“Rarely have I ever bought an album with so much anticipation and felt so badly let down”
– comments Carl of The River on the Springsteen thread.
“Sounds like the jumping-off point for a whole nuther thread” thinks this robot.
I suppose, for me, the record that best fits this criterion is Aztec a Camera’s “Knife”.
I adored their debut and played it incessantly. The lead single from the new album was ace, and I was all set for Rodders to drop a classic and become a massive star at the same time.
I hated the cover and hated Mark Knopler’s production – I guess the goal was a more “sophisticated” sound, but the record just sounded jaded, especially during the nine minute title track. But the major problem was a lack of good songs.
Which unloved record at the bottom of your pile did you purchase with sky high anticipation?
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deramdaze says
‘Disraeli Gears’ by Cream.
A plodding blues LP hidden inside an enticing psychedelic sleeve.
I’m never too sure whether it was horribly dated for 1967 or, as plodding blues was to become Clapton’s calling card in the 1970s and 1980s, wildly ahead of its time.
H.P. Saucecraft says
@johnny-concheroo
Johnny Concheroo says
*splutters with speechless indignation and displays the full range of Disraeli Gears product at chez Concheroo*
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/mojoworking01/Gears021_zpsu273cvdi.jpg
badartdog says
Nice kimono, JC
Johnny Concheroo says
I’m a big Ken Barlow fan…
ianess says
Another lover of DG. Tight, tuneful, concise little songs, with great playing from all. Did you not think it was a step forward from Fresh Cream (which I also very much like), deram?
ernietothecentreoftheearth says
ah, the old “if i keep buying it sooner or later it will sound decent” gambit 🙂
ganglesprocket says
Three words “The Second Coming.”
H.P. Saucecraft says
Two words: good album.
moseleymoles says
‘Love Spreads’ absolutely nailed what a comeback should sound like as a single, so it can’t be a complete failure. Lots of other good stuff on second coming too. Disappointment only when compared to the debut.
Baron Harkonnen says
For once I agree with you Crafty, Second Coming is quite possibly the most underrated album of the ’90’s.
slotbadger says
Oh, my teens in the mid 90s were a parade of disappointments. I remember hushed groups of us eagerly awaiting the following, listening in reverential expectation and subsequently, the deflated mood of disappointment and sadness that followed
Give Out But Don’t Give Up
The Second Coming
The Great Escape
Be Here Now
New Adventures In Hi Fi
Carnival Of Light (which actually, is quite good IMO)
That second Elastica album
Carl says
I have had a couple more profound disappointments: I had loved It’s Immaterial’s singles such as White Man’s Hut and A Giant Raft and their debut album Life’s Hard And Then You Die which spawned the brilliant Ed’s Funky Diner and Driving Away From Home. Then they went and released a second album titled Song. Ironic really, because it didn’t contain any.
Similarly with Prefab Sprout. A sequence of great albums ended with Andromeda Heights. An alternate title was Dull Depths.
KDH says
I love “Andromeda Heights” – gorgeous from start to finish. Now if you’d said “The Gunman And Other Stories” I’d have been with you…
Carl says
I gave up on the Prefabs with AH and have not knowingly heard any new material from Mr McAloon since.
ip33 says
Try “I Trawl the Megahertz” possibly the most beautiful album ever made.
Beany says
Selling England By The Pound. Terribly tuneless with twee lyrics.
“Knights of the Green Shield stamp and shout” NO!
duco01 says
“Terribly tuneless”? What – “Firth of Fifth”? “Cinema show”?
No sir!
retropath2 says
Do you know, Runner, old chap, but you are absolutely right. Bar the title track and Firth of Forth I too thought it mantovani piffle and didn’t buy any more of their LPs to learn ’em. I think you’ll find that taught ’em a lesson, o yes. I doubt any of us can hum a single thing they did next, as member after member left in despair.
Similar tale with In the Wake of Poseidon. After TCOTCK I had high hopes, but is was dull and widely.
Tales of the Topographic? Boring.
Trilogy even had too much filler and was the beginning of the slippery slope
retropath2 says
Widdly
SteveT says
Tales of the topographic was the jumping off point for me too. Ironically I just bought their complete album box set and the later stuff is actually quite good so I might have done them an injustice.
Aja was a disappointment for me – loved the Dan with a passion until that album. That’s not to say I don’t like it but it was not a patch on what went before it.
