albums released out of spite

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so sundar, tantrum and I are sitting around the table and for some reason Arcadia came up, and the thread idea emerged: albums released out of spite. I contend that Arcadia was a "we can do that too" reaction to the success of the Power Station. by the same token that first William Shatner was a reaction to the Nimoy album. What albums can you think of that were released out of spite? (sundar says Coverdale Page)

― sean c at toronto fap, Saturday, 23 July 2005 01:02 (twenty years ago)

actually I lied, tantrum said coverdale page and sundar disagreed, my mistake

― sean c again, Saturday, 23 July 2005 01:05 (twenty years ago)

Dude, you should be doing more drinking and less ILMing. Let the internet go!

― Candicissima (candicissima), Saturday, 23 July 2005 01:08 (twenty years ago)

ice man mcgee, "kill doug szathkey"

― joseph (joseph), Saturday, 23 July 2005 01:09 (twenty years ago)

Keith Richards's Talk Is Cheap album?

I suspect that pretty much any solo record by the second member of a band to go solo could have some spite behind it.

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Saturday, 23 July 2005 01:15 (twenty years ago)

And oh yeah, give it up. It's Friday night!

(I'm going out in 20 minutes.)

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Saturday, 23 July 2005 01:15 (twenty years ago)

http://www.metalmachinemusic.ubbi.com.br/metal%20machine%20music.jpg

― Tumililingan (ex machina), Saturday, 23 July 2005 01:20 (twenty years ago)

Graham Parker, "Mercury Poisoning"

― Truckdrivin' Buddha (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 23 July 2005 01:20 (twenty years ago)

Here My Dear by Marvin Gaye was a divorce settlement record, I believe, right?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 23 July 2005 02:02 (twenty years ago)

GIFT by the Sisterhood -- Classic or Dud

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 23 July 2005 02:02 (twenty years ago)

Dylan - Self Portrait

― Mark (MarkR), Saturday, 23 July 2005 02:03 (twenty years ago)

And Dylan for that matter (from the other side)

― Mark (MarkR), Saturday, 23 July 2005 02:03 (twenty years ago)

Van Morrison "Ringworm"
Rolling Stones "Cocksucker Blues"

― Jeremy (Jeremy), Saturday, 23 July 2005 02:21 (twenty years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004VW34.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004VW35.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 23 July 2005 02:32 (twenty years ago)

jagged little pill - alanis morrisette , then she got happy and didn't sell.

― hal david, Saturday, 23 July 2005 06:17 (twenty years ago)

PIL - This Is What You Want, This Is What You Get.

― mzui (mzui), Saturday, 23 July 2005 08:02 (twenty years ago)

Actually the Parker single Mercury Poisoning was a stab at his former label released by another, Arista: not really released out of spite. On the other hand, his 'Parkerillla' live disc was a pure contract-filler /killer with three sides of live stuff and the fourth consisting entirely of a 12" remix of Don't Ask Me Questions. Not surprisingly it got him off of Mercury Records rather quickly...

As for the Neil Young albums, it might seem like he was pushing the limits of what a record company might expect from Young (rockabilly and country albums), but that was just pure Neil Young doing what the hell Neil Young wants to do. Not really spite though...

― bk (recentlyparoled), Saturday, 23 July 2005 09:41 (twenty years ago)

Re: Neil, perhaps the decision to release material wilfully contrary to label expectations was not so much born out of spite as irreverent disdain then.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 23 July 2005 10:32 (twenty years ago)

http://www.sonymusicstore.com/coverimages/SME_0101_EK_068000.70Q_200x200_72dpi_RGB.jpg

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Saturday, 23 July 2005 10:45 (twenty years ago)

Okay, some of these aren't quite what I had in mind...I'm not thinking of albums/singles that were released to piss people or labels off, but ones that were released specifically as a pissy or misguided reaction to the success of another album/single by a colleague, former bandmember, ex-lover, etc. So the Reed album doesn't really fit what I was thinking.

I chose Arcadia because at the time it seemed to me to reek of "So that Power Station thinks it's pretty hot, huh? Well, we'll show them that we can be chart toppers without them, right gang?" And then, of course, it flopped (comparatively, anyhow). You could argue that it was really a Duran Duran album with a slightly different lineup, but they seemed to want to distinguish themselves from the mothercorp and create a new entity.

