Terrible albums by brilliant musicians

are we voting for the best or for the worst of these?

also wow i haven't been to the av club in a while, they've gone to slides and fucking ERLEWINE put this thing together? god, that's bleak.

i'm gonna say vote with your heart, kate...i was going to vote for best, personally. so many options for misunderstood not-bad albums.

It’s nice that they managed one from each Beatle.

Music From The Elder in an instant, the album that invented epic power metal. Kind of.

Kiss never misses a chance to take the silliest possible choice

This should never be a criticism.

I don't know most of these, but that Elvis Costello record has The Other Side of Summer, which always springs to mind when something bad happens to me during the summer, and Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs Are Taking Over), which I always think about when I want the bugs to take over. I don't remember the rest of the album and don't really know any of EC's classic era other than the hits.

One Hot Minute is probably the only Chili Peppers album that I like! But I get it

Um that’s a great RHCP album, and I thought everyone knew that? “Cyberpunk” is underrated but it’s nice they’re referring to Billy Idol as “a brilliant musician” here

Idk I can think of many worse duds than these. Felt’s “Train Above The City”? Eno’s “The Drop”?

I voted for Ye (worst)

haha that's the only RHCP album i didn't mind at the time, and even if i actually hated it, i'm not sure what makes it worse than any other RHCP album.

didn't know American Life was considered that bad, just unmemorable maybe?

predictably i think the U2 album is actually a good album, they should have gone with Songs of Experience if they wanted to pick one (and at least they didn't pick POP)

The Final Cut, really?

Didn't Elvis Costello do an album with a string quartet? And "Mighty Like a Rose" is worse than that? Where's Sting's album of lute music?

Is the other side of the mirror really that bad? never really listened to it.

glitter is one of mariah's better albums. the movie gets held against it

LOOK OUT NEW MILLENNIUM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW-XZ3GAFGI

voting one hot minute bc it's the best rhcp record and its presence here is a joke

i distinctly remember seeing the videos for that on MTV and thinking, "wow maybe RHCP are good now?" i'm someone who really didn't like bloodsugarsexmagik at all though, nor anything else.

One Hot Minute came out the autumn that I started college - music from that late ‘95/early ‘96 era has a special place in my heart.

Fond memories of the “Warped” video and the song dropping as a single, like “hell yeah, they’re doing THIS?”

Then it was over after that album cycle

Recycler is not terrible, just mostly unremarkable. "My Head's in Mississippi" is a banger.

yeah OHM was just a very solid album, taking some of the best aspects of grunge and alt-rock and fusing them to the best part of the RHCP sound, and of course when it was rejected (not upon release iirc, but retconned into mediocrity!) they doubled down on the obnoxiousness and became even more successful obv.

The AV Club picked the wrong wrong album

doesn't really seem fair to put that Michael Jackson album on here

_tonight_ has "loving the alien"

mardi gras has "someday never comes"

but it’s nice they’re referring to Billy Idol as “a brilliant musician” here

― (the poster formerly known as Twitter) (flamboyant goon tie included)

along with ringo! i'm not a ringo-hater by any stretch but i have a hard time getting behind "brilliant musician".

Recycler is not terrible, just mostly unremarkable. "My Head's in Mississippi" is a banger.

― Large, Complex, Detailed but Irrefutable POST (Dan Peterson), Tuesday, September 26, 2023 1:46 PM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

BURGER MAN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJP8wVoTufg

Mighty Like a Rose is a great record! "So Like Candy" "How to Be Dumb" "Georgie and Her Rival"

Xpost

I'm pro BURGER MAN btw

Instant vote for Night in the Ruts, an album whose middling rep baffles me as it fucking rips.

Why pick an album of outtakes Dylan didn't want released?

'adam in chains' alone makes cyberpunk a classic

Can Forbidden really be called a Black Sabbath album? Can Cut the Crap really be called a Clash album?

ditto for Calling all Stations by Genesis

The Other Side of the Mirror is one of Stevie Nicks' best.

