Albums You Hate by Bands You Love.

Most bands that have a longish career will have at least one album that fans of the band, critics, and others detest as the worst of their career. Some will disagree and say that the albums are brilliant pieces of misunderstood art while others will bash away to their heart’s content. And like most music nerds, I have heard/owned my share of these albums. Let’s discuss some of the most hated albums by bands that generally do not suck, shall we?

 

1.) Sonic Youth- NYC Ghosts and Flowers.

While Sonic Youth started out as an avant-garde noise band who used noise and freeform jamming to sculpt and create moody soundscapes, a lot changed between their debut full length Confusion is Sex and their 2000 release NYC Ghosts. In the almost 20 years between, Sonic Youth evolved into a variety of different styles, from the epic, dense indie rock stylings of their classic Daydream Nation, the stripped down rock of Dirty, and the aggressive psychadelic of A Thousand Leaves, they essentially left the avant-garde behind them, working on ways to experiment within the scope of a strandard rock song. With NYC Ghosts, the band attempted to return to their avant-garde roots with a noisey, experimental album.

Unfortunately, as most fans of experimental music know, when experimentation goes wrong, it goes completely wrong. With NYC Ghosts, the rough edges to do not mesh well with an overall consistant theme or idea, unlike the band’s earlier work, making some of the experimentation pointless. There is no real mood cast upon the listener to make the strange, difficult song structures worthwhile. It’s not a totally horrible album…the opening track “Free Ctiy Rhymes” is incredibly pretty while the title track is a reminder of what Sonic Youth’s experimentation can do when it’s done right.

 Overall, C-

2.) The Pixies- Trompe Le Monde

The Pixies’ final album is criticized for a lot of things: being a poppier album than anything they’ve done before, essentially being a Frank Black solo album, and overall not hitting as hard as the band’s first 3 albums. And while much of that is true- the album does sound similar to much of Black’s solo work, the album is not nearly as immediate as the nearly perfect trio of Surfer Rosa, Doolittle, and Bossanova- it does not deserve a lot of criticism that it gets.

It’s really a solid album full of strong rock songs. Yes, the songs do not stand out for being as unique as anything off of the band’s first 3 albums, but let’s face it, few bands will write songs as good as those, which is why you must look at Trompe Le Monde for what it is while ignoring the context in which it came out. Songs like “Trompe Le Monde”, “Alec Effiel”, and “U-Mass” rank among some of the catchiest rock tracks ever recorded. The album is much more diverse than any other Pixies’ album before it. Surfer Rosa consisted mainly of aggressive alternative rock, Doolittle was an album full of twisted and tortured pop songs, and Bossanova basically did to surf music what Doolittle did to pop-rock. Trompe, on the other hand, is a well-picked mix of the three styles. Aggressive alternative rock (“The Sad Punk”), catchy, twisted pop-rock (“Planet of Sound”), and surf-inspired hard rock (“Letter to Memphis”). That kind of diversity makes the album lack a consistant mood, but at the same time, it helps keep it from getting boring or tedious.

Overall score: B+

3.) R.E.M.- Around the Sun

Ever since drummer Bill Berry left the band in 1997, R.E.M. have been accused with jumping the shark on every album they’ve released since. But some R.E.M. fans, myself included, have stood up for the band despite accusations of going stale. I disagreed with critics who called UP dull and uninspired. I thought it was a beautifully written album that expressed discontent and desolation in a way that few albums do. I disagreed with those that said that R.E.M. simply phoned-in the songs on Reveal, which I insisted was a great concept album and did an excellent job recreating the feeling of summer.

But, I have to admit that I cannot defend Around the Sun. On Around the Sun, R.E.M. do sound stale, old, and tired. Despite a handful of songs- “Leaving New York,” “Aftermath,” and “The Worst Joke Ever,” most of the album sounds like radio friendly adult-contemporary. In fact, “Wanderlust” may be one of the most embarassing song R.E.M. has ever recorded. However, much of this does owe to the album’s production. Last October when R.E.M. released R.E.M. Live, I noticed that the versions of “The Boy in the Well,” “Final Straw,” and “Make It All O.K.,” were much better on the live album. They didn’t sound nearly as tired or worn out, and sounded like the powerful, passionate R.E.M. we all know and love. So maybe it was the production that caused the album to feel like it dragged on. Good thing they fired Pat McCarthy.

Overall grade: D

4.) The Mountain Goats- Get Lonely.

Mountain Goats’ frontman John Darnelle is one of the most talented, consistent songwriter of the current indie scene. Since beginning the Mountain Goats circa 1993 with just a guitar and a Boombox with a microphone, Darnelle has written some 500 songs, with an incredibly consistent quality. So it surprised some to hear Darnelle struggle a bit with Get Lonely, his first real disappointment.

Lonely comes hot off the heels of some of Darnelle’s best work. 2005’s The Sunset Tree was a gripping account of his life living with an abusive step-father, and one of his most celebrated albums. With Lonely, he tackles more conventional subject matter: a failed relationship. This is one of the reasons the album sounds so awkward. One of the Goats’ biggest claims to fame is the fact that they stay away from the usual song topics, so hearing them tackle such a cliched area of songwriting is odd. Luckily, Darnelle does do it well enough to make it interesting, real, and honest. Rather than the cliched emo songwriting that almost always includes the line “I’m not going to be what you want me to be,” Lonely does a much better job at accurately describing a failed relationship.

Musically, Lonely is much more subdued than the Goats’ usual percussive style of playing. At times, this feels awkward since it’s an area that the band generally avoids. But the times it works, such as on “Woke Up New” and “Half-Dead” it works brilliantly.

Overall grade B+

5.) Weezer- Weezer (The Green Album)

The story of Weezer’s career has been told a million times now: Weezer released their first album, Weezer (The Blue Album) in 1994, and Pinkerton in 1996. The first album was a smash hit, commercially and critically. The second one…not so much. Pinkerton was a commercial flop, but in time became a cult smash once people finally understood it, proving that good music will always prevail in the face of shitty pop conformity: the crappy 90’s alt. rock bands that got more attention than Pinkerton were largely forgotten while both of the first two Weezer albums are now considered classics.

This initial commercial failure haunted chief Weezer songwriter Rivers Cuomo, so by the time Weezer finally recorded a follow up, he made a concsious attempt to return to the more bright, upbeat power-pop of the band’s debut. And now, Weezer (The Green Album) was born. Unfortunatly the album, while a commercial success, was an aesthetic failure. Only 3 of the albums 10 songs live up to the brilliance of the band’s first 2 classics, and it shows that Rivers was scared of any real experimentation or art in his music. Playing it safe may have worked out commercially, but most fans and critics see the 2nd half of Weezer’s career as inferior to the first half, a pale imitation of true former glory. And I can’t say that I disagree. Nothing on Weezer’s latest  albums have captivated me like “Across the Sea” or “Pink Triangle” from Pinkerton or like “No One Else” or “Surf Wax America” from Weezer (The Blue Album). One can hope, though.

Overall grade: D-

And with that, we conclude our broadcast day. See you later.

 Now listening to: Major Organ and the Adding Machine- Self-titled.