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Just got Spotify not too long ago, and I've been digging into listening to some oddities and obscure albums by some bands who I really like.
I came across some of The Bee Gees later albums from the late 80s and early 90s, and man... they are pretty terrible. I mean, really bad. Maybe I'd feel differently if I listened to them more, but my first impression was a big fat "yuck", with only a few listenable exceptions... and I love, love, love The Bee Gees material from the 60s through early 80s.

There's even a pseudo rap song where old, famous Bee Gees song lyrics are referenced.
Smart Girls-style.

This got me thinking, maybe the BBs crappier albums/songs weren't so off-the-cliff bad compared to their contemporaries lesser works.

What do y'all think?

I dunno. I can't think of many albums worse than SIP and KTSA. With most bands' worst albums, I tend to at least find something on them that is pretty good so I don't have to admit they're bad albums.  For fun though let's compare the BB's worst stuff to other bands' worst.
The Beach Boys: Summer in Paradise
The Beatles: Let It Be
The Who:  Numbers
The Doors: The Soft Parade
The Rolling Stones: Dirty Work
Pink Floyd: Ummagumma
Billy Joel: Streetlife Serenade

KTSA ranks higher on my list...a LOT higher than SIP.  The number of flies Summer in Pair of Dice attracts is unbelievable.  Thank goodness it wasn't their swan song.  Thank Brian.  Whew!!!

Hard to be less impressive musically than SIP is Cent Dep.  It's almost a caricature of the group.  A ship without a rudder. A day without the sun.  A singer wihout a song.  After THAT :o ...it's almost impossible to believe that the Beach Boys actually managed to continue on.

They went almost 20 years without a new, original release.  They soldiered on with no Wilsons and without Al Jardine for much of it...No it's really almost impossible to believe that it somehow kept on rolling.

It can really only be 1 thing that, against all odds and anything else that makes ANY sense, allowed it to happen.  The songs. :hat

The Beach Boys worst albums - SIP notwithstanding because it simply doesn't sound like a Beach Boys album, and in terms of personnel isn't one really - still have merit on the strength of the harmonies and signature sound. Take any of those albums and imagine them as the one and only Beach Boys album there is and I think you'd find some merit to them, in the arrangements in vocals if not in the material itself.

My good fellow, do not diss The Who By Numbers !  >:(

If the Beatles had stayed together as long as the Beach Boys, eventually they would have put out 1 or 2 plain awful albums. Thankfully, the former Fabs blessed us with such unlistenable solo works as George's Electronic Sound; John & Yoko's Two Virgins, Life with the Lions, and Wedding Album; Ringo the 4th; Paul's Off the Ground and ...well, that could quite a lengthy list. The cute Beatle keeps cranking them out, for better or for worse.

Hehe, IMHO the Beatles did do that with their last two ones! ;D

"Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" are a horrible warning of what could have happened to the Beatles.

Not a fan of Let It Be, but I think it's at least competent. Love Abbey Road. White Album has enough great songs for a great album if egos didn't ensure the good was buried in a mountain of filler. Honestly, I think Pepper is fluff.

Even so, no band I can think of has a SIP to answer for. You don't get to just discount it because Brian wasn't involved. Even if you do, 15 Big Ones is almost as awful and DID include Brian, so...

Had no idea Ummagumma is considered a "worst album" by some. I'm not really into PF post Syd Barrett's departure (save for Animals, which I love) but I'm sure they have plenty albums in their catalogue weaker than Ummagumma.

Let It Be and Abbey Road are the best albums The Beatles ever did.

Exluding SIP, Beach Boys did actually pretty solid work through out their whole career. I'd actually claim that Surfin' Safari is their second worst album. And Surfin' Safari is not a bad album. Most bands tend to do dozens of unforgettable songs. Even The Beatles. Beach Boys did maybe a dozen, with almost 30 albums. That's pretty good work I'd say.

The Who By Numbers rocks!    Slip Kid, Imagine A Man, They Are All In Love, In A Hand Or Face, Success Story, Dreaming From The Waist.....and yes, the mighty SQUEEZE BOX!!  8)
You wanna pick a lesser Who album, try It's Hard.  ::)

That's YOUR opinion - mine is the 180° opposite! ;D

Well, that's just like your opinion, man!

I didn't realize I offended so many people with my list. I just compiled it based off of album rankings based on a few popular websites. Anyone want to try making a more accurate comparison than mine?

The Kinks put out some absolute stinkers late in the game. As did Chicago.

