The Worst albums of all time.

[Alex]

In response to the Grateful Dead posts, cant quote from the cell phone...Beyond a few of the hits, I could care less about their music. I think I`d go crazy with impatience during a Dead show. I`d be hitting the concession stand during Dark Star, as sacreligious as that sounds.

[Aegir]

Aside from their two super-acclaimed studio albums (Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, both of which my parents played every single day for the first 15 years of my life, thus eliminating any objectivity I could have about them), I'd say the Dead's best album is Aoxomoxoa. After being used to the various live versions of most of the tracks, the studio stuff is pretty cool.

[liam]

Zephyr Song has a nice melody, though...

Pity it's taken from "Oliver's Army"... 

OK - Worst Album. ... Shania Twain - "Up!"

liam

[rn57]

Recently heard the notorious "last" Velvet Underground album Squeeze for the first time - the one where Velvets manager Steve Sesnick put Doug Yule and Deep Purple's drummer Ian Paice into a studio, recorded a bunch of Yule's songs with no participation from any original Velvet still in the band (just Moe Tucker by that point), and released it as a successor to Loaded. 

It's primarily offensive because it's billed as a Velvets album. Had it been released as a Doug Yule album, it probably would have been quietly forgotten as a middling example of some slightly Grateful Dead/Poco/early James Taylor-influenced music. But a couple of the songs are probably on a par with the lesser (ie Yule-written) tracks on Loaded.

Actually, Yule didn't write any of the songs on LOADED - they're all Lou Reed's.

My mistake. Every time I hear "Who Loves The Sun" it's such a spectacular example of sunshine pop I keep forgetting Lou wrote it.

[Roger Ryan]

Recently heard the notorious "last" Velvet Underground album Squeeze for the first time - the one where Velvets manager Steve Sesnick put Doug Yule and Deep Purple's drummer Ian Paice into a studio, recorded a bunch of Yule's songs with no participation from any original Velvet still in the band (just Moe Tucker by that point), and released it as a successor to Loaded. 

It's primarily offensive because it's billed as a Velvets album. Had it been released as a Doug Yule album, it probably would have been quietly forgotten as a middling example of some slightly Grateful Dead/Poco/early James Taylor-influenced music. But a couple of the songs are probably on a par with the lesser (ie Yule-written) tracks on Loaded.

Actually, Yule didn't write any of the songs on LOADED - they're all Lou Reed's.

My mistake. Every time I hear "Who Loves The Sun" it's such a spectacular example of sunshine pop I keep forgetting Lou wrote it.

Yule did handle more lead vocals on LOADED than on the previous album with "Who Loves The Sun" being the best. Reed seemed to be making a conscious attempt to write a more commercial album than any of the previous Velvet releases; the songs are still quite strong, but I probably prefer some of the material recorded during this period that went unreleased at the time.

[rn57]

Scott Walker- Tilt-  No....just no.

One of the best albums ever.

I liked the idea more than the execution. I think that describes how I feel about Scott Walker in general, really.

Scott Walker has a new album coming out in a month, Bish Bosch. Two tracks from it are at Spotify. They're apparently the most "commercial" sounding things on the record, and they sure demonstrate that it's been quuiiite a while since Scott has had much to do with what almost any listener would think of as popular music.

It's been a long, strange trip from the days when he was working with Bruce Johnston on Sandy Nelson sessions. Or whooping it up on Shindig.

[I. Spaceman]

Recently heard the notorious "last" Velvet Underground album Squeeze for the first time - the one where Velvets manager Steve Sesnick put Doug Yule and Deep Purple's drummer Ian Paice into a studio, recorded a bunch of Yule's songs with no participation from any original Velvet still in the band (just Moe Tucker by that point), and released it as a successor to Loaded. 

It's primarily offensive because it's billed as a Velvets album. Had it been released as a Doug Yule album, it probably would have been quietly forgotten as a middling example of some slightly Grateful Dead/Poco/early James Taylor-influenced music. But a couple of the songs are probably on a par with the lesser (ie Yule-written) tracks on Loaded.

Actually, Yule didn't write any of the songs on LOADED - they're all Lou Reed's.

My mistake. Every time I hear "Who Loves The Sun" it's such a spectacular example of sunshine pop I keep forgetting Lou wrote it.

The guy was a very talented, diverse songwriter. And he knew how to write pop well from his days at Pickwick, and his previous doo-wop/pop recordings with Bob Shad.

[Ovi]

I haven't heard 'Squeeze', but I'll just say that I love what Doug Yule brought to the band in its Lou Reed days. I don't like him as much as Cale, but he did a good job in finding his own place with the rest of the Velvets.. Plus, he's got a very, very sweet and tender voice. His vocal performance on things such as 'Candy Says' and 'New Age' is absolutely brilliant, if you ask me.

Too bad he's only remembered for being the guy who wrote a crappy album and released it under the name of Velvet Underground, even though he was the only original member left in the band (even though all of this is true, and, without a doubt, his own fault*)

*Has Doug ever openly spoke about why he did this? I'd like to hear his point of view.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

I don't think Doug had much of a choice as the Velvets owed the label one more album and he was the only one left holding the bag.

