What has been your biggest album disappointment?

Pink Floyd - The Final Cut was possibly one of the biggest album letdowns of all time for me. I admit, the expectations were very, very high, as I was a long time fan, but jeez, what a self important/indulgent snoozefest. I actually like A Momentary Lapse of Reason better, and that's the faintest of praise.
Oh, to the folks here who just can't imagine how someone doesn't like an album they love -- there's this funny thing called personal taste.

 

MSG - Perfect Timing
Placebo - Battle for the Sun

Totally different bands and eras, but two garbage records that followed ones I loved.

 

The original "Graceland" CD had an average dynamic range of 14, and sounds great. The CD was remastered in 2004, and subsequently for the 25th anniversary editions and "hi-res" releases with a DR of 9. If you don't like the songs, that's fine, but me thinks you also got one of the remastered editions with inferior SQ.

 

Partridge Family - Crossword Puzzle (sounded like Notebook rejects because that is exactly what it was)

Cher - Love Hurts ( after Heart of Stone this was just uninspired and had an even uglier cover)

Bow Wow Wow - When the Going Gets Tough ( Prozac mister in the studio - they were no longer scary and the jungle drums were dampened)

Foster the People - second album.....don't even remember the name but the first album is excellent.

 

Elvis Costello - Goodbye Cruel World. I remember rushing to the shop to buy it the day it came out, then preparing for an Elvis evening. Played his previous two albums, settled down with a bottle of wine and put it on.... Never been so underwhelmed, didn't like a single track.

Fleetwood Mac - Tusk. Ditto. But I persisted and whittled it down to a single album on a cassette

McCartney II - apart from Coming Up, Waterfalls and Temporary Secretary this would have been better off as a bootleg. Those three tracks should have just been a single.

 

I think this applies to most Floyd albums after Piper basically - about 5 songs padded out with sound effects and jamming. It's not always a bad thing, and Gilmour was forced to develop as a player to cover, but all in all their instrumental interludes aren't that interesting.

 

Thanks! I know Mr Jagger agrees with me.

 

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I don't understand the hate on this album, but then again I never had high expectations. I bought it in high-school and I was hooked. And I was a metal head back then, too.

 

3. Cocaine

 

I don't really anticipate upcoming albums but an album that received a ton of praise that I expected to love was Pet Sounds. I like the atmosphere and feel of the album but tbh its pretty boring for me. Another one I felt that way about was The Velvet Underground and Nico which should've been even more up my alley.

 

You misunderstand me. You can like whatever you like, as long as you like "Exile on Main St" and "The Final Cut." Otherwise, I mean, if you want to call it taste, that's just like your opinion man.

 

Pink Floyd - 'The Wall". Was a huge fan of Pink Floyd when I was a kid - loved every album they'd done prior to The Wall, bought it eagerly the day it was released and hated everything about it - the concept, the epic self-absorption, the songwriting, the music, Waters' vocals, everything - right down to the production. I've tried to listen to it again several times in the intervening years, and I still can't find anything to like about it.

 

The Sensual World. I'm still bummed about it.

 

I agree.

 

I think it's cause it's mostly soft songs that sound samey. Only Not now John really stands out. It's got some of their most powerful moments but as a whole it feels less creative than previous releases.

 

Do me a favor, go back and listen to the first 18 songs on Exile and tell me if you still think it's disappointing.

 

David Bowie - Lodger

I didn't think it was such a bad album. It was just that, for the first time, there was a new David Bowie album that I could not get into. I tried. I made a cassette for the car and played it over and over. It just did not click with me like his albums from Space Oddity through "Heroes" did. And that really bugged me. After the longest time, I gave up.

(I do quite like "Repetition", "Red Money" and to an extent "D.J.".)

 

I didn't say it was disappointing. I just like other albums better, like Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed.

 

Please note thread title.

 

Some have been previously mentioned but so far these are the one's that stick out most to me.

The Final Cut - Terribly boring...and I tried and tried.

Theater of Pain - I wore out my copy of "Shout At the Devil" and this was....bad.

5150 - Fifteen year old me in 1985: "Van Halen is going to rock even harder now that they've got Sammy Hagar".

Sixteen year old me in 1986: "Man, I hope Dave comes back!"

Fly On The Wall - terrible.

Permanent Vacation - Call me crazy but 15 year old me really liked "Done With Mirrors". I hated every song on this as much as I tried to convince myself I liked it at the time. Still can't stand Dude, Rag Doll and Angel.

On Every Street - "Brothers in Arms" is an all-time favorite. This, the follow-up, I've never even upgraded to CD.

KISS - Funny but I've warmed up to this a bit and see it as a good, if not great, pop rock album. Ten year old me wanted KISS to rrraaaaaaaawwwwwkkkkkk!!!!! It didn't.

Hysteria - After a four year wait we get this?

 

Noel said that exact thing. Say what you will about the guy, he's not a bulls****er.

I've been thinking about that album a lot lately, what with it having a pretty clear influence on the title track of Blackstar.

If you take it for what it is and look backwards, his history (both creative and career-wise) really adds a lot of weight to the pitch black melancholy. If you listen through his stuff and hear Tilt chronologically, it's an impenetrable brick.

Another vote for Exile on Main Street. I get the vibe, it's just not enough to carry the album for me.

Like a Prayer. I was 18 and a major contrarian, and Madonna was the Anti-Christ to the indie rock kids in the late 80s. I grew to appreciate her pop songs, but couldn't truly take her seriously. When I heard that LAP was going to be her "mature" album, I really looked forward to watching her get serious (and yes, making my friends roll their eyes. Hey, I was 18.)

It's just meh. I really felt let down. I think that's one of the reasons I like Gaga as much as I do. The leap from The Fame to The Fame Monster is the leap I wanted Madonna to make from True Blue to Like a Prayer.

But if we're talking my BIGGEST disappointment, it's one I quickly got over. Man I really, REALLY hated Disintegration when it came out.

 

Prince - Emancipation. It was heavily hyped about how Prince (or O+> as he was called in 1996) was finally doing the untampered masterpieces that Warner hadn't allowed him to release... and the album that marked life after Warner and a heavy promo blitz was this bloated, filler-laden 3 hour piece of mediocrity that had maybe a good 45 minutes in there.

 

This!
It even has the release date on the artwork and I remember buying it and thinking how cool it was that I bought this soon to be classic on the date.
Then I listened to it

 

I felt the reverse. Take Cherish and Express Yourself out of the equation and LAP is a massive leap forward from the pure pop sensibilties of True Blue. Gaga otoh matured musically but the lyrics were still fluff as hell... Monster, So Happy I Could Die and Telephone were hardly a "marked maturity" compared to Oh Father, Till Death Do Us Part, Promise To Try, etc...