10 Perfect Alternative Albums That Deserve A Lot More Love

The entire alternative community wasn't meant to be a part of pop music for very long. As the title would imply, this is the kind of music that's reserved for the college radio stripe of rock fan, with no real hopes of getting on the charts any time soon. In a world that has become a lot friendlier to alt rock though, it's a shame to see some of these records still get overlooked.

That's not to say that these records don't have their fair share of fans. When you look through the fanbases of these bands, they have shown some occasional love for these records, only to go back to praising the more classic stuff a few minutes later. Looking through the rest of these band's catalogs, these are some of the more forward thinking albums that they have ever made, showing them either taking some risks that they would never have thought of or just making some kickass rock music in the studio.

Granted, you always need some sort of X-factor to actually get you back onto the charts, and maybe the golden hook just wasn't there for these albums. As we look back though, these deserve to be a lot more than an also-ran. These should be the songs that define the band right alongside the classics. We can't change the order of things, but we can always jam to these songs.

For a genre that was as bright and sunshine-y as Britpop, Blur's music was always a bit more deep than the Oasis's of the world. If you take a look back at some of the more celebrated material in their catalog like Parklife, there's a bit of a snide attitude and a cynical bite to the lyrics, almost like it was a modern '90s update of something like the Kinks. Even though they perfected everything on that record, the follow up managed to double down even harder on modern life.

While The Great Escape is known for having the Battle of Britpop single Country House on it, some of the other gems on here are a lot more thoughtful than that track. Kicking off with the song Stereotypes, the whole thing practically picks up right where Parklife left off, with people who are a lot more self absorbed in their own world and are looking to just live their lives in peace.

Outside of the more upbeat songs, tracks like The Universal bring a different flavor into the mix, almost like Damon Albarn is crying out in pain from all of the existential dread that has built up over the past few albums. In that respect, the album title isn't just a nod to old literature. It's a desire to break out of the mundane life that we've had to deal with over the past few albums. There's no guarantee we'll ever escape, but we can always dream.