best album on Rolling Stone's list of 50 genuinely horrible albums by brilliant artists

alfred, brad - need your help here

Prince's "Chaos and Disorder" is actually GOOD - solid tunes, great guitar work, all well-performed. The lyrics aren't much, but they kind of leave these tracks feeling like a collection of sketches or demos for an abandoned album of great potential.

I can't say the rest are favorites, but there are keepers. Roughly in descending order of preference:

This Is England - The Clash
Little Digger - Liz Phair
Someday Never Comes - CCR
Sweet Hitch-Hiker - CCR
Good Friends - Joni Mitchell
The Impossible Dreamer - Joni Mitchell
(I actually don't think "Dog Eat Dog" is a bad album - not one I put on but I would say it's her best LP from the '80s.)
Light a Candle - Neil Young
No Money Down - Lou Reed
Mama's Got a Lover - Lou Reed
Tell It to Your Heart - Lou Reed
Athena - The Who
Eminence Front - The Who
Electron Blue - R.E.M.
Leaving New York - R.E.M.
Never Let Me Down - David Bowie
Nothing Fails - Madonna

*not one I would put on in its entirety anymore

Won't vote because I've either intentionally avoided or never bothered to check out most of these, but am quite curious to see the comments.

seems a bit misleading to put on a Mellencamp album from his manufactured era

i kinda always thought Fork in the Road was regarded as weird but not bad exactly, either way it seems like a strange pick for Neil who's surely made worse albums

never got the sense that american life was a particular bad album, was it?

down in the groove is one of the dylan albums that doesn't sound so bad when i randomly hear a track from it but maybe the whole experience is a daunting one

OutKast ‘Idlewild’ (2006)

^^ fucking bullshit

Liz Phair 'Liz Phair' (2003)

^^ fucking bullshit

I don't like Down in the Groove, but FWIW, "The Usual" and "Got Love If You Want It" were originally sequenced into it and it probably would've helped had he kept those in instead of, I dunno, "Silvio" or one of the other worst tracks.

Tonight is worse than Never Let Me Down. On the latter Bowie's clearly trying: playing instruments, writing almost every track, giving it direction. On the former it's the only time in his career he's putty in an outside producer's hands.

I love all of these

The Kinks ‘The Kinks Present A Soap Opera’ (1975)
George Harrison ‘Gone Troppo’ (1982)
The Velvet Underground ‘Squeeze’ (1973)

it's a long way from being their best, but I like most of Devo's Smooth Noodle Maps, particularly A Change Is Gonna Cum

Change by the Monkees is low-key but enjoyable

"Squeeze" isn't "genuinely horrible", it's just a bit dull and anonymous. "Friends" is a great track though.

Yes, and the Kinks have worse albums than "A Soap Opera".

I may not be a fan of Never Let Me Down but a lot of it's still something I can sit through pretty easily. Moreso with the Liz Phair album - not a favorite, but a lot of it's still catchy and far from "horrible."

Dog Eat Dog is great imo

Outlast Idlewild is good not bad

I don't hate Cut the Crap because "This is England" is still the only song I've ever heard from it.

Xpost It's weird and very minor for an Outkast album for obv reasons but it has some hams

Also if you were gonna put an Aerosmith album on there, it's Get a Grip, not Nine Lives.

GaG is mostly just ballads and the rockers suck except for Eat the Rich and Shut Up and Dance

Berlin's a worse album than Mistrial.

re: Idlewild, I don't remember it too well, but I never disliked it - since it's the soundtrack to what's more or less a period piece, the expectations were really different.

never got the sense that american life was a particular bad album, was it?

Took a closer look at it - it's a very weak album, but again still listenable for large parts of it. "Hollywood" is not a bad single (which fades out early, before the pedestrian rap) and neither is the 'Headcleanr Rock' mix of "Love Profusion." Also the video protesting Bush was commendable even if she caved immediately to the backlash.

Ditto on "This Is England"; CCR's "Someday Never Comes" also worth having. I've got those two albums, and maybe a couple more.

maybe you have to watch the tv production of A Soap Opera to fully appreciate it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8laVs0aMWw

it's funny because I always thought that Smooth Noodle Maps by Devo had a kind of 70s rock-opera vibe to it as well, like Hair or Godspell or something

I like Berlin, but I discovered it through the live interpretation at BAM (via the concert documentary).

Get a Grip is probably "too big to fail" for the purposes of this list. i like Livin on the Edge tbh though the rest i'm not into.

That SNL sketch where they make fun of all the songs sounding alike was hilarious.

The LPs on this list I'm familiar with aren't "horrible" - they're just dull or underwhelming, whatever.

(Liz Phair's Funstyle is truly bad, but I guess they're not counting that as a "real" album...)

I don't remember the rest of American Life being quite as terrible as that title track, but nor do I recall any of it being particularly strong ("Hollywood," "Die Another Day"--meh). Mostly, I have an aversion to the rigid, icy vocal style she took on circa Music, which at least had some quality singles.

