# The Worst Album By A Band U like **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [September 20, 2020, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058 "2020-09-20T03:58:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/121 "2021-05-11T23:36:19Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > @BlankSlate I never even heard that album, because Reveal turned me off R.E.M. so much. I stopped with Up šŸ˜ƒ. Just about everyone is on the same general page though - somewhere post-Bill Berry it stops working. Though as Iā€™ve argued before I donā€™t think it is entirely because of the loss of Berry. > [@veryfrank](#): > > It kind of reminded me of Fables of the Reconstruction, my least favorite I.R.S.-era album, which had the same problem. Iā€™m another one that is a fan of that album. Likely top 5. > [@BlankSlate](#): > > For me, the first album that was slightly disappointing was _Document._ Green for me. But Iā€™m no IRS purist, I agree with a couple of the band members that Automatic for the People was probably their best. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/122 "2021-05-12T00:15:09Z")
@Guest-starring_Id thatā€™s gotta be the first time Iā€™ve ever heard HĆ¼sker DĆ¼ referred to as ā€œwatered-down.ā€ Agreed on Zen Arcade; that cassette practically lived in my walkman for a year or two. I really like their last two SST albums, but Warehouse was the first record of their I owned and it hooked me pretty hard, so I donā€™t mind some sheen on the sound. Itā€™s my disinterest in Land Speed Record era stuff that kept me from picking up that box set that came out a couple of years ago, because I gather it all came from the early years. Iā€™m dying for a proper rarities collection from the HĆ¼skersā€¦all those Beatles covers and live track b-sides. I used to have the 12" of ā€œI Donā€™t Want To Know If Youā€™re Lonelyā€ and on the flip was an incendiary live ā€œHelter Skelterā€ and an eight-minute version of a non-LP track called ā€œAll Work and No Play.ā€ Iā€™d love to have good digital copies of those, and thereā€™s no doubt a whack of other good stuff in the vault from 1985 onwards. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/123 "2021-05-12T01:13:51Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Neil Young has, Iā€™ve never counted, about 50 solo and collaborate (with Buffalo Springfield, CSN&Y and others) studio albums, and a bunch of important live albumsā€¦ 67, according to Wiki. Plus 7 with Buffalo Springfield, CSN&Y, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/124 "2021-05-12T01:19:21Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > 67, according to Wiki. Plus 7 with Buffalo Springfield, CSN&Y, etc. Fuckinā€™ Slacker! ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/125 "2021-05-12T01:20:02Z")
> Neil Young has, Iā€™ve never counted, about 50 solo and collaborate ā€¦ studio albumsā€¦ so you can forgive him for four or five stinkers. Same for Zappa. Or for Dylan. Neil and Bob are two of my favorites, but man, they never once said ā€œWell, that is _not_ good. Iā€™d better not record it. Hmm, maybe I should stop and write some better songs.ā€ (I started listing Dylan albums and gave up, there were too manyā€¦) ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/126 "2021-05-12T01:23:20Z")
notice tho a lot of these albums are made by gods of their respective genres who decided "well iā€™m tired of the same old shit so im gonna do this and no fucks are given if you like or donā€™t like ā€¦iā€™m having fun " ---
**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 12, 2021, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/127 "2021-05-12T01:23:23Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Neil and Bob are two of my favorites, but man, they never once said ā€œWell, that is _not_ good. Iā€™d better not record it. Hmm, maybe I should stop and write some better songs.ā€ You can add Prince and Billy Corgan to that list. ā€œIt popped into my head? Regardless of quality, Iā€™m going to share it with you.ā€ ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/128 "2021-05-12T01:42:33Z")
Iā€™m going to throw **Elvis Costello** in the mix as well. Heā€™s been my guy since that night in 1977 when I first saw him on SNL. But I donā€™t think Iā€™ve ever made it to the end of The Juliet Letters or North. mmm ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/129 "2021-05-12T04:51:50Z")
I know it wasnā€™t so much an ā€œalbumā€ as a random assembling of tracks by Capital(ist) Records, but The Beatlesā€™ ā€œSecond Albumā€ was the one I never bothered to buy when I was buying them all (in their American versions). Iā€™ll agree ā€œYellow Submarineā€ would have been as worthy of a place in my non-collection. ā€œRevolverā€ of course was great, but the American version contained just eleven tracks (the other three were put on ā€œYesterday and Todayā€), and less than half an hour of music. It has, though, the distinction of being the only thing I ever bought at the overpriced Sam Goody chain because, for whatever reason, it wasnā€™t much in stock around 1984, at least on cassette (hey, shouldnā€™t it be ā€œUnspoolerā€?). The store used to display cassettes in these dirty white plastic ā€œinventory control devicesā€, which rendered the buying experience even more unpleasant. ETAā€“I just realized that it was ā€œCapitolā€, not ā€œCapitalā€ Records, so my joke doesnā€™t work. Iā€™ll work on another one but I wanted to be first to correct myself. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/130 "2021-05-12T05:26:53Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Neil and Bob are two of my favorites _Phrasing!_ ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/131 "2021-05-12T08:58:23Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > But I donā€™t think Iā€™ve ever made it to the end of The Juliet Letters or North. I will say that IMO ā€œFor Other Eyesā€ is a great song (and certainly the best song to ever feature the words ā€œdentist receptionistā€). But agree that most of the rest of the album is pretty patchy. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2021, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/132 "2021-05-13T01:37:06Z")