All I can say is that listening to The Bee Gees' High Civilization has made me feel not quite as embarrassed for The BBs' SIP (the bad half/60% of the album), Smart Girls, and the like. It's just "wow" bad.

<<My good fellow, do not diss The Who By Numbers>>

The Who By Numbers is an EXCELLENT album... one of their finest.  Deceptively simple after Quadrophenia, but a great record... the perfect transition between Quad and Who Are You (which was their last great album).

I'm 50/50 here.  I REALLY like Abbey Road..just one 'iffy' song for me.  Octopus's Garden is what?  A 'try' at finding another Yellow Submarine novelty number?  Whoops...  They missed...but only by a million miles.

Let It Be?  No wonder Paul INSISTED that they do another album...ie:  Abbey Road..  Let it be is overstocked with B tunes...including the 'hits' as far as I'm concerned.  A limp-dicked kind of album if ever there was one.  A tail between their legs...let's get the F outta Dodge kind of swan song that was so far beneath them that obviously something was MEGA wrong and it was time for the 4 of them to scoot in opposite directions.

To THEIR credit...unlike others...they did.  [just one album...and movie too late]
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Yes I too like Who By Numbers.  [for whatever THAT is worth.]

As far a BB contemporaries go I can only think of Bob Dylan as having ran the gamut of sublime to godawful with quite the same scope.

Ummagumma or Atom Heart Mother are my least favorite Floyd albums, but SIP doesn't even hold a candle to either of those. I'd rather listen to "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" than "Hot Fun in the Summertime" any day of the week.

Sorry, I was a bit out of line there, Charlie Harper. I re-read the OP and I was wrong, there was nothing specifically requiring the albums to be among the artist's later, obscure works. I take my criticism back.

"Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" are a horrible warning of what could have happened to the Beatles. >>

I would disagree strongly.  These two songs are Beatles classics in my view; in retrospect my only issue with these tracks are the limitations of technology in 1995.  With the sound production tools today, I have to wonder if Lennon's vocals could have been improved or strengthened, to sound as full as Paul and George. 

I wish, in hindsight, the Beach Boys would do this; Dennis' solo track It's Not Too Late would have been a perfect choice, as it also features Carl.

There's Fleetwood Mac's Behind the Mask which to be fair has a few good tunes courtesy of Christine and Stevie but ultimately suffers at the blandness of Rick Vito and Billy Burnette.  And then there's the Time album with the generic pop star voice of Bekka Bramlett in for Stevie.  Both albums are incredibly uneven and the replacement band members just didn't work at all (except for maybe Dave Mason) though they're still much better than Summer in Paradise.

It's cool man. I wasn't offended at all.

Don't worry one iota Charlie.  There are at least 2 people here who think that Deja Vu is a less than great album.  YOU, my friend, are SAFE. :lol  [and sane.  ;)]

Well, if we can include the Brian-less SIP, then I guess we can include the final Lovin' Spoonful album, minus Sebastian and Zally, Revelation '69 or whatever it's called. Just awful - and I actually liked Joe Butler's songs on the earlier albums, but a whole album of his stuff? No thanks.

I vastly prefer Octopus' Garden to Yellow Submarine, which I always hated. Never understood the flack the former or praise the latter gets.

Rubber Soul and Revolver are the best Beatles albums. Abbey Road is third. After that it doesn't really matter.

The Monkees "Pool It". A once great group doesn't sink any lower than this.

Does Velvet Underground's Squeeze count? I've never heard it, and I'm not a particular fan of the Velvets, but it does have an infamous reputation.

If it was a Doug Yule solo album, it would be a nice little obscure rock album, with 5 good tracks and 7 other more in the 'meh' park. Because of the credited artist it's become this abomination.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwCwGBHd61s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY_g6FT794o

Well, it didn't help that the best songwriter in the group, Papa Nez, was not involved; or that the other 3 did not assist each other on their tracks.

Justus is no picnic either.

Monkees are not comparable. Who By Numbers is a brave,  abrasive album, well superior to Who Are You. I can only co spider the Who, Kinks and Rolling Stones as comparable to BBs given the time they started and finished, thus Dirty Work by the Stones stands as a wretched product equal to the worst of the BBs.

I like Justus. It's no match for PACJLTD or Headquarters, though.

Dirty work is only "wretched" compared to OTHER STONES records.  It is miles better than the BB worst stuff.  In fact, you just stumbled upon the answer:  The Stones have held a MUCH higher level of quality throughout their entire career than anyone else by a long shot.  /thread

Well, I can't think of a Kinks album that ranks as low as SIP. Soap Opera is my least favorite, but I wouldn't call it absolutely awful.

