OK, we have the wonderful thread with everyone’s favourite records of 2017 – but what about the duds? I don’t mean the album your nephew recorded in his shed over a weekend with his mate on tambourine, but a record that you were really looking forward to or one that the critics had given a huge thumbs up to but that you are giving the thumbs down to.
Here’s some that I couldn’t get into by acts I’ve liked in the past:
I’ve loved everything by FATHER JOHN MISTY to date. I’m not having the new one. It sounds like one song for 70+ minutes, and I’m with the guy who said that it ‘sounds like Elton John reading the Comment Is Free section of The Guardian’. ARCADE FIRE released an album with a good (Abba) single, a bizarre marketing campaign, and not much else. I’ve always enjoyed the GORILLAZ mix of Damon with some hip-hop that’s out of my comfort zone. This year, they just left me with the hip-hop out of my comfort zone. FLEET FOXES took years off and forgot to write any tunes. FEIST decided she wanted to be PJ Harvey this year, but PJ Harvey is already quite good at being PJ Harvey.
Anyone have other choices or want to tell me how wrong I am on the above?
I came round to the FJM record in the end, but bloody hell that’s a great description of it!
3 were big disappointments for me – Thea Gilmore is one of my favourite artists, but this year’s The Counterweight was over-produced and smothered decent songs in synths and electronic bells and whistles, when they were crying out for some decent guitars. Fleet Foxes were gone too long, and returned with something far too pompous and self-indulgent. And Tift Merritt, who has a fabulous voice, delivered an album that was really ho-hum and lacking any memorable songs.
Tift Merritt was support to Jason Isbel a few weeks back. Pleasant but unremarkable IMHO.
Saw her support Jason a few times in recent years and that description obtains for all performances. Unremarkable.
I saw Tift support Jason too recently and was a little disappointed. Too short a set to really come into her own. I’ve seen her headlining in a small club and she really shone.
A gorgeous voice, a lot of charm and audience contact, and she has written some very fine songs, not least Another Country which is stunning.
I’m still keen to hear more.
A harsh summary of Tift whom I’ve seen many times over the years, and is someone I think is a wonderful performer. Yes I saw her with Jason Isbell too, and it wasn’t’t her best ever performance, but the venues and more the the point the audiences were not exactly part of her milieu.
Stitch Of The World is a very decent effort. Off the top of my head both My Boat and Icarus are excellent additions to her canon.
Gift supporting Jason Isbell was very good on the acoustic guitar and piano numbers but by God when she strapped on that electric guitar she was awful. She can’t play the bloody thing for a start and it was a real fingernails down the blackboard moment. the worse thing is she did two numbers with it,
Agree on that Father John Misty album – absolute dogshit and the guy is a fucking idiot in love with his own voice.
Gift? You`ve got Xmas prezzies on yer mind, you daft old coot!
Fleet foxes and paul weller
Oh yes, forgot Paul Weller. It was shit. Sold it on ebay for more than I paid for it. Cheers Paul.
Oh…I really like it!
Me too.
And another.
Starts a bit like Saturn’s Pattern part 2 and then goes off somewhere else again.
Paul Weller, nowt wrong wii it.
Agree Father John Misty – I tried, really I did. But can’t get past the pretentious Billy Joel-ish-ness of it all (maybe I’m not listening properly).
Also nominated:
Elbow – Litle Fictions.
Is the first Little Fiction that this album is any good?
Over-wrought, over-produced and just a bit bland
(again, are my ears knackerd?)
The writing was on the wall for Elbow that they were due a clunker.
All Elbow songs are clunkers for me, but this year I finally realised why. It’s Guy Garvey’s voice. It was the single with John Grant that made me realise – the song sounded like the usual dull Elbow dirge when Guy was singing. When John took over, it absolutely soared.
I really wanted to dislike the Father John Misty album, based on the tiresome self-regard and oh-so-fashionable world weariness of its author, but I actually quite like it, and it still gets played fairly often. There are some decent songs in there if you can set aside Josh Tillman’s terminal bellendery.
I’ll go out on a limb and say that Jason Isbell’s latest is not as good as its predecessors. The last 2 were very very good , South Eastern staggeringly so, so it’s a high bar that has been set. But nonetheless I don’t play the newbie much.
War On Drugs has underwhelmed me especially as they have taken quite a while for a follow up. I will persist as I’m seeing them next year but at the moment I’m unenthused.
