2 from the same year:

Nirvana's "In Utero"

Pearl Jam (Whichever Album Followed "Ten")

Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Brain Salad Surgery was near genius. Then they released Works, a two record set known only for the anti-Christmas carol Father Christmas.

Kate Bush, "The Sensual World."

From the artist who gave us the one-two punch of "The Dreaming" and "Hounds of Love," and after a then-unthinkable 4-year delay, a massive letdown. The weakest Kate Bush album by far.

I still listen to it every now & then, though.

Ah, Fiona...I had quite forgotten about her. Definitely a made-for-video artist. One flash of the translucent white tank-top and I don't care what the hell what her music sounds like.

Regarding The Who's Face Dances, I think Townsend used up all his best material for his solo album, Empty Glass, which was released less than one year earlier.

NIGP: Exactly. That was the drag; I had HIGH hopes for FD, because EG was such a great record. Blah.

DIP: Re the tank top; hooyeah. The silliness of the video is no comment on higher-level aesthetics.

Brian: Yep. I remember the Kate fans howling about that one.

Foot: You didn't like "In Utero?" Most of my Nirvana-fan friends seemed to, although it left me pretty cold too.

You could tell that after the success of Nevermind, Cobain wrested all creative control from the band.

When your band includes Dave Grohl, that's a very very bad idea. And it showed. Damn near unlistenable for me. I think I listened to it twice.

Hmmmmm. Mitch, as a fellow musician, I'm gonna have to ruminate n' cogitate for awhile here... sure I'll come up with something.

Meanwhile, my son Michael would definitely nominate Hasidic reggaemon Matisyahu's "Youth."

HTML didn't carry thru... here's the link to Michael's review:

http://www.jewlicious.com/index.php/2006/03/15/matisyahu-youth-the-official-jewlicious-review/

Peter Frampton "I'm in You". What ever you think about the artistic merits of "Frampton Comes Alive", it was HUGE and it Rocked. Frampton went from obscurity to stadium multiple sellouts overnight. Then he seemingly abandoned his Rock and Roll fans with the limp, self indulgent "I'm in You" and his fans sent him right back to obscurity.

The local record store had a life-sized cardboard standup of Frampton from the cover of I'm In You. Someone decapitated it and painted little red dribbles down the front. Seemed fitting.

Jinx! I was just thinking of you, Kerm! When I read the part of Michael's post that said "limp, self indulgent," I thought, "Wonder where old Kermit is today."

That's it, Mitch!

The ultimate disappointing followup was when angryclown followed his bracing "Witty Leftist Riposte" with the utterly dreadful "Rabid Marxist-Leninist Spew."

True, but angryclown's album of Ethel Mermen covers is still a classic.

Crosby, Stills & Nash, "Live It Up." Even the howlingly mediocre CSNY "American Dream" a couple of years earlier was stronger than this embarrassing collection of pay-the-bills, contractually-obligated pap. It had one masterpiece to redeem it, the Stills-penned "Haven't We Lost Enough?" but every other track made me want to microwave the CD and then throw the microwave off the roof and then set fire to the sidewalk it landed on.

I have two nominations. First: "The Final Cut" by Pink Floyd.

The only reason I can think of for them recording this album, the follow-up the the all-time classic "The Wall," was to fulfill their record contract. What a crappy, lifeless, go-through-the-motions recording. I bought the vinyl in 1982 the first week it was out and played it once; I haven't listened to it since.

Second: "Monster" by REM, which followed both "Out of Time" and "Automatic for the People." I've heard talentless, noisy garage bands play better music than this.

Don't worry, Kerm, you're not the target - Angryclown simply opened up the comment box before he realized that this might not be the best place to express his disappointment over whatever Dixie Chicks album followed "Oui: Hate Teh Prez," and you were the nearest commenter to hand.

I like In Utero quite a bit. About as much as Nevermind, I'd say, maybe even more sometimes.

Oh, and to turn the concept on its side a little bit: how about back catalogue albums that don't live up to expectations built up by current? Early Flaming Lips stuff is a bitter, bitter disappointment compared to "Soft Bulletin" and "Yoshi Battles the Pink Robots." The blissed-out personae so carefully crafted in those two is ruined by the rote bashing in "In A Priest-Driven Car," and "Transmission from Satellite Heart" is just stupid.

test

The disappointment of Human Touch was nothing compared to the vomitrocious band Springsteen took on the road with him that tour. It was just all so wrong.

BTW, I still consider Angry Clown's comment that "Even the guy who wrote 99 Bottles of Beer thinks that The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald is tedious and repetitive" to be a classic (even though I actually like the song).
Every comment thereafter has been a let down.

IIRC, Frampton also followed "Comes Alive" with the Srgt. Pepper movie, which killed a lot of careers.

