| Author | Message | ||
     XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 491 Registered: 01-2006 |
Recent releases: El Rey - The Wedding Present. I've made myself listen to this a few times but it really sucks in places. I've been a long time Wedding Present fan but this is probably the worst thing he's put to record (excluding the Ukrainian mini album) I can think of. Even the mediocre Cinerama albums I've heard are better than this. If this is all Gedge has left he should really call it a day. Still in two minds to see them in Dublin in December though!! Beck - Modern Guilt. A few good tracks on here but this is so lightweight you've forgotten you listened to it at all about one hour later. Get out of Scientology you fool... | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1465 Registered: 10-2004 |
Here's one that'll get the flames going (although that's not really my intent): The Friends of Rachel Worth | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1301 Registered: 08-2006 |
Oh, man, duck and cover! | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1302 Registered: 08-2006 |
As long as we're throwing grenades: Wilco - "A Ghost Is Born" | ||
| Ewan Talisker McEwan Member Username: Ewan_mcewan Post Number: 510 Registered: 02-2008 |
Ouch! That hurts...actually, I don't really think it's great, but I'd quibble with bad. I actually like the songs on it much better than the ones on BYOB or whatever the sequence of letters is...In my view, about half of the songs on BOBY should've been relegated to b-sides. "A little something for myself", or whatever it's called, sounds like it was "written" on the way from the dressing room to the stage. Not one of Forsty's finer moments. My list of "good artists gone bad" would include: Bob Dylan - Under the Red Sky. Bruce Springsteen - Human Touch, Lucky Town. Beck - Midnite Vultures. I kind of like Modern Guilt, to be truthful, but it is a little sketchy in places. The Clash - Cut the Crap. Neil Young - Are You Sincere? Wait, that's not it. What the hell was the name of that album? It had roses or somesuch on the cover and was really baaaad. So bad that I traded it in immediately and blocked its title from my memory. | ||
| Ewan Talisker McEwan Member Username: Ewan_mcewan Post Number: 511 Registered: 02-2008 |
My comments, btw, refer to Jeff's stinkbomb about FORW, not Rob's about "Ghost", which, btw, is a flaming and stanky piece of poo, as well! Write a fecking song for chrissake and spare us the feedback schtick! | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1466 Registered: 10-2004 |
Okay, I thought of a few more: XTC - Oranges & Lemons Prefab Sprout - Andromeda Heights (this just crosses the line into saccharine schmaltz) Aztec Camera - Love David Bowie - Lodger (except for DJ, I think this album is a half-baked mess, which is mainly significant because the 3 albums the preceded it and the album that followed it are all so great!) | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1303 Registered: 08-2006 |
ETM, I gotta admit, I LIKE "Under a Red Sky." Much more than "Oh Mercy," in fact. I also recognize I'm one of about five people who share that view. Elvis Costello - "All This Useless Beauty." To my mind, his nadir. New Order - "Waiting for the Siren's Call" - Loved "Get Ready," sold this one back... fast. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 879 Registered: 08-2004 |
Funny this. I'm nonplussed by Beck's 'Modern Guilt' & find 'Midnite Vulture's' a funky pop classic. As for Dylan, his 'Self Portrait' is hard to top as nadir's go, although it's regarded as a self-imposed hatchet job. OK how about: Rolling Stones - It's Only Rock 'N' Roll Belle & Sebastian - Storytelling | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1253 Registered: 09-2006 |
Lou Reed - Mistrial Not really horrid, but pretty damn uninspired, from the cover art onward Journey Through the Past Undercover | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 494 Registered: 01-2006 |
Rob I'll catch that grenade! Yeah there's something that just doesn't flow with A Ghost Is Born for me, it takes a lot to listen to it right through. I've seen it described as three or four sections and I can appreciate it better for that, to think of it as 3/4 EPs released at the same time. Getting it on vinyl recently helps I think. It doesn't really get going till Spiders-Kidsmoke for me. Anyway any album with songs of such quality as Company In My Back, Theologians, Wishful Thinking and Handshake Drugs ain't bad in my book, but there's my tuppence worth.. The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics With all the news re the new Smith's compilation I could mention Morrissey's output of the last 10 years or so but I don't know as I haven't got anything of his since Vauxhall & I. Played The World Won't Listen tonight though and it sounded as brilliant as it always does. Long Live The Smiths.. | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 495 Registered: 01-2006 |
