Are there any bands whose song quality varies so wildly that your opinion of them goes from LOVE! to HATE! depending on the song you're hearing? And I don't mean bands that diminished (or improved) over time, so that you like one album but not another. But rather, are there bands that can put out albums where the good songs are stellar and the rest are just plain awful - so bad that you begin to doubt if the band is really any good at all ?
For me, these three immediately come to mind:
- The Who
- The Cars
- Grateful Dead
You?
Kill me for saying this, but Frank Zappa.
The Dead for sure. Many great bands have the occasional clunker, many lousy bands have the occasional or singular flash of greatness, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what you’re talking about. Tom Petty maybe.
(And sort-of Bob Dylan — though it’s more an album-to-album thing with him, and also with Neil Young.)
The Doobie Brothers. Though I’m getting to the point where I can’t even stomach their good stuff.
Neil, yeah. every time “A Man Needs A Maid” or “Cripple Creek Ferry” comes on, i cringe.
Zappa… i keep telling myself i need to seriously investigate him . then i go to iTunes, do a little sampling, and i’m all like, “there are 200 albums here, where would i even begin?” (i shoudl look to see if there’s an A/V club Gateway To Geekery for him)
John Denver. His tracks that made it to the radio are so terrific, but the ones that didn’t are soporific.
My first Zappa album was One Size Fits All, and it remains one of my favorites. Partly because the long passages of instrumental wankery are really well-executed, largely because he keeps the lampshade off his head for most of the album.
You can’t get away from Zappa’s sense of humor; it informs his entire musical philosophy. But there’s “we are a good rock band who doesn’t really take the conventions of rock seriously” and then there’s “we are a bunch of sophomoric assholes who like potty talk.” I just can’t bear it when the latter overtakes the album, like on Sheik Yerbouti.
The usual suspect for entry is Apostrophe (‘), which is quite good, and also gets close enough to the saturation level of his lyrical clownery to test whether you can put up with his worse moments.
I know the Rolling Stones are famous for releasing albums that have 3-5 boffo, socko songs and the rest is unapologetic filler.
Hip-hop, of course, is a singles driven genre. I’ve got loads of rap albums with a couple of good songs, a bunch of rubbish and a smattering of inter-song “skits” that would make a junior high drama club cringe.
– I’m totally with you on The Who. The good songs from them I LOVE and the rest is just meh.
– Cris has it totally right with Zappa. Apostrophe (‘) is a great place to start because you have the musicality plus the weirdness in a small enough dose. You can also go to Allmusic and check out the checked and 4.5-5 star albums, all of which are great. Zappa suffers from releasing every musical thought he ever had so there is going to be some serious chaff.
– The Rolling Stones do this for me. I like their good songs but I find a lot of their stuff just boring.
-I am tempted to say perhaps Matthew Sweet. Or even the Goo Goo Dolls who have written a couple of sublime songs but for the most part they just suck. Lenny Kravitz?
I just can’t bear it when the latter overtakes the album, like on Sheik Yerbouti.
are any of the records from that era any good ? (that’s my Belew obsession asking)
I think Belew only played on that one and Baby Snakes if I remember correctly. All of the albums from this era suffer from the excess of his potty humor and strangeness, which I like (mostly) though I know puts off a lot of people. You could also choose to listen to the Shut Up series of guitar solos which are trippy. Most are of course technically interesting to listen to.
I prefer his earlier stuff though, and since we are talking about Sheik I feel I need to mention the album right before that, Sleep Dirt which is brilliant and contains my favorite instrumental, The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution.
Hey if you guys want to hear some wheat (as I boldly assert that it is) check out this tape me and John have been working on for a couple of months: Mountain Station