Over-rated albums?

[Im_not_Robbie_Blake]

I have no idea why I wasted a minute of my life reading bits of this.

And I have no idea why I wasted a minute of my life writing this.

[Deathtrip]

Back in the 70s i thought "Bat out of hell" was the greatest music ever recorded in 2024 I'm not so sure it's terribly dated and not very good,so I'll go with that being very overrated.
Rumours being slated by the OP is just click bait ,it's one of the greatest albums ever I suppose he's allowed his opinion though.

[Stan Tastic]

Sam’s Town : Killers

I assume it’s rated by Killers fans but after waiting 2 years from the magnificent Hot Fuss it has 2 passable singles and the rest is just a bloated nonsense.

IMHO, of course

Possibly the worst choice on here as it was voted most underrated album of the decade 2000-2010 by Rolling Stone magazine.
l knew a lot of people that didn't like it at first and grew to really like it after further listens. There's more to it than Hot Fuss and I think certain people couldn't cope with that.

[Clovius Boofus]

It's all subjective. I don't like Fleetwood Mac or that particular genre of music. I got sick of hearing tracks from Rumours on the radio. Same with tracks from Bat out of Hell. Anyhow, punk was well into the mainstream when Rumours was around, but I don't expect many of those who were singing along to 'You Can Go Your Own Way' or 'Paradise By the Dashboard Light', to suddenly start eulogizing about Wire's Pink Flag album or Damned Damned Damned .

[houseboy]

Nope. Quite an eclectic taste really but my first love was punk (buzzcocks/SLF/pistols) and I developed from there. Listening to the reggae influences in the clash, opened up reggae itself and two tone/ska. Love rock music, but not all of it obv. Love early Elvis. Love Springsteen, the Wilburys and all those in that group as individuals. Recently developed a liking for country music… in the late 70’s and early 80’s, I couldn’t stand abba, now I’m happy to listen to them.

People rave about those artists I mentioned earlier, absolutely shout and scream from the rooftops that they are world class and leaders in their field. Well I just don’t get it, and there are plenty more who don’t. I personally think Complete Control by the clash is one of the greatest songs ever written, but most of you won’t even have heard of it let alone listened to it - and if you did you’d just wonder what on earth I’m on about, and that’s fair enough.

Every opinion on this subject is valid, every single one, because personal taste varies so much.

Totally agree mate. Music is like food and anyone’s taste is their own. Many people cannot stand van der Graf Generator/Hammill but to me they have done very little wrong. Hammill lyrics can be read like poetry if you remove the music. I’m no lover of soul music but loved Marvin Gaye. Some punk I loved but not all (loved the Clash). Despite my overwhelming love of rock (particularly progressive) I also think John Denver and Harry Chapin were fabulous.

Music is like life, it takes all kinds to make a world.

[Mondsley]

Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon. In addition to being overrated everyone should know the far side of the moon isn’t dark.
The album cover’s okay though.

There is no Dark Side of the Moon. In fact it's all dark! Music truly is subjective. Had a lively discussion with 2 mates ar the Cricket last year, both of whom didn't rate the Beatles. In fact they preferred Wings!

[Billyblah]

I think some albums are highly rated because they were innovative for the time but musically are not quite as good as they are rated. Two that always spring to mind are:

Sergeant Pepper: Mc Cartney had started to get very whimsical with his output and although When I'm 64 is a good song it's not great. Fixing a hole. It's getting better etc. Not as strong as The White Album or Abbey Road IMHO but regarded as the Beatles most iconic album.

Dark Side of the Moon? Not as good as Wish you were here in my opinion and given the plethora of Prog albums
since has lost it's lustre a bit but still a very good album.

And yet ironically I always regarded the White Album as being over rated. Some good stuff on it but compromised by tracks containing feedback, white noise and Yoko Ono doing lots of moaning.

Shire Claret references the Yellow Submarine as being over rated, and given that side 2 is given over to a George Martin orchestral piece I would tend to agree. That said, I have a far more recent Yellow Submarine CD reissue which has the usual track listing from side 1 of the LP with the remainder of the album made up of other tracks from around the same time period which makes it pretty cool.

[Tall Paul]

There is no Dark Side of the Moon. In fact it's all dark! Music truly is subjective. Had a lively discussion with 2 mates ar the Cricket last year, both of whom didn't rate the Beatles. In fact they preferred Wings!