I actually like "The Soft Parade", I know a lot of people don't like it, but IMO it has the best Production out of all the their albums, it's mainstream with horns etc, which is different from their other albums but if you think about it, that album IS the Doors experimenting, it reminds me of the Monkees PAC&J in the sense that it's obvious that they took time with the record to make it perfect, and maybe that's the reason a lot of people don't like "The Soft Parade", but to my ears the fact that it's as well produced as it is is because the Doors were experimenting outside of their normal sound, they also experiment with Country music and R&B on that album and they actually go for different sounds, don't get me wrong I like their other albums ,but for me the Soft Parade underrated...

Too true... but IMHO they redeemed themselves considerably with the excellent Justus. Yes, it wasnt HQ or PACJ but it was a vast improvement on the aforesaid abomination ... and Changes for that matter.
As for Chicago... when WAS their last really good release ?? Chicago XVIII ?? Sisyphus ??

UK Jive and Phobia are tragic, The Kinks really had lost it by the last couple of albums.
P.S. Soap Opera is a campy classic.

I know many disagree but I really don't consider SIP to be a benchmark for bad albums. Yes it's clearly one of their lesser efforts but there's actually a few okayish songs on it, once you get past the horrible, cheap sounding production. Other then a few shitty covers much of the album is simply 'meh', neither good nor bad. There are a couple of stinkers on Love You and Beach Boys 85 that are FAR worse then anything off SIP.

YIKES! Well before that! I get off the Chicago train after Chicago 13, the Donnie Dacus era is a masterwork compared to the Cetera 80s power ballad schlock.

I used to have a CD of a Lou Reed radio broadcast. In the interview Lou is asked where Doug Yule is these days. He deadpans "Dead I hope" to an audible gasp from the crowd. Made me laugh.

People rip on Think Visual a lot but I LOVED that album.

Just some thoughts here:

Surely the worst Doors albums must be the two they cut after Jimbo died, right? There's still some good stuff there, but not at the level of their core catalog (how could it be?). Soft Parade happens to be one of my favorites, though I know it's a divisive album.

Similarly, I would think the low ebb of Pink Floyd would be something like Delicate Sound of Thunder that was released after RW left. With the Who, I'd say Endless Wire is the obvious low point (I LOVE By Numbers).

Pool It and Justus are each about half-good to my way of thinking. Take the best cuts from both and you've got a decent album.

If you want to talk bad late period efforts, the Nashville reunion tracks on the Byrds box set really stink, except "Love That Never Dies" which is not the Byrds at all, but a McGuinn solo track. Of all the great songs they could have covered, they went with "From a Distance"? (Now where is that puke emoticon when I need it?)

The bottom of the barrel can probably be found on various solo efforts from the 80s and 90s by Davy Jones, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle (excepting the title track from "Too Late the Hero" which is great), Mike Love, Macca (Pipes of Peace or Broad Street anyone?), Jagger, Bowie, Neil... the list goes on. Those two decades were like kryptonite to most classic rock idols. Of the big names only Springsteen seems to have thrived, and he was a little younger going in than the rest of those guys. The point is that the Beach Boys were far from the only ones releasing substandard goop during that era.

LOL at "substandard goop" :)

But yeah… It's always easier to understand substandard goop in context.

"Substandard Goop" is spelled with a *P*.

Pubstandard goop. ;)

Tragic? No, I love those albums. How can any Kinks fan not love Looney Balloon, War is Over, Scattered, or Hatred?

It's not one of my favorites, but I love Working at the Factory, Lost and Found, and When You Were a Child.

What is this song called?  I think I have to hear it.

Agreed that Chicago XII (Hot Streets) was the last GREAT album, and Dacus's debut, and the follow up wasn't bad either - even with the pompous monstrosity of the title track (their equivalent of HCTN) - but after a few duffers I felt that XVIII and XVIIII - or should that be XIX - the latter being the first non-Cetera offering (now with Scheff) kinda got them back on track for awhile. Shame it didn't last. That said, the Stone of Sisyphus album had its moments too ?

Is substandard goop anything like supernatural baloney?

And speaking of The Monkees, Mickey Dolenz is 70 today (Sunday). How about that.

It's not fair to compare the Beatles because they were still in their prime when they broke up. If the Beach Boys broke up after 20/20 then they really didn't have any real embarrassing moments either. Even lesser early albums like Little Deuce Coup wasn't bad for 1963. Party was fun for what it was and seems more heart felt than 15 Big Ones.

