Sorry if the title is a little strange, but I couldn’t think of another without making it too long.
There have been some threads asking about songs a singer or group did, that was better than their singles or hits that were played on the radio. But what about the opposite? What about albums you bought because of what you heard on the radio, only to find out that the rest of the songs, suck?
My wife recently got the System of a Down album Toxicity because she liked their sound, especially their harmonizing. Turns out the rest of the album isn’t like that ( I haven’t listened to it myself), and she didn’t like it.
As for me, after enjoying singles put out by Filter I finally (after 5 years or so) got Title Of Record. Talk about disappointed, to me (yeah, it’s all a matter of opinion) all the songs that weren’t released as singles, sucked.
Before that, that last time I experienced that kind of disappointment was when I bought Howard Jones Cross that Line because I liked The Prisoner and Everlasting Love. Not only did I not like all the other songs, but when I looked on the credits, those first two songs were written by somebody else. I liked those songs, and hated all the ones written by him.
So, anyway, what albums disappointed you because it turned out that you only liked the singles?
Very few, because usually either I listen to the entire album before I buy it (thanks to used CD stores that let you do that,) or I cannot find access to the entire album, and prepare myself that the rest of the songs might not live up to the quality of the single. And a lot of times that I do buy the album without listening to it beforehand, my suspicions are confirmed, even though I restrict myself to songs that are so amazing that the rest of the artists’ songs are probably good.
But the only time I can remember being truly disappointed at this was when I got “In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3” by Coheed & Cambria, based solely on the strength of “A Favour House Atlantic”. The single sounds as close to Rush as I’ve ever heard a band, and as Rush rarely totally ruins a song, I figured they can’t either. Well, I quickly pulled off Favour House Atlantic to my Mix CDs and shelved the rest of the album (although I’ve been playing it a bit more since it’s grown on me.)
But I’ll throw in a bonus, even though I didn’t buy the CD. I found Nada Surf’s CD with “Popular” on it in a used CD store, and as people told me their other stuff sounds totally different from that one single, I put it into the player for a whirl. Well, the people were right. “Popular” is totally different from the other stuff on the album in that on Popular, you can actually hear the singer. The rest of the tracks, I’m not a professional studioman, but I mix tracks better than that. You could barely hear that there was singing let alone what the lyrics were. There’s an offhand chance it was the speakers in the store player, but the other CDs I had to listen to were fine.
Word on System of a Down. I was hypnotized by “Aerials”, and tried for months to find out who the artists were. Finally someone told me SoaD was responsible, so I went and bought Toxicity. Man, was I disappointed. “Aerials” is definitely an unusual song for their sound, and unfortunately I don’t like their regular sound.
With regard to System and Aerials… they usually have one or two songs on each CD that have a slow, haunting melody to them… and then the rest of the CD is pretty much all heavy anti-establishment rock. If you get a free iTunes song or something, you might want to try out Spiders, from their self-titled album, and Roulette, from their newer CD, “Steal This Album”.
As for the OP… I haven’t got hit with a CD like that in a long time. I’ve gotten pretty lucky, actually. I can definitely remember back in 6th or 8th grade when I still listened to pop music, getting screwed like that a lot, a very significant portion of the CDs I bought. Can’t really remember any of the specifics, though.
I collect old records, so I could list quite a few. But here are a couple off the top of my head:
Steam had a hit in 1969 with “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.” Once, I found their only album in a thrift store, so I picked it up. Most of the other songs on it are a not-so-subtle rewrite of the hit, and feature some variation on the “na na hey hey” chant. A total waste of vinyl!
I’ve liked a Godley & Creme track called “Snack Attack” since I first heard it, but I was never able to find the album it was on. About a month ago, I got a Japanese CD pressing of the album, “Ismism”. I have high regard for G&C; they were masters of the studio with inventive production skills to spare. But every other song on this CD made me want to throw up!
Flock of Seagulls: I ran. Love it. Everything else. Meh.
