Like a Pickled Priest Who Was Being Flambéed
March 17, 2023 4:52 PM Subscribe
This is where you click on the link to see if one of your favourite albums is in there, isn't it?
I did. It wasn't. Result happiness.
posted by pipeski at 5:40 PM on March 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
I did. It wasn't. Result happiness.
posted by pipeski at 5:40 PM on March 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
Several of these have been covered by Todd in the Shadows in his "Trainwreckords" series.
48. Van Halen III. Van Halen.
43. St. Anger. Metallica.
42. Cut the crap. The Clash
26. American Life. Madonna.
11. Summer in Paradise. The Beach Boys.
10. Mardi Gras. Creedence Clearwater Revival.
9. American Dream. Crosby Stills Nash and Young.
The episodes are all quite enjoyable, especially the one on Summer in Paradise (it's fun to hate Mike Love)
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 5:45 PM on March 17, 2023 [14 favorites]
48. Van Halen III. Van Halen.
43. St. Anger. Metallica.
42. Cut the crap. The Clash
26. American Life. Madonna.
11. Summer in Paradise. The Beach Boys.
10. Mardi Gras. Creedence Clearwater Revival.
9. American Dream. Crosby Stills Nash and Young.
The episodes are all quite enjoyable, especially the one on Summer in Paradise (it's fun to hate Mike Love)
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 5:45 PM on March 17, 2023 [14 favorites]
I have very little time for CSNY or any of their component parts, and I don't think I've ever heard another song from American Dream, but Compass is a lovely song and means a lot to me.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 5:48 PM on March 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by thatwhichfalls at 5:48 PM on March 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
Well, the "last good album" is true for most musicians and bands. For my favorite band, Smashing Pumpkins, I think that album is Oceania, after that, meh.
Also, a lot of huge bands, from the 70s, were forced to go pop in the 80s, alienating original fans when doing so, Heart, Rush, Cheap Trick, Foreigner, among others, but three of those bands had their biggest hits recording pop ballads, so the record companies got the last laugh.
PS, Oceania really is great, though. If you walked away from the Pumpkins sometime in the late 90s, you should give it a listen.
posted by Beholder at 6:05 PM on March 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Also, a lot of huge bands, from the 70s, were forced to go pop in the 80s, alienating original fans when doing so, Heart, Rush, Cheap Trick, Foreigner, among others, but three of those bands had their biggest hits recording pop ballads, so the record companies got the last laugh.
PS, Oceania really is great, though. If you walked away from the Pumpkins sometime in the late 90s, you should give it a listen.
posted by Beholder at 6:05 PM on March 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Is the new U2 album on this list? I think the best thing you can say about it is it makes you want to listen to the original versions again.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:12 PM on March 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:12 PM on March 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
I dunno, I've always thought "It's Hard" is kind of a great album. Even the line about the pickled priest being flambéed… I mean, after all, you had me requisitioned, blondie.
posted by Crane Shot at 6:17 PM on March 17, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by Crane Shot at 6:17 PM on March 17, 2023 [7 favorites]
Is the new U2 album on this list? I think the best thing you can say about it is it makes you want to listen to the original versions again.
Boy, October, War, Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree is their obvious peak. I'm not a fan of their 90's techno sound at all.
posted by Beholder at 6:24 PM on March 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
Boy, October, War, Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree is their obvious peak. I'm not a fan of their 90's techno sound at all.
posted by Beholder at 6:24 PM on March 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
This article is kind of like shooting fish in a barrel, since any great band that lasts long enough will do a shit album. The thing that makes this even weaker is also including a bunch of artists that were never that great.
posted by snofoam at 6:51 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by snofoam at 6:51 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
Your most-reviled band is awesome!
posted by not_on_display at 7:25 PM on March 17, 2023 [14 favorites]
posted by not_on_display at 7:25 PM on March 17, 2023 [14 favorites]
50 brilliant albums by artists who were genuinely horrible would be more interesting, personally.
(especially if by "horrible" their general work was the yardstick, not their personalities).
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 7:29 PM on March 17, 2023 [7 favorites]
(especially if by "horrible" their general work was the yardstick, not their personalities).
posted by Calvin and the Duplicators at 7:29 PM on March 17, 2023 [7 favorites]
I dunno, the #1 seems to be “on no, this guy our entire industry praises turned out to be a liberal Nazi! What happened?” Well, Rolling Stone, you woke up in bed with a Nazi, what are you going to do with yourself?
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:31 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:31 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
As a long time Bruce fan, I'm a little disappointed that Human Touch and/or Lucky Town didn't make the cut.
posted by condour75 at 7:44 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by condour75 at 7:44 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
I . . .actually can't argue with any of these, even though taking potshots at the Liz Phair s/t feels at the very least sort of passe this point (and it was "Funstyle" that actually made me cringe, if I'm being honest).
posted by thivaia at 7:52 PM on March 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by thivaia at 7:52 PM on March 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
I dunno, I've always thought "It's Hard" is kind of a great album. Even the line about the pickled priest being flambéed… I mean, after all, you had me requisitioned, blondie.
It's Hard is a shite Who album. However, it is a good Pete Townshend solo album.
The Who's post-Keith Moon albums are mainly Pete Townshend solo albums and sources for CSI theme songs.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:55 PM on March 17, 2023 [5 favorites]
It's Hard is a shite Who album. However, it is a good Pete Townshend solo album.
The Who's post-Keith Moon albums are mainly Pete Townshend solo albums and sources for CSI theme songs.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:55 PM on March 17, 2023 [5 favorites]
Also, a lot of huge bands, from the 70s, were forced to go pop in the 80s, alienating original fans when doing so, Heart, Rush, Cheap Trick, Foreigner, among others, but three of those bands had their biggest hits recording pop ballads, so the record companies got the last laugh.
I call this Great in the '70s/Sucked in the '80s. (Class of 1983)
I'd add Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, and other notables.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:56 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
I call this Great in the '70s/Sucked in the '80s. (Class of 1983)
I'd add Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, and other notables.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:56 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
I thought I'd see Leonard Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man, which is an interesting curiosity, but not his finest moment.
posted by ovvl at 8:19 PM on March 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by ovvl at 8:19 PM on March 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Liz Phair is a great record. Fun and listenable 20 years later. No one should be judged by Exile in Guyville, even its auteur. Also, I think a lot of dorky critics loved her 90s musical and photographic portrayal as a manic pixie dream girl who might date them and didn’t really care for the (then) new record’s portrayal of a hot blonde divorcee who definitely wouldn’t give them a second look.
Around the Sun and Calling All Stations were great dark horse calls. Huge disappointments to me.
