The 10 Most Disappointing Albums of the Decade
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Artist:
They may be geniuses, but the most important artists of the decade are hardly unassailable. For every triumph like Stankonia, The Blueprint, and Kid A, there was an equal atrocity. With this look back, we take heavyweights like Radiohead, Michael Jackson, and U2 to task, remembering the soon-to-be-forgotten albums that, in another decade, no one else will.
10. Daft Punk - Human After All
Look, we really, really love Daft Punk, and we hate to say anything bad about them, but let's be real: this album's got nothing on Discovery and Homework. Human After All found the electro duo at their laziest, using the guise of an "experiment" (spending six weeks to record) after a four-year gap between albums. Unfortunately, the experimental fuzz and general sloppiness was an utter letdown from one of dance music's most important contemporary acts. There's always an upside, though: most of Human's tracks got a much more vital second life as part of Daft Punk's epic live sets, and the people over at Ed Banger records used the album as a launching pad for a new era of electronic "bangers." Forgive, and forget.
9. Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
The power of Radiohead is pretty undeniable: the release of benchmark Kid A in 2000 helped shape and define indie rock and electronica for the decade to come, while In Rainbows introduced a now-infamous distribution model that set off a million arguments. Lost between those two monsters, Radiohead's decent-but-forgettable 2004 album, Hail to the Thief, is remembered mostly for the misplaced anticipation it elicited. While some might argue Amnesiac is equally disposable, it gets a free pass because it was more or less a B-sides record. Hail to the Thief, though, was a step into stasis by a band that is expected to reinvent paradigms with every single album. Sorry guys: that's what you get for being so damn good.
8. Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
After knocking it out of the park on the first two albums from his 50 States Project (you know, the one that we, ahem, finished), Sufjan made a grave error by spending a little too much time in Illinois. The Avalanche was billed as part of the double album Stevens originally envisioned for his 2005 release. While there were a few gems buried, Avalanche mostly consisted of songs that were better left forgotten, or at the least should have been given away for free. For those keeping score at home, it's now been over five years since the onset of the Avalanche, and he has yet to recover from the onslaught.
7. Jay-Z - Kingdom Come
There are few better ways to end your career (or, in this case, early career) than Jay-Z's The Black Album, perhaps his best set of songs since The Blueprint. But Hova didn't take to the lazy life: he came back out of the gate like Michael Jordan wearing number 45. Sadly, unlike the Space Jammer, Jay-Z's once effortless swagger had waned, and, for a moment, he seemed an unfortunate shade of his former self. Especially in the context the excellent American Gangster album that came shortly thereafter, most fans wish Kingdom Come had never existed.
While Coldplay's first two albums proved the boys adept at distilling the more accessible points of Brit-pop into radio-friendly anthems, X & Y forever sealed their rep as a band best reserved for somewhat-cool moms around the world. Most of the formal experimentation of the first two Coldplay records remained absent, and it's hard to deny that it was an attempt to usurp U2 of their crown. Unlike others, this one has a happy ending: the roundly brutal X & Y reviews motivated the band to enlist Brian Eno to produce a solid follow-up, Viva La Vida.
5. U2 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Speaking of U2 and bands gaining a reputation for being boring, 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb was the biggest letdown of an activist album we can imagine. Though the band received plenty of praise at the start of the decade, the middle of '00s found the Biggest Band in the World a lot less mighty than they once were, bordering on formulaic and, yes, boring. While U2 have long had a reputation for constantly evolving and adapting, this baby upset almost as many people as the election.
4. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
The first half of the decade was off-the-charts incredible for Modest Mouse: the indie darlings reeled in universal adoration with The Moon and Antarctica, then, against all odds, went on to have one of the biggest breakthroughs of the '00s with Good News for People Who Love Bad News. What's a band to do after an unexpected hit like "Float On?" In the case of Modest Mouse, they raised expectations even further, announcing the addition of former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. Sure, the band got bigger (and a song appearance on American Idol), but the tunes were as mediocre and forgettable as... you know, that Radiohead album no one remembers.