I might be tempted to count Van Halen's OU812 as a response to the quasi-success of David Lee Roth's solo record, but it doesn't really count...Van Halen would have recorded another album again anyhow.

Shatner's first album, on the other hand, fits the bill perfectly...he didn't have to release an album at all...he wasn't a musician (obviously), and the only reason it was recorded at all was because Nimoy had some success with his records, and he wanted in on that...possibly to sell more, too. We all know how it worked out in the end, but no matter how much I am amused by that record, I don't think it was recorded with the noblest of intentions.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Saturday, 23 July 2005 15:41 (twenty years ago)

There are lots of examples from hip-hop, if answer records count ...

Damon Albarn used to constantly talk about how he was motivated and angered by Suede's success, which was part of the reason that "Parklife" was recorded so quickly after "MLIR". He was caught up in a game of "can you top this?" with Suede, even though the game existed only in his own mind.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Saturday, 23 July 2005 16:15 (twenty years ago)

Three records meant to piss off the artist's main fanbase and give the record label the finger:

Prince, Chaos and Disorder
Boo Radleys, Come on Kids
Royal Trux, Sweet Sixteen

All three are very good albums. Discuss.

― t. fiend, Saturday, 23 July 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

hell, i didn't even realise that you guys had this discussion before i got there. Stinky, you know you didn't even fully mine the Duran vein of spite. there was also Andy Taylor's solo release after their breakup - the no nonsense, no fashion, rawk album that was pretty much intended to sneer back at the prissier aspects of Duran. pretty dire though, from what i remember.

― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 24 July 2005 04:32 (twenty years ago)

Argh. Andy fucking Taylor -- right around the time the Thunder album was released, Andy was the boil on Duran's backside. Not merely content to part company with Taylor-Rhodes-Le Bon, Andy decided to turn around and sue Duran for any little thing he saw as a reason to sue Duran. There's this whole bit from the Notorious-era documentary called Three To Get Ready where the band's lawyer approaches the band, while they're busy in L.A. rehearsing for the concerts in support of the aforementioned 1986 album, where you can just see how tired and fed up the band were at that point of Andy's legal activities. This is one of the major reasons why I will never like Andy Taylor, because he didn't do what Roger did and just moved on. He had to be ugly to the band members as well, which wasn't deserved as it was ANDY'S OWN DECISION to leave the band.

Sorry about the fangeekout. Guess you were expecting that from me, huh?

― The Kind and Benevolent Oracle of Dee (Dee the Lurker), Sunday, 24 July 2005 05:39 (twenty years ago)

Why was it Andy's decision to leave the band, you may or may not be asking? Because he wanted to continue forth with doing nothing but Pure Rock, stuff that the band was not going to be able to accomodate. So he left like *snap* that. He even took along some former members of Missing Persons with him, which is how Warren Cuccurullo found out the band needed a new guitarist to at least do touring duties with. Warren is visible in the Three To Get Ready doc, practicing along with the rest of the touring outfit. I *think* it was Steve Ferrone who played drums then.

And Power Station was a stinky pile o' shit, wasn't it? I mean, they managed to usher Robert Palmer into a massive realm of suckiness, and Robert Palmer had until that point been pretty exquisite. (You can still hear it in his non-rawk stuff in the late '80s -- all of that being very artfully done jazz-pop, stuff he was good at.) I MUCH MUCH MUCH prefer Arcadia and think it really didn't sound like the Duran brand at that point in time but rather what the Duran brand WOULD HAVE sounded like had the band followed a linear musical progression from their debut album to Rio to this New Album #3. Seven & the Ragged Tiger was a fun album with its delicious high points, but it was also an album where you could tell at least some aspects of the band were reaching for the sonic mainstream.

*hits head on computer desk* I'm doing it again, aren't I?

― The Kind and Benevolent Oracle of Dee (Dee the Lurker), Sunday, 24 July 2005 05:48 (twenty years ago)

(BTW, Andy released another album in 1990 entitled Dangerous, which wasn't at all dangerous but rather an album full of cover songs, IIRC. I think most people remember Thunder only because Andy managed to temporarily be hot enough to where he was actually contributing to soundtracks, including American Anthem's "Take It Easy". Oh yes, and there were lots and lots of similar-looking music videos around that time, too; "Don't Let Me Die Young" features Andy's eldest son, Andy Jr., who is about 18 or 19 years of age right now.)

