10 Most Underappreciated Rock Albums

Music lovers love David Bowie. Fans of '80s fantasy kids’ movies that are darker than you realised but still a lot of fun, love Labyrinth. But do music lovers love the Labyrinth soundtrack? It’s never on the lists of greatest things, is it? But it is on this list, so the reclamation starts here.

Bowie in the ‘80s was a mixed bag. His late-‘70s “Berlin trilogy” had been commercially less successful than his early-‘70s Ziggy Stardust heyday, but had been critically acclaimed, and therefore oft-imitated by far more commercially successful artists (Gary Numan is often named as the culprit). As such, this led Bowie to shift his focus back to selling as many records as possible. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) and Let’s Dance were both hits, while the single, Under Pressure, with Queen, became his top-selling single, but 1984’s Tonight and 1987’s Never Let Me Down were flops.

Labyrinth was nestled between these two latter releases, and both the movie and album added to Bowie’s run of commercial disappointments. It’s a shame, because the film is a classic fairy tale in the tradition of Barrie, Baum and Carroll, and the album features five original Bowie songs that are different from anything he did before or since and work as both great musical soundtrack pieces and as stand-alone pop songs.

Standout Tracks: Underground, As The World Falls Down, Magic Dance.