If we're picking our favorites, I guess I'd go with The Final Cut by default. As I said in another thread, this album sounds exhausted, but it's a pretty good record.

I'm voting Love Beach, mostly because I will always vote for that album if it's in a poll, but really I just don't think it's as bad as it looks

These lists are always the damn same and its booorin

Some loose thoughts

The Beach Boys, Still Cruisin’ (1989): Why this one, which has the original versions of I Get Around, Wouldn't It Be Nice and California Girls, and not the canon choice Summer in Paradise? Or Salute NASCAR? Yes you can argue that it's lazier for giving up and retreating to familiar favourites. But they're still there so I can't really pretend they're not.

Cheap Trick, The Doctor (1986) I listened to this after the Rolling Stone list and inevitably quite enjoyed it. Wish I'd heard in time for the two-part blog thing I dedicated to maligned but actually deeply strange synth-laden mid-80s albums by rock vets

The Clash, Cut The Crap (1985) The repeated beatings this gets in these lists surely left it nothing but a skeleton about 15 years ago. But it still ain't enough apparently.

Elvis Costello, Mighty Like A Rose (1991) It's not that bad I think he obviously has worse. I like that the clattering Hurry Up Doomsday in the end wasn't an isolated experiment bcus Hetty O'Hara Confidential a few years back

Bob Dylan, Dylan (1973) Expected to feel the same about this as I do many Dylan albums only to discover Lily of the West is amazing and one of my favourite things he's ever done

Genesis, Calling All Stations (1997) First two songs are fun in a ridiculous way - I mean Congo is like worldbeat Savage Garden or so I like to describe it. And its amusing how both tracks fade out mid-verse or whatever too.

George Harrison, Dark Horse (1974) At least four great songs

Billy Idol, Cyberpunk (1993) Shangrila resembles a great mid-period moody PWEI album cut

Jethro Tull, A (1980) Honestly damn good. Why this one? I can't imagine many, if any, Tull fans putting it beneath, say, Under Wraps (which I so want to like but just don't that much)

Madonna, American Life (2003) An excellent album and I remember going into this on the equivalent RS thread

Pink Floyd, The Final Cut (1983) The greatest album here and one of my favourites ever :)

Red Hot Chili Peppers, One Hot Minute (1995) Quite obviously their best imo

Kanye West, Ye (2018) This is where you know the RS list hasn't been ignored in compiling this list. But I do agree. Alone among people I know I see little to nothing in this

ZZ Top, Recycler (1990) Isn't the main problem here just that they've forgotten it isn't 1985 anymore? It's fine I think

Can think of at least a couple of Neil Young albums I'd throw in there.

wiki says CSNY's American Dream was 614 in the Colin Larkin 1000 albums poll book. I know that list is almost comedic in its near-total preference for white rock music but that still sticks out

Don't know the album, but based on the title track, I'm sure it's abysmal.

There's nothing wrong with that Aerosmith album, it just lacked a big hit single. The Shangri-Las' and Yardbirds' covers on it are enjoyable.

I saw Glitter and thought the songs were fabulous; it's obviously meant to sound retro.

Mariah's Frankie and Johnny

(Not a criticism)

yes Mighty Like a Rose is the wrong costello album to put on here, I think it is a very good album and don't know why people don't like it. I mean Goodbye Cruel World exists, as does North and like half a dozen other worse things

anyway I think that's possibly the best album in this list so I'll vote for that. It has Couldn't Call it Unexpected on it for gods sake

His look in 1991 is worthy of inclusion:

https://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/images/thumb/f/f2/1991-07-00_Q_photo_01_jf.jpg/360px-1991-07-00_Q_photo_01_jf.jpg

Instant vote for Night in the Ruts, an album whose middling rep baffles me as it fucking rips.

Yeah not their best but there's nothing wrong with this album.

