WORST album by an otherwise good group/artist.

[Beware the Beast Man]

I'm drawing a blank, personally. I'd have to say The Beatles' "Let it Be" is their worst, even though a bad Beatles album is still better than most.

[markus]

1. Goats Head Soup

I mean, how do you get their from Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street. I guess those two records are just so f-ing awesome, at some point they had to have a year off.

[bbernardini]

2. The latest Barenaked Ladies album

My wife and I have been huge fans of BNL for years, but after hearing the latest album, we decided to not purchase it. It just wasn't interesting at all.

I have higher hopes for the holiday album coming out.

[Magrittes Pipe]

3. Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

A fantastic group with one of the best songwriting teams ever; and possibly THE best record producer ever decide to hide behind gimmickry and pretense.

Horrible, horrible record -- "A Day in the Life" is the only song on Pepper I can stand.

[coloradodem2005]

22. That is the first time I ever heard someone dis Sgt. Peppers.

It has generally been considered a classic. That was the first Beatles album I ever owned. It was also the first concept album that ever came out.

[Magrittes Pipe]

24. And I will dis that album to my dying day.

"A Day in the Life" is a great song. But other than that, the strongest Pepper tracks do not compare to the weakest Rubber Soul or Revolver tracks -- excepting, of course, the odious "Yellow Submarine," which is even worse that "When I'm 64."

Was it better than most albums by most bands? Sure. But when compared against the rest of the Beatles' body of work (a mighty prodigious thing to be compared to, surely), I find Pepper to be, at best, a misstep.

[Philostopher]

4. Well, if you think Cheap Trick is an 'otherwise good group'

I'd have to say 'The Doctor' was a genuinely low moment. There were two actual songs on there (only one of them written entirely by the band), and the rest was crappy filler. Rick Nielsen even makes fun of the thing, now. There are only two of their albums I can't be arsed to buy on CD -- that one and the latest one ('Scent Of A Woman'). Saw them live around the time it came out, and they did several of the songs, and I thought they were just incredibly mediocre -- but they've done that before. 'The Doctor' was execrable -- I have a vinyl copy, and sometimes when I walk by the record crates, I can still smell the flop sweat wafting off it.

[Can o Beans]

5. I'd have to say

Zooropa. Nothing good came of that.

[Beware the Beast Man]

6. Welcome to DU, Can O Beans!

:toast: You could also make an argument for "Pop." Total crap CD.

[XNASA]

9. It didn't sell, but it was critically aclaimed.

I really enjoyed Zooropa because it was essentially a Brian Eno album that was performed by U2.

My understanding is....that Eno gathered up a bunch of jam tapes and soundcheck tapes and outakes, etc and arranged the best bits into an albums worth of material. Then the band did a few over dubs with Eno and the disc was complete.

It's actually my favorite U2 album, probably because of the obvious Eno influence.

Welcome to DU, Beans......

Hope that you enjoy yourself while you're here. :hi:

[Screaming Lord Byron]

20. I liked it. It sold well enough outside of North America.

Certainly their most European record.

[Kid_A]

48. That's actually my favorite U2 album.

To each his own I guess...

[Screaming Lord Byron]

7. Tonight, Never Let Me Down, Tin Machine 1, Tin Machine 2.

Rather bad decade for Mr. Jones.

[XNASA]

11. Yep, yeah, yes and yuppers.

You gotta hand it to the guy, he's at least not afraid to take a chance.

But, Tonight is difficult to listen to.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

13. I admire his ability to take risk.

I just wish it wouldn't involved cod-metal, glass spiders and awful, awful remakes of God Only Knows.

[ProfessorGAC]

28. I'll Agree On The First & Fourth

The middle two, i quite liked. But the redux on Tin Machine was a futile excerise in capturing the energy. They failed. Tonight is probably his worst album ever. Almost zero risk on that disk.
The Professor

[AntiCoup2K4]

36. I liked the Tin Machine albums

It wasn't exactly in league with the Spiders from Mars era stuff, but it was a decent guitar driven rock n roll band, which certainly blew away the hairband crap which dominated the radio at the time. Weak spots, of course, were the songs where he let Hunt Sales sing.

[Kolesar]

8. Talking Heads' "Little Creatures" was their nadir

"And she was" was a decent song, but the whole album lacked the aspects that made them great: anxious, introspective lyrics and super-funk-ay rhythms (!).

[ProfessorGAC]

29. HIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

There are no bad Talking Heads albums. A pox upon you for even suggesting such a thing!
The Professor

[Kolesar]

52. Worst album by an otherwise good group

There has to be a worst album if you rank them. Of course that reunion album "No talking, just heads" might qualify for that.