The sheer volume of terrible 80s records from amazing 1965-1975 artists impresses. That most of those musicians were brought so low while mostly still in their 40s, some in their 30s, saddens.
posted by MattD at 8:23 PM on March 17, 2023 [5 favorites]
Around the Sun and Calling All Stations were great dark horse calls. Huge disappointments to me.
The sheer volume of terrible 80s records from amazing 1965-1975 artists impresses. That most of those musicians were brought so low while mostly still in their 40s, some in their 30s, saddens.
posted by MattD at 8:23 PM on March 17, 2023 [5 favorites]
I dunno, I've always thought "It's Hard" is kind of a great album. Even the line about the pickled priest being flambéed… I mean, after all, you had me requisitioned, blondie.
I wouldn’t call it a great Who album exactly, but it is passable by the standards of any band closing in on its twentieth anniversary in 1982. Most of it doesn’t do much for me these days but I will stand up for Cry If You Want, partly because for a loooong time it was the last track on the last Who album.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:35 PM on March 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
I wouldn’t call it a great Who album exactly, but it is passable by the standards of any band closing in on its twentieth anniversary in 1982. Most of it doesn’t do much for me these days but I will stand up for Cry If You Want, partly because for a loooong time it was the last track on the last Who album.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:35 PM on March 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
A Beach Boys cover of Hot Fun in the Summertime is a pretty good idea, it's just over-produced (like many items on this listicle).
posted by ovvl at 8:42 PM on March 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by ovvl at 8:42 PM on March 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
I went with a friend to see Pete Townshend at the Beacon Theater in 1993 after he had just released “Psychoderelict.” The show was done as a quasi-concert, quasi-play with an actual cast of actors. I couldn’t then or now tell you what it was about because there was something wrong with the sound system and you literally could not hear a single word the actors were saying. You could sort of tell they were talking, but it was strictly Charlie Brown’s teacher time. There was a BDSM scene, for some reason; why, I do not know. We were all looking at each other like, “What *is* this, dude?” “Hell if I know.” (I actually just read the Wikipedia entry of the plot and tbh I *still* have no idea what the hell it was about.)
posted by holborne at 8:47 PM on March 17, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by holborne at 8:47 PM on March 17, 2023 [6 favorites]
I thought I'd see Leonard Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man , which is an interesting curiosity, but not his finest moment.
The songs on that album are great, the Wall of Sound just mucks everything up.
A guy named Greg Ashley did a song-for-song cover, except stripped down. Kind of a vision of what could have been. It’s on the streaming services.
posted by hwyengr at 8:53 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
The songs on that album are great, the Wall of Sound just mucks everything up.
A guy named Greg Ashley did a song-for-song cover, except stripped down. Kind of a vision of what could have been. It’s on the streaming services.
posted by hwyengr at 8:53 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
AC/DC must have a taken a hostage leprechaun not to have made it onto this list. By rights they’ve earned recognition for four decades of wringing the last drops out of a single 4/4 idea. It’s well known they aren’t good people. How have they not managed to put out a completely dogshit album?
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 8:59 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 8:59 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
Eh, I’d probably listen to Soap Opera before any of the last three Kinks albums (modulo 1-2 songs on each). Which doesn’t mean it’s good...
posted by staggernation at 9:03 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by staggernation at 9:03 PM on March 17, 2023 [3 favorites]
Great in the '70s/Sucked in the '80s.
This also explains a lot of Bowie's output then. Scary Monsters came out in '80, but is definitely more of a '70s record. He would later describe the three albums between that one and Black Tie White Noise as his "Phil Collins period", and he's not wrong; Phil put out some good singles, and some of Bowie's 80s work isn't bad--I can listen to "Modern Love", "Blue Jean", and even "Never Let Me Down" without wincing, and I really liked this version of "Let's Dance" from 2000 vastly better than the original--but the rest of it was really pretty dire.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:07 PM on March 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
This also explains a lot of Bowie's output then. Scary Monsters came out in '80, but is definitely more of a '70s record. He would later describe the three albums between that one and Black Tie White Noise as his "Phil Collins period", and he's not wrong; Phil put out some good singles, and some of Bowie's 80s work isn't bad--I can listen to "Modern Love", "Blue Jean", and even "Never Let Me Down" without wincing, and I really liked this version of "Let's Dance" from 2000 vastly better than the original--but the rest of it was really pretty dire.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:07 PM on March 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Harrumph.
Billy Joel's The Bridge is not a horrible album; it's not his best, but it's not even his worst. (That might be Cold Spring Harbor. River of Dreams is uneven and somewhat disappointing. But terming either one horrible calls one's intentions into question.)
They only give A Matter of Trust and Baby Grand fleeting credit and completely ignore the timeless and compelling This Is the Time. Big Man on Mulberry Street always gets an amazing reaction from fans. Temptation is schmaltzy but in a way that Billy Joel fans enjoy. Running on Ice is in the same tonal vein as Pressure. Modern Woman was obviously of its era and the worst thing you can say is that he's doing a riff on Huey Lewis.
They point to Code of Silence to call this whole album horrible? Feh. Code of Silence is a powerful personal anthem about when the anger is the one part of a broken relationship that still gets to belong solely to you. Billy Joel isn't perfect, but this album isn't horrible. Grr.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 9:18 PM on March 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
Billy Joel's The Bridge is not a horrible album; it's not his best, but it's not even his worst. (That might be Cold Spring Harbor. River of Dreams is uneven and somewhat disappointing. But terming either one horrible calls one's intentions into question.)
They only give A Matter of Trust and Baby Grand fleeting credit and completely ignore the timeless and compelling This Is the Time. Big Man on Mulberry Street always gets an amazing reaction from fans. Temptation is schmaltzy but in a way that Billy Joel fans enjoy. Running on Ice is in the same tonal vein as Pressure. Modern Woman was obviously of its era and the worst thing you can say is that he's doing a riff on Huey Lewis.
They point to Code of Silence to call this whole album horrible? Feh. Code of Silence is a powerful personal anthem about when the anger is the one part of a broken relationship that still gets to belong solely to you. Billy Joel isn't perfect, but this album isn't horrible. Grr.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 9:18 PM on March 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
Lotta cheap shots at artists in transitional periods. Also, calling foul on the post title, in that “Athena” is acknowledged as a radio hit (it was) and not one of the particular songs being targeted by this peice.
posted by Miko at 9:43 PM on March 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Miko at 9:43 PM on March 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
Rolling Stone magazine has more in common with People and Glamour magazines than anything related to music. Their fealty to the media whores and money-mongers in the industry is obvious to any serious musicologist. I recall a day when you could actually discover new interesting music from the magazine but you'd have a better chance by randomly selecting your music than by following those dotards.
posted by onesidys at 9:57 PM on March 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by onesidys at 9:57 PM on March 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
Boy, October, War, Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree is their obvious peak. I'm not a fan of their 90's techno sound at all.
