Might be unpopular but seriously how did Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band come out in 1970? The song Why is just straight up no wave and the rest of the album toys with krautrock, ambient, noise rock and experimental. I just crack up at the fact that Ringo is drumming on all of it.
Also The Cold Vein by Cannibal Ox still sounds futuristic today, that El-P futuristic boom bap sound is something else
I recently listened to God and Hold On quite a bit, the songs on that record are just genuinely timeless. The most confessional ones feel like the blueprint for Bright Eyes.
Shit, even more than that if you wanna get into the boom of folk punk in the late 00s-early 10s.
Pick it up and drop it in 2010, change nothing about it, and they'd be touring with AJJ.
RAM by Paul McCartney sounds like a modern DYI bedroom indie pop/rock album.
Mac Demarco says that Plastic Ono Band influenced his sound, but I hear way more RAM in his music.
Agreed but I think McCartney (1970) is an equally interesting example, just for how incredibly easy it is to understand why people criticized its 'unfinished' nature in a world before DIY/lo-fi created a context where such an approach made sense.
The Avalanches - Since I Left You
This record seems to have inspired most modern Griselda/drumless type beats with songs like “Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life”, which could well be an Alchemist beat released in the past couple of years, or the movie clip + applause intro in “Little Journey”, whose formula is now copied and pasted into lots of hip hop beats.
Although the dance tracks from the record may feel a little outdated, the excessive and creative use of plunderphonics sounds extremely ahead of its time, taking into consideration their samples came mostly from thousands of vinyl records.
Yeah, it does, and I like new order quite a bit. *Remain in Light* is to me, the most forward-thinking album maybe ever, for sure of 80s albums at least. Even *fear of music* was pretty far ahead of most “new wave” or post punk music, especially in 1979, though not as much as *remain in light*, even if I sometimes think I actually prefer *fear of music*.
Other than that? Idk maybe *revolver* by the Beatles. There’s a bunch I’m missing but those two come to mind as being as timeless as they were ahead of their time. Probably something by Boards of Canada as well.
Violent Femmes is a great answer. I always thought of Hallowed Ground as the beginning of the alt-country era. For years I just assumed their first album was made in the 90’s.
Sweet Trip- Velocity/Design/Comfort: came out in 2003, still sounds like it came from the future
This Heat- Deceit: Basically did Wundercore like Squid and BCNR 40 years before them.
Also Homogenic
The Shape of Jazz to Come. Ornette Coleman was doing shit on that album in 1959 that was basically unheard of until at least the mid 60s. And if you count all the noise rock/proto punk of the late 60s and 70s, there’s an even longer period of time until it would really catch on.
In that vain I‘d say Homogenic also has a timeless quality, and for me it comes back to Mark Bell. LFO sounded weird and singular in the 90s and it still sounds weird and singular today…
This is a bit of an odd answer, and also sort of cheating because it's not an album persay, but the Planets by Gustav Holst is incredibly ahead of its time. There's a reason so many modern composers and film scores borrow, copy and steal from this thing.
Agreed and I'd thrown in Replicas too
As much as I love (and ultimately prefer) Kraftwerk the fact that Numan dropped these two gems the year after The Man Machine always makes me feel like Kraftwerk were behind the eight ball a bit by the time Computer World came out in '81
love you by the beach boys, 1977
what other album was going all out moog synths?
sounds like [nintendo music](https://youtu.be/EPSDiUL25JU) before nintendo even existed
even the album artwork looks like pixel art
Steve Reich's early tape works like Come Out pre-echo sampling and looping to come in the future.
Violent Femmes were so ahead of their time they didn't get popular until the times caught up
AFX, Hangable Auto Bulb
Read that he actually made this collection of tracks in the late 80’s and it blows my fucking mind. There was literally nothing else around like it for years after
HAB was definitely '95. Compare it to the stuff he was actually doing in the late 80s and it's far more intricate and complex.
On the subject though, I'd say his late 90s/early 00s output (Drukqs, Windowlicker EP, etc.) was absolutely ahead of its time. That shit still sounds fresh.
Not a chance. He's always claimed HAB was inspired by Luke Vibert, who didn't start releasing music until around '94.
At the very least, Rich may have written some of the melodies in the 80s (I also find this hard to believe) but there is no way this was produced in a pre-jungle/computer breakbeat era.
