Favorite poorly-recorded albums

interesting you should mention todd rundgren--i was listening recently to "an elpee worth of productions", which is a best-of his outside productions and was struck by how crummy much of it sounded--compressed, flat and congested. on the other hand, his "skylarking" (xtc) and badfinger productions are great.
some other notoriously botched productions of good records:
marshall crenshaw, field day (steve lillywhite). his production of the la's was also roundly skewered, tho i kinda like it.
the specials (elvis costello)
graham parker, stick to me (nick lowe)
husker du, zen arcade. there's a great record buried in all that murk.

it may be useful to distinguish between really incompetent recordings and technically proficient recordings which may sound bad. for example, i don't like much of mitchell froom's or daniel lanois's stuff--too slick or too stylized--although they both work with great artists and know what they're doing. in general, i think the producer's role should be to capture the essence of the artist, not to give the artist the trademark sound of the producer.