Musical Failures

[voltron]

List any bands you can think of that have let you down with a poor album.

Sepultura's Chaos A.D.

The reason I stopped listening to Sepultura. A precursor to the slop that was Roots.

Killing Joke  - Outside the gate

Awful album by a usually great band. Supposed to be a Jaz Coleman solo album, but they slapped the Killing Joke name on it. Jaz raps in one song. Ugh.

Saxon - Rock The Nations

Saxon goes for a more commercial party metal sound. One song sounds almost exactly like "Hot For Teacher". You know you're in for trouble when Elton John makes an appearence on a metal album. Edit: I bought this on cassette for a friend who's a big Saxon fan. We both listened to it and groaned about how bad it was. My friend was like "I'm embarassed that I own this."

Celtic Frost - Cold Lake

The Frosts infamous glam metal album. Quite the change from their black/death/doom hybrid.

Carcass - Swansong

I'm a HUGE fan of these guys earlier works, but here they go for a death 'n roll sound. It's not the change in direction I minded so much, I just thought the songs were weak and uninspired.

Alice In Chains - Alice In Chains

Definately AIC's worst album. When compared to their other works, this album is just plain banal. No hooks to be found on this one.
So can you guys and gals think of any others?

[zombie no.one]

good topic...I can think of a few.

Big Dipper - Slam! - their first 3 albums are great, then they signed to a major label and released this which is like a watered down version of themselves. also I had to buy the CD on import and it cost me £30 , so I was not happy.

Metallica - Load - probably not their worst considering what came after, but a definite fall off after Black Album (although I know a lot of Metallica fans thought the black album was a let down)

Nas - I Am... - How did he make one of the best rap albums of all time (Illmatic), then 5 years later make one of the worst. I cannot listen to one track on this album without cringing

Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness - This might not be a popular choice but I thought this had none of what made Siamese Dream such a great album despite being very similar, style-wise. It just sounds lifeless and flat to me. Maybe it's the production. I revisited it recently and thought the same thing....

[voltron]

.Metallica - Load - probably not their worst considering what came after, but a definite fall off after Black Album (although I know a lot of Metallica fans thought the black album was a let down)

I always thought The Black Album was the beginning of the end for Metallica. Thank god I didn't buy it. But you know what? I thought Reload was decent. At least they were trying to do something different and I think it's a step up from Load, but still, compared to their classics, it's still pretty weak.

[ChaosTheory]

.Metallica - Load - probably not their worst considering what came after, but a definite fall off after Black Album (although I know a lot of Metallica fans thought the black album was a let down)

I always thought The Black Album was the beginning of the end for Metallica. Thank god I didn't buy it. But you know what? I thought Reload was decent. At least they were trying to do something different and I think it's a step up from Load, but still, compared to their classics, it's still pretty weak.

For me it was Garage Inc.  Black Album was probably the turning point and Load & Reload were mostly filler but at least there were some bright spots where they showed some of their original fire.  But they lost me for good with that Bob Seger cover.

Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth.  Just so......lukewarm.

Aerosmith - Nine Lives.  This was the point where I realized that these were a bunch of old guys more interested in trying to still look cool and relevant, than in making music (and yeah, Get A Grip really should have tipped me off to that, but hey, I was an adolescent at the time)

Offspring - Conspiracy of One.  Wasn't fun, wasn't angry, wasn't energetic at all.

[zombie no.one]

I always thought The Black Album was the beginning of the end for Metallica. Thank god I didn't buy it. But you know what? I thought Reload was decent. At least they were trying to do something different and I think it's a step up from Load, but still, compared to their classics, it's still pretty weak.

I think I only heard Re-Load once, may have to give it another go

talking of your picks, I've heard all Carcass's albums and I agree that one is completely different to their earlier ones. sounded like maybe they were trying to crack America and be a big rock group with that album. (also I only have Revelations by Killing joke, that's the only one I've heard. I think it's pretty good)

[Flick James]

List any bands you can think of that have let you down with a poor album.