I've never heard Journey Through The Past Allen though I love the title song. A friend has it on vinyl though he hasn't got a turntable. Is it a one hour version of 'Words' or something? Neil's the man. | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 495 Registered: 05-2005 |
I started to think about the converse of this thread, as in good albums by bad artists, but couldn't think of any! Maybe the odd individual song? | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 202 Registered: 02-2007 |
Ewan, its called "Are You Passionate?" and is a very average album. Neils worst IMHO is hardly ever available "Landing On Water" truly woeful. Though these were the Geffen years when he released shite recrds on purpose to get out of Geffins contract. Geffin sued Young for making recordsd "that didn't sound like Neil Young" A first in music litigation. Once out of contract, Neil released "Freedom" to critical and commercial acclaim. Bowie - any album after "Let's Dance"!!! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2449 Registered: 05-2005 |
Hall & Oates - The Very Best Of. Call that "the best of"? So many soft white soul classics left out. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2450 Registered: 05-2005 |
Jeff, I love Oranges & Lemons. It's a couple of songs too long (Pink Thing is embarrasingly awful) but mostly I think it's a great record. The first three songs are all pop classics, though they do overshadow what follows. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1311 Registered: 01-2005 |
R.E.M. - Green What a letdown after the Chronic Town ep, Murmur, Reckoning, Fables, Pageant and Document. They got a little better on the next couple of albums after Green, but it was never the same for my favorite band during the 1982-87 time frame. Everything But The Girl - Walking Wounded The drum 'n bass sound hasn't worn well, unlike the classic EBTG albums like Idlewild, Amphlified Heart, Eden, The Language Of Life, Love Not Money, and Baby The Stars Shine Bright. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1304 Registered: 08-2006 |
"Mistrial" is a good call, Allen, especially since it was such a surprise after the trifecta of "The Blue Mask," "Legendary Hearts" and "New Sensations." Lou seemed like he was on a roll. As a huge Lou fan at the time, I remember "Mistrial" being crushingly disappointing. I also remember being similarly disappointed by Prince's "Graffiti Bridge." I don't think it's a bad album exactly, but it was a letdown. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1257 Registered: 09-2006 |
Rob, I've found that I like Graffiti Bridge much more if I pare it down and resequence it (even though I end up with far more Time songs than Prince ones), as the prime stuff that's left is pretty prime. The same can't be said for Around the World in a Day, which I've tried my best with. Beyond "Raspberry Beret" the thing sits there trying gamely to take off, but never doing so. XY, "Words" takes up about 15 minutes on the Journey album, and is far and away the high point. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1305 Registered: 08-2006 |
I agree, Allen. Like I said, I don't think "Graffiti Bridge" qualifies as a bad album, it just seemed a little tired or uninspired when it came out. "Around the World in a Day," a worse record for sure, at least had the virtue of being weird as hell. Sometimes I play it just 'cause it IS so weird. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1469 Registered: 10-2004 |
Michael - while I agree that Green is no masterpiece, in the context of this thread I would swap it for Out of Time, which to me was the real start of their descent into mediocrity (I know I'm in the minority on that view!). And as much as I love EBTG (and love seeing others here profess their love for them as well), I might just nominate Language of Life as a bad album by a good artist. For me, they really dropped off after Idlewild and didn't recover until Amplified Heart, which to me at the time was a really surprising and welcome return to form. But I hear you on Walking Wounded. I think there's one song I like on that album, and at the time it was a fairly bold move on their part, but I'm not sure that it's aged too well. | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 570 Registered: 07-2006 |
i'm not sure any full length drum n bass record by a single artist was ever going to age very well. i mean, how many others can one recall, for a start?? "single" is still a fave. and i think around the world in a day is a stone cold classic. condition of a heart is absolutely epic. pop life really doesn't sound too far off the likes of mountains from the following year. in between the twin peaks that were purple rain and parade, i guess i can see how it can be dwarfed, but still a stand out from his already impressive back catalogue. | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 571 Registered: 07-2006 |
"monster" over "green". hands down!!!! | ||
| Ewan Talisker McEwan Member Username: Ewan_mcewan Post Number: 512 Registered: 02-2008 |