I've long considered U2 to be the first band to become so awful they polluted the time stream and retroactively ruined how good their previous work was.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 10:18 PM on March 17, 2023 [19 favorites]
I've long considered U2 to be the first band to become so awful they polluted the time stream and retroactively ruined how good their previous work was.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 10:18 PM on March 17, 2023 [19 favorites]
they polluted the time stream and retroactively ruined how good their previous work was
You may be on to something...
posted by staggernation at 10:21 PM on March 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
You may be on to something...
posted by staggernation at 10:21 PM on March 17, 2023 [4 favorites]
Metafilter: Schmaltzy, but in a way that Billy Joel fans enjoy.
posted by kaibutsu at 10:48 PM on March 17, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by kaibutsu at 10:48 PM on March 17, 2023 [6 favorites]
OK, well, Willie Nelson’s put out a hundred studio albums, so he’s entitled to a stinker.
More likely, though, maybe where Willie’s been, you’re just not ready to go yet. He’s that far ahead.
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:38 AM on March 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
More likely, though, maybe where Willie’s been, you’re just not ready to go yet. He’s that far ahead.
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:38 AM on March 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
I own a lot of albums.
I don't own any of these albums. And never have.
Which makes this a good list, I guess.
posted by philip-random at 12:56 AM on March 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
I don't own any of these albums. And never have.
Which makes this a good list, I guess.
posted by philip-random at 12:56 AM on March 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Singling-out Smooth Noodle Maps as Devo’s “worst” is pretty lazy. They should have just listed everything they did post Oh No, It’s... and made a more accurate statement.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:24 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 3:24 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
As a long time Bruce fan, I'm a little disappointed that Human Touch and/or Lucky Town didn't make the cut.
Lucky Town doesn’t deserve to be lumped in with Human Touch like this, even tho he released them together — LT is good with a bunch of legit great tracks and … HT is not. Heck, Working on a Dream is far worse!
posted by wemayfreeze at 3:39 AM on March 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Lucky Town doesn’t deserve to be lumped in with Human Touch like this, even tho he released them together — LT is good with a bunch of legit great tracks and … HT is not. Heck, Working on a Dream is far worse!
posted by wemayfreeze at 3:39 AM on March 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Yes “Union” must be a whole level of inspired terrible to have pushed “Big Generator” off the list. And the less we say about Van Morrison now, the better
posted by scruss at 4:19 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by scruss at 4:19 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
AC/DC must have a taken a hostage leprechaun not to have made it onto this list.
There’s a good AC/DC album? The classic rock station did an AC/DC “four-play” and by the end of those four songs, I decided I didn’t need to hear another song by them as long as I live. I can’t imagine listening to eight.
posted by thecaddy at 5:12 AM on March 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
There’s a good AC/DC album? The classic rock station did an AC/DC “four-play” and by the end of those four songs, I decided I didn’t need to hear another song by them as long as I live. I can’t imagine listening to eight.
posted by thecaddy at 5:12 AM on March 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
The offspring of this household, as a teenager, picked up Rock Band:AC/DC and after perhaps 45 minutes of working her way through the catalogue, said, “All their songs sound... the same.”
I was so proud.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:22 AM on March 18, 2023 [10 favorites]
I was so proud.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:22 AM on March 18, 2023 [10 favorites]
This could be an unending series, because eventually every band or singer makes a terrible album. Most of the albums in this listicle exist due to the combination of the artists hitting a creative drought and record labels insatiable need for hits.
posted by Larry Duke at 5:52 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Larry Duke at 5:52 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yeah I’d say “working on a dream” is Bruce’s worst. And I like Human Touch.
posted by Miko at 6:58 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Miko at 6:58 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Jerry Garcia's expression on the cover of Built to Last is like 'Why did I agree to be in this photo?'
It's a good list. Most of the albums on it seem to fit into one of a few narratives. The record company gave them bad advice (Liz Phair, Run-DMC, etc.), or they should've broken up but couldn't kill the golden goose (Van Halen, Black Sabbath, Velvet Underground, etc.), or they already broke up and the whole was greater than the sum of its parts (post-Beatles, post-CSNY, etc.), or they tried something different and they were too big for someone to tell them it was terrible (Neil Young, Kanye, etc.).
I'd like to see a list like this posted alongside Rolling Stone's original reviews of these albums, because it seems like they spent a lot of years as an rockist boomer industry organ, trying very hard to promote these sorts of things.
posted by box at 7:02 AM on March 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
It's a good list. Most of the albums on it seem to fit into one of a few narratives. The record company gave them bad advice (Liz Phair, Run-DMC, etc.), or they should've broken up but couldn't kill the golden goose (Van Halen, Black Sabbath, Velvet Underground, etc.), or they already broke up and the whole was greater than the sum of its parts (post-Beatles, post-CSNY, etc.), or they tried something different and they were too big for someone to tell them it was terrible (Neil Young, Kanye, etc.).
I'd like to see a list like this posted alongside Rolling Stone's original reviews of these albums, because it seems like they spent a lot of years as an rockist boomer industry organ, trying very hard to promote these sorts of things.
posted by box at 7:02 AM on March 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
I'd like to see a list like this posted alongside Rolling Stone's original reviews of these albums
I was sure they shilled for CSNY’s American Dream back in the day, and Yes’s Union as well, but Wikipedia reports them giving two stars out of five to each, so maybe they weren’t so easily fooled after all.
Apparently they gave Liz Phair’s self-titled album three stars in 2003.
posted by rory at 7:10 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
I was sure they shilled for CSNY’s American Dream back in the day, and Yes’s Union as well, but Wikipedia reports them giving two stars out of five to each, so maybe they weren’t so easily fooled after all.
Apparently they gave Liz Phair’s self-titled album three stars in 2003.
posted by rory at 7:10 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
It's been a long time since I listened to either, but if we're talking Who albums I'd rate It's Hard over Face Dances because it has "Eminence Front" and "Athena." The Final Cut and a Stones album (Undercover or Emotional Rescue would be my pick, although I've never heard Bridges to Babylon and there's no shortage of contenders) should be on this list, too.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:24 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:24 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Never been a John Mellencamp fan. But the Johnny Cougar album cover looks like a parody.
And I came of age in the era when David Bowie was pumping out a ton of absolute garbage that so many people seem to forget.
posted by SoberHighland at 7:30 AM on March 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
And I came of age in the era when David Bowie was pumping out a ton of absolute garbage that so many people seem to forget.
posted by SoberHighland at 7:30 AM on March 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Speaking of A Big Man On Mulberry Street, here's the Moonlighting dance dream sequence featuring that track, Sandahl Bergman, and Bruce Willis dancing.