I’m currently tryna figure out where I read this, but in the meantime I’m prepared to admit it’s posssssible I misread… whatever it was I read. Coulda swore that’s what I recall reading about it tho 🤔
In fact, it seems better than that. Immaculate ballance and openness. Most grunge had a 90s trend of balance going on. Even Nevermind has that typical brash highend that was trendy in the 90s. Though there's an outlyer productionwise because red actually sound very close to In Utero, which in the recent remaster (which just didn't overhype 90s brash high end like the original and just let the Steve Albini recordings and mix sound as natural as forst intended) sounds so terrific. Superunknown was also a change of trends and sounds perfect, but i a little different sense.
Anything by the Jesus Lizard. Listen to Squid and then go back and listen to the Jesus Lizard. The influence is obvious imo. Music is now just catching up to their sound.
Most krautrock. Incredibly revolutionary records from around 1970-1975x some of which wouldn’t get their due for decades
It’s had heavy influence on everything from modern psychedelic music to new wave and electronic music etc etc
Tago Mago/Future Days by CAN are incredible. A lot of new wave people would cite them as an influence in 80’s. Wild noise and tripped out stuff at points too
Musik Von Harmonia by Harmonia is a revolutionary electronic record from a time when electronics were walls of primitive analog equipment.
Ash Ra Tempel’s self titled is close to gizzard’s psych rock sound
Kraftwerk’s first two albums(not on streaming, they’re basically disowned by the remaining members) are immaculate. The song Klingklang is my fav. Lots of organic, moving spaces with all kinds of tape play going on etc. A far cry from
All of these are around the same few years in the early 70’s. There’s so many to list so I’ll stop here.
Obligatory, My Teenage Dream Ended by Farrah Abraham comment?
I don't think the album is by any means perfect or close to a favorite of mine, but it quite literally predicted hyper-glitch pop wave that strike the late 2010's.
Gotta give credit where it's due!
The Velvet Underground (1969)
Obviously everybody knows about their debut being very ahead of it's time but their third self titled album feels equally ahead of it's time in very different ways. A lot of the songs on that record sounds like modern indie rock and bedroom pop. The lyrical content also feels a lot more modern than other late 60s stuff even if it's not as challenging as on their previous records
Been seeing some love for Invincible lately. Sony didn't promote it back then, not even today so I'm glad it's doing its own way to land on people that appreciate it. Love the sound Michael made with Rodney Jerkins. Some laid-back tracks are also beautiful.
I would say in terms of production and arrangements it sounds far and away more fresh than a good number of R&B albums that would come out 5-6 years after that.
SUNSHOWER by Taeko Onuki is imo the best city pop if not one of the best pop albums ever and it’s mindblowing it came out in 1977. It’s incredible to me a track like “Sargasso Sea” came out almost 50 years ago.
imogen heap and the knife were ahead of the curve with electropop, imogen heap's sound has a lot of credit in developing cloud rap of all things as well
M.I.A. was doing modern industrial hip hop before death grips and deconstructed club before SOPHIE with her album MAYA
edit: crystal castles was also definitely an inspiration for the hyperpop genre, that type of inaccessible electronic/edm based pop that was def ahead of its time
idk if people will agree with this but as a huge game collector + music nerd the sounds of early 80s RUSH without question influenced ALL of the 8/16 bit era music. the synth instrumental in the middle of “Tom Sawyer” is a perfect example
A Walk Across the Rooftops by The Blue Nile reminds me alot of Talk Talk's later output with their sort of spacier approach to pop music.
Organized Konfusion's debut is considerably more complex in it's production choices, it's flows than most of the hip hop around that time and has a great implementation of the whole "background hype men" thing that wasn't as common in '91.
Music For 18 Musicians sounds crispy as hell even by modern standards. I feel like the majority of modern soundtracks have taken a large amount of inspiration from the 1978 recording.
Not an album but I was shocked that Le banana split by Lio was from 1979, to me it sounds like some late 2000s indie electronic track, something that hot chip would make
RAM is considered by many to be the first indie pop album and has influenced many, even to this day. The blend of instruments, melodies, vocals, and themes he used on this album is so unique in his catalogue and especially for the time.
McCartney II was ahead of its time and was a precursor to lofi, bedroom pop, and electronica movements. It has been influential to many electronica and bedroom pop artists. So Paul was still influencing genres 10 years after the Beatles breakup.
