It would be fair to say that U2 are not the most widely loved of bands here, and that even within those open to the charms of the One Hitmakers Rattle and Hum is not the most widely loved of their work. I’ve recently struggled through it again and boy is it awful, some of the worst cover versions – All Along the Watchtower, Helter Skelter – possible. It’s peak Bono with the preaching, sanctimoniousness and unloveable bluster…there’s so much to dislike about this album.
But yet. Hidden amongst the classic rock audition numbers is Heartland. It’s quite subdued, has that fragile and shivery Edge loveliness, Bono singing and not preaching, and sense of space that made Boy so appealing, in fact tone down the production a bit and you could imagine it from that album.
You may or may not agree, but please let’s have your hidden jewels within albums (thinking Live It Up aka ‘Moon Sausage’, Chinese Democracy, the Durans cover album, or Love Beach here for example) that are universally reviled.
Salvage a track from a widely savaged album
by 91 Comments
Van Damiens Land, God Part 2, All I Want Is You, Desire & Angel Of Harlem -all great. Even Love Rescue Me and Hawkmoon ain’t bad. The gospel section of ISHFWILF is aces. The covers are crap I grant you and Silver n Gold Bono preaching.
The album is better than the film which is far more objectionable
Diemen’s innit
As is my wont, I’ve rearranged R&H into a lean 41 minute winner!
You beat me to it. I’ve always thought Rattle and Hum could be stripped down into a great little single album.
And God Part 2 foreshadows the change of direction of Achtung Baby a couple of years later. (It’s like The Fly Part 1).
Everyone knows Bowie’s Tonight sucks big time. But I like the title track. Far prefer it to the Iggy version in fact. I’ve always had a soft spot for a bit of cod-reggae and I like Tonight’s simplicity. Plus I like playing it on acoustic guitar (verse: A / E / F#m, chorus: D / A / E / D / A / E).
Nowt wrong with Loving The Alien or Blue Jean either
I think the title track is anaemic, half hearted and a complete failure.
That’s cos you haven’t heard my version.
🖒
Speechless Twang?
Can’t be worse than his version!
Most people have Never Let Me Down as the Dame’s absolute nadir, but the title track is a rather lovely tribute/thank you to the formidable Coco Schwab…and Time Will Crawl and Zeroes aren’t half bad (no, that doesn’t mean they’re all bad…).
Oh I love Zeroes.
I’m quite a fan of Bowie’s version of God Only Knows. I may be alone in this.
I genuinely like Tonight. A very entertaining album. He basically did it to get Iggy Pop off the streets.
I would post “Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentleman” from “Love Beach”, but strangely it is unavailable. But you can have this – the “second best” track on the album. Frankly, it’s a bit of a disappointment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC0ApPESqPI&index=26&list=PLCzeKTCUeTUf3PAgCDCW2AEq5EHYZ8KwN
For your consideration… this
Combat Rock “widely savaged”? No way, Billyboy. It’s a triffick album. This Is England off the widely savaged Cut The Crap woulda been a better call.
… is the correct answer
That is a pretty perfect answer, awful album, good track
That answer should end the thread. We all agree!
That’s what I meant to link to…. Grrrrrrrrrr Curses… This is why I should stick to lurking!
Yeah, agreed. This was going to be my answer.
Desire was on Rattle and Hum. A cracking track.
But the bit in the film where Bongo says something like “did someone tell me that I can find the blues in here?” is worth the admission price alone.
Ha ha I remember that. I’ll need to find that film and watch it again. You never really hear about it these days. I don’t think it was ever even realised on DVD.
The Jam – The Modern World.
Not a bad album – Its got This Is The Modern World and Standards on it for a start, and the cover of Midnight Hour aint half bad.
Not loved when first released, and regularly falls a the bottom of The Jam lists.
But it also contains this:
Life From A Window
No. It is their worst album by a long way and nice as it is that track is quite bland IMHO.
Paging @tiggerlion – Chinese Democracy?
No idea what you are talking about.
I’m going to stretch the OP. I have to confess a distaste for Imperial Bedroom. I regard it as the weakest of Costello’s imperial phase albums, too grandiose, too ponderous, somewhat confused and fewer catchy tunes and pithy lyrics. I know I’m in a minority on the Afterword.
However, Beyond Belief is perhaps his best track. Unfortunately, you have to accept an early version from youtube.
What about Man Out Of Time? Possibly my favourite Elvis song. Or at least it’s up there with Guitar Man, King Creole and Fort Lauderdale Chamber Of Commerce.