After 2000's Stankonia pushed hip-hop, way, way past its comfort zone and Speakerboxxx/The Love Below shot them to Grammy gold, Big Boi and Andre 3000 were poised to once again top themselves. In the same way that Modest Mouse raised the media's expectations, fans expected a bizarre masterpiece from OutKast after the duo announced their plans for a movie-musical. Sadly, the album only further highlighted their stylistic struggles. To their credit, though, the main reason OutKast couldn't pull off a hip-hop movie-musical set in the '30s and keep credibility is because it's pretty much impossible.
2. The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth
Strap in, ramp it up to 88, and punch 2001 into you time machine. Remember when the Strokes were supposed to save rock n' roll? By the time First Impressions of Earth was released in 2006, most rock journalists were already shuddering with embarrassment. Though the band's debut is an arguable classic and Room on Fire is much, much better than most gave it credit for, First Impressions of Earth proved the band's creative tank was running on empty. You can only emulate that same set of garage-rock tactics so many times. Is this It, indeed...
1. Michael Jackson - This Is It
If there were an award for most overly exposed artist of the decade, it might be Michael Jackson (pretty sure he won the '90s award as well). After every single (usually incredible) Jackson song was played ad nauseum, the cash-ins started happening left and right (they're trying to get Captain E-O back in Disney World as we speak). Of the million opportunistic atrocities, the biggest crime just might be This Is It, the concert film chronicling what would have been Jackson's lucrative 50-date run in London. While the movie has a few fascinating moments, the album full of "new" songs only showcased the star's waning creative abilities, further tarnishing a legacy that should have remained untouched.
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Comments (40)
Hello, here is my comment .The film THIS IS IT was wonderful.The cd is wonderful .When they said they were puting it out they never sait it was going to have all"new" songs,They said it was going to have one new song This Is It.They did not tell us it was going to have a poem in Michaels own voice.The poem is wonderful.
The last Killers album (I can't even remember it's name); Complete kitty litter..
Hail to the Theif was dissapointing???!??
I liked First Impressions of Earth!
hail to the thief was totaly dissapointing! I mean, i didn't hate it, but i can't remeber the last time i had any desire to put it on.
Personally, the only Hail to the Thief song i ever end up listening to once in a while is "There, There," and even then it's only for the pretty sweet video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUzW-fDNEJ0
There were some fantastic songs on that #4 album!! It was polished and well done I thought!
U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb should not be on the list -- it has some good songs including:
These alone make it a pretty good album that's ended up on a lot of best of the decade lists.
Seriously?!?? I thought "Hail to the Theif" is one of their most SOLID records-meaning you can put it on and NONE of the songs are bad. I love Kid A but its not cohesive as a great record AND a solid Pop/Alternative record. Shocked that anyone would think "Hail..." was disappointing. I could see it not being your favorite record, but disappointing? Can't get my head around that one...
Not to throw alcohol into the fire, but I agree with every single choice in the list. Except for the Modest Mouse one, but only because I haven't heard it because I hate Modest Mouse, so I guess that means that I agree by default anyway.
So there :P
What about REM's "Around The Sun" I remember even the most die hard REM fan's saying "why did they even put that out?"
Oh wow, Hail to the Theif, really?
That's definitley one of my favourite Radiohead Albums, and I prefer it over Kid A for sure!
I only own two Modest Mouse Albums, 'Good News..' and 'We Were Dead.. ' and I absolutley love 'We Were Dead..' and just before I opened up this, I had been reading a blog about which is Modest Mouse's best album, because I am going to buy some albums tomorrow, and wasn't sure which MM one to get :)
I really can't say that Daft Punk's "Human After All" was bad at all. As for Michael Jackson's "This Is It" like the other commenters stated, no one said it was going to be an all new original album from the king of pop.
First Impressions? Really? Ouch.
- Travis
This is It? What planet are you living on? That was a friggin' greatest hits record. There was only one new song on it.
That unbelievably stupid choice destroys your credibility and renders this entire list useless.
If you really want a disappointing Michael Jackson record this decade, try Invincible.
Sorry, I can't let this go. Please explain how a posthumous greatest hits album can display someone's "waning creative abilities." Especially when the only new song on it was recorded in 1984.
