'Brave' albums

[evilC]

I'll start.

OMD - 'Dazzle Ships'

[multipleman78]

'Brave' albums

anything by Westlife. They must be brave gits putting their name alongside that sewage outflow dressed up as music.

[MsD]

'Brave' albums

[Valentino Mazzola]

'Brave' albums

Shudder To Think - Pony Express Record

[Sits]

'Brave' albums



I like it, incidentally.

[Bored Of Education]

'Brave' albums

Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers

[Disco Child Ballads]

'Brave' albums

Dazzle Ships was the first thing I thought of when I saw the title of this thread. There seems to be quite a few instances of 80s artists releasing albums that were deliberately uncommercial, such as Don't Stand Me Down by Dexys and Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk.

[Tramp The Dirt Down]

'Brave' albums

Almost Blue - Elvis Costello

Here My Dear - Marvin Gaye

Secret Life Of Plants - Stevie Wonder.

Could a case also be made for Nebraska by Springsteen?

[G-Man]

'Brave' albums

I'd say Sgt Pepper's was a brave album to release. Revolver and the Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane single had announced the image change, but Sgt Pepper's was a total departure, in image and music, from what had worked so spectacularly well the previous four years. In the event, Sgt Pepper's was warmly embraced and made a massive impact on music. But if it had been more "Lovely Rita" than "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", and the public had resented the new look, Sgt Pepper's could have been a disaster.

[Jimmy Bignutz]

'Brave' albums

[steveeeeeeeee]

'Brave' albums

Tramp The Dirt Down wrote:

Could a case also be made for Nebraska by Springsteen?

"Tunnel of Love" is surely Springsteen's brave album. He was without a doubt the biggest live draw in the world and was coming off the The Born in the USA tour as truly hot shit. What does he do? Drop the E-Street Band and record an album full of dowdy, introspective break-up songs with synths and drum machines backing him. A "Born in the USA 2" would've put him into the stratosphere, but he told the world to f*ck off - quite rightly so.

Nebraska is a great album, where the demos are so good only a fool would relaise they needed to be tampered with. It's the only Springsteen album that clicks with me.

[Stumpy Pepys]

'Brave' albums

There is, of course, the flipside of the 'brave album': the one you make to follow up a popular one to alienate your new-found fans.

Things like Metal Machine Music and C'Mon Kids by the Boo Radleys.

[Beatle Simon]

'Brave' albums

Stumpy Pepys wrote:

There is, of course, the flipside of the 'brave album': the one you make to follow up a popular one to alienate your new-found fans.

Things like Metal Machine Music and C'Mon Kids by the Boo Radleys.

In that case, I'll nominate "In Utero"

[MsD]

'Brave' albums

I'd say Broken English by Marianne Faithfull, and possibly Metal Box by PiL, maybe Young Americans by Bowie, but I'm possibly overthinking it. Do you mean brave in terms of self exposure, or in terms of commercial risk?

Some artists need to be "brave" to release anything at all, especially if they're newly sober or a single artist, others seem to operate in a bubble of self-confidence/arrogance; but you can never be sure. I was gobsmacked that I made someone (quite well known) cry last week when I flippantly dismissed a putative new single as "shit". Never thought for one second he'd be upset. And commercial risk is something that never occurs to him.

Thinking some more about it: Kate Bush, Lou Reed, Mark E. Smith .. all have changed horses in mid-stream (well, God knows what MES would make of riding a horse) but I don't know if that's brave, self-indulgent or showing integrity, or disconnection.

[Lucia Lanigan]

'Brave' albums

Funnily enough, I'm reviewing one right now: PiL's First Issue, which I've always loved (apart from 'Religion'). The single 'Public Image' might have bridged the gap between the Pistols and what was ato come, but I still can't think of anything else that sounds like the opening track, 'Theme'. It's like the ground opening beneath your feet, just amazing.

I wouldn't say Lou Reed or The Boo Radleys made those records to shed new-found fans, you know. Reed had already released Berlin, which was hardly a barrel of laughs, and then followed that with pretty commercial records, so the fans must have known the deal. Plus he genuinely 'meant' Metal Machine Music, it wasn't the 'fuck you' to the record comany of legend. To someone who'd been around the NY art world it must have been a pretty obvious idea really, like doing a Pollock.

[Wyatt Earp]

'Brave' albums

Bringing It All Back Home has to come into this, I think.

[erwin]

'Brave' albums

[Amor de Cosmos]

'Brave' albums

Why at Last! wrote:

Bringing It All Back Home has to come into this, I think.

Top of the list I'd say, with Pet Sounds not far behind.* And Self Portrait would close to the top of Stumpy's.

*and Astral Weeks.