Big Album Disappointment(s)

Mercury rev albums after all is dream.. hopefully the new one is better.

Most recent neil young albums. The only ones I really enjoyed on first listen was psychedelic pill and le noise.

I dont understand how people could be disappointed by tusk. The album just works so well on repeat listening. Its so dense that I discover something new to it every time I give it a spin.
Lindsey's masterpiece if you ask me.

 

Oh man that's hilarious. I completely forgot Green Album and TPM were the same year! All my boyhood dreams crushed in one fell swoop lol

 

I honesty was so put-off by the way ELO went that I probably couldn't give them a fair shake.

 

How Dare You! - 10cc

After the brilliant "The Original Soundtrack", I was hoping for "How Dare You!" to pick up where the prior album left off but it wasn't nearly as powerful, melodically and production-wise. However, it had it's moments for sure and about 3 tracks hold up well after all these years ("I'm Mandy...", "Lazy Ways", "Art for Art's Sake")

 

After I got over the disappointment created by my expectations, I enjoyed How Dare You and feel it is a worthy follow up to The Original Soundtrack. It's not quite as ambitious but the Individual songs are as strong as the previous album particularly I'm Going To Rule The World and Don't Hang Up which is a worthy sequel to I'm Not In Love

 

Delete most of Lindsey Buckingham's completely out of step songs and the title track, and Tusk becomes a great record. They were all on the same page except Lindsey, who was completely crazed at that point.

 

I've been disappointed by a lot in the last few years...

Stone Temple Pilots comeback self-titled album (2010) was absolutely terrible, and I love every other one of their albums.

Queens of the Stone Age's last album, ...Like Clockwork (2013) was underwhelming for me. It wasn't bad, I just found the sound to not be as enjoyable and it lacked some certain energy that the rest of their albums have. I seem to be in the minority, though. This album was a critical and commercial success.

The New Pornographer's last album, Brill Bruisers (2013). The songwriting and sound was just underwhelming for me, but once again most people seemed to like it.

Sam Robert's last album, Lo-Fantasy (2014). Not a bad album, but once again disappointing. More dancy-sounding than previous albums.

The Physical World (2014) by Death From Above 1979. A lack of intensity compared to the first album with absolutely terrible mastering made this a huge disappointment for me.

After the Disco (2014) by Broken Bells. A somewhat boring follow-up to a really good album if you ask me.

I think I'll stop there.

 

At the time this was the album after Wings Over America, which got lots of play, especially Maybe I'm Amazed, which compared to anything on London Town is on its own planet.

And i dont hate london town. But if im going to listen to a Paul album its unlikely to be this one.

 

Tusk does not meet the standard of interesting double studio album by a top rock band. It isn't enjoyably sprawling like the White Album or the Illusion Albums (as patchy as those can be, they at least embrace the spirit of the concept) or focused on a particular sound or vibe like Exile or Mellon Collie. It's neither here nor there.

It sounds like what it was, from everything I understand about the band. Lindsey Buckingham, with a certain justification, felt he was spending time polishing the songs of Nicks and McVie as well as working on his own, that he was spending too much time pulling the wagon and wanted to branch out. The problem is he was really only the one on that page. So Tusk sounds like Buckingham doing all of his experiments, playing by himself half the time, and standard fare from Christine McVie and Nicks that sounds less polished that it did before. I'm not sure McVie and Nicks were helped as writers by the let-your-hair-down format. Perhaps, as women, they gained more by collaboration, while Buckingham was able to create music on his own more easily.

I have heard cover bands try to do justice to "Dreams", and I have learned how hard it is to pull that particular slow, mellow sound off. So ditching that for a bunch of experiments came at a price. I think that with the three writers, Rumours sounds diverse, but the diversity in Fleetwood Mac came from a completely different place than it did with the Beatles.

So Tusk the album comes across like "Tusk" the single. It's interesting, but it's just a standalone thing unmoored to the world around it.

 

Hollies...What Goes Around

 

The only 2 songs that I don't like are "More Not More" and "What About the Bond". I count 6 as being his very finest. This is where I came in with Bruce despite hearing "Wondering Where the Lions Are" first. When I finally got around to purchasing Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws, I just wasn't impressed.

 

Nothing tops the "Disappointing" meter higher than "A Passion Play" for me.

I was a HUUUUGE Tull fan, loving all of their releases... and then, this!



.

 

I wouldn't be as hard on it but I agree to a point. I always say Gaucho had the misfortune of coming after Aja. Who could better Aja? Turns out, not even Steely Dan. But I'm not sure they even tried, and I think that's where the disappointment really sets in.

