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I've been forcing myself to listen to Bruce Springsteen's latest album, Working on a Dream.
I keep hoping that my initial dismay will pass. So far, it's not
working. Those of you who know me know that I love Bruce Springsteen. I
would hop in the car with him and drive off down Thunder Road, pushing
Mary out of the front seat if I had to. I would walk through Jungleland
with him, braving the gang warfare. I would go through hell and back
for Bruce Springsteen. But I will not listen to this new album another
time. It's too painful.
And that made me wonder about the albums
that you and I might consider as the most disappointing albums we've
ever heard. To be a Disappointing Album is not the same thing as to be
a Horrendously Bad Album. We expect some albums to be Horrendously Bad,
and they are, and we don't really care. The entire Ratt catalog comes
to mind, briefly. But Disappointing Albums elicit a special pain. We
like the artists who create them, and we want to like the work they
create, but for whatever reasons, we can't find it within ourselves to
muster much, if any, enthusiasm for the misguided mess we hear.
Here are my candidates for Most Disappointing Albums. What are yours?
-- Bruce Springsteen -- Working on a Dream
Bruce
tries to croon. Bad idea. Bruce sings about finding true love at the
checkout counter of the supermarket. Stupid idea. Bruce tries to write
an outlaw tale that sounds like something Weird Al Yankovic would come
up with if he was writing a parody of an Ennio Morricone soundtrack.
Mind-numbingly misguided idea.
The Sex Pistols - The Great Rock ‘n Roll Swindle
They put it right out there in the title, but still. The concentrated venom and rage of Never Mind the Bollocks … gave
way to this? A disco medley of Sex Pistols “hits”? A French version of
“Anarchy in the U.K.,” complete with accordion solo? Sid Vicious’
transcendently awful rendition of Sinatra’s “My Way”? It’s hard to
exaggerate just how far that middle finger was extended to the fans.
This is a band that had to break up. No one would have bought a third
album.
Bob Dylan - Self Portrait/Dylan/Down in the Groove/Dylan and the Dead
It’s
a four-way tie for the Voice of a Generation. Bob Dylan has left more
unreleased masterpieces in the can than any other songwriter has
written masterpieces. But periodically he feels the need to short
circuit his magnificent career by releasing tediously uninspired
performances of his own songs (see that album with The Dead) and addled
covers of contemporary songwriters such as Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon
and easy-listening pop classics (“Let It Be Me,” “A Fool Such as I”).
The Pogues - Peace and Love
The Pogues had set the bar so high with Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash and If I Should Fall From Grace With God
that a letdown was inevitable. Still, when it came, the crash was
mighty. Shane MacGowan seems distant and uninvolved, the other
songwriters aren’t able to pick up the slack, and the playing seems
lifeless and dispirited.
Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac/Rumours
I’m
being blasphemous, I know. I don’t care. I think Lindsey Buckingham is
a pretty good songwriter. And I can’t stand Stevie Nicks, the
Embraceable Ewe, and I’ll probably never get over the direction
Buckingham and Nicks steered my favorite band. Yeah, yeah, they sold 50
million records and made a bunch of classics. Not to my ears. I loved
the obscure but entirely praiseworthy Danny Kirwan/Bob Welch band that
preceded this one. Check out Future Games and Bare Trees and listen to the band when they were at their peak.
Favorite Music of the '00s
Only a Flesh Wound: Bob Dylan as…
Bob Dylan - Christmas in the Heart
Country Music in the Aughts
Where Have All The Weird Girls Gone?…
Evil Dead to Rise Again to Theaters…
The 50 Best Movies of the Decade…
Heather Greene - Moon Hangs Fire
James Yuill - This Sweet Love (Earth…
Orenda Fink - That Certain-Something Spring
Colin Hay - Down Under
Fun. - All The Pretty Girls
Susan Enan - Paste Reviews: Plainsong
U2 - Pop
REM - Anything after they joined Warner
Sinead O'Connor - Am I Not Your Girl?
