Albums that are so bad... yet you can't stop listening to them!

Do you have an example of an album that is just not a good disc musically or lyrically, yet for some strange reason is compulsively listenable to you?

My example is the Cranberries "To The Faithful Departed". I don't know why I've been playing it in the car recently- it is so bad. Every single song is full of jaw-dropping-ly bad, pretentious lyrics; horrible caterwauling over-singing and inept musical decisions. It's so terrible on every level, yet I'm a sucker for it. My brain tells me "It's awful, don't listen to it", but it's some kind of genius on another level. I like albums that have bizarre first singles released from them, that are totally left-field and weird and "Salvation"... what were they thinking????
But yet at the same time, I think it's great.

What are your favorite musical car wrecks?

James

 

Every Seeds Cee Dee I own..and I own them all! Gotta love Sky!
and....I can't wait for Steve's magic SACD!

 

The Shaggs. Hideous but always good for a laugh or three.

 

"All the boys with cars want motorcycles
And the boys with motorcycles want cars."

Agreed.

I played the "Philosophy of the World" CD for my highly musical fiancee over the weekend and she was doubled over with laughter at times.

Paul

 

Kiss Unmasked. It's so bad, it's good!

 

Flower: Heat

70s supermodel who decided she wanted to sing. Only problem was, she couldn't. The producer buried her vocal waaaaay in the back of the mix, piled on the reverb, and focused instead on maximizing her visuals on the sleeve, which was her strongest talent.

 

A lot of pop-country stuff from the mid 90s including Mindy McCready-Super Hits, Lila McCann's catalog (yet she did have some excellent material, but still the albums aren't that solid so I'll include them), and others.

 

Several years ago, I found a 10-inch LP at a thrift shop. It's beat, but it doesn't skip. And I always get a chuckle listening to it:

A Florence! Foster!! Jenkins!!! Recital!!!! on RCA Victor Red Seal

Later reissued with other material by another under the name The Glory (???) of the Human Voice, this album is truly bad. Jenkins was the Mrs. Miller of her era, a well-to-do matron who thought she could sing arias and who, in 1943, late in her life, performed one ear-splitting (and gut-splitting) recital at Carnegie Hall. She's become something of a legend and has even been played on Dr. Demento, but until I found this disc -- which is oddly missing from most reference books, though the reissue is not -- I had never heard the glory (?) of her voice. Like from a car wreck, it's hard to turn away.

 

Hey Bradley... I know Lila. I'm gonna tell on you.

Just kidding.

 

It's on CD and is even availible at Amazon.

 

I have a similar thread idea: "albums you thought were great when you first bought them, but two decades later you realize how truly awful they were and can't stand to listen to them, or can't listen without laughing at them".

In that category, I'd list that group ABC ("Poison Arrow"/"Look Of Love"). Yeah it was sort of cool in a way, but one gets tired of hearing tired clichés strung together into pop songs.

Need I mention Ethel Merman's disco album?

 

I have an album of Tom Jones doing country songs, and it contains an awful/awesome version of "Ring of Fire". He sings it as only Tom Jones could:

I fell in to a burnin ring of FIYYAHHH, down down down and the FLAMES went HIYYAHHHHH.

You get the picture.........

 

I also have a soft spot for "Ice Ice Baby". I have the 12" disco extended single with 5 different versions. Once I put it on, I'm hooked!

 

Jamie, I am a fan of Lila's music overall to tell you the truth, but still the albums aren't that solid. They are your typical Nashville product (the hits in many cases are the best songs although her debut album and Complete are more solid than Something In The Air.)

 

My choice would be Platinum Blonde: Standing In The Dark

When I was 13, I thought they were just the coolest band ever. Listening today at their faux-UK accents (laughable, since they were from Vancouver), their infantile lyrics (screaming "it doesn't really matter" or "No! No! No!" hysterically on every other song), their nihilistic attitude which seemed so hip then, but just sounds juvenile today... and let's not even get started on the hair and outfits!

File that one under "What was I thinking?"

What's scary is how the reissue PR implies that this album was a success and welcomed by all back in its day, which it most certainly was not. It sounded just as ridiculous in 1979 as it does now.

 

Graham,
Sorry to mention it, but Mark Holmes (the lead singer of Platinum Blonde) is originally from Derby, England (so his accent is decidedly NOT faux UK). I believe he came here as a young adult (much like Alan Frew, the lead singer of Glass Tiger, came from Scotland).

Cliff

 

Mrs. Miller does fit in this category.

 

BTW, this is similar to "guilty pleasures" to a lot of people including me.

 

I think she'd agree with you for the most part. Don't tell anyone. Shhh!

 

Re: Ethel Merman...

I (thankfully) have never heard it, and it does have its fans. But I seem to recall it was more of an embarassment than anything else...embarassing to listen to.

The reissue PR does tend to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear...I used to write jazz reviews in a former life, and about half the PR I'd receive would pump up each artist as the "next Coltrane" or the "next Miles", and they were all laughably bad. Or sometimes worse, the "has-been" artists and bands putting out an "exciting" new release that on listening, makes you realize why they quit selling albums 10 years ago. The press releases were good for bio and background information, but that's about it. PR is just a fancy industry phrase for BS.

 

"My choice would be Platinum Blonde: Standing In The Dark

When I was 13, I thought they were just the coolest band ever. Listening today at their faux-UK accents (laughable, since they were from Vancouver), "
------------------------------------------------------
I could swear they were from Toronto.

 

Right. Still, her albums are a "guilty pleasure" (and so bad, they are good which to me, mean the same thing) of mine.

 

Hey! Nobody mentioned Billy Ray Cyrus yet!! You have to admit his "dumb cowboy" persona had a couple of catchy tunes. (Or was a one-joke act, depending on how you look at it. )

No, I don't remember the name of his achy-breaky debut CD...nor would I want to... (Although I think we did have a copy collecting dust around the house somewhere.)

 

Dave,
I'll have to agree with you. I don't remember all of the members but the lead singer, Mark Holmes was an immigrant from England and Sergio the guitarist is now an award-winning architect here in Toronto. I saw Mark Holmes at the Ex one time and his hair had magically lost all its height and blondeness .

Cliff

 

Well, if Mrs. Miller isn't a 'guilty pleasure,' I don't know what is.....pretty funny, too, in her hideous fashion, but I like to think both she and Capitol, her label, got the joke.


The Plasmatics, fronted by the late Wendy O. Williams. They really couldn't play worth a damn, but I liked their sheer enthusiasm and gall. My brother saw them in concert; wish I had after hearing about the chain saws and other crap they employed.

The Village People's first album, with "San Francisco(You Got Me)"....so over the top it's ridiculous, but still a fun listen. But it's the only one, since it's so short in time wasted it works, whereas their other albums run much longer and wear out their welcome quickly.


ED