I think of this category as albums people have not heard of and when listen, demand to know who they are and where to acquire them. Using this criteria, items that come to mind are Milla's The Divine Comedy and Eros Ramazzotti's Eros in Concert.
Milla's album is "her," meaning all lyrics were written and performed by her and all music was written by her. The lyrics are sincere, clear and well recorded. The choices and layering of instruments is outstanding. After this album, she lost all musical talent. All musical performances I have seen from her since this album make this album seem a fluke... but, I'll take it anyway.
The Eros disc is something completely different. It is the finest recorded live concert I have ever heard. Admittedly, I have the difficult to find, double-disc German import, but the single disc American disc is also pretty good. Everything is clear, which is unusual for a live recording in a stadium. The performance is better than his studio recordings. He was definitely "on" when he was performing for this disc. If someone could only have one Eros disc, this is the one to have
Unfortunately, as many of my friends have found, neither of these CDs are easy to find these days. They are both worth the search, though.
Best Regards,
