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...)
― unknown blues singer (morrisp), Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:28 (one year ago) link
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.
― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:28 (one year ago) link
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
― waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:28 (one year ago) link
But Eddie sang on this one so...hmm yeah I'll allow it
― waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:29 (one year ago) link
I feel like "mediocre" would've been a more fitting word than "horrible"
― birdistheword, Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:34 (one year ago) link
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.
― omar little, Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:34 (one year ago) link
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?
― soref, Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:34 (one year ago) link
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.
― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:35 (one year ago) link
I don't think Joni Mitchell's 80s albums in general get much love, but they all have at least a few keepers.
― birdistheword, Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:35 (one year ago) link
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
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:36 (one year ago) link
Get a Grip sold something like 20 million copies, it was everywhere. they marketed it incredibly well.
― omar little, Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:36 (one year ago) link
Apparently!
― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:37 (one year ago) link
alicia silverstone probably got them a few million of those alone
― omar little, Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:38 (one year ago) link
It's Hard is the one that stands out here to me as "actually pretty good"
― sleeve, Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:41 (one year ago) link
Mitchell's three '80s albums are good, none great (the next great one: Night Ride Home).
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:44 (one year ago) link
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?"
― waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:47 (one year ago) link
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, 16 February 2023 18:50 (one year ago) link
Two Virgins isn't a "genuinely horrible album" - it's an unremarkable field recording.
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:54 (one year ago) link
lol Raditude is sooooooooooooooooooooooo bad.
i think it was the last Weezer I ever bought
― waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:57 (one year ago) link
if you're wondering if i want you toi 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
― omar little, Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:58 (one year ago) link
*problem w/
― omar little, Thursday, 16 February 2023 18:59 (one year ago) link
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
― Blessed Bloated Burdened (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, 16 February 2023 21:41 (one year ago) link
chalk mark in a rain storm is good too, “the beat of black wings” is A+++
― not too strange just bad audio (brimstead), Thursday, 16 February 2023 21:55 (one year ago) link
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.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, 16 February 2023 22:08 (one year ago) link
"This is England" is top ten Clash. unperson otm
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 16 February 2023 22:11 (one year ago) link
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.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 16 February 2023 22:15 (one year ago) link
voting for It's Hard mostly because of "Eminence Front"
― gman59, Thursday, 16 February 2023 22:30 (one year ago) link
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.
― made a mint from mmm (Eazy), Thursday, 16 February 2023 22:37 (one year ago) link
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
― Left, Thursday, 16 February 2023 22:50 (one year ago) link
fuck you for getting that awful van song that shouldn't even be an earworm in my head again
― Left, Thursday, 16 February 2023 22:52 (one year ago) link
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 singerit’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
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 16 February 2023 22:56 (one year ago) link
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
― Left, Thursday, 16 February 2023 22:57 (one year ago) link
the Vasco De Gama of discovering terrible albums
I wouldn't mind having this on my tombstone.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Thursday, 16 February 2023 23:00 (one year ago) link
Liz Phair was my vote, though I’ve only heard maybe … 4-5 of these
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 16 February 2023 23:01 (one year ago) link
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.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, 16 February 2023 23:07 (one year ago) link
Another good candidate: the Stooges' The Weirdness, one of the worst betrayals of an artistic legacy ever.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, 16 February 2023 23:08 (one year ago) link
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.
― dow, Thursday, 16 February 2023 23:10 (one year ago) link
I do have a friend who only likes pre-Phil Pantera, and he loves this album
― waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Thursday, 16 February 2023 23:18 (one year ago) link
it’s fun as an oddity but i def prefer them in their final form w Philred rocket is a hilarious track, perfectly stupid and aligned with all the other low tier dumb hair metal
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 16 February 2023 23:29 (one year ago) link
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.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, 16 February 2023 23:36 (one year ago) link
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).