Junior Wells says
Lou Reed’s Sally Cant Dance coming after that dark bleak masterpiece Berlin was truly underwhelming
Johnny Concheroo says
Peter Green’s 1970 first solo outing End Of The Game. I know @h-p-saucecraft rates this album, but I bought it on release and was so disappointed I ripped it off the deck and skimmed it, Frisbee-style, across the room into the opposite wall of my Notting Hill bedsit.
It didn’t break, but left an impressive gash in the plaster which served as a constant minder of just how far Green’s star had fallen.
H.P. Saucecraft says
I prefer this album to any of the original Mac albums, and here’s why: I don’t know. In the context of white blues albums, it makes no sense at all. To some, this may be an advantage. But play it amongst some Live-Evil period Miles, and it sounds just great. The rhythm section is brilliant, absolutely relentless, and that’s the key to the album – Green doesn’t play any blues solos, hardly solos at all, he’s just part of the churning voodoo funk of it. Or like a Can album. There’s something krautrockular about it. It disappointed me too, on release, but I’ve come to love it. I think that’s a measure of my openminded and mature approch to music, don’t you?
Rigid Digit says
Seconded (honest)
Rigid Digit says
(that was a statement of support for Second Coming)
Rigid Digit says
Blur – The Great Escape.
When it arrived, there was a real feeling of “eh?”
With the benefit of time, I now realise that Blur were moving away from the hype and restrictions of Britpop.
Considered on it’s own, it is a great album – I just didn’t realise it at the time
paulwright says
Always preferred The Great Escape to Parklife. I do realise I am the only one.
Knife really was a disappointment for me – I loved the Postcard singles and High Land Hard Rain. For a long time Aztech Camera were my most seen band, but not since Knife
MC Escher says
No, I’m another who prefers TGE over PL *waves*
Hawkfall says
The Great Escape is one of the few albums that I own that I like less each time I hear it. I’m not sure why this is. Maybe if I listen to it enough times the CD will turn into a blank one.
Gary says
Rainbow’s ‘Long Live Rock & Roll’.
‘Rising’ and On Stage had been the soundtracks to my teenage truancy. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on its follow up. I asked my prissy my-age neighbour if she’d lend me the dosh and she had to ask her mother whether she should. She did lend it to me, I bought the album and found it so pedestrian and cliched in comparison to Rising. Nothing as remotely epic as Stargazer. Nothing as exhilerating as Tarot Woman. Even an awfully soppy ballad in Rainbow Eyes. I’ve since come to like it much more over time and now see it as belonging to their trio of decent albums.
‘Honey’s Dead’ by JAMC. Psychocandy was rad. A snarling combination of middle-finger noise and Beach Boys melody. Darklands was epic and majestic and brooding. Automatic was bubblegum fun. I loved all three and JAMC were MY band at uni. Cool as fuck. But Honey’s Dead just sounded like any other formulaic, shoegazing pop band. Nothing special about it at all. Massive disappoint. I still think it’s their worst effort.
So many other major disappointments. Albums that, to my ears, completely failed to live up to the huge promise of the previous album(s) and the expectations I’d built up. Usually it was the follow up to a career-high classic, often the follow up to a brilliant debut. In most cases these albums became the point where I completely lost all interest in the band/artist.
Massive Attack’s Protection, Heaven 17’s How Men Are, Ben Harper’s The Will To Live, Peter Gabriel’s So, Simply Red’s Men And Women, Dire Strait’s Communique, UB40’s Present Arms, Rickie Lee Jones’ The Magazine, Roger Water’s Radio KAOS, Fleetwood Mac’s Mirage, Primal Scream’s Vanishing Point, Tom Petty’s Hard Promises, The Police’s Zenyatta Mondatta, Marianne Faithfull’s Dangerous Acquaintances, Tom Wait’s Bone Machine, Bowie’s Tonight, The Clash’s Cut The Crap, Stone Roses’ Second Coming, Paul Simon’s Hearts And Bones. And, yes, Springsteen’s The River.
Hawkfall says
Long Live Rock n Roll has Gates of Babylon which is arguably their best song. Lady of the Lake is good too. The rest is a bit flat, mind. Hmm, I was going to disagree with you but actually you might be right.
Gates of Babylon is great, mind. It has my favourite Blackmore solo.
todayoutof10 says
Hey @sewer-robot. I love it when fellow AWers mention Aztec Camera. I am a big fan. I don’t share your disappointment with Knife. Infact, I think it’s lush. I like Mark Knopfker’s influence and think, as two guitar greats, they suit each other really well. I think the title track is pure dreamy and I love every second of it. Few words, but each one of them speaks volumes on Frame’s heartache. I’m there with him, every step of the way.
