Taste is such a subjective thing, but there are certain artists who just continue to amazingly have absolutely no sense of it. Whether we’re talking about gaudy or confusing choices of collaboration partners, baffling production or arrangement decisions, terrible album art and presentation, or some other ineffable quality that just screams “wtf?!”, I think we all know our favorite artists that manage to have no taste.
My #1 with a bullet is Leonard Cohen. Man writes amazing songs and has endured for 40+ years, but most of his studio recordings are embarrassingly dated due to the use of completely “of the era” production and arrangement techniques that sounded dated the day the records came out. The eighties stuff is particularly egregious, sounding like bad Miami Vice porno-funk even as he was writing some of his greatest songs. His nineties and more recent stuff is terrible in a similarly tasteless way that strived to sound contemporary but landed just south of John Tesh.
A close second, at least for my taste, is Billy Corgan. Guy writes amazing songs and knows how to be an epic rock icon, but whenever he tries to stretch out he just does it slightly wrong. He’ll get a great idea, but then reveal his complete lack of taste in executing that idea. Take the Pumpkins in an electronic direction? Great idea! How does Corgan do it? By bringing in a guy from a D-list eighties industrial band to help out! CORGAN YOUR DOING IT WRONG
I could go on all night with that guy…the band’s whole haute couture makeover thing…the egregious later Pro Tools album…the disastrous solo career that involved bringing a porn star into the backing band…the paris hilton video…ugh
Speaking even as one who won’t go a day without spinning one of many Ryan Adams records, the man just needs some quality control. He’s got great ideas, the potential to be a great songwriter, and an incredibly versatile voice, but he just can’t quite pull it together.
I read an interview once where he described his style as a musician as more “sketch artist” than perfectionist, so that might be part of the problem.
I know I don’t have much of a leg to stand on here yet I love her so dearly that I feel I must defend the late Ms. Carpenter to some extent. While it’s true that most of the “Carpenters” songs were pop tunes that didn’t allow for Karen’s breadth, she died while still very young. I honestly believe that if she’d lived and had she found the right producer, we’d be hearing some entirely different and remarkable things. And I do think she’d have dumped Richard eventually and found the right producer.
If you really want to hear what Karen could do, listen to her rendition of “I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day.” Sends chills up my spine.
Eric Clapton. He would have made some blues singer a talented sideman, but he can’t front an act to save himself: his bland solo stuff makes elevator music sound like Throbbing Gristle.
Elton John. Well, the last 20 years, not the first 20.
Mariah Carey. She can sing, I don’t think anyone can argue that; she needs someone to pick songs for her, and she needs someone to electrically shock her when she starts to oversing something.
I wouldn’t have been quite this harsh, but when I saw the thread title I opened it up with the intention of naming Leonard Cohen.
In Cohen’s case I believe it’s not so much a lack of personal taste as a willingness to leave a lot of things up to the producer. For the '80s stuff I find it helps to think of the keyboards as being ironic, whether or not they were intended that way at the time.
One of mine, Karen Carpenter, was already mentioned. Don’t get me wrong, I still listen to her. Her voice is like a fuzzy blankie. But some of those songs. Urg.
My other is along the same lines. Great voice, no musical taste after leaving his partnership. It’s… Art Garfunkel.
This is exactly how I have always described Doris Day and Karen Carpenter, two of the greatest voices of the century, with two of the most dismally embarrassing songbooks (with notable exceptions, of course).
You may be right, but as much as I admire Karen Carpenter, all we have to go on is her discography, which includes both amazing work and totally disposable pap.
I nominate Dolly Parton. Her early work, such as Jolene, I Will Always Love You annd My Tennessee Mountain Home (all of which she wrote) can move you to tears. Her later, pop-oriented stuff can move you to tears for opposite reasons. Now that she’s aging out of pop territory she seems to be moving back to her roots.
I read somewhere that Paul always did need John around to tell him which of the songs he was writing were good, and which ones were crap. Dunno about that, but his albums often seem to be a bizarre mix of good and … embarrassing.
Seconded. Several years ago, “You Look Beautiful Tonight” was being heavily played on the radio, but only in ads and promotions for a cell phone provider. “From God to Shill” was the phrase that sprung to my mind.
