# Great albums ruined by one bad song **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [April 28, 2023, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-albums-ruined-by-one-bad-song/983329 "2023-04-28T23:08:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-albums-ruined-by-one-bad-song/983329/81 "2023-05-04T06:20:45Z")
I’m a huge fan of prog-Genesis, but pretty inept with my pop-Genesis knowledge. So, I took Who Dunnit for a spin. It is terrible, indeed. It’s not really a song but a simple musical idea that could have turned into a song with plenty of extra work. It feels like a studio exercise that only ended up on the album because they desperately needed something, anything. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-albums-ruined-by-one-bad-song/983329/82 "2023-05-04T08:03:15Z")
“Wuz it you or wuz it me…” ---
**Author:** ![NinthAcolyte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ninthacolyte/32/13676_2.png) [@NinthAcolyte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinthAcolyte)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-albums-ruined-by-one-bad-song/983329/83 "2023-05-04T13:05:04Z")
It’s not _Radio Song,_ is it…? 😬 My favorite REM track is probably _So. Central Rain,_ but _Harborcoat, Texarkana, Pretty Persuasion,_ and _Half A World Away_ are all such strong contenders that the decision is virtually meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-albums-ruined-by-one-bad-song/983329/84 "2023-05-04T16:50:47Z")
“I Hope I Didn’t Just Give Away the Ending” New Radicals. It’s rare for a song to ruin an album. A lot of times if a band does a song that’s really experimental or a break from their signature sound, they’ll tuck it at the end of the album where it doesn’t ruin the flow of everything else. But “I Hope I Didn’t Just Give Away the Ending” was track 3, which was such a horrible spot for it. Track #1 was the energetic, poppy opener, track #2 was the hit track, and just when you’re hitting your groove, you hit the 6:36 garbage that is track #3. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-albums-ruined-by-one-bad-song/983329/85 "2023-05-04T19:13:54Z")
The UK version of The Rollings Stones’ **Aftermath** is hands down my favorite Stones album. But there is no valid reason that _Goin’ Home_ should have been over 11 1/2 minutes. Fade out at 3:45 and the album is perfect. It’s not like they couldn’t jam (I absolutely love the jam part of _Can’t You Hear Me Knocking_ ), but _Goin’ Home_ is just tedious and uninspired. > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > “Last of the Steam-Powered Trains” kind of breaks up the flow of _The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society_. It’s a perfectly good song, but it’s a jam where everything else on the album is a concise pop composition; and it runs for over 4 minutes and seems even longer I’d say the same about their next album **Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)**. The Kinks were many things, but a good blues jam band was not one of them. “Australia” just drags on and on for almost 7 minutes. I can sort of hear how the first half would have fit into the never-produced TV film that was supposed to accompany the album, but the second half just drags. ---
**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:** [May 4, 2023, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-albums-ruined-by-one-bad-song/983329/86 "2023-05-04T19:15:38Z")
Yeah, I don’t disagree. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-albums-ruined-by-one-bad-song/983329/87 "2023-05-04T19:31:01Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > The UK version of The Rollings Stones’ **Aftermath** is hands down my favorite Stones album. But there is no valid reason that _Goin’ Home_ should have been over 11 1/2 minutes. Fade out at 3:45 and the album is perfect. It’s not like they couldn’t jam (I absolutely love the jam part of _Can’t You Hear Me Knocking_ ), but _Goin’ Home_ is just tedious and uninspired. That’s a good one! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-albums-ruined-by-one-bad-song/983329.md?page=4)