This is by no means a definitive list, but it’s a good place to start if you’re looking for some great lost or forgotten records.
Spektrum, Fun at the Gymkhana Club (2006)
Key songs: "Don't Be Shy," "May Day," "Sugar Bowl"
This London quartet’s second album is a bold, funky, and wonderfully weird funk/house/rock hybrid that anticipated music to come by everyone from Janelle Monaé to Rihanna, but like a lot of records that are ahead of their time, it didn’t really catch on when it came out. Maybe that had something to do with the lead single “Don’t Be Shy” being way too dirty to get any kind of radio play, but hey, it’s a great song.
Broadcast, Tender Buttons (2005)
Key songs: "Michael A Grammar," "Corporeal," "Black Cat"
Broadcast started out as a full band in the late ‘90s, but by the time they made Tender Buttons, the group had shrunk down to the duo of singer Trish Keenan and multi-instrumentalist James Cargill. Cargill and Keenan embraced this turn of events by embracing minimalism and recording an album of eerie, skeletal electronic pop. There’s an odd, woozy feeling throughout the record — Keenan’s voice has a cool, lulling affect, and the keyboards often evoke the ambient hum of office buildings and fluorescent lights. This was Keenan’s final proper album with the band, as she died from complications of swine flu in 2011. This bit of depressing information only makes the record feel more melancholy and haunting today.
McLusky, McLuskyism (2006)
Key songs: "She Will Only Bring You Happiness," "That Man Will Not Hang," "There Ain't No Fool in Ferguson," "To Hell With Good Intentions"
The Welsh trio McLusky were an extraordinarily venomous punk band that specialized in catchy but brutal tunes with bitter, sarcastic lyrics. Lead singer Andy Falkous is a brilliant and original frontman with an unmistakable voice and the sort of dark, vicious sense of humor that results in concluding the band’s most commercial tune, “She Will Only Bring You Happiness,” with them all singing, “Our old singer is a sex criminal” in rounds. McLuskyism is a collection of the band’s singles released shortly after they broke up, and it is basically perfect from start to finish.
Charlotte Hatherley, The Deep Blue (2007)
Key songs: "I Want You to Know," "Behave," "Very Young"
British songwriter Charlotte Hatherley made three excellent solo records in the past decade, but her second album, The Deep Blue, is the one that best exemplifies her skill for combining the fuzzy guitars and punchy melodies of ‘90s alt-rock with the dreaminess of the Cocteau Twins and the whimsical romanticism of mid-career Kate Bush.
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