What are the 5 most overrated rock albums?


1. The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. The songs on this album are nowhere near as memorable as those on "Revolver" and "Rubber Soul". For that matter, this album is nowhere near as innovative, nor ultimately as influential, as either "Pet Sounds" or the first Velvet Underground album. I'm not the first to point out that blame for such artless excess as all seventeen minutes of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida rests primarily with Sgt. Pepper.

2. Pink Floyd: The Wall. All of the criticisms usually applied to late 70's stadium rock, i.e., that it was pretentious, bloated, pseudo-intellectual,and self-indulgent; apply doubly to this crock opera. If you want witty and insightful philosophizing on the human condition, read Nietzsche, H.L. Mencken, or Michel Foucault. To seek such wisdom from pop music, a genre defined by its righteous Dionysian folly, is the greatest folly imaginable.

Pearl Jam: 10. Johnny Rotten was bang on when he described Pearl Jam as "bloody awful" and as sounding like "Joe Cocker singing for Black Sabbath." To my ears, this sounds like so much bland 70's rock (e.g., Bad Company). As The Monkees are to The Beatles, so are Pearl Jam to Nirvana.

4. U2: The Joshua Tree. I don't know where to begin. These guys plagiarized Joy Division, and set their sublime riffs to dumbass lyrics bespeaking the most niave sort of Oprah Winfrey meets Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms bourgeois liberalism. I've said it before, I'll say it again: If you make me listen to a record by someone named Bono, his first name better be SONNY.

5. Bob Marley & The Wailers: Exodus. Not only was Bob Marley not, by a long shot, the best pop music figure to come out of Jamaica, he wasn't even my favorite member of The Wailers. The monomaniacal cult of personality surrounding the deceased Robert Nesta Marley comes at the expense of all the other, far more exciting, music to come out of that poverty-stricken island. As Lester Bangs put it:

"Toots and the Maytalls, who never got promoted properly, are the real heat from a Stax/Volt kitchen, whereas Marley always struck me as being so laid back he seemed almost MOR. Rastaman Vibration was the last straw: an LP obviously calculated to break Disco Bob into the American Kleenex radio market full force, complete with chicklet vocal backdrops chirping 'Pos-i-tive!'
tweakgeek

Showing 12 responses by ben_campbell

Good to a see a nice negative post-I like most of the ones mentioned so far to some degree however I concede that they may be flawed or overblown or most certainly overplayed but in the spirit of the thread here goes......

