One of their most popular albums is one of your least favorites

Kind of an unpopular opinion thread, but focused on a specific idea.

Just looking for communion with other people with weird tastes. ;-)


Some examples for me:

Black Sabbath - the debut seems to be one of their more popular albums recently. I'd rank it in last place with respect to both the Ozzy and Dio albums.

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road--in my bottom three of the albums through Blue Moves.

Frank Zeppa - I'd easily rank Freak Out last. I'd also put Hot Rats pretty far down a list of FZ albums--definitely in the lower half.

Grateful Dead - Two weird things: (1) both Workingman's Dead and American Beauty would be in the bottom part of my Dead studio album list (my bottom five would be those two plus In the Dark, Go to Heaven and Built to Last--I'm not entirely sure what the order would be without relistening one after the other with this in mind), and (2) I'd rank their studio output in general over their live output.

Jethro Tull - Aqualung would maybe be in my bottom three of their albums through Stormwatch.

Joni Mitchell - Blue would be in my bottom five.

King Crimson - I'd easily rank In the Court of the Crimson King last.

Metallica - both Kill 'Em All and Ride the Lightning would be close to the bottom of my list . . . they might even be the bottom two (I'm more sure about Kill 'Em All being last), and yes, I'm including stuff like Lulu.

Miles Davis - Both Bitches Brew and Kind of Blue would easily be in the lower half of a ranked Miles list for me. Most of Miles' 70s output would be at the bottom of my Miles list.

Todd Rundgren - Something/Anything would be one of my bottom five probably.


That's not to say that I dislike any of the above albums, by the way--I'm a big fan of everyone I mentioned above. But relative to their other work . . .

Also, as a big fan of the artists above, I can find it frustrating that the albums I mentioned are the ones always recommended to people looking to explore those artists. I think, "Well, if this person's tastes are anything like my own, that's a horrible recommendation." Even though I don't dislike the albums above, sometimes I appreciate them more simply in the context of their overall work and for their cultural importance. If I didn't know anything about someone like Zappa or Miles etc., though, and someone said, "Man, you've got to check out Freak Out/Bitches Brew/etc. first," I might be reluctant to try more.

 

The first one that pops to mind is Verve's Urban Hymns. I don't dislike the record, but I even find more replay value from Forth.

 

U2 - All That You Can Leave... (What a load of rubbish. Badly or barely written songs and tired production. This is where U2 ended for me.)

 

Kill 'Em All and RTL below Lulu....I don't know if you can technically say you like Metallica.

 

Haha

(Don't forget about St. Anger etc. too)

 

Never got all the love for "The Wall". It has some great songs but it's 1) overblown 2) sounds like a whiny rich child wrote it 3) it's too long (it could have been better and just as powerful at half its length) and 4) the best songs were written by Waters-Gilmour and there's too few of those collaborations. The whole Brechtian aspect of it doesn't work for me either.

 

Court beats Wake, Islands (which I like quite a bit), Lizard hands down for me

For me I'd also say Pepper, Aftermath and Siren (by Roxy Music) would be on this list

 

Even though I have it and enjoy it...

Fleetwood Mac Rumours

It's last in what I have by them....coincidentally..the last of theirs I have as well.

I far prefer the Peter Green thru Danny Kirwan period, even Bob Welch, before they went totally mainstream MOR. Didn't like their '75 Self titled nor Rumours when they first came out at all. Later I came to enjoy it more....I won't even rank their post '77 stuff as it's not on my radar.

 

Indeed, while Rumours is still a great album it unfairly overshadows Green's work and the pre-B-N line up. IMHO it's not even that line ups best album.

 

I dont really like The Beatles Sgt. Pepper or Some Girls by the Stones. But I am a big fan of both groups.

 

Haha, I absolutely love Lulu, but I can't imagine ever ranking it above Kill 'Em All or Ride the Lightning. Though, to my mind, I always think of Lulu as a Lou Reed album where Metallica happens to be backing him.

 

Revolver seems to be the most popular Beatles album but it's always seemed rather bitty to me. It's certainly my least favourite of the 1965-1969 run of studio albums.

 

Who's Next - 2 great singles and filler
Exile on Main Street - goes on a bit.

I love the Who and the Stones though, these two wouldn't make my top 5 of either band

 

OK, here goes . . . "Sgt. Pepper". Creative, transformative, envelope-pushing. So stipulated. But the songs are a meandering snooze.

This is rock and roll, dammit. And I wanna dance . . .

 

I like magical mystery tour(us) more than sgt. Pepper or revolver.

I like king crimson in the wake better than in the court.

 

I have to agree with the OP on Black Sabbath. I like their debut less than any of the first 6 Ozzy albums or first 2 Dio albums. It seems to me to be fairly derivative with a lot of filler.

 

I was expecting a Fleetwood Mac response after seeing the number of people who favor the Peter Green era in the "classic Fleetwood Mac lineup" thread.

 

Yeah, I think that makes sense. I'm a big fan of solo Lou Reed, too.

 

Piper At The Gates Of Dawn - Seems to be wildly popular ... my least favorite.

 

While I do not actively dislike the album, Born In The U.S.A. strikes me as a low priority choice for me. I suppose that is a form of backlash against an album that was a mega-seller.

 

Van Morrison...Astral Weeks....not a bad record, but so much of what he's done since is far better.

 

Bowie's "Let's Dance". Tried it again last night but apparently I wasn't able to put on my red shoes.

 

Easy one :
Van Morrison - Astral weeks
Beach Boys - Pet sounds
Captain Beefheart - Trout mask replica
Marvin Gaye - What's going on

 

Harvest - the electric numbers are a retread (Alabama) and a ploddingly slow dirge with rudimentary solos and embarrassingly juvenile lyrics (Words). The acoustic songs are better, but other than Out on the Weekend, simplistic and really, really slow. The less said about the orchestral tracks the better. Same for the throwaway country tune. (All IMHO, emphasis on the H of course.)

 

the one that stands out to me is sgt pepper's.far from bad just not one of my fave Beatles records.the mono version is much better.