Pop Life is my absolute fave Prince song, seconded closely by Cream. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1258 Registered: 09-2006 |
I'd agree that Around... certainly paved the way for Parade, and that's what it feels like to me - a transitional album. For whatever reason, Parade thrills more with each listen but Around... just mostly fizzles. Though I admit in my first post I should've said "Beyond 'Raspberry Beret' and the backing track of 'Pop Life'..." Great tune, even better on the Sheila E. remix, but I have to make myself ignore the words. "Everybody can't be on top," the newly-minted millionaire sings to those complaining about living in poverty. Yeah, I know he's got a few other lyrical gaffes and wacky ideas that I'm happy to ignore in favor of the great musical pleasure, but that one's just a bit too front and center for me. | ||
| TROU Member Username: Trou Post Number: 177 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Beatles : Let it be (two or three songs excepted) | ||
| Ewan Talisker McEwan Member Username: Ewan_mcewan Post Number: 513 Registered: 02-2008 |
Methinks your interpretation of PL, if not wrong, AB, is out of step with mine. I think what the Prince be sayin' is "not everybody can be on top" of the pop charts, so you may wanna think twice before abandoning school, Skippy. He, at the same time, allows as he understands the appeal, because the pop life has zazz... I hereby grant you permission to enjoy the song! | ||
| Ewan Talisker McEwan Member Username: Ewan_mcewan Post Number: 515 Registered: 02-2008 |
And, lettuce not forget "True Stories" by Talking Heads. A true dog if ever there was one, even if it did give Radiohead their name. I guess we should be thankful they didn't choose "Puzzlin' Evidence" or "Wild Wild Life". "Dear Heather" - Leonard Cohen. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1260 Registered: 09-2006 |
Appreciated, ETM, and agreeing to disagree is a lurvely thing... | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 421 Registered: 05-2005 |
Trou, You got in before me but I guess I've had such a Beatle beating on this board that I am a bit "once bitten twice shy" to say anything Beatles anymore! So, yes, "Let it be" has some of the worst songs John and Paul wrote (one after 909 etc) and some of the good songs have been smothered by Phil Spector. I mean, what was he thinking by turning "Across the Universe" Christian from Hindu in sound with the bloody choir? I'd add too that Document and the aweful Monster are mostly crap too in the REM canon. Ditto Strangeways for the Smiths. Now I guess I am getting a tad controversial! | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1470 Registered: 10-2004 |
Ah, I love Strangeways every bit as much as the other Smiths records. Which is to say, a whole lot. | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 572 Registered: 07-2006 |
hear hear. strangeways is actually my favourite, death at one's elbow aside. thankfully, the follow up closes the smiths studio lp cannon with blinding perfection. | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 9 Registered: 10-2008 |
Strangeways is the Smiths masterpiece. Johnny Marr was flowering into a great musician, rather than relying too much on african hi- life guitar motifs, or ripping off old rockabilly riffs (both of which were still great obviously). I reckon this album suffered critically by being released after the split, if not it would have been praised to the heavens | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 10 Registered: 10-2008 |
Oh and back on topic - Sky Blue Sky by Wilco,Ocean Rain by The Bunnymen, Exodus by Bob Marley,every REM album since LRP, The Smiths debut (mainly for how crap it sounds, rather than the songs),Pablo Honey and The Bends by Radiohead,16LL by the Go-Bs MK1, every Bowie album since Scary Monsters, Associates albums without Alan Rankine. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1307 Registered: 08-2006 |
Ha! Now THAT's a Kev post! | ||
| Ewan Talisker McEwan Member Username: Ewan_mcewan Post Number: 517 Registered: 02-2008 |
Really! If he just woulda added, "and every bleedin' album the fookin' Beatles ever made", it would've been poifect! | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1314 Registered: 01-2005 |
I thought Ocean Rain was decent, but certainly not as good as the first three albums or even the 1983 ep with the All Night Version of The Killing Moon and the live Do It Clean. The eponymus 5th album was where they really went off the deep end for me. I think I played Mistrial about 6 times, and I use to play The Blue Mask, Legendary Hearts and New Sensations on a weekly basis in the mid 80's. Lot's of folks dumping on Document. In hindsight maybe only 1/2 the songs are up to the heights they displayed during 1982-86, but it doesn't contain contain any gut hurling songs like some of those on Green. If AFTP had 2 more great songs along the lines of Nightswimming and Find the River I would vault it up to one of their best. At lease those last two songs save the album from being a total snooze due to the lyrics and the nice piano crescendo on Find The River. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 246 Registered: 10-2006 |