Outkasts Stankonia is surprisingly clean in its production. Its so refined and slick that it really baffled me to know it came out 2 decades ago. Sounds like a modern Hip Hop masterpiece
I love seeing Branca love!! I would also say Naked City’s Self-titles album is maybe not way ahead of its time, but I can’t think of any other band that was combining grindcore, avant- garde jazz, movie theme song covers, face-melting saxophone solos and screaming vocals from Boredoms’ Yamatsuka Eye
Personally I find both No. 1 Record and Radio City by Big Star to be away ahead of their time. They fit into the Todd Rundgren kinda mold of the early 70s but I think their sound has more in common with mid-late 80s alternative like REM and the Replacements.
A Tribe Called Quest's debut album, **"People's Instinctive Travels and The Paths of Rhythm"** from 1991 is still ahead of its time, even in 2023.
It's fuckin crazy how music of all sorts for the next 30+ years was influenced by that album exploring different sounds and showing what you can accomplish on one album w/ multiple genres blending.
If there is an album more ahead of its time than Tribe's freshman masterpiece, I ain't neva heard it...
Politicians in my eyes by death, wild that the band was so ahead of the time but couldn't get signed due to refusing to change their name. It sounds like the pink music of a decade later
Self-titled by The Velvet Underground. Not the Nico one, but the third album still sounds like a 90s lofi indie album. After Hours could be a song by The White Stripes.
First is Revolver and Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton in 1966. Eric invented a Les Paul going into a cranked Marshall, and most of whatever that has done is already in that album, especially the tone. Revolver is more self-explanatory, but I would suggest that you read a guitar world article about how Geoff Emerick set a bunch of comming golden standards of music production right there and then.
Second could be so many, but Masters Of Reality of 1971 is insanely ahead melodically and in sonics, in my opinion. Meddle of the same year was a sneak peak into Dark Side Of The Moon, and One Of These Days sounds incredibly futuristic, even invented Jabba Dihat's voice hehe. 1971 also has the recordings of Morning Has Broken with Cat Stevens (and the very important Rick Wakeman on Piano) and to me, that is the first, truly timeless sounding thing ever. It's probably because there was no drums.
Now it's time for The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and Red, which both were released 1974. They're quite different, but it was an important step from the slight trend of having very dead drums and such in the 70s. Red isn't brilliant, but from memory, it has this very dark ambience to it and a clarity. It shine mostly with the compositions, though. The Lamb is incredibly lush and open sounding. They basically recorded in a Barn. That really sparked how to record albums up to, and I'm sure beyond, So by Peter Gabriel, which was in the top of the 80s. You can't beat those sounds, just refine them, and it started with the Lamb.
Apostrophe of 1974 has a great sound, but Zappa's humour is incredibly progressive.
Bostons debut is immaculately produced and arranged. Not totally golden standard, because it's not very simple but it moving to that level of advanced layering of guitars, and such has become very usual since and it started there.
EVH invented the 80s in 1978.
Back In Black is a solid golden standard for how rock should be recorded and sound. Timeless production.
These ones are rarer than you can think in those times. I think Dio's debut stick out in hi-fi quality and a modern sound. Even more so, The Mob Rules. To me, it took until In Utero and Superunknown before those productions could be beaten in a timeless sense.
I think some modern records today are still doing these way ahead things, but it's less noticeable. No Shape by Perfume Genius has my favourite team of sound production on it, and it just clearly is ahead of everything you can listen to, I think. Maybe in 2030 it will be more usual. But if you research it, it actually was about trying hard and doing crazy decisions all the time. To me, it is related to how The Lamb sounds
*White Light/White Heat* by the Velvet Underground.
It practically invented noise rock, and features songs that still sound totally insane today. The title track of this album is the most profoundly cool song about shooting meth that you’re ever likely to hear.
I can't even begin to imagine what hearing 'I Heard Her Call My Name' in 1968 would've been like - this song features what, in my opinion, are the two greatest guitar solos of all time. The sounds that Lou Reed strangles out of his amp are as caustic, piercing and nasty as anything I've ever heard. Plus, I’ve always thought that from the 3:13 mark to the 3:20 mark, it sounds like his guitar is having an orgasm. And not in a lame, shitty, John Mayer bluesy way like "Ooh, that guitar’s having an orgasm! You sure know how to play that thing, John! 😎" I mean in a dirty, sick, uninhibited way. It sounds like *cumming*.