VH3 I don't think is quite as bad as its reputation indicates. VH hadn't been doing hard rawkin albums in years - the final Hagar album Balance is better for sure but stylistically it was very much old people rock.

Cherone just didn't fit vocally at all. Like he was trying to hard to sound like both Hagar and Roth

But Eddie sang on this one so...hmm yeah I'll allow it

I feel like "mediocre" would've been a more fitting word than "horrible"

kinda think for unlawful carnal knowledge is def bad not good, haven't heard balance but that one felt really stodgy and lacking energy. it got massive airplay tho, coming out when it did at the crest of pop metal/hard rock radio popularity right before the collapse.

Dog Eat Dog is great imo

I hadn't even noticed this one was on the list, I thought everyone liked this? or at least it wasn't generally regarded as a misstep like most the albums here?

Get a Grip is probably "too big to fail" for the purposes of this list. i like Livin on the Edge tbh though the rest i'm not into.

I remember going into a mall record store in Detroit some time in '93 and the clerk greeting me and pointing out, unprompted, where the new Aerosmith album was on display. It is weird to remember how huge they were still considered to be at that time.

I don't think Joni Mitchell's 80s albums in general get much love, but they all have at least a few keepers.

american life is one of madonna's best albums, way more involving than music and idk i think the title track rap is probably supposed to be funny

Get a Grip sold something like 20 million copies, it was everywhere. they marketed it incredibly well.

Apparently!

alicia silverstone probably got them a few million of those alone

It's Hard is the one that stands out here to me as "actually pretty good"

Mitchell's three '80s albums are good, none great (the next great one: Night Ride Home).

when I was 13 my mother bought me the Get a Grip tee shirt with the album cover of the cow with the pierced udder and the typical reactions from my classmates were either:

"ew"

or

"cool shirt, why are YOU wearing it?"

Oof, I love the Who, but there's only three songs off It's Hard that I would listen to. I kind of wish they had put out a 12" single as their ostensible farewell rather than a whole album - "Eminence Front" with "Athena" and "Cry If You Want" as the B-sides.

Two Virgins isn't a "genuinely horrible album" - it's an unremarkable field recording.

lol Raditude is sooooooooooooooooooooooo bad.

i think it was the last Weezer I ever bought

if you're wondering if i want you to
i don't want you to

probably w/weezer's inclusion here is they're closer to a bad band w/some good moments than a brilliant band with a bad album

*problem w/

80s Joni gets unfairly maligned for the stylistic experimentation imo; me, I think she falls into dud territory only when her lyrics veer into hectoring mode (“Sex Kills”), and I agree w Alfred that Night Ride Home is great

chalk mark in a rain storm is good too, “the beat of black wings” is A+++

I've definitely defended some of these here before. As I said here and on Twitter a year or so ago, Cut the Crap is as good as any other Clash album, and better than some. Their whole discography is a goddamn mess, and as a strip-it-to-the-bone, fuck-the-pop-charts record, it more than does the job. The guitar sound is ugly as shit, but in a really interesting way, and when you combine that with the Big Black-ish drum machine, the random stabs of ultra-80s synth, and the gang vocals, Strummer was actually really onto something. People who don't like Cut the Crap are too attached to the mythology of four dudes in a room makin' rock 'n' roll. Listen to it side by side with the first Big Audio Dynamite album, and wise the fuck up.

I will also defend St. Anger. It's not great, but it's not Metallica's worst.

Lulu belongs on this list.

"This is England" is top ten Clash. unperson otm

Cut the Crap is as good as any other Clash album, and better than some.

I'm not sure how to process this. It was barely a Clash album, and the one obvious exception aside is just weak shit that sounds like sludge.

voting for It's Hard mostly because of "Eminence Front"

Have you got my (got my)
Latest (latest)
Record (record)
Project (project)

Would not have expected Van to be the one, with "Why Are You On Facebook?", to stage an intervention in my life via song.

cut the crap is definitely their funniest album, thanks to bernie

can't be bothered to look but didn't RS love idlewild at the time, way more than they liked any of the 90s stuff? I might be wrong but it seems like the kind of thing they'd do

in fact how may of these albums did get reviewed positively in RS when they came out? at least a few of them? I know they reviewed the johnandyoko stuff positively at the time, which was good politics when they and wenner were romancing each other, if anyone else had made that music (except maybe dylan) they'd obviously have ignored or ridiculed it

fuck you for getting that awful van song that shouldn't even be an earworm in my head again

it’s pretty asinine to put Pantera in there since even the ~band~ disavows that period (i heard somewhere they said they’d never rerelease these albums) plus complely different lead singer

it’s like putting Blaze era Iron Maidem on this list like uh everyone already hates this you are not the Vasco De Gama of discovering terrible albums fyi

I love how after 50 songs about how the plandemic and his ex-wife and the people who own the media are all part of a conspiracy to take him down, he ends with a song accusing us all of being jealous of his miserable life xps

the Vasco De Gama of discovering terrible albums

I wouldn't mind having this on my tombstone.