The summer of 1991, I drove across the country a couple of times. Mighty Like a Rose was my near-constant companion on those drives. I doubt I've listened to it more than a handful of times since.

yes Mighty Like a Rose is the wrong costello album to put on here, I think it is a very good album and don't know why people don't like it. I mean Goodbye Cruel World exists, as does North and like half a dozen other worse things

Oversung, too cluttered, too long. Goodbye Cruel World has many good songs flattened by the arrangements by comparison

"Couldn't Call It Unexpected" is fine, yeah.

Aerosmith my vote for best of these. It's great!

The other constants on those road trips were Heaven or Las Vegas and Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller), both of which have held up much better.

Jethro Tull, A (1980) Honestly damn good. Why this one? I can't imagine many, if any, Tull fans putting it beneath, say, Under Wraps (which I so want to like but just don't that much)

apparently it's considered a letdown after their late '70s folk trilogy

One Hot Minute is the worst RHCP from the 90’s but not their worst one, their first 80’s albums are the worse ones. And One Hot Minute is better than most of their albums 00’s onwards. It makes them sound like STP at times which is an improvement tbh… I’ll echo that it’s one of the few RHCP I can actually listen to.

The worst Aerosmith album is actually “just push play”.

“Final Cut” is unenjoyable and knackered for the most part, but it’s one of the best PF produced albums imho.
“A momentary lapse of reason” is very dull so I’d actually say that’s their worst. Maybe the last one they did is the worst, according to a fellow friend who seems to be a big PF fan but I have never listened to it.

Anyways voting RHCP. Not a fan of them but it feels like the most questionable one in here for me.

Listening again… I do really like a lot how “final cut” sounds. The songwriting is not great for the most part and it’s pretty much “the wall pt. 2” - and that’s the last PF I’d want a sequel of - , but it does sound good. If this is how “the wall” sounded I’d probably like it a whole lot better.

Feel like we did this very recently for a similar list…

Like comparing “comfortably numb” with “final cut”, the former is evidently superior in nearly all aspects - and it’s justifiably one of the best regarded songs from that album and their career -, but the latter “sounds” better.

XP Rolling Stone did a similar list that was polled: best album on Rolling Stone's list of 50 genuinely horrible albums by brilliant artists

Rolling Stone notably including non-Rock albums.

Rolling Stone thread includes the other Cut The Crap throwdown of 2023.

Voted for The Final Cut cos it kind of works as best and worst… last time I listened to it maybe a decade ago I felt it was good and maybe even a slept-on masterpiece, but it is also the Floyd album I never really feel like listening to, and has a nastiness to it (Rick Wright forced out, not much good band vibes)

Lots of crossover on that RS list, probably should have consulted with the other poll runner before starting this one 🕵️

'mighty like a rose' is indeed too long (as was 'spike') but that's how it went in the early CD era. it's not *bad*, tho. unlike, for the most part, 'the final cut'

Worst John Lennon album is Rock 'N' Roll. STINYC is at least interesting in parts.

I've heard eight of these in their entirety:

One good song: Lou Reed

Two good songs: David Bowie, The Clash, Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Lennon & Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, Pink Floyd

Wow, three good songs: George Harrison

No good songs, but not entirely misguided attempt to update their sound: Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Haven't heard the entire album, but heard at least one good song: Aerosmith, Chicago, Jethro Tull, U2

I'm not voting because it wasn't made clear whether to vote for best or worst. Pink Floyd might be best on account of conceptual integrity. Lennon/Ono might be worse than ELP on account of making a double album with so much noisy dross.

Lots of crossover on that RS list

13 albums in common, and 7 with different albums by the same artists by my count. You can't go too far off the path when searching for bad albums.

There is of course a Lou Reed connection to the Kiss album, as he co-wrote a few of the songs. I think it was because Bob Ezrin worked with both artists. No-one mentioned it in the Lou obits, funnily enough.

someone has to vote for love beach. I am that someone.

I only know the albums by Bowie, CSNY, Duran Duran, Dylan, Tull and Lou Reed. I'm often very forgiving and can usually still enjoy the weakest albums by artists I like. And I find enough to like on almost all of these - I had to look up the tracklist of Mistrial and the only one I vaguely recall is 'The Original Wrapper' which is not exactly one of the best things he ever did.