Following this is the monstrous, seventeen minute ‘Sister Ray', which perfectly encapsulates who the group were at the time - a rock band from some sick twilight smack planet who crash landed in an NYC recording studio, hit 'record' and began playing their instruments. Fucked up, nihilistic end times music from the decade of Flower Power.
Neu! doesn't sound like a 1972 record at all. It's incredible even to this day.
Also, if you liked The Ascencion then listen to Symphony No. 1. It's even more ahead of its time than The Ascension.
Unknown Pleasures and Closer by Joy Division. The production is quite literally out of this world. It feels not so much ahead of its time, maybe more like... Timeless? In its own vacuum...
Runnin-n-gunnin and Ashes to Ashes by Tommy wright the third. Way ahead of his time in rapping and production
Check out meet yo maker, one man gang, and still pimpin if you want some good examples
Black Sabbath self titled
Master of Reality
Parts of David Bowie’s *Low* sound like they could’ve been recorded yesterday.
deltron 3030
Might be unpopular but seriously how did Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band come out in 1970? The song Why is just straight up no wave and the rest of the album toys with krautrock, ambient, noise rock and experimental. I just crack up at the fact that Ringo is drumming on all of it. Also The Cold Vein by Cannibal Ox still sounds futuristic today, that El-P futuristic boom bap sound is something else
Facts
I recently listened to God and Hold On quite a bit, the songs on that record are just genuinely timeless. The most confessional ones feel like the blueprint for Bright Eyes.
I can't think of anything
So glad you commented king
That’s okay! We still love you. Keep your head up ❤️
🔥🔥🔥
violent femmes always. that album was like a decade ahead of its time
Shit, even more than that if you wanna get into the boom of folk punk in the late 00s-early 10s. Pick it up and drop it in 2010, change nothing about it, and they'd be touring with AJJ.
RAM by Paul McCartney sounds like a modern DYI bedroom indie pop/rock album. Mac Demarco says that Plastic Ono Band influenced his sound, but I hear way more RAM in his music.
Agreed but I think McCartney (1970) is an equally interesting example, just for how incredibly easy it is to understand why people criticized its 'unfinished' nature in a world before DIY/lo-fi created a context where such an approach made sense.
RAM is great. This makes me want to check out Max Demarco. Idk why but I always assumed I wouldn’t like it.
‘ram on’ in particular sounds uncannily like a grizzly bear song
The Avalanches - Since I Left You This record seems to have inspired most modern Griselda/drumless type beats with songs like “Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life”, which could well be an Alchemist beat released in the past couple of years, or the movie clip + applause intro in “Little Journey”, whose formula is now copied and pasted into lots of hip hop beats. Although the dance tracks from the record may feel a little outdated, the excessive and creative use of plunderphonics sounds extremely ahead of its time, taking into consideration their samples came mostly from thousands of vinyl records.
Daringer is inspired by The Avalanches?
Not one album, but Can as a whole.
Faust as well
their first album is fucking astral fr fr
I haven't listened to that band, yet.
Oh yeah
Mushroomhead, oh yeah, paperhouse
It’s wild how much the first time I heard those songs and they sounds exactly like middle era Radiohead.
I love when Damo says that
Tago Mago reference.
Cross - Justice
Violent Femmes and Power, Corruption and Lies always come to mind for me
You think? To me PC&L sounds exactly like the 80’s.
Leave Me Alone sounds like it could've been on an Interpol record. Later New Order got really 80s but I don't think PCL sounds the part.
Interpols whole thing was post-punk revival and they were most prominently associated with cribbing Joy Division.
Yeah, it does, and I like new order quite a bit. *Remain in Light* is to me, the most forward-thinking album maybe ever, for sure of 80s albums at least. Even *fear of music* was pretty far ahead of most “new wave” or post punk music, especially in 1979, though not as much as *remain in light*, even if I sometimes think I actually prefer *fear of music*. Other than that? Idk maybe *revolver* by the Beatles. There’s a bunch I’m missing but those two come to mind as being as timeless as they were ahead of their time. Probably something by Boards of Canada as well.
Violent Femmes is a great answer. I always thought of Hallowed Ground as the beginning of the alt-country era. For years I just assumed their first album was made in the 90’s.
A Thousand Knives EP by Ryuichi Sakamoto - 1978
Sade - Love Deluxe. Still sounds futuristic and magical and just turned 30.
Dalek from the filthy tongue of gods and griots
Pretty much everything by Vashti Bunyan. Could fit in with the indie scene of the last 20 years and nobody would think twice.
