woogiebear said:

Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic by "The Artist"- Just because it worked 4 Santana doesn't mean it was gonna work 4 The Artist (nor did it for Run-DMC). Shame on Clive Davis!!!

A terrible formula. I'm afraid Aretha Franklin covering Adele isn't too far from the same idea!

lastdecember said:

JoeTyler said:

aboslutely false

It led to POP which was their worst record ever, the big tours and lights and all that stuff was killing this band Bono said it then and he said it while they worried on the Achtung Baby album. They opened the decade of the 90's with a question mark of are they going to still record and the decade ended the same way with the same questions [Edited 11/9/14 11:23am]

I wasn't quite sure to include U2's Pop on my list, as How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb also fell short of expectations, but even Bono said it was their most lackluster album. They had begun production on the album just as their Zooropa tour ended in 1995, and they had promised to release it before Christmas, 1996, but production delays kept putting the album on hold, and they ended up releasing it just before they were about to go back on tour to support it. Their veering towards a more electro-pop sound turned off some listeners, and while it still sold reasonably well and their tour sold out stadiums, their elaborate stage sets nearly made them lose money on the tour overall, not to mention a series of Spinal Tap moments that happened periodically on tour.

Some interesting answers here. Personally Around The World In A Day and Mama Said are two of my favorite Prince & Lenny albums, so it's interesting to hear that they're considered disappointments. And actually I liked most of Rave too. *shrug*

I'd say the most disappointing album I've heard in awhile was Keith Urban's 'Fuse' album. He tried to do some more electro flavored pop stuff to cash in on his American Idol fame, but didn't really go far enough with it (although had he gone farther, I'm sure it would have turned off a lot of people.) There are good songs on it, but he's been on a bit of a slide IMO.

Van Hunt's latest one let me down. Except a couple tunes, it seems like he gave up writing melodies and it's a lot of really jagged stuff that didn't really appeal to me after his self titled and On The Jungle Floor albums.

[Edited 11/9/14 16:33pm]

MotownSubdivision said:

mjscarousal said:

@ Motown, Nice thread!

I agree with your comments on Invincible. I like that it was more R&B and less Pop. I think MJ should have stayed with that R&B theme throughout the album and made the album more shorter. I think the main problem with the album is that it has really strong songs mixed with just "ok" songs which is why you really can not call Invincible a bad album. Songs like Butterflies and Break of Dawn are some of the best songs and most underrated songs in his entire catalog. Whatever Happens and Threatened are some of his more experimental ones. The album has its gems and Butterflies is a classic. With that being said, Invincible is Michaels weakest album. However, Invincible is still very underrated though.

Thanks mj! It feels like it's been forever, girl! Invincible would've been a masterpiece for anybody else if it were their album (i.e. JT (see 20/20 Experience)) but for Mike, it was a major disappointment especially since it was handled as his comeback album. Though his weakest output by far, it is still underrated so the album is weird that way. I also agree that it's too long (77 minutes!); it's too bloated with filler when it should have been shorter and even sweeter. Being composed mostly of slow, R&B songs adds to the album's drudgery for me since a comeback album (at least IMO) is celebratory and up-tempo, danceable tracks represent that vibe best. That's not to say that R&B had absolutely no place on the album but Mike should have scaled back on them. The late 90s-early 2000s production doesn't hold up very well either though the songs you mentioned as well as "Unbreakable", "You Rock My World", and a few others I can't remember the names of still sound good. MJ's formula just reached its limit here and it shows. It's a damn shame this is his last work to remember him by (Xscape doesn't count).

Yes it has lol Nice post

SoulAlive said:

regarding Victory....

I have always said that this album (and tour) should have never happened.Michael should have stopped doing albums with his brothers after the Destiny album.By that time,it was clear that he was the one that everybody wanted to see and hear.Off The Wall fully established him as a solo superstar and he should have remained solo from that point on.Victory is just an example of how his brothers tried to piggyback on the amazing success of Thriller.

Agree. I think MJ was trying to please his mother which is why he did those tours. He was really done with his brothers even before Off The Wall.

MotownSubdivision said:

alphastreet said:

Destiny hit me harder than Triumph, but Triumph is also a great album including some of their best classics and underrated gems. It does sound like a mashup of Destiny and Off The Wall though...and michael said it too in Moonwalk!

