Most Disappointing Album You've Ever Heard (not the worst)

[Beware the Beast Man]

I'm not looking for the worst album you ever heard, but the most disappointing by an artist that you like. I'd have to go with "California Crossing" by Fu Manchu. It was as if they were trying to make a hit record. Overproduced and boring, save a few tracks.

[LostInAnomie]

1. Faceless by Godsmack

The first two were some of the best music that Metal had to offer in the past 5 years. Then they let that steaming turd drop.

Edit: I was watching TV and typed the wrong album name in.

[vi5]

2. ???

???

[sniffa]

3. chicken & beer - Ludacris

1 great song.... and bunch of shit

[x-g.o.p.er]

4. Ghost of Tom Joad, by Bruce Springsteen

Tried to re-create "Nebraska" and it was a miserable failure.

Horrible album.

[ixion]

5. Scott Weiland's solo album

I really enjoyed STP's music, and Weiland's album doesn't totally suck, but it's far below STP par.

[noonwitch]

31. Well, he's got a great band, now

Slash, Duff and Matt from GNR.

[ixion]

44. Slash and Matt, maybe, but Duff?

I think he's remarkably untalented.

[asthmaticeog]

6. Tortoise, "Millions Now Living Will Never Die"

I thought (and still think) their debut was SUCH a cool fucking record - the apotheosis of some of the more interesting ideas that Slint brought to the table - but with their second, they began an almost-unbroken string half-assed, over-worked, soulless hipster ambient albums. I was excited as hell when I brought "Millions..." home from the store, utterly horrified when I spun it.

They still throw the fuck down in concert, though.

[vi5]

7. I agree, but had the reverse experience...

I bought Millions Now Living first and thought "What is the fuss about?". It just seemed like a very lazy record, even for a relatively minimalist scene and genre of music.

But for whatever reason I took a chance on their first album and was blown away by that one. It was what I WANTED Millions now living to sound like.

[asthmaticeog]

25. I think the first album's secret weapon

was Bundy K. Brown, who'd been in Bastro, Gastr Del Sol, and some other excellent bands. I found a later record he did with Doug Scharin (from Codeine & Rex - I fuckin' LOVE Rex) called "Directions in Music," and damn if it didn't echo a lot of the best ideas from the first Tortoise album. Brown didn't play on any of the subsequent (crappy) Tortoise records.

[vi5]

8. OK Computer by Radiohead...

Obviously this is not a bad record, but it nowhere near lived up to the hype I had heard about it. I loved Pablo Honey and The Bends.

[Beware the Beast Man]

10. As far as Radiohead goes, I have to disagree.

"Hail to the Thief" was a major let-down, and "Amnesiac" was just boring.

[vi5]

13. For me everything since The Bends....

Has been a few flashes of brilliant ideas and performance surrounded by an abundance of half baked, boring experimental attempts. It's obvious they still have great music in them they've just got to worry more about writing and performing it then about worrying if it's weird enough, which seems to take up more of their time than anything else.

[Beware the Beast Man]

14. Certainly.

It seems as if they have spent the last 12 years moving as far away stylistically from "Creep" as they can.

[vi5]

16. Yeah, I don't expect Creep from them....

But I do expect their records to sound like more thought was put into them than just getting together in a studio and recording the band noodling around.

[mvd]

18. Kid A is a bit muddled, but..

I find structure in all the others, including Hail To The Thief. I just had to keep listening. :-) In my book OK Computer is one of the greats.

[sundog]

53. Kid A is my fave

and not many will agree with me, but oh well. :7

[Kid_A]

55. I'll agree with you...

Actually "OK Computer" is my favorite, but not by much.

[Wat_Tyler]

20. I'm the opposite - Pablo Honey is rubbish and The Bends aged badly.

Their last three records are their best.

[Beware the Beast Man]

22. Ever the contrarian...

:P

[Wat_Tyler]

23. Not this time - Hail to the Thief is Radiohead's best record.

[St. Jarvitude]

33. Agreed

Though by "last three albums" I really hope you mean "HTTF" "Kid A" and "OK Computer", and you just forgot "Amnesiac" because you're trying to repress memories of listening to it ;)

[Wat_Tyler]

34. No - I really like Amnesiac.

I don't see why people don't like it - it's better than Kid A.

[Wat_Tyler]

35. No - I really like Amnesiac.

I don't see why people don't like it - it's better than Kid A.

[St. Jarvitude]

36. It's not horrible

But I'd say it's Radiohead's second worst album (ahead of Pablo Honey, which was mostly filler around Creep)

Then again, much like The Beatles, the worst pond scum Radiohead has ever made is still better than a lot of the music being made today :)

[bloodyjack]

59. No, see, HTTT is really inconsistent.

Good songs, but all over the place stylistically

[asthmaticeog]

26. Ehhhhhhh...

I agree with Wat - I know you dislike "Amnesiac," but for reals, it's my favorite of their albums. And "Hail" is just badass - that "Myxomatosis" song? Genius. When I spin "The Bends" and "OK Computer," I do a fair amount of skipping through. The last three, I sit down and listen to.

[Fenris]

43. Precisely.

Pablo Honey is wretched.

[last_texas_dem]

64. I agree

I think that's the only album I ever bought totally based on hype, and then I realized what a mistake that was... Then again, I think Pablo Honey is the only great album Radiohead ever did, so I'm sure that's proof that I have fundamentally flawed taste in music. Or maybe it's that I love the song "Billy, Don't be a Hero"... who knows? haha

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

9. "Clutching at Straws" by Marillion (nt)

[redqueen]

54. WHAT?

But... that was just like a greatest hits thing... how could you be disappointed with that?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

57. Nononono, you're thinking of "B'sides Themselves"

Which has "Grendel", "Market Square Heroes" etc. THAT one is great.