And... I love the Kinks' A Soap Opera. It's been the soundtrack to me making big changes in my life more than once; it makes me look at what parts of my life I've accepted, but do not like.
posted by MrVisible at 7:33 AM on March 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
And... I love the Kinks' A Soap Opera. It's been the soundtrack to me making big changes in my life more than once; it makes me look at what parts of my life I've accepted, but do not like.
posted by MrVisible at 7:33 AM on March 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
It's hard to screw up basic barroom blues rock to a level that would make this list. I own AC/DC's catalog up through about 1990 or 91, and haven't bought one since. Not because anything is terrible, but because it all sounds the same. By not taking chances AC/DC insures they don't do anything terrible. They know what their fans want - 4/4 blues rock built on sexual innuendo and drinking songs. That they've made a 40-year career of it is quite the achievement.
posted by COD at 8:02 AM on March 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by COD at 8:02 AM on March 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
I was sure they shilled for CSNY’s American Dream back in the day, and Yes’s Union as well, but Wikipedia reports them giving two stars out of five to each, so maybe they weren’t so easily fooled after all.
Rolling Stone often re-evaluates albums after time has passed and then pretend it never happened. For instance, they gave Veedon Fleece one star when it came out and only years later changed it to 5.
posted by dobbs at 8:10 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Rolling Stone often re-evaluates albums after time has passed and then pretend it never happened. For instance, they gave Veedon Fleece one star when it came out and only years later changed it to 5.
posted by dobbs at 8:10 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
How have they not managed to put out a completely dogshit album?
I vaguely recall an AC/DC interview where they admitted that they recorded a more pop-oriented album that they really hated.
posted by ovvl at 8:29 AM on March 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
I vaguely recall an AC/DC interview where they admitted that they recorded a more pop-oriented album that they really hated.
posted by ovvl at 8:29 AM on March 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
It's odd that they don't mention 'No More Lonely Nights' in dismissing Give My Regard To Broad Street. It's a catchy and solidly McCartneyesque song, with a decent contribution from David Gilmour buried in the saccharine 1980s production.
posted by Flashman at 8:47 AM on March 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by Flashman at 8:47 AM on March 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
4/4 blues rock built on sexual innuendo and drinking songs. That they've made a 40-year career of it is quite the achievement.
Almost fifty years by now. To which I'd add, the last AC/DC album I ever bother to listen to was released over forty years ago. But I hope I'll never make the mistake of forgetting just how fucking great they were back then.
posted by philip-random at 8:59 AM on March 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
Almost fifty years by now. To which I'd add, the last AC/DC album I ever bother to listen to was released over forty years ago. But I hope I'll never make the mistake of forgetting just how fucking great they were back then.
posted by philip-random at 8:59 AM on March 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
The metric appears to be an artists worst album according to fans of that artist. That’s why there’s no ACϟDC because we just love all those albums. Just image if ACϟDC ever bothered to change their ‘style’, like they have the ability to please both their fans and critics? Ha. NO. But we don’t have to imagine, because that is exactly what Kiss attempted.
My first dorm mate was a super Kiss fan - he even had a special Kiss™ branded cassette travel case that featured a slot for every Kiss album save one. I never cared for Kiss, and I even spent months and learned a couple of their ballads in band class. You know, because our teacher was cool and hip. Prolonged exposure to their complete body of work simply cemented my poor opinion, except, of course, that one album missing from the fancy Kiss™ Travel case: Music from "The Elder" .
Music from "The Elder" doesn’t redeem Kiss, it’s not some magic prism to reinterpret the rest of their work. But it did make me, a total hater, appreciate what these musicians were capable of, in their moment of ‘madness.’ No art can be considered in a contextless vacuum, but this album forced me to separate the art work in contrast from the artist and their other work.
So during that moment of the ascendancy of grunge and alternative music, when the titans of rock music were falling, I came to enjoy this weird, alien album from Kiss™. This list from Rolling Stones isn’t wrong, it’s just your basic listicle without any depth. I imagine there are many other albums on it that are simply out of place and time, but because they exist outside of their fans expectations they end up on lists like this because they always have.
posted by zenon at 8:59 AM on March 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
My first dorm mate was a super Kiss fan - he even had a special Kiss™ branded cassette travel case that featured a slot for every Kiss album save one. I never cared for Kiss, and I even spent months and learned a couple of their ballads in band class. You know, because our teacher was cool and hip. Prolonged exposure to their complete body of work simply cemented my poor opinion, except, of course, that one album missing from the fancy Kiss™ Travel case: Music from "The Elder" .
Music from "The Elder" doesn’t redeem Kiss, it’s not some magic prism to reinterpret the rest of their work. But it did make me, a total hater, appreciate what these musicians were capable of, in their moment of ‘madness.’ No art can be considered in a contextless vacuum, but this album forced me to separate the art work in contrast from the artist and their other work.
So during that moment of the ascendancy of grunge and alternative music, when the titans of rock music were falling, I came to enjoy this weird, alien album from Kiss™. This list from Rolling Stones isn’t wrong, it’s just your basic listicle without any depth. I imagine there are many other albums on it that are simply out of place and time, but because they exist outside of their fans expectations they end up on lists like this because they always have.
posted by zenon at 8:59 AM on March 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
AC/DC doesn't make bad albums. Yes they all sound similar, so if you don't like it then you don't like it.
The 70s stuff is objectively superior, but their mid 80s is pretty good (Who Made Who, Blow Up Your Video ). It still sounds like AC/DC and not some attempt to sound pop. That's why they're multigenerational Rocks Gods.
posted by Liquidwolf at 9:24 AM on March 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
The 70s stuff is objectively superior, but their mid 80s is pretty good (Who Made Who, Blow Up Your Video ). It still sounds like AC/DC and not some attempt to sound pop. That's why they're multigenerational Rocks Gods.
posted by Liquidwolf at 9:24 AM on March 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
I might be more interested in a list of back to back albums that had the greatest difference between them, like New York being so much better than Mistrial or Screamadelica being so much better than Primal Scream or The Stone Roses being so much better than Second Coming. Like, banger to clanger or vice versa.
posted by snofoam at 9:36 AM on March 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by snofoam at 9:36 AM on March 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
I know this kind of listicle is supposed to be rage bait but I can't help pointing out that at #10 in the list, CCR's Mardi Gras contains some of their best known songs and IMHO is a perfectly enjoyable album.
posted by splitpeasoup at 9:45 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by splitpeasoup at 9:45 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
AC/DC doesn't make bad albums. Yes they all sound similar, so if you don't like it then you don't like it.
“We’re sick of people saying we’ve just made the same album N times. We’ve actually made the same album N + 1 times.” - supposedly a member of AC/DC
posted by atoxyl at 10:05 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
“We’re sick of people saying we’ve just made the same album N times. We’ve actually made the same album N + 1 times.” - supposedly a member of AC/DC
posted by atoxyl at 10:05 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
ah The Monkees are brilliant artists now? ok...
posted by supermedusa at 10:14 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 10:14 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
AC/DC has an incredibly impressive catalog assuming you like heavy metal.