Liberty may indeed be the weakest DD album, but it does have Serious and My Antarctica on it. And I quite like Violence Of Summer myself.

I like 80s Bowie more than Bowie himself did - in fact, I'm even more fond of Never Let Me Down than I am of Tonight. I'm not too keen on Blue Jean (which, I suppose, may be the one track most people WOULD save here), and I know I'm likely the only person in the world to prefer his cover of God Only Knows over the original (honestly!), but Loving The Alien is undeniably great, no? The main problem with the album is that while there are several more pretty good songs on it, Iggy Pop did them better.

Isn't it a bit unfair to put Dylan on this list? Bob didn't have any input in the album. It's a compilation put together by the studio. And yet, the covers are all fine.

I'll give my vote to Jethro Tull's synth-heavy (and originally supposed to be an Ian Anderson solo album) A as the best of these. There's a lot of Tull albums I consider to be better than A but if I'm in the right mood for this album it can really hit the spot.

feel like these lists are pretty unfair sometimes. I subscribe to Joe Posnanski's theory that in order to properly grade something you have to weigh it against what your expectations are (he was talking about movies, but still). like what do we really expect from a Genesis album minus Phil? or a Michael Jackson album full of songs he didn't complete? or the Dylan one which he didn't want released? or Love Beach, which all 3 band members said was just to get out of their contract?

this is why maybe the Kanye one is the worst of the lot, I mean the screws were loosening but he was still making good stuff. after that album I kinda questioned if he knew what he was doing at all.

Good list.

what do we really expect from a Genesis album minus Phil?

Trespass '97

That Jewel CD has been a mainstay on the shelf at my local library for 20 years, I was a little stricken today to realize it has been removed.

I can't say I'd want to play any of these LP's again, but a lot of them produced decent (even great) singles:

Aerosmith, Night In The Ruts (1979)- "No Surprize"
David Bowie, Tonight (1984) - "Loving the Alien," "Blue Jean"
The Clash, Cut The Crap (1985) - "This Is England" (great)
Elvis Costello, Mighty Like A Rose (1991) - "The Other Side of Summer," "Hurry Down Doomsday," "How to Be Dumb," "So Like Candy" - this should've been an EP
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Mardi Gras (1972) - "Someday Never Comes" and "Sweet Hitch-Hiker" (great double A-side single)
George Harrison, Dark Horse (1974) - the demo of the title track, where George's voice is in clear and healthy form, was actually good bonus track when this was reissued
Madonna, American Life (2003) - "Hollywood" (single edit), "Love Profusion" (Headcleanr Rock Mix), "Nothing Fails"
Paul McCartney, Give My Regards To Broad Street (1984) - "No More Lonely Nights" (I'm being kind, but not terrible for a slick top ten hit from this era)
Pink Floyd, The Final Cut (1983) - "Not Now John"
Lou Reed, Mistrial (1986) - "No Money Down," "Mama's Got a Lover"
Bruce Springsteen, Only The Strong Survive (2022) - "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)"
U2, Songs Of Innocence (2014) - "Every Breaking Wave"
ZZ Top, Recycler (1990) - "My Head's in Mississippi"

*would be a great double A-side single

Any drugged-up Aerosmith album > every post-drugs Aerosmith album

St. Anger is good once you accept it on its own terms. I have a lot more to say on that subject if you want to read it.

ZZ Top has at least 3 albums worse than Recycler. Afterburner, for one, and everything they released between leaving Warner Bros. and La Futura.

Any Lou Reed album that's not Metal Machine Music could go on this list IMO.

Loving The Alien is undeniably great, no?

yes it's amazing, it's so good it's a wonder it even got recorded at the same time.