Haven't listened to Destiny but I LOVE Triumph so I disagree with the notion of the former album being MJ's last project with his bros though I completely understand and agree with the reasoning behind it. Victory simply should have been better to the point where piggybacking MJ and Thriller didn't matter because it was simply so damn great. You can't blame MJ for wanting out from The Jacksons and you can tell the only reason he bothered to participate was out of the love and necessity to help his family but he did it in a subtly halfhearted way by not rehearsing new material despite not having a tour planned himself. It was basically the Thriller World Tour and that sucks because the album that the tour was for took a backseat to MJ which wouldn't have been so bad if they were actually performing songs from Victory. The album and the tour were very, very successful but it should have been considerably more so given all that was involved. Once MJ left, the group pretty much phased out of relevance when they still had enough talent to last a little longer.

I wouldn't have reminded Michael still doing projects with his brothers in-between his main solo albums, particularly given how the gaps between his solo albums increased. It could've been a good way of keeping in touch with his more lighthearted R&B/dance roots and experimenting a bit, as opposed to the increasingly paranoid and constrained stuff on his main albums.

Only if his heart was truly in it, of course... which doesn't seem to have been the case after Triumph. A crying shame, as Victory could have been such an awesome album and tour if he'd been fully committed to it. I do still like both the album and tour.

• Newpowersoul from The Artist: What the hell was this hodge-podge of crap? This was not a good album at all. With all the promos, the Tavis Smiley interview, and dressing up as an old man at an awards show did nothing for this album. Even the follow-up, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic was horrible and it would be years until Prince would bring the noise, bring the funk with Musicology.
• Victory from the Jacksons: Not even bringing Jermaine back into the fold could save this album. Michael's "Be Not Always" sounded more like a leftover Thriller outtake and listening to Tito warble through "We Can Change the World" still hurts my feelings 30 years later. Damn shame that Jermaine's self-titled Arista LP was the better album.
• Chinese Democracy from Guns N Roses: Nothing sucks more ass than Axl Rose making a G N R album without Slash and the boys! And to think it took damn near umpteen years for homie to come up with this shit? Yeah, I'll continue to play Appetite for Destruction and remember the good times.
• Discipline from Janet Jackson: Why she decided to let Jermaine Dupri executive produce her albums is beyond me.
• The Master from Rakim: They say never judge a book by it's cover but there was something about the superimposed image of the God that said whackness.
• The W from the Wu-Tang Clan: This album should've been called The S which stood for "shit" because that's what it was.
• Unplugged 2.0 from Lauryn Hill: Still trying to make some sense of this one some 12 years later.
• Endless Wire from the Who: I waited 24 years for this shit?
• Emancipation from The Artist: Two CD's too long.
• The Aftermath from Dr. Dre: So bad that no one even talks about this album!
• Notorious K.I.M. from Lil' Kim: She made it painfully obvious that Biggie was the mastermind behind her lyrics.
• Forever from Puff Daddy: No one should ever call their album Forever, especially when you change your name on the follow-up to P Diddy.
• Baptism from Lenny Kravitz: The only thing good about this was his perm. Shit was ill!
• 808's and Heartbreak from Kanye West: Dude trying to sing but coming off sounding booty whack! This dude's heart has got a ponytail!

[Edited 11/10/14 13:19pm]

Whipsmart-Liz Phair, Neither Fish Nor Flesh-TTD, Emancipation-Prince, American Life-Madonna, Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic-Prince, Zooropa-U2 (it's really grown on me since it was released, though)

AOA and PlectrumElectrum......................I was really expecting too much for some reason. I even named my screen name after the band for fuck's sake.

728huey said:

lastdecember said:

JoeTyler said: It led to POP which was their worst record ever, the big tours and lights and all that stuff was killing this band Bono said it then and he said it while they worried on the Achtung Baby album. They opened the decade of the 90's with a question mark of are they going to still record and the decade ended the same way with the same questions [Edited 11/9/14 11:23am]

I wasn't quite sure to include U2's Pop on my list, as How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb also fell short of expectations, but even Bono said it was their most lackluster album. They had begun production on the album just as their Zooropa tour ended in 1995, and they had promised to release it before Christmas, 1996, but production delays kept putting the album on hold, and they ended up releasing it just before they were about to go back on tour to support it. Their veering towards a more electro-pop sound turned off some listeners, and while it still sold reasonably well and their tour sold out stadiums, their elaborate stage sets nearly made them lose money on the tour overall, not to mention a series of Spinal Tap moments that happened periodically on tour.

