10 Most Underrated Rock Albums Of All Time
Green Day's Warning deserves SO much more love.
Rock music has always had a firm hold on pop music since its inception. While it might not be in the limelight as much as it used to be, plenty of bands have been keeping the spirit of rock alive for every subsequent generation. Some albums might be able to rise to the top, but there are just as many classics that slip under the radar.
From every branch of rock music, artists have come out with fantastic albums that the public never really latched onto. So what made people change their tune over the years?
Well... sometimes it just comes down to output. Since these bands have lost their lustre in recent years or didn't last long in the first place, these albums have been heralded as masterpieces through the fact that they endured.
At the same time, it's not like every one of these albums is perfect. Across many of them, there are tracks that feel like filler or don't mesh with the band's aesthetic, but these eccentricities work in the album's favor to make them fascinating oddities in such a catalog.
These albums may not captivate the masses like their big brothers, but they still deserve to be given their just praise after all this time.
10. Diver Down - Van Halen
Most hard rock fans expect a certain standard when it comes to Van Halen. As time has gone on, almost every single release with David Lee Roth on vocals has had a sort of halo effect around it, almost like every single song could be considered a classic. On the other hand, both the band and fanbase have left Diver Down out to dry on countless occasions.
Written as a rush job to pump out another album, Diver Down is a different animal than the rest of the band's output, with half of the track listing being replaced with cover songs.
Though there might not be as much to choose from compared to other albums, this is still a fun-filled listen from back to front. Leaving Eddie to pad out the runtime with instrumentals, songs like "Cathedral" and the intro to "Little Guitars" are some of the most adventurous things he has ever taken on behind a six string.
Even the covers are well above average, with their take on "(Oh) Pretty Woman" becoming a massive hit and the story-driven "Big Bad Bill" bringing some levity to the situation. This is nowhere close to topping something like the band's debut or 1984, but on its own, Diver Down is one of the more entertaining listens that the early incarnation of Van Halen ever put out.