# Favorite Band: Best/Worst Albums **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 26, 2005, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471 "2005-09-26T09:49:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Innuendo\_Hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Innuendo\_Hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Innuendo_Hunter)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471/41 "2005-09-27T18:02:50Z")
**Prince** Best: _Sign O’ The Times_ Worst: _Chaos & Disorder_ ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471/42 "2005-09-27T18:28:39Z")
> [@Audrey Levins](#): > > The Beatles: > > Best: So hard to tell b/c there are so many. 😃 _Please Please Me_ is just as good as _Abbey Road_ depending on your mood. > > Worst: _Yellow Submarine._ Agreed and agreed. Discounting Yellow Submarine (only 4 new songs), I would say that “Let It Be” is the worst. Lennon was in a slump, and his two good songs “Don’t Let Me Down” and “Across The Universe” were never given a serious production attempt. In fact, the original LIB omitted DLMD and included the Phil Spector versions of the song LIB and “The Long And Winding Road” with full orchestra and heavenly choir. The best is the White Album. ---
**Author:** ![Indyellen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/indyellen/32/4176_2.png) [@Indyellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indyellen)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471/43 "2005-09-27T18:41:39Z")
**Styx** Best: _Paradise Theater_ (I think it’s the most balanced of all the albums between the pop & rock sides of the group.) Worst: _Cornerstone_ (It was hard to pick one…and I haven’t heard a lot of the more recent stuff so I can’t speak to it. A lot of people might say _Kilroy_ is the worst, but I have a special fondness in my heart for it.) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471/44 "2005-09-27T19:02:38Z")
> [@Indyellen](#): > > **Styx** > > Best: _Paradise Theater_ (I think it’s the most balanced of all the albums between the pop & rock sides of the group.) > > Worst: _Cornerstone_ (It was hard to pick one…and I haven’t heard a lot of the more recent stuff so I can’t speak to it. A lot of people might say _Kilroy_ is the worst, but I have a special fondness in my heart for it.) For whatever reasons, critics never liked Styx. One reviewer said that Paradise Theater was a concept album without a concept while Kilroy Was Here was a concept album with too much concept! ---
**Author:** ![marque\_elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71c47a/32.png) [@marque\_elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marque_elf)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471/45 "2005-09-27T22:44:49Z")
[QUOTE=Art Vandelay, Architect] **Grateful Dead** best: Skullfuck (1971 LP - officially titled ‘Grateful Dead’) worst: Shakedown Street While I would have picked either _American Be_auty or _Workingman’s Dead_ as the dead’s best albums, I can’t really argue to hard with your choice of _Skull Fuck_. I am totally mystified by your choice of \*Shakedown Street \* as their worst. The Dead were almost never at their best in the studio but S.S. is an epic compared to the travesty that is _Go To Heaven_. Even the cover art is wretched. ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471/46 "2005-09-27T23:50:31Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > Best: _Under The Table And Dreaming_ > Worst: _Before These Crowded Streets_ > > I do confess to not having heard the newst album _Stand Up_ all the way through … I think _Stand Up_ may take the “Worst” title. I only listened to it once and realized, “this must be what all those people hear when they complain about the Dave Matthews Band.” **The Pogues** Best: If I Should Fall From Grace With God Worst: Poguemahone **Pixies** Best: Surfer Rosa Worst: Trompe le Monde **Art of Noise** Best: In No Sense? Nonsense! Worst: Below the Waist ---
**Author:** ![Ass\_For\_A\_Hat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Ass\_For\_A\_Hat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ass_For_A_Hat)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471/47 "2005-09-28T01:06:15Z")
No one’s taken on **The Rolling Stones** yet, eh? Leaving the live albums aside… Best: _Beggars Banquet_ Worst: _Dirty Work_ **The Beatles** : Best: _Revolver_ Worst: _Let It Be_ **The Replacements** Best: _Let It Be_ Worst: _Don’t Tell A Soul_ ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471/48 "2005-09-28T02:34:35Z")
