fallow

I get aggravated reading about disappointing releases in a best-of thread. Bring it here where we can hate on records w/o hating on DVDTalkers, w00t! And keep it friendly because I'll delete this thing w/o a second thought if it gets out of hand. That isn't to say that a mature discussion of the questionable albums isn't allowed.

The albums that really let me down:

-Blur, Think Tank
I suppose this wasn't a huge disappointment considering I've always been more of a Blur singles fan than a Blur album fan. But ya know. I can barely sit through this one.

-Super Furry Animals, Phantom Power
Never been a huge SFA fan, though I do rather like Rings Around the World. Anyway, this one is pretty enough but just didn't measure, IMO.

-Grandaddy, Sumday
The Sophtware Slump is an atmospheric beauty of creative pop; what happened? There are some gems buried in here -"El Caminos in the West", "I'm on Standby", "OK With My Decay"- but that's exactly the problem. You have to dig for them and they aren't that rewarding.

-Radiohead, Hail to the Thief
Sure, some of the songs on this album are their best yet (say it w/ me: "Myxomatosis" & "Sit Down, Stand Up") but the filler tracks ("Sail to the Moon", "Backdrifts", The Gloaming") are either pointless studio wankstery that doesn't even approach "moderately good" or generic to the point of digusting. I guess that's what happens when you record 3 amazing albums -The Bends, OK Computer and Kid A- in a row. I'm still holding out for the next one.

cdollaz

Metallica - St. Anger - There has been plenty said about this on here and I think it was horrible in every way.

Live - Birds of Pray - Shit.

Living Colour - Collideoscope - Really crappy comeback. Poor songwriting.

King's X - Black Like Sunday - I am a big fan, but on this one they recorded stuff they had written in the eighties. Bad Idea.

Queensryche - Tribe - Ugh. When did they turn into *******?

ZZ Top - Mescalero - Bland. Nothing new here. I hope they get back to their roots someday.

The Strokes - Room On Fire - Plods along. Nothing new and it all sounds the same.

Rypro 525

alright crap in my book
stacey's mom fountains of wayne
in da club 50 cent

SAShepherd

The Thorns -- s/t. I knew that I wasn't getting a Matthew Sweet album here, but it was just so... dull...

Also, I wasn't expecting much from the new Lucinda Williams (World Without Tears), as her albums have held increasingly less interest for me, but it's just so dull. Kathleen Edwards (who sometimes gets compared to her, if only because of the voice) seems to have better tunes and not quite such a... wearying songwriting approach.

woofman

Agreed, it could have been so much more.

Metallica: St. Anger- I wasn't expecting much from this, and while it is an ok effort, it just doesn't cut it. Not half as good as what they used to be- metal.

Cosmic Bus

My disappointments:

Radiohead - HttT: I adore OKC and Kid A, and really liked Amnesiac, but this was just horrid. I couldn't make it completely through a second listen...

Matthew Good - Avalanche: Matt needs to bring back the "Band" portion of his name, because this was such a massive step down from Audio of Being and the Loser Anthems EP. There are a few good tracks on here, along with a lot of junk and "21st Century Living" which is one of the worst songs I heard all year.

I also thought the Postal Service and Raveonettes released really bad albums, although I don't know if they were disappointing... I wasn't exactly anticipating either of them.

Do yourself a favor and import Matthew Sweet's Japanese-only release Kimi Ga Suri. Great, great stuff and probably his best work in a decade.

The Antipodean

Big dissappointments for me (because it's far more fun to post about things you DON'T like )

Elvis Costello - North. I wanted to like it, I tried to like it, but it's just so tepid and bland compared to the masterpiece that was "When I Was Cruel." I can see what he was trying to do here, but it didn't work for me. Worst, the best song of the session, "North," isn't even ON the freakin' CD except in DVD video form!

Guided By voices - Earthquake Glue. I've loved these guys since "Bee Thousand" but they're officially off my "must-buy" list after their third mediocre album in a row. Pollard is prolific, but it's time he got an editor. Three great songs, eight or so boring, sludgy and hook-less ones here. A far cry from their power pop glory days of "Bee Thousand" or "Alien Lanes."

Gdrlv

eels - Shootenany - As I said in the top 5 thread, E has lost it. Souljacker started the decline. This disc finished it. There's really only one stand out track ("Love of the Loveless"). To be honest, it's hard for me to fathom that the same guy who wrote and recorded all of Electro Shock Blues actually turned out something this uninspired and boring.

The Be Good Tanyas - Chinatown - Sophomore slump strikes again. Blue Horse was such a great album with sparse arrangements and beautiful melodies. I just don't see why they had to muck it up with over-production and unnecessarily busy arrangements.

Grandaddy - Sumday - Speaking of the Sophomore slump, this album is nowhere near as good as the Sophtware Slump. Not necessarily bad but a giant step backwards.

The Format - Interventions and Lullabies - Okay, not exactly a disappointment but a misguided purchase. The 45 seconds I listened to at the listening booth sounded good...why didn't I go a little further and realize these guys were Dashboard Confessional lite?

