Random Strangest Albums With Rabid Cult Followings (12 items)

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  (#1) Marquee Moon

  • Television

  Though not a commercially successful release, Television's debut album, Marquee Moon, was unleashed in 1977 after the band effectively launched the CBGB punk scene in New York.

  When the album was finally released, its angular and almost anti-punk songcraft was immediately met with praise. At the time, NME called it a "24-carat inspired work of pure genius, a record finely in tune and sublimely arranged with a whole new slant on dynamics."

  In the years since its release, Marquee Moon has achieved cult status and become an influential collection of songs for generations of bands. 
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  (#2) In the Aeroplane over the Sea

  • Neutral Milk Hotel

  When it was originally released in 1998, Neutral Milk Hotel's second album, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, wasn't expected to do much. The record label didn't press many copies, and reviews were not particularly overwhelming.

  As the years passed, though, the album's following grew more intense and the band's leader, Jeff Mangum, became something of a mythological figure after disappearing from the music scene. Mangum's reclusiveness intensified over the years as the album's popularity grew and critics became enamored of the songs. One journalist who contacted Mangum to discuss his life and career received a frustrated email in return. The reply perhaps encapsulates the mania surrounding Mangum all too well.

  "I’m not an idea. I am a person, who obviously wants to be left alone. If my music has meant anything to you, then you’ll respect that," Mangum responded. "Since it’s my life and my story, I think I should have a little say as to when it’s told. I haven’t been given that right."
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  (#3) Pink Moon

  • Nick Drake

  The story of Nick Drake is a tragic one. The now-beloved folk singer committed suicide by overdose after releasing a string of underperforming records, including his 1972 album, Pink Moon. After his death, acclaim for the album slowly grew until the title track was used in a Volkswagen TV commercial in 2000. 

  The commercial caused album sales to skyrocket and sparked a renewed interest in Drake's music. 

  "Nick always wanted to reach a large number of people, and in the end he was depressed he didn’t," Drake's friend Joe Boyd later said of the singer's posthumous success. "It’s very sad that Nick’s not around to experience and benefit from this, but it’s a nice thing to happen." 
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  (#4) Pinkerton

  • Weezer

  After the massive success of their self-titled record, Weezer re-emerged with Pinkerton, a more introspective and layered album that initially turned fans off and even caused singer Rivers Cuomo to retreat from the spotlight. In the years that followed, the album earned cult status as people caught on to what many perceive as its subtle brilliance. Cuomo was not responsive to the late praise, telling Rolling Stone:

  It’s a hideous record… It was such a hugely painful mistake that happened in front of hundreds of thousands of people and continues to happen on a grander and grander scale and just won’t go away. It’s like getting really drunk at a party and spilling your guts in front of everyone and feeling incredibly great and cathartic about it, and then waking up the next morning and realizing what a complete fool you made of yourself.
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  (#5) Here Are The Sonics

  • The Sonics

  While the Sonics were largely ignored during their time, today they are garage rock royalty. The group's 1965 proto-punk debut, Here Are The Sonics, has garnered a cult following in the years since its release. Renewed interest in the band prompted a return in 2015, with The Sonics issuing their first new release in 50 years. 

  One review praised Here Are The Sonics as showcasing a group "at the peak of its power," though the band admitted to feeling inadequate at the time.

  "Our feeling was we weren’t legitimate because we couldn’t play quality rock and roll with great finesse and understanding of the music," guitarist Larry Parypa said in an interview. 
• 

  (#6) Philosophy of the World

  • The Shaggs

  Perhaps one of the most divisive and bizarre albums in history, the Shaggs' Philosophy of the World was released in 1969 to no fanfare or attention. It's a strange, disjointed, often overwhelming collection of songs performed so primitively that some people find it unlikeable and others compare it to free jazz. The legendary Frank Zappa once famously called the band, comprised of three sisters, "better than the Beatles."

  Strangely, the group owes its existence to a premonition the Wiggin sisters' grandmother experienced. During a palm reading, she told their father that his daughters would form a band. He forced them to learn instruments, and the resulting album became a cult classic in the decades that followed - even earning a fan in the late Kurt Cobain. The album has been reissued numerous times over the years, something leader Dot Wiggin said she finds astonishing.