[redqueen]

58. Ooops... nevermind!

*blushes*

[PassingFair]

11. Pink Floyd

Animals.
I was drooling for that one to come out in highschool.
It is STILL over my head.
Oh well, Wish You Were Here was one tough act to follow.....

[MissMillie]

12. Robert Plant

Fate of Nations



Was expecting much more after "Now and Zen" and "Manic Nirvana"

[Fleurs du Mal]

15. Tool - Lateralus & Jane's Addiction - Strays

would be two of the most recent.

[Mike Daniels]

17. Peter Gabriel - Us

A bunch of songs covering his "not interesting to anyone else" emotional problems and retreads of hits from So.

"Up" wasn't worth the 8 or 10 year gap between "Us" and "Up"'s release but it was more sonically interesting and fortunately marked the death of Gabriel's commericial phase.

[mvd]

19. My most disappointing - but not bad

Velvet Revolver's debut for one. Courtney Love's America's Sweetheart, too.

[Wat_Tyler]

21. Imperial Bedroom by Elvis Costello.

Really quite poor.

[Wat_Tyler]

24. Rick Wakeman's Knights of King Arthur on Ice.

[Beware the Beast Man]

27. Oh, and "Camera Obscura" by Solar Radio was a dud, too.

It seems as if they were trying to cash in on the whole "Kiwi-pop" thing, with Crowded House and all.

[Wat_Tyler]

30. Yeah - it's over mannered and too polished.

I prefer the session bootlegs - 'Buggering Your Mother For Small Change' - much rawer.

[Fenris]

45. They made Neil Finn look like a fucking genius.

His contribution "Six Months On A Leaky Boat" says otherwise, but I thought "Camera Obscura" was a blatant attempt at making 11 songs that all sounded like "Don't Dream It's Over."

[Wat_Tyler]

46. I thought that one 'Hey Now, Hey Now' was really taking the piss.

[eoberhauser]

28. All Recent Tori Amos albums

I loved her in high school, then she went over the deep end!

Erin

[Floogeldy]

29. The Knack's second album

They took a total diversion in style and probably ruined their bank accounts for eternity.

[BurtWorm]

32. Afghan Whigs

Gentleman, I think it was. I always liked the Whigs' performances on the telly, but I was totally bored by that album.

Outkast's Stankonia similarly disappointed me.

[FightinNewDem]

37. Brian Eno's U2 rein of terror

Basically, I found all of U2's work post-"Achtung" and pre-"All That You Can't..." to be an enormous letdown.

Eno managed to strip U2 of its greatest asset, namely its heartfelt, if sometimes dorkily messianic, passion and fire. U2, one of the great guitar-based bands of the '80s, became just another bunch of Eurotrash pseudohip noodlers.

Thankfully, Steve Lillywhite is back, and U2 sounds like U2 again.

[Wat_Tyler]

39. Nonsense - Eno didn't have anything to do with 'Pop'.

and had only a co-credit with The Edge and Flood on Zooropa.
It is ludicrous to criticise the major contributor (outside of the band) to U2's success both critical and commercial for their failures.

[orpupilofnature57]

48. EXCUSE ME, he produced "Ach-tung Baby"

not to mention a great musician in his own right.

[Wat_Tyler]

49. Ah - you're probably replying to the guy I'm replying to - right?

[orpupilofnature57]

51. "Roxy music" ass kicking band

[sundog]

38. Interpol - Antics

blah

[Balbus]

40. Queensryche - Tribes

They should go back to the Operation Mindcrime type of stuff in my opinion.

[redqueen]

41. Lateralus is the first one that comes to mind...

though there are many, many other contenders.

[Donkeyboy75]

42. Metallica - The Black Album

or whatever the fuck that terrible CD was called. :puke:

Everything after that sucked, but that was expected.

[fnottr]

63. I'd have to say St. Anger was my biggest dissapointment

I wasn't in to them back when the black album came out, but St. Anger was billed as their 'trumphant return to METAL!!!:headbang::headbang::headbang:' but in reality it just sucked even worse than anything they'd ever done before.

[Donkeyboy75]

65. I quit following them by then.

A shame. I don't really even think they sold out. They just started to suck really really bad.

[ceile]

47. Siamese Dream

[Aiptasia]

50. Beck's "Sea Change"

Zzzzzz.....

[mcscajun]

52. McCartney II

Omigod was this dreadful. It never got played again after the first hearing. I think I left it with my 'ex'.

[Kid_A]

56. "MACHINA / The Machines of God" by Smashing Pumpkins

It was supposed to be their triumphant return to ROCK, but it was just...bleh.

[Spider Jerusalem]

60. The Future Sound of London. "The Isness".

Terrible, terrible disappointment, almost five years in the making.

[jswordy]

61. N-I-C-E el Camino, tho, dood!

I am into the older cars bigtime.

[blindpig]

62. The Wall

what a load of lame, whiney crap. Might have been barely tolerable from some no-names but from the people that brought you Meddle and Atom Heart Mother??? My sister gave it to me for Christmas and I gave it back after one listen.(she said she liked it)

[Guy Fawkes]

66. The Clancy Brother's 2 disk "greatest hits"...

I liked "Live at Carnigee hall" better.

[FrankBooth]

67. A couple of Sophomore Slumps

I loved the debuts by The Strokes and Interpol, so I went out and purchased both of their follow-ups - very disappointing.