October 2004

Buzzsaw Asks: Bad Albums

Buzzsaw Asks the Staff: Give one or two albums which were embarrassingly bad, or not as good as the previous album, which you loved. Explain why.

Bigfoot
The Old 97's Satellite Rides is, by far, the most disappointing cd I've ever owned. While certainly not horrible, the Old 97's had my hopes up way higher than any other band before.

You see, I already had (and had essentially memorized) Wreck Your Life. You just can't give me "King of All of the Crap" when I know you can make "Doreen." There were probably some good songs on Satellite Rides (although I'd put no money on it), but the first song so absolutely ruined my musical appetite that I couldn't give any others a chance.

Grandpa
Steely Dan's "Two Against Nature" was the biggest let down ever. I don't know what else to say. It's a bad idea inside a mistake wrapped in a fuck-up.

Godzilla
I have a fear in buying music, sometimes, that if I purchase another album by an artist who produced an album that I deeply enjoy, I will wind up listening to some piece of crap and be shattered. Like, what if Thievery Corporation's "The Mirror Conspiracy" had sucked? And what if, after only having heard "Folsom Prison Blues" I discovered that Johnny Cash sucked? What if "Ring of Fire" was a bad song? Fortunately, this kind of thing doesn't happen often. But I'm pretty sure it has happened to me. Recently I've been worried about purchasing the new Interpol album. I love the first one, and am apprehensive that maybe they are a one trick horse (fortunately, I heard some of the new album recently and breathed a sigh of relief).

But to address the question more properly, I'm not too worried about an artist putting out a disappointing album. Because everyone does that. I'm more worried about discovering a band that I thought was awesome is a bunch of dorks who managed to release a fluke. I'm worried about finding out that music I like actually sucks. Sometimes that happens. And not just the, "man, I listened to bad music when I was 12" thing. Like, hypothetically, you find out that Good Charlotte sucks. Of course, that band does suck. But you see the problem, nobody wants to be that naïve to ever think Good Charlotte sucks.

To directly answer the question, every Michael Jackson album that came out after Thriller have been terrible, though maybe not disappointing.

And the last album by The Sea & Cake was pretty disappointing to, though not totally bad. Just not what it should have been after brilliant albums like "Fawn" and "Oiu".

Chimpy
I know this sounds cliche, but the first two Rusted Roots albums were enjoyable, but "Remember" was just downright depressing in delivery and content. Shame on you pot-heads!