Re: Favourite/Least Favourite Albums by Artist
I found this quite challenging.
Firstly I've named a number of artists that I have big gaps in my familiarity with their entire album catalog.
Secondly, I no longer listen to albums, so I found it difficult to bundle tracks into album groups, unless it was something, like the latest Henley or Elbow album, that I listened to incessantly for a couple of weeks. Then there are many groups, such as Crowded House, that I've discovered through Greatest Hits Albums.
Lastly, these are my favorite artists because I like the vast majority of their music. It's tough to call absolute favourites and even the albums I'm not so keen on will have a redeeming feature or two that I enjoy.
Anyway, here's my shot. Sorry for the alternate format and lack of comment::shy:
Quote:
Artist
Fav
Least Fav
Joe Walsh
Barnstorm
The Confessor
Eagles
Hotel California
Eagles
The James Gang (with Joe Walsh)
Rides Again
Thirds (I don't know the post Walsh albums)
Abba
Super Trouper
The Visitors
ACDC
They all sound the same don't they
Andrew Gold
All This And Heaven Too! (Halloween Howls is fun)
Whirlwind (I'm not well up with his flood of later albums)
CSN
Daylight Again
4 Way Street (I took it back to the shop!)
Dan Fogelberg
Netherlands
Exiles
David Lindley (Early)
El-Rayo X
Mr. Dave
David Lindley (Late)
Twango Bango II
Live In Europe!
Dire Straits
Brothers In Arms
On Every Street
Timothy B Schmit
Playin' It Cool
Tell Me The Truth
Randy Meisner
One More Song
Randy Meisner I
Glenn Frey
Strange Weather
Solo Collection (the new songs were a real let down)
Don Henley
Cass County
Inside Job
Elbow
Seldom Seen Kid
The Take Off And Landing Of Everything
ELO
Out Of The Blue
The further back you go the weaker they are
Fleetwood Mac
I like the hits and You And I Pt II
I'm really only familiar with the Buckingham Nicks era
First Aid Kit
Stay Gold
The Lion's Roar
Genesis (Gabriel)
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Tresspass
Genesis (Collins)
Invisible touch
And Then There Were Three
Jackson Browne
Late For The Sky
Lawyers In Love
I haven't heard his later stuff
but Standing In The breach is pretty good.
Jay Ferguson
All Alone in the end Zone
Real Life Aint That Way
Phil Collins
Face value
Testify
Peter Gabriel
So
Peter Gabriel II
Queen
The Works
Hot Space
Richard Marx
My Own best Enemy
Rush Street
Rod Stewart
Every Picture Tells A Story
Body Wishes (Ignoring the American Songbook stuff)
REM
Automatic for The People
Reveal
Spirit
Spirit
The 70s albums
Stevie Nicks
The Wild Heart
Street Angel
Status Quo
Heavy Traffic
The entire eighties
Tom Kimmel
Short Stories
Shallow Water (it's got god songs on it)
Tom Waits (Early)
Small Change
Nighthawks At A Diner
Tom Waits (Later)
Rain Dogs
Frank's Wild Years
Van Morrison (Early)
Moondance
Period Of Transition
Van Morrison (Later)
Enlightenment
Pay The Devil
Warren Zevon (Early)
Warren Zevon
The Envoy
Warren Zevon (Later)
Mr Bad Example
Life Will Kill Ya
I'm gonna work on a top three tracks for all my favourite artists. I hope it'll be easier... and I may be able to include a slightly wider range of artists, including some black guys and gals:shock:
Re: Favourite/Least Favourite Albums by Artist
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AlreadyGone95
Least favorite albums:
Yes- any album without Jon Anderson. (He's Yes for me.) Of the albums with him, Relayer.
I adore Jon Anderson but have you heard Drama? Even Jon Anderson said it's "bloody brilliant."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzxZzIiO84Y
Re: Favourite/Least Favourite Albums by Artist
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AlreadyGone95
Least favorite albums:
For most of the artists, I haven't heard all of their albums, so I'm only judging the ones I've heard.
Bad Company - Fame and Fortune (The first album without Paul Rodgers. Bad Co Mk. II hadn't found their sound yet.)
Eagles- Eagles ( The non hit songs aren't that good.)
Glenn Frey- After Hours (I do like the album, but the music isn't my type.)
Don Henley - I Can't Stand Still ( I just like this one the least.)
