LCT would fit, 3S not at all. Nothing wrong with the song, but it’s in a totally different mood. Great b-side material. About LCT, how come there are two different edits of the same take? The Wide Awake EP has some extra bars at the start and the 1980-90 B-sides disc has a false start. That said, I wouldn’t really want to trade in Elvis or anything else off of TUF.
For me, it was Us, which felt like an uninspired rehash of So. I could accept his commercial makeover the first time, but offering up a sort of replay on the follow up was a disappointment. The Passion soundtrack is his last great statement, IMO. David Bowie would be at the top of my list, but a lot of classic rockers struggled to stay relevant in the 80s.
I thought it was a breath of fresh air after the relatively faceless MOR of Speed Of Sound. A folky direction I wish Macca/Wings would have pursued further.
I remember being pretty let down when Double fantasy first came out. For starters, while her material wasn't all that horrible, I didn't want-or expect-a new John Lennon album after five years of "nothing" to be half Yoko. But beyond, half of John's tracks weren't much to marvel at, either. What can iIsay....at the time, I accepted and felt good about the fact that he was back recording new music, but I expected more.
Yeah, I remember that. I was 17 yo and could not wait until the next Aerosmith record was out. I was so excited when it was finally released only to listen to it and say "What the hell is this?" The first 4 were exceptional. "Draw the Line" was such a letdown. There were quite a few letdowns for a few years. They were never the same. Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll will do that to you. "Rocks" is still my favorite Aerosmith record. It does and they did!
I found The Verve's Fourth, Blur's The Magic Whip, and The Libertines' Anthems of Doomed Youth all to be dissapointing to the point I feel they have tarred each of their legacies.
Linda Perhacs - The Dancer. First album: Parallelograms. A psych-folk classic sadly let down by the quality of its initial production, fully rectified on later CD release. Second album: The Soul of all Natural Things. Even better, if possible. Third album: The Dancer. Most of it sounds to me like a bunch of impromptu songs made up to amuse a group of kindergarten children. A massive letdown.
Amused To Death by Roger Waters Didn't like it at all when it came out, very disappointing following Pros and Cons and Radio KAOS. I've listened to it a few times since then, and I like it a bit better now.
my two cents, thinking of that early 80's desolate period-- Seems like the early to mid 1980's brought a lot of formerly all-but-invincible artists to a point where they were doing really forgettable work, and succumbing to the 'let's try to make it sound current' trap. so I'm thinking of three or four artists who all had great work in the 70's and whose 80-85 output started going way way downhill.. joni mitchell (wild things run fast was very good, but after that... not so much) david bowie (while the 'serious moonlight tour was great, the album let's dance was just ok, and the ones after that for the rest of the decade, not good) jethro tull ('a' was... ok, i saw the tour, but that bad solo album and then the tull albums after that (broadsword, under wraps etc) got worse and worse, really uninteresting to me) neil young (after rust never sleeps, and live rust, seems like he never really regained great sustained songwriting for a long time after...) good thing there were artists like richard thompson, and loudon wainwright who got better and better (or sustained being great) all thru the 80's and beyond
Pet Sounds heard so much positive comments and reviews...then I heard it for myself. Not saying it is bad, just not my cup of tea.
In 1979, I was a bit of a fan of Barry Manilow. His albums had been getting better, each of them spawning three or even four big hit singles. So when he released “One Voice,” after the multi-platinum success of the albums “This One’s For You” and “Even Now,” I had high hopes. What a let-down. There wasn’t one song on there I liked. The one moderate-hit single from the album, “Ships,” was certainly tolerable, but that’s it. It was such a precipitous fall that I never bought another Manilow record after that ... until just a few years ago when I bought the “Ultimate Manilow” CD.
just thought of another disappointment- the second album by steve forbert, jackrabbit slim i had really liked the first one 'alive on arrival' a lot, had all the 'right' early dylan influences, etc. and that second album was just so overproduced, slick and 'manufactured' sounding!
here's another dissapointment- an album i never actually, in fairness, owned, but in the late 70's i was discovering the vast earlier catalog of miles davis, things like kind of blue, esp, bitches brew, etc.. all so great, and he was inactive for five years or more.. then what did he release 'the man with the horn'-- heard parts of it and thought it was a dissapointing 'comeback'. he did get a lot better later in the 80's (and i saw a fantastic concert just around the time he started doing 'tutu' (before the album came out tho, i think- this was live and a lot more exciting then the album) ... but 'man with the horn' ... not great.
Yes – Heaven and Earth I did a Meet & Greet for Yes on what I believe was the first tour with Jon Davison. The whole band blew me away and I thought Jon did a great job. (I’m not one of the ’No Jon Anderson, no Yes’ folks.) At the M&G, the band were sitting side-by-side behind a long table as we moved down the line to get a brief moment with each guy and have them sign something. We were told fist-bumps only, no shaking hands. When I got to Jon, in total sincerity I looked at him and said I was so blown away at how well he sang the songs and I now couldn’t wait for them to do a proper album, then thanked him for a wonderful show. He paused for a moment, then stood up and reached out to shake my hand, saying thank you for the the kinds words. He seemed genuinely touched. That meant a lot to me, especially after Steve Howe who barely acknowledged that I had been standing in front of him. Anyway, Heaven and Earth comes out and... I was really disappointed. Not with Jon specifically... the whole band. I thought the songs were so boring. I didn’t expect them to recreate the 70s, but watching them on stage, certainly they were still capable of being musically adventurous. I think what made it worse was that same week I got Talk for the first time. Obviously a different lineup and about 20 years earlier. But that album, to me, had energy and a spark to it. H&E lacked that.
How interesting! My experience is just about the same. (Although I had another pick for biggest disappointment.) I liked Manilow’s music, but One Voice is about the time I checked out. I do really like Ships, though. I think that’s a great song. And I also liked I Made It Through The Rain on the follow-up, Barry. But One Voice is where I thought it was time to expand my musical library beyond what was influenced by my mom’s record collection. Maybe that was why it didn’t grab me at the time... my tastes were changing. Anyway, one liked song on two albums equaled Barry and I parting company. A few years back I also bought Ultimate Manilow and filled it in with the missing songs that were on Greatest Hits. I played that one a lot and I kind of wanted to recreate it.
Mike Pinder - The Promise. I always liked his songwriting in Moody Blues albums and his arrangements were the most adventurous. I was expecting something along that line when his first LP was issued in 1976, I bought it without having heard it when it was newly released. I couldn't believe what a boring album it was on first listen, I gave it another try a few days later, it was truly a poor album. 1976 was a year of similar disappointments, like Jethro Tull's "Too Old To Rock & Roll..." and ELO's "A New World Record".
Cheap Trick's Busted was a bit disappointing after Lap Of Luxury (which wasn't a great album, but had a few really great tracks, "Don't Be Cruel" and "Ghost Town" being my 2 favorites), and probably Prince's Sign O' The Times, which seemed underwhelming to me at the time. It was the last Prince album I ever bought.
I loved Wand's 1000 Days, thought it was the bees knees, was mortified by the 2 albums that preceded it. Can only assume it was a fluke.
