[Music] Great “worst” albums

[m20gull]

Pink Floyd Atom Heart Mother, even the band don’t like it

My favourite Floyd album though

Mine too. The Wall, which is a great album, is my least favourite of theirs

 

[bobbab5]

In recent years I've had gained an appreciated for Iron Maiden's ' The X Factor. Universally panned back in the day. Gloomy production and mood and people were struggling with the departure of Bruce Dickinson. However, years later I've warmed to it and Sign of the Cross is a stonking classic even if I do prefer Bruce's live Rock in Rio performance in 2001

I never really bothered with The X Factor, I guess I couldn't take Maiden without Bruce, but I do like Virtual XI

 

[herecomesaregular]

No shame in that as Dio is a premier league vocalist whilst I always thought Ozzy was Ismithian League particularly with regard his solo output. Controversial I know but I've always thought Ozzy has just been brilliantly managed and able to surround himself with brilliant band mates.

The only Ozzy solo albums I can dig are Bark at The Moon and The Ultimate Sin and that's all to do with Jake E Lee who is one of the most underrated guitarists ever.

Shocking mate! My ears love Ozzy's vocals, in my top 10.

 

[herecomesaregular]

Probably not answering the question correctly but....

I've never really rated anything much by Joe Cocker but the Stingray album from 1976 is superb and one I regularly listen to. No-one I speak to seems to have ever heard of it and it doesn't seem remembered or revered. I love it. No standout tracks just a beautiful whole. It's an album that puts me on the beach... (probably another thread there...)

 

[fork me]

Go 2 -- XTC's 2nd album and last with Barry Andrews on keyboards. They'd be a guitar band from then on before incorporating jazz, orchestal, Middle Eastern and other musics.

Yellow Submarine -- The movie soundtrack album with George Martin's arrangements and only 6 Beatles songs, of which just 4 were originals not considered good enough for any of the three albums released in '67 and '68.

Talking Heads '77 -- Debut album, but wow! Really a faultless discography, not a bum LP in sight.

.

Go 2 had the best sleeve ever though. Pure genius.

 

[fork me]

OK, a bit of an outlier, an album most people gave never heard, Meat Loaf's first album - No, not Bat Out Of Hell, the one BEFORE that, way before.

In 1971, he released an album called Meat Loaf and Stoney with female singer Shaun Murphy (Stoney), they had both appeared in the musical, Hair, together. It was released on Motown subsidiary, Rare Earth. It's really a soul album with a psychedelic feel.

 

[The Clamp]

I rela

OK, a bit of an outlier, an album most people gave never heard, Meat Loaf's first album - No, not Bat Out Of Hell, the one BEFORE that, way before.

In 1971, he released an album called Meat Loaf and Stoney with female singer Shaun Murphy (Stoney), they had both appeared in the musical, Hair, together. It was released on Motown subsidiary, Rare Earth. It's really a soul album with a psychedelic feel.

I really like that

 

[fork me]

No shame in that as Dio is a premier league vocalist whilst I always thought Ozzy was Ismithian League particularly with regard his solo output. Controversial I know but I've always thought Ozzy has just been brilliantly managed and able to surround himself with brilliant band mates.

The only Ozzy solo albums I can dig are Bark at The Moon and The Ultimate Sin and that's all to do with Jake E Lee who is one of the most underrated guitarists ever.

For me, the underrated Sabbath album I love is 1983's Born Again. The album with Ian Gillan on vocals. Critics panned it for being as much Deep Purple as it was Sabbath. As a fan of both bands maybe that's WHY I like it. GIllan wrote most of the vocals, and because he was, by all accounts, a right lazy bastard most of them were written while they were at a manor recording the album, a couple of them about incidents that happened while they were there.

For example "Disturbing The Priest" which sounds like it should be about black magic is actually about the local vicar who kept making noise complaints with a very English "Do you mind?".

"We're disturbing the priest, won't you please come to our feast
Do we mind disturbing the priest, not at all, not at all, not in the least"

...and Trashed, which was about an incident that happened where Gillan, pissed (and probably drugged) out of his mind, stole drummer, Bill Ward's, car and raced it round the manor before crashing it.

It really was a meeting
The bottle took a beating
The ladies of the manor
Watched me climb into my car and
I was going down the track about a hundred and five
They had the stop-watch rolling
I had the headlights blazing I was really alive
And yet my mind was blowing
I drank a bottle of tequila and I feel real good
I had the tape deck roaring
But on the twenty-fifth lap at the canal turn
I went of exploring
I knew I wouldn't make it the car just wouldn't make it
I was turning tires burning
The ground was in my sky
I was laughing the bitch was trashed
And death was in my eye
I had started pretty good and I was feeling my way
I had the wheels in motion
There was Peter and the Green fly laughing like drains
Inebriation
The crowd was roaring I was at Brands Hatch
In my imagination
But at the canal turn I hit an only patch
Inebriation
Ooh Mr. Miracle you saved me from some pain
I thank you Mr. Miracle I won't get trashed again
Ooh can you hear my lies
Don't you bother with this fool just laugh into my eyes
So we went back to the bar and hit the bottle again
But there was no tequila
Then we started on the whiskey just to steady our brains
'Cause there was no tequila
And as we drank a little faster at the top of our hill
We began to roll
And as we get trashed we were laughing still
Well bless my soul

Strangely, Ozzy himself liked it and described it as the best Sabbath album that he had nothing to do with...