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.
TNT
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Dog Eat Dog
Whole Lotta Rosie
Highway to Hell
Girls Got Rhythm
Touch To Much
For Those about to Rock
Hells Bells
Shoot to Thrill
Back in Black
You Shook Me All Night Long
That's thirteen, and I'm sure I have forgotten a few.
posted by Beholder at 10:28 AM on March 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll.
TNT
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Dog Eat Dog
Whole Lotta Rosie
Highway to Hell
Girls Got Rhythm
Touch To Much
For Those about to Rock
Hells Bells
Shoot to Thrill
Back in Black
You Shook Me All Night Long
That's thirteen, and I'm sure I have forgotten a few.
posted by Beholder at 10:28 AM on March 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
rollingstonedotcom is making my Macbook Pro's fan spin up, something which rarely happens
posted by neuron at 10:32 AM on March 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by neuron at 10:32 AM on March 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
Yeah, I'm not a huge CCR fan, but I've listened to many hours of classic rock radio and don't think I've heard any of those tracks. When I think of CCR, I think Susie Q, Proud Mary, Born on the Bayou, Bad Moon Rising, Fortunate Son, Run Through the Jungle, Who'll Stop the Rain, Have You Ever Seen the Rain...
The thing about AC/DC is, yes, their stuff sounds the same, but also, they are fucking ROCK SOLID players. Phil Rudd is like the Platonic Ideal of the 4/4 rock-n-roll drummer; his ability to keep time is on par with an atomic clock.
I've also sort-of come around to St. Anger. The snare drum sound is terrible, yes, but I actually think some of the songs rock pretty hard.
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:21 AM on March 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
The thing about AC/DC is, yes, their stuff sounds the same, but also, they are fucking ROCK SOLID players. Phil Rudd is like the Platonic Ideal of the 4/4 rock-n-roll drummer; his ability to keep time is on par with an atomic clock.
I've also sort-of come around to St. Anger. The snare drum sound is terrible, yes, but I actually think some of the songs rock pretty hard.
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:21 AM on March 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
That's thirteen, and I'm sure I have forgotten a few.
I'm immediately missing Riff Raff (the song that allowed me to fall in love with AC/DC). And Downpayment Blues has long been a personal motivation anthem ... assuming what one really wants is to accomplish sweet f*** all
... and ummm, yes as a matter of fact, I don't think it would bad at all if this thread derailed into a discussion of why AC/DC were so damned good for a few years early on that it sorta justifies their effectively doing nothing fresh for at least four decades and yet still remain somewhat relevant.
posted by philip-random at 11:23 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm immediately missing Riff Raff (the song that allowed me to fall in love with AC/DC). And Downpayment Blues has long been a personal motivation anthem ... assuming what one really wants is to accomplish sweet f*** all
... and ummm, yes as a matter of fact, I don't think it would bad at all if this thread derailed into a discussion of why AC/DC were so damned good for a few years early on that it sorta justifies their effectively doing nothing fresh for at least four decades and yet still remain somewhat relevant.
posted by philip-random at 11:23 AM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
AC/DC doesn't make bad albums. Yes they all sound similar, so if you don't like it then you don't like it.
I can take or leave AC/DC. I did have a roommate once upon a time who was a true fan, so I suspect I have heard their entire catalogue up that point (maybe twenty years ago).
I wouldn't say when you've heard one AC/DC song, you have heard them all, but when you have heard them all, it sure feels like you have heard only one.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:55 AM on March 18, 2023 [10 favorites]
I can take or leave AC/DC. I did have a roommate once upon a time who was a true fan, so I suspect I have heard their entire catalogue up that point (maybe twenty years ago).
I wouldn't say when you've heard one AC/DC song, you have heard them all, but when you have heard them all, it sure feels like you have heard only one.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:55 AM on March 18, 2023 [10 favorites]
His "bandmates" prove themselves utter failures at writing and singing songs. Not only are the songs they wrote bad, they are not even memorably bad. They are forgettable.
When you consider that this must be the cream of the Cook/Clifford crop—out of all the songs they presumably wrote, and failed to place on an album, over a decade with the band, these are the ones they picked out to finally bring to the table—it’s almost impressive.
posted by staggernation at 12:10 PM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
When you consider that this must be the cream of the Cook/Clifford crop—out of all the songs they presumably wrote, and failed to place on an album, over a decade with the band, these are the ones they picked out to finally bring to the table—it’s almost impressive.
posted by staggernation at 12:10 PM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
I did have a roommate once upon a time who was a true fan, so I suspect I have heard their entire catalogue up that point (maybe twenty years ago).
I should stress that strictly speaking, my knowledge — such as it is — of the AC/DC catalogue — such as it is — really only covers the first half of the band’s existence. Yet I feel strangely confident in saying that few surprises are waiting for me in the latter-day albums.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:52 PM on March 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
I should stress that strictly speaking, my knowledge — such as it is — of the AC/DC catalogue — such as it is — really only covers the first half of the band’s existence. Yet I feel strangely confident in saying that few surprises are waiting for me in the latter-day albums.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:52 PM on March 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
ah The Monkees are brilliant artists now? ok...
Well, they performed some great music that other people wrote, then they performed some great music that they wrote, then they made a delightfully surreal movie with Jack Nicholson, and then they all did solo stuff. That's more than I ever did.
posted by delfin at 3:38 PM on March 18, 2023 [16 favorites]
Well, they performed some great music that other people wrote, then they performed some great music that they wrote, then they made a delightfully surreal movie with Jack Nicholson, and then they all did solo stuff. That's more than I ever did.
posted by delfin at 3:38 PM on March 18, 2023 [16 favorites]
I LIKED that Devo album. And am really disappointed in all the AC/DC hate in this thread. Sheesh.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 4:50 PM on March 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 4:50 PM on March 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
As their name indicates, AC/DC literally transformed electric rock, right?
posted by snofoam at 5:45 PM on March 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by snofoam at 5:45 PM on March 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
I thought they let most modern artists off easy, by picking on bands who haven't been relevant in 40 years or debut albums. I'm not saying any of these are 'horrible', but they aren't great, and are definitely pale imitations of earlier albums.
My list:
Oasis: Be Here Now
Nirvana: In Utero. If you like In Utero, then Incesticide, but I don't like picking on debut albums/b-sides.
Psychedelic Furs: World Outside
Belle & Sebastian: The Blues are Still Blue/Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Blur: Blur
Blue Aeroplanes: Life Model
AC/DC: Blow Up Your Video --> done in by terrible production. The live versions of the hits are fine, the rest are trash.
