Albums you gave a 2nd chance to, but now know you will NEVER play again

Metallica, St Anger. What a joke of an album, by the band that went AWOL longer than any other (between Justice & Death). I bought this when it came out, played it maybe 3 or 4 times waiting in vain for it to make any kind of sense, then filed it away for nearly 20 years.

So yesterday, I picked up the CD/DVD version for 50p at the car boot, along with Reload, which I'd never previously paid for. And I just played it again, as the backdrop to cleaning my oven, which suffered a catastrophic oil spillage last night - ugly music, for an ugly task. And guess what? It still makes no sense what-so-ever. Ok, a few decent riffs, but mind-numbingly overlong songs going nowhere; crybaby lyrics; no guitar solos; and the drums, performed to Oilrig's usual inept standards, but this time sounding like they were recorded on a beach in Trinidad. Just horrible.

So the oven's now fragrantly clean, but I definitely won't be playing the CD again. Unfortunately there's still the small matter of the DVD to contend with, featuring even longer versions of some of the 'songs'. Remains to be seen whether a visual accompaniment will soften, or more likely exacerbate, the crapitude of the album.

Other examples?

 

Elton John The Big Picture.

 

Band On the Run.

 

"Lemonade"
Beyonce

 

No second chances.

 

After being tricked once, one should learn from one's mistakes and avoid being tricked in the same way again.

 

Anything by Styx and Asia.

 

Marvin Gaye's double divorce album Here My Dear. I love What's Goin' On and Let's Get It On, but after 2 plays, I found Here My Dear to be pretentious, self-indulgent, much too personal and blatantly autobiographical to have much universality, and overlong. I played it twice and traded it off. No regrets.

 

Roger Waters' Pros & Cons of Hitchhiking

I love his surrounding work with Floyd and later solo releases, but this LP is like acid in my eardrums.

 

Really? Maybe you haven’t listened under the influence of the appropriate substances . I love it!

 

I honestly couldn’t think of any album in my collection that I could definitely say I’ll never play again. There’s albums there that are classics like “Pet Sounds” and “Kak” that so far have failed to connect with me but I’d never say never.

 

A slightly different take on the question. Albums that have been in my collection for decades and I’ll never play again.

Two came to mind immediately:

Pink Floyd - The Final Cut

Blondie - Auto American

I played both during lockdown and knew I’d never spin them again, both boring, though at least Blondie’s has a few hooks. That said, I love the cover painting of Auto American so it shall remain. And I’ve owned my copy of The Final Cut since it was released, so it will stay with the rest if the Pink Floyd catalog, even if it’s likely not to be played again. Sentimentality triumphs!.

 

Manchester Orchestra (a band, not an actual orchestra) - Simple Math

I bought this after hearing an amazing song from it on Zane Lowe's Radio1 show in 2011. I forgot to listen to it after buying it, but discovered it around six months later, gave it a play, and wasn't in the slightest bit interested in any of the songs, didn't like the album at all.

I forgot about it for about 5 years and tried it again in full and still didn't like it at all.

I'm now very convinced I'd heard an awesome song on Zane Lowe's show that night, but am presuming either he said the wrong name when saying what he was about to play/had just played, or I got mixed up somewhere in all of this, but it can't possibly have been a song from this album that I'd heard that night.

 

Also the fact that they both rank only slightly above "Kilroy Was Here" in used-store desirability.

 

Tales From Topographic Oceans. Not that it's bad. It's listenable, but leaves no lasting impression. Even "Sound Chaser" from Relayer is hummable in comparision. And this one was called "vomit stew" by Pitchfork. Not that this means anything...

 

I'm a fan of an appropriate substance or two, but if I don't like music without them, they're not going to help me get there.

 

Archers Of Loaf - White Trash Heroes
Beastie Boys - To The Five Boroughs
Built To Spill - Ancient Melodies of the Future, There is No Enemy
Butthole Surfers - Piouhgd
Faith No More - Album of the Year
Fugazi - Steady Diet of Nothing
Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
Primus - Antipop
Superchunk - Foolish, Indoor Living, Come Pick Me Up, Here's To Shutting Up

 

I’m afraid so.

 

I'm a pretty big Manchester Orchestra fan -- a band I've never seen discussed on the forum before. So I have to use this opportunity to suggest, if you haven't, to check out the album before Simple Math called Mean Everything to Nothing. It's full of awesome songs, so it might have the one you heard. Simple Math is probably my least favorite of their albums.

 

If beer goggles are required to appreciate it, then how good can it be? No thanks.

 

Fleetwood Mac/Tusk

 

Nik Kershaw Human Racing

"Wouldn't It Be Good" is a great ******' song; unfortunately the rest of the album sounds nothing like that.

 

You gave all Styx and Asia records two listens? That's odd, I would figure you would have known the bands weren't for you after a sampling a few songs only.

 

Not their finest hours for me:
Joni Mitchell- Blue
The Kinks -Think Visual
The Clash - London Calling
Jeff Beck - Loud Hailer
Butch Hancock - War And Peace

 

Zooropa has had three or four chances.