Oh, I love Roddy Frame. ❤️
Sewer Robot says
That’s why I’m usually reluctant to stick the ..er.. knife into someone’s work @todayoutof10 – this site has taught me that there’s always someone out there just as eager to clasp lovingly that which I disdain to their magnificent bosom. (Seriously though, even the weird cat-toy-cardboard they used for that cover gives me hives).
Maybe it was something in the Irn Bru*, but our Scottish chums seemed to spend the early 80s pulling this second album surprise, usually (perhaps because of the popularity of Sheena?) involving a liberal smearing of Mr Sheen, and in the case of the JAMC even a wee drum masheen.
As mentioned above, Darklands is the biz. Before that was Lloyd Cole’s Easy Pieces, all backing singers and Letraset. Before that Roddy and Mark comparing the size of their Fenders and before that The Juice trying to stretch a brilliant pop-soul e.p. to album length.
I suppose what’s reassuring is, in all cases, even if the second record wasn’t to one’s taste, what one was hearing was not the plaintive wail of one’s new hero’s talent disappearing up the chimney, but an interesting diversion arriving a couple of stops sooner in the journey than expected. (Whether good or bad, Knife is surely a fourth or fifth album. While the third Orange Juice lp is fab and Edwyn has produced a stack of great solo material, it rankles that YCHYLF has no follow up – the closest we got was James Kirk’s solo lp many years later).
(*gratuitously offensive stereotyping sneaked in under cover of tactical bosom compliment)
Rigid Digit says
Metallica – … And Justice For All.
Over produced, overlong, lumpen.
Hasn’t improved with age
retropath2 says
But, ironically, much as Parallel Lines/Blondie and Manifesto/Roxy appalled through having disco beats, I ask you, in time I grew to love ’em
Jackthebiscuit says
Zenyatta Mondatta & Synchronicity.
(I loved Ghost in the machine)
More Specials
Young Americans
Double fantasy
H.P. Saucecraft says
Young Americans? Cripes.
Junior Wells says
cripes reprised
ianess says
There are some truly wonderful soul songs on YA and I don’t think Bowie has ever sung so beautifully. ‘Win’ and ‘Somebody up there” are magnificently moving and honest.
Mousey says
Young Americans?
WHAAAT???
ivylander says
Allow me to defend More Specials. I love it. Great as the first one was, another in the same vein would have been the true letdown. They were close to painting themselves into a stylistic corner. With More Specials they took some real risks, and to my ears it paid off magnificently.
Tiggerlion says
Hear, hear!
Hawkfall says
I love More Specials too.
colrow26 says
Another vote for More Specials, a real suprise on release and a brave left turn by Jerry Dammers not to just make a copy of first album. Some great stuff on More Specials like Stereotypes and the lovely duet between Terry Hall and Rhoda Dakar on I cant stand it……
ianess says
I think it’s a sparkling album and love its variety and sense of adventure.
retropath2 says
I loved Hunkydory, thinking Ziggy bandwagon glamrockery nonsense for probably 3 decades.
timtunes says
Let’s Dance
Ain’t no Scary Monsters
moseleymoles says
I know Let’s Dance is maligned, but I give it as a pass as being ‘Up The Hill Forwards’ as the NME review ran. Tonight though – Blue Jean? Beach Boys cover? Just a mess. The Bowie 80s were upon us.
Tiggerlion says
Surely our expectations for a Bowie release had been lowered by then? Lodger was the disappointment (at first). Scary Monsters sounded good in comparison but was still less good than his seventies peak. By Let’s Dance, I felt relief that side one was actually great.
moseleymoles says
Another one. The Gift. Acers lead single, but instrumentals, Bruce Foxton penned tracks etc. – the sound of Weller trying to work out what was next. Not a bad album at all, but ain’t no Sound Affects.
timtunes says
That frequenter of second-hand record shops, Dire Straits Communique
Junior Wells says
Jackson Browne – Hold Out. Played it recently in some vain hope that I had missed something. Apart from Call It A Loan its a stinker and coming after that astounding run of excellence.
Saturate/Self-titled
For Everyman
Late For the Sky
The Pretender
Running On Empty
and then this piece of ordinariness . Has he ever explained it? He was never the same after that for me .
H.P. Saucecraft says
Bonzer commie, Junie!
Junior Wells says
aw shucks Cobber.