Archers of Loaf: White Trash Heroes - all trash
Rage Against the Machine: Renegades -Renegades of Funk is a great song; the rest is boring covers.
REM: Monster: individually the songs are fine but as an album, it's 45 minutes of mid-tempo slush
posted by The_Vegetables at 6:23 PM on March 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
My list:
Oasis: Be Here Now
Nirvana: In Utero. If you like In Utero, then Incesticide, but I don't like picking on debut albums/b-sides.
Psychedelic Furs: World Outside
Belle & Sebastian: The Blues are Still Blue/Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Blur: Blur
Blue Aeroplanes: Life Model
AC/DC: Blow Up Your Video --> done in by terrible production. The live versions of the hits are fine, the rest are trash.
Archers of Loaf: White Trash Heroes - all trash
Rage Against the Machine: Renegades -Renegades of Funk is a great song; the rest is boring covers.
REM: Monster: individually the songs are fine but as an album, it's 45 minutes of mid-tempo slush
posted by The_Vegetables at 6:23 PM on March 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
And am really disappointed in all the AC/DC hate in this thread.
I don’t hate them; I just think they don’t know what they sound like. If they did know, they wouldn’t sound like that.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:21 PM on March 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
I don’t hate them; I just think they don’t know what they sound like. If they did know, they wouldn’t sound like that.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:21 PM on March 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
It’s not easy to pick Lou Reed’s single worst album considering this is the man who gave us Metal Machine Music...
Metal Machine Music is a masterpiece of experimental drone art, technical innovation, and fuck you to everyone who thought they knew what Lou Reed was about. Lou Reed has made some stuff that I'm not crazy about for sure, but Metal Machine Music being cited as a "bad record by an otherwise brilliant musician..." is just... hon, I'm sorry you think you have taste, but look up La Monte Young and Terry Riley and Pauline Oliveros and, of course, Laurie Anderson, and then get really high and then listen to it from start to finish. It's not easy but it is Metal Machine Music.
posted by treepour at 8:37 PM on March 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
Metal Machine Music is a masterpiece of experimental drone art, technical innovation, and fuck you to everyone who thought they knew what Lou Reed was about. Lou Reed has made some stuff that I'm not crazy about for sure, but Metal Machine Music being cited as a "bad record by an otherwise brilliant musician..." is just... hon, I'm sorry you think you have taste, but look up La Monte Young and Terry Riley and Pauline Oliveros and, of course, Laurie Anderson, and then get really high and then listen to it from start to finish. It's not easy but it is Metal Machine Music.
posted by treepour at 8:37 PM on March 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
recently on Metafilter:
Metal Machine Music For Airports
posted by philip-random at 9:26 PM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Metal Machine Music For Airports
posted by philip-random at 9:26 PM on March 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Liz Phair made the list, but it’s not Funstyle? That album is godawful. Her self titled album is not the best, but I can listen to it without wanting to throw the CD across the room.
posted by jzb at 4:37 AM on March 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by jzb at 4:37 AM on March 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
The wretched Cut The Crap deserves to be higher on the list, but let's admit that the Clash hadn't made a great album since London Calling. After that the band took a nose dive that would make Wile E. Coyote shudder. Sandinista! was just one overproduced bad idea after another stretched out over three tedious records, and Combat Rock ran out of steam halfway through the first song.
posted by Fritz Langwedge at 5:14 AM on March 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Fritz Langwedge at 5:14 AM on March 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
Dear Catastrophe Waitress is great! That's the album that got me into Belle & Sebastian after years of stubbornly resisting them. Monster is also great; it just isn't typical REM. Blur's self-titled has a lot of excellent songs and a lot of fans: it opens with "Beetlebum" and "Song 2", which are hardly third-rate Blur. (I don't really have a "worst" Blur album; they all have their charms.)
Be Here Now, though, yeah: famously crap. Would've made a decent 40-minute album if they'd edited down most of the songs and omitted some.
posted by rory at 5:18 AM on March 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Be Here Now, though, yeah: famously crap. Would've made a decent 40-minute album if they'd edited down most of the songs and omitted some.
posted by rory at 5:18 AM on March 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Even the line about the pickled priest being flambéed… I mean, after all, you had me requisitioned, blondie.
Townshend published a book of short stories in 1985 called Horse's Neck, which as I recall gives some insight into the origin of the dreamlike images in "Athena" -- the shattered glass in an acid bath, the flattened ants on a crazy path, the beautiful white horse on a dream stage -- and as that last bit suggests, they are all bits of dreams that he had had, cloaking a song about his problematic crush on Theresa Russell.
When Townshend and Russell first crossed paths, she was dating director Nic Roeg; by the time the Who album rolled around, Russell and Roeg were married, and Townshend was married to Karen Astley, so the song got further subterfuged by retitling it (an earlier version on Scoop 3 was called "Teresa").
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:42 AM on March 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
Townshend published a book of short stories in 1985 called Horse's Neck, which as I recall gives some insight into the origin of the dreamlike images in "Athena" -- the shattered glass in an acid bath, the flattened ants on a crazy path, the beautiful white horse on a dream stage -- and as that last bit suggests, they are all bits of dreams that he had had, cloaking a song about his problematic crush on Theresa Russell.
When Townshend and Russell first crossed paths, she was dating director Nic Roeg; by the time the Who album rolled around, Russell and Roeg were married, and Townshend was married to Karen Astley, so the song got further subterfuged by retitling it (an earlier version on Scoop 3 was called "Teresa").
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:42 AM on March 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
And am really disappointed in all the AC/DC hate in this thread.
I don’t hate them; I just think they don’t know what they sound like.
They know exactly what they sound like, which is why they're not on this list, which is largely 60's and 70's artists who couldn't figure out how to stay relevant and/or succumbed to sales pressure and/or were just burned out in the 80's & 90's and thus made bad trend-chasing albums that didn't play to their strengths.
posted by soundguy99 at 6:47 AM on March 19, 2023 [8 favorites]
I don’t hate them; I just think they don’t know what they sound like.
They know exactly what they sound like, which is why they're not on this list, which is largely 60's and 70's artists who couldn't figure out how to stay relevant and/or succumbed to sales pressure and/or were just burned out in the 80's & 90's and thus made bad trend-chasing albums that didn't play to their strengths.
posted by soundguy99 at 6:47 AM on March 19, 2023 [8 favorites]
True enough: whatever charges one can level at AC/DC, they are not dedicated followers of fashion.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:53 AM on March 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:53 AM on March 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
Sandinista! was just one overproduced bad idea after another stretched out over three tedious records, and
sorry, can't let this stand without some push back.
posted by philip-random at 8:18 AM on March 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
sorry, can't let this stand without some push back.
posted by philip-random at 8:18 AM on March 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
Yeah, Sandinista is great. I like it better than any other Clash album despite it's faults.
posted by Kosmob0t at 8:58 AM on March 19, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by Kosmob0t at 8:58 AM on March 19, 2023 [5 favorites]
Sandinista rules.
posted by kensington314 at 9:19 AM on March 19, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by kensington314 at 9:19 AM on March 19, 2023 [6 favorites]
MetaFilter: just one overproduced bad idea after another
posted by kirkaracha at 10:24 AM on March 19, 2023 [9 favorites]
posted by kirkaracha at 10:24 AM on March 19, 2023 [9 favorites]
The phenomenon of a good band abruptly altering its style to be Top 40-friendly is a common one, and one that fills me with distate and occasional delusions.