Junior Senior - D-d-don't Stop the Beat - I wanted to like it. I tried to like it. I don't like it. I'm at a loss as to why everyone is so in love with these guys.

Hollowgen

Foo Fighters - One By One: i've always enjoyed the Foo Fighters, and while they're certainly not an amazing band, they're good, and have consistently come up with new and original sounding alt. rock. the latest album is just bland, and it sounds like Dave Grohl has either run out of steam, or isn't having fun being the singer/songwriter anymore.

OutKast - Speakerboxx/The Love Below: each cd is good on it's own merits, but it's just not the Outkast that i'm used to, i guess. i like Big Boi and Andre together, not separated.

Quasi - Hot Shit: umm, someone should tell Sam Coomes that political stage banter doesn't really belong on an offical album.

Ween - Quebec: i'm sorry, but it just seems like ween got too serious about their music, and now they're trying to take a step back to where they were when they were insanely ridiculous. and now the music is just ridiculously lame.

Grandaddy - Sumday: for the same reasons mentioned above. Sophtware Slump is amazingly good. Sumday is amazingly boring.

Ergyu

Metallicas St. Anger. After reading and (unfortunately) buying into all the hype about them getting back to their roots and stuff, I was extremely dissapointed. They could have released an hour of Lars dropping logs in the shitter and it would have been more exciting.

custom001

Call me shallow, but I think OK Computer was the last good Radiohead album.

woofman

Blasphemy!!!!

I'll admit it's not quite as raw as previous efforts, but a very strong effort none the less. The last song on the CD just plain RAWKS! And you still can't F!@# with them live.

SAShepherd

Yeah, you and somebody else here also said it was really good. It's just hard to convince myself to part with the $25+ for the album (that's two, if not three, other albums in my book). But I know Sweet has shown absolutely no intention of releasing the album Stateside.

So it sounds like you think it's his best since Girlfriend? As good as Altered Beast and In Reverse?

fallow, if we start talking about albums we really like in a thread about disappointing albums, is that a thread-crap?

glasschicken

Radiohead - Hail to the Theif (thought it was supposed to be good. What happened?)

Foo Fighters - One By One (Liked it a lot at first, but now it sounds boring)

Can't remember what else I bought that came out this year. (my memory sucks big time.)

Giles

Two comments I wholeheartedly agree with. Listened to the entire album one morning at Tower Records (file that under heard it, thank god I didn't buy it.... next!)

Travis - "12 Memories" - there are only four other songs I like from off the album, the rest of the album is crap, and I really think the song "Peace the **** Out" is piss-poor.

Super Furry Animals -"Phantom Power" - the biggest disappointment this year, most all the songs sound the same: the best songs are "Golden Retriever" and "Liberty Belle".

Stereophonics - "You Gotta Go There to Come Back" - the Rod Stewart shtick is getting old, Kelly, enought is enough.

fallow

SAShepherd, you're about to find out. The hard way. And so is everyone else. (just kidding, by the way)

Hey, why did they change my subject line and supra-hip/(mock) beat poet spelling of 'your?'

benedict

&nbsp

Gdrlv

For $25, I'd have ordered it. On Amazon, it's $45! Absolutely ridiculous...even for an import.

Splice2003

quote:
"Yeah, you and somebody else here also said it was really good. It's just hard to convince myself to part with the $25+ for the album (that's two, if not three, other albums in my book). But I know Sweet has shown absolutely no intention of releasing the album Stateside."

I picked it up this past weekend. $14 new! It's got a "Girlfriend" kind of sound to it.
Check these guys out: http://www.grimeys.com/news.html

They might do a mail order for you.

lostatmidnight

Perfect Circle 'thirteenth step'

(yawn) pretention at its highest level....hey, I heard this album when it was called Lateralus.

Chim

uhh, I'll wager that you've never heard Lateralus at all.

Probably the most moronic statement I've read in Music Talk.

The Antipodean

Did you read the very first post in this thread or just choose to ignore it completely?

Chim

I can understand lostatmidnight saying that its too pretentious, calling it a lateralus clone while having it sound absolutely nothing like lateralus save for the same lead singer set me off in a way that i immediately had to respond to it, for better or worse

Either way, I still love lostatmidnight, and you too Sierra Mist <3

SAShepherd

It's always nice to be proven wrong.

Thanks to BigJim's New Releases thread -- http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=337555 -- I found out that Kimi Ga Suki will be getting a full-blown domestic release (or, at least, full-blown enough that Amazon has it up for preorder for like $15).

With this news, it moves up to the top of my purchase list.

Jason

Metallica - St. Anger. I wasn't even looking forward to this, as Metallica had already lost their focus long before this came out, but I was disappointed that they took such an easy way out, making a nu-metal shitstorm that is neither technically proficient or properly recorded. Probably the worst possible thing they could have done.

50 Cent - I enjoy rap music when the MC has real talent (I'm showing my age by wanting an actual MC, I know), and an artist brought to the spotlight by Eminem certainly sounds interesting, but 2 Quarters is nothing but lowest common denominator mumbling that we've heard a thousand times before.