Liz Phair was my vote, though I’ve only heard maybe … 4-5 of these

The majority of these seem to be "should have stopped one or two albums ago" records or "the member(s) everyone liked/cared about is gone" albums, or both. Having never heard it, I'm idly curious what makes The Bridge worse than anything else Billy Joel (who is The Fucking Worst) ever released. I agree that the Pantera album is a cheat; the ballsy choice would have been The Great Southern Trendkill, which was released at their commercial peak and is absolute fucking garbage from front to back. I also feel like Neil Young and Lou Reed have at least six or seven other albums each that could have qualified for this list, and I guess the only reason there's no Eric Clapton on the list is nobody thinks he's brilliant anymore.

Oh, and where's Goddess in the Doorway? Including that would have been hilarious.

Another good candidate: the Stooges' The Weirdness, one of the worst betrayals of an artistic legacy ever.

Yeah, Cut The Crap had at least several keepers, best I recall---album from this list I best recall gets my vote: Countrymen, cos rolling country reggae Willie feels right, often enough. And speaking of Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, he also shows up on "Cool Water," which she divining-rod guides through a ever-apt Western drought mention.

I do have a friend who only likes pre-Phil Pantera, and he loves this album

it’s fun as an oddity but i def prefer them in their final form w Phil

red rocket is a hilarious track, perfectly stupid and aligned with all the other low tier dumb hair metal

I've never heard any of the pre-Phil albums, but Power Metal (the first Phil album) is a great record and deserves to be reissued.

re Billy Joel, both Storm Front and The Bridge felt like declines because they were the first albums of his not produced by Phil Ramone. Whatever else their problems are, The Stranger et al sound good (with The Nylon Curtain having its own particular weird sound).

Having never heard it, I'm idly curious what makes The Bridge worse than anything else Billy Joel (who is The Fucking Worst) ever released.

It is the weakest of his albums imo, but there are others that come close: he's more a singles artist than an album artist. The Bridge has "A Matter of Trust" and "This is the Time", both of which I love, so I wouldn't call it horrible even if the album tracks are meh

xp Yeah Storm Front is easier to make the case for worst, because everyone hates its biggest single

Total Devo is so much worse than Smooth Noodle Maps. The latter has “Post Post Modern” man which is a legitimately good single! Which I didn’t even know about until hearing the album!

“I go to extremes” is a legit good song tho, re strom front

lol it's not! Forced hilarity is what he does worst.

chalk mark in a rain storm is good too, “the beat of black wings” is A+++

Yeah, that's a keeper. Besides "Good Friends" and "The Impossible Dreamer" (which I listed upthread), other '80s cuts I like are "Chinese Cafe/Unchained Melody," her cover of "(You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care, "My Secret Place" and "The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms)."

Re: Billy Joel, I given him a couple of chances, even doing a deep dive once, and my recollection is that the earlier stuff generally came off better because it seemed to fit his sensibilities better and more organically. But regardless I've never had the urge to put on his records.

"My Secret Place" -- one of the few modern duets where they sing as if they're in the same room.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StCve-J4ofk

Shame he became a fascist on that album but I guess "I Go to Extremes" makes sense in that regard

Whoah wait, what did Joel do?

Never like witless 'worst' lists but Ye is a deserving No. 1

Xpost just a bad joke involving the name of the album

Elsewhere, It's Hard has a great single, a really really fantastic single and I've Known No War. All fantastic. The Bridge starts with the only Billy Joel song I ever listen to (cod-Police though it is). Idlewild isn't really anyone's idea of "genuinely horrible", is it? Ditto Chaos and Disorder. The Elder is a funny and reasonably involving Ezrin folly. Calling All Stations is good for 10 minutes, esp on worldbeat-Savage Garden fusion Congo (tho both of these first two songs fade out mid-verse, as though the album is giving up on itself. But that in itself is pretty diverting imo). Smooth Noodle Maps is enjoyable diseased AOR. Dog Eat Dog has Fiction, The Three Great Stimulants and the live musique concrete Smokin' - all of which I play more than anything off Hejira (sorry). Full Circle doesn't have Jim Morrison on it and it also has Mosquito on it. Gone Troppo has the gorgeous Circles. Never Let Me Down has Glass Spider (like someone's dad trying to scare their kids, the baby spiders would get scared and search FRANtically for their mother).