Most recent multitrack single I bought was Greenskeepers Pleetch which I got because I really liked Lotion. I have already rid myself of the CD in exchange for something better.
Well, I bought sara evans “no place that far” disk because I wanted the title track and ‘the crying game’, which had been released as a radio single too. For the longest time I’d decided that the rest of the album wasn’t much good, even the later single (IIIRC) ‘fool I’m a woman’, which I’d had high hopes for when I’d heard that Sara had gotten the rights to a Matraca Berg tune. (I’m a big MB fan.)
Just recently, years after buying the CD, I’ve realized that ‘time won’t tell’ is also a good song. Still disappointed by the album in general, though her next releases “born to fly” and “restless” made up for it. 
I bought a **Prodigy ** album for Smack My Bitch Up. Everything else on it makes my head hurt.
Doesn’t it suck when the single promises much more talent than the album delivers?
Off the top of my head:
The Secret Machines. Now Here is Nowhere for “Nowhere Again,” and the rest sucks.
Len. Can’t Stop the Bum Rush For “Steal My Sunshine”
The Owls. Our Hopes and Dreams For “Air.”
Beatles 1
I liked Hell (I was listening to The Swingin’ Years on NPR for a long time before The Squirrel Nut Zippers released that song) so I bought the CD. I didn’t like the rest of the album as much.
I’m sure there are others, but this is the first one that came to mind.
I hate that. Especially with the prices of CDs being what they are. I have a slew of CDs and albums like this. The real problem is that , for the most part, what you hear on the radio is the song culled to be a hit with general audiences. Most fans think that that song on the radio is bad because they know it is not like the other songs in the discography.
I loved “This Love” by Maroon 5. The album did not quite suck but no other song quite got me like that one. I was disappointed. Especially noteworthy is Evanescence’s album “Fallen”. Literally one song on the albums worth anything.
One of the big benefits of being an underground music fan is that there’s really no concept of a “single”–bands stand or fall on the overall strength of their albums, not on how many people will buy an album for one or two songs. So I really can’t even remember the last time this happened to me. Sure, there’ve been some wildly inconsistent albums, but that’s different, isn’t it?
What ultrafilter said. In addition to there being no singles, the albums are typically 50-60 minutes long instead of this 35-40 minutes I see on a lot of mainstream albums.
Funny you should say that, 'cause there are only one or two songs on that that would merit me buying that album. The rest, if I didn’t know what to expect, would cause me to be disappointed.
Which leads me to buy Beatles albums for the singles and get disappointed on occasion – just the singles that aren’t on any compilation. Wouldn’t you think that there’d be a compilation with the B-Singles as well as the #1’s, instead of the same rehashing of the biggest 20 hits?
Ludovic, there is a singles compilation called Past Masters Volumes 1 & 2. These discs will give you the A- and B-sides, tracks that were only issued on EP and some other non-LP rarities as well.
Well, I included Past Masters in this assessment: I may even have it somewhere as a hand-me-down, but I rarely listen to it. It doesn’t have:
Eleanor Rigby
Come Together
Nowhere Man
Got to Get You Into my Life
Strawberry Fields Forever
… and that only includes songs I heard all the time on the radio growing up. The list of popular and good songs that get played a lot now would add a lot more too. (F’rinstance, I never heard I Am the Walrus or stuff off of Sgt Pepper growing up but I hear A Day in the Life as much on the radio as I hear other late/middle Beatles songs, these days.)
On the other hand, Past Masters does have Across the Universe on it, so it’s not all bad. That’s about the only song on the compilation that could actually carry an album IMO. I’d be disappointed in the rest.
Wel, the only other options you have are 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, or to buy The Singles Collection box set (mucho $$$).
We Beatles collectors have no idea why they haven’t put out a more comprehensive collection. Nobody is truly happy with any of them, because there is so much they must leave out. Apple does what it does, when it does, for reasons known only to Neil Aspinall.
Queens of the Stone Age had a single a few years ago that I just loved. Album… not so much.