My biggest disappointment of the year so far is that forthcoming Bob Mould record. I'll go ahead and admit to knowing much more about his Husker Du/Sugar records than his solo output to date, but if Mould's previous releases are anything like this one, I have NOT been missing out. Ugh.
I must disagree with your tremendously over you Fleetwood Mac entry but I will agree with you in this regard, "Future Games" and "Bare Trees" are absolutely BRILLIANT albums that everyone must hear.
I am also a big Springsteen fan, but I found Magic to be disappointing too. I was hoping for better from Working on a Dream. I will still buy it because average Springsteen is still better than most other artists.
I would say that Wilco's 'Sky Blue Sky', REM's 'Monster', and anything from Rod Stewart since the 1970's should be on any most disappointing list.
I too think you are way off base on the Fleetwood Mac albums. The interplay of all of the band members, especially Buckingham and Nicks makes these very interesting even today. They are classic albums from the 70's.
If everybody would just stop comparing Bruce in the 2000's with Bruce in the 1970's, they might be able to appreciate his new stuff a little more. He was 25 when he wrote Born to Run. He is nearly 60 now. For heaven's sake, if the new album sounded like Born to Run you would all cane him for trying to live in the past. Working On A Dream is a great album. It has some clumsy moments, but hey, he isn't God. He just writes great songs, sings them well and plays a mean guitar. No it doesn't sound anything like Born to Run, but that is a good thing. So many reviewers still have their heads stuck in the 70's.
Stevie Nicks IS Fleetwood Mac. I saw them five times in 2005, only because of Stevie Nicks.
The Clash may have made the best debut album of all time, but the second album was a terrible let-down, especially after a good opening track
I realize that I'm in a small minority (a minority of one?) with my Fleetwood Mac comments. But I honestly prefer the band before Buckingham and Nicks arrived.
Re: Bruce, I don't think I'm stuck in some '70s timewarp. I thought "Magic" was a good-to-great arena rock album. I've liked, and sometimes loved, the folk albums. I've followed Springsteen every step of the way, and except for the minor misstep of "Human Touch," I've been unequivocally supportive of his work. "Working on a Dream" is worse than "Human Touch," in my opinion. I take no joy in stating that. It's a tremendously disappointing album.
I agree with the sentiments of this, but I actually think Working On a Dream is really good. I would sooner put Magic in this category, it has less spirit and heart, and is like a bland The Rising. Working On A Dream has a bit more variation, I reckon. I DO agree with the sentiment though, I always worry when I hear he's releasing another album in case it's just horribly forgettable, which occasionally they are.
Also, as for Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac, I must defend her corner, for she did not try and take Fleetwood Mac anywhere. She was totally subordinate to the other members and most of the time only had 3 or 4 songs per album, it just happened that they were good enough to make her the famous one. And the original Fleetwood Mac is just so different from the "new" one I don't even see the point in comparing them, they're two different things. If we're going to though, I might point out that Peter Green is fat and tragic now (saw him in Tunbridge Wells in England - yes, that says it all! Tunbridge Wells is small.) and Danny Kirwan is living in some Jesus cult last I heard. Stevie is however still going strong.
Minor Mac corrections: Jeremy Spencer (another FM former guitarist), not Danny Kirwan, joined the Jesus cult.
Danny Kirwan is a sad case. He's an alcoholic, is mentally ill, and has been living in a London homeless shelter for the past couple decades.
I have nothing against Stevie Nicks personally. I don't know her. I just don't like her voice, or her songs.
Hi Andy. Isn't it true that "Dylan" was released without Dylan's approval? He'd just jumped ship from CBS to Geffen (? or somewhere) and CBS, in a pique, released "Dylan" as an odds-and-sods vault-clearer. The album is so awful that it sounds like a deliberate act of vengeance on the part of the record company. Can't blame Dylan for "Dylan" but the other three you mention are pretty wretched - especially that execrable version of "The Boxer." Ick.