― made a mint from mmm (Eazy), Thursday, 16 February 2023 23:36 (one year ago) link
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
― Vinnie, Thursday, 16 February 2023 23:48 (one year ago) link
xp Yeah Storm Front is easier to make the case for worst, because everyone hates its biggest single
― Vinnie, Thursday, 16 February 2023 23:50 (one year ago) link
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!
― frogbs, Thursday, 16 February 2023 23:57 (one year ago) link
“I go to extremes” is a legit good song tho, re strom front
― not too strange just bad audio (brimstead), Friday, 17 February 2023 00:05 (one year ago) link
lol it's not! Forced hilarity is what he does worst.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 February 2023 00:17 (one year ago) link
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.
― birdistheword, Friday, 17 February 2023 00:26 (one year ago) link
"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
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 February 2023 00:28 (one year ago) link
Shame he became a fascist on that album but I guess "I Go to Extremes" makes sense in that regard
― waiting for a czar to fall (Neanderthal), Friday, 17 February 2023 00:29 (one year ago) link
the Allman Brothers were amazing fyi
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 17 March 2023 02:57 (one year ago) link
otm
― obsidian crocogolem (sleeve), Friday, 17 March 2023 02:58 (one year ago) link
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.
― birdistheword, Friday, 17 March 2023 03:05 (one year ago) link
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.
― The Artist formerly known as Earlnash, Friday, 17 March 2023 03:43 (one year ago) link
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), Friday, 17 March 2023 04:06 (one year ago) link
xp That first reunion (1978-1982?) should never have happened, but I'm glad they gave it another shot many years later.
― birdistheword, Friday, 17 March 2023 04:16 (one year ago) link
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
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, March 16, 2023 9:06 PM
oh friend, which one???
― ''can be prusuaded to show gayness'' (Austin), Friday, 17 March 2023 04:37 (one year ago) link
(terrible results btw, pantera sux)
Lol what― hootenanny-soundtracking clusterfucks about milking cows (Neanderthal), Friday, 17 March 2023 00:27 (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
― 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?
― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Friday, 17 March 2023 10:09 (one year ago) link
Hell no, I voted "Idlewild"
― hootenanny-soundtracking clusterfucks about milking cows (Neanderthal), Friday, 17 March 2023 14:04 (one year ago) link
is that Pantera album before Phil Anselmo or was he on it?
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 17 March 2023 14:06 (one year ago) link
also why are they picking on a random Stephanie Mills album lol
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 17 March 2023 14:10 (one year ago) link
lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GKHEVHPLZIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZY3RPaSCkc
― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Friday, 17 March 2023 14:15 (one year ago) link
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown),
srsly
― the very juice and sperm of kindness. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 March 2023 14:18 (one year ago) link
who voted Union. show yourself
― frogbs, Friday, 17 March 2023 14:20 (one year ago) link
they certainly wouldn't include her on any best of lists xpost
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 17 March 2023 14:20 (one year ago) link
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
― hootenanny-soundtracking clusterfucks about milking cows (Neanderthal), Friday, 17 March 2023 14:24 (one year ago) link
I wonder what that Paul McCarthy album sounds like.
― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Friday, 17 March 2023 14:28 (one year ago) link
the Metal Magic stuff just posted reminds me of UFO
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 17 March 2023 14:35 (one year ago) link
You know they misspelled Stephen Stills, right?
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 17 March 2023 14:46 (one year ago) link
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".
― Front-loaded albums are musical gerrymandering (Prefecture), Friday, 17 March 2023 16:52 (one year ago) link
Halfway there but for you at 9:46 17 Mar 23also why are they picking on a random Stephanie Mills album lolYou know they misspelled Stephen Stills, right?no
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 17 March 2023 16:57 (one year ago) link
Didn’t even notice that! Copied the list from Reddit I think.
― omar little, Friday, 17 March 2023 17:13 (one year ago) link
If they ever make a Velvet Goldmine type film about 80s electro-pop Tim Machine would be a good name for the main character.
― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Friday, 17 March 2023 21:33 (one year ago) link