But really, Dylan’s writer’s block has been well documented , nay forensically examined and even the subject of extensive discussion in his own book but not many artists own up to it or explain why they became mediocre.
I’ve bought so-called return to form Jackson B records and really they are not a patch , not a patch on earlier stuff.
H.P. Saucecraft says
Jackson Browne has left the auditorium. But again, he’s done enough for one lifetime. “For Everyman” is still my fave, possibly the finest of all Californian singer-songwriter albums. Tremendous strength in restraint.
Junior Wells says
oner pearl v another but given the two I’d take late for the sky
duco01 says
For fans of classic-era Jackson Browne (and David Lindley), this newly released 1976 FM broadcast from Chicago looks like it might be worth a punt…
http://www.spincds.com/odessey-and-oracle-stereo-mono-2cd-47157
duco01 says
I loved Salif Keïta’s “Soro” when it came out in 1987.
Imagine my excitement, then, when the follow-up, “Ko-Yan” was released in 1989.
I rushed down to my local record emporium to secure a copy.
And it was – quite literally – shite. Well, not literally, obviously.
Junior Wells says
funny I felt similarly about Soro.
timtunes says
Any album by Joanna Newsom (given the glowing reviews)
ip33 says
Most of her reviews don’t do her justice IMO, absolutely faultless so far.
timtunes says
I’ve tried – even saw her live…
ip33 says
Fair enough. But here’s something to whet your appetite for Friday.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/oct/18/joanna-newsom-it-was-tonic-to-know-not-insane-interview
Tiggerlion says
I’m salivating. It sounds to me like the ‘duck’ voice of Milk-Eyed Minder is back and I love that voice.
duco01 says
Yes, I’m really looking forward to “Divers”.
After the all-encompassing brilliance of “Have one on Me”, I suppose it could be a classic ‘eagerly awaited record that disappoints’, but I hope it isn’t. What an extraordinary talent she has.
A pity that she’s not visiting Sweden on her tour this time. On th two occasions she’s played Stockholm she’s been outstanding.
timtunes says
I must admit the concert got off to a bad start with whatever she said in her little voice like ‘hello’ got the entire audience (significantly middle-aged men) actually belly-laughing in a cringing fawning way.
Then the music is massively over-indulgent.
“The emperor has no clothes!!”
I accept I am in the minority
H.P. Saucecraft says
You are in a considerably large minority, I think. She’s absolutely fucking horrible. Who was that irritating girl in the William books? Her. Like someone gave her a harp and the whole family sits round smirking at the darling child as she trills away. Real Afterword Dad stuff. Hope to see her at Glyndebourne this year, yah. Amazeballs! Taking the kids – Tom’s her biggest fan already, and we’ve bought Lucinda a harp! AAAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!
Kid Dynamite says
She is actually worse than this.
H.P. Saucecraft says
Thank God there’s some common sense left here! I was going to review the new album but couldn’t keep the hot rise of bile from filling my mouth.
timtunes says
Do that review!
H.P. Saucecraft says
Oh. Okay. Bagsied.
Bingo Little says
*Commences the stockpiling of rotten vegetables to lob at said review*
Leave her alone, you MONSTER.
Bingo Little says
Violet Elizabeth Bott?
“I’ll thcream and thcream until I am thick”.
She’s absolutely fucking fantastic, H.P. Newsom is pretty good as well.
Junior Wells says
Double Fantasy oh yes definitely.
The album we all so much wanted to be good
Proof to the world that the Man Is Back
But it wasn’t and he wasn’t.
johnw says
The Distractions “The End Of The Pier”. I’m not for second suggesting that it’s a poor album but when you wait 32 years for the release, especially when “Nobody’s Perfect” was nearly perfect, there’s a certain weight of expectation.
Another Manchester band that I was disappointed with was The Smirks. The album never got released in 1979 and then never did. It finally surfaced as a (semi official) free download about 25 years later and it’s not as good as the singles and their live performances suggested that it should have been.
Tiggerlion says
What was the 10cc album after How Dare You??. That one.
count jim moriarty says
That would be Deceptive Bends. It was the first 10cc album after the split, and showed how the two halves of the band balanced each other. They shot off in opposite directions, and neither half was ever quite as good.
Black Type says
Every Morrissey album since Vauxhall & I/You Are The Quarry (crap ones between the two, crap ones after the latter…give or take the odd great song).
timtunes says
Have you tried the most recent one World Peace etc – definite return to form
Rigid Digit says
Guns n Roses Chinese Democracy really was NOT worth the wait
by the same token, Use Your Illusion would’ve been much better as a single disc/single release, rather than the amount of filler deployed to flesh out two separate albums.