For example, I refuse to accept any reality in which Aerosmith's plane hadn't crashed in the early 80's and every bit of music attributed to them in the following years wasn't made by impostors.
And the plane crashed into Heart.
And the wreckage plowed into U2.
And a chunk of it took out Metallica.
And a chunk of Metallica did lasting damage to Peter Cetera.
posted by delfin at 11:11 AM on March 19, 2023 [5 favorites]
For example, I refuse to accept any reality in which Aerosmith's plane hadn't crashed in the early 80's and every bit of music attributed to them in the following years wasn't made by impostors.
And the plane crashed into Heart.
And the wreckage plowed into U2.
And a chunk of it took out Metallica.
And a chunk of Metallica did lasting damage to Peter Cetera.
posted by delfin at 11:11 AM on March 19, 2023 [5 favorites]
and Cheap Trick's plane got caught up in the tumult and was lost, assumed crashed. But somehow miraculously, they didn't just survive, they came back replenished.
posted by philip-random at 11:35 AM on March 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by philip-random at 11:35 AM on March 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Blur is a decent album, and an interesting change in direction for them IMHO. I've got a lot of love for On Your Own and You're So Great.
In Utero, Mistrail and Monster are good too. Or at least have their moments. I mean Mistrail has I Remember You and Tell it to Your Heart, both perfectly good Lou tunes, and I even like The Original Wrapper.
AC/DC do AC/DC perfectly, and that's fine. Will add Thunderstruck to the list of top AC/DC songs someone posted above.
My terrible and unjustifiable musical opinion is that Cut the Crap is fine actually, or at least has a handful of listenable songs, not just This is England.
posted by Pink Frost at 3:31 PM on March 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
In Utero, Mistrail and Monster are good too. Or at least have their moments. I mean Mistrail has I Remember You and Tell it to Your Heart, both perfectly good Lou tunes, and I even like The Original Wrapper.
AC/DC do AC/DC perfectly, and that's fine. Will add Thunderstruck to the list of top AC/DC songs someone posted above.
My terrible and unjustifiable musical opinion is that Cut the Crap is fine actually, or at least has a handful of listenable songs, not just This is England.
posted by Pink Frost at 3:31 PM on March 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
It's so hard to pick the worst album from any bands I like, because it's like even the ugly babies are adorable. Or, I stopped listening to them when they started to suck, and I don't know if subsequent albums were any good. (E.g., Pixies—maybe their stuff after Indie Cindy was good? idk.) I can only begin to think of bands whose catalogs ended years ago. And even then, it's hard to choose the worst Rush album.
Worst Butthole Surfers Album: piouhgd
That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
posted by not_on_display at 12:00 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
Worst Butthole Surfers Album: piouhgd
That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
posted by not_on_display at 12:00 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
Worst Sonic Youth album: Goodbye 20th Century
posted by box at 12:35 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by box at 12:35 PM on March 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
piouhgd
except in P.S.Y., it's got one of my all time fave psychedelic freakouts from anybody. Though it had been kicking around for a while.
But yes, Goodbye 20th Century is certainly the worst Sonic Youth release I've ever heard. And I like good noise. But that's just ... noise.
posted by philip-random at 12:53 PM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
except in P.S.Y., it's got one of my all time fave psychedelic freakouts from anybody. Though it had been kicking around for a while.
But yes, Goodbye 20th Century is certainly the worst Sonic Youth release I've ever heard. And I like good noise. But that's just ... noise.
posted by philip-random at 12:53 PM on March 20, 2023 [3 favorites]
Re. Sandinista: this article doesn't give a citation but quotes Strummer as having this to say about it:
“There are some stupid tracks, there are some brilliant tracks. The more I think about it, the happier I am that it is what it is.”
I don't love it all the way through (does anyone?), but I do love that it exists. Has a band ever put out an album as different from their debut just three years later?
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:56 PM on March 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
“There are some stupid tracks, there are some brilliant tracks. The more I think about it, the happier I am that it is what it is.”
I don't love it all the way through (does anyone?), but I do love that it exists. Has a band ever put out an album as different from their debut just three years later?
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:56 PM on March 21, 2023 [3 favorites]
Sandinista is my favourite Clash album, even though it has lots of fillers and throwaways, because the fillers and throwaways are all interesting and funny. They're actually some of my favourite parts.
posted by ovvl at 7:19 PM on March 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by ovvl at 7:19 PM on March 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
Has a band ever put out an album as different from their debut just three years later?I submit Alanis Morissette who in four years went from this to this.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 8:28 PM on March 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
Sandinista is my favourite Clash album, even though it has lots of fillers and throwaways, because the fillers and throwaways are all interesting and funny. They're actually some of my favourite parts.
I've done more than my share of rambling on about Sandinista around here. But just in case you missed this thread ...
Sandinista was released at the very end of 1980 but it didn't show up in my world until maybe a month into 1981, so yeah, almost exactly forty years ago. Which was coincident with the arrival in my locale of the strongest LSD I've ever experienced. Green Windowpane. Guaranteed to remove one from their moorings, for better or worse. So yeah, Sandinista was fated to forever be one of my fave psychedelic soundtracks, long and deep and wilfully odd, and Lose This Skin -- I'm pretty sure the first time I even heard it I was ... way out there. Which made it perfect in its wigged out, fiddle driven brashness. That whole side five was perfect, and so was side six. Another album that was brand new to us at the time was Byrne + Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. We probably would've put that on next. The conclusion was obvious. The 80s were going to be a profoundly wonderful and weird decade, musically speaking. And they were. You just wouldn't hear much of it on the radio -- not the corporate stations anyway. I've never gone back.
posted by philip-random at 9:09 PM on March 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
I've done more than my share of rambling on about Sandinista around here. But just in case you missed this thread ...
