Something the critics panned

But you liked. Rate it compared to the critics. Mine was Jeff Beck Group (the album)
From Wiki:
Jeff Beck Group was not well received by contemporary music critics.[6] OZ magazine's Charles Shaar Murray gave it a negative review,[9] while Billy Walker of Sounds found it inferior to Rough and Ready,[10] and NME's Roy Carr felt that the quality of the performances "far exceeds that of the material".[10] In his review for Rolling Stone, John Mendelsohn was highly impressed by Beck's "genius" playing, but found it hampered by the rest of the band: "When either Bob Tench's vocals or Max Middleton's usually pleasant but seldom arresting and never-smoothly-integrated jazz piano are basking therein, Jeff Beck Group's music is mostly just dull — commonplace and predictable."[11] Rob Mackie from the Record Mirror expressed a similar sentiment and said that listeners would not be able to tell whether they are "listening to the band led by one of Britain's best ever guitarists".


Side one
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Ice Cream Cakes" Jeff Beck 5:40 Mid tempo with a slow burn "7.5"
2. "Glad All Over" Aaron Schroeder, Sid Tepper, Beck[12] 2:58 Picks up the pace "7"
3. "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You" Bob Dylan 4:59 Always loved this cover "10"
4. "Sugar Cane" Beck, Steve Cropper 4:07 Another mid tempo that boils "8"
5. "I Can't Give Back the Love I Feel For You" Valerie Simpson, Nickolas Ashford, Brian Holland 2:42 Love it, great guitar "10"
Side two
No. Title Writer(s) Length
6. "Going Down" Don Nix 6:51 I believe most have heard this rocker "9"
7. "I Got to Have a Song" Stevie Wonder, Don Hunter, Lula Mae Hardaway, Paul Riser 3:26 This is my lowest rated song on the album "6.5"
8. "Highways" Beck 4:41 Tight musically with great vocals "10"
9. "Definitely Maybe" Pensive, great guitar, excellent closing song. "10"

Overall "8.5"

 

As I've written before on here, The Rolling Stone Record Guide gave the Dictators' albums one star or less. The review went something like "Songs about wrestling and contempt, not only for the audience but even for themselves."

As a result I pretty much forgot about them (not hard to do in my benighted backwater, as they were certainly never played on the radio). It would not be until I got Sirius/XM and heard them on Underground Garage that I realized they were the link between the NY Dolls and The Ramones, and that they not only rocked but had a sense of humor as well.

 

Well there's KISS for starts. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Rush, One Hot Minute, which I am doing a thread for right now, etc

 

The GTR album.

 

Musician magazine summarized Yes' Talk album w/ "Shut up."

From that point, I stopped taking that rag seriously.

 

The first Jeff Lynne solo album Armchair Theatre. And I can understand some of the criticism but for me he dialed back the ELO excess and came up with the brilliant Now That You’re Gone. His best lp since On The 3rd Day

 

Thank you, I bought this record the week it came out in 72 and never stopped loving it. Nice notes on it above!
I enjoy the singing as on it as well but many seem to simply loathe it. Who did they want to hear singing
on it I wonder? The vocals are expressive, funky and fit right in. The guitar work is otherwordly of course.

 

I remember reading at least one very negative review of Bowie’s Lodger when it came out which I totally disagreed with.

 

Led Zeppelin III was always a favorite of mine but it seemed like everyone hated it the first few years it was out.
Time has been very kind to it, thankfully.

 

Started this thread late Sunday night on the West coast. See what kind of response for the weekend.

