Least Favorite Best Albums

[Larry Schuler]

The flip side of the Favorite Worst Albums thread.

These are a band or artist’s most beloved/successful records that you are just not feeling.

Two that come to mind for me:

Green Day - American Idiot. After going “punk mature” with their album Warning and having the early recordings for their follow up (promised to be a return to an angrier Insomniac sound) stolen from the studio, Green Day hit the artistic and career reset button by doubling down on pseudo-political mall rock with themes heavy handed enough to satisfy any 15 year old living in the Bush Jr era. I consider Warning to be the last record by Green Day the band and American Idiot to be the first record by Green Day the rock music company.

The National - High Violet. I like this record but it has my all-time least favorite National songs (England, Runaway, Vanderlyle) and two of those are considered all-time classics by fans who tout HV as their best record. To me, it’s their least fleshed out record, trading depth and intricacy for immediate volume and “epic-ness” and released with 3-4 tracks that sound like well-produced first sketches of a National song and those maudlin favorites I named above. Lemonworld is an all-time fave though.

[*BaseClogger*]

The American Idiot singles got played to death but I can't condone the hate because 'Jesus of Suburbia' is one of their career highlights IMO.

[Dom Heffner]

Oh this is easy.

Beyonce- Lemonade

I really do not get it. At all. It lacks any melody, which is why we are all here.

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The American Idiot singles got played to death but I can't condone the hate because 'Jesus of Suburbia' is one of their career highlights IMO.

I love the American Idiot record. Id also never think less of anybody for not liking it.

[redsfan9988]

As someone who was once a 15-year-old living in the Bush Jr. era, I respectfully disagree…

[ShyGuy]

A Wizard A True Star by Todd Rundgren.

I love One Small Victory the last song on the album but the rest of is just sorta okay imo.

Many Todd fans love the album

[NebraskaRed]

I understand that Pearl Jam's Ten is their 'best' album in terms of commercial success. But it's the only one of their albums that I never have any desire to listen to.

[kaldaniels]

I understand that Pearl Jam's Ten is their 'best' album in terms of commercial success. But it's the only one of their albums that I never have any desire to listen to.

I love Pearl Jam. LOVE.

But man I can’t shake the feeling they left so much on the table over their career.

[Larry Schuler]

They really did used to be the band that your uncle worked out to in the garage. Then Eddie Vedder decided he wanted to be an artist.

[Roy Tucker]

A Wizard A True Star by Todd Rundgren.

I love One Small Victory the last song on the album but the rest of is just sorta okay imo.

Many Todd fans love the album

I was a much bigger fan of the pop-laden Something/Anything.

I saw Rundgren and Utopia on their aborted 1973 tour at the old Agora on High St in Columbus. Expecting pop, i was pretty well baffled by the synthesizer laden stuff he did. But I was also pretty high at the time too so I chalked it up to being drug addled.

[M2]

I'll tilt at something a little more sacred. I'll preface this by saying I've got no issue with the record itself. It's a fine, quirky listen, but I get five kinds of irked when people fawn over it. It also might not have general consensus as the artist's best work, but it ranks pretty on most lists and fans use it to prove they're not some rabble who just likes the hits.

Anyway, David Bowie's Low always struck me as an outtakes compilation. Now, it's Bowie and Brian Eno messing around in studios, and they're both brilliant, so what we get are some really cool earworms. Yet they don't really add up to songs. The vocals say very little and are there mostly for percussion. The songs lack structure and the album doesn't offer up anything in terms of a perspective or vision. They're mostly playing around with ideas that will become more fleshed out songs on Heroes and The Lodger. We never were in danger of hearing anything from Low on the radio.

The record might be a very nice ball of dough, but they didn't bake it enough for it to become a loaf of bread.

Oh, and while I'm uttering profanities, let's toss Kid A into the bonfire. Hooray Thom, you made something completely atonal.

[NebraskaRed]

Love Dark Side of the Moon. Love Animals (a lot!). Love Wish You Were Here.

The Wall always felt like an album I'm supposed to like rather than an album I actually do like.

[Revering4Blue]

Love Dark Side of the Moon. Love Animals (a lot!). Love Wish You Were Here.

The Wall always felt like an album I'm supposed to like rather than an album I actually do like.

I agree.

I always found the Wall tracks as a whole - the concept/theme of the album - kind of depressing. Young Lust and Run Like Hell still have replay value to me.

And I never understood the universal appeal of Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2. IMHO, it’s the Hotel California of Pink Floyd tracks - Read: Overrated and overplayed.


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[westofyou]

Love Dark Side of the Moon. Love Animals (a lot!). Love Wish You Were Here.

The Wall always felt like an album I'm supposed to like rather than an album I actually do like.

Agree

[westofyou]

I love Pearl Jam. LOVE.

But man I can’t shake the feeling they left so much on the table over their career.

I saw them about 7 times in the nineties, but eventually they lost me

[westofyou]

I'm not a fan of Tattoo You at all.

Not supposed to be their best album but it was damn popular.

Not a fan of Eno and Bowie's collaborations myself... had a roommate who would play Eno's Airport albums back in the day and drive me insane.