What has been your biggest album disappointment?

Couldn't agree more with your first point. They were some of their greatest songs!

 

Stone Roses

 

I liked about half of the second album but couldn't get into the third. I lost interest after that. There was a B-side called L.Wells from one of the second album singles that was better than most of the album tracks.

 

Hold Your Fire by Rush. I was so disappointed, I gave my cassette away.

 

Departure by Journey
Not so much disappointed but I was a bit let down at flat sounding it was (especially with Any Way You Want It as the opening track).

 

Who By Numbers - The Who (Though in fairness how does one follow up on Quadropenia)
Rock of the Westies - Elton John

 

Kid A

 

Too many to think of: Doobies - Takin it to the Streets....McDonald destroys the Doobie sound
Alice Cooper - Goes to hell, Trash...Alice turns into a Bon Jovi wannabe, Brutal Planet...wretched and pretty much everything that followed.
Night Ranger - Midnight Madness
Deep Purple - The Battle Rages on
Springsteen - Born in the USA and everything after Human Touch/Lucky Town. (Except for "Magic" which is good for what it is)
Steely Dan - Royal Scam and everything after....Sorry Im not into Jazz. I'm in the minority im sure.
Aerosmith - Draw the Line. Kings and Queens and title track are great. The rest blows.
AC/DC - For those about to rock.
Bryan Adams - Into the Fire
Bad Company - Run with the Pack and it kept getting worse after that
Chicago - Hot Streets
Cinderella - Heartbreak Station
Dire Straits - Brother In Arms
Dan Fogelberg - Windows and Walls...and then falls of a Cliff completely doing Bluegrass and Pop.
Genesis - Abacab
GNR - Should have been 1 and Done.
Elton - Rock of the Westies
Led Zeppelin - III
Nugent - Cat Scratch Fever
Petty - Into the Great wide open and everything that followed. Transformed from a Rocker to a Wilbury.
Billy Squier - Emotions In Motion
Styx - Cornerstone
Supertramp - Famous last words
38 Special - Strength in Numbers
Robin Trower - For Earth Below
Van Halen II
Edgar Winter - Jasmine
Yes - Tales from Topographic

 

Disc 2 is excellent ( minus track 1)

 

I'd agree wholeheartedly with Abacab, such a disappointment after the previous few albums, rescued only by the excellent Dodo and Keep it Dark... and whilst I quite enjoy No Reply At All that would have found a far better home on a Collins solo album, such is the arrangement...
However, must say that, despite its Kathless notoriety, I actually quite like Hot Streets. Alive Again was certainly one of their best from that era and there are a number of damn fine toons alongside... far far far better than the abomination of what was to follow with Street Player...

 

The Who - It's Hard

Steve Miller - Abracadabra

 

If you hate the album, stay away from the movie.
It'll make you hate The Wall even more.

 

The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks

 

I'm always a little taken aback when I see somebody say something like this, whether it be about music, film, or whatever. Every generation says this. You'd think ours would have twigged to this by now.

Are there bands out there as good as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, or The Kinks for people like us? No. But believe me: Radiohead, Kendrick Lamar, D'Angelo, et al mean every bit as much to their fans as The Fab Four mean to us. And those fans are the ones who decide who the greats are for this generation, not middle aged white guys who have purchased the Bowie catalog multiple times.

Music's relationship to culture...anything's relationship to culture...changes constantly. The one thing that doesn't change? Older people complaining that it's just not as good these days. If modern music hit us the same way the classics did, then it wouldn't be doing its job. We're not the bellwether of history.

 

Polly & David's "The Endless River".

 

Interpol Antics was a letdown after enjoying their debut album Turn on the Bright Lights.

The Strokes First Impressions of Earth was so much worse than their already diminished 2nd album.

Weezer Make Believe was really disappointing. It seemed like a purposeful dumbing down. I lost total respect for them at that moment.