I have never heard a Motley Crue album but this list makes me want to hear their inclusion

I have, and it doesn’t

I'm not expecting to enjoy it but 'late period low-selling album by an big group that divides fans for going all electronic/industrial/whatever' ticks off a lot of bingo squares

I get that. Let us know what you think of it.

Goodbye Cruel World is way worse than Mighty Like a Rose

They probably should have picked the longtime cut-out staple that is the s/t Crüe album with John Corabi instead.

Any Lou Reed album that's not Metal Machine Music could go on this list IMO.

Not on my list (the “brilliant musicians” caveat)

I guess what disappoints me about lists like these as they currently exist is that I wish they’d motivate me to listen to these allegedly horrific records I haven’t heard rather than remind of albums that I’ve heard (and agree with, disagree with) or albums I’ve paid no attention to and have no inclination to do so

Like, I wish this was “let’s all listen to Squeeze s/t! Or OMD Universal!” The only album from these lists I’ve never heard but kinda wanna is Smooth Noodle Maps

I’d love a deluxe release of Cut the Crap with demos and live renditions. Most of the songs are actually well-written!

The Final Cut is amazing. I don’t care for any of the Floyd albums released afterwards

I just had pizza with a friend and we agreed that we’d both eagerly click on a listicle of “funnest secondary careers pursued by former pop stars”, with the psychic Dionne being our #1

See I'm not a big fan of worst music lists but including seemingly random, under-acknowledged Squeeze* or OMD album that the fans don't care for would be far more interesting than the zillionth reprise of the usual suspects

*not the s/t though, for Take Me I'm Yours makes it at least partly immortal

It wouldn't surprise me if these selections were AI-generated. AV Club would be just the publication to do it.

I’m perpetually amazed that people still read the AV Club. All of their best commenters left years ago, and most of their halfway decent staff writers did, too. I heard the pay there was always abysmal

Loving The Alien is undeniably great, no?
yes it's amazing, it's so good it's a wonder it even got recorded at the same time.

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Wednesday, September 27, 2023

There's a good song in there, but the arrangement is cluttered, almost tortured; but then the live 2004 versions didn't quite work either.

Glitter is a phenomenal album so I guess I’m voting for that

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Can anyone honestly name a brilliant album by a terrible musician?

That's a better category. Will think about it.

Agree that it seems wrong to incl. an album that the artist didn't make: Dylan, a reputed revenge round-up of leavings, because Columbia was pissed that he went to Asylum. Also, it's no worse than several others he did make (claimed in Chronicles that Self-Portrait was f.u. to the vampiric Dylan followers).

"Lily of the West," melodic source of "As I Went Out One Morning," I think, sounded good on a 70s collegetown dive bar jukebox, likewise "Spanish Is The Loving Tongue, " "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," and I may put "A Fool Such As I" on a Dylan Sings Country & Roots tape.

Can anyone honestly name a brilliant album by a terrible musician?

Metal Machine Music. We've been over this.

My Teenage Dream Ended maybe a fit for that category but I don't think that's what you're looking for

Halfway: that's extremely subjective but an interesting category.

Some folks would put Daniel Johnston in that bucket. Or the Langley Schools Music Project.

Einzelhaft by Falco

my 19 year old kid has me rethinking terrible george harrison records! score one for the spotify generation. a dark horse indeed.

Can anyone honestly name a brilliant album by a terrible musician?

The blue album by weezer?

I know he’s in here but I’d also nom Billy Idol’s rebel yell as his one brilliant album.

Also Nas? Dj Shadow?

David Liebe Hart (who you may know from Tim & Eric Awesome Show) recorded an album of Christian Hymns with music he wrote himself and man, is it weird

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMVlHmVUwHU

I think the album is brilliant personally but in a specific outsider kind of way I don't think many people will agree with me on

Well maybe brilliant is too strong a word.

The Shaggs’ Philosophy of the World would be an obvious but probably appropriate answer.

But shaggs only had one album. So it’s both their best and their worst.