Cut the Crap is fantastic - an atomically flattened punk sound collage, the pop kid brother of As the Veneer of Democracy Stars to Fade, the birth of late 80s/early 90s crush collision indie, the trojan PC Music yada yada. It absolutely needs a rest from these stupid lists but it will never happen will it? Similarly, Two Virgins tired and dead from its nine millionth bollocking from disengaged rock critics. Squeeze is so unassuming it would barely inspire much commentary in either direction if the circumstances were different but here it is making its 1000th appearance. The fantastic American Life is a fascinatingly contradictory album - a breakdown in character and personal values, a rerouted strive for 'real', depicted very audibly via extreme digital manipulation and countless other audio boulders, making the thematic tension in the album hard to ignore. Compares very favourably with Trans, 808s and George Michael's True Faith (which could potentially make the songs equivalent of this list).

Umm. Mistrial is shit but Rolling Stone once described Video Violence as a "slicked-up Sister Ray slammer" which makes me want to like it.

lol it's not! Forced hilarity is what he does worst.

xxp ah, no worries, I didn't match the song to the correct album title.

FWIW, I'll commend Joel for his outspokenness. For example (from Greil Marcus's Real Life Rock Top 10 column):

Billy Joel, Madison Square Garden (New York, August 21)

For his encore, nine days after Nazis marched and killed in Charlottesville and the president of the United States de­murred, Joel appeared with yellow stars on the front and back of his jacket. The signifier gave him a fierce, humbled dignity, which his face and his weighted, burdened posture said was less his own than that which those who wore the Jüden badge before him were stripped of.

“Time Will Crawl” is a top 5 Bowie single

Wow, nice

Thanks for sharing, bird. Missed that at the time

Outkast Idlewild is great wtf

Well maybe not great but at least 25% of the album is worth it and that’s more than I can say for other albums in here.

Otm

Mistrial is fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dojTm4KtSk

I dislike it but am attracted to it, as I am all maligned (and frequently very strange) mid-80s synth album by mid-life rockers.

(The Umm was my attempt to represent me looking for what else to defend, not a shutting down of Mistrial fans, if it looked like that)

A lot of these albums seem to have been chosen mainly because they came after some of the band had left (Monkees, Who) and most of them I'm familiar with have some good stuff on. Still, a deserving 1.

I really like The Kinks Present a Soap Opera - it's the Kinks go Crossroads! Some brilliant tracks like "Holiday Romance". Schoolboys in Disgrace or any of their last few albums after would've made more sense for me.

I also think Bowie's Never Let Me Down is half a really decent album. "Time Will Crawl" is fantastic, and the Lennon-esque title track is classic too. It's frontloaded with the good stuff, but you know he was trying, unlike on Tonight.

I appreciate not even some Elvis obsessives have heard all the movie soundtracks, but Fun in Acupulco is far from the nadir. It's got a real gem in the fuzzy, Merseybeat-ish "Slowly but Surely" - among my favourite 60s Elvis tracks. Paradise, Hawaiian Style or It Happened at the World's Fair, now those are painful.

“It’s Hard” is probably the worst original LP by the Who, but it is more middling than bad. Townshend was a mess and had kinda raided his current songs for Empty Glass, then they had to rush this one out before what became their ‘first’ last tour.

Kiss’ “Unmasked” I think is worse than “The Elder”. Even in the days when Animalized was a new tape and I listened to all sorts of KISS, I never liked Unmasked at all. It’s worse than the solo albums.

Full Circle is not as good as Other Voices but some of the music is interesting. Robbie and Ray were not Jimbo you know…that Peking tune is pretty cool. Those dudes should have hooked up with Randy California or something.

gross

https://i.imgur.com/4Ie3p4u.jpg

Is that guy at the end supposed to be a specific critic or something?

Probably <all critics> Kiss were pretty well-hated by that wing of the music press.

always had a soft spot for "video violence" from Mistrial

I vividly remember seeing that Kiss cartoon as a kid circa 1980

I’ve always been mystified by the dislike of Dog Eat Dog and Chalk Marks…

lol i know so many dudes that were kids when unmasked came out and they love it

oh dear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWNYLMUg6B0

That Aerosmith album is pure cheese but not in a bad way

few things-

-rolling stone is still terrible
-idlewild is the correct answer and again: rolling stone is still terrible
-no dirty work??? c'mon rolling stone, you wannabe hip, get with the memes
-because of this... um, list... i'm gonna have an 80s/90s joni marathon today so not all is lost!

I don't know most of these, but came here to rep for Soap Opera and am happy to see that several have already done so. I would actually love recommendations for any similar music-hall inspired rock records. Deaf School the closest thing I can think of at the moment.

Have you heard, from the same era, Trouble by Sailor? They're a minor group but with a very strong "identity" triangulating glam, music hall and 40s movie signifiers.

“It’s Hard” is probably the worst original LP by the Who, but it is more middling than bad. Townshend was a mess and had kinda raided his current songs for Empty Glass, then they had to rush this one out before what became their ‘first’ last tour.