[sundog]

53. You kidding? LC was a great album imo

--

[phillybri]

10. Van Halen 3...

:puke:

[Commendatori]

12. Van Halen, Diver Down

Listen to the third one ("Women and Children First") and then "Diver Down." No contest.

"Diver Down" is about a half hour long, with five covers (including a taunting abbreviation of "Happy Trails," where it seems to me that the band laughs at you for buying the album) and no good originals. At least the third one has a couple of good tunes - "Take Your Whiskey Home" alone is better than all of "Diver Down" combined.

[AntiCoup2K4]

34. Diver Down is a great album!

Yeah, it's got a lot of cover songs, but that wasn't really the band's fault. WB was supposed to release a Van Halen live album in 1982, but for unknown reasons, pulled the plug on the project at the 11th hour. Yet they still demanded that Van Halen deliver an album due on their contract. Well, the boys didn't have a lot of material written, so they improvised.

Musically, it's Van Halen's most diverse album. What other rock band could have pulled off something like "Big Bad Bill Is Sweet William Now"? For that matter, how many rock stars get to have their dad play on their record. Cathedral?? Hell, I remember that being the talk of my high school, debating whether that was a keyboard or a guitar. It was a guitar, of course. I actually saw a guy in a local VH tribute band pull that one off later that year.

Little Guitars - easily one of the best moments in the Van Halen musical catalog.

And it goes without saying that VDIII was a horrid unlistenable mess. and while Cherone was a convenient target for that, the new Van Hagar songs, which are every bit as horrid and unlistenable, prove that it's Eddie who's lost the ability to write songs.

[Commendatori]

44. I was under the impression that

"Van Halen 3" referred to their third album (Women and Children First), not some Cherone album. I haven't heard the Cherone album, but until I do I have to stick with Diver Down.

I loved "Fair Warning," and was really, REALLY looking forward to "Diver Down." When I got it, I felt screwed. The original vinyl version was 29 minutes and change, and I honestly thought it blew.

Diversity is good in schools and offices, but not always on albums. I did not buy Van Halen's album to hear "Big Bad Bill...," I wanted the hard rock edge I loved in the first, third and fourth albums. It's just my opinion, just my taste, and I'm not saying you're wrong, but for me that album was the bigest ripoff I've ever been a part of, which is a pretty big accusation coming from someone who bought all of Rainbow's albums through the Joe Lynn Turner years.

[coloradodem2005]

18. I second Van Halen 3.

VH were great with Roth. Decent with Hagar. But when they put out that album with Gary Cherone, it was horrible. I acutally liked "Fire In the Hole" but the rest of the album sucked. It had no cohesion at all. Gary didn't sing the way he was meant to and Eddie was just all over the place with his guitar playing.

[Commendatori]

38. Waiut a minute, I thought he was referring to "Women and Children First."

I must be truly out of touch; he's referring to a Cherone album? I assumed that "Van Halen 3" meant the third Van Halen album, which I'm sure is "Women and Children First."

[AntiCoup2K4]

43. If you have never heard VDIII, consider yourself lucky

It was a "Van Halen" album in the same way that Zell Miller is a Democrat. Name only.

Eddie playing a bunch of random shit, Cherone singing like Hagar with a stomach ache. Mikey basically absent from the whole thing. Alex reduced to a drum machine more often than not. It wasn't a band effort by any stretch of the imagination.

[Commendatori]

46. I'm a lucky guy, then

I had never even heard OF it. VH partially lost me with "1984" (I'm sorry, but "Jump" was the sort of stuff I consider to be garbage); completely lost me with "5150." I think back to that first album and just want to scream.

[coloradodem2005]

47. That about sums it up.

From what I know, Cherone was a good singer on Extreme. People say that III Sides to Every Story is excellent. But he really sucked on VHIII. "Fire in the Hole" was a good song except for the end part where you could sort of hear Gary yelling. But the album was pure shit beyond that.

Women and Children First was a pretty good album IMHO. "Take Your Whiskey Home" and "In A Simple Rhyme" were standout tracks.

[troublemaker]

14. Emotional Rescue

I was working in a record store at the time, and after SOME GIRLS there was a lot of anticipation to see what the Rolling Stones would do to top it. The new album came in and we played it in the store. Everyone looked at each other with stupid WTF expressions. Nobody knew what to say.

Finally I said, "I hope we can all agree to never play this album again." and everyone cracked up with relief. (Headquarters said we had to play it twice a day, but we told them it would drive away customers.)