Metal Machine music is worth a mention I suppose, though I've never met anyone who has actually heard it. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1315 Registered: 01-2005 |
Lou's albums from 1975-1981 are sure hit and miss, and a couple of them I never owned like MMM and Take No Prisoners. I like Coney Island Baby and Street Hassle as much as any of his 70's albums. I have yet to buy the reissues of The Bells and Growin Up In Public and my vinyl copies of them are collecting dust. I'm still waiting for a deluxe reissue of Street Hassle to be released! | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1471 Registered: 10-2004 |
I kinda like Metal Machine Music. In fact, I rate it as Lou Reed's second best solo album (second only to Transformer). Kev, Joe - nice to see some support for Strangeways. Even Marr and Morrissey both look back on it as their favorite Smiths album. As for Echo and the Bunnymen, I love the first four albums, especially Crocodiles and Ocean Rain. But I would nominate the eponymous album from '87 as a mediocre album by a good artist. That album always seemed so bland, tepid, slick, and middle of the road to me. Everything sounds phoned in. Not that it doesn't have its share of great songs - like the classic Lips Like Sugar and Bombers' Bay. But overall, to me it was a weak way to go out before their break-up. And speaking of which, I nominate every single album the Bunnymen have done since re-uniting as being bad albums by good artists. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1268 Registered: 09-2006 |
The Bells is a pretty eccentric little record, even by Lou's standards, but I've come to like it quite a bit. I found a cheap, scratchy copy of MMM once and listened to it a time or two...yes, it's a blatant f***-you to his label and probably his fans (the mock-pretentious liner notes are pretty funny. Now, anyway.) and I have very little desire to listen to it ever again, but I didn't cringe or anything. It goes on the shelf beside Arc, I think. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1269 Registered: 09-2006 |
Oh, and the second time I listened to MMM I pulled out and read Lester Bangs' interviews with Lou from that time period, which enriched things considerably. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1274 Registered: 09-2006 |
Kinks...last excellent album: Arthur. Last at-least-listenable-all-the-way-through one: Everybody's In Showbiz (though "Celluloid Heroes" does seem to get longer every time I hear it). | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 423 Registered: 05-2005 |
Ocean Rain has some real pretentious crap on it(Thorn of Crowns), but put side 1 of Heaven up Here and side 2 of Ocean Rain together and you have all the reasons why it is impossible not to love the Bunnymen. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1473 Registered: 10-2004 |
Funny you mention Thorn of Crowns, Geoff, as that's the one song I *always* skip when listening to Ocean Rain. Just sounds like they needed one more track to fill up the space, so they just knocked out this sloppy/noisy mess of a tune. Speaking of pretentiousness, however, few things can match McCullough's "my life is the disease" line from Heaven Up Here's "The Disease." That line always cracks me up. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 424 Registered: 05-2005 |
The only version of that song that I like is the first one I heard - on "The Tube" from a friends girlfriends cousin on video back in early 1984. It's now on U Tube of course. The Bunnymen have Adam Peters on Cello and it's no where near as bad as the Ocean Rain vrsion. Talking about which, that "The Tube" also has a SUBLIME version of "Ocean Rain" the song. I used to listen to a crappy tape of a crappy video expectantly before the album came out. Wills guitar riff on thatversion is much more to the fore and SENSATIONAL. That "The Tube" also has Killing Joke on it and I've got a feeling it was a 1983 Xmas show or something. If you love the Bunnymen, it's well worth hunting down. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2456 Registered: 05-2005 |
I think Strangeways is The Smiths' best too. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 374 Registered: 04-2005 |
Maybe I have to drag it out again, but at the time I thought 'Strangeways' was utterly appalling. Can't have listened to it more than three times, as it sounded like a band completely falling apart. And as for Kev's comment about Johnny Marr's guitar-playing, it just seemed to me that he had been over-dosing on his Glitter Band LPs. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 203 Registered: 02-2007 |
Van Morrison - Pay The Devil. Van's take on country music very uninspring. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 425 Registered: 05-2005 |
