This is a pre-spinoff of the thread : Albums with all good songs
If you haven’t guessed by the subject, these are albums that almost had every song perfect, but there’s just one that’s really bad; if you have it on CD, you might program it out. Often these are tracks tacked on the end that one can tell were somehow forced on to satisfy someone’s ego.
Here’s my list, with the artist - album - most offending song :
Jane’s Addiction - Nothing’s Shocking - Pigs In Zen.
You almost get to the end of the album, then “Thank You Boys” comes on and leads into this disappointment.
Offspring - Smash - Killboy Powerhead
In some moods, I can tolerate it; most of the time I can’t.
U2 - The B-Sides - Smash, Trash, and Party Girl
Although a compilation, it’s sort of a specialized one, and this track did not deserve to be snuck in.
The Cars - The Cars - Don’t Cha Stop
There’re only three songs on this album that wouldn’t be considered classic Cars; this is the worst one of those.
Guns N’ Roses - Use Your Illusion II - My World
The most obvious and worst example of ego abusing an album. I actually erased this on the cassette tape I bought.
Jam & Spoon - tripomatic fairytales 2001
The best non-compilation techno album I’ve ever heard. It gets a little weak in the middle though; I tend to tune out so I can never remember if it’s track 10 or 11 that sucks.
Simon & Garfunkel seem to have had a contractual obligation to produce one crappy, elevator music song on an otherwise great album. On Bridge Over Troubled Water it was “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright.” On Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme it was “Cloudy”.
Bob Seger (& the SBB) - Fire Inside - Which Way
A bad song lost on a really good album.
Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World - Diddley Daddy
Yet another end-of-the-album disappointment.
Tom Petty (& the Heartbreakers) - Into The Great Wide Open - All or Nothin’
The album’s still excellent, I just can’t listen to lyrics like “Your daddy was/ a sergeant major/You didn’t wanna/but he made ya/wipe his brass…”
Tom Petty - “wildflowers” - tie between “Honey Bee” and “Cabin Down Below”
still my favorite Tom Petty album, though.
I think I find this topic more interesting - so close to perfection, yet a step towards failure anyway. Other examples, anyone?