Squeeze isn't bad at all if you can remove the stigma from the proceedings. The songs range from OK to quite good to nearly great, but the album is consistently pleasant to the ears. Doug has a great voice and is a great player, so in that: a crappy situation is elevated. If he'd only had Sterling and MO on the album, it would have a lot better of a reputation.

You can find the entire album over at youtube if you search around (Oh, and it has just been reissued on 180gram vinyl)

I love the Doug era Velvets. His voice/presence was a great foil for Lou's and they complemented each other greatly in the harmonies and his bass playing was always spot on.

The American Flyer album (Produced by George Martin) is also worth tracking down. It's a bit too middle-of-the-road but Doug's great on it.

[hypehat]

Apparently, in a boxset of Yule led VU live boots (yes, one exists!) he goes into a lot of detail about his tenure.

Should really listen to Squeeze, have always been curious.

[Bean Bag]

Smiley Smile
"This is the worst album I ever heard!!!" -- or at least that's what I thought when I was ten, after saving up all my nickles and dimes to buy the album that had Good Vibrations on it.  What a let down. 


Now I love it...but I still remember the anger I felt.

[Domino]

Emerson, Lake & Palmers last two albums.

[Kurosawa]

Emerson, Lake & Palmers last two albums.

Love Beach is probably the worst album I've ever heard by a band that I like.

[Domino]

Emerson, Lake & Palmers last two albums.

Love Beach is probably the worst album I've ever heard by a band that I like.

Yeah, it makes Summer In Paradise look like a great piece of work!

[Kurosawa]

Emerson, Lake & Palmers last two albums.

Love Beach is probably the worst album I've ever heard by a band that I like.

Yeah, it makes Summer In Paradise look like a great piece of work!

Plus at least with Summer In Paradise, all the principals were not present. On Love Beach, they were all there and mailed in a total piece of crap.

[Domino]

Emerson, Lake & Palmers last two albums.

Love Beach is probably the worst album I've ever heard by a band that I like.

Yeah, it makes Summer In Paradise look like a great piece of work!

Plus at least with Summer In Paradise, all the principals were not present. On Love Beach, they were all there and mailed in a total piece of crap.

True. What were they thinking?!

[I. Spaceman]

Thyere thinking they wanted to show their packages off to the world.

[SufferingFools]

Worst albums of all time?

"Hitler Is Alive and Well (and Living in You)" by The Third World, from 1971.

Man, was that awful.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

That second Elastica album was pretty awful.....

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Anyone remember that Village People album where they tried to go "New Romantic"?

That was horrendous.

Their other albums weren't masterpieces but were pretty tight for what they were....

[bluesno1fann]

Bit hard to figure out the worst albums ever, but will put in worst albums by artists I like:

The Beach Boys: Summer In Paradise
The Beatles: Let It Be (Yellow Submarine is bad too, but the few originals redeem the album)
The Rolling Stones: Either Black And Blue, Undercover or Steel Wheels
The Who: Who Are You
Pink Floyd: Ummagumma (Studio Album)
Lou Reed: Metal Machine Music
Led Zeppelin: Coda
Mike Love: Looking Back With Love

That's all I can think of. For now. And as to AGD: Full Circle by post-Morrison Doors one of the worst albums of all-time?! Them's Fightin' Words!
Seriously though, both Full Circle and Other Voices are brilliant, underrated albums. For the most part I agree with Jukka:

Other Voices and Full Circle are much better than their reputation has it. Sure , Manzarek ain't no Morrison when it comes to singing, and even less when it comes to lyrics, but the music very solid, occasionally even surpassing their Morrison-era achievements. Get Up and Dance is a lost party-anthem classic, and Peking King and New York Queen is a worthy heir to LA Woman in that same fast rock epic vein.

Seriously, so what if the two albums don't have Jim? Doesn't make them bad at all. They're still the Doors, especially with Manzarek taking over as leader. In fact, I recommend to everyone to check out the post-Morrison Doors albums. Be warned: Other Voices still sounds like a proper Doors album, but Full Circle doesn't. At all. Still excellent though, if you can get past all that!

[Ovi]

The Beatles: Let It Be (Yellow Submarine is bad too, but the few originals redeem the album)
The Who: Who Are You
Pink Floyd: Ummagumma (Studio Album)
Led Zeppelin: Coda

They may be weaker by the band's usual standards, but in no way do they belong on any 'worst of all-time' list in my opinion.

[bluesno1fann]

The Beatles: Let It Be (Yellow Submarine is bad too, but the few originals redeem the album)
The Who: Who Are You
Pink Floyd: Ummagumma (Studio Album)
Led Zeppelin: Coda

They may be weaker by the band's usual standards, but in no way do they belong on any 'worst of all-time' list in my opinion.

I suppose you're right with at least the Beatles one and the Who one. But I noticed other people simply put the worst album of different artists, so I did it that way

[Moon Dawg]

  Van Halen III
  Summer in Paradise
  Metal Machine Music
  Sometime in New York City
  Having Fun with Elvis On Stage


  Very bad albums by major bands/artists.

[Mike's Beard]

Pink Floyd: Ummagumma (Studio Album)

I love Ummagumma! I still have very fond memories of listening to it stoned as a teenager with friends.