Underrated Albums of the 70s?
 

Obscure is always cool, too.

Catherine Howe - What a Beautiful Place
Sopwith Camel - The Miraculous Hump Returns From the Moon
Chicago VII
Nino Ferrer - Blanat
Supertramp - Crisis? What Crisis?

How do you define Underrated?

I don't think these two albums are underrated especially the Supertramp one.

From my album collection:

Foghat - Foghat (Rock 'n Roll) 1973
Wishbone Ash - Argus
Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All
Jo Jo Gunne - So Where's the Show
Rolf and Florian - S/T (1973)
Supertramp - Even in the Quietest Moments
Gino Vanelli- Storm at Sunup
Dire Straits - Communique
Uriah Heep - The Magician's Birthday
Alan Parsons Project - Tales and Imagination of Edgar Allan Poe
Tim Buckley - Greetings From LA
Sniff 'n the Tears - Fickle Heart
Can - Tago Mago
Robin Trower - For Earth Below
Savoy Brown - Hellbound Train
Queen - S/T
Edgar Winter - They Only Come Out at Night
Klaatu - S/T
Crack the Sky - S/T
Van Der Graaf Generator - Godbluff

You can define it "Anyway you want (it)" but VII was said to have suffered because it was a double-album, but it was supposed to be purely jazz/experimental, but Guercio and Cetera disagreed, but it also had a ton of great songs, but I wonder if price and direction (after a few single albums) affected audience and/or critics.



After "Crime of the Century" it was easy to say how a band couldn't top their previous feat, ala Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" but that's probably the nature of their business. Chicago X to me is their worst Kath era album (I wish the horn section never sang a lick), but because "If You Leave Me Now" hit #1, it sold really well.

Great album! One of my all-time faves, and one I always listen to beginning to end without skipping a track. It is slightly better known in Prog Rock circles, and in Baltimore where the band has found success for decades. Crack the Sky was named Best Debut Album of the Year by Rolling Stone magazine. But horrible distribution hindered whatever momentum they may have had out of the gate to make a national impact. They survived but remained strongest regionally. One of those tales of a band that almost hit it big.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq1iz9r9eV8&t=4s

I got to open for them several times in recent years, with original members John Palumbo, Rick Witkowski, and Joey D'Amico still in the lineup. Seeing these songs played live from the wings of backstage was surreal. Especially the year they had both the horn and string sections with them.

Buffalo - Volcanic Rock (1973)
Deep Purple - Come Taste the Band (1975)
Grand Funk Railroad - Closer to Home (1970)
Janis Joplin - Pearl (1971)
Judas Priest - Rocka Rolla (1974)
Judas Priest - Stained Class (1978)
Nazareth - Hair of the Dog (1975)
Rainbow - Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975)
Rainbow - On Stage (1977)
Santana - Santana III (1971)
Scorpions - Lovedrive (1979)
Ted Nugent - Ted Nugent (1975)
Ted Nugent - Free-for-All (1976)
Uriah Heep - Salisbury (1971)
Uriah Heep - Sweet Freedom (1973)
Whitesnake - Lovehunter (1979)

Underrated artists of the 70's as a whole:

Hot Chocolate
Frankie Miller
Mountain
Ten Years After
UFO