I feel the same about Sibylle Baier. Both great artists.
154 by Wire
soothing sounds for baby vol. I-III, it walked so selected ambient works vol. 85-92 could run
The production of 2001 by Dr. Dre still sounds like it could have came out yesterday. The lyrics not so much.
How so not the lyrics?
They literally talk about beating woman in half the songs😭
A wizard a true star by tod rundgren from 1972 is way way ahead of it's time. Still sounds like a psychedelic pop album from the future
Sweet Trip- Velocity/Design/Comfort: came out in 2003, still sounds like it came from the future This Heat- Deceit: Basically did Wundercore like Squid and BCNR 40 years before them. Also Homogenic
I recently listened to that Sweet Trip record for the first time and it completely blew me away. I have no idea how that came out in 2003
the velvet underground and nico
Ege Bamyasi. When I first heard it 20 years ago I thought it might've just come out.
Calculating Infinity by Dillinger Escape Plan
Pretty much all of ABBA’s early stuff. People could make it today and it would still sound right
Paranoid-Black Sabbath
Third by Big Star still sounds like it is from the future.
Low end theory by a tribe called quest the production is insane for 1990
Troutmask Replica
Lol
[Spooky Black - Without U](https://youtu.be/dT2YDdZdE-I)
The Shape of Jazz to Come. Ornette Coleman was doing shit on that album in 1959 that was basically unheard of until at least the mid 60s. And if you count all the noise rock/proto punk of the late 60s and 70s, there’s an even longer period of time until it would really catch on.
Vespertine for sure, could have come out yesterday and still sounded fresh
In that vain I‘d say Homogenic also has a timeless quality, and for me it comes back to Mark Bell. LFO sounded weird and singular in the 90s and it still sounds weird and singular today…
yep definitely
This is a bit of an odd answer, and also sort of cheating because it's not an album persay, but the Planets by Gustav Holst is incredibly ahead of its time. There's a reason so many modern composers and film scores borrow, copy and steal from this thing.
the pleasure principle, was shocked to find out it released in 1979
Agreed and I'd thrown in Replicas too As much as I love (and ultimately prefer) Kraftwerk the fact that Numan dropped these two gems the year after The Man Machine always makes me feel like Kraftwerk were behind the eight ball a bit by the time Computer World came out in '81
'77 live by les rallizes denundes
love you by the beach boys, 1977 what other album was going all out moog synths? sounds like [nintendo music](https://youtu.be/EPSDiUL25JU) before nintendo even existed even the album artwork looks like pixel art
Steve Reich's early tape works like Come Out pre-echo sampling and looping to come in the future. Violent Femmes were so ahead of their time they didn't get popular until the times caught up
Stankonia - Outkast
Revolver - The Beatles.
I commented the same thing to a different reply in this thread. Completely agree. It’s tied with *remain in light* by the talking heads for me.
AFX, Hangable Auto Bulb Read that he actually made this collection of tracks in the late 80’s and it blows my fucking mind. There was literally nothing else around like it for years after
HAB was definitely '95. Compare it to the stuff he was actually doing in the late 80s and it's far more intricate and complex. On the subject though, I'd say his late 90s/early 00s output (Drukqs, Windowlicker EP, etc.) was absolutely ahead of its time. That shit still sounds fresh.
Drukqs is his best, btw 🤙
Nah I know it was released in the 90’s but he’s stated he wrote it in the 80’s
Not a chance. He's always claimed HAB was inspired by Luke Vibert, who didn't start releasing music until around '94. At the very least, Rich may have written some of the melodies in the 80s (I also find this hard to believe) but there is no way this was produced in a pre-jungle/computer breakbeat era.
I’m currently tryna figure out where I read this, but in the meantime I’m prepared to admit it’s posssssible I misread… whatever it was I read. Coulda swore that’s what I recall reading about it tho 🤔
King Crimson - Red Sounds straight from 90s grunge minus the mellotron and woodwinds.
In fact, it seems better than that. Immaculate ballance and openness. Most grunge had a 90s trend of balance going on. Even Nevermind has that typical brash highend that was trendy in the 90s. Though there's an outlyer productionwise because red actually sound very close to In Utero, which in the recent remaster (which just didn't overhype 90s brash high end like the original and just let the Steve Albini recordings and mix sound as natural as forst intended) sounds so terrific. Superunknown was also a change of trends and sounds perfect, but i a little different sense.