LordTed says
Street Fighting Years by Simple Minds. Prior to this they were on top of their game, had released some superb albums and were headlining major arena tours. Then they went right up their own arses with this album and in my view have never recovered . It may simp,y be that they reached the peak of their genre and there was only one way to go then, but it was this album that disappointed both me and pretty much all others.
SixDog says
Street Fighting Years
Whilst it did have the awfulness of Belfast Child, it did also have the wondrous This Is Your Land with Laughing Lou, which elevates it over the excreble Once Upon A Time and Live in the City of Light.
On the topic of ‘wondrous’ – Tales from Topographic Oceans after Close to the Edge?
You can hear the ‘pop’ as it disappears up Jon and Chris’s own fundaments
H.P. Saucecraft says
Leave Topographic ALOOOOONE!!! LEAVEITALONE!!!!!!!
@rob-c
Douglas says
I have been scarred for life by a string of my erstwhile favourite bands in the early 1980s all, in turn, taking the King’s Shilling and succumbing to the pressure to deliver chart success. They all produced albums within a few months of each other (1983/4) which were well below par compared to previous efforts.
Step forward Siouxsie & Banshees (Hyaena), Stranglers (Feline), Killing Joke (Fire Dances), SPK (Machine Age Voodoo) & Gang of Four (Hard).
No doubt many fans of these albums will voice their opinions, but to my ears they were all crushing disappointments: all bands I really admired, and all within a few months.
dai says
Monster by REM.
Carl says
Really? I thought it was a wonderful antidote to the massively overrated Automatic For The People.
dai says
Automatic is beautiful, sublime and moving. Monster contains retreads from Automatic, some uninspiring “rocking out” and about 4 or 5 good songs. New Adventures would be an improvement.
Giggles says
Second Coming: edited and re-sequenced.
1. Love Spreads
2. Ten Storey Love Song
3. Tightrope
4. Begging You
5. Tears
6. How do you Sleep?
7. Driving South
8. breaking into Heaven.
I was disappointed at the time, but I’ve grown to love that record more and more over the years .
H.P. Saucecraft says
Oooh – this looks interesting … always up for a “pimp my album” album …
SixDog says
No room for ‘Your Star Will Shine’?
I love that tune.
Breaking into Heaven has to open, no? Or do you lose the bongos and babbling streams?
Kid Dynamite says
There’s a brilliant second Roses album somewhere in the post-first album singles and the first sessions for Second Coming. The long spacey groovers, with a couple of short pop songs to break it up. Something like this
1) Breaking Into Heaven
2) How Do You Sleep?
3) One Love
4) Love Spreads
5) Ten Storey Love Song
6) Something’s Burning
7) Fool’s Gold
Bingo Little says
Ooh, no Driving South?
I totally agree that there’s a really great record in there looking to escape, with the right supplements. Breaking Into Heaven is a great album opener with a fantastic groove on it, Love Spreads is superb (and would have been a great opener in its own right).
I’m good with Driving South as a second track. It’s got a nice urgency to it. Obviously Ten Story Love Song is terrific. The problems on the original begin with Straight to the Man (which is fricking awful) and Begging You (which is fine, but doesn’t belong on this record). It’s a one-two punch that throws the whole album off beam, and it never recovers.
I like your sequence above, but I’d reinstate Driving South as track two and move Love Spreads to the end – it’s so momentous that it just has to either open or close the album. I’d also draft in Elephant Stone and Full Fathom Five, which I know are chronologically out of synch, but are so wonderful I need to include them + they provide a bit of light amidst all the shade.
1) Breaking Into Heaven
2) Driving South
3) How Do You Sleep?
4) One Love
5) Ten Storey Love Song
6) Elephant Stone
7) Something’s Burning
8) Full Fathom Five
9) Fool’s Gold
10) Love Spreads
Kid Dynamite says
In my sequence, Love Spreads is opening side two *winks*.
I like Driving South, and I wouldn’t moan about it being on this album, but I’m drawing the line there. I wanted to keep it as concise as I could, and not fall into the trap the band did of putting too much stuff on just because they could.
The more I think about it, this is the way it should have gone. Put a record this good out in 1992 or 1993 while you’re still firmly on top of the zeitgeist before the hype sours and you quite possibly change the direction of British guitar music for the next decade – would we have had Britpop if the Roses were still dominating the cultural landscape? We get a brilliant album, the Roses don’t fall apart, and Geffen get a load of extra material in the vaults they can flog us in 2012 for the 20th anniversary deluxe edition. Everyone’s a winner.