Fleetwood Mac-Time ( This would make my list of overall worst albums. It's horrible compared to all of their other albums.)
Free Free (Same as Don's, it's the one I like the least. Plus, I dislike the album cover.)
Def Leppard-X ( too poppy)
Iron Maiden - The 2 albums with Blaze Bailey ( Paul Di'Anno and Bruce Dickinson are much better suited for this band.)
Van Halen - Van Halen III( Gary Chorone & Van Halen=not a good combo)
Styx- Kilroy Was Here ( Dennis Deyoung got his way too much album.)
Lynyrd Skynyrd-Gimme Back My Bullets( it's just not as good as the other 70s albums )
Genesis - Wind and Wuthering ( Meh, Phil sounds too much like Peter. It's not as strong of an album compared to their others.)
CSNY-CSN( has the least number of sings I like.)
Stephen Stills- Right by You (uninspired and Meh. His best songs went to CSN's Daylight Again album.)
Allman Brothers Band - Brothers and Sisters(not quite as good as their first 3 studio albums)
AC/DC- Black Ice ( It doesn't hold up at all compared to their 70s and 80s albums.)
Black Sabbath-Sabbath Bloody Sabbath ( I just can't into this one.)
Led Zeppelin-Coda( Zep without Bonzo? No, Thank you.)
Pink Floyd- The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (It's good, but I prefer the albums with David Gilmour.)
Bob Seger- Like a Rock (boring and bland)
Elton John - The Diving Board (I love the first 4 songs, but the others I don't like much.)
Metallica- Does Lulu count? ( That collaboration album is horrible.) If not, I'll go with the other universally loathed album, St. Anger.
Rush- Signals (Subdivisions is my favorite Rush song, but the rest of the album isn't of the quality of Subdivisions.)
Yes- any album without Jon Anderson. (He's Yes for me.) Of the albums with him, Relayer.
Judas Priest- Turbo (Turbo Lover? :yuck: )
Tom Petty - Hard Promises ( I don't like Petty's early 80s work much.)
Thanks for posting your lists AG95 – I was really interested to read your comments on your least favourites because there are a few albums in there that I’ve listened to over the last couple of weeks or so which are not especially high up my own favourites list either.
Brothers & Sisters is the only Allman Brothers record I own – it’s partly because I already knew and liked Jessica thanks to its use as the Top Gear theme so it seemed the obvious starting point to me (at the time I didn't really know about the tragedies that preceded its release). I don’t think it’s a bad record by any means, and I like the rock tunes – Ramblin’ Man, Jessica and Come and Go Blues – but I’m not really into the country-blues tracks like Jelly Jelly and Southbound.
I definitely agree with you on Coda. To me the most unfortunate thing is that the record starts with We’re Gonna Groove, which is not just IMO the best song on the album but also a reminder of how awesome the band was at their peak. The three proper tracks on side two aren’t terrible, but I think having them on the same record as the songs from 1970 emphasises in particular how Robert’s voice had suffered over the decade (he was still a good singer and still had a distinctive voice, but had lost some of his power and range compared to the 1969-71 era when he was simply brilliant).
I like The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, although I concur in preferring the records with David Gilmour. From that era I prefer A Saucerful of Secrets, which is also psychedelic in sound but somehow appeals to me more. The other weird thing is that there is one Roger Waters composition on the album (Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk), but I think it’s one of the weakest songs – he was probably attempting to write like Syd. On the plus side, Piper contains Astronomy Domine, which I think is their best pre-Meddle song, and there are two Waters/Gilmour/Wright/Mason studio albums that I prefer Piper to, these being the More soundtrack and the studio half of Ummagumma.
WS82, I’m totally with you on Animals. It is a superb album from start to finish, and both Waters and Gilmour were at the top of their game – Dogs alone is testament to this. It’s my third favourite Pink Floyd album, behind only Wish You Were Here and Dark Side. I also found your comments about Yellow Submarine especially interesting, as they reminded me of my own thoughts about the More Soundtrack and to a lesser extent Coda.
Re: Favourite/Least Favourite Albums by Artist
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AlreadyGone95
Judas Priest- Turbo (Turbo Lover? :yuck: )
Priest are my second favourite band (after some Californian country rock outfit I forget the name of :lol:), but I have to disagree with that last bit; Turbo Lover is one of the highlights of their live shows and one of the very few redeeming features of the album itself. I completely understand why Turbo would be your least favourite album since it's astronomically inferior to every album that preceeded it (bar perhaps Rocka Rolla) and has wayyyyyyy too much synth and general 1980s in it, but I think deep down everybody who listens to Priest has that little piece of them that loves Turbo Lover.
