Found this interesting article on what these journos consider the worst albums ever and there are some real atrocities in there. NPS managed to escape though!

http://www.corporatemofo....mworst.htm

They should change the article title to "25 albums by MAJOR artists that should NOT have been recorded". In which case I'd agree with some (MJ's Invincible, Garth Brooks' Chris Gaines vanity project, The Stones' Dirty Work) and disagree with others (Moby's 18, Pearl Jam's Vitalogy, Santana's Shaman).

A few things spring to mind, though.

Where the FUCK are Britney Spears and Ashanti?
[This message was edited Thu Jan 15 12:26:06 PST 2004 by VoicesCarry]

AeroSmith - Done With Mirrors
Van Halen 3 ("the best thing you've fingered since is Valerie")

Some funny stuff

Jungle Brothers -- 40 Below Trooper

Cherrywine

Andrew Hill's last album

Shaman - Santana?? WTF?? I'm not saying this is his best work or anything like that, but come on folks, Shaman is better than 99% of the shit they play on the radio everyday!

kisscamille said:

Keep in mind that the original poster misrepresented the list. They don't claim these are the 25 worst albums ever recorded, just the 25 most useless, it seems. Considering that Shaman was a blatant copy of Supernatural, perhaps that's why it's on the list.

"This is a list reserved for the "gods" of music, not Top 40 pop-whores. We understand that Britney and Justin and Avril and who-the-fuck-ever else are going to put out mindless sugarcoated crap. That's what pop music is, after all. This list is for the masters, the designers, the influential forces of music, and some of the potholes they've left in their wake."
[This message was edited Thu Jan 15 12:52:28 PST 2004 by VoicesCarry]

VoicesCarry said:

Yeah, I understand what you're saying. I guess I'm biased because I love Santana and all of his work. Shaman has a few very cool songs on it.

like all lists, this is highly subjective.

That being said, I agree with many of them.

One exception is "Trans" by Neil Young. He describes it as "Neil's excursion into techno and industrial music". Well, that's not the case at all. It's sorta early 80's new wave sorta sound, with the vocals done through a Vocoder.. think Radiohead's "Kid A", the song.

In fact what many who aren't Young fans don't realize, is that the album concept was inspired by his son, Ben, who was born with severe cerebal palsy. Ben is in a motorized wheel chair, and cannot communicate. Trans is an album about Ben and the struggles to communicate and to connect with him.

There are some great pieces of writing on it, particularly "Transformer Man" which is most directly about Ben. The lyrics are incredibly heartfelt and touching. Neil did a beautiful acoustic version of this song on his MTV unplugged album.

Or course, when Trans was released, the general public and critics did not understand the album or Neil's intentions, nor did Neil publicly discuss his son's condition at that time. That left a perhaps understandably baffled response to Trans. But looking at it in context, Trans is one of the things that makes Neil so great. He does what he wants to do and he's not afraid to take chances.

JonSnow said:

Doesn't Neil also have a daughter that is mentally disabled too? I thought I read that somewhere before and she has the same name I do, so it's kind of stuck in my memory bank.

It's a very funny list and I really like the ones that he left comments on that seemed to involve a lot of research. My favorite fact was that RCA shipped out half a million copies of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" soundtrack (not the Beatles album...if you don't know the history of the movie or soundtrack, check the link) but people that bought the album kept sending it back and the record company was asked to give the certifaction back! Wow!

kisscamille said:

Neil's son Zeke also has cerebal palsy but not nearly as severe as Ben. He does have a daughter, Amber, but i'm not aware that she has any disability.

JonSnow said:

Thanks. I guess I was confused.

VoicesCarry said:

Britney's first album was very dull, i dont know where they get off though puttin Michael Jacksons "Invincible" on there though, have they even LISTENED 2 the album? Dont sound like it.

Ashanit's Chapter II was definitley rushed.

They need 2 put all those Cash Money & Master P records on the list also.

Madonna's American Life need 2 b on there
[This message was edited Thu Jan 15 14:55:21 PST 2004 by paisleypark4]

I agree that Phil Collins album wasnt a great album, but there reference to Genesis had NOTHING to do with talent.. He might have left genesis around that time, but he was doing a majority of the songwriting and had handfuls of successful albums out prior to that one..

paisleypark4 said:

I certainly don't think AL should be there (because the stretch from Love Profusion to Mother & Father, tracks 4-9, is simply great music, IMHO), but I also think that in retrospect Invincible should not be here either. There were definitely some great things on that record (the slyly retro You Rock My World, and the great Butterflies, to name a few). I just think people (including me) had unrealistic expectations for the album, which is of course something that has harmed Michael's career since the Thriller era. In terms of major star meltdowns, that certainly wasn't one.

Pearl Jam's Vitalogy is AMAZING.

theVelvetRoper said:

i agree there is some great material on Vitalogy, especially Nothingman.