1.In Utero-Nirvana-Let's not forget Cobain renegotiated his recording contract so that he got most of the cash just before this release,how punk,what a hypocrite,sadly this pile of junk reflected the mess his tragic life was in,,in a crippling bout of pretentious self-indulgence he tries to rebel against his misunderstood last album and produce an unlistenable mess-he succeeds,sadly Nirvana's legacy becomes a load of 13 year old kids the world over standing in shopping malls and street corners with their Slipknot sweatshirts........
2.Out Of Time-REM
Sometimes it's just the right time for a band but this uneven mess was their WORST album up to that time,right time,right place,wrong record.
3.Brothers In Arms-Dire Straits
A sign of the times,a greedy attempt to sell millions and millions of records that worked-apart from maybe 3 tracks a real mess of an album,with the most annoying keyboard sound in the history of rock,Knopfler takes his magpie style too far,rips out most that was good about the band previously and turns into a man whose arrogance is only matched by his dullness.
4.Forever Changes-Love..
Always in the greatest albums ever-I always take it off right after Alone Again Or.............
5.Freedom-Neil Young..
Ah the last Neil Young album is always rated as his greatest since the 70's-this one got a particulary big cheer-featuring lyrics a 10 year old would be ashamed of.
He also reuses the same three chords to All Along The Watchtower in three different songs and well since he's using the chords may as well use the tune as well,like the sad sight sight of watching your grandfather playing his Gibson SG in the garden,Mr Young has neither the grace nor gumption to realise he is making a fool of himself.
Keep On Rocking In The Free World-somebody unplug that old geezer's guitar-pleeeeese.
Truly the worst collection of checked shirts in rock too...........................
Of course this is the silliest posting of all time-you do not need to be Einstein to realise everybody dislikes something that is highly rated-there is hardly an artist mentioned (including my own posting)that I do not own or rate to some extent--the reason being I love music.
I pick up records where I might only like one track and collect poor albums by artists I love....I find Beowolf's comment about the Stones and Springsteen not being art interesting because I think I could a very strong argument that both these artists at their peak did in fact produce some (even if only snippets) of the greatest popular music of the 20th Century and because to me their content and impact went beyond entertainment then to me that is art........
Ultimately though only the specific listener can make their mind up but I do cringe when I see artists as important as The Smiths,Springsteen,Gabriel and the Stones slaughtered-I do wish most of these posters would give some indication of some music that is better,so I can go out and buy some more music or alternatively fall off my chair laughing....why has nobody mentioned The Cowboy Junkies...........only joking Garfish.....
Regarding The Wall-to me this album singles the end of Floyd-with Waters ego taking over but alternatively indicating that he pretty much was being left to do it all himself anyway,the musical contribution that they all use to make was long gone by then,as such the cohesion of their earlier work is gone....
It's always been flawed to me-it would have made a classic single album and it does feature some great music but it does also descend into pompositity as the album progresses.
There are some interesting ideas about the world of the rock star but these don't really get developed or realised-Tbadder is off on some of his analysis as it's obviously a very personal album to Waters,I mean surely you are not suggesting that Water's ripped off the idea of his father's death during WW2 which hangs over the first quarter of the album?
As for the social relevance mmm not so sure maybe about school but most of society doesn't get to become rock stars,I think most of the impact tends to be on the personal themes-self-worth,alienation,lonliness,childhood and yes you are right Waters is hilarious his commentary on The Wall DVD is exceptionally funny.
Tweak surprisingly we have semi-similar tastes-I would disagree perhaps about specific albums-Roxy etc....The Cramps well I would guess you were a big fan at the time and you see it as great rock and roll no doubt,to me fun stuff big energy-not great....likewise The Pogues a drunken bigot fronting a folk band who want to be the Clash does not great music make-Clinic surely too soon.
But I see why you don't like The Wall-you read the NME for too long..........keep fighting kids it's fun and I actually like Hotel California mostly because I don't listen to radio and I only play it about once every five years
Docwarnock you've obviously buying all the wrong records,I heard a record once (forget it's name) it was really quite though-provoking...:-)
I like that idea where you can decide what people can and can't get out of music,remember you are only limited by your own imigination and I AM looking for truth and meaning..so where exactly should I look?
Tv,under the bed,better speaker cable?
Tweakgeek best of the 80's---The Waterboys,The Smiths and Prince surely all better than The Pogues
Pawil71 I liked your post but I did take exception to your description of Geddy Lee as an arrogant fraud-the wee man may have a voice like Daffy Duck on helium and been responsible for some silly music but I think you maybe got him mixed up with somebody else,he is certainly not arrogant nor has he ever claimed to be Bob Dylan,Miles Davis or Woody Guthrie.
As a teenager I was a massive Rush fan and had the fortune of meeting Geddy Lee a few times,he always had time for the fans and was a nice guy,he is actually one of the world's most talented bassists.
This thread has been fun and I can't get too precious either way about music I like or don't like,I can argue to the cows come home but it won't change a lot....
As you get older and understand music more you can see some of the obvious flaws in music you like or liked but I can still get a lot of fun from music like Rush,partly is nostalgia but I do think at their peak they produced some innovative music in their field,they certainly inspired a whole bunch of folks,it's clear reading through this thread some people have just used it to blast artists they didn't like,that's really not the point of the original post certainly my listing features 4 artists I actually like but thought specific examples deserved the tag overrated..
Tbadder-I liked some Style Council stuff but hardly the best band of the 80's-as for dinosaur,geezer rock wasn't that Paul Weller in the 90's?
Twl and Rcprince were you the two old grumpy guys in the theatre box in the Muppet Show?
Nrchy whatever faults The Wall has (and it has a few imho)I don't see how you can accuse Waters of having not a lot to say-there a number of elements in this piece that he clearly hadn't explored before and a number that he expanded on,in fact as you point out lyrically Animals is "the" album that has stereotypical Waters themes.
And of course Jethro Tull are much better than the bands you mention........good grief.
Nrchy I think now you are changing the argument but I agree up to a point but the main themes of the album are about Waters life.
I think Waters ego might be the main problem on this album but most of that is probably to do with the group dynamics at the time
As for your comment that it is social commentary about the British Empire?
That probably fits The Final Cut better in terms of description.
It's quite a brave record in a way,I agree some of it is simplistic but some of it is excellent too,to me it is flawed and signals the end of Floyd but it is too in many ways the apex of the concept album and that inevitably signals levels of pretension and conceit.
As for rock stars only thinking their opinions are valid because they are rich(and powerful), isn't that one of the themes he tackles on the record?