 

Funny..I think the same way and I'm a huge Prince fan. Just out of curiosity, if you were to trim this down to 45 minutes, what would the track list be. Mine? In no particular order:

1. Jam Of The Year
2. The Holy River (love the guitar solo)
3. Sleep Around
4. My Computer
5. Get Yo Groove On (kinda funny and it has a great groove)
6. Soul Sanctuary
7. One of Us (I know, weak cover, but I kinda like it, I like his vocal delivery and guitar)
8. Slave
9. Damned If I Do

 

mccartey, Press to Play, Give My Regards et

Lennon Sometime in NY YOrk City (his worst work ever)!
RocknRoll, tied for worst

Neil Youngs Rockabilly Stuff,,pure crap

Blak crowes,cant remember was 100% hippie jams. Terrible

 

It's so odd..I love the Stones. I'm not a fanatic like some in this place (and I mean that in a very cool way), but I love me some Stones. That being said I got into them later when they were releasing Some Girls, Tattoo You, Steel Wheels, etc. So when I started to go back I was pretty excited because I hadn't picked up their "Sgt. Pepper", "Exile On Main Street". I put the new (at the time) box set on my Christmas list and promptly dove in headfirst Christmas night. I just couldn't connect and I wanted to. I really wanted to. Maybe I need to try harder. I know it's sacrilegious to say, but I totally love recent songs like "Doom and Gloom", "Rough Justice" and "Don't Stop", but I love a lot of the older songs too. Not sure why Exile didn't do much, but I guess to each his own..

Joe

 

I gotta agree here. I tried to dig that CD...and that's from a big U2 fan..

 

I would venture to say that most Beatles solo albums were a disappointment after the amazing run as a group.

Only All Things Must Pass, Ringo, and Band on the Run were top notch in my view in terms of studio work; though I do like Wings over America

I was bummed when Beat came out after King Crimson's Discipline.

Also bummed when Procol's Ninth was mediocre compared to what came before. I won't even begin to discuss Something Tragic.

Yes Albums after Relayer.

The Final Cut by Pink Floyd.

The U2 album after Achtung Baby (I can't even remember its name now...Lemon...Zooropa?)

All Stones albums post Some Girls.

 

When I brought Dylan's Down In The Groove home, played it and called a friend to tell him about it, he said I sounded like I had lost a close friend.

 

Incidentally, I, too, love a lot of records listed here as disappointments (Green, Be Here Now, Don't Tell A Soul)

Anyway, here a few from more recent years:

Prefab Sprout, "The Gunman"
Paul McCartney, "Driving Rain"
The Church, "Magician Among the Spirits"
Travis, "12 Memories" (someone else mentioned this one, I think)
Paul Weller, "22 Dreams" (I've since come around . . . )
Fountains of Wayne, "Sky Full of Holes"

 

True, but the remix is awesome. Did you like it?

Joe

 

Bob Dylan - Oh Mercy. Maybe I was expecting too much. I know it was following some pretty bad 80s albums, but for some reason, it just didn't click for me. I need to go back and listen to it again. I liked what Lanois did years later on Time Out of Mind. That one did click.

Elvis Costello - Spike. I guess it was only natural, as much I loved EC and The Attractions, that his first album without them (not counting King of America) was a letdown for me. Also he had left Columbia and moved to WB. McCartney was there for "Veronica" and it made the Top 40, but I was really disappointed when I played the CD. I can't remember if the Rhino reissue helped or not.

R.E.M. - Green. Also a move from one label to another (IRS to WB). There were a few good songs but overall I felt they lost something when they became major label artists, especially after Document. I still loved Automatic For The People and some of their other WB output so it's not all a loss.

Steely Dan - Two Against Nature. Major SD fan - couldn't wait for this one. Can't remember much other than "Almost Gothic." I really liked Everything Must Go, though, although most fans seem to prefer Two Against Nature over that one.

I like to think of album disappointments in "real time" - i.e., buying it when it came out and not down the line somewhere. There have also been some of the latter when I am going back and exploring an artists' discography. For instance, after listening to Music From Big Pink and The Band, I can remember how much of a letdown Stage Fright was to me when I got into them in the early 80s.