I thought the song "Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before" said it all. We HAD heard it all before but better. And please..."oh Glen" was a little too much information that belied everything that Morrissey had said (and still says) about himself. Who does he think he's fooling? Girlfriend in a Como - deliberately trying to be controversial.. Hmmm, I've done vegetarianism...what about a Girlfriend in a coma? You can nearly here the sound of Morrisseys brain trying to turn over like a non starting engine. Some girls are bigger than other - another vacuous lyric! Morrissey trying to sound tough on the first track - come on! When it came out I thought they'd done their "Let it Be" to a tee. It was an album that said that they had run out of relevant fresh ideas. The "famous" "first" guitar solo by Johnny Marr in Paint a Vulgar Picture was boring and Johnny has been unable to break free of it in basically all of his work since. Is strangeways the 16LL of the Smiths? Seems some LOVE it whilst other equally rabid fans HATE it! Fire away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know its terribly trendy to now applaud it after the dismissal it got at the time, but you will never convince me it is a great record. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1475 Registered: 10-2004 |
I was never aware that it was trendy to "applaud" Strangeways, (in fact, it always seemed to be the opposite) but I've absolutely loved it to pieces ever since I bought it when it first came out. To me, the band was in top form, and songs like Stop Me, A Rush and a Push..., Girlfriend in a Coma are among their very, very best. Fresh, interesting, sometimes dense and muscular, and other times stunningly beautiful. But you know, to each his own. Music is so subjective, it's generally futile to convince someone something is good or bad. The only Strangeways song I ever skip is Death at One's Elbow; it sounds like a hastily written space filler to me. (And Geoff, Some Girls Are Bigger than Others is actually the last track from Queen is Dead, or are you slagging that album too? I quite love that song). I, frankly, don't think the Smiths ever made a bad album, but for me, the one I may like the least is the debut. Wonderful songs, but woefully thin production. All those songs sounded much better in BBC sessions. | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 583 Registered: 07-2006 |
i had no idea he was singing "oh glenn" in elbow! i guess skipping it each and every time might have something to do with it. ok, it's getting a revisit...how did i miss that? inspired! | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 496 Registered: 01-2006 |
I like it a lot but it's mixed, the weaker tracks being Unhappy Birthday, Death At One's Elbow and Girlfriend In a Coma (even though I like it)imo. Paint A Vulgar Pisture and I Started Something would be in top 20 Smiths tracks. I think.. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1309 Registered: 08-2006 |
"Strangeways" has always been my favorite non-compilation (cf. "Louder Than Bombs") Smiths record. But I've always seen them more a singles band than an album one. Or it might be that "Strangeways" was the first proper Smiths record I bought. Whatever the case, I was always surprised so many hardcore Smiths fans rated it so low. | ||
| Ewan Talisker McEwan Member Username: Ewan_mcewan Post Number: 524 Registered: 02-2008 |
"Idlewild" - Outkast. | ||
| Dr Girlfriend Member Username: Doctor_girlfriend Post Number: 68 Registered: 10-2007 |
Roxy Music - Flesh + Blood Only a half bad album--delete the two hopeless cover versions and a couple of the endless, sluggish ballads and you have a pretty decent EP. Sleater-Kinney - The Woods I know, I know--some of you say ALL their albums are bad. I don't get why this muddy, distorted, heavy rock detour received so much critical acclaim; it's by far their worst record. Sonic Youth - NYC Ghosts & Flowers So very, very boring. Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun So very, very boring, part 2. Magnetic Fields - i So very, very bor...you get the idea. Pavement - Terror Twilight Out with a whimper... | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 587 Registered: 07-2006 |
i is definitely the dud in the fields' catalogue. other than stereo, gotta agree with you on terror twilight too. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 90 Registered: 08-2005 |
Disagree with the original Strangeways suggestion - still one of my favourite Smiths albums - "A Rush and a Push...", "Stop Me", "Unhappy Birthday" are great stuff. Agree with Let it Be, and I might add most of Abbey Road to that. I still listen to Revolver and Rubber Soul, must be decades since I listened to Abbey Road - and I never even bought the CD when I moved over from vinyl. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1318 Registered: 01-2005 |
I'll echo what Simon said regarding the Beatles, except that I listen still listen to Help as well as Revolver and Rubber Soul. |