From the year of Zigoy, Fxile, Harvest et al, 50 under-theradar albums that blew MOdO's writers' mingds, and could blow yours, too, if you're not carefull. From witchy prog to bitchin’ funk - it's all great in our crate. So let the digging commence!

WRITTEN BY Phil Alexander, Martin Aston, Mike Barnes, Andy Cowan, Dave DiMartino, David Hutcheon, Jim Irvin, Dorian Lynskey, Andrew Male, David Sheppard, Michael Simmons, Sylvie Simmons, Jeff Tamarkin, Charles Waring

THIS TIME LAST YEAR WE HAD AN IDEA: A ridiculous number of 1971’s albums still ranked among the best of all time, and during 2021 MOJO had published 50th Anniversary features on many of them – but what of the undercard? The cult classics that weren’t Blue, Sticky Fingers or Hunky Dory? Whither the Jan Dukes De Grey, the Heads Hands & Feet, the New Riders Of The Purple Sage...?

Flipping through our battered vinyl, we ran a feature that celebrated 50 of our favourite undersung albums from that mindboggling year. Your feedback – and suggestions for albums we missed – implied that you rather enjoyed it. So we’ve decided to do it again, looking back across a half century to another golden year in music: 1972.

Ironically, it’s the year that gave us the very concept of pop Nuggets, as Lenny Kaye’s compilation of that name performed the first truly significant act of rock-era reclamation, collecting the gnarly 45s of America’s mid-’60s garage beat boom: what Kaye and his label Elektra described as Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era. An influence on the coming wave of punk on both sides of the Atlantic, it introduced an idea MOJO still holds dear – looking back need not preclude moving forward.

You will find that MOJO’s 1972 Nuggets are an unruly mob. Italian prog dukes it out with heavy soul, preternatural folk and kaleidoscopic country. Several of these records are, with the greatest respect, somewhat bananas. Others, based on a glimpse of their sleeves alone (step forward, Poobah and Birth Control), would send you screaming from your vintage vinyl emporium, never to taste the exotic aural fruit they contain. But MOJO is made of sterner stuff, so bring ’em on.

In with the out crowd: undersung hewers of 1972 gold (from left) Catherine Ribeiro, Ronnie Foster, David Ackles, Linda Lewis, Captain Beyond’s Rod Evans.

GÄPTAIN BEYOND Captain Beyond (Capricorn)

Getty (4), Blue Note Records

Duane Allman flipped his wig when he heard the post-Hendrix grooves of Captain Beyond’s demo, recommending Capricorn sign them instantly. Despite the speedy deal that followed, the supergroup – comprising ex-Deep Purple vocalist Rod Evans, Johnny Winter’s drum wizard Bobby Caldwell and Iron Butterfly duo Larry Reinhardt (guitar) and Lee Dorman (bassist) – found their brand of heavy prog-psych at odds with the label’s Southern output. Limping in at 134 in the Billboard 200, it has since aged gracefully, the funky crunge of opener Dancing Madly Backwards (On A Sea Of Air) enough to guarantee Captain Beyond’s immortality among heads the world over. PA

LINDA LEWIS Lark (Reprise)

Linda Lewis’s springfresh second album enjoyed a minor revival in 2000 when producer Midfield General sampled her gospel barnburner Reach For The Truth. It’s a red herring, though: Lark moves more like a British take on Terry Callier’s rippling folk-soul. Just 21, east Londoner Linda Fredericks had already appeared in A Hard Day’s Night, played the first Glastonbury festival and sung back-up on Aladdin Sane. Produced by her future husband Jim Cregan, Lark combines the boho romance of early Joni Mitchell (check the guy with “flowers in your toes”) with the vocal range of Minnie Riperton and a lithe, sunny exuberance. DL