To me this was all similar to what Radiohead have done/did and what Coldplay are doing with their work and direction, both need a slap of reality, the last Coldplay was awful, and Radiohead i really havent been able to get through any album since Kid A

The Cure - Wild Mood Swings (too light and fluffy and not consistent enough for me)

Cocteau Twins - Milk & Kisses (its not at all a bad album, but after putting together a masterpiece with Four Calendar Cafe, this one was bound to disappoint their fans)

Bauhaus - Go Away White - Sometimes its better to leave the past in the past. Its not a bad album, but it doesn't compare with the work they became known for.

David Bowie - Never Let me Down - Bowie's worse album perhaps ever, although the next two albums were kind of bad too..

PJ Harvey - White Chalk.. - I love, love, love PJ but this album showed nothing of the songwriting creative genius that she is. I refuse to play this album.

my album

your album

New Power Shit and Fart Official Age.

vainandy said:

New Power Shit and Fart Official Age.

Everyone saying Emancipation

Cinny said:

Everyone saying Emancipation

bitch please...

JoeTyler said:

Cinny said:

Everyone saying Emancipation

bitch please...

because Chaos And Disorder had you so stoked? I even listen to Emanicpation more than The Gold Experience.

JoeTyler said:

Oasis - Be Here Now 1997 : the shortcomings of Oasis (finally ) exposed; hailed as the "end" of Britpop as a whole

Prince - ATWIAD

Prince - Lovesexy

Re-think your life Joe.

Gunsnhalen said:

JoeTyler said:

Oasis - Be Here Now 1997 : the shortcomings of Oasis (finally ) exposed; hailed as the "end" of Britpop as a whole

Prince - ATWIAD

Prince - Lovesexy

Re-think your life Joe.

Sly's "There's A Riot Going On"

Never felt like a Family Stone album, more like Sly's first solo album.

But it had it's moments [Just like A Baby, Family Affair, Running Away, You Caught Me Smiling & Thank You For Talking To Me Africa]

[Edited 11/15/14 15:49pm]

HuMpThAnG said:

Sly's "There A Riot Going On"

Never felt like a Family Stone album, more like Sly's first solo album.

But it had it's moments [Just like A Baby, Family Affair, Running Away, You Caught Me Smiling & Thank You For Talking To Me Africa]

Re-Think your life, delete account, and pray to all GODS.

Cinny said:

Gunsnhalen said:

Re-think your life Joe.

Be Here Now is crap

ATWIAD only makes sense with the b-sides (superior than the material which made the album)

Lovesexy is a good album on its own, but a total disappoinment as the follow-up to SOTT

Gunsnhalen said:

All For You - Janet Jackson

Bad - Michael Jackson

Emancipation - Prince

madhattter said:

Gunsnhalen said:

Re-Think your life, delete account, and pray to all GODS.

Riot has to be considered one of the most influetial works ever done!!!

And it is

But for me, it just had it's moments.

The songs I mention were only ones that stood out, the rest sounds like fillers.

Gunsnhalen said:

HuMpThAnG said:

Sly's "There A Riot Going On"

Never felt like a Family Stone album, more like Sly's first solo album.

But it had it's moments [Just like A Baby, Family Affair, Running Away, You Caught Me Smiling & Thank You For Talking To Me Africa]

Re-Think your life, delete account, and pray to all GODS.

I knew this was gonna happen

Led Zeppelin - Presence

Blur - Think Tank

Indiana Jones 4 soundtrack

HuMpThAnG said:

Sly's "There A Riot Going On"

Never felt like a Family Stone album, more like Sly's first solo album.

But it had it's moments [Just like A Baby, Family Affair, Running Away, You Caught Me Smiling & Thank You For Talking To Me Africa]

And what moments they are......

Tbh (and to up the controversy stakes to dangerous levels ), I kind of feel a bit like that about What's Going On - not that I think it's a 'disappointing album'; just that it's got three standout tracks (What's Going On, Mercy Mercy Me and Inner City Blues) and the rest are good but not really on a par. Thing is, those standout tracks are arguably amongst the best ever recorded during that whole era, so they elevate the status of whole album.

[Edited 11/13/14 9:07am]