Can someone PLEASE tell me what the name of the Bee Gees' rap song is, purleeeeaze?

yes as far as the Doors, the two albums they did after he died (Other voices and full circle) were REALLY bad...Other voices sound like the Partridge Family, way too poppy and happy for them I can see Jim quitting the band if he had lived to hear these songs, Full circle is a little bit better but both weren't nothing to to die for...lol.. also Ray's voice wasn't very good,he sang like Bill Murry (the star wars lounge singer) from SNL, almost like Barry Manilow .. An American prayer was cool, for what it was though...

Lesser albums?  Little Deuce Coupe was the Beach Boys' and Brian's FIRST GREAT ALBUM.  Lesser?  LDC kicks some serious ASS. It did it in 1963...and it still does.  :hat

Off The Ground is a BEAUTIFUL piece of work.


Pipes of Peace and Press To Play are the stinkers in the McCartney catalog.

whoa, The Who by Numbers is a major album. Perhaps Townshend's best writing (along with Quadrophenia and Chinese Eyes). Seriously good album. The last great work by Moon to boot.

Off the Ground is just awful, maybe one or two decent songs - "Hope Of Deliverance" is nice; 'Press to Play" is another one i can't stand. Might be a couple of good tunes on there, but they're buried under all that 80's production. I don't know why "Pipes of Peace" gets knocked so much - maybe just because it was the followup to "Tug of War"? There's nothing as masterful on POP as "Take it Away", "Wanderlust", or "Somebody Who Cares", but i still find it a good listen. "The Other Me" and "Keep Under Cover" have nice tunes, even if the lyrics are a little dodgy.

I'm starting to think this doesn't exist.

I think it was their worst album up to that point. Probably not until Party was something even worst. But again, I think it was solid for the times. It has several rehashed songs. You mean to tell me, you don't think the Surfer Girl lp wasn't great? To me, that is excellent for 63!

I know I didn't imagine it... but I can't seem to find it now during a cursory check on Spotify, and don't have the patience to sit through all of the songs on a few of their bad albums. One one of the Bee Gees albums between the late 80s and early 90s, there are songs which border on hip-hop beats/rap vocal styling (a la "Summer of Love"), and there's a bad lyrical homage to an old hit (I think it's "Staying Alive"). Give those "gems" a listen! Reminded me of the worst of The Boys!

Yes...I DO mean to tell you that Surfer Girl had been 'bested'  Let's see...Surfin Safari came out in late '62.  A kind of passable first effort.  I mean who knew?  What to do?  How to do it?  Who should do what?  I'd give it a 4.5 out of 10...but only because it was attempt one.  There was a ton of room for improvement.  It was also the very FIRST rock 'n' roll album I ever bought.

Surfin USA was a huge improvement.  Suddenly the group had its own 'sound'...and also delivered 'feels' for the first time.  It would have potentially been an even stronger album [it reached #2 on the charts] if Brian had kept 'Surf City' for the Beach Boys.  Too many filler instrumentals.  I'll give it a 6.5

Surfer Girl and Little Deuce Coupe were released jsut 3 weeks apart in mid September and early October '63.  Al had returned to play the live gigs so that Brian could concentrate on the recording process.  Surfer Girl was a step forward.  Only 2 instrumentals.  A couple of good songs a couple of GREAT songs plus 2 songs borrowed from the impending Little Deuce Coupe album...The title song...and Our Car Club.  Boogie Woodie might have been on loan as well.  Surfer Girl [as the title suggests] was to be a last homage to surfing.  I'll give it a 7 out of 10.  

Little Deuce Coupe was a CAR heavy outing.  Everything was about cars except BTTYS...which mentioned having a decal on the car to be seen by others while "cruisin' around the other parrts of the town...in?...a car.  Brian didn't have enough material for Surfer Girl...so he borrowed backwards by putting Little Deuce Coupe songs on Surfer Girl in order to get it 'finished and out'.  The double-sided 2-hit 'single' probably sould have been a double LP.  But THAT just wasn't done in 1963.  The former album has 'In My Room'... a landmark piece of pure brilliance.  After that?  The album released 3 weeks later kicks its ever-lovin' ASS.   I'll give LDC an 8.5.  An obvious progression.  A step forward in writing and arranging.  Thematic.  Powerful.  No real 'filler'.  The group's first outstanding album.  [and a better showcase of Brian's multiple musical talents] :hat

The progressions would continue...

Well, I won't argue about personal taste.  In my opinion I think it seems week for the most part with a few exceptions.  If they saved some of the good ones for Shut Down 2 it would have been better I think. But that's just my opinion. No need to argue about it.  :)