which is the most overrated classic-era CAN album?

Yes... Ha ha ha... YES!

I think Monster Movie may be the one that people seem to generally like that I've never really gotten into

Future Days

S/T a.k.a. "Opener"

a.k.a. Inner Space... Opener was a compilation.

there was a time when I would've said Monster Movie no doubt but I realized lately that album has such a 60's movie star cool vibe to it. also it sounds incredible, if you played it for someone now they might think it was an imitation of that era because it's so pristine. idk how Can got all their early run sounding so perfect...around the time of Landed their records started sounding much less well defined I think

Future Days

Saw Delight is fine but I recall some discussion here that built it up too much, to me at least.

Monster Movie is underrated not overrated.

that's how I feel about Future Days!

Saw Delight was the first album of theirs I ever heard and I still love it

How can Future Days be underrated when it and Tago Mago are constantly described as their best albums?

Saw Delight is fine but I recall some discussion here that built it up too much, to me at least.

lol that's funny for me it was the opposite, I saw that album get trashed a bunch and when I heard it I was like come on how can you hate this

it's actually a funny story, my best friend was a busker in Cambridge, MA, and someone threw a copy of Saw Delight in his guitar case as a tip, so when he was done, we smoked a bunch of weed and listened to it.

hah back in the day "Fly By Night" was one of my favorite 420 songs

For reference, RYM ratings:

Monster Movie (3.71)
Soundtracks (3.70)
Tago Mago (4.06)
Ege Bamyası (4.02)
Future Days (4.10)
Soon Over Babaluma (3.58)
Unlimited Edition (3.56)
Landed (3.22)
Flow Motion (3.04)
Saw Delight (3.17)
Out of Reach (2.51)
Can (2.81)

Those ratings are far too low for the later albums.

they're too low for the early albums too :)

I dunno... if the "big three" Damo records score 4+ then Landed/Flow Motion/Saw Delight getting 3+ sounds about right (and I love those latter records).

Monster Movie and Soundtracks def underrated

YOU FINALLY, REALLY DID IT. YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!

this reinforces for me that Monster Movie is overrated because I'd much rather listen to most of those later albums that are rated considerably lower

I never feel the urge to listen to Monster Movie but maybe I should have a good binge just to confirm

I think it's impossible to overrate the first five and the others would surely never be classed as overrated. Might be a vote for (ducks)?

i love it but future days

if this was "worst" then I would have a vote, but "most overrated"? I don't think Out Of Reach is that good, but who is rating it highly? it's not terrible.

the prob with the first two is that the highs are really high but then there are songs I still can't remember after 35+ years

Oh, it’s Monster Movie easily for me. If it weren’t for Delay/Soundtracks/Unlimited I’d have thought that Mooney was a hack

he's also great on Lost Tapes! but yes the first two of these have very high high points and also some songs I still can't recall after 35 years of listening

haha the extra poll options were an accident but they work

S/T a.k.a. "Opener"

a.k.a. Inner Space... Opener was a compilation.

― Kim Kimberly

duly noted and ty as always, Fact Checking First Cuz

Tago Mago is the most overrated one. It's great but it was the last of the classic run I heard and having heard that it was a masterpiece I was a bit let down, vastly prefer Babaluma.

Now we're talking

yeah Babaluma cannot be overrated imho

Next poll: what is the most accurately rated CAN album?

I regret making this poll already j/k

I think I'm voting Ege Bamyasi, which is the good (and acclaimed) Can record I never want to listen to

it's actually a funny story, my best friend was a busker in Cambridge, MA, and someone threw a copy of Saw Delight in his guitar case as a tip, so when he was done, we smoked a bunch of weed and listened to it.