― The Artist formerly known as Earlnash, Thursday, February 16, 2023 10:20 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Oof, I love the Who, but there's only three songs off It's Hard that I would listen to. I kind of wish they had put out a 12" single as their ostensible farewell rather than a whole album - "Eminence Front" with "Athena" and "Cry If You Want" as the B-sides.

― birdistheword, Thursday, February 16, 2023 1:50 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

It's Hard has my all-time least favorite Who song, "It's Your Turn." It sounds like the intro music to a 1982 cable-access sports program. What I've never understood is why/how John Entwistle's songs went from funny, wry, and clever ("905" being the last of these) to utterly faceless corporate rock.

Daltrey hated It's Hard and said it never should have been released. They started recording it while Pete was still in rehab, so he's not on "It's Your Turn." It took two weeks to record and apparently less time than that to write. Pete wanted to retire from touring -- and he had the songwriting royalties to make this possible -- so, unbeknownst to them until the advertising went out, their managers billed the tour as the "Farewell Tour." It worked, as they sold out massive venues, but no one else in the band had been consulted about this "no more touring" business.

The band accused Townshend of keeping his best songs for his solo records, which Townshend has denied, but there's some truth to it. During the session for "Rough Boys" Kenney Jones told Pete, "This is a Who song!" Pete basically said, "No it isn't, and it's not your call" and refused to entertain the thought of presenting it to the rest of the band. Then again, the Who with Moon had recorded "Empty Glass" for Who Are You but the band rejected it.

If they'd compiled something with the Face Dances outtakes "I Like Nightmares," "Dance It Away," and "Somebody Saved Me" added to "Eminence Front," "Athena," "Cry If You Want," "I've Known No War," and maybe "It's Hard," it wouldn't be a classic, and barely long enough for an album, but it wouldn't be nearly as underwhelming as It's Hard ended up being.

lol just saw that RS gave It's Hard five stars upon release.

lol of course

Have you heard, from the same era, Trouble by Sailor?

Yes! I have their first two albums, good call.

I don't know most of these, but came here to rep for Soap Opera and am happy to see that several have already done so. I would actually love recommendations for any similar music-hall inspired rock records. Deaf School the closest thing I can think of at the moment.

― Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Friday, 17 February 2023 15:05 (twenty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

there was a glam rock band called Jet that included former members of John's Children Sparks and the Nice, they released a single self-titled album in the 70s that sounds a bit like Soap Opera-era Kinks

Brian Protheroe made some very good records in the 70s that have a kind of similar music hall vibe, maybe a bit more like 10cc or Paul McCartney than whats been mentioned

if you want actual music hall stars then Max Wall did a single on stiff records where he did a version of Ian Dury's England's Glory and the b-side was this fantastic song of his own composition called Dream Tobacco.

the rest of the album isn't in the same style, but there's a track on David Essex's 1980 album Hot Love that called 'Zebra Kid' I always thought Morrissey should have covered in his 90s faux-cockney period

My beloved 1974-1976 Brian Protheroe/Sailor/Deaf School/Stackridge emporium

Idlewild has Hollywood Divorce and that’s a cracker. Anyone ever see the film? I’ve never heard a damn thing about it.

Heh I remember hearing it was kinda shitty. Never did wind up seeing it

I did like Andre 3000 in Four Brothers

He has a nonsense cameo in White Noise.

Idlewild isn’t a horrible film, but Andre can’t act for shit. I really don’t like him in Claire Denis’ High Life

I thought he was pretty good as Jimi Hendrix.

I've only seen him in High Life - I thought he was fine there, and I thought it was an excellent film.

re music hall, I liked most of this:

https://omnivorerecordings.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Thompson_Linda-My-Mother-Doesnt-Know-OV-296.jpg

LINDA’S MUSIC HALL ALBUM COMING SEPT 2018

“I suppose the genesis of this record is that music hall and variety (vaudeville, for my American friends), was always a big part of my life. I’m only a hop skip and a jump removed from it. My grandparents were born in the late 1800s. My parents were born near the beginning of the 20th Century. My paternal grandmother had seen Marie Lloyd and Vesta Tilley, and the like. My dad grew up on Max Miller, and The Crazy Gang. He took me to theatres, both in London and Glasgow, to see Shows. I missed Max Miller, but I knew every word of his act, and all of the songs. I did see The Crazy Gang, who were sensational. I actually worked with one of them in 1967. Monsewer Eddie Grey. Lovely guy. Tommy Trinder was top of the bill, something made me steer clear of him tho.”

With family and special guests on board, the album was mostly recorded in May of 2005 at the Lyric Hammersmith in London. While Linda sets the proceedings in motion, special guests appear quickly. “Beautiful Dreamer,” the Stephen Foster classic, is performed by Martha Wainwright. Says Linda, “I have always loved this song. Have sung and listened to many versions of it for eons. I have never ever heard a more beautiful rendition than this. Never.”

