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

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).

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.