― whimsical skeedaddler (Moodles), Friday, February 20, 2026 3:06 PM

ok I thought you were just making this up but now I realize it's real and I love it

after careful consideration I am voting Tago Mago very narrowly over Soundtracks, which is ironic b/c they have my #1 and #2 fave tracks between them ("Mother Sky" and "Halleluwah")

Absolutely true story! He also once got a big tip from Eddie Vedder, and it got written about in the local paper.

xp

I think it's impossible to overrate the first five

― Position Position

what is this Soon Over Babaluma erasure lol

if this was "worst" then I would have a vote, but "most overrated"? I don't think Out Of Reach is that good, but who is rating it highly?

*cough* Soundtracks *cough*

ok well maybe not

also a lot of folks on ILM seem to be annoyed by Future Days

Agree with the votes for Tago Mago. "Halleluwah" is amazing, but the rest slides between just okay and "Fuck, is it still going?"

xp I've seen Future Days lauded as their best a lot over the years but for me the second side just kind of goes nowhere. Fgti's quote from the other thread sums it up:

It’s always been this “wha happened?” kind of album for me, like it’s on and then it’s over.

I'd say the last half of Tago Mago is more something you have to be in the mood to listen. Side 3 is pretty Ummagumma, which you know.

The first half is probably the best they ever did though. Kind of hard to beat space rawk james brown grooves.

Did any of them ever have any relations to the ECM scene of the 70s & 80s? I'd figure some of those northern Europeans liked some Can.

"It’s always been this “wha happened?” kind of album for me, like it’s on and then it’s over."

I kinda dig how Future Days sounds like one big long song on CD. It's kinda their Dark Side in a way with some of the ambient touches.

i kinda take TM as a single LP and the last 3 are bonus tracks

as a nerdy 15 year old switching from prog to punk, I distinctly recall being in a shabby shopping mall book & record store, and picking up Soon over Babaluma in the rack (lord knows how it made it's way to southern New Hampshire in 1983) and being very intrigued by the cover. But I got the Damned garage rock side project Naz Nomad instead. After only getting around to Can in the 00s, I really wonder what that road not taken could have lead to at such an age.

idk if the original cover was like this but the reissue of Soon Over Babaluma has this really cool foil sheen to it that makes the stars on it actually shine when it's next to light, its definitely my favorite album cover of theirs

I think I’m glad for any early Can with Malcolm that might get “close to blues rock,” although I have to think about when that was. “Nineteen Century Man,” I suppose.

(xp) Yes that's the original cover.

xp to be clear I'm really just gently trolling but also gently serious

I dearly love Tago Mago but it does have that thing like Sandinista or the White Album where I habitually try to puzzle out a shorter "better" version. "Aumgn" and "Peking O" rarely make the cut in that thought experiment, so maybe (per voodoo chili's logic) ironically TM might get my vote since it can survive the most cutting and still be amazing

Monster Movie is incredible, <3 Malcolm

i will not stand for malcolm mooney slander. that dude invented can

They'd have been happily plinky-plonking about, doing their little Ethnological Forgery doodads, without him.

I love overloaded maximalist albums like Tago Mago and Sandinista and All Things Must Pass and Zen Arcade. The form-follows-function of the LP era really comes into play. They got appendices where you only gotta go there when you're in the mood. Disc one of Tago Mago is about the best and most cohesive trip ever made by anyone, offsetting whatever can be offputting about disc two.

But I love Ethnological Forgery

i will not stand for malcolm mooney slander. that dude invented can

― c u (crüt), Tuesday, February 24, 2026 10:55 AM (thirty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Mooney definitely laid the template for how the band went with their eccentric vocal choices

They all said he pushed them towards doing more rock based material instead of the aforementioned plinky-plonking about.

...or groove based or whatever.

just building my case against him here

Disc one of Tago Mago is about the best and most cohesive trip ever made by anyone, offsetting whatever can be offputting about disc two.

Exactly how I feel about Physical Graffiti.