 

[kevo]

Movement by New Order. Their debut album, I’ve loved it since the moment it came out, at least 4 stunning tracks, goosebumps. Panned on nsc and elsewhere …. how can so many people be tone death?

It's a bit of a curate's egg. The production is very poor - every track sounds either really 'muddy' or as if it was recorded in a swimming pool. Hannett had lost it by then. In contrast, the live performances of the same tracks (eg on the 'Taras Schevenko' VHS) are great. I also agree with the view that the band were (unsurprisingly) trying too hard to emulate their previous incarnation - it does sound weirdly sub-Joy Division. I much prefer the early tracks where they are beginning to experiment with their own sound (I absolutely love the Factus 8 1981-82 EP). Movement does have something of a haunting, other-worldly quality - perhaps best played loud in the middle of a thunderstorm? - but the deadening production kills it for me and there are just not enough stand-out tracks.

 

[T.G]

'Goodbye Cruel World' Costello and The Attractions..has one or two dodgy tracks but still plenty of brilliant songs...The Comedians, Joe Porterhouse for two

 

[kevo]

Dazzle Ships - OMD. Universally panned because it was too experimental, but I much prefer it to some of their more cringey stuff which always sounded like pop music made for graphic designers.

 

[zefarelly]

OK, a bit of an outlier, an album most people gave never heard, Meat Loaf's first album - No, not Bat Out Of Hell, the one BEFORE that, way before.

In 1971, he released an album called Meat Loaf and Stoney with female singer Shaun Murphy (Stoney), they had both appeared in the musical, Hair, together. It was released on Motown subsidiary, Rare Earth. It's really a soul album with a psychedelic feel.

I don't know the album, but have the single, spun it DJing recently and it went down well, no one knew who it was!

 

[zefarelly]

I have a soft spot for False start by Love

everyone and his dog knows Forever changes now, but. I was given a tape copy of this around 1990 and quite liked it . . .still do.

 

[Randy McNob]

Arctic Monkeys fans consider Humbug to be their worst album but I love it. Suck it and see is their worst IMO, although saying that I didn't even bother with the last one - The car.

 

[Weststander]

It's a bit of a curate's egg. The production is very poor - every track sounds either really 'muddy' or as if it was recorded in a swimming pool. Hannett had lost it by then. In contrast, the live performances of the same tracks (eg on the 'Taras Schevenko' VHS) are great. I also agree with the view that the band were (unsurprisingly) trying too hard to emulate their previous incarnation - it does sound weirdly sub-Joy Division. I much prefer the early tracks where they are beginning to experiment with their own sound (I absolutely love the Factus 8 1981-82 EP). Movement does have something of a haunting, other-worldly quality - perhaps best played loud in the middle of a thunderstorm? - but the deadening production kills it for me and there are just not enough stand-out tracks.

I love it so much. The rawness, a new line up finding their way, no one knew who’d lead, early synths. The lack of slick production a huge plus. Plus I was 16, that age where your choice of music has an intangible lifelong effect …. R4 had a lovely doc about exactly that a few years back.

Thank you for reminding me about Taras Schevenko …. I forgot about it for 30 years! All my VHS’s stolen from storage in the mid 90’s.

The earliest NYC version of Temptation without proper lyrics …. goosebumps. The drumming and synths.

 

[kevo]

I love it so much. The rawness, a new line up finding their way, no one knew who’d lead, early synths. The lack of slick production a huge plus. Plus I was 16, that age where your choice of music has an intangible lifelong effect …. R4 had a lovely doc about exactly that a few years back.

Thank you for reminding me about Taras Schevenko …. I forgot about it for 30 years! All my VHS’s stolen from storage in the mid 90’s.

The earliest NYC version of Temptation without proper lyrics …. goosebumps. The drumming and synths.

I do love the double remastered CD they released a few years back - a sharper-sounding Movement plus all the other early singles and stuff like Cries and Whispers (strangely missing from the Factus EP).

 

[Weststander]

I do love the double remastered CD they released a few years back - a sharper-sounding Movement plus all the other early singles and stuff like Cries and Whispers (strangely missing from the Factus EP).

Any albums by any band from when you were about that age, that you still adore to this day?

Others for me include OMD’s first three albums, The Cure’s Seventeen Seconds.

 

[METALMICKY]

No shame in that as Dio is a premier league vocalist whilst I always thought Ozzy was Ismithian League particularly with regard his solo output. Controversial I know but I've always thought Ozzy has just been brilliantly managed and able to surround himself with brilliant band mates.

The only Ozzy solo albums I can dig are Bark at The Moon and The Ultimate Sin and that's all to do with Jake E Lee who is one of the most underrated guitarists ever.

Bloody hell I hope he's going to be OK!

Former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E Lee shot multiple times in Las Vegas

Authorities say the random shooting occurred while the musician was out walking his dog

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

I have a soft spot for False start by Love

everyone and his dog knows Forever changes now, but. I was given a tape copy of this around 1990 and quite liked it . . .still do.

A new one to me this is, for some reason I thought there were only 3 Albums, I won’t lie for the sake of it, Forever Changes is in my top 100 however my favourite Love song bizarrely didn’t have Arthur Lee on vocals, the honour goes to Bryan McLean for Softly To Me from the first album (Love)

 

[Half Time Pies]

Kula Shakers second album ‘Pheasants Pigs and Astronauts’ bombed commercially compared to their debut album ‘K’, and received mixed reviews from the critics, but it was one of my favourite albums at the time!