No, you say what I thought and said at his good but nowt special show, a month or so back. The latest album ain’t a patch on the last 2. Still better than many other contestants, but that ain’t the point. Likewise the latest Tift Merrit is no Tambourine.
Let’s go on: Phoebe Bridgers? Great first track and then it palls. Similarly Nerina Pallot, becoming actually quite annoying hotel lobby fare. Ruthie Foster? Nah, lost it in the long wait. OMITD? Did they ever have more than 2 or 3 per album? Coldcut and On-U Sound? Dare I say dull?
I was very disappointed with the Isbell album, I can’t quite say why, it just doesn’t do it for me, it feels a bit whiny.
I was also underwhelmed by the War On Drugs at first. It grew on me but I kept wanting to play Lost In The Dream, then I saw them live and everything changed. After the gig I played the album constantly and it was like it was a different record. It’s now my no1 album of the year.
I’m hoping I have a similar epiphany @Lemonhope
‘Course it’s early days and I may revise these opinions in the future, but….
Two that are getting a lot of love on here: Saint Etienne and Pugwash – I suppose they are disappointing to me in that – like latterday Woody Allen – they’re not doing the sort of thing I like them for.
And another: Public Service Broadcasting. The good bits are fab but I’m not keen on the guest vocals. Also thought the likes of Darren Hayman’s Flixborough beat them at their own game.
Binary Star: it’s a decent record, but – like Cannibal Ox before them – they set the bar at a giddy height with their debut, then the excitement of a follow up we never thought we’d see was followed by an okay second album.
Black Grape: hard to be genuinely disappointed when the whole concept of putting Shaun Ryder in a studio and expecting genius might be compared to trying to capture lightning in a bottle, yet it’s already yielded at least two masterworks. Also, I thought the single very promising. (In the late Summer we were “partying like it’s 1995” again: a widely praised Goldie album, Tricky back with Martina Topley Bird and an AW Dubstar love-in.)
I get what you’re saying, as Masters of the Universe and The Cold Vein are two of my favourite albums, but I just like Waterworld 3 for what it is. We’d have been fools to even expect a new record to match up. Then again, I wasn’t expecting Brother Ali to come up with an album to match up to Shadows On the Sun, but I reckon he’s managed it.
For me, the biggest hip hop disappointment of the year is Eminem. There are others that have brought out worse albums, but I wasn’t necessarily expecting masterworks from them, but I couldn’t see why Eminem would be back unless he had something great to offer. The signs were there though, as soon as I saw feat. Ed Sheeran on the tracklist!
The Church of course. And I hate saying that. Haven’t been able to go back to it since 4 or 5 plays on release. And the teaser first single was ok!
Really? Yours is the only negative comment I’ve seen. I think it’s fine, although after about 20 plays I could only sing one tune, Undersea, which I don’t care for much.
@neil-jung
That’s the problem, I can’t remember any of the tunes. No hooks, no riffs.
This year’s release by The National has joined the ‘unlikely to ever be played again’ pile. Am I missing something? The War On Drugs is almost as underwhelming.
I like The National. War On Drugs sounds like outtakes from the last one. Still like it though!
That St Vincent album that everybody thinks is so fucking brilliant.
I tried… it’s alright…. But seriously…. what?
Yeah agreed, it’s alright. The singles were fab but across an album it gets a bit meh
Agreed. I tried, but maybe no surprise as none of her others have really grabbed me. She’s a bit image over content for me.
As elsewhere, LCD Soundsystem. I love a bit of Talking Heads but LCD will always be a one-record band to me – and that record is the Sound of Silver.
The biggest “What The #*%? Happened??” moment for me was the new Tori Amos album…
But a long list of disappointments besides that one:
Thundercat, Offa Rex, QOTSA, The National, Everything Everything, Ariel Pink, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Micah P Hinson, John Murry, Iron & Wine, The New Pornographers, Depeche Mode, Valerie June, Ryan Adams, The xx, Father John Misty, Mariam The Believer.
I’m not saying that I dislike all of these albums, they just wasn’t what I expected and wanted from the artists (all favourites of mine previously). A few of these are by artists that can take some time to get into at times, so I could still change my mind and end up loving them (but I’m now not very keen to put in the work necessary to get there…)
I’m starting to think QOTSA’s brief run of greatness was a fluke. Songs For The Deaf is an actual classic, but before and since, the pickings are really pretty slim when you think about it.