 

I was really excited when I read this by Timothy White:

Listeners familiar with Waters' distinctive but uneven earlier solo offerings ("The Pros And Cons of Hitchhiking," 1984; "Radio K.A.O.S," 1987) will find the new album to be much closer in mood and execution to Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side Of The Moon" (1973) and "The Wall" (1979), for which Waters was the guiding creative force. However, it must be stated that, from the near-tactile quality of its musical fiber to the epic scope of its theme, "Amused To Death" is a masterful rock parable that ranks with or surpasses the Floyd's finest work. Give this record your full concentration for one listening and beriveted to the point of palpable distress. Play it just once more and you will be hooked in perpetuity, its brilliant design etched in your brainpan, each lavish mise-en-scene invading your dreams.

Then I heard the CD, and was deeply disappointed. Still listen to it once a year to make sure I haven't missed something, but that stuff White describes just does not happen.

http://www.skepticfiles.org/en003/atdbil92.htm

 

Wow. While I might agree that Buckingham was rather out of step with his bandmates on Tusk, it's because he was burning up with fresh inspiration--and yes, maybe a bit crazed, but that comes with the territory. The title track is barmy and brilliant in my book. By contrast, some of the material from Christine and Stevie comes across as pretty bland ("Beautiful Child"? Meh). The neutered album you describe would have been more of a disaster than what we got, which has subsequently been recognized by many as a flawed gem.

 

Yup, me too. To me it's a soupy mess, though many would disagree...

 

DJ Shadow - The Private Press

"I wanted Endtroducing Pt.2!"

 

That's a tall statement, considering that "Rockin' The Fillmore" is a killer live album and, arguably, their best known album.

 

Some prefer Making Plans For Nigel over Here Comes President Kill Again, go figure

 

Sorry to read all the negative comments about Tusk. I couldn't believe how GOOD it was when I heard it and I was a huge Rumors fan. Not only are Lindsey's songs amazing but he pulled some career best work out of Christine and Stevie too. To think that a band that comfortably and commercially ensconced would take a chance like that is kind of breathtaking and not something you see very often. Still for me, the very best of the B&N era of the Mac and I think it's very peculiarity is what has made it hold up so well over the years.

Eviscerate me if you will to but I had to come to the defense of one of my all time favorite records.

 

Just a bit of self indulgence on Lindsey's part but he deserved it, after the new heights he took the band to over the previous four years, and I loved it! It was one of the first records I became aware was digitally mixed and got me excited about some digital format everyone was talking about that would one day replace albums. I remember the original release had such a nice clean sound on vinyl.

 

Rolling Stones - Steel Wheels

I don't know whatever happened to my copy of that album

 

Yes, I too am disappointed when a band loses their lead singer and returns with One Of The Greatest Rock Records Of All Time.

Now, if you had said For Those About To Rock........

 

Hmm, didn't realize August was "Tusk Bashing Month" on the Hoffman forums.

Is Tusk indulgent, and overlong, and not always cohesive? Yes. Like almost ALL double albums. Was it a brave, bold choice in the wake of the best-selling album of all time (at that point in time)? Yes. Tusk was never going to match the heights of Rumours. You just can't catch lightning in a bottle twice. And make no mistake, all artists with a monster hit make a choice as to how best to follow-up said monster. Do you go the safe route and try to reproduce the hit as closely as possible? (See: Bad, Fairweather Johnson, For Those About To Rock, Adrenalize, etc.) Or do you acknowledge the once-in-a-lifetime nature of your hit and pull a 180 for the follow-up? (See: Tunnel Of Love, Around The World In A Day, and Tusk.) Personally, I'm glad Lindsey dragged the rest of Fleetwood Mac into the Prince & Springsteen camp (rather than the Hootie and MJ camp), even if only for one album.

And lest we forget, a properly chastened Lindsey did give the world the "proper" Rumours follow-up they were craving a few years later. It was called Mirage. It was clean and polished, with great production and nothing remotely outrageous. It was... fine. It's certainly not the kind of album that gets critically reappraised, or heralded as a lost classic, or covered start-to-finish by younger bands. Mirage does, however, point the way towards the Mac's future as a very safe, commercial band writing safe, commercial hits and making lots of money with safe, commercial tours.

As a younger listener who discovered FM well after the fact, I personally feel the band's legacy is made off the S/T, Rumours, and Tusk, especially the latter two. A Fleetwood Mac that goes straight from Rumours to Mirage, then Tango, then the long series of albums-no-one-cares-about.... Is a far less interesting and exciting band.

 

Thank you, a much loved album by many which I felt did not live up to some of John's earlier work.
Another one that is loved by many that I can hardly listen to is Diamond Dogs. Like W&B's it has a few excellent songs among some real clunkers. To this day I still cannot believe Bowie dropped his band before the DD sessions, particularly Ronson. They could have brought that album up to classic Bowie standards. Wow.....I mean WOW.