From wiki:
Critical reaction to the album was varied at the time. Bud Scoppa called the album "one of the year's richest musical experiences"[2][18] in Rolling Stone, while Lester Bangs derided the effort in Creem, saying, "There is a sadness about the Stones now, because they amount to such an enormous 'So what?' The sadness comes when you measure not just one album, but the whole sense they're putting across now against what they once meant..."[2]

Goats Head Soup is now generally considered to have marked the end of the Stones' "golden age", with Stephen Thomas Erlewine saying, "Sliding out of perhaps the greatest winning streak in rock history, the Stones slipped into decadence and rock star excess with Goats Head Soup... This is where the Stones' image began to eclipse their accomplishments, as Mick ascended to jet-setting celebrity and Keith slowly sunk deeper into addiction, and it's possible hearing them moving in both directions on Goats Head Soup, at times in the same song."[19] Goats Head Soup has endured as a popular seller, it has gone triple platinum in the United States and went on to sell close to 6.5 million copies worldwide.[20]

Title Length
1. "Dancing with Mr. D" 4:53 If this song didn't exist the ratings above would have added an extra star. rate it a "2"
2. "100 Years Ago" 3:59 Mick merrily lopes along at the beginning and dazzling guitar at the end. "7.5"
3. "Coming Down Again" 5:54 Love this song underrated as the album itself. "10"
4. "Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" 3:26 "The police in New York City" Great stuff . "10"
5. "Angie" 4:33 2nd best ballad on the record. "8"
Side two
No. Title Length
6. "Silver Train" 4:27 Stones can do these songs in their sleep "7.5"
7. "Hide Your Love" 4:12 Mick does bar blues"7.5"
8. "Winter" 5:30 The best ballad here. "10"
9. "Can You Hear the Music" 5:31 Call me nuts but I love this. How often do the Stones utilize a flute? "10"
10. "Star Star" X-Rated Chuck Berry. Love it "10"

I give an overall 8.5

 

I absolutely love that record. Could do without CYHtM, but still such a strong release.

 

I will never ever forget the review of this in Musician magazine, to this day!
GTR=SHT

Still funny after 40 years.
Sorry

 

The Stone Roses - Second Coming

 

It is funny but the LP is very good!

 

My first Ramones concert, in early 1977 in Buffalo, NY, had the Dictators opening.

 

Reminds me of a late 80s or early 90s review of a Yes release that went like this:

Yes. "No".

Funniest review ever...and I love Yes!

 

Agreed, it’s a funky, jammy album, unburdened by the hits. The original 2xLP is a great sounding pressing.

 

The Kinks "Think Visual"

AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Think Visual, the band's first album for MCA Records, represented an artistic dead end for the Kinks, as Ray Davies continued to crank out a series of competent, but undistinguished hard rockers. Out of all the loud, riff-driven numbers, only Dave Davies' "Rock N' Roll Cities" made a lasting impression. Ray's gentler songs weren't among his most memorable, relying on slight melodies and underdeveloped lyrics

From RS Magazine:
In typically perverse style, Ray Davies kicks off the Kinks' debut effort for their new label with "Working at the Factory," a searing indictment of the industrialization of rock. The song finds Ray in a mood of pissed-off resignation, as if he's finally given up altogether on whatever remained of his rock & roll fantasy. Ray even points a finger at "the corporations and the big combines," which he blames for having "turned musicians into factory workers on assembly lines." And on the title track of Think Visual, Ray mocks the sort of bottom-line music-biz advice that gets thrown his way: "Marketing says we gotta merchandise/But economy says we gotta minimize huh/We gotta bud-get to face and the market place is full/Of competition, competition."

But don't expect to hear the Kinks talking tough like that on the airwaves — "Rock 'n' Roll Cities," the first single from Think Visual, is anything but a gutsy statement. This utterly uninspired tour song — written by Dave Davies around a woefully tired riff — engages in the worst sort of rock hucksterism. He even resorts to spitting out the names of a few cities, "from Buffalo to the Gulf of Mexico." This is the sort of desperate, airplay-seeking number that only a radio programmer could love.

Still, fear not, Kinks Kroniklers — all is not lost. Ray Davies continues to be one of rock's most intelligent songwriters, particularly on the slower material. "Lost and Found," for example, is a gorgeous ballad about a couple in New York City weathering their own storm as a hurricane sweeps across the coastline. And the melancholy "How Are You" is another of Ray's well-crafted songs of love and loss.