Imperial Bedroom is the album that people now point to as the one where Elvis got too clever – clever.
He’s actually currently touring the USA playing IB in it’s entirety alongside choice cuts from surrounding albums. I hope he plays that over here as the song that got me hardcore into Elvis but before this tour he’s played literally a handful of times I have never heard him play and (like the rest of the album – you little fool) its a belter
I think it drags on a bit.
*dives for cover*
“I know I’m in a minority on the Afterword.”
You’re right there, Tigger.
From where I’m sitting, virtually every second of every song on Imperial Bedroom is perfect. Maybe “Boy with a Problem” gets 9 out of 10, while the rest of the album gets an impeccable 10.
Elvis’s cover design is shite, though.
I was going to salvage a track off Give Out But Don’t Give Up, but when I looked at the tracklist I remembered that they are all pretty good. The album gets a bad rap because it couldn’t have been less forward thinking than Screamadelica, but on its own terms, it’s a winner.
Top album – my favourite in their canon.
The main reason it gets looked down on is that it wasn’t Sceamadelica Part 2, and there was just a touch of “trying to be too Stonesy” about it (even down to nicking a song title).
Rocks like a b*stard, and funky as f*ck!
I’ve recently gone back to it. At the time it came out I liked the rock and funk tracks and didn’t give so much time to the ballads. But recently Free and Sad And Blue came up on the iPod and got me listening to its slower tracks. Of course it’s not as special as Screamadelica, but it’s a very fine album.
And the tour they did in support of the album – double-heading with George Clinton was the best I’ve seen them do live. Great gig at Brixton.
Uncle Len’s Death of a Ladies man is by no means his best album but am quite partial to the title track.
Elvis Costello reckons Goodbye Cruel World is his worst album. If it is then Love Field should be saved from its destruction. The Comedians is a great song, sung badly and I like the melody of Joe Porterhouse but I can see why he was less than pleased with the album.
I don’t like much Dylan. But I quite like Dark Eyes from the oft-slagged Empire Burlesque.
Yep agree with you there Gary
Had the album been produced by Daniel Lanois and not had that “80s drum sound” we could’ve had a classic as the songs themselves aren’t too bad
I don’t think anyone would nominate Blow Up Your Video as their favourite AC/DC album, but Heatseeker is a great song
Likewise Nick Of Time
Double likewise Thunderstruck (from The Razor’s Edge)
I like Heatseeker.
Second Coming always gets a (IMHO unfair) kicking, but the lead single was smoking…
Ten Storey Love song is a blinder.
Hurrah! Now we’re “salvaging” the top 3 hit from an album, I feel the thread has loosened its tie enough for me to post. See, I can’t come up with something which satisfies both the “salvage” and “savaged” criteria. However:
“Savaged” – from an album the critics were so eager to pile into some even forgot to use the word “sophomore”: Billy Don’t Fall is a great pop song from Terence Trent D’Arby’s Neither Fish Nor Flesh…
And the ultimate salvage job was passing an unremarkable and derivative tune from Primal Scream’s second album through Andrew Weatherall’s digestive system to discover, floating in the bowl, the template for the 90s in Loaded.
Now we’re cooking, Neither Fish… was much more at the level I was thinking. Don’t Give Up… , Blow Up Your Video or Imperial Bedroom are not the artists best, but hardly critically reviled. Still no takers for Chinese Democracy though.
Others surely we could cover: Dirty Work, Saturnz Return, Primitive Cool (Jagger) My Beauty (Rowland fishnets), Lou Reed and Metallica Lulu…
Neither Fish…. was a fookin bostin’ album. Stands up vastly better than The Hardline… which squillions of people bought then and no-one listens to now.
Imperial Bedroom was the highest-rated EC album in the NME’s Top 100 albums of all time poll in 1985 (above My Aim and This Year’s Model). Quite right too.
“No-one listens to now”? What rot! It gets plenty of airings in my gaff, anyway.
I bought NFNF quite recently, and it really is surprisingly fabulicious.
I still have my vinly of The Hardline. Might give it blast at’ weekend.
Not on headphones though – the noises he makes with his mouth during As Yet Untitled are revolting. Too audio verite, dude.
I Can’t Tell The Bottom From The Top is crackin’. Rowland’s voice quavers & swoops with characteristic passion plus it takes me back to the early days of meeting Mr andielou *blushes*
(In reply to Moselymoles)
…because when you first met Mr andielou you couldn’t tell the bottom from the top?
Now that’s what happens when you use Scrotox at the same time as Botox!
Fuck is going on at 1:50?
