# Your thoughts on the 'oddball' music albums- the experiments. Total flops? Or got a soft spot for them? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [April 22, 2025, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370 "2025-04-22T16:54:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/41 "2025-04-23T18:07:39Z")
> [@solost](#): > > _ **WTF** _, George Harrison? What kind of bad weird place was he in at the time to make something like that? When music legends go off the rails, they do not do it halfway, it seems. Cut George some slack. He was only 25 and the Beatles were pulling back from the level of experimentation they exhibited on _Revolver_ and _Sgt. Peppers_. There was still stuff that they wanted to play with that simply did not work on a Beatles record (“Revolution #9” notwithstanding). They also had their own record label, so they didn’t have to worry about pleasing someone else’s accountant. George’s album came out the same year as John & Yoko’s _Two Virgins_. In a contest between the two records for oddest, I think John wins. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2025, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/42 "2025-04-23T18:20:33Z")
OK, fair point. I guess I just always assumed that Revolution #9 was something that Lennon, under the influence of Yoko and her weird performance art stylings, insisted on inclusion to the White Album against the wishes or better judgement of the other Beatles. Now I hear Harrison’s ‘Electronic Sound’ album for the first time, and it sounds like he heard Revolution #9 and said “hold my beer” 😁 I will agree that an odd-off contest between ‘Electronic Sound’ and ‘Two Virgins’ would be a close one. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2025, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/43 "2025-04-23T19:04:08Z")
Exhibit A! > **[Styx - Krakatoa/Hallelujah Chorus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enaXYTUGJFY%2F)** > > StyxKrakatoa/Hallelujah ChorusThe Serpent Is Rising ---
**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:** [April 23, 2025, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/44 "2025-04-23T19:45:25Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I LOVE Seu Jorge’s Bowie covers! Well worth a listen… Yep! > [@solost](#): > > As one who finds 99% of Wes Anderson’s work to be unbearably twee I learned about Seu from Life Aquatic which I also love along with all of the other twee works of Anderson. Never thought I would be considered “twee”. I think it’s only with Wes Anderson movies though after reading the description of twee. Can’t think of it anywhere else. Take that back…I just searched for “twee bands” and I do like Belle and Sebastian as well, but that’s the only band I know in that list beyond Of Montreal who I am “meh” on. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2025, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/45 "2025-04-23T19:56:10Z")
I had actually forgotten the hallelujah chorus was attached to that. Great stuff, thanks for posting that memory for me! ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2025, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/46 "2025-04-23T22:44:25Z")
As the first Ozzy iteration of Black Sabbath was blowing apart, Ozzy was in and out of the band for the last two albums, “Technical Ecstasy” and “Never Say Die”, after which he was fired from the band. “Technical Ecstasy”, though still hard rock (IMHO I wouldn’t really consider it metal), was generally pretty lame sounding and very disappointing. “Never Say Die”, however, was (again IMHO) radically different from all of the previous albums and I think would be hard to identify as a Sabbath album. ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/47 "2025-04-24T08:38:18Z")
Not an album, but still quite a “creative stretch”. Russian composer Alexander Scriabin’s last work was the [_Mysterium_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysterium_(Scriabin)), which was supposed to involve a large orchestra, a mixed choir, dancers, bells, lightshows, flames, perfumes, acrid smoke and “touching”. Performance was to take place in a concert-temple built for that very purpose in the Himalayas and would last for 7 days after which the world would end in ecstatic bliss. Scriabin only completed some 70 pages of the work, which explains why we’re still here. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/48 "2025-04-24T12:47:20Z")
Seems like we should give it a shot anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/49 "2025-04-24T13:56:04Z")
> [@Moonrise](#): > > Performance was to take place in a concert-temple built for that very purpose in the Himalayas and would last for 7 days after which the world would end in ecstatic bliss. > > Scriabin only completed some 70 pages of the work, which explains why we’re still here. Apocapalooza! I wonder, would that have been 7 days as in 7 8-hour day shifts? Or 24/7, with orchestra members, choir, dancers, etc. rotating in shifts? All on one stage, or multiple stages? And who would’ve handled facilities management? Don’t want a Fyre Festival-style fiasco. > [@wguy123](#): > > I learned about Seu from Life Aquatic which I also love along with all of the other twee works of Anderson. Never thought I would be considered “twee”. NBD. One can like certain twee things, or even feel a bit twee at times, without _ **being** _ twee. We _all_ get a bit twee from time to time, even the least overall twee among us. And that has to be a record for the most times anybody ever used the word ‘twee’ in a single paragraph. ---