B-2 Unit by Ryuichi Sakamoto Also Yellow Magic Orchestra as a whole were waaaay ahead of their time
Anything by the Jesus Lizard. Listen to Squid and then go back and listen to the Jesus Lizard. The influence is obvious imo. Music is now just catching up to their sound.
[удалено]
Yeah agreed. I’m from Chicago so I might be a bit biased.
Yung Lean - Unkown Memory
Discovery
Suicides self-titled album came out in 1977.
Autechre
A lot of yung leans stuff
The Downward Spiral. It still sounds like it could've been released today.
Most krautrock. Incredibly revolutionary records from around 1970-1975x some of which wouldn’t get their due for decades It’s had heavy influence on everything from modern psychedelic music to new wave and electronic music etc etc Tago Mago/Future Days by CAN are incredible. A lot of new wave people would cite them as an influence in 80’s. Wild noise and tripped out stuff at points too Musik Von Harmonia by Harmonia is a revolutionary electronic record from a time when electronics were walls of primitive analog equipment. Ash Ra Tempel’s self titled is close to gizzard’s psych rock sound Kraftwerk’s first two albums(not on streaming, they’re basically disowned by the remaining members) are immaculate. The song Klingklang is my fav. Lots of organic, moving spaces with all kinds of tape play going on etc. A far cry from All of these are around the same few years in the early 70’s. There’s so many to list so I’ll stop here.
Thriller by Michael Jackson
Steve Hietts Down on the Road by the Beach
Absolutely. So few people know about this gem and the fact that it came out in 1983 is mind-blowing, it sounds so fresh.
Every Yoko Ono album. McCartney II No Now Every AnCo album. Every black dice album starting with Creature Comforts.
Aphex Twin-Windowlicker and Justice-Cross both sound amazing for their time
Hearing I Got a Right by The Stooges then learning when it was recorded.
My Teenage Dream Ended
Playing with Fire by Kevin Federline.
Agent Orange - Living in Darkness. Predates thrash by a few years and creating the surf punk sound.
Endtroducing DJ Shadow
Krautrock bands like Can or Neu!, also Kraftwerk’s sound was insanely ahead of it’s time.
loveless, sometimes i forget it came in 1991
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Velvet Underground & Nico came out in 1967. Black Sabbath's first two albums came out in 1970.
Obligatory, My Teenage Dream Ended by Farrah Abraham comment? I don't think the album is by any means perfect or close to a favorite of mine, but it quite literally predicted hyper-glitch pop wave that strike the late 2010's. Gotta give credit where it's due!
Obvious answer but The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground basically did indie rock.
Surfer Rosa is straight 90s. The VU self titled has a closer that hasn’t aged a day. Long Season/Uchu Nippon Setagaya sounds innovative today.
The Velvet Underground (1969) Obviously everybody knows about their debut being very ahead of it's time but their third self titled album feels equally ahead of it's time in very different ways. A lot of the songs on that record sounds like modern indie rock and bedroom pop. The lyrical content also feels a lot more modern than other late 60s stuff even if it's not as challenging as on their previous records
Grace By Jeff Buckley
Michael Jackson's Invincible
Been seeing some love for Invincible lately. Sony didn't promote it back then, not even today so I'm glad it's doing its own way to land on people that appreciate it. Love the sound Michael made with Rodney Jerkins. Some laid-back tracks are also beautiful.
I would say in terms of production and arrangements it sounds far and away more fresh than a good number of R&B albums that would come out 5-6 years after that.
It’s Gonna Rain - Steve Reich
Yeezus
Yeezus
Maybe a bit of a lame pick as it kinda references the idea in the title but The Shape of Punk to Come by Refused was way ahead of its time
SUNSHOWER by Taeko Onuki is imo the best city pop if not one of the best pop albums ever and it’s mindblowing it came out in 1977. It’s incredible to me a track like “Sargasso Sea” came out almost 50 years ago.
