"Great" albums you read about for years that let you down when you finally heard them

I forgot to mention My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless." Ugh, what a mess.

Pet Sounds is one of my favorite pop albums ever, so I guess I disagree with that one. I agree with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot though.

To change the topic, The Shaggs are a band of high school age kids (I think they're all siblings) that are considered either incredibly bad or incredibly original. Perhaps they're in the so bad they're good category. Frank Zappa dug them. If you want to hear something different check out Philosophy of the World.

Guns and Roses, Use Your Illusion 1 & 2

There are a few good cuts on them, but the rest is very hard to listen to. They worked on it for 2 years or something, it's a good example of trying too hard to make a good album.

Wow. I really love a coupleof Husker Du records, and I play Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols at least once per week all the way through. Of course, part of listening to that is my trip down memory lane, but still, I really love a lot of that record.

I bought The Killers cd and couldn't listen to it all. Same for Snow Patrol. I bought the Cheap Trick Best of CD and only listen to the hits.

OMG I cannot believe it! 6 stars said one mag. I finally got it and had absolutely the same reaction as you - Shoot Out The Lights was also right at the top of my list in this regard.

Foolio wrote:

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Awful lyrics (the album leads off with "I am an American aquarium drinker ... I assassin down the avenue" and never really improves from there) and basic instrumentation are apparently offset by the atmospheric samples, but I just never got it. Somebody told me that critics were calling this the American "OK Computer," which is a cruel, cruel joke.

Fugazi - Red Medicine

Most consider this their peak, but I think it's a dud. The next two are better.

Oh dude - give YHF another try. And please, aren't those initial lyrics GREAT? I mean c'mon....

"I am an American aquarium drinker ... I assassin down the avenue"

Foolio wrote:

I forgot to mention My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless." Ugh, what a mess.

Oh god, no....no no no nooooooooooooooooo.....

Loveless is perfection.

My Pal Foot Foot! The Shaggs were a set of sisters, whose parents encouraged their musical aspirations and had them recorded- the record sounds like little anyone has ever heard, since they have almost no skill and no talent. I've read interviews with the sisters in the past couple of years- they have to be close to 50 now- and they seem like some nice folk who were way confused back then.

Agreed -- "Loveless" by My Bloody Valentine was a huge let down.

I also feel guilty that I don't like Husker Du more -- but other than "Metal Circus" (which is like 18 minutes long) and maybe half of "Candy Apple Grey" -- I am bored to death. It all sounds the same.

You are insane. Television and Gram Parsons are great.

If I hear an album that critics whom I trust love (and they can write an interesting account of why they like it) and I still don't get it, I assume the fault is with me. Why does nobody bt me seem to assume that taste is not a deomcracy and my failure to appreciate things shouldn't necessarily translate into a reaction of "elitism!" rather than questoning my own taste.

I am going to add anything by Suicide and it bothers me that I just don't get it.

I didn't even address Big Star. Radio City and #1 Record are great albums.

Foolio wrote:

I forgot to mention My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless." Ugh, what a mess.

Now them be fighting words...

I agree with your first post.

Dusty Bones wrote:

If someone here actually thinks "Forever Changes" by Love is overrated, well ... what can anyone even say to that?

I'm surprised anyone here even knows that album (or the band). Seems like it turns up in critics lists all the time, but no one has heard the album. Personally, I think it's a masterpiece. I wish Your Mind And We Belong Together was on the album and not just a single, though.

couldn't disagree more wrote:

I could not disagree more. Love, TV, BB, and GP are all fantastic. I would own it up to not being your taste.

These are all our taste, good and bad.

Johnny Rotten wrote:

I bought The Killers cd and couldn't listen to it all.

That album has been all over the radio for the past year and a half though. Hadn't you already heard many of the songs?

Another vote for Loveless. I'm only saying it's a letdown when considered in light of it being declared the best album of the 90s. I like Only Shallow, Loomer, When you Sleep and Sometimes on there, but no way is it perfection (To Here Knows When blows, skip).

Also, Slanted and Enchanted by Pavement is for me a very uneven album. Loretta's Scars and In Mouth of A Desert are as good as anything I've ever heard, but other parts of the album they're just dicking around. Still great album, glad I got it, but i can think of ten albums from the 90s i'd take ahead of it.

DK Shadow's Entoducing - couple of great songs, other part eh. Dont really think we need books about it.

But for biggest turd - Neutral Milk Hotel. Blah.

G Love and Special Sauce. Crap.

i'd say, for me, anything by eric b. and rakim (and i usually love that era, but some of my friends hyped it way too much) and jeff mangum's aeroplane over the sea. the latter i think is great, but when quite a few people consider it to be a top-5 record from the decade, it's going to have to be a let down if it ain't perfect (and i do like almost all the e6 stuff, so i don't think it's a taste thing). i don't think either artist is poor...i think they're great, but the albums aren't a sublime experience, which is what they've been described as. so letdown.

learn your history, they hardly spent any on advertising... they albums were being sold way faster than they were being produced

L.Bangs wrote:

\"Nevermind\" -Nirvana

Cliche after cliches. No wonder Geffen spent a ton hyping this when released. It was one way to get it in the news.