**The Kinks** : Leaving aside compilations and live albums… Best: I’m gonna go with _Arthur, or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire_. But if you wanted to argue for _Village Green Preservation Society_ or _Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround_ I wouldn’t think you were nuts. Worst: One of the early ones, with “Bald Headed Woman” and such filler. Of the later ones, I’d go with the studio half of _Everybody’s In Showbiz_. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471/49 "2005-09-28T03:42:21Z")
> [@VCO3](#): > > That’s funny, because “Up” is one of my favorite albums by the band. It really sounds like the type of record that they’d wanted to make for years but were still doing tpp well commercially to have the guts to do. And even at “Up’s” tickiest and droniest and weirdest, they still pretty much pandered with the single, “Daysleeper,” a nonthreatening pastiche of every R.E.M. single since '91. > > This is not an angry or defensive challenge, but a curious one - what do you mean by the comment about the drum machines? Could you clarify what you mean by the statement? I thought the use of super-primitive drum machines, farfisa organ, vibraphones, and other _very_ un-R.E.M. sounds really made that record. This might have been the album they had always wanted to make … years later. But the unexpected loss of Bill Berry pushed that timetable up. It doesn’t sound to me like they were ready to tackle electronica yet. They didn’t sound comfortable with the drum machines and sequencers and whatever else they were using. It appears that you found their lack of comfort and/or experience a positive thing, that it inspired them to create interesting music. That’s fine. I like _Reveal_ better because they were already an album into their new style. I mean, I don’t have much interest in electronica at all, but I think _Reveal_ is a decent little album. ---
**Author:** ![Pizzirusso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Pizzirusso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pizzirusso)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471/50 "2005-09-28T05:17:42Z")
Bob Dylan Best – Blood on the Tracks, Blonde on Blond Worst – Dylan [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:rmfozfgheh5k](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:rmfozfgheh5k) ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471/51 "2005-09-28T05:55:12Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > the Police > best: Reggett de Blanc > worst: Synchronicity (Sting at the full-flowering of his “I am the most brillliant songwriter of all time!” egomania) **Art,** I came to post a Police one as well: best: Reggatta de Blanc worst: probably Outlandos D’Amour. Very difficult decision - the worst Police record is better than 90% of the albums out there. But “Hole In My Life” and “Masoko Tango” are clunkers. In truth, however, I listen to Synchronicity the least… so maybe you’re right… **The Smiths** best: Meat Is Murder worst: Strangeways, Here We Come. Again, we’re comparing relative perfection here. I could do without most of side 2 of this album. **R.E.M.** best: Reckoning worst: Up. In fairness I’ve only listened to this once all the way through. **INXS** best: Welcome To Wherever You Are worst: X **XTC** best: Black Sea worst: Go2 ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471/52 "2005-09-28T10:55:49Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > **The Kinks** > Worst: One of the early ones, with “Bald Headed Woman” and such filler. Of the later ones, I’d go with the studio half of _Everybody’s In Showbiz_. What, the disc with “Sitting in My Hotel” and “Celluloid Heroes”? Blasphemy! ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471/53 "2005-09-28T13:40:12Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > What, the disc with “Sitting in My Hotel” and “Celluloid Heroes”? Blasphemy! Okay, point taken. I had forgotten those were on there. Thing is, I acquired _Everybody’s in Showbiz_ only after I had their “Best Of” collection that covered that era, so I already had those two songs and I was (perhaps unconcsciously) judging _Showbiz_ based only on its “new” songs that I didn’t have yet. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2005, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471/54 "2005-09-28T13:45:45Z")
**Radiohead** Best: OK Computer Worst: Pablo Honey (Though I do like more than a lot of people) \*\* Weezer\*\* Best: Pinkerton Worst: Make Believe [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-band-best-worst-albums/323471.md?page=2)