Photo by Eric Nopanen on Unsplash
By Miles De Rosa, Staff Writer
Every year music is released, critiqued and ranked within an inch of its life. At the end of each decade people sit back and debate what was the best to come out and what they think will last forever. The great albums get their moment in the sun. And then the world moves on. A handful of projects endure the test of time, but the vast majority do not. They are lost, even those that deserved to be remembered.
This list aims to highlight ‘hidden gem’ from each of the last five decades of music. For the purposes of this article, ‘hidden’ will be defined as an album released by an artist who has less than 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. Each of these projects are excellent in their own way, although most color outside the lines given their relative obscurity. That being said, I hope you give them a shot. You just might find something you like.
Listen along to the essential tracks with this Spotify playlist:
1970s: Syreeta – “Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta” (75,196 Monthly Listeners)
With production and basslines courtesy of Stevie Wonder, this is the least ‘hidden’ project on our list. But it is certainly a gem. “Syreeta Wonder Presents Syreeta” is a classic soul album underscored by funky basslines and often distorted percussion. The two of them wrote most of the songs in tandem—and it is no surprise that this album ranges from euphoric love songs to sailing break up ballads, as the two wrote the album in the midst of their divorce.
Despite it being a soul album at heart, Syreeta isn’t afraid to lean into the funky instrumentals laid down by Wonder and his band, twisting her voice and tone to fit the mood of each song. This album also features several stand out covers, the best among them being a much more textural, dynamic version of The Beatles’ slow ballad “She’s Leaving Home.”
All in all, “Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta” is a uniquely funky piece of seventies soul all about love and the pain that comes from it.
Essential Tracks: “I Love Every Little Thing About You,” “How Many Days” and “Come and Get This Stuff”
1980s: Sonny Sharrock Band – “Seize the Rainbow” (205 monthly listeners)
There is a case to be made that this is one of the great forgotten albums of the 20th century. A jazz-rock fusion record like no other, Sonny Sharrock and his band deliver a bright, melodic and often chaotic eruption of guitar and percussion. Sharrock spent the sixties learning from jazz legend Pharoah Sanders, where he developed his trademark, feedback heavy, overloaded style.
Few guitar players in history have pushed the instrument as far as Sharrock does on this record—not to mention the excellent drumming from Pheeroah Akleff, which provides a frenetic but groovy backdrop for Sharrock’s bright melodies and gritty solos. Compositionally, Sharrock strikes balance between luminous hooks and gruff, brain-burning solos.
This is the album that sees Sharrock both in his best melodic form and his most creatively free. Upon release it was received positively, before suddenly fading into sudden obscurity. If you appreciate the searing guitar work of Jimmy Hendrix and Eddy Hazel, this is certainly worth a listen.
Essential Tracks: “My Song,” “Fourteen” and “The Past Adventures of Zydeco Honeycup”
1990s: Jets to Brazil – “Orange Rhyming Dictionary” (80,791 monthly listeners)
Jets to Brazil is often cited as an influence by groups like Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance who saw commercial success in the 2000s and 2010s that their forebears never did. “Orange Rhyming Dictionary” has achieved somewhat of a cult following but still remains relatively unknown despite its groundbreaking blend of alt-rock and punk which paved the way for much of the rock released in the following decades.
On “Orange Rhyming Dictionary” lead singer Alexander Blake Schwarzenbach weaves stories of past times and places since destroyed—often citing love as an anesthesia to the pain caused by the decay seen going on around him. These lyrics are often backed by bright, fuzzy walls of sound that scale back during the verses before cathartic explosions in the choruses. The best example of this comes on the cathartic “Chinatown,” a song about how it is often easier to conform than to fight back against everything going wrong in the world.
If you grew up jumping around in your bedroom to Fall Out Boy, this is worth a listen (also worth checking out Jawbreaker’s “Dear You”).
Essential Tracks: “Chinatown,” “King Medicine” and “Sweet Avenue”
2000s: No Age – “Nouns” (39,709 Monthly Listeners)
Noise rock had never reached these tonal heights before, and frankly no one has since. No Age is a grinding, bright piece of industrial sub-pop bursting at the seams with textures and tones unique to this project alone. Not even No Age themselves have managed to replicate the blistering sonic heights achieved on this album.
Characterized primarily by excellent sound play and guitar work, bright tones and a uniquely frayed texture, “Nouns” is an album to play standing on the edge of a cliff side, gripping the edge with your toes and screaming into the sun. The majority of this album feels like pure acceleration, songs being packed into tight two-minute packages that leave the listener little time to breathe. No Age builds in a couple sonic rest stops along the way—the peaceful and deeply lonesome “Things I Did When I Was Dead,” and slow-burning tones on “Keechie” and “Impossible Bouquet” provide a brief respite from the thundering guitar riffs.
This album is full of musical moments that will blow your hair back, but the best comes on “Teen Creeps,” which starts with a high-pitched pulsing before the beat drops out, leaving a single guitar to rip off a quick, exhilarating riff before bursting into a thunderous surge of guitars and euphoric fuzz.
Essential Tracks: “Teen Creeps,” “Errand Boy” and “Brain Burner”
2010s: Billy Woods – “Known Unknowns” (99,390)
“Known Unknowns” is combative, guarded, literary, self-deprecating and, most of all, paranoid. None of this is uncharted territory for underground hip-hops most reclusive MC, Billy Woods. “Known Unknowns” sees Woods dig deeper into these areas than ever before over a series of dynamic, sample-orientated beats from producer Blockhead. Woods’s style isn’t for everyone, as he often sounds like he’s ranting into the microphone—his off-kilter flow is deeply inspired by late hip-hop legend MF Doom.
As a songwriter, Woods throws together a series of stories, images and one-liners to paint a picture of a character who has been hurt so many times—both by the broader world and by the people around him—that he trusts no one. It is a deeply lonely project. Songs feature mentions of failures, of friends since passed and of romantic relationships that are long gone. “Keloid” is the song that digs into this loneliness most, Billy rapping “We told the cops we rap singers, they said we dead ringers, smell of the wax lingers/Watched my man smoke till the cracks was finished, best among us ended up broken and splintered,” in the second verse.
Woods’ best moments are those where he is most on the edge. His most alone, his most heartbroken, his most paranoid. “Known Unknowns” paints a portrait of a man suspended above a black hole. You’re never quite sure whether he cares if he falls or if he feels he already has.
Essential Tracks: “Everybody Knows,” “Strawman” and “Keloid”