Bingo Little says
Aha – of course!
Sadly, the Roses did “put out” an absolutely cracking record in 1992 and it failed to do the trick; Turns Into Stone, the wonderful b-sides/odds and ends collection. Shadily released by the record company it may have been, but it remains a superb collection of tunes; Fools Gold, One Love, What the World is Waiting For, Something’s Burning, Mersey Paradise, those great harmonies on Going Down.
Elephant Stone remains my favourite Roses moment – it’s a perfect pop song and the fade out on the TIS version makes it sound like the Roses are still out there somewhere, merrily jamming away, enjoying the glorious synergy of their collecting talents.
Sprinkle Turns Into Stone with the best of the Second Coming (or “the Second Coking” as my phone’s autocorrect just wittily titled it – touché!) and you have the album the world really was waiting for.
dai says
No What the World is Waiting for?
ianess says
Coney Island Baby. What was he thinking?!
H.P. Saucecraft says
Sally Can’t Dance? Metal Machine Music? Lulu? He’s the Duke Of Disappoint. Except that nobody was really expecting him to be great again.
ianess says
I was making an obscure joke about his disappointing the fans after the glories of Metal Machine Music.
H.P. Saucecraft says
*facepalm*
… and a damn good joke it was too.
James Blast says
Wilder
H.P. Saucecraft says
How jéjeune of you.
Neil Jung says
But Selling England is their finest album and one of the top progressive albums of all time.
Just to annoy you, I will vote for Stackridge’s Extravaganza. Nothing like as good as its predecessor. Mr Mick was even worse.
Beany says
OI! LEAVE IT!
You think Selling England is better than Foxtrot? I disagree with Extravaganza because it is so different. Agree with Mr Mick though. It took me years to buy it just to fill a whole in my collection. The alternative Mr Mick released by the band themselves makes more sense though.
H.P. Saucecraft says
“The alternative Mr Mick released by the band themselves makes more sense though.”
God help us.
Jackthebiscuit says
I am obviously in a small minority (possibly a minority of one) WRT Young Americans, but apart from Fame, & the title track, I just don’t remember any other songs.
Haven’t listened to it in years, I shall have to give it another try.
ianess says
‘Somebody up there’ is a beautiful song, heartfelt and wonderfully sung. Win and Fascination are also terrific. I have all these on the restaurant playlist and they don’t get old at all. It’s the Bowie album I return to most often.
timtunes says
Can You Hear Me is possibly my favourite song ever….and I’ve heard a lot
Tiggerlion says
Don’t forget Right. The call and response vocals make me melt. And don’t start me on the percussion….Take a bow Andy Newmark for top-notch drumming.
ianess says
Forgot to include that one, tim and it’s an absolute classic. His singing is magnificent on it. Devastating impact.
DogFacedBoy says
You may dig this little collection of out-takes and alternate bits n bobs
Tiggerlion says
Very interesting. Thanks for posting. I was hoping for an extended 40th anniversary set this year, but it is not to be. Shame
Neil Jung says
But Selling England is their finest album and one of the top progressive albums of all time.
Just to annoy you, I will vote for Stackridge’s Extravaganza. Nothing like as good as its predecessor. Mr Mick was even worse.
Topographic Oceans was disappointing at the time but I really like it now.
How about The Wall? Rubbish after the mighty Animals.
Wishbone Ash Locked In was appallingly bad after There’s The Rub.
Neil Jung says
The correct answer for Genesis is of course Abacab
Mousey says
Let It Be.
Apart from the title track and Get Back.
Oh and Across The Universe.
And I me Mine. Actually I quite liked For You Blue too.
Oh yeah two Of Us is nice, J and P singing together happily.
And you’ve got to admit TLAWR is a beautifully constructed melody.
Rest of it’s shit though…
Tiggerlion says
What’s wrong with I Got A Feeling?!
One After 909 rollocks along nicely and I Dig A Pony is weird in a good way.
And George is smiling on the cover. It looks like a genuine smile, too.
Johnny Concheroo says
Isn’t it great? Let It Be is universally regarded as The Fabs’ worst LP, yet it contains at least six tracks that every other band in the world would kill for.
H.P. Saucecraft says
http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/t642/burtkocain/KAI_zpsvlhhhq56.jpg
Rigid Digit says
and would’ve been even better with the inclusion of “Don’t Let Me Down”.
