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Rolling Stone’s 50 Genuinely Horrible Albums by Great Artists

Cackling Co Pilot Kamala

Cackling Co Pilot Kamala

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50 Genuinely Horrible Albums by Brilliant Artists

Dylan, Lennon, Bowie, Outkast — even the greatest of greats screw up sometimes. These are the epic duds that diehard fans would like to pretend never happened.
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Prefacing it by saying that no U2 albums made it cause they love all of their albums? Putting not the worst or least popular recent Kanye album at #1? This is vintage Rolling Stone.
 
I just started but I gotta reiterate Rolling Stone sucked the Who's dick so much for It's Hard at the time. Five stars, called a return to relevance, and "I've Known No War" being the best song since "Won't Get Fooled Again." I love Rolling Stone so fucking much. If the Who has to be on here, it's Face Dances or nothing though.

They gave fucking Psychoderelict ***1/2 too. 10000% deserves to be on a list like this and I'm so glad to see it but man, Rolling Stone.

LOL at "Falling In Love Is Hard On The Knees" being a ballad. Nine Lives isn't the dogshit they want it to be but they're not wrong, either.

Fuck outta here with these past-their-peak albums, though. Like no shit a 90s Genesis or Devo album will be infinitely less than the previous work. Copout choices.

Mistrial shouldn't be on here! Lou Reed's only mention should honestly be Lulu, maybe The Raven. The rest is good by me, biased though I am.

Two Virgins is fucking trash. Like it's so bad it's almost punching down. Almost.

Kanye is number one because it's Rolling Stone and it's what they do. It's the same way that suddenly in 2020 they decided after all these years so many black artists had most of the top ten best despite being pretty behind in the past. That pandering is the worst thing about them, even when they actually make a good decision.
 
lol at "St Anger" being there-not just because it's bad, but because they gave it a good review when it was released.

I only remember "Calling All Stations" because of Craig Kilborn era "The Daily Show" making fun of it.

Completely forgot about "Crown Royal"! That one was released in the last year or two of Nu Metal having any kind of dominance. The dude from Third Eye Blind being on it-did he have any relevance at that point.

Fun fact: Armond White (remember him?) loved the new Van Morrison album. Also, he's always been a weird conservative, but the Trump years and exposure to guys like Jack Posobaic have given him full on brain worms. Also, I'm probably the only guy who (rarely) pays attention to him. What is wrong with me?

"Ye" isn't even the worst Kanye album! That would be either "Jesus is King" or both "Donda" albums (the first of which has it's moments but are ruined whenever he decides to rap-his mic skills had noticeably weakened by then)
 
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I’m just relieved that they didn’t pick on poor Ringo Starr solo albums (even though he had at least one album in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s that was so bad it didn’t get a US Release).


Maybe I missed it by scrolling too fast but surprised no Rolling Stones (or even Mick Jagger solo albums although it’s be a stretch to call him a genuinely great artist outside the context of the band) albums made it. Dirty Work has gotten a mild to moderate amount of critical reappraisal but Bridges to Babylon seems a shoo in given rest of the list. They probably just liked that there were three Keith songs.
 
If they were going to include an Aerosmith and they really probably should since they have had a number of stinkers then it should’ve been Just Push Play or Honkin’ On Bobo. I would’ve also accepted Rock in a Hard Place.
 
I never take these things seriously however they drive me nuts. The obviously bullshit ones, the ones that say Skrillex is one of the greatest guitarists of all time style ones, just annoy me for the try-hard nature.

Rolling Stone died in 2001 anyway.
 
At some point Pitchfork will release a list that says something by The 1975 is one of the greatest things of all time and I will be over here feeling good. My life got so much better when I stopped getting worked up over things like this.
 
Reading Pitchfork is like listening to your parents have sex through the wall while seeing a shooting star you had never seen before, though.
 
I really liked “God Gave Me Everything I Want” ATT and thought it had potential to be Jagger’s “Smooth”. I was 13 though and still probably would have been just as qualified to review classic rock as the current Rolling Stone staff.
 
Where does it rank against his attempt at a ‘90s version of “Miss You”, “Sweet Thing”?

“Just Another Night” is legit kind of good. I think it just folds under expectation of being the first Mick Jagger solo single.
 
I'm surprised they didn't go with Rock in a Hard Place just because so many entries on this list are just albums with key band personnel missing. As someone who anticipated Nine Lives for months and got it right when it came out, I will object to its place on this list even as I recognize it's not actually good. I'm just glad Chinese Democracy didn't make the list.
 
"Just Another Night" is good on the basis of it not sounding like a Stones song. That said it would've been a fun Tom Waits song instead.
 
There was a surprising lack of metal considering Rolling Stone usually rags on the genre. Then again part of the qualification is genuinely great artists and Metallica, Led Zeppelin, and maybe Black Sabbath are probably the only metal bands RS considers to be great. And two out of those three made it!
 
I don't mind that Pantera album. They picked it because of the cover, I'm sure. Which is dope af btw.

But yeah this is a perfect time to bash Marilyn Manson and they dropped the ball.
 
Love King Kamala said:
I feel like it’d have been fun to see them pick a KISS album that isn’t The Elder but that’s never gonna happen.
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"Hot in the Shade"

Also LOL'd at this quote I saw on KISS:
A fun game to play is taking all of the KISS songs ever made, putting them in one playlist, hit "shuffle" and guess what album the song playing is from. I guarantee you even the most diehard KISS fan couldn't get above a 50% on that test.
Click to expand...
 
Carnival of the Souls would be my choice for a KISS album for this type of list. HitS is fun bad, The Elder is interestingly bad…no one really needs to hear KISS trying to rip off Collective Soul.
 
Psycho Circus is what killed my enthusiasm for KISS as a band. No idea if it's bad by their standards but it was garbage to mine. Not all time bad but still.

The Final Cut should be on there if only because Rolling Stone should already be on the Fuck Roger Waters train.
 
pca.st

Genuinely Horrible Albums by Great Artists - Rolling Stone Music Now

From Prince to Neil Young to Madonna, we discuss – and argue about – Andy Greene's picks for the worst albums by great artists
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Listened to the podcast on the first half of this list cause I am me. I never knew that Van Halen III was the most personally invested EVH was in a Van Halen album and he never really recovered from how much of a failure it was.

That is even more depressing than the fact that I still occasionally get suckered into these lists in 2023.
 
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