He finds rare, unusual cuts from great artists, creates new albums.

September 13, 2019 4:54 AM

Albums I Wish Existed A web site jam packed with albums that could have been made, perhaps should have been made, and now they are made, by a man who just seems to be doing what he can to make the world a better place for those of us who love music.

Pretty much what it says on the tin. The guy seems to know everything about every artist on the planet, and seems also to know about obscure cuts and rarities and special pressings, and he goes about locating these cuts, cleans them up if they need it, and puts together albums out of what he's put together.

Following are a few albums that jumped out, caught my interest:

Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash - The Nashville Sessions (1969)
Derek And The Dominos - Devil Road (1971)
Amy Winehouse - Procrastination (2011)
Cheap Trick - In Color (Steve Albini mix) (1997)
Nirvana - Ashamed To Be Human (1988)
Duane Allman - Goin' Down Slow (1969)
Bob Dylan -- Too many albums to list, if you like Dylan go to the page and fall back in awe

There are literally hundreds of really interesting albums, by great artists, ordered nicely, ready for free download.

Also on this site are many links to other, similar web sites.

posted by dancestoblue (24 comments total)

See also : Albums that never were
posted by panama joe at 5:22 AM on September 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

Good!
posted by lyricsongation at 5:25 AM on September 13, 2019

This is a cool idea, and I'd be interested in hearing some of these, however the two methods for downloading these (ZippyShare? Yandex?) look very sketchy (from a virus-ware perspective). Hard pass.
posted by jeremias at 5:26 AM on September 13, 2019 [3 favorites]

This is the sort of thing that brings me to Metafilter day after day. Where else am I going to find something like this?
posted by hwestiii at 5:53 AM on September 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

I really like this Beatles album assembled by Albums that Never Were. I have played it a few times and it has a great flow. The tracks were expertly chosen.
posted by zzazazz at 6:07 AM on September 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

as a former record store clerk, i like this
but as a former record store clerk, the alphabetical by first name and definite article makes my eyes bleed

(there, i said it)
posted by entropicamericana at 6:17 AM on September 13, 2019 [12 favorites]

however the two methods for downloading these (ZippyShare? Yandex?) look very sketchy (from a virus-ware perspective).

Fairly standard since mp3blogs stopped just hosting mp3s (and, since that, since MegaUpload got fucked by the Yanks). Not saying it's without risk, but there's a chunk of the web that does this.

Can anyone describe to me the risk of opening a random .7z containing mp3s?
posted by pompomtom at 6:17 AM on September 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

(obviously, it fucks up your wget one-liners, but you can't blame the authors for that...)
posted by pompomtom at 6:32 AM on September 13, 2019

This is how I found out that the Hollies did a cover of Springsteen's "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)", maybe my favorite early Boss song. Neat!
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:39 AM on September 13, 2019 [5 favorites]

Can anyone describe to me the risk of opening a random .7z containing mp3s?

I think it is more to do with all the things it wants you to install before you even get to that point. I attempted one and it didn't take me to any .7z files but sure was keen to embed itself into my computer with installs and notifications. On a more secure browser this wasn't an issue.
posted by Ashwagandha at 7:06 AM on September 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

So now that I am able to download BOC Maxima, it is fascinating how many of the tracks clearly influenced vaporwave. Like, Nlogax sounds very, very similar to Vektroid's Featherskull off of Starcalc.
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:09 AM on September 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

Poking around, I see he also has some "weird electronic stuff," including two from Aphex Twin, which leads me to my comment: you can still download RDJ's 112 unreleased tracks from Archive.org, even though the user48736353001 account on Soundcloud (previously) was shuttered.

Yes, and Boc Maxima from Boards of Canada (a bit of context from Wikipedia).

I was able to download that one by clicking on the "download" link from Zippyshare three times. The first two clicks launched shady pages, and the 3rd was the 7z file. Not ideal, and best experienced with an adblocker, but I also realize that's how music like this (grey-area bootlegs) gets posted for free.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:12 AM on September 13, 2019

I think it is more to do with all the things it wants you to install before you even get to that point.

Thanks. I had no such problems (OSX/Safari). I now have a .7z that I can't open, and it's late... project for tomorrow's VM.
posted by pompomtom at 7:17 AM on September 13, 2019

pompomtom: All you need is The Unarchiver.
posted by SansPoint at 7:42 AM on September 13, 2019 [4 favorites]

as a former record store clerk, the alphabetical by first name and definite article makes my eyes bleed


Also, for example, having different entries for ELO, Electric Light Orchestra and The Electric Light Orchestra. But this is still awesome and has ruined my goal of acquiring less new music and spending more time on what I already have.
posted by YoungStencil at 8:25 AM on September 13, 2019

That Albini version of In Color by Cheap Trick is so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so good.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:40 AM on September 13, 2019 [6 favorites]

Some of these, like BoC's 'Boc Maxima' are definitely real albums, just ones that are hard to find. I was getting some Mandela Effect confusion at that entry, like 'I know I have that in my library! It's real!'
posted by FatherDagon at 9:05 AM on September 13, 2019

Has anyone reconstructed Neil Young's Island in the Sun album? It was the album Geffen rejected in 1982, leading to the release of Trans (which is my favorite Neil album. Drag me.) A few tracks were included in Trans, but I'm curious what else was recorded.
posted by SansPoint at 9:24 AM on September 13, 2019 [3 favorites]

This is really cool. Thanks for posting!
posted by maurice at 9:37 AM on September 13, 2019

I love Albums That Never Were, and their version of the Beatles' Get Back has supplanted the official Let It Be in my listening.
posted by kaisemic at 10:01 AM on September 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

Trans (which is my favorite Neil album. Drag me.)

Trans is excellent.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 10:07 AM on September 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

When I came across this site I immediately remembered listening to that Boz Scaggs album 40 years ago and sayng "Hey, wait a minute, that's Duane Allman! That's got to be Duane Allman!" and picking up the record and finding that yes indeedy, it was Duane Allman playing. What a great thing that was.

So when I found this site I figured it would be right in the wheel-house of lots of MetaFilter members, and it seems that it is. Anyone else also blown away by the great images he's found for each "album"?

I'm smiling now over here, glad to be a part of this madcap crew, damn sure glad that I posted this ...
posted by dancestoblue at 10:36 AM on September 13, 2019

I really like this Beatles album assembled by Albums that Never Were. I have played it a few times and it has a great flow. The tracks were expertly chosen.

There are four more in the series:
Imagine Clouds Dripping (1971)
Living in the Material World (1972)
Band on the Run (1973)
Good Night Vienna (1974)

I love Albums That Never Were, and their version of the Beatles' Get Back has supplanted the official Let It Be in my listening.

He did the same thing for the White Album.
posted by kirkaracha at 2:27 PM on September 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

It's funny, his single disc version of The White Album is almost the obverse of what I would pick. But they're both good.
posted by ovvl at 8:00 AM on September 14, 2019 [1 favorite]