Many musicians have a symbol years era.

Many rock bands end up doing things like DISCO (remember KIZZ?)

Several pop acts want to be 2 legit 2 quit desperately trying to have a comeback album--and FAIL.

What do you consider to be the worst albums by otherwise respected artists?

- "Never Let me Down" (David Bowie)

- "Untitled" - Nas

- "Chaos and Disorder" (Prince)

- "Pop Trash" (Duran Duran)

- "Memoirs Of An Imperfect angel" (Mariah carey)

- Anything by R Kelly after 'Chocolate factory)

- Chinese Democracy (Guns N Roses)

-

The albums Bizzy Bone released in the mid-00's.

FrenchGuy said:

- Chinese Democracy (Guns N Roses)

Bullshit.

Chinese Democracy was a great solid rock album.

Lou Reed has released plenty of mediocre albums but Metal Machine Music is certainly a...unique...album.

I can't think of a list, but this remains one of most disappointing albums I ever bought.

[img:$uid]http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i477/billylettuce/gm.jpg[/img:$uid]

MattyJam said:

FrenchGuy said:

- Chinese Democracy (Guns N Roses)

Bullshit.

Chinese Democracy was a great solid rock album.

This

Sure it wasn't Axl, Slash, Duff, Matt & Izzy or Gilby w/e

This I Love, Madagascar, Chinese Democracy, Better, Oh My God, Street Of Dreams are some solid songs.

Grant it i bought it the day it came out and i wasn't disappointed, it was a long wait and i expected much worse

Random order

The Rolling Stones - Dirty Work

David Bowie - Tonight / Never Let Me Down

Metallica - St.Anger

Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music

Neil Young - Trans

and many Elton John albums of the 80s...

The first that comes to mind is 40 Below Trooper by the Jungle Brothers.

JoeTyler said:

Random order

The Rolling Stones - Dirty Work

David Bowie - Tonight / Never Let Me Down

Metallica - St.Anger

Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music

Neil Young - Trans

and many Elton John albums of the 80s...

That's a righteous list till you get to Neil Young. I really appreciate Trans as an experiment into new territory that sometimes works - Transformer Man, Sample & Hold and We Are In Control are all real good Neil songs. And it has Like An Inca for the ones that need some old-fashioned Aztec mysticism.

If I had to pick a Neil stinker, I'd nominate This Note's For You over that one, nothing that exciting going on there. But not one of the most terrible of all time.

Nowhere near as bad as McCartney's Press To Play or Pete Townshend's Psychoderelict.

rialb said:

Lou Reed has released plenty of mediocre albums but Metal Machine Music is certainly a...unique...album.

Metal Machine Music is an hour of constant guitar feedback and none of the tracks even have titles! I read somewhere that Lou Reed was trying to get out his record deal at the time and did a noise album on purpose.

Here are some others I can think of--I won't call these "worsts", but they're not as popular as some other releases these bands/performers are known for:

Billy Idol "Cyberpunk"

Van Halen "III"

Rolling Stones "Dirty Work"

Kiss "Music from The Elder", "Unmasked"

Guns N Roses "Chinese Democracy"

Prince/NPG "New Power Soul"

Fishbone "Chim Chim's Badass Revenge"

Motley Crue --any release w/out Vince Neil or Tommy Lee

Aerosmith--any release w/out Joe Perry

Parliament "Trombipulation"

David Bowie "Never Let Me Down"

Red Hot Chili Peppers "One Hot Minute"

FrenchGuy said:

- "Never Let me Down" (David Bowie)

- "Untitled" - Nas

- "Chaos and Disorder" (Prince)

- "Pop Trash" (Duran Duran)

- "Memoirs Of An Imperfect angel" (Mariah carey)

- Anything by R Kelly after 'Chocolate factory)

- Chinese Democracy (Guns N Roses)

-

Untitled really? I thought that album was dope

You guys are already listing all kinds of great albums.

Metal Machine Music? Classic!

Trans? Classic!

Chinese Democracy? Classic!

Planet Earth? Classic!

... uhm, well... at least they're still good stuff. Metal Machine Music was a very important record in the development of industrial and noise music, so denying its importance would be sheer foolishness.

novabrkr said:

Chinese Democracy? Classic!

Planet Earth? Classic!

I agree. Both good albums IMO.

novabrkr said:

Metal Machine Music was a very important record in the development of industrial and noise music, so denying its importance would be sheer foolishness.

Trans...

oh yeah, it was important, yes: it showed HOW NOT TO MAKE an electronic album. It's the "evil" blueprint, the satanic bible of electronic music, considering the work of other (real) electronic acts of the 70's that were doing it RIGHT... It showed that electronic music, in the wrong hands, can be the biggest pile of shit EVER...

and Trans, well, personally, I think it sucked as an electronic album (it sounds EXTREMELY novelty by 1983 standards),and as a Neil Young album IT SUCKED HARD... and yeah yeah I know about the history of the album, he was trying to communicate with his son, moving, but still a dreadful album...

MattyJam said:

novabrkr said:

Chinese Democracy? Classic!

Planet Earth? Classic!

I agree. Both good albums IMO.

+1

My nominations for this episode of 'when bad albums happen to good artists'...

Queen - Hot Space - The hardcore hate this because of the funk/dance influence. I would actually applaud Queen for venturing onton the dancefloor, because they were always about genre bending. and besides, being a Prince fan, I of course like the funk. Most of 'Hot Space', however, is just weak.

Pink Floyd - The Division Bell - 'Marooned' is solid, but the rest is

AC/DC - Fly On The Wall and Blow Up Your Video - The point where they officially slipped into self parody.

