Worst album by your favourite artists (1 Viewer)

[Daniel J.S.]

Instead of the numerous "best" threads, how about a "worst" thread? Here are some of my choices:

The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour
Led Zeppelin: Coda
Pink Floyd: A Momentary Lapse of Reason
Bruce Springsteen: Human Touch
R.E.M.: Dead Letter Office

How's that for boring, out of touch, classic rock taste?

 

[PS Nystrom]

U2: Zooropa
Radiohead: Pablo Honey

Pieter

 

[Camp]

Dead Letter Office & Pablo honey are great albums. Hmmm..come to think of it, I guess I would select Pablo Honey from the Radiohead catalog through...but from REM I'd choose anything after Document.

This is a tough thread...I'll have to think.

 

[Daniel J.S.]

Well, "Dead Letter Office" does have "Chronic Town" attached to it, so it has that going for it. But, as one would expect from a B-side collection, there is a fair share of dross on it.



You don't like "Automatic for the People"?

 

[Tim Hoover]

I'll agree with you on the Springsteen - Human Touch just edged out its twin, Lucky Town by a very narrow margin on my "WTF?" scale.

Other entries on my personal "WTF?" scale:
U2 - Pop
R.E.M. - Up
David Bowie - Hours...
Queen - Hot Space (although to be honest most of their 80's output is edging up the list)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Nocturama
Radiohead - Kid A

I actually have a theory about the Radiohead album and its follower, Amnesiac. After the massive success of OK Computer I think the band devised a plan to separate the true music fans from the bandwagon-jumpers. The way they did this was by releasing some really awful music. The true music fans would decry the album, and the bandwagoneers would perceive it as "Art". Of course, this is just my opinion

 

[Daniel J.S.]

I thought Lucky Town was a really good record as it avoided the poppy stuff that dragged Human Touch down. If they had stuck the best of the Human Touch songs on Lucky Town ("Human Touch," "Soul Driver," "Roll of the Dice," "I Wish I Were Blind"), we could have gotten a great record, instead of a mediocre one and a good one.

 

[JohnE]

Load & Reload - Metallica
No Prayer for the Dying - Iron Maiden
Zooropa - U2


These are the ones that come immediately to mind.

 

[Andrew 'Ange Hamm' Hamm]

Some of these aren't actually "bad" albums, they're just the least good. And I'm discounting first albums done when the band was like 17 (From Genesis to Revelation, for example), because they're kind of expected to be bad.

Peter Gabriel - second album (scratch)
Joe Jackson - Beat Crazy
Emerson Lake & Palmer - Love Beach
Yes - Tormato
Genesis - Duke
Kansas - Monolith
Dream Theater - Metropolis Part 2
The Beatles - Let It Be
The Who - It's Hard

 

[Brian Perry]

Dream Theater - Metropolis Part 2

Sacrilege! I thought you liked it except for TSCO.

For DT, I'd have to say Falling Into Infinity.

For Rush, I'd have to say Vapor Trails. However, it's almost like Ange's exemption for debut albums--they are clearly past their creative prime, so it's almost not fair. But hey, they did release it.

 

[Jason_H]

The Smashing Pumpkins - Adore: There are some great songs on there, but it is too long and has too many clunkers on it as well. This album came together more live, but that can't save the studio version.

The Cure - The Top: Shake Dog Shake is amazing, but that is followed by a lot of weird, unfamiliar vocal keys and week songwriting. There weren't enough other band members around to keep Smith in check around this time period. Cocaine kills, Robert!

Suede - Head Music: Suede lost the plot a bit here, a lot of the songs sound too formulaic and lifeless. They have redeemed themselves a bit on the new record, A New Morning. Still, a bad Suede album is better than 90% of the other crap out there.

Blur - Leisure: The band was still finding their legs at this time and it shows. Lots of baggy filler...but a few songs that foreshadowed their impending brilliance.

R.E.M. - Monster: Massively hyped, no follow through. A few good rockers, but all in all, not up to the standards of their other output. Now clogging used bins everywhere.

Ash - Nu-clear Sounds: They only have three albums out (plus the world's most brilliant singles collection), but this one sticks out like a sore thumb. The afterglow of the 1977 album brings us melodic-thrash rock that just doesn't work. The band triumphantly kung-fus everyone with next album Free All Angels.

Great thread, by the way. Even greats bands are human and make mis-steps!

 

[Adam Tyner]

To just rattle off a few:

XTC - they have a few mediocre albums, but I'd give the nod to "Mummer" over "The Big Express" or "Go2"

Sloan - "Pretty Together"

Moxy Fruvous - "Thornhill"

 

[Andrew 'Ange Hamm' Hamm]

Sacrilege! I thought you liked it except for TSCO.