Wings are the band the Beatles could have been.

[Row x]

I never understood the hype around tubular bells.

[jrgbfc]

Ok Computer Radiohead.

[ecc]

Just to throw an interesting one in!

Nick Drake albums. Very few people bought or listened to him at the time. I certainly hadn't heard of him then (1969 - 1972, then he died in 1974 - usually a good move for record sales but it still didn't happen) but of course I didn't know everything. Then in the late 1990s I got to hear of him as he was folk or maybe folk rock but to be frank I couldn't hear much that I hadn't heard before.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Drake

More interesting to me is 'albums I used to like back in the day but am now bored or worse with them'. But that's another thread!

Nick Drake, who I listen to from time to time, is arguably the best-known "unknown" musician in the last 50 years.

[bfcmik]

Pink Floyd are at their best on live albums. DSOTM was the 1st half of the 'Live in Gdansk' album and sounds way better than the more famous studio version. 'Pulse Live' from 1995 is sheer Gilmour genius!

[dougcollins]

Wings are the band the Beatles could have been.

His name's Paul McCartney
He plays bass guitar and sings
He used to be in Beatles
And now he's in Wings.

(Frank Sidebottom- never overrated).

[ClaretTony]

Anything by David Bowie, awful music.

I stopped reading this thread when I reached this point. I can accept that someone might not like David Bowie but to suggest this musical genius is overrated is a bit far fetched.

[Acting Claret]

I do wonder how many people on the this forum have actually listened to a Bananarama album? I know I have at least 3 in my collection.

[Aclaret]

I stopped reading this thread when I reached this point. I can accept that someone might not like David Bowie but to suggest this musical genius is overrated is a bit far fetched.

Musical Genius is a great way of describing Bowie....in my opinion of course. To sell approximately 150 million albums worldwide it seems many more agree that he wasn't overrated.

[boatshed bill]

Musical Genius is a great way of describing Bowie....in my opinion of course. To sell approximately 150 million albums worldwide it seems many more agree that he wasn't overrated.

I have been a massive Bowie fan in the past, some great albums, but in my opinion if an unknown band had produced "Lodger" or "Tonight" I doubt they'd have got their money back.

[ClaretPete001]

I think you can try and discuss over rated albums without being subjective. I think the Beatles are without doubt and unarguably the best band of all time across a range of metrics including innovation, sales and cultural impact followed closely by the Stones and Elvis. I prefer the Stones and wouldn't listen to Elvis if is it was him or nails screeching down a blackboard.

Arguably, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the most iconic album of the most iconic band in history and yet here is the track listing. I think there are arguably two of the Beatles greatest songs on here , a couple of solid ones and the rest are Mc Cartney's whimsical efforts probably only surpassed by Maxwell's Silver Hammer (on Abby Road) equaled by Lennon's Good Morning.

In every respect it was the most creative album up to that point and changed music's landscape forever but removed from the context of the time the songs are just not that good.

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
"With a Little Help from My Friends"
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
"Getting Better"
"Fixing a Hole"
"She's Leaving Home"
"Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!"


"Within You Without You"
"When I'm Sixty-Four"
"Lovely Rita"
"Good Morning Good Morning"
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)"
"A Day in the Life"

[Clovius Boofus]

I have been a massive Bowie fan in the past, some great albums, but in my opinion if an unknown band had produced "Lodger" or "Tonight" I doubt they'd have got their money back.

At least D.J. is a good track from Lodger. Regained his mojo afterwards with the Scary Monsters album, then lost it again with Let's Dance - Bowie himself admitted so.

[ClaretPete001]

And yet ironically I always regarded the White Album as being over rated. Some good stuff on it but compromised by tracks containing feedback, white noise and Yoko Ono doing lots of moaning.

Shire Claret references the Yellow Submarine as being over rated, and given that side 2 is given over to a George Martin orchestral piece I would tend to agree. That said, I have a far more recent Yellow Submarine CD reissue which has the usual track listing from side 1 of the LP with the remainder of the album made up of other tracks from around the same time period which makes it pretty cool.