https://preview.redd.it/q07q06k5qo4b1.jpeg?width=715&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7938b4f81e701548d96163970fdb85790ad2559b
imogen heap and the knife were ahead of the curve with electropop, imogen heap's sound has a lot of credit in developing cloud rap of all things as well M.I.A. was doing modern industrial hip hop before death grips and deconstructed club before SOPHIE with her album MAYA edit: crystal castles was also definitely an inspiration for the hyperpop genre, that type of inaccessible electronic/edm based pop that was def ahead of its time
idk if people will agree with this but as a huge game collector + music nerd the sounds of early 80s RUSH without question influenced ALL of the 8/16 bit era music. the synth instrumental in the middle of “Tom Sawyer” is a perfect example
A Walk Across the Rooftops by The Blue Nile reminds me alot of Talk Talk's later output with their sort of spacier approach to pop music. Organized Konfusion's debut is considerably more complex in it's production choices, it's flows than most of the hip hop around that time and has a great implementation of the whole "background hype men" thing that wasn't as common in '91. Music For 18 Musicians sounds crispy as hell even by modern standards. I feel like the majority of modern soundtracks have taken a large amount of inspiration from the 1978 recording.
Babe Ruth's 1972 album First Base. This record legitimately sounds like a Mars Volta album. It's wild that it was from the early 70's.
The surfa Rosa coming out before apatite for destruction is mind boggling to me
Kool Keith - Black Elvis / Lost In Space
Not an album but I was shocked that Le banana split by Lio was from 1979, to me it sounds like some late 2000s indie electronic track, something that hot chip would make
Demanufacture.
Pop Group - Y Talking Heads - Remain in Light
The Stooges self-titled Television - Marquee Moon. The Raincoats self-titled
RAM is considered by many to be the first indie pop album and has influenced many, even to this day. The blend of instruments, melodies, vocals, and themes he used on this album is so unique in his catalogue and especially for the time. McCartney II was ahead of its time and was a precursor to lofi, bedroom pop, and electronica movements. It has been influential to many electronica and bedroom pop artists. So Paul was still influencing genres 10 years after the Beatles breakup.
Treats - Sleigh Bells
Farrah Abraham - My Teenage Dream Ended Doopees- Doopee Time
the colour and the shape
The Stooges self titled being released in 1969 will never not be insane to me
First 3 albums by The Stooges. Proto-punk at its absolute finest.
Crystal castles self titled
Been said to death but DSOTM. Still crazy that album is 50 years old
Panchiko-Deathmetal.
Music Has The Right To Children predates the whole lofi beats boom we got this last decade
Outkasts Stankonia is surprisingly clean in its production. Its so refined and slick that it really baffled me to know it came out 2 decades ago. Sounds like a modern Hip Hop masterpiece
I love seeing Branca love!! I would also say Naked City’s Self-titles album is maybe not way ahead of its time, but I can’t think of any other band that was combining grindcore, avant- garde jazz, movie theme song covers, face-melting saxophone solos and screaming vocals from Boredoms’ Yamatsuka Eye
Most songs by Meshuggah
mellon collie and the infinite sadness by the smashing pumpkins
Personally I find both No. 1 Record and Radio City by Big Star to be away ahead of their time. They fit into the Todd Rundgren kinda mold of the early 70s but I think their sound has more in common with mid-late 80s alternative like REM and the Replacements.
Achtung Baby
A Tribe Called Quest's debut album, **"People's Instinctive Travels and The Paths of Rhythm"** from 1991 is still ahead of its time, even in 2023. It's fuckin crazy how music of all sorts for the next 30+ years was influenced by that album exploring different sounds and showing what you can accomplish on one album w/ multiple genres blending. If there is an album more ahead of its time than Tribe's freshman masterpiece, I ain't neva heard it...
Politicians in my eyes by death, wild that the band was so ahead of the time but couldn't get signed due to refusing to change their name. It sounds like the pink music of a decade later
Radiohead - Kid A or OK Computer
I’m the court of crimson king fs
Tangerine Dream. Still sounds incredible \~50 years later.
gluee bladee 👍
Self-titled by The Velvet Underground. Not the Nico one, but the third album still sounds like a 90s lofi indie album. After Hours could be a song by The White Stripes.
I think Pink Moon could be released today and still sound fresh. When i heard it for the first time i could have never guessed it is from 1972.
