What was your most disappointing album purchase?

Gowan - Strange Animal

Got it back in the 80s, my first encounter with unlistenable dynamic compression, I still have the album, haven't played it for decades.

Geoff, admit it, you never had to take anything to get stoned, you were born that way.  🥴

"Marcel Marceau's Greatest Hits.Not a track on it worth listening to."

Come on, the applause was so realistic...

Marcel Marceau's Greatest Hits.Not a track on it worth listening to.

Mr. Minnow 😡 don’t be mad. Everything’s topsy turvy as usual. Me topsy, you turvy.

geoffkait,

Not at all.

Learn to swim with big fish 🐟. You may learn how to catch a worm 🎣.

Did I strike a nerve! Oops! You’re cute when you get mad. 😩

geoffkait,

"Oh, geez, glubson with his theories of reality again."

Don't you hate it when someone knows more than you do? I actually own all of those Exile On Main Street copies I mentioned above. How about yourself? I own Ummagumma cassette, too. And multiple SONY Walkmen. Don't be jealous. Some guys are just better.

Oh, geez, glubson with his theories of reality again.

Confucius say if song really good on one format must be a really good recording.

You guys listened to the wrong format and wrong issue.

Strangely enough, German LPs pressing from about 1982 is bad. German CD from 1990, or so, is bad. U.S.A. CD (Virgin) from mid-1990s sounds almost the same except it is much more clear which reveals even more how poor of a sound quality/recording it is. The best amongst them is relatively recent half-speed master LPs. Which does not mean it is anything good. It is only less than entirely pitiful. I prefer that German pressing from 1982 but it is not because of the sound quality as there is none.

I have not heard the 1994 cassette, but, to paraphrase one of the lines in Roman law, what was not good from the beginning will not get better with time passing. Except maybe Ummagumma. Which does sound marvelous on an Italian cassette.

"Kind of Blue" Miles Davis. 

First cut on Columbia re-issue LP sounds distorted when the saxophone comes on, plus some lesser issues further on. 

This is apparently a known issue, and for some reason no one ever was able (or willing) to fix it. 
By comparison the Sony re-issued CD from decades back, somehow is masking that error, making it less noticeable.
One excuse I learned is, that it's the inadvertent spitting in the sax's mouth-piece, that was causing the 'distortion'...  Really? 🤔 
Michélle 🇿🇦 

Completely agree about Ummagumma.

Completely disagree about Pearl Jam "10" and Tool.

On a good copy you can hear the amazing piano 🎹 work by Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston and Ian Stewart. The piano gets lost in the mix on some tracks on inferior pressings/systems. 🔙

Just dropping back in, after playing side 3/4 of Exile-

Good rockin. I have a nice early run pressing,unmolested. That was after 3 purchases!

LIB to Exile is mandatory listening for any Stones fan.

Bite me! 

Says the guy who dresses like a cookie!

You’re not as funny as you look. 

Hey Geoff,

How many hours does your Walkman have on it. It's gotta give it up at some point.

No wonder. You guys listened to the wrong format and wrong issue. The one with the excellent sound quality is the 1994 Virgin remaster on cassette. Or CD is close second. Come on, guys, get it together. 

Yes. The SQ is horrible.

I have listened to Exile On Main Street many times and have multiple issues of it, but I do think it is overrated. It may be because there is always a story about it. Recorded wherever, recording sessions were whatever. It is never about the music. It always has something else attached to it. It became mythical. Lots of stories, a few good songs, many fillers, horrible sound quality.

It took a while for The Flaming Lips to grow on me. Yoshimi maybe my favorite. Got the German pressing. SQ is fantastic!

I Love "OK Computer". One of the all time great rock lps IMO.

I don’t think it was overrated ever. I think it was underrated. It’s gotten almost as bad a rap as Their Satanic Majesties Request. If only you could hear what I hear with your ears.

It’s not bad just severely overrated for many years.  

Sorry but Exile on Main St. is a great Stones album. The 1994 Virgin cassette remastered by Bob Ludwig is spectacular. 🤗

Anything by Radiohead

ok...OK Computer, is the only one I bought. I was told they were ’The next Pink Floyd’, and that was the album to get. 

Bought it with great anticipation, and waited a few months, cracked that $35-$40 double album open..and..nothing. Nothing at all. Just...bleh.

Trying to be relevant, it was...but...failing miserably to be anything but warmed up 10 day old over-salted watery soup.

Cool at the time to the counterculture? Say what?!  Have you flipped your gizzard? 

Exile on Main Street seemed cool at the time to the counterculture but for me one of the most overrated classic rock albums out there.

Exile on Main Street. A few good tracks as opposed to earlier Stones albums. I think Sticky Fingers was the last great Stones album and that Exile set the new low bar for their ensuing LP's (not that they didn’t still produce the occasional great single)

There are some DREADFUL albums listed here!