Well the challenge was just "name a brilliant album by a terrible musician"

I think the “worst Lou Reed” album is up to the listener. Sure, Mistrial isn’t pinnacle Lou, but it never registered as his nadir to me. Unashamedly have Lou Reed’s “Video Violence” on my gym mix. Have always loved the guitar interplay on that track.

Read one of the options as 'Martin Carthy, Glitter (2001)'.

objection to calling kiss 'briliant musicians'

I was going to follow trend and pick another artist in the list to object to but….. while brilliant might not fit them all these are all surely talented musicians bar KISS (whose talents, which exist, lie elsewhere).

Brilliant albums by terrible musicians? I don’t think it’s possible by definition. If a musician produced something brilliant, no matter what else they produced, I couldn’t call them terrible. Brilliant albums by boring musicians is a better question to ask imo

Always wondered how many people have even listened to Duran Duran's Thank You when citing it in all these worst albums ever lists. I'm sure it is dreadful but looking at it I can't imagine that many making time to sit through the entire thing

I know he’s in here but I’d also nom Billy Idol’s rebel yell as his one brilliant album.

Also Nas? Dj Shadow?

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, October 18, 2023 11:38 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I'd say Nas has one perfect album, and 4 or 5 classic albums' worth or material spread across his other albums and guest appearances

"of" not "or"

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

It was said upthread that Glitter was Mariah Carey’s Frankie and Johnny. I think it could be said that Glitter was Mariah’s Grease. She’s paying homage to the music of 20 years prior, and because she actually remembers it, she does a great job of recreating the vibe of it.

I’m perpetually amazed that people still read the AV Club. All of their best commenters left years ago, and most of their halfway decent staff writers did, too. I heard the pay there was always abysmal

― beamish13

it just seems so weird to me that people ever read a webpage for the comment section

i mean yes ilx is one big fucking comment section, granted

Im leaning towards the U2 album as the worst. It barely sounded like U2 at all.

I have never heard a Motley Crue album but this list makes me want to hear their inclusion

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Thursday, 28 September 2023 02:00 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

I have, and it doesn’t

― Josefa, Thursday, 28 September 2023 02:29 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm not expecting to enjoy it but 'late period low-selling album by an big group that divides fans for going all electronic/industrial/whatever' ticks off a lot of bingo squares

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Thursday, 28 September 2023 02:37 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

I get that. Let us know what you think of it.

― Josefa, Thursday, 28 September 2023 02:41 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

So the album was fine?? I was expecting or at least hoping the industrial/breakbeat/whatever influences to be more forefront or less sporadic, which may have helped me enjoy it more, but overall it sort of reminded me of the Wildhearts (albeit not the Wildhearts of 97, who had become much heavier/noisier than this) or similar studenty unhip punk-pop bands (Terrorvision too maybe).

"Brandon" was terrible though. Nice strings and all but sabotaged completely by song and voice. Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns does the "drumless ballad with metal singing closing song" much better if there is such a category.

I mean the thing is Motley Crue was never good. "Live Wire" on the debut is a good track and there's a handful throughout the catalog but as early as "Shout" they're just a chore to listen to most of the time. Tommy Lee can play, no doubt, but Crue, like Kiss, is much more of a business success story than a "band gets famous because people love a record they made" story

They had a lot of energy and kicked up a lot of noise but they really just didn't have very good tunes. Compared to other equally popular, similar groups they were many cuts below. And even compared to less popular groups operating in the same genre they weren't on par.

yeah. there were better bands on the Sunset Strip who were their contemporaries even before they got famous, Black n Blue was tipped to get big by friends who missed the obvious -- Crue had Tommy Lee & Vince Neil, both of whom were easy on the eyes at that time. Black n Blue...well they were a much better band, but when this is as good as your stylized cover can make you look, you're at a disadvantage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxiEC1QS3rk

the second line on the first song is "gonna pound my heat into your meet." champion stuff really

ahem, *meat.

Yeah they really needed to metal things up a bit, you can't have the look of and the name of a band that could have been a local pub rock group.

Dark Horse is redeemed by Simply Shady