But one wonders why — aside from the obvious business concerns — Ray Davies needs the Kinks anymore. At this point, the group features as many original members of Argent as it does original members of the Kinks. While the playing on Think Visual is always competent, it's rarely more than that. And Dave Davies's two songwriting contributions — "Rock 'n' Roll Cities" and the equally boring "When You Were a Child" — indicate that the longstanding sibling rivalry between the Davies brothers may have outlived its artistic purpose. Think Visual is another acceptable Kinks album, but it's also frustrating.

My take is obviously if you are coming here for prime Kinks-no way. But unfortunately the Kinks raised a high bar in their heyday.


If this was released by a band of lesser resume, the reviews might have been better.
Here's mine:​

1. "Working at the Factory" – 2:58 Good opener -"9"
2. "Lost and Found" – 5:19 Great song, should have been the title cut- "10"
3. "Repetition" – 4:06 A little "repetitive" but I kinda like it-"6.5"
4. "Welcome to Sleazy Town" – 3:50 Bluesy but passable-6.5
5. "The Video Shop" – 5:15-Dated but there are tons of songs about things that no longer exist-"7"
6. "Rock 'n' Roll Cities" – 3:43 (Dave Davies)-I realize the panning this song has received but watch the video you might have a change of heart-"7":
7. "How Are You" – 4:27-Nice cut"7.5"
8. "Think Visual" – 3:12-Nice hopscotch beat and drums-"7.5"
9. "Natural Gift" – 3:44-Cruises right al"ong"7"
10. "Killing Time" – 4:02-Underated cut-"8""
11. "When You Were a Child" – 3:40 (Dave Davies)-This made up for "R&R cities"8"

This album is not going to make anyone forget about VGPS, but I still listen on occasion still spin it 30
years later. Overall 7.6
For the rest... so many and so few... thank you
In the meantime... Think Visual

 

Rolling Stone's 500 Worst Reviews of All Time (work in progress)

 

Some really low-rated albums on rym that I love:

(hed) pe - Only in Amerika
*NSYNC - NSYNC
Backstreet Boys - Backstreet Boys
Black Sabbath - Forbidden
Bob Dylan - Knocked Out Loaded
Britney Spears - Oops!... I Did It Again
Cheap Trick - The Doctor
David Bowie - David Bowie (1967)
The Doors - Full Circle
ELP - Love Beach
ELP - Re-Works
Enrique Iglesias - 7
Fleetwood Mac - Time
Gene Simmons - @$$hole
Hoobastank - They Sure Don't Make Basketball Shorts Like They Used To
Jonas Brothers - It's About Time
Justin Timberlake - Man of the Woods
Lou Reed & Metallica - Lulu
Madonna - Hard Candy
Metallica - St. Anger
Michael Bolton - Time, Love & Tenderness
Neil Young - Landing on Water
Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded
Peter Criss - Peter Criss
Rolling Stones - Dirty Work
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Soundtrack
Starship - Knee Deep in the Hoopla
Toby Keith - Shock'n Y'all
Yes - Remixes
Yes - Heaven & Earth

That's just a sampling . I could list a ton more.

 

Hudson Hawk is my JAM!

"Bunny, ball-ball!"

 

Not much and not really sure I'd say these were panned, just more of a general consensus that the album was a let down or not very good.
Pink Floyd - More
The Doors - Waiting For the Sun, The Soft Parade

 

In my collection it would be easier to find something the critics didn’t pan.

 

Not only funny but also still true

 

Leonard Cohen's Various Positions was either panned or ignored upon its release in 1984/85. Yes: an album that includes Dance Me To The End Of Love and Hallelujah didn't make anyone sit up. I think Rolling Stone might have given it a sympathetic, but very small, notice but - generally - it went nowhere. And it's probably his strongest album, too.

Dexys' Don't Stand Me Down got both barrels from all the British critics in 1985 and I remember a very miserable-looking Rowland being interviewed on OGWT. Its reputation has been turned around in recent years, of course....