Sepultura's Chaos A.D.

The reason I stopped listening to Sepultura. A precursor to the slop that was Roots.

Killing Joke  - Outside the gate

Awful album by a usually great band. Supposed to be a Jaz Coleman solo album, but they slapped the Killing Joke name on it. Jaz raps in one song. Ugh.

Saxon - Rock The Nations

Saxon goes for a more commercial party metal sound. One song sounds almost exactly like "Hot For Teacher". You know you're in for trouble when Elton John makes an appearence on a metal album. Edit: I bought this on cassette for a friend who's a big Saxon fan. We both listened to it and groaned about how bad it was. My friend was like "I'm embarassed that I own this."

Celtic Frost - Cold Lake

The Frosts infamous glam metal album. Quite the change from their black/death/doom hybrid.

Carcass - Swansong

I'm a HUGE fan of these guys earlier works, but here they go for a death 'n roll sound. It's not the change in direction I minded so much, I just thought the songs were weak and uninspired.

Alice In Chains - Alice In Chains

Definately AIC's worst album. When compared to their other works, this album is just plain banal. No hooks to be found on this one.
So can you guys and gals think of any others?

I respectfully disagree with you on Alice in Chains. I thought it was a one of their better albums. I don't think there's an album they made that I didn't like. Although nothing beats Dirt in my humble opinion.

[HappyGilmore]

Polka Party- by "Weird Al" Yankovic.  Weird Al emerged in '83 with a self-titled album, featuring 6 parodies and 6 non-parody comedy songs.  Had albums emerge in '84, '85, and was pretty much forced to do one in '86.  It showed.  His label felt he should 'Strike while the iron was hot", so to speak, as 'Novelty' musicians usually have short-lived careers.  The pop music scene in '86 was not lending itself well to make good "Parody" music, and the songwriting on this album didn't live up to expectations, and sales lagged.  Took a brief hiatus, re-emerged a few years later.  While I liked certain songs off the album, it didn't meet my personal expectations as a fan.

I respectfully disagree with you on Alice in Chains. I thought it was a one of their better albums. I don't think there's an album they made that I didn't like. Although nothing beats Dirt in my humble opinion.
[/quote]
I very much agree with this.  All of AIC's output is quite good, Dirt being the best, but no bad album.

[retrorussell]

Actually, I rather liked Polka Party.  A couple of his "Al-bums" (ugh) that weren't that good were probably Alpalooza and Bad Hair Day (though I love Amish Paradise).  His best?  Probably Off The Deep End.

[Allhallowsday]

These were not well received critically, or were financially unsatisfactory to label bosses, and compared to the enormity of the acts, were perceived as failures, perhaps both artistically and financially ("successful" usually meaning topping the enormous selling record preceeding it).  These are all records I like and mostly own:  

LED ZEPPELIN Presence  ROBERT PLANT's "car accident" album.    PAUL McCARTNEY and WINGS Back To The Egg
                                         
PAUL's artistic low point?  I had this on vinyl, found it remarkably thin and fragmented, and liked it nonetheless.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysYqQjru_fM  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42IPlbC9H_Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkAunsJ1TJs

DAVID BOWIE Low  Now, well regarded, but it sure found its way into the bargain bin quick back in 1978... If BOWIE has a masterpiece, this is it.  

[Flick James]

I've been an Elvis Costello fan since the 80's. This was easily the worst album he ever did with The Attractions. He has apologized several times. I think the band weren't getting along very well at all by this point.



Okay, I was big on Floyd when this came out, and I defy anyone to defend it as a good album. First of all, forget Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, this is REALLY Roger Water's first solo album. Dismal, and conceptually just themes explored in The Wall drawn out ad nauseum. It was as if Roger Waters said "I talked about how my daddy was killed in WWII all those years ago and how war is bad at length on The Wall, now I'm really going to bore the hell out of everyone with it." He was so full of himself at that time that I fully believe he expected it to be a critical success and to have everyone fawn over him as being the real creative genius of Pink Floyd. I think I may remember bits of one song from that album, but that's about it. Rubbish.