> [@paulmarkj](#): > > The Who: Who Are You One of my favorite albums. Great tune on there that many wouldnā€™t know unless they have the album: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xp9EdWnSX-c/hqdefault.jpg "The Who - Guitar and Pen") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp9EdWnSX-c) Tidbit: They turned Keithā€™s chair around because in an earlier shoot, they noticed he had a slight paunch, reshot it. What did Pete do with the time sig? 38 seconds inā€¦a measure of 3/4, 3/4, 2/4, 2/4ā€¦? And the lyrics? Slap yo mama! > **[Guitar and Pen Lyrics - The Who](https://www.flashlyrics.com/lyrics/the-who/guitar-and-pen-30)** > > You're alone above the street somewhere / Wondering how you'll ever count out there / You can wa... The weakest song on the album was ā€œLove is Coming Down.ā€ It wasnā€™t a terrible song, but the rest are very good. Who By Numbers is much weaker IMO. Back in the day, I had limited funds. Iā€™d debate whether or not to buy an album. What if the hit was the one decent song on it? But that means too that itā€™s hard to totally condemn an album because for me, it had at least one song I really really liked on it. Turning to Fleetwood Mac: Tusk=nah! Tusk was good and they might have avoided my scorn if they had released a single disc. Someone wants to chime in with ā€œBut it had Sara,ā€ but I hate that song so it works against the total effect. Joe Jackson: Mikeā€™s Murder soundtrack. Maybe not fair, but his earlier stuff was so goodā€¦ Peter Gabriel: Up Kate Bush: Aerial I loved Peter and Kate but these albumsā€¦whisky tango foxtrot? Billy Joel: An Innocent Man. He lost me hereā€¦later albums may have been worse. I thought it was too kitschy and cutesy. I know he put out hits and hummable tunes but he had some great stuff too. Heā€™s no PG or KB but for instance: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ikWH9k_39po/maxresdefault.jpg "Billy Joel - Until The Night (Live From Long Island)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikWH9k_39po) ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2021, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/133 "2021-05-13T04:19:14Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Iā€™m going to throw **Elvis Costello** in the mix as well. > > Heā€™s been my guy since that night in 1977 when I first saw him on SNL. > > But I donā€™t think Iā€™ve ever made it to the end of The Juliet Letters or North. > [@Gyrate](#): > > I will say that IMO ā€œFor Other Eyesā€ is a great song (and certainly the best song to ever feature the words ā€œdentist receptionistā€). But agree that most of the rest of the album is pretty patchy. ive been listening to him off and on since the mid-80s and while there are several songs on "mighty like a rose "I love Iā€™ve only listened to the whole thing twiceā€¦ after that I just programmed my disc player to just play what I liked ā€¦ and even tho I own"all this useless beauty " I donā€™t remember a damn thing about it other than it might have been a contract album he had to do ā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2021, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/134 "2021-05-13T12:41:12Z")
_Last Exit_ by Traffic. It was a contractual obligation album, made up of older unreleased material plus a couple of long live cuts. While there are a couple of good songs on the first side (ā€œMedicated Gooā€ and ā€œShanghai Noodle Factoryā€), the rest is undistinguished. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2021, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/135 "2021-05-13T13:27:12Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I am the definitive Tull fan, but some of their material is weak. Roots to Branches and Rock Island were disappointments, signs of a weary muse facing contractual obligations, To me thatā€™s my second best album, after Broadsword (then Aqualung). Crest of Knave, and Under Wraps, now they were stinkers. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2021, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/136 "2021-05-13T14:14:57Z")
Worse than ā€œWelcome to the Canteenā€? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2021, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/137 "2021-05-13T14:23:27Z")
Technically, not a Traffic album. But it was just a live greatest hits album. Not great, but far more listenablen than ā€œLast Exit.ā€ ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2021, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/138 "2021-05-13T14:24:07Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Has anyone brought up **Neil Young** yet? He is in my personal elite tier, overall, but he did poop the bed on a handful of albums: > > - Re-ac-tor > - Arc > - Trans > > mmm I agree with these except for the version of Mr. Soul on Trans. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2021, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/139 "2021-05-13T14:42:43Z")
I came in to say that R.E.M.ā€™s last album for me is ā€œNew Adventures in Hi-Fiā€ (they simply sucked after that). My least favorite album of theirs, then, is ā€œDocument,ā€ though it has some good moments. used to think ā€œFables of the reconstructionā€ā€™as more meh than ā€œDocumentā€ but Iā€™ve gained new appreciation for ā€œā€Fablesā€ over the years. ā€œMonsterā€ is tough to listen to all the way through, but I think it was a fun experiment with a few great moments. I ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2021, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058/140 "2021-05-13T16:22:36Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > > [@alovem](#): > > > > Surprised nobodyā€™s mentioned Zeppelinā€™s **In Through the Out Door**. > > I forgot to, but Iā€™ll second your nomination of it. The Zep album I recall most people panning when I was in high school was _Houses of the Holy_, which also doesnā€™t appear to have received a mention here yet. Although I shouldnā€™t nominate it myself, not having heard it often enough to formulate a real opinion. The fact that I didnā€™t rush out to get a copy is probably somewhat relevant though ā€” thatā€™s certainly how I reacted after hearing _Physical Graffiti_ played a couple times at parties. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-worst-album-by-a-band-u-like/921058.md?page=8)