Also along for the ride is actor Academy Award®-winning actor Colin Firth, who happens to be a fan of Linda’s son, recording artist, Teddy Thompson. Teddy brought Firth into the project and he handles the title track with all the wit and charm the title conjures. Teddy appears as well, handling lead vocal duties on several songs. Tony®-nominated cabaret artist, Justin Vivian Bond takes a turn at “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” while both music hall singing legend, John Foreman, and renowned English folksinger Bob Davenport, tie the album back to its roots as artists who have been performing since the ’50s and early ’60s. Irish folk singer Cara Dillon with Sam Lakeman, Jools Holland with the actor Roy Hudd, concertina player Roger Digby, music director Michael Haslam, Stephen Large of Squeeze, James Walbourne of Pretenders and The Rails, and even George Hinschliffe of The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain all join in the fun, evoking the bygone era of the saloons and public houses where people could go to dance, sing, drink, smoke and joke, and let the cares of the world fall away for a while. Linda sums it up perfectly, “Drunk? Us? How very dare you?” Come join the fun!

"A Soap Opera" doesn't sound very music hall to me tbh.

Not the entire album, but "Holiday Romance" mentioned above is specifically what I was thinking of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq8tgM4BTe4

I’m gonna give a sympathy vote to Dead’s ‘Built To Last’ - it’s their, & truly Brent Mydland’s swan song. It was translated pretty well live, & some of the songs have a truly good groove and fun lyrics. ‘Standing on the Moon’ served as a nice requiem when Jerry passed.

Andre’s performance in White Noise isn’t a cameo. He appears in multiple scenes, but he just doesn’t have many lines, thankfully

xp Oh yeah, seems like there was a good, rueful (w reckless guitar break) "Standing..." on live Downhill From Here.

“Standing on the Moon” is a great song.

American Life has that very now-dated electro sound but it’s not a flat out bad album, definitely not as terrible as the post-Confessions albums.

Not the entire album, but "Holiday Romance" mentioned above is specifically what I was thinking of.

Oh yes, that one is but then it doesn't fit in with the rest of the album - musically or lyrically - and strikes me that Ray stuck it on the album because it was a good song.

I can’t take Andre3000 seriously after that Key and Peele’s outkast reunion sketch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02cSc5a49LA

I like "Chaos and Disorder" fine, contract fulfiller or not

Dan, on the music hall thing, I'd like to put a word in for the fab Peter Skellern, who really deserves a critical reappraisal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCFPUuIZVKU

I also share the love for Skellern. This song is like a cosy, logfire-warmed sofa bed in 70s power cut Britain (or so I like to think).

IIRC RS also gave _Endless Wire_ five stars, and it's a much weaker record than _It's Hard_ IMHO. 'Cry if You Want' is in my top ten Who/PT songs and 'Cooks County' is a favorite also. Point taken about PT writing songs for _Empty Glass_ but I can't imagine Daltrey singing 'Rough Boys' or 'And I Moved'.

I've been defending _Down in the Groove_ since it was released -- 'Let's Stick Together' and 'Silvio' are serviceable '80s Bob and 'Shenandoah' and 'Rank Strangers' are two of his very best trad-folk moments.

FWIW, by the time I got into the Who, they were purely a nostalgia act, albeit an amazingly good one (this was circa 2000/2001 when Zak Starkey had settled into the drum seat and breathed new life into the band, just as Townshend had said many times). None of their "new" songs did anything for me and they really seemed to fade over time, especially after Entwistle died, but I was surprised that Who turned out to be a good record. Not a towering masterpiece or anything, but fitting for a very old pair of men and much better than what I could ever hope for when it seemed like the well had completely dried up.

Dan, on the music hall thing, I'd like to put a word in for the fab Peter Skellern, who really deserves a critical reappraisal.

Sounds like Hurricane Smith.

I also think Cut The Crap is fine, maybe not a real "Clash" album or whatever but I like most of it.

Never Let Me Down is better than Tonight and I'd rather listen to it than say Black Tie White Noise or Hours and maybe others.

I was surprised to see Chaos & Disorder on the list — I honestly had no idea it wasn’t generally well-regarded. I prefer it to pretty much any other ‘90s Prince, and at the time I remember it being hailed as a kind of return to form.

What is with this critical reappraisal of that awful Liz Phair album? Am I the only one that remembers “Hot White Cum”?

Plenty of us liked it in 2003. And she can like any color and temperature of cum she damn well pleases.

most restaurants still make it to order for you

and the waiter will play Xbox on your floor

I guess "Victim or the Crime" is the diamond in the mud of Built to Last.

Willie's <I>Countryman</I> is too obvious a choice for him. Yes, it's terrible and misguided that he put out a reggae album, but it's a joke of an album wherein he was fully in on the joke.