It’s a bit of a Cabbage album – when you first experience it, its not that great. But as you (and it) grow older, it becomes much more palatable.
Tiggerlion says
I’ve said this before, but with the magic of iTunes, you can create a plausible Get Back.
Two Of Us (Let It Be)
I Me Mine (Naked)
Let It Be (Naked)
Across The Universe (Anthology 3)
For You Blue (Let It Be)
The Long And Winding Road (Anthology 3)
Dig A Pony
One After 909
I Got A Feeling (all Let It Be)
Don’t Let Me Down (Past Masters)
Get Back (Let It Be)
Note how side two is effectively the rooftop concert.
ianess says
Great comment re ‘cabbage’ album, particularly as regards the ballads which I’ve grown to love over the years.
H.P. Saucecraft says
Yuck. It may be the best Fabs album but it’s still a load of old cabbage.
H.P. Saucecraft says
No jeering, now. Or derision. No jeering or derision.
ianess says
What a bitter little comment. “Let it be, let it be..’
Johnny Concheroo says
Wishbone Four. The first three Wishbone Ash LPs are to this day among my most treasured possessions and in May 1973 I rushed out to Chappell’s at 50 New Bond Street (don’t look for it, it’s not there anymore) to buy their fourth album.
It was rubbish.
Neil Jung says
I like Wishbone Four. Isn’t it superior to Pilgrimage? Did you buy Locked In? Now that was a stinker.
Johnny Concheroo says
In a fit of pique I never bought another Wishbone Ash LP from that day on. The first three were, for me, life-affirming prog albums, while the fourth was a kind of sub-Status Quo boogie affair (as I recall)
Baron Counterpane says
Getting back to the OP; I discovered Aztec Camera when Knife was already available so always think of High Land Hard Rain and Knife as a, frankly marvellous, double album.
Now Love; that really was terribly disappointing. So much so that I didn’t replace it when stolen in a burglary* and didn’t buy another Aztec Camera record for about a quarter of a century.
* a remarkably alphabetic burglary; the only things stolen were by Aztec Camera and Jon Anderson, both at the extreme left end of my neatly organised vinyl collection.
duco01 says
I hope the burglar enjoyed the copy of “Olias of Sunhillow”. I never really got into that album, with the exception of “Sound out the Galleon”. The album sleeve was rather fine though – perhaps that’s why the burglar nicked it!
Baron Counterpane says
Actually, it was Song of Seven, not Olias…. Now I come to think of it I didn’t replace that one either.
I have since bought Love on CD but I only ever play Killermont Street.
By the way, is that the only song ever named after a bus station?
Sewer Robot says
Well, as we know, all Mark E Smith vocals are field recordings from the assorted bus shelters of Northern England.
Also, the Virgin Prunes’ Dave-Id Busaras took his name from a large ugly bus station in the centre of old Dublin City Town..
drneil says
In the 1980s a friend of mine had a burglary and he had made the mistake of keeping his record collection in alphabetical order. The burglar went for the right hand side and made off with a collection of rare Frank Zappa albums that had taken 20 years to collect.
ernietothecentreoftheearth says
Has anyone done Be Here Now yet ? Or Played Once Only, as I think it is also known.
Diddley Farquar says
There’s a theme here of follow-up to raved about seminal classic bound to be a let down given unreasonable expectations. Sometimes later reassessments are needed.
Sewer Robot says
Yep. There’s the straightforward regression to the mean (why is the new one so eagerly anticipated? Because the last one was so good) which is to be expected more often than not.
But, and I didn’t have one in my own life, there would be cases of the joining together of a supergroup (Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner are making a record with the Pet Shop Boys! – actually pretty good) or promising band x are working with fantasy producer y, or singer * has decided to record an album of songs by @ which seemed like such a perfect fit but doesn’t work at all..
poolhallrichard says
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i46/poolhallrichard/ooh%20lala_zpsofaymzbu.jpg
Tried to love it. I really did. Bought it the day it came out. Played it over and over but couldn’t recapture that excitement I’d had first few times I played Never a Dull Moment and that thrill at the drum rap which heralds True Blue. Couldn’t rid myself of the feeling that it had been phoned in from the pub.
Better disposed to it now what with Flags and Banners and of course the title track.
Still – way better than this abnomination.
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i46/poolhallrichard/coast_zps84np4jyn.jpg
Freddy Steady says
Killing Joke….Outside the Gate.