  "It’s hard to believe. I said to my sister Betty, 'How many times can they do the same CD over and over?' But of course, technology improves every year. It amazes me we still have a big fan base out there, and they’re interested in the same album and songs," she said in an interview. 
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  (#7) Ege Bamyasi

  • CAN

  German band Can is credited with influencing everyone from Killing Joke to Tame Impala, and nothing in their catalog is more out-there than their 1972 album, Ege Bamyasi. The trailblazing krautrock band was anything but conventional, pushing the boundaries of arrangement and relying heavily on inventive grooves and oddball melodic left turns. 

  Singer Damo Suzuki shines on Ege Bamyasi - particularly on fan favorite "Vitamin C," itself a standard bearer for the entire krautrock genre. The A.V. Club notes that the album, which continues to receive critical praise, features "sharper recording and cleaner arrangements" than the band's previous releases. 
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  (#8) Hi, How Are You

  • Daniel Johnston

  Daniel Johnston has been hailed as an avant-garde genius for years, thanks in part to his cult following - and the free promotion he got from Kurt Cobain wearing a Daniel Johnston t-shirt in many iconic photographs. The shirt featured the artwork for his album, Hi, How Are You, and helped catapult the mentally ill songwriter towards stardom. 

  Much of the intrigue surrounding Johnston comes from his mental health issues, which were chronicled in a critically acclaimed documentary. Gretchen Phillips, a friend of Johnston, once questioned why people are so interested in seeing him, and theorized that some might be fans for the wrong reasons.

  "I wonder if people go see him hoping to witness a nervous breakdown," Phillips said. "Do they perceive him as their equal, or as someone they need to coax along and feel safe? As much as the audience may genuinely love his songs, I sense a lot of condescension. That's always bugged me."
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  (#9) Germs - 'GI'

  The Germs burst onto the punk scene in 1979 with GI, a blistering set of songs produced by Joan Jett. The album would ultimately cement the group's legacy as a trailblazing punk outfit. The band, which featured future Nirvana and Foo Fighters guitarist Pat Smear, released the album before things began to unravel. Singer Darby Crash became dependent on drugs and tensions grew, causing the band to part ways.

  In 1980, Crash reformed the Germs for one final show before he died of an intentional overdose days later. Crash became a legend posthumously, and the band's cult status grew in the decades that followed. Today, GI is a beloved punk classic that is seen as hugely influential on the genre. 
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  (#10) Madvillainy

  • Madvillain

  Madvillain's 2004 debut, Madvillainy, was a groundbreaking project that brought together two successful underground rappers and producers, Madlib and MF Doom. It was widely praised, with one review calling it "inexhaustibly brilliant, with layer-upon-layer of carefully considered yet immediate hip-hop, forward-thinking but always close to its roots."

  The alternative hip-hop classic went on to become a cult favorite, with Rolling Stone including it on its list of the greatest one-album wonders. 
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  (#11) Black Monk Time

  • The Monks

  The Monks are arguably one of the weirdest and most overlooked bands on this list. The Monks were never a well-known band, but their 1966 debut album, Black Monk Time, is now recognized as an important part of contemporary music history. The German band's first and only release included tracks with names like "Shut Up" and "I Hate You," and accumulated a cult following due to its proto-punk aesthetic and dark humor - something completely unusual at the time. The band also claimed to have "invented" feedback. 

  The Monks began as an R&B cover band, which is evident in some of the songs on the album. Ultimately, though, they transformed into something quite the opposite of a pop group.
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  (#12) Spilt Milk

  • Jellyfish

  Considered a masterpiece by many, Jellyfish's second album, Spilt Milk, was released in 1993 following the departure of two band members. However, songwriters Andy Sturmer and Roger Joseph Manning, Jr., pulled out all the stops to create a dense and layered production.

  The band broke up shortly after its release, but Spilt Milk is widely considered a cult classic by fans of sophisticated pop music. One review called the album "ridiculous, grandiose, and lovely, rolling through genres while staying true to the pop-song ideal." 

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