I don't think Yellow Submarine is a highly rated album to be honest. I don't think the White album is held in the same reverence as Sergeant Pepper and while it has some really odd and whimsical stuff on it nothing like as many as Pepper 'Fixing a Hole', Lovely Rita Meter Maid, Good Morning Good Morning, Getting Better etc.

And I like those songs but they are mostly throwaway Mc Cartney numbers albeit still much better than most band's best efforts.

The feedback and the white noise is part of sounds scape of the White album albeit decades later it has been done to death so it's impact is lost but I think you have to consider the context of the album at the time it was released.

You could make the same argument about Bowie in an era of Sam Smith the impact of Ziggy Stardust is all but lost.

[Clovius Boofus]

Yes, you take out some of the White Album's whimsical stuff and you are left with an incredible piece of work. I think it's underrated when compared to Pepper's, Rubber Soul and Revolver. It's up there with Rubber Soul and Revolver, and for me, surpasses Pepper's.

[GetIntoEm]

The stone roses by the stone roses, purely because people slag off The Second Coming. Where as I think it's a better cd.

[Clovius Boofus]

This would be my White Album without the 'granny ****' (Lennon's words for whimsy tracks on Beatles albums).

Back in the USSR
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness is a Warm Gun
I’m So Tired
Blackbird
Julia
Birthday
Yer Blues
Mother Nature’s Son
Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey
Sexy Sadie
Helter Skelter
Long Long Long
Revolution 1
Savoy Truffle
Cry Baby Cry
Revolution 9

[ClaretPete001]

This would be my White Album without the 'granny ****' (Lennon's words for whimsy tracks on Beatles albums).

Back in the USSR
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness is a Warm Gun
I’m So Tired
Blackbird
Julia
Birthday
Yer Blues
Mother Nature’s Son
Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey
Sexy Sadie
Helter Skelter
Long Long Long
Revolution 1
Savoy Truffle
Cry Baby Cry
Revolution 9

Totally agree. It's a stunning piece of work. I enjoy Mc Cartney's Honey Pie, which is a piece of Noel Cowardesque whimsy but the track listing above is incredible when you consider it was released in 1968 pre: ELP, Floyd and the English prog movement. Underrated in my opinion also.

Harpsichord's, Noel Coward, Rock, Blues, Ballads politics, culture references to the Maharishi, John's lament to his mother Eric Clapton on George's masterpiece and on and on.

[houseboy]

I never understood the hype around tubular bells.

It was recorded souly by a 21 year old and nothing like it had been heard before. What people miss I think is what was groundbreaking at the time of release. Tubular Bells was groundbreaking at the time. Personally I can’t stand Elvis and wonder what all the hype was about, but again in his day he was groundbreaking. The Stones, in their day, were every bit as shocking as punk was over ten years later. The Beatles I only liked when they went psychedelic but their early stuff was new and fresh.
As far as Tubular Bells goes it didn’t do Richard Branson any harm either. In business you need a bit of luck occasionally. Bells was the very first album put out by his new Virgin label and he made a good deal of money from it. The rest is history.

[COBBLE]

Tubular bells.

Loved early Bowie, but Diamond Dogs no!

[Clovius Boofus]

Totally agree. It's a stunning piece of work. I enjoy Mc Cartney's Honey Pie, which is a piece of Noel Cowardesque whimsy but the track listing above is incredible when you consider it was released in 1968 pre: ELP, Floyd and the English prog movement. Underrated in my opinion also.

Harpsichord's, Noel Coward, Rock, Blues, Ballads politics, culture references to the Maharishi, John's lament to his mother Eric Clapton on George's masterpiece and on and on.

I got into the Beatles through Punk back in the late 1970s when I was in my early teens. Punk bands like The Dammed and Siouxsie and the Banshees covered some of their stuff. Before that, I saw them as my Mum and Dad's generation of music, but in reality, The Beatles transcend the generations. Over time I've ended up owning all their albums on both vinyl and CD. Also bought some of the remastered stuff.

[yTib]

thriller and the stone roses' first album.

both have really great songs but both suffer from filler.

[Stalbansclaret]

The stone roses by the stone roses, purely because people slag off The Second Coming. Where as I think it's a better cd.

I quite like The Second Coming but better than that debut ? I mean, come on !!

[yTib]

I quite like The Second Coming but better than that debut ? I mean, come on !!

didn't say that but for me it's close.

and bad is jackson's best album.