For his worst, I'd either go for <I>Songbird</I> (produced by Ryan Adams, includes one of the worst covers of fucking "Hallelujah" this side of Pentatonix's inexplicable Christmas version) or 1989's <I>A Horse Called Music</I> (produced like albums by Air Supply or Eric Carmen, and just completely wrong for Nelson).

Best on this list? Prince, for sure, but I'd also go to bat for Madonna and a few others. The album Phair released as a sort-of half-assed apology for the self-titled record (<I>Somebody's Miracle</I>) is actually a bad album.

Willie's Countryman is too obvious a choice for him. Yes, it's terrible and misguided that he put out a reggae album, but it's a joke of an album wherein he was fully in on the joke.

For his worst, I'd either go for Songbird (produced by Ryan Adams, includes one of the worst covers of fucking "Hallelujah" this side of Pentatonix's inexplicable Christmas version) or 1989's A Horse Called Music (produced like albums by Air Supply or Eric Carmen, and just completely wrong for Nelson).

Best on this list? Prince, for sure, but I'd also go to bat for Madonna and a few others. The album Phair released as a sort-of half-assed apology for the self-titled record (Somebody's Miracle) is actually a bad album.

Willie's Countryman is too obvious a choice for him. Yes, it's terrible and misguided that he put out a reggae album, but it's a joke of an album wherein he was fully in on the joke.

For his worst, I'd either go for Songbird (produced by Ryan Adams, includes one of the worst covers of "Hallelujah" this side of Pentatonix's inexplicable Christmas version) or 1989's A Horse Called Music (produced like albums by Air Supply or Eric Carmen, and just completely wrong for Nelson).

Best on this list? Prince, for sure, but I'd also go to bat for Madonna and a few others. The album Phair released as a sort-of half-assed apology for the self-titled record (Somebody's Miracle) is actually a bad album.

yes

Jesus. Sorry for the triple-post. WiFi hiccuped.

Is Phair’s new one even any good? The songs I heard sure weren’t…

I recall not liking the lead single at all, so I honestly never listened to the album...

FWIW, by the time I got into the Who, they were purely a nostalgia act, albeit an amazingly good one (this was circa 2000/2001 when Zak Starkey had settled into the drum seat and breathed new life into the band, just as Townshend had said many times). None of their "new" songs did anything for me and they really seemed to fade over time, especially after Entwistle died, but I was surprised that Who turned out to be a good record. Not a towering masterpiece or anything, but fitting for a very old pair of men and much better than what I could ever hope for when it seemed like the well had completely dried up.

2000 was arguably the last-best time to see the Who live. They were really on fire, and longtime fans said those shows were as good as their ‘75-‘76 tours. But I say “arguably” because the 2006 show I saw was really stunning. At least 1/3rd of the show was new material, and the Endless Wire songs sounded so much better live (apart from, weirdly enough, the album’s best song, “Mike Post Theme”). (There was also a weird irony in the Who doing more new songs on that tour than the Pixies and Sonic Youth had been doing on their tours around that time.) I actually think Endless Wire is more consistent than WHO, but suffers from indifferent production. And while you can count on Pete delivering a few arena-ready anthems he seems to write in his sleep, those two records have some stone classics (“Mike Post Theme,” “Tea & Theater,” “Rockin’ In Rage,” “She Rocked My World”). Frustratingly, though, the most recent Who tours have no recent material — I dunno if it’s because of Townshend’s unwillingness to rehearse it with the band/orchestra, or the fact that audiences stream for the exits when something unfamiliar is played (as happened when I saw them do “A Quick One, While He’s Away” in 2015).

as happened when I saw them do “A Quick One, While He’s Away” in 2015

disgusting savages

I saw the Who first in 1989 with some free tickets from my uncle (rip) who was working the tour. Got to use his hotel room as they moved on that night. We got to go to the stage that afternoon at old Busch Stadium as they were setting up. Amazing day but the concert was really like a Vegas road show as it was like a 20 piece band. Eh…

Second time I saw them was when they did the Quadrophenia reunion tour and they had a smaller group and Pete was again playing electric. Zak Starkey and Entwistle were both amazing. The Ox had a couple features in that show and he was ridiculously good. It was quite good.

TIL The Who have a song called "Mike Post Theme"(!)

Behind NYPD Blue Eyes

Long Live Rockford

Law & Odorono

The closest thing to a definitive release of the 2000 shows is probably the DVD of the Teenage Cancer Trust benefit at Royal Albert Hall: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Who_%26_Special_Guests:_Live_at_the_Royal_Albert_Hall

I wish they dropped one or two of the guest stars, but to be fair, it's a benefit show and was expected. Otherwise, the four-song set at the 9/11 benefit is great too - IIRC Entwistle said they were very aware how dismal their performances were at past televised benefits like Live Aid, so they really made the effort to step up. (One big reason why I put off going to see the Who was how underwhelming they sounded at the Super Bowl and the Hurricane Sandy benefit.)