**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:** [April 24, 2025, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/50 "2025-04-24T15:01:07Z")
Ha, thanks for assuaging me of my worries that I’m not the rough and tumble guy I’ve always thought of myself! 🤣 And yes, that’s a lot of twee. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/51 "2025-04-24T15:09:43Z")
Lou Reed’s _Metal Machine Music_? No. Just no. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/52 "2025-04-24T15:10:00Z")
Yeah and hey, we can all like different things. You like Wes Anderson, that’s fine. But for me, it’s barking up the wrong twee. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/53 "2025-04-24T15:22:55Z")
I had a copy of _Electronic Sound_ in college, and I enjoyed listening to it after I discovered that if you get stoned enough, it starts to make sense. Although my enjoyment was diminished after learning of the accusation that one side of the album was nothing but the Moog salesman’s demonstration and not by Harrison at all. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/54 "2025-04-24T15:35:48Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I had a copy of _Electronic Sound_ in college, and I enjoyed listening to it after I discovered that if you get stoned enough, it starts to make sense. Heh, this made me chuckle, since it reminded me of the plot of the Black Mirror episode “Plaything” which I just watched the night before last: A man is playing a video game in which the digital creatures he interacts with are actually sentient, and they make up their own language, that he can only understand when he’s under the influence of LSD. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/55 "2025-04-24T15:43:33Z")
I don’t understand the hate I sometimes hear concerning the Beatles white album. Yes, the album contains songs of wildly different styles and for that reason many rock critics hated it when it was released. It doesn’t thematically flow as an album should is what they often say. Beginning with the very first time I heard it, I always felt the theme was _“here is a collection of very different styles we are showcasing”_. That IS the theme and the flow. And as history has proven, this enormously creative album launched lots of bands and arguably the music industry itself into new directions. To be honest, it could be argued the album launched the Beatles themselves into permanently different directions. Oddball is the _point_ of the album. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/56 "2025-04-24T15:53:08Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Lou Reed’s _Metal Machine Music_? No. Just no. I hadn’t thought about that album in decades, so I’m listening to it right now. My tolerance for/interest in this kind of noise is much higher than it used to be - any two-minute snippet of this could be the close of a Godspeed You! Black Emperor song - but there’s no arc to it, and I won’t be putting it on again. Just to bring things full circle, here’s Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth listening to it: [![](https://rockcritics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/thurston-mmm.png) ](https://rockcritics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/thurston-mmm.png) ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/57 "2025-04-24T16:19:43Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > I don’t understand the hate I sometimes hear concerning the Beatles white album. Is that still a fairly common opinion to this day? Back when the album first came out, I can believe there was some hate, or at least criticism. But then, it seems like whenever a band came out with an album of so much material back in the day that it required a ‘double album’, the backlash and criticisms of ‘self-indulgence’ were practically automatic-- “did they _really_ think they had so much worthwhile material it required a double album? Edit much??” But I thought these days, it’s more or less universally accepted that _The White Album_ is a towering work of seminal late 60s Rock Genius. I know earlier in this thread @JKellyMap said that _The White Album_ would benefit from cutting half the songs, and I more or less agreed, so I guess that does back up your statement. But then, for me, the Beatles have always been a band I appreciated for their eclectic and experimental musical contributions a little more than I enjoyed on a visceral, emotional level. I’ve always been more of a Stones guy. À chacun son goût 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/58 "2025-04-24T17:26:05Z")
> [@solost](#): > > And that has to be a record for the most times anybody ever used the word ‘twee’ in a single paragraph. James Thurber’s “The Story of Sailing” takes the silver: > After that, innovations in sails followed so fast that the herring boat became a veritable shambles of canvas. A Norseman named Leif the Sailmaker added a second mast to his ship, just in front of the first one and thus the fore-mast came into being and with it the fore mainsail and the fore top-sail. A Turk named Skvar added a third mast and called it the mizzen. Not to be outdone, a Muscovite named amir put up a third spar on each of his masts; Skvar came back with a sixth, and so it went, resulting in the top-gallant foresail, the top-topgallant mizzen sail, the top-top-topgallant amil topsail, and the tip-top-topgallant-gallant mainsail (pron. “ **twee twee twee** twa twa”). ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370/59 "2025-04-24T17:45:16Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > James Thurber’s “The Story of Sailing” takes the silver: Nice. Leave it to Dopers to fight ignorance on all fronts! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-thoughts-on-the-oddball-music-albums-the-experiments-total-flops-or-got-a-soft-spot-for-them/1017370.md?page=2)