Out of interest, how much of their work have you listened to?
Re: Favourite/Least Favourite Albums by Artist
Quote:
Originally Posted by
thelastresort
Priest are my second favourite band (after some Californian country rock outfit I forget the name of :lol:), but I have to disagree with that last bit; Turbo Lover is one of the highlights of their live shows and one of the very few redeeming features of the album itself. I completely understand why Turbo would be your least favourite album since it's astronomically inferior to every album that preceeded it (bar perhaps Rocka Rolla) and has wayyyyyyy too much synth and general 1980s in it, but I think deep down everybody who listens to Priest has that little piece of them that loves Turbo Lover.
Out of interest, how much of their work have you listened to?
Believe it or not. I actually like Rocka Rolla. Turbo Lover is one of those WTF? songs. I used to not mind it much until VH1 Classic played the video of it to death. Now, I can't stand it. The rest of the album is just so un- Priest- like.
I've listened to all of to everything from Rocka Rolla to Painkiller and Redeemer of Souls.
NMB, I haven't heard Drama. I'm a Yes purist, but I'll try to remember to listen to it over my school break.
Jonny, I'll respond to your post when I have more free time.
Re: Favourite/Least Favourite Albums by Artist
Favorite Doors album: Waiting for the Sun
Least favorite: The Soft Parade (but it has Shaman's Blues, which is worth the price of admission)
Favorite Yes album: Going for the One
Least favorite: Relayer
Favorite Zep album: this is too hard. I can't choose.
Re: Favourite/Least Favourite Albums by Artist
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Best: "Into the Great Wide Open" and "Echo"--On a track-to-track basis, 'Great Wide Open' is as even a mix as you'll get with Petty. Several of the non-hit tracks are instant classics("King's Highway," "Dark of the Sun," "All or Nothin'," "Too Good to Be True," and "You and I Will Meet Again") in their own right.
"Echo" often gets panned, but is also a shining moment in itself, containing some of my favourite songs of his("Room at the Top," "Lonesome Sundown," "Accused of Love," and the title track). Admittedly, you would have to be of a certain mind frame to appreciate this one.
Worst: The aforementioned "Let Me Up(I've Had Enough)" and "Wildflowers"--LMUIHE has been discussed already, but "Wildflowers" is a bit of an unimpressive and uneven album. The hits, title track, and songs like "Time to Move on," "Hard on Me," and "To Find a Friend" are quite good. The rest of the songs are varying degrees of meh.
Def Leppard
Best: "Pyromania"-- Joe Elliott's raw vocal energy is really in top form on this one. Even the lesser tracks are worth a few listens.
Worst: "Hysteria"--A lot of the songs sound like a lame attempt to cash in on the band's building momentum over the previous 5 years. Watered-down vocals and uninspired guitar and musical work co-conspire to make this one snoozer of an album. Only the title track is worth anything.
Re: Favourite/Least Favourite Albums by Artist
No new additions to my list, but a couple more thoughts:
Eagles: The more I look at this list, the more I think One Of These Nights looks out of place - it is more my 'seventh favourite' album than 'least favourite' as I enjoy the majority of the music and it has several very strong songs.
Neil Young: If I had to pick one from my favourite Neil era - 1969-79 (from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere through to Rust Never Sleeps) the album that I feel is least consistently strong is American Stars 'n Bars. I have to be in the right state of mind to really enjoy the country songs on side one, and Homegrown is a bit of a throwaway. However, there is the small matter of Like A Hurricane, an incredible song and a clear career highlight, so I can't dismiss it. It doesn't fit in with any of the other songs, but it stands out so much that it isn't an issue.
Pink Floyd: Having listened to both Ummagumma and the More Soundtrack album in full - the two weakest Waters/Gilmour/Wright/Mason records IMO - in the last couple of weeks (the first time I'd listened to either in a good while) I would say that the Ummagumma studio album is the weakest recorded by this quartet. The instrumentals on More are rather unmemorable, but they are better than the frankly boring Grand Vizier's Garden Party and the novelty song Several Species of Small Furry Animals..., and all of the 'vocal' songs on there are pretty good. However, the live disc of Ummagumma is excellent and therefore as a whole record I think it comes out on top.