Oasis - Heathen Chemistry - Reports of Oasis being nothing but stodgy pub rock, post 1995, are normally exaggerated. But in the case of this album, those naysayers were absolutely right.

Weezer - Raditude - Okay, I like this one overall. But some of the lyrics left me thinking 'I can't believe this guy has a degree in english from Harvard'!

ReddishBrownOne said:

Weezer - Raditude - Okay, I like this one overall. But some of the lyrics left me thinking 'I can't believe this guy has a degree in english from Harvard'!

is that truly necessary in order to write a "deep/relevant" lyric??

JoeTyler said:

novabrkr said:

Metal Machine Music was a very important record in the development of industrial and noise music, so denying its importance would be sheer foolishness.

Trans...

oh yeah, it was important, yes: it showed HOW NOT TO MAKE an electronic album. It's the "evil" blueprint, the satanic bible of electronic music, considering the work of other (real) electronic acts of the 70's that were doing it RIGHT... It showed that electronic music, in the wrong hands, can be the biggest pile of shit EVER...

and Trans, well, personally, I think it sucked as an electronic album (it sounds EXTREMELY novelty by 1983 standards),and as a Neil Young album IT SUCKED HARD... and yeah yeah I know about the history of the album, he was trying to communicate with his son, moving, but still a dreadful album...

Ignorance.

novabrkr said:

JoeTyler said:

oh yeah, it was important, yes: it showed HOW NOT TO MAKE an electronic album. It's the "evil" blueprint, the satanic bible of electronic music, considering the work of other (real) electronic acts of the 70's that were doing it RIGHT... It showed that electronic music, in the wrong hands, can be the biggest pile of shit EVER...

and Trans, well, personally, I think it sucked as an electronic album (it sounds EXTREMELY novelty by 1983 standards),and as a Neil Young album IT SUCKED HARD... and yeah yeah I know about the history of the album, he was trying to communicate with his son, moving, but still a dreadful album...

IGNORANCE.

awwww; oh my dear nordic friend, another of your "fuck you because you don't agree with my superior intellect/knowledge" one-word-only-that's-all-you-deserve replies...

I love them, bitter...but funny

Joe, I don't dislike you. So feuding with me is pointless.

And yes, my comment above was meant primarily as a joke. I can understand why many people would not like those albums and I am not surprised that so many do not like them.

[Edited 4/23/11 2:45am]

Prince - Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic

Another Prince album that the press built up as a "return to form" that turned out to be very weak.

Bruce Springsteen - Magic

I can barely name you any of the songs on it....totally forgettable.

Madonna - American Life

I actually like the album but I can understand why alot of people dont and consider it Madge's worst. Very down beat, hardly any dance tracks, etc

novabrkr said:

Metal Machine Music? Classic!

... uhm, well... at least they're still good stuff. Metal Machine Music was a very important record in the development of industrial and noise music, so denying its importance would be sheer foolishness.

I think you are buying in to the revisionist spin that has built up in the years since the album was released. Often when an artist releases a bad album their hardcore fans need to find a reason why people think it was bad and explain why it wasn't. It was a terrible album when it was released in 1975 and it is a terrible album today.

novabrkr said:

Joe, I don't dislike you. So feuding with me is pointless.

And yes, my comment above was meant primarily as a joke. I can understand why many people would not like those albums and I am not surprised that so many do not like them.

[Edited 4/23/11 2:45am]

My only "problem" with you is that, many times (not always), you choose to end a healthy discussion with an unexpected reply formed by a single pejorative word. That hurts. Other than that, I think you're cool.

but perhaps I was too touchy before. I apologize if you meant it as a joke.

JoeTyler said:

novabrkr said:

Joe, I don't dislike you. So feuding with me is pointless.

And yes, my comment above was meant primarily as a joke. I can understand why many people would not like those albums and I am not surprised that so many do not like them.

[Edited 4/23/11 2:45am]

My only "problem" with you is that, many times (not always), you choose to end a healthy discussion with an unexpected reply formed by a single pejorative word. That hurts. Other than that, I think you're cool.

but perhaps I was too touchy before. I apologize if you meant it as a joke.

You always did strike me as a very sensitive dude.

SagsWay2low said:

Many musicians have a symbol years era.

Many rock bands end up doing things like DISCO (remember KIZZ?)

Several pop acts want to be 2 legit 2 quit desperately trying to have a comeback album--and FAIL.

What do you consider to be the worst albums by otherwise respected artists?

this is kind of tough because even a great's shit is better than most of what is coming out now from new artists.

But some of the weakest for me:

In Square Circle by Stevie Wonder

Stevie sounded like he was following trends on this album. Not setting them

Invincible by Michael Jackson

Same as as Stevie... Following trends not setting them

Chaos and Disorder by Prince

This album just isn't that good. lol

[Edited 4/23/11 17:12pm]

I guess I'd better chime in with my turdy albums from otherwise great artists:

Worst album by Prince

Tie: Chaos and Disorder, New Power Soul

Worst album by other artists:

Mariah Carey - Charmbracelet. E=MC2

Madonna - American Life

Rolling Stones - Dirty Work, Voodoo Lounge

Elton John - Leather Jackets

Bob Dylan - Down In The Groove

R Kelly - Double Up

R.E.M. - Up

U2 - No Line On The Horizon (not really a shitty album; just underwhelming)

Jay-Z - Kingdom Come

Stevie Wonder - Conversation Peace

I've got to jump on the defense team for Chinese Democracy - Great album, with lots of variety and nifty songwriting.

Better and There Was a Time = Amazing.

[Edited 4/24/11 1:08am]

No love for Chaos and Disorder? I love that album.