(As the lead singer of a post-punk outfit from the late '70s once sang, "She's lost control again.")

― The Kind and Benevolent Oracle of Dee (Dee the Lurker), Sunday, 24 July 2005 05:54 (twenty years ago)

Viva Hate

― David Merryweather Goes To Far (scarlet), Sunday, 24 July 2005 22:48 (twenty years ago)

In Utero

― Tumililingan (ex machina), Sunday, 24 July 2005 23:26 (twenty years ago)

Chaos and Disorder is a TERRIBLE album.
But you could also lump in Purple Medley, the Undertaker and maybe even Come into this category, and I like all them.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Monday, 25 July 2005 00:08 (twenty years ago)

http://home.att.net/~didisilver/O/ozzy_speak.jpg
Ozzy was still pissed at getting thrown out of Black Sabbath, so he released this (all-Sabbath, no solo) live double LP the very same week Sabbath released THEIR live double, knowing he'd outsell them. (Ozzy's is the better recording, I think.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 25 July 2005 09:02 (twenty years ago)

Eminem - Encore?

Gotta be some spite going on there, surely.

― Don Rowlando (Sam Rowlands), Monday, 25 July 2005 09:05 (twenty years ago)

XTC - "My Dictionary"

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Monday, 25 July 2005 16:55 (twenty years ago)

John Fogerty - "Vanz Kant Danz"

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Monday, 25 July 2005 16:56 (twenty years ago)

And GangGreen check-mated that with I81B4U.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 25 July 2005 16:57 (twenty years ago)

isnt there some john and paul spite put down on album?

And the first chunk of sebadoh should probably count..like freed man, and bits of weed forestin..into III

― b b, Monday, 25 July 2005 17:19 (twenty years ago)

"Here, My Dear" by Marvin Gaye and "Songs of Love & Hate" by Leonard Cohen - let's not forget Lennon's finger to McCartney "How Do You Sleep?" (as found on the "Imagine" LP)

― SoHoLa (SoHoLa), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 03:15 (twenty years ago)

I'd guess a lot of albums were written to spite the record label (get out of a deal, etc.) but I don't know if that's what you're going for. There's a story that Miles Davis did Cookin' Relaxin' and Workin' all in one shot just cause he wanted out of his contract.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 03:18 (twenty years ago)

Funkadelic's 'Connections & Disconnections' aka 'What's A Funkadelic?'

― mentalist (mentalist), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 04:08 (twenty years ago)

If we're doing songs...

John Lennon: "How Do You Sleep"

― Ryan Pitchfork (Ryan Pitchfork), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 04:14 (twenty years ago)

Cookin', Relaxin', Workin' *and* Steamin' all in two days.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 04:15 (twenty years ago)

Ok someone already posted that. Oops!

― Ryan Pitchfork (Ryan Pitchfork), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 04:21 (twenty years ago)

On the other hand, an Aimee Mann greatest-hits compilation was released without her consent by her former label to spite *her* ...

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 04:24 (twenty years ago)

Teenage Fanclub -- The King

This one is a bunch of leftovers given to Matador to close their contract out. It appears to be out of print, which is probably for the best. I haven't heard it since it was new, but I remember it being really bad.

The Melvins- Prick

The Melvins even stated something like the point of this record was to be annoying.

― earlnash, Tuesday, 26 July 2005 14:11 (twenty years ago)

Sebedoh-The Freed Man

― bedoom (Elisa), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 00:17 (twenty years ago)

Sebadoh

― bedoom (Elisa), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 00:17 (twenty years ago)

albums released out of Sprite
(the Sprite Remix)

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 03:35 (twenty years ago)

Punk rock record label spite: Rough Trade by SLF(actually about Island messing them around, I believe) and EMI by the Pistols, of course.

― Soukesian, Wednesday, 27 July 2005 13:37 (twenty years ago)

about the blur/suede thing i've never understood in what way these two bands sound alike/are on the same musical territory...

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 14:04 (twenty years ago)

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