Self Portrait is one of my favorite Dylan albums. Of course its not Desire or Blonde On Blonde, but I can't think of a Dylan album that works better for sitting on the porch with some beers on a sunny day (and not just after you've had several of the beers but even while you're just working on the first one).
Mr. Whitman, I would agree Springsteen's newest is not a great work. You reference Human Touch, and I realize you mean the overall album, but it still showcases how utterly subjective this all is. I love Springsteen, truly grew up with him, and got to see him perform in his heyday. With that said, for me, his greatest song is "Human Touch." I would list it in my top ten rock songs of all time. It's a powerful song with potent lyrics and some of the best dynamics in his catalogue. One of those songs i can truly listen to over and over. I never felt the song got its due, perhaps because the overall body of work at the time was quite a letdown for fans. I even think the "HT" video is something special.
I gotta agree with you on the new Springsteen CD. After all of the great reviews it received, I was looking forward to it but found it to be a great disappointment. Magic is a far better album.
My most disappointing record of all time?
The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
A four year wait after two all time classics, and the lead song is 'Ya ya ya ya'. I can't even remember the rest.
I was just playing pop today. I know exactly what you mean. Sometimes it does bother me-but right now I'm in the mode of loving it. Especially Please and Gone. And Mofo, and hell, the rest of them. I know. But it's true.
Definately agree here
Pop is U2's best album.
SANTANA ALBUMS 4-25
Santana were fabulous when the came out and rocked the world at Woodstock Then they put out some more good stuff (Abraxas)
Love Devotion and Surrnder started to suck mightily (hey Devadip THIS!) then about 22 bad albums til he teamed up with Rob Thomas then mediaocre (sic) Rod Beauchamp
Anything after Hot Fuss by the killers. First album incredible, loved every song. Then the rest were absolutely rubbish. Especially sawdust
The Weepies ~ Hideaway
One of my favorite bands on the planet could not out do Say I Am You. "Can't Go Back Now" is the only track that really impressed me, sadly.
Joshua Radin ~ Simple Times
"They Bring Me To You" is the best track. I was waiting for 10 siblings of his "Winter", but instead I got "Vegetable Car". Ouch.
Ingrid Michaelson ~ Be Okay
Another one of my favorites. Most of the album consists of covers or previously released material. Disappointing...
I love all three artists, but I just hope they become more appetizing in the future.
Bruce's Working On A Dream is not necessarily a disappointment. There are two tunes that I find "difficult" to handle. "Surprise, Surprise". Is basically a Woody Guthrie styled Children's song that should have been shelved for this record, and "Queen Of The Supermarket" is basically something that in the not too distant past would have been an outtake or a B-side to a 45rpm single.
I could compile a list of tunes that were of the same limited caliber. "Let's Be Friends (skin to skin)" from the Rising comes to mind. But, truthfully...how many CD's do you own where every song is absolutely killer. I have a desert island list of about 50 albums. Man, most albums these days have three great tunes if we are lucky.
The rest of the CD is indeed a touch overproduced. But, I am admittedly intrigued and mildly annoyed (not really) with how some, if not most of the tunes stay in my head after listening.
Program your CD player with QOTS and SS excluded then hit play. It's alright. Give it time. It blooms.
Oh yeah...Check out Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green. He founded the band and is one pf the truly greatest underappreciated guitarist of the era.
The Great Rock ‘n Roll Swindle wasn't a Sex Pistols album, you maroon. It was a pile of carp put together by their ex-manager Malcolm Mclaren to satisfy the record label, get under the skin of the punk rockers and to confuse the clueless. Like you.
Ah, and here I was thrown off by the "Sex Pistols" moniker into thinking that it was an album by The Sex Pistols. Sneaky. Those poseurs did pretty good Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious imitations, too. Oh well. And thanks for the carp comment. I've always thought there was something fishy about that album.