Sandinista was released at the very end of 1980 but it didn't show up in my world until maybe a month into 1981, so yeah, almost exactly forty years ago. Which was coincident with the arrival in my locale of the strongest LSD I've ever experienced. Green Windowpane. Guaranteed to remove one from their moorings, for better or worse. So yeah, Sandinista was fated to forever be one of my fave psychedelic soundtracks, long and deep and wilfully odd, and Lose This Skin -- I'm pretty sure the first time I even heard it I was ... way out there. Which made it perfect in its wigged out, fiddle driven brashness. That whole side five was perfect, and so was side six. Another album that was brand new to us at the time was Byrne + Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. We probably would've put that on next. The conclusion was obvious. The 80s were going to be a profoundly wonderful and weird decade, musically speaking. And they were. You just wouldn't hear much of it on the radio -- not the corporate stations anyway. I've never gone back.
posted by philip-random at 9:09 PM on March 21, 2023 [2 favorites]
Say what you want about Sandinista!, but The Clash made an album that transcended punk clichés, showed the band could supplement eclectic experimentation with powerful performances, and bucked its record company's skepticism by delivering a sprawling album in which every cut nevertheless seemed integral to its unified artistic vision.
That album was London Calling.
posted by Fritz Langwedge at 12:22 PM on March 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
That album was London Calling.
posted by Fritz Langwedge at 12:22 PM on March 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
yeah, London Calling is better than Sandinista. I'd never argue that point. It's a great, great album. But I still prefer Sandinista.
I did run into Joe Strummer once, and told him this. His response was, "But don't you think it would've better if we'd cut it back to just four sides, kept the best stuff?" To which I said, "Yeah, but I do that already with my cassette deck. And the thing is, my fave 90 minutes keep changing."
posted by philip-random at 12:44 PM on March 22, 2023 [6 favorites]
I did run into Joe Strummer once, and told him this. His response was, "But don't you think it would've better if we'd cut it back to just four sides, kept the best stuff?" To which I said, "Yeah, but I do that already with my cassette deck. And the thing is, my fave 90 minutes keep changing."
posted by philip-random at 12:44 PM on March 22, 2023 [6 favorites]
> in which every cut nevertheless seemed integral to its unified artistic vision.
"...except Lover's Rock." (ymmv)
The first time I listened to Sandinista! I liked maybe 1/6th of it. Then it was one-third, then half...now the only song I'd say is a *total* waste of time is the kiddie cover of Career Opportunities.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:29 PM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
"...except Lover's Rock." (ymmv)
The first time I listened to Sandinista! I liked maybe 1/6th of it. Then it was one-third, then half...now the only song I'd say is a *total* waste of time is the kiddie cover of Career Opportunities.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:29 PM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
Then it was one-third, then half...
I'm the exact opposite. I was a rabid Clash fan and I originally thought most of it was top-notch. Now I realize that most of it is at least listenable, but only a few songs are good and nothing is brilliant.
But don't listen to me, the one I've learned to love is Give 'Em Enough Rope. Side One is just non-stop explosive. Side Two has the terrific "Stay Free," which threatens to dwarf the rest of the cuts, but aside from the corny "Guns On The Roof," the other songs are actually very smart, energetic and benefit from Jones-Strummer vocal interplay as well as the always-impressive efforts of tireless Topper Headon.
posted by Fritz Langwedge at 2:07 PM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm the exact opposite. I was a rabid Clash fan and I originally thought most of it was top-notch. Now I realize that most of it is at least listenable, but only a few songs are good and nothing is brilliant.
But don't listen to me, the one I've learned to love is Give 'Em Enough Rope. Side One is just non-stop explosive. Side Two has the terrific "Stay Free," which threatens to dwarf the rest of the cuts, but aside from the corny "Guns On The Roof," the other songs are actually very smart, energetic and benefit from Jones-Strummer vocal interplay as well as the always-impressive efforts of tireless Topper Headon.
posted by Fritz Langwedge at 2:07 PM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
I like most of the songs on Rope, but the production sinks that album a bit for me. Safe European Home is a top-5 Clash song, though.
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:14 PM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:14 PM on March 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
I truly can't imagine taking issue with the production on Rope but not on Sandinista!. This was loud-guitar heaven, if you ask me. "Safe European Home," "Stay Free" and "Tommy Gun" are among the greatest songs the Clash ever recorded, and their impact owes a lot to Pearlman's production.
posted by Fritz Langwedge at 3:44 PM on March 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Fritz Langwedge at 3:44 PM on March 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
The production quality on Sandinista! is inconsistent for sure and some tracks definitely suffer from having just let the band do whatever they wanted (others sound amazing to my ear), but a lot of Rope sounds kind of muddy to me. I don't think I've heard the remastered version that was released at some point, though.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:25 AM on March 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:25 AM on March 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Worst Butthole Surfers Album: piouhgd
Why do you hate Garry Shandling?
posted by whuppy at 7:38 AM on March 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Why do you hate Garry Shandling?
posted by whuppy at 7:38 AM on March 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Jumping in as a Dead stan..
Foolish Heart has about the best 2 seconds of Dead ever.
And Brent was working well with Jerry. Blow Away is so good.
And then they all fell apart. Sigh...
posted by Windopaene at 2:22 PM on March 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Foolish Heart has about the best 2 seconds of Dead ever.
And Brent was working well with Jerry. Blow Away is so good.
And then they all fell apart. Sigh...
posted by Windopaene at 2:22 PM on March 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Wait, did someone say Paul's Boutique sucked? NOOO I CANNOT NOT COMMENT
I realize that it was still a pre-woke BBoys, but Paul's is so musically richly produced, and not over-produced, and it came out just before all the sampling legal-BS would have gotten in the way. The Dust Brothers really set the bar high for what hip-hop could sound like. I'm also a fan of Beck's Mellow Gold even though I can't stand most of his output after that album.
But those two albums, I can listen on repeat and still find new easter eggs.
posted by not_on_display at 4:01 PM on March 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
I realize that it was still a pre-woke BBoys, but Paul's is so musically richly produced, and not over-produced, and it came out just before all the sampling legal-BS would have gotten in the way. The Dust Brothers really set the bar high for what hip-hop could sound like. I'm also a fan of Beck's Mellow Gold even though I can't stand most of his output after that album.
But those two albums, I can listen on repeat and still find new easter eggs.
posted by not_on_display at 4:01 PM on March 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
[Whoops, I misread that comment above, sorry box. Yes, Paul's Boutique was so very different than Licensed to Ill. And much better in so many ways. I'll step out of this room now.]
posted by not_on_display at 4:10 PM on March 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by not_on_display at 4:10 PM on March 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
[poking my head back in] Oh, and radical stylistic differences within three years? Introducing the Beatles (1964), and Sgt. Pepper's (1967). [closing the door behind me]
posted by not_on_display at 4:13 PM on March 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by not_on_display at 4:13 PM on March 29, 2023 [1 favorite]
« Older i'm in a pipe / i cannot gripe | Yeah! Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by pxe2000 at 5:26 PM on March 17, 2023 [9 favorites]