Again, this is an example of a "worst" album actually being a "least great" album. The more I listen to Scenes from a Memory the more monotonous I find the music and the more incomprehensible I find the story. It's just a personal thing; I just never really got into it. Though the overture is one of my favorite pieces of DT's whole catalog.

Maybe I should have put Falling Into Infinity there instead, but there a re a few songs on that album that I really love ("New Millenium," "Lines in the Sand"). SFAM just bores me at this point. Personally, the more I listen to Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence the more I think it smokes all the rest of DT's catalog combined, which is saying a lot.

 

[Jeremiah]

Pink Floyd - Obscured By Clouds....I really like 2 songs on it though.
Led Zepplin - Presence(never heard Coda)
The Doors - Soft Parade

 

[JamieD]

Great thread, by the way. Even greats bands are human and make mis-steps!

I strongly disagree. These are the kinds of threads I dispise. I disagree with many of the choices here, and find little value to this kind of thread. I wasn't going to post this at all, but then saw a number of others that I just can't understand.

 

[George See]

I don't know that Dead Letter Office really counts? I took the thread title to mean studio albums of origional material. I wouldn't think a b-sides compilation packaged with a reissue of an older album would count. Dead letter office was more of an album by a record company than an album by an artist

I guess my answer would have to Vitalogy by Pearl Jam, and not because of songs like "bugs". The album does have some great tunes on it, but overall I don't think the album holds together very well.

 

[Larry Geller]

The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour

Yeah, boy that Strawberry Fields---waste of vinyl
that Penny Lane---terrible song
All You Need Is Love---nobody will ever remember it
I Am The Walrus---worthless gibberish

alright, I can't bear to type this anymore---

ARE YOU KIDDING???

 

[Michael Hughes]

Elvis Costello: Mighty Like a Rose
Joe Jackson: Night and Day II
Richard Thompson: N/A

 

[Peter Mazur]

Although there are some fine songs on these, I will pick my least favorite albums. I will list my very favorite bands.

Marillion - Radiation
Blur - 13
Kiss - Crazy Nights
Prince - Controversy
Queen - The Works
U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind
IQ - Tales From The Lush Attic
Genesis - Calling All Stations
Iron Maiden - Virtual XI
Yes - Open Your Eyes
Queensryche - Empire
Peter Gabriel - Us

Don't get me wrong I like these albums. It's just that if I am in the mood to listen to music by one of these artists, these are usually the last ones I would grab.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Interesting thread. I usually don't like threads that slam albums or artists, but this doesn't have to be that.

And, yeah, I disagree with a lot of choices here, but I can understand that. For example, I adore Marillion's Radiation. I recently spun it a few times and it gave me a new appreciation for the music. A Few Words For the Dead alone makes it great.

Maybe we could put a little explanation with the lists to clear things up.

Anyway, here's mine:

Rush: Rush (it ain't really Rush w/o Peart to me)

Marillion: Fugazi (least consistant musically with some boring bits and the only Marillion album I don't love)

Iron Maiden: Virtual XI (the only Maiden album that isn't even good. Even No Prayer had a few good songs.)

Genesis: Calling All Stations (I actually really like Duke )

King Crimson: Lizard (weird lineup and horrible synthesised vocal effects.)

Yes: Big Generator (I've learned to deal with 90125 and the pop stuff from Yes, but this album is just... ugh)

AC/DC- Blow Your Video (the band just sounds tired and uninspired)

Opeth- Orchid (first album, didn't solidy their unique sound yet)

Metallica- Load (some great tunes, but too many stinkers compared to the consistent quality of their previous releases)

Dream Theater- Six Degrees of Inner Turbulences
(Saying which DT album is my least favorite is like saying which Playboy centerfold I wouldn't want to date, because I love them all. The first disc of 6 Degrees just has some bits that don't seem to fit in as well as they can, and The Great Debate annoys me sometimes.)

Spock's Beard- Snow (I could live without the Christian preaching, and I think it could have been musically more effective as a tighter single album.)

Frank Zappa- Just Another Band From LA
(The Flo & Eddie stuff is by far my least favorite of Zappa's work, especially Billy the Mountain)

The Flower Kings- Flower Power
(The second disc has some boring bits that sound like they're filling up space, but there are no bad Flower Kings albums.)

And, since everyone is weighing in on Radiohead, I'll go with Amnesiac. Just not as strong as OK Computer or even Kid A.

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

Genesis - Calling All Stations

Joshua Kadison - Delilah Blue

KISS and Chicago - Any future releases of Greatist Hit's albums

Toto - Mindfields

Van Halen - 3

Paul