[zombie no.one]

These were not well received critically, or were financially unsatisfactory to label bosses, and compared to the enormity of the acts, were perceived as failures, perhaps both artistically and financially ("successful" usually meaning topping the enormous selling record preceeding it).  These are all records I like and mostly own:  

LED ZEPPELIN Presence  ROBERT PLANT's "car accident" album.  
           

I like Presence. the one thing is it seems very stripped down. every track is like guitar/bass/drums/vocals whereas on earlier albums they seemed to have much more varied production and instruments going on. maybe there's a harmonica in one track I think, but not much else

[Allhallowsday]

These were not well received critically, or were financially unsatisfactory to label bosses, and compared to the enormity of the acts, were perceived as failures, perhaps both artistically and financially ("successful" usually meaning topping the enormous selling record preceeding it).  These are all records I like and mostly own: LED ZEPPELIN Presence  ROBERT PLANT's "car accident" album. 
 

I like Presence. the one thing is it seems very stripped down. every track is like guitar/bass/drums/vocals whereas on earlier albums they seemed to have much more varied production and instruments going on. maybe there's a harmonica in one track I think, but not much else

The "stripped down" production you recognize is because the record was hurried onto the market, with fear the red-hot LED ZEPPELIN would grow cold and not sell millions of records if there was a delay, which there was due to ROBERT PLANT's serious injuries in a "car accident".  The production of this record was hurried, but, as a lifelong LED ZEP fan, I also really like Presence.  In fact, it's one of my favorite LED ZEP records.

[voltron]

Okay, I was big on Floyd when this came out, and I defy anyone to defend it as a good album. First of all, forget Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, this is REALLY Roger Water's first solo album. Dismal, and conceptually just themes explored in The Wall drawn out ad nauseum. It was as if Roger Waters said "I talked about how my daddy was killed in WWII all those years ago and how war is bad at length on The Wall, now I'm really going to bore the hell out of everyone with it." He was so full of himself at that time that I fully believe he expected it to be a critical success and to have everyone fawn over him as being the real creative genius of Pink Floyd. I think I may remember bits of one song from that album, but that's about it. Rubbish.

Oh no man, NO!!!! This is my second favorite Floyd album after Animals. I actually like it a lot more then The Wall. I find it to be insanely depressing and more emotinal than The Wall. I guess that's why the album flopped - a follow up to a smash hit of an album (which kinda bored me, to be honest).

[Trevor]

That stupid Waka Waka song by Shakira and the SA group Freshlyground. Yikes: Epic fail. 

[Flick James]

Okay, I was big on Floyd when this came out, and I defy anyone to defend it as a good album. First of all, forget Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, this is REALLY Roger Water's first solo album. Dismal, and conceptually just themes explored in The Wall drawn out ad nauseum. It was as if Roger Waters said "I talked about how my daddy was killed in WWII all those years ago and how war is bad at length on The Wall, now I'm really going to bore the hell out of everyone with it." He was so full of himself at that time that I fully believe he expected it to be a critical success and to have everyone fawn over him as being the real creative genius of Pink Floyd. I think I may remember bits of one song from that album, but that's about it. Rubbish.

Oh no man, NO!!!! This is my second favorite Floyd album after Animals. I actually like it a lot more then The Wall. I find it to be insanely depressing and more emotinal than The Wall. I guess that's why the album flopped - a follow up to a smash hit of an album (which kinda bored me, to be honest).

I wasn't a big fan of The Wall either. Probably because it was too dominated by Roger Waters and his whining and pretentious political posturing. It did have a few good songs, mainly the ones Gilmore had a heavier hand in. I saw Roger Waters live for the Radio KAOS tour and was bored stiff except when he was performing Floyd stuff. I do love Animals. That was the last album that was at least somewhat collaborative.