Agilok and Blubbo is rock music, but not with the repetition!

the shorter better version of tago mago is just the first lp, you don't need to over think it

disc 2 of tago mago is the most psychedelic they ever got

I said on the other thread— Disc 2 of Tago Mago got massively upgraded with the 2011 remaster; I was an Aumgn/Peking O naysayer based on the 90s Spoon CDs but I’ve changed my feelings 100 percent. Amazing music

the 2nd disc isn't bad or anything it's just much more in 'interesting experiment' territory than 'some of the best music ever made' which the first lp is

it's not like faust's "why don't you eat carrots" which i can't stand

ufo otm imo. Aumgn and Peking O are half an hour of experiments that keep Tago Mago from being “a double album without a wasted note” (Ned’s AllMusic review) for me. The comparison to Ummagumma upthread is apt, I never play sides 3 and 4 of that one either.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Who has ever rated Out of Reach, let alone overrated?

hey I included it as it was part of their original run, that was the point! also it's clear someone thinks it sucks more that any rehabbed notion of it.

Interesting that no one thinks Landed is most overrated. That makes sense to me as it does kinda feel like it lives in the shadow of the previous and subsequent releases.

Impossible to overrate either Ege Bamyasi or Tago Mago. These are bad results!

A tie! i.e. there is no most overrated Can album, which is correct.

I WARNED YOU

all of the above wasn't an option?

(ducks)

the right ones won

also sleeve is an ass for the ducks option

don't really dig soundtracks except for "mother sky", it's kind of rough and blocky or something to me.

first time i heard can was via 30-second mp3 clips of the self-titled album on CD-NOW or one of those pre-amazon sites. was confusing. i think it might have been their only album in print on cd in the late 90s in the usa?

Ege Bamyasi is only overrated if people have been rating it 20 out of 10.

the problem is the word "overrated" which should be banned

The most "rated" albums are obviously going to top a poll of "overrated" albums.

saw Dan Deacon last night and the music playing over the PA in between acts was all Can, which meant I could overhear several people in the crowd talking about Can, mostly in the context of "you haven't heard of these guys??? you need to listen to them right away!!"

A lot of those people are being disappointed by "Augmn" today.

I stated this in another thread— remastered disc 2 of Tago Mago has 180’d my opinions re Aumgn and Peking O— they are awesome

The precise order of listening I did that day was Relics into Piper Gates into Obscured— I’m not a Floyd fan but I enjoy some Floyd sometimes— title track on Obscured made me say “this kinda sounds like if Aumgn were any good” and then I made up my mind to try Aumgn again. But it’s not right to skip to Aumgn so I started Tago from the beginning.

I always listened on vinyl historically and this time it was the remaster from Apple Music in my car and it was like hearing an album I knew like the back of my hand for the first time. And Aumgn (in particular) is an incredible thing in its remastered form. When I got to Peking O I was dreading the “BOODA BOODA BOODA BOODA” moment which has always been Damo waterskiing over sharks, but the mix was changed. It sounded good.

And I put on Faust and was reminded again that these two bands are the best bands

these two bands are the best bands

otm

For years I had TM on vinyl and never listened to the second disc... it's only when I got it on cd that I started listening to the whole thing and now I can't imagine skipping any of this album. It had been a while since I listened to it and the comments on this thread prompted me to go listen to "Augmn" and "Peking O" and yeah they are both awesome. But I get that they ain't for everyone.

i connected with the entirety of tago mago on a road trip in a car too! i think it might have been on an ipod or something? can't remember.

the first can i ever heard was unlimited edition from a used cd shop. i did not know what to make of it at the time (late 90s?). remember liking it but feeling a little wearied by it. a feeling i still have sometimes when it comes to can haha.

My first exposure to Faust, in large part because I’m not into jamming, either as a consumer or creator, I kind of appreciated it all but did not, until middle age and thousands more albums digested, appreciate just what transcendent jammers there were/are in that band. The breakdowns are otherworldly

The back-to-back “ah ha!”s of that day had me curious if in fact Scaruffi was also correct about The Doors s/t and lol god no he is not correct

much as i enjoy most of Faust's work there is a special place in my heart for "Jennifer" which feels like an absolute oddity in their whole thing

yeah that's so great

can't think of another song like it by anyone

Most underrated - Rite Time!