It's obvious you didn't even bother listening to the album and just wanted to use this article as a forum to bash Michael Jackson. Pathetic.
First Impressions of Earth should not be on this list.
I agree with much of this list. Most of the albums really aren't that bad, it's just that what came before them was so good. I hated Human After All at first, but I grew to like it. Hail To The Thief didn't really disappoint me all that much but its stock went down considerably once In Rainbows came out. I had a feeling Idlewild wasn't going to be that good. With all the pressure on Coldplay after the success of A Rush of Blood To The Head, X & Y was bound to be a letdown.
However, how could the This Is It soundtrack be a disappointing album? It was a cashgrab and no one should expect a cashgrab to be great.
did anyone mention Chinese Democracy yet? Not that anyone had held out anything faintly resembling hope in regards to that disaster...
Axl put out Chinese Democracy? No joke?
WAIT! was I not supposed to hear that yet?
also, I have to weigh in, lightly, I like Hail to the Thief... have you listened to it? its sounds pretty good from here
Well, that list was a crock of shit..
HTTT is brilliant, saying otherwise is blasphemy. The Avalanche, while not Sufjan's most accomplished work is almost certainly not worthy of being on this list.
We Were All Dead Before The Ship Even Sank had a pretty hard act to follow after Good News, but it's still a good album!
These three albums, I listen to regularly, you're full of it.
Man. I honestly can't believe this list. I'm new to MOG. Love the service, but whoever writes this stuff is insane. Hail to the Thief? REALLY?
Meta Critic: 85% Accumulative
Alternative Press - 100
Spin - 100
Filter - 93
Pitchfork - 93
The list goes on and on.
It's one of their highest rated albums by almost any measure, and my personal favorite next to OK Computer.
Many of these didn't excite me when they came out, so the "eh" factor really isn't there, cept for Radiohead, but they got me "eh'ed" round Amnesiac. And The Strokes First Impressions was sort of foreshadowed when Room on Fire did so/so for the ears.
All in all, not a bad list - definitely lots of hype behind many of these.
The first two tracks of First Impressions of Earth are my favorite Strokes songs...the rest of the album is garbage.
Wow--nothing like a list to turn people into dicks. Having heard none of these albums, I can't comment on them. But I can say this--
anyone who types this "That unbelievably stupid choice destroys your credibility and renders this entire list useless" destroys their own credibility by making such a stupid statement. Agenda much?
the point of most of these features stories is to invite discussion. apparently they are suceeding
Was This Is It billed as a greatest hits record? Could the fact that it is a greatest hits record (one of the many in MJ's catalog with the same songs) be disappointing? Could that fact that it was even released be disappointing? Is the cashgrab idea behind it something that is kinda gross and not really befitting the legacy?I think so. In these ways I think it can be considered disappointing.
Negative posts about music do have a history of doing well.
There are musicians.
And then there are critics.
Those who criticize, and those who DO.
What's especially interesting about these comments is that so many of them are from people I've never seen before. I would suggest to them that getting all hot and bothered about this list is a terrific first step. (I'm sorta in Groon's camp - have actually heard very few of these, have virtually no historical context for any of the bands, and therefore have no real opinions.) Now, folks, the next step is to post some of the music you love and tell us why you love it. I for one would really dig that....
here! here! and with less name calling, which is really what I was on about. I can't stand when people can only disagree by insulting and browbeating.
The Web gives us anonymity. We can use that in any way we like - including being a tool, if that's your idea of freedom....
Even name calling is OK, if you have a history with somebody. I mean to the uninitiated my calling Groon a bloodthirsty viking killer might seem out of line, but we all know better.
And if we don't know better, I have a huge ax here waiting to learn you a lesson!
Careful Eugene..
Eugene's not a very viking name, now that I think about it.
Yet and Still, The Pink Floyd Cut, Careful With That Axe Eugene is clearly of stealth Norse origin. It 'tis very viking.
it's been awhile since I've listened to it Cody. Will have to do so again. It can't be any more viking than "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict." Even if that's Pict-ish.
great list. i agree with most of it, but would have additions to it, of course. thanks for daring to say that hagiographies are the new emperor's new clothes..