You know he died last July, right? I have his last album (issued on LP in 2016), but have been afraid to listen to it. ;-)

Elysian Fields “Bleed Your Cedar”

Jason Molina “Songs:Ohia”

Caamp “Caamp”

The Cruel Sea “Where’s the Smoke”

Dead Man Winter “Wolves”
bdp24 and edcynI too used to live near there. In the Valley, near Disney studios (who I worked for). Small world.
Didn't know Emitt died.
I'll throw one more band out there, Sneaker Pimps, kind of Punk mystical.

“Closer to it” Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express 

Showing my age with this one.
Jim Carroll - "Catholic Boy"
Shoes - "Present Tense" & "Stolen Wishes"
Sidewinders - "Auntie Ramos' Pool Hall
"Timeline" by Kerry Livgren

Livgren is a former member of Kansas. This is his second solo album recorded in 1984 featuring mostly prog rock music.

I purchased the CD in the 80’s, but recently found it on vinyl and was surprised by its expansive sound; its become one of my better sounding records. It has great harmony vocals and stimulating lyrics.

First tracks are 80’s synth pop, but the album hits its stride by the time you get to song three. Give it a try.

~Tom in Sacramento
@hbarrel  - Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express -  “Closer to it” is a GREAT album. Have loved it since I first heard his version of "Inner City Blues" back in the '70s and bought the album (I still have that original). A classic IMHO.
To many these won't be obscure but these came to mind. "Hats" by  The Blue Nile along with other offerings by them. "The Duhks" by The Ducks. Can't recommend these more highly.
Gonna emphatically second Al Stewart's "Past Present and Future" and Graham Parker's "Squeezing Out Sparks".
Hard to narrow down without repeating. +1 on Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane
Also
Amon Duul II - Dance of the Lemmings
The Freeborne - S/T - 
Circus 2000 - S/T
The Gerbils - 2nd
The Treniers - I only have the 78’s but I think they were brought together on an album in the 60’s - 
Gabor Szabo Mizrab
John Abercrombie Timeless
Wipers Is This Real
Gene Clark White Light (seconding previous mention)
Judee Sill euphonious 
An excellent live album from an underappreciated musician: 
Taj Mahal - The Real Thing
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Classical - Shostakovich Symphony No. 8, 1973 recording by Andre Previn and the London Symphony, Angel

Rock - The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society (maybe not so obscure anymore?)
BAND; JAPAN
ALBUM; TIN DRUM
FAVORITE SONGS;
STILL LIFE IN MOBILE HOMES
CANTON
CANTONESE BOY
ART OF PARTIES
TALKING DRUM
VISIONS OF CHINA

REASONS; PERCUSSIVE INSTRUMENTS.
 RECORDED ROOM  ACOUSTICS.
SIMPLE PLACEMENT.
PLACEMENT OF INSTRUMENTS; YOU CAN CLOSE YOUR EYES AND SEE THE DRUMMER AND HOW FAR OR NEAR HE IS...
AS WELL AS THE SINGER AND THE ECHOES OFF OF THE WALLS.
PERCISSIVE QUALITIES OF EACH STRIKE PARTICULARLY THE DRUMS YOU CAN HEAR THE SKIN.. 
INSTRUMENTS;BIANZHONG / STONE QING  / JIANGU /   YUE GONG / LARGE SYMBOLS / SET GONGS / CLAPPERS / YUNLUO.

YOU MIGHT FIND THIS MUSIC UNAPPLEALING BUT THE ACOUSTICS ARE UNMISTAKABLE.
I BELIEVE ALL THE SOUNDS OF THE PERCUSSIONS ARE NATURAL
.AT LEAST I CAN HEAR THE ROOM THAT IT WAS RECORDED IN.

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