The follow up to “Brighter than a thousand suns ” which was an even better album than its predecessor and commercial smasheroo ” Night time”.
Jaz had, I think, fallen out with everyone so it was in effect a solo album. A bad solo album at that, no tunes or anything.
Hasn’t stopped me pre-ordering the new album though…out this Friday should you be interested.
Pessoa says
The Beta Band debut album debacle, after the glorious 3 eps, has been discussed here before, but the album still stinks and killed off an exciting group.
incidentally , I saw ex-BB John Maclean’s film Slow West on a plane trip recently and thought it was good.
Cobweb Steve says
The Courage of Others by Midlake. God how I tried to love that album. God how I failed.
timtunes says
Hope you kept the faith, Antiphon is really good
Cobweb Steve says
I did keep the faith tim & Antiphon is a good album but doesn’t get close to ‘…Van Occupanther’ IMHO. I have a feeling it’s going to be a beautiful aberration unless Tim Smith returns & learns to relax a bit.
deramdaze says
Whisper it, but I think I’ve got another Clapton one.
The Beano LP.
In a rare moment of modesty, Jagger said in ’64 that he couldn’t understand why anyone would want to hear ‘I’m A King Bee’ sung by him rather than Slim Harpo.
Great as Slim Harpo is (and he is very great) Mick and the boys definitely had their own style and brought something new to the original.
When it comes to Beano, however, I would question why anyone would listen to it ahead of the originals.
Johnny Concheroo says
The Beano LP came out of nowhere (and changed everything), so I don’t think anyone was actually “eagerly anticipating” it, as per the thread title.
It may not be to everyone’s taste but there’s no denying it’s one of the most influential British LPs of all time.
H.P. Saucecraft says
http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/t642/burtkocain/beano_zpszsriulmu.jpg
Johnny Concheroo says
Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends
We’re so glad you could attend
Come inside! Come inside!
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/mojoworking01/Afterword/beano_zps68efdf8c.jpg
minibreakfast says
Me and Mr B were listening to this together last night. He’d not heard it in years and didn’t know I had a copy lurking on my hard drive. He got rather misty-eyed. It was nice.
Johnny Concheroo says
Thanks for your warm support Mrs B
I shall wear it always
pencilsqueezer says
Everything post 1971.
minibreakfast says
*thwack*
H.P. Saucecraft says
Mr Squeezer is clearly wrong by whatever standard you care to apply. This moves beyond IMHO into sheer, wanton, blatant incorrectness. Post ’75 is the right answer.
Black Celebration says
Let’s bring things bang up to date –
1. Waking up with the house on fire!, Culture Club
2. Seven and the ragged tiger, Duran Duran
3. Liverpool, Frankie GTH
duco01 says
4. Stevie Wonder – Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants
timtunes says
God yes – those bloody squelchy instrumentals about bees or something
duco01 says
Yes, when I saw Stevie Wonder in concert a few years ago, there weren’t many people shouting out for “Venus Fly-Trap and the Bug”, I can tell you.
colrow26 says
So……was nobody else just the tiniest bit disappointed with Katy Lied??? I can remember hearing Do It Again, Reelin In The Years, bought My Old School on 7″ and then came Pretzel Logic, heard it on Piccadilly Radio (think it was the Andy Peebles show), what a band! then there was the long wait for more nusic. The NME told me the band were taking time in the studio and/or deliberating over the album artwork!! eventually Katy Lied arrived and it was….ok but nothing really stood out (apart from the sublime Phil Woods sax break on Doctor Wu)…..normal service then resumed with The Royal Scam…..
Tiggerlion says
Yes.
Becker & Fagan apologised for the poor sound quality on the cover itself. They blamed malfunctioning dbx noise reduction equipment. It was almost unlistenable. I remember being sorely disappointed after the sumptuous Pretzel Logic.
I didn’t listen to it for decades but the latest master sounds marvellous, revealing songs just as witty and twisted as their other albums and musicianship of equal weight.
I like the cover. It’s certainly better than Royal Scam.
retropath2 says
Bang up to date with (Dave Gahan &) Soulsavers newbie, Angels and Ghosts, perhaps there being sufficient warning in the up billing of Gahan, who was still just Soulsavers in The Light the Dead See, despite writing both that and this new one. It’s good, yes, but hasn’t the sheer stomach churn of its predecessor, with the arrangements now totally Spiritualised orchestrated rock gospel, the southern baptist electronica a thing of the past. Half marks.
Tiggerlion says
Thank you. I’d been tempted. My wallet will be pleased.