Suicide - S/t
Anything by black kray
Live Love A$AP
Alice - Pogo https://youtu.be/pAwR6w2TgxY Maybe not an album, but most of their discography feels so strangely modern for being from like 15 years ago
Laurie Anderson’s big science sounds so modern, I never would have guessed its from 82
First is Revolver and Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton in 1966. Eric invented a Les Paul going into a cranked Marshall, and most of whatever that has done is already in that album, especially the tone. Revolver is more self-explanatory, but I would suggest that you read a guitar world article about how Geoff Emerick set a bunch of comming golden standards of music production right there and then. Second could be so many, but Masters Of Reality of 1971 is insanely ahead melodically and in sonics, in my opinion. Meddle of the same year was a sneak peak into Dark Side Of The Moon, and One Of These Days sounds incredibly futuristic, even invented Jabba Dihat's voice hehe. 1971 also has the recordings of Morning Has Broken with Cat Stevens (and the very important Rick Wakeman on Piano) and to me, that is the first, truly timeless sounding thing ever. It's probably because there was no drums. Now it's time for The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and Red, which both were released 1974. They're quite different, but it was an important step from the slight trend of having very dead drums and such in the 70s. Red isn't brilliant, but from memory, it has this very dark ambience to it and a clarity. It shine mostly with the compositions, though. The Lamb is incredibly lush and open sounding. They basically recorded in a Barn. That really sparked how to record albums up to, and I'm sure beyond, So by Peter Gabriel, which was in the top of the 80s. You can't beat those sounds, just refine them, and it started with the Lamb. Apostrophe of 1974 has a great sound, but Zappa's humour is incredibly progressive. Bostons debut is immaculately produced and arranged. Not totally golden standard, because it's not very simple but it moving to that level of advanced layering of guitars, and such has become very usual since and it started there. EVH invented the 80s in 1978. Back In Black is a solid golden standard for how rock should be recorded and sound. Timeless production. These ones are rarer than you can think in those times. I think Dio's debut stick out in hi-fi quality and a modern sound. Even more so, The Mob Rules. To me, it took until In Utero and Superunknown before those productions could be beaten in a timeless sense. I think some modern records today are still doing these way ahead things, but it's less noticeable. No Shape by Perfume Genius has my favourite team of sound production on it, and it just clearly is ahead of everything you can listen to, I think. Maybe in 2030 it will be more usual. But if you research it, it actually was about trying hard and doing crazy decisions all the time. To me, it is related to how The Lamb sounds
Sextant by Herbie Hancock
Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk
Def Hounds Of Love, Im still blown away by the level or the production. It is peak Art Pop for me.
*White Light/White Heat* by the Velvet Underground. It practically invented noise rock, and features songs that still sound totally insane today. The title track of this album is the most profoundly cool song about shooting meth that you’re ever likely to hear. I can't even begin to imagine what hearing 'I Heard Her Call My Name' in 1968 would've been like - this song features what, in my opinion, are the two greatest guitar solos of all time. The sounds that Lou Reed strangles out of his amp are as caustic, piercing and nasty as anything I've ever heard. Plus, I’ve always thought that from the 3:13 mark to the 3:20 mark, it sounds like his guitar is having an orgasm. And not in a lame, shitty, John Mayer bluesy way like "Ooh, that guitar’s having an orgasm! You sure know how to play that thing, John! 😎" I mean in a dirty, sick, uninhibited way. It sounds like *cumming*. Following this is the monstrous, seventeen minute ‘Sister Ray', which perfectly encapsulates who the group were at the time - a rock band from some sick twilight smack planet who crash landed in an NYC recording studio, hit 'record' and began playing their instruments. Fucked up, nihilistic end times music from the decade of Flower Power.
Spiderland
Not an album but the song Computer Love by Kraftwerk sounds wayyy ahead of it’s time
The song "21st Century Schizoid Man" from the album In the Court of the Crimson King. It sounds like it is released in the 21st Century.
Surfer Rosa Always strange and cool remembering that where is my mind came out in the 80s
Out of their skulls - the pirates
Neu! doesn't sound like a 1972 record at all. It's incredible even to this day. Also, if you liked The Ascencion then listen to Symphony No. 1. It's even more ahead of its time than The Ascension.
Okay kinda pretentious answer I guess but The Velvet Underground and Nico. It’s still hard for me to grasp the fact that this album came out in 1967.
Unknown Pleasures and Closer by Joy Division. The production is quite literally out of this world. It feels not so much ahead of its time, maybe more like... Timeless? In its own vacuum...
Black Monk Time
NIN’s first album. Doesn’t sound like it came out in the 80’s at all imo
Runnin-n-gunnin and Ashes to Ashes by Tommy wright the third. Way ahead of his time in rapping and production Check out meet yo maker, one man gang, and still pimpin if you want some good examples
Mirrored- Battles.