Rated R was brilliant too I think. But those two are all you need. Rifftastic!
Rated R is great, this is true.
Essentially Mark Lanegan was the best thing about QOTSA, we’re saying.
(Tho the drumming on SftD might be the best rock playing I’ve ever heard.)
Mark Lanegan tends to be the best thing in anything he’s in, except when he’s with Greg Dulli.
The self titled first album is great as well, but totally agree that they’ve never matched Songs For The Deaf, and not sure that they will.
There’s a great playlist to be made from some key individual tracks on all of the later albums though
Am I the only one who likes the Feist album? Haven’t done my top ten yet but it’ll be in there. I’d argue PJ Harvey is significantly less good at being PJ Harvey these days, so I’m pretty happy for Feist to have a go!
I haven’t heard the Feist album but you’re dead right about Peej. She’s been disappointing for a while now, and that’s without taking into account her tiresome Assange apologism.
Nope, I like it too.
The Fall — New Facts Emerge
Obviously they’ve been on a downward curve for the last few years, but Mark’s wife, Eleni, leaving him seems to be the final nail in the coffin for The Fall. This is abysmal.
Michael Mayer — DJ Kicks
Mayer is very much the DJ’s DJ, and his two Immer mixes regularly top the polls and best-of lists. This one? Meh.
Perc — Bitter Music
Actress — AZD
Andrew Weatherall — Qualia
Three usually reliable names. Three indifferent, tired-sounding albums.
Morrissey — Low In High School
Of course.
New Facts Emerge abysmal? Oi, you! Outside now!
It is though. You know in your brain.
Luckily my brain rarely gets involved with Fall albums. I preferred it to the one before, bar that coda thing.
LCD Soundsystem. All their previous records thrilled me one way or another. The latest is quite ordinary.
Burial. It’s a loooong time since his last album but he releases a ‘single’ every year. This year’s offering consists of two longish tracks of atmospherics. Usually, Burial atmospherics are very special. Not, this year.
I agree that it is ordinary @Tiggerlion but from memory Uncut,Mojo,Resident and Rough Trade all named it their album of the year. Are they hearing something we are not?
Yes, they are, it’s called the fleeting realisation they aren’t as credible as they think, so a desperate last shout with what they think must prove they are. For which epithet I would include James Murphy.
The aggregate album of the year puts it at number four from 108 publications.
http://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/summary/2017/
I can understand Lorde and Vince Staples being in the top ten, even though they aren’t my cup of tea. The other one I hoped I’d like more than I do is St. Vincent. Like Moose, I haven’t been able to get to grips with it yet.
Similar results from ADM
http://www.anydecentmusic.com/articles/poll-of-polls-2017.aspx
Wads of cash from Sony, I suspect. Or “marketing support’ to be generous. Those best of the year booklets don’t print themselves, you know.
For the record, it’s a decent album, but it’d be better if all those six and seven minute songs were three or four minutes
thats my view on it too Kid – not a bad album but far too long.
Aye, sorry to say ( which is why it is a disappointment), but it seemed musically and lyrically much less exciting than the reviews made out.
I’m glad it’s not just me then. Every time I listen to the LCD Soundsystem album I am expecting it to sound different and that its greatness will reveal itself but I always feel a little underwhelmed by it. It’s okay, but I just can’t fathom why it appears so high on all those lists.
Fleet Foxes was a big let down. Mumbling? Why is he mumbling? We want tunes. And singing!
Love the Fleet Foxes record – might have helped that I was off my box when I first played it. And played it. And played it
The Waterboys – Out of All This Blue. Just dreadful. A Mike Scott vanity project masquerading as a Waterboys album. Should have chucked at least half the songs in the bin before they ever got near a recording studio and dumped the drum machine at the same time. I’ve tried hard to not dismiss it too easily and give it time to grow on me but I just end up disliking it more.
I agree. I am a long time fan (since 1984!) but this was the first album I have disliked.
3-4 good/average tunes and nothing else.
You are right there. It has two or three songs up there with his best however it has about a dozen songs over the 3 discs that are just about the worst things he has ever done. I don’t need to hear songs by Mike Scott about his love life that are embarrassing and are that personal that they should only be heard by the person he is writing about.