I liked that Peter Skellern song upthread, but the melody line reminded me of "I've Written a Letter to Daddy" from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNwzfjNkz-0

I've seen the Who twice: once in 1982, on a triple bill with John Mellencamp and Jehtro Tull (!). They were . . . OK. Uninspired but competent. Not nearly as good as the Stones, who had played the same venue a year earlier. Clearly, something vital had been lost when Keith died.

The second time was about 10 years ago when they were touring Quadrophenia. It was purely a nostalgia act, and not a particularly good one. Tellingly, the highlights were the appearances by Keith and John via video footage.

Uuuuhg God bless Johnny boy but I saw him get boed off stage 1982 Boulder Colorado the buffs football field cougar Jethro Tull The who it was brutal and although I'm no fan I did not boo it was boulder half the people were three sheets to the wind

— SoopNova (@SoopNova) April 12, 2021

Yes, that was the show LOL

Clearly, something vital had been lost when Keith died.

No question, but their 1979 tour -- their first with Kenney Jones -- was met with universal praise. It wasn't until 1981 or so that "they shouldn't have gone on without Moon" became a mantra among fans.

Opening acts had a rough go of it on the '82 tour. Townshend asked the B-52s to open in Orlando but sadly, and not surprisingly, Who fans of that era weren't into it. The Clash got booed at the Shea Stadium gig (which you can faintly hear in the original "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" video), and other acts didn't last more than 25 minutes (I think T-Bone Burnett was one of these).

The second time was about 10 years ago when they were touring Quadrophenia. It was purely a nostalgia act, and not a particularly good one. Tellingly, the highlights were the appearances by Keith and John via video footage.

I saw that tour at Madison Square Garden, and it was the first time seeing them where I thought to myself, "Hm...they seem...old."

Last year's show was enjoyable because they embraced their age and were really comfortable with it. When Pete missed a note he even feigned some hilarious confusion for a moment.

They probably had the material for a good album in 1982, but the problem was splitting it between the Who and Pete's solo career. Otherwise, "The Sea Refuses No River," "Slit Skirts," "Athena" (or "Teresa"), "Eminence Front," "Cry If You Want," "Face Dances, Pt.2" and the B-side "Dance It Away" were all released in 1982 and were all solid cuts, IMHO. I'd add "Somebody Saved Me" but I much prefer the Who outtake from Face Dances (it should've been included on that album IMHO).

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

RS still pushing Allman bros as brilliant artists lol

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

Lol what

the Allman Brothers were amazing fyi

otm

Agreed. Even decades later, long after their last enduring hits, the line-up with Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks was on-stage arguably every bit as great as the original.

Brothers of the Road is not that hot. It is their worst studio album.

Check that Live at the Warner Theater for a taste of what late model ABB sounded like on a good night.

Feel like should have included a Snoop album, like there's no way that one he did for No Limit could be any good.

xp That first reunion (1978-1982?) should never have happened, but I'm glad they gave it another shot many years later.

Feel like should have included a Snoop album, like there's no way that one he did for No Limit could be any good.

― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, March 16, 2023 9:06 PM

oh friend, which one???

(terrible results btw, pantera sux)

Lol what

― hootenanny-soundtracking clusterfucks about milking cows (Neanderthal), Friday, 17 March 2023 00:27 (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

You weren't one of the Pantera voters?

Hell no, I voted "Idlewild"

is that Pantera album before Phil Anselmo or was he on it?

also why are they picking on a random Stephanie Mills album lol

lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GKHEVHPLZI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZY3RPaSCkc

also why are they picking on a random Stephanie Mills album lol

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown),

srsly

who voted Union. show yourself

they certainly wouldn't include her on any best of lists xpost

That is pre-Anselmo Pantera.

Most Pantera fans will only ride for Power Metal cos he's on that one and it's more Priesty.

This is Pantera doing Foreigner rock

I wonder what that Paul McCarthy album sounds like.

the Metal Magic stuff just posted reminds me of UFO

also why are they picking on a random Stephanie Mills album lol

You know they misspelled Stephen Stills, right?

I know the thread authors are not responsible, since they are usually copying and pasting from another source, but why do 'worst ever' lists always have so many odd misspellings? Is it an intentional way to avoid getting swarmed by superfans? The Q - The Worst 50 Albums Ever poll featured nonexistent artists like "Mariah Cary", "Tim Machine", "Ace of Bass", "Fishspooner", and (still cannot believe this one) "Terence Trent Diabolical"; not to mention an imaginary album from Kula Shaker called "Peanuts, Pigs & Astronauts".

Halfway there but for you at 9:46 17 Mar 23

also why are they picking on a random Stephanie Mills album lol
You know they misspelled Stephen Stills, right?

no

Didn’t even notice that! Copied the list from Reddit I think.

If they ever make a Velvet Goldmine type film about 80s electro-pop Tim Machine would be a good name for the main character.