[Magrittes Pipe]

15. Black and Blue

True, the Stones have made worse records, on purely aesthetic terms (e.g. Steel Wheels and everything thereafter). But Black and Blue was the beginning of the end.

It was the first bad record the Stones ever made -- and after it, they only made one more good album (Some Girls -- I know some people like Tattoo You, but I ain't one of 'em).

[Screaming Lord Byron]

16. The Stones degenerated as Keith's habit degenerated.

After Exile, the only good record is Some Girls.

[Magrittes Pipe]

17. I like...

...Goat's Head Soup and It's only Rock 'n' Roll.

Okay, I only like the latter a little bit. But it's nowhere near as bad as Black and Blue.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

19. Goat's Head Soup is bearable, but only if you pretend Exile doesn't exist.

Exile dwarfs everything that follows it. There's a lineage there. The Beatles were had the zeitgeist to '68, then the Stones had it '68-'72, then Bowie had it up to punk.

[coloradodem2005]

31. What's a zeitgeist?

I have never heard that word before.

[markus]

33. GHs v B&B

It was the sort of immediate leap down that GHS represents, rather than a comparison for Black and Blue. I believe you're correct that B&B absolutely sucks compared to what went before for 10 years, and especially compared to Sticky Fingers/Exile.

[Fenris]

21. "Cut The Crap"

Not technically a Clash record, but it was recorded under that name and fronted by Strummer. Once again, the sad fact widely known (the sum of a band's parts is far, far greater than the individual talents therein) is proven by such a shitty, shitty album by someone who should have known better. When it's over, it's over. And it was definitely over.

[flamingyouth]

23. They should have just called it "Crap"

Would have been much more honest. :)

[Magrittes Pipe]

25. "This Is England" is a great song.

That is all.

[Fenris]

26. A great track marred by every other song on the record.

Strummer did triumph in one regard - he managed to make a record worse than anything Mick Jones and BAD ever did. And that's saying something.

[flamingyouth]

27. Oooh, I don't know if I'd agree there

BAD were very aptly named. :puke:

[Fenris]

32. BAD was god-awful wretched BUT

"Cut the Crap" wins out because it completely shit on the name of one of the greatest rock bands ever. BAD had no reputation to ruin - they sucked from the beginning.

[Magrittes Pipe]

35. Prepare your torches....

I don't dislike BAD.

I mean, no, they never came up with anything to rival the Strummer/Jones Clash, but I never thought they were a shitty band. Mick remained true to the direction he was taking on Sandinista and Combat Rock, and he didn't do such a bad job.

I mean, as far as post-punk dance music, they don't come anywhere close to the early PiL records (especially the sublime Metal Box), but I don't have a problem with 'em.

[Kid_A]

30. "Machina/The Machines of God" by Smashing Pumpkins

It has a few good tracks ("Heavy Metal Machine" kicks ass) but the whole thing comes across as a desperate attempt to win back some of the fans they lost by getting quieter on "Adore".

And Radiohead's "Pablo Honey" isn't very good, either. But it's their first album, I can forgive them.:)

[DelawareValleyDem]

37. Lou Reed

Metal Machine Music

[Kolesar]

39. Contractual obligation ruse

I heard that Lou Reed was under contract by his record label to produce one more album, so he put that LP out. I cannot believe that the label bothered to press so many of them.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

41. Yep. As with Marvin Gaye's 'Here, My Dear'

[Kolesar]

51. ...and the "monty python contractual obligation album"

http://www.sanity.com.au/product.asp?intProductID=491804&intArtistID=4882

[Magrittes Pipe]

40. MMM rules!

I mean, it's not so much "music," per se -- but it's experimental. It takes chances. And around the midpoint of side 3, I find myself starting to sorta dig it.

No, Lou's nadir was New Sensations -- and the recent Poesploitation "Raven" debacle sucked hard, too.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

42. Actually, except for Transformer, New York, The Blue Mask and Berlin

I don't care much for Mr. Reed.

[Magrittes Pipe]

45. "Magic and Loss" was beautiful.

But the records you mentioned really are Reed's reputation as a solo artist.

Never the most consistent one, he.

And nothing he ever did again came close to fulfilling the promise of the second and third VU albums.

[Beware the Beast Man]

49. Beastie Boys "Hello Nasty"

With the exception of a couple tracks, it's by far their most boring CD. I admire their stance on a number of issues, but they just bcame way too PC for their own good.

[AmandaRuth]

50. any BOC album

after the first 4, with the possible exception of the one that has astronomy on it (I am drawing a blank on the name)