I was off me bonce in late 1994, It’s a good job I never watched this.
I like All The Tired Horses from Dylan’s Self Portrait. One of my mum’s favourite songs (even though in 46 years I don’t think she’s ever played the rest if the LP).
I really like self portrait. I’ll get me coat (sound of a door banging)
Me too, paws.
Close the door behind you, there’s a draught.
I may need to follow them to the Self Portrait fan potting shed at the bottom of the garden…
It’s my understanding that SP has been rehabilitated in recent years, particularly in the light of the Another SP box set.
Jokerman is a top song off the otherwise pedestrian Infidels.
Great video, as I recall.
Love the whole album personally. One of his absolute best!
Yes, Infidels is a favourite of mine and possibly Dylan’s last great album
Jokerman
Sweetheart Like You
Neighborhood Bully
License to Kill
Man of Peace
Union Sundown
I and I
Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight
Every one a winner!
Bob was criticised at the time for the perceived anti union lyrics of Union Sundown but what he said came to pass and foreshadowed the rise of China. They don’t make nothing in America any more.
Lord Upminster was roundly ignored
Yes , Spasticus Autisticus is the ultimate Dury anthem but this also was Dury at his lyrical best.
Dylan appears to be coming up a lot here. Here’s another one – from Knocked Out Loaded. Not sure if Vimeo links work…
Oh good they do
That was going to be my selection. An awful album solely redeemed by this towering song.
Creedence’s swan song, Mardi Gras, is justifiably derided but it has this bittersweet corker from John Fogerty
Jethro Tull – Crest Of Knave
The words “average” and “OK” tend to appear in a lot of reviews, and whilst it might not be Vintage Tull, this is a fine track
Steel Monkey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmpV352IdoQ
Farm on the Freeway for me. Can’t stand Steel Monkey! And why he thinks Budapest is one of his best songs is beyond me…
In 1978, Japan wanted to be The New York Dolls. Their debut was a miserable guitar thrash of sub punk crap. Nobody liked it. Not even the band. It was called Adolescent Sex and was just as unsatisfying. Communist China is alright, though.
http://youtu.be/hhVqSBgpQB8
Thirty years ago Frankie’s Liverpool was greeted with derision. But this is good.
Good spot. Career-killing albums are a great sub-genre.
Sometime in New York City is tough to get through but starts well
New York City is also great, and Attica State ain’t bad if you ignore the lyrics. Better than it’s reputation.
I like the slide on John Sinclair
Strethassle by Louis Reed.
A mediocre album with an outstanding title track.
76 comments in and still no-one will admit to even having listened to Chinese Democracy. I know I haven’t.
As a sub-genre I present The Album That Just Goes on Too Long
Be Here Now is certainly not loved much and was recently the subject of an excellent article in The Guardian on why it is so loathed:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/oct/06/flattened-by-the-cocaine-panzers-the-toxic-legacy-of-oasiss-be-here-now
Inspired by this I’ve recently listened to it (am I the only person in the world who didn’t Oxfam it after a year) and though All Around The World is as awful as I remember it, many of the tracks would be redeemed – or at least much improved – by clocking in at say the 4 minute mark rather than 6 plus. And the production is pretty rubbish too.
Chinese Democracy? I bought it, I played it (once), and I somehow managed to sell it.
@minibreakfast and have you found a diamond in the gutter?
No, just a turd.
Bejabers, a turd what?
A turd turd!
I played it once too.
Still got it, never listened to a second time (something tells me I should, but I think it’s just an interest in self-harm, or a cure for insomnia).
I can remember Nothing of note on that album (granted this is only one listen, but still …)
Simple Minds See the Lights. Ok, it’s a bit big music but It does have groove, honestly. Off Real Life which is rubbish. ( I’ve never listened to it natch but it’s called Real Life so it’s bound to be rubbish. And the video isn’t official and has a very early picture of them on it for some reason.
“Dream Harder” is no one’s favourite Waterboys album, but hey! at least it’s got the marvellous “Glastonbury Song” on it.
It’s mine. But then I only have three.
Springsteen’s Lucky Town is not his finest hour. But If I Should Fall Behind ranks as one of his best in my opinion
I know I’m ridiculously late to this thread but I suppose that’s kind of fitting as here’s a track from The Chinese Democracy!
I actually really like the album. It’s a departure rom their earlier work and horrifically overproduced but I reckon Better is up there with some of their best work.
In other news, my favourite Oasis album is Be Here Now…
Said by most as the Manics worst album, although not by me.
However, this track…