" I love Steely Dan, and I have read that some members here even like this one, but their album Gaucho is a snorefest."

bob540-I have for the longest time tried to like that album. That album seems to be a "must have" for some reason, especially audiogeeks. It has the "80’s sound" which I lump in with the awful "smooth Jazz" which also became popular. SD to me is pre Aja, though I still enjoy pulling out my AB1006 "stamper" copy now and then.

Six Pence None the Richer-OUCH!another band in the dead zone(1980-present). I found the Seattle scene the only genre that saved the period.

Kajagogo- my girlfriend at the time, had a little sister who was in love with Lamahl. I was in a serious "Classic R&R" mourning period. All my heroes were getting old and stale.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/limahl-budgie-world-champion-budgie-2901973

Comments on noted albums-
I take offense to Who’s Live at Leeds  getting the thumbs down. Perhaps it wasn’t played LOUD enough?

Keith Moon- yeah, just bad.

King Crimson-I have a plain old domestic press and kept in context, sounds good. Just proves its the pressing, and a crapshoot.

Victim of Love- What the heck happened after GYBR?

Stones- I gave it some time to warm up to it. Compare it to their 80’s run, then it clicks.

pgaulke60,  someone will want them and be proud of them!  🙄

WHAT, nobody mentions the first couple of John & Yoko solo recordings? If it wasn't Lennon, those would have never been recorded or released.  Totally unlistenable, even for nostalgia sake.  I keep thinking my mint copies are going to be worth something someday, but who would want them?

Elton John - “Victim of Love” - a disco album at a time when disco was pretty much dead.  He wrote none of the songs, and only does vocals (no instrumental parts) - quite awful.  Even he acknowledges it was garbage.

The Charlie Parker Story, Savoy MG has to be by far the poorest compilation and engineered recording ever produced. Shorts and excerpts of tracks that have been cut and dubbed to the point I only keep it for the soul purpose of setting up my turntable cartridges. Every time I even notice it while thumbing through my collection I am amazed they produced this garbage. A real discredit for such an amazing musician.

Don’t get me wrong . . I love Joan Osborne too.  It’s just after her debut album the others I have heard have been spotty.  

Have any of you listened to “The Flaming Lips”?   They might appeal most to teens, but from what I have heard of them they are like Saturday Night Live after the original cast left . . . more bizarre than entertaining.   I recall a title like  . . Yoshi Battles the Pink Robots (?).   I will pass.

Funny selections...some surprising.  But just remember some of those artists had no choice because the record company had artistic direction!   "Love Beach" by Emerson, Lake  & Palmer.

My most disappointing album was Her Satanic Majesty's Request by the Stones.  They came back with great albums right after, but that one was rubbish.

Worst sonics  - No Doubt, Tragic Kingdom
Worst disappointment - Dire Straights, Studio box set.  Boring Sonics,  premium price tag.

Too many to list...not all LP’s sound great...however the few that get it right sound spectacular.

BTW, I think Joan Osborne is great.....she just made a poor lp.

This Way - Jewel. I didn't actually buy the CD but my daughters bought it for me because I liked the first hit Standing Still. The rest of the CD was tripe.

"Hard to decide betweeen Kajagoogoo or Wang Chung."

I think you are just Too shy, shy, to admit that Kajagoogoo is still as good as it was then.

I recently bought the Neil Young compilation album Decade, very poor recording. The sources they used were not the best, was disappointed.

feeling nostalgic, picked up Keith Moon’s “Two Sides of the Moon” recalling the album cover artwork...unfortunately there actually was an album in there that I had to spin...despite the incredibly talented support musicians listed therein, the main attraction just never showed up...quite possibly the WORST album ever !

I was talking about this online with friends recently. Back in the day when we used to really pay for music, not have entire catalogues available at a click, you'd wait for NEW Bowie or Led Zep or Elvis stuff to come out and listen to an album side in its entirety because, A) you paid serious 70's bucks. B) there wasn't any remote control and I was too high to get up and cross the room to skip the lousy track. Ultimately, it was easier to find what was good about an album...and there are songs in languages I don't speak that I can sing in full. That wouldn't have happened with a remote.
You gave lots of music a seriously fair chance.
I find I discard way more music in the digital world. Even without the sheer, mindblowing volume of 'stuff', the digital musical disappointments are way more frequent. 

I don't get people who don't get Coltrane.

Lulu - Metallica and Lou Reed..... so bad :(

Hard to decide betweeen Kajagoogoo or Wang Chung.  
It was a dark period, and I had to claw my way back.

Yeah it was. But I kind of had my purchases mixed up. I bought Major Works in the early 90s.I gave it away to someone who actually appreciated it soon after. 
    My original disappointing album was Ascension I'm pretty sure,  but might have been Om. Either way it went back.
     I will have to give the solo by Tyner a try. Thanks.