After Modern Blues this is a big fall from grace.
Two for me, apologies if they’ve been mentioned already and I’ve missed it;
– The Roger Waters album – I was thrilled to see him back in action again. And he seems to have lost none of his bite. But the album was pretty dull. I only gave it a couple of listens then forgot about it.
– Kendrick Lamar – This was the year I finally gave this guy a chance and listened to him with an open mind. Nothing. Can someone please explain his appeal? Is it just a trendy thing that will die out in a couple of years?
For me, Lamar’s distinguishing characteristic is his honesty. He displays himself as a flawed human being, just like everyone else. He is a black man struggling to exist in 21st century America. He freely acknowledges he has made mistakes and has been involved in unsavoury activities and he does so without bravado.
His first album documents his coming of age, surviving in the gang infested environment of Compton, trying to assuage his mother’s worries. He reveals his fears, his meagre hopes and dreams. His second is musically spectacular but at the centre is a conflicted man, finding it difficult to cope with his guilt. Neither of these albums are conventional Rap. They certainly aren’t Gangsta.
At first, I was disappointed with DAMN. Sonically, it is standard Rap Music. Even Rihanna makes an appearance. However, the words started to sink in and, now, I’m hooked. He lets his thoughts wander. He frets, he fusses. He is uncertain, a displaced, disconnected individual in a bewildering world. Then, the music comes alive.
My favourite albums all create their own little world and are intensely personal. DAMN. is set in a world I cannot possibly relate to as a white, British man but the individual that is revealed within the album is one I can empathise with completely. I love it and I love Lamar. I believe his work will be highly regarded for many decades to come.
He’s certainly flawed, I’ll give you that!
Maybe my mistake is not listening to the lyrics. But then I rarely do. Pop music lyrics should be catchy and should grab you in a superficial sense. From what you’ve described, Lamar maybe just sounds a bit too …. clever for me.
I don’t listen to lyrics very often either. Lamar does not work in the field of Pop where catchiness is compulsory. He raps. The closest you get to catchiness in Rap is a sloganeering hook. Rap is essentially a stream of words connected to a beat. Lamar’s words are sensitive, humane, poetic even. On his debut, the music is remarkable for its pauses. On Butterfly, it is wild and adventurous. On DAMN. it completes his world.
I tell you what. Give DAMN. another try. This time, play the tracks in reverse order. Start with DUCKWORTH. and end with BLOOD. It’s a whole new experience.
Oh wait, let me clarify. I don’t hate rap. I like catchy hip hop – I suppose you might say I like the kind of hip hop a white man likes! Beasties, Jurassic 5, De La Soul, Run DMC, Jungle Brothers.
“the kind of hip hop a white man likes” – I like that! And finally someone else who likes the Jungle Brothers!
Also… the kind of reggae a white man likes – heavy dub.
PS. There’s a song on that album dedicated to Corrie legend Jack Duckworth? The mind boggles!
Re: “the kind of reggae a white man likes – heavy dub.”
Well, you could be right there, Moosey. Because I’m a white man, and I like heavy dub.
Doesn’t everyone like The Jungle Brothers.
Pains me to admit it but after 10 months or so I have mentally filed Depeche Mode’s Spirit alongside 2013’s Delta Machine as a record I will only come back to occasionally. The third single, Cover Me, is them at their very best, which elevates it beyond anything on Delta Machine. This is the Last Time, You Move and The Worst Crime are also wonderful in their own ways. Going Backwards is built on one riff and Where’s the Revolution is probably fantastic live and they have a groove but the melodies are not there.
Better than Delta Machine and most of 2009’s Sounds of the Universe – so not a total disaster by any means.
Come back Alan, all is forgiven…
Father John Misty, 2 good albums then one that bores the wax out of your ears.
Aecade Fire? They`ve not made a decent album since `Funeral`, rather aptly named come to think of it.
I can`t think of any others because if I think they are shite then I don`t buy them, therefore I can`t comment. The 2 above? FJM – I heard/read negative comments prior to release, so I listened before buying. If FJM continues on his present trajectory he`s in danger of disappearing up his own arse.
Arcade Fire – I`ve been more and more disappointed with every album since `Funeral`. The last album I bought was `The Suburbs`, never play it now along with `Neon Bible`.
Fleet Foxes have taken a battering for the new album. I`ve found that it has really grown on me after several listens.