King's X (too obscure?) followed up "Faith, Hope, Love" with their S/T album, which was tweaked and produced to be as commerical sounding as possible. It didn't suck, but had more clunkers than most.

Of course, some bands cheat. U2 followed The Joshua Tree with a live album, to soften the blow before their 90s musical (and attitude) change.

I'll nominate Boston's "Don't Look Back". Their debut album is a classic, but DLB makes me realize that the songs are all just a bunch of first album rejects.

Not quite, "Brian Jones." Country music still sucks, even when sung by right-thinking hotties. And Angryclown wouldn't permit anything with the word "Dixie" in his clown home. So Angryclown buys Dixie Chix CDs, but immediately landfills them.

Paul, I thought about The Final Cut too. Waters should have called it the Final Straw. Two faily god tune and a bunch of drivel.

Beeeej, American Dream did suck. But by the time they recorded it most of the buzz had worn off.

angryclown...oh,never mind.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's Howl. They cut out all the metal and went with thoughtful lyrics. WTF?

For classic rock stuff, The Stone's Goat's Head Soup. OK, maybe you got laid to "Angie" but I didn't. Hell, I don't know how anyone could get laid to that disappointing follow up to Exile on Main Street.

"King's X (too obscure?) followed up "Faith, Hope, Love" with their S/T album, which was tweaked and produced to be as commerical sounding as possible. It didn't suck, but had more clunkers than most."

I loved that album. It wasn't their best, but the real letdown from King's X was "Dogman"

Clown: "Country music still sucks, even when sung by right-thinking hotties."

People who say that in full knowledge that Emmylou Harris exists should lose the right to vote. I'll grant clemency, knowing that the Clown is blissfully unaware of anything west of the Hudson River. Don't waste this second chance, Clown: Homeland Security is watching.

Non-Wege: Was in sixth grade when GHS was released. Didn't get busy to EITHER album. To be fair to the Stones, following up EOMS would be a formidable job.

Just Me: I remember being in eighth (ninth?) grade, hearing DLB on Pat Trenda's cassette player, and even THEN being very, very disappointed.

Foot and Jerry: Loved Kings X, but they happened at a time when I coulnd't follow bands (marriage, yadda yadda). FH'nL was great, and I didn't hear any of the followups.

Chriss: Re the '91-93 Springsteen band; Yeah. The choir was cool, but Shayne Fontaine is among the least impressive guitar players around. After six years of Nils Lofgren, it was puzzling to say the least.

Living Colour's "Time's Up" was the follow-up to "Vivid" and did not pay the freight. Tough act to follow, but still.

Okay, I waited overnight and no one else got it, so I've got to lay it down:

King Crimson. Followed "In the Court of the Crimson King" with "In the Wake of Poseidon."

Heh.

Another one that fits this category: Paul Simon's Graceland, a breakthrough and nearly perfect work. Followed up by Rhythm of the Saints, he proved that more isn't always better.

Peter Gabriel's Us. Barf.

As for Wege not getting laid to "Angie"...do you seriously not remember that one time? Thanks.

sorry.

More King's X musings:

It would be a perfectly legitimate postion to hold that all of King's X's albums after "Gretchen Goes to Nebraska" were letdowns. It was that good.

Beethoven's Third Symphony: masterful
Beethoven's Fourth Symphony: sucked donkey's

All Pearl Jam albums after "Ten" .

And Wege? Treasure the imagination of that hopefully-fictional moment...

Not a fan of his, but Paul McCartney's "Venus and Mars" and "Wings at the Speed of Sound" made it painfully obvious that his songs had more sap than bark.

Return to Forever "Musicmagic." Gone were the great days of Al Dimeola, Lenny White, Bill Connors, Airto, et. al., and Gayle Moran sings, God Help Us All.

Whatever Jefferson Starship album had We Built This City on it. This was once a great band. Oh, the humanity.

I want to second Fleetwood Mac "Tusk," and King Crimson "In the Wake of Poseidon."

"Whatever Jefferson Starship album had We Built This City on it."

Knee Deep in the Hoopla.

It burns us.

This thread needs a special lifetime award for Elvis Costello, who spent ten albums moving from sharp pop brilliance to baroque unlistenability. Every third album would be heralded as a return to his earlier, funnier albums, but only because one song had an actual hook, and the lyrics didn't sound like Cole Porter channelling James Joyce. Or vice versa.

I remember a picture in Rolling Stone in about '85 of that Fiona chick at some industry party, sucking deep face with...Paul Schaffer.

Life never seemed so unfair.

RE: Jefferson Starship
In keeping with the thread, they had one very good album in Dragonfly followed by the execrable Red Octopus. Shame on you, Marty Balin.

U2's bland "October", a rush job coming on the heels of their debut "Boy." Rushed because the record company got word that some demo bootlegs were about to hit the market and they wanted the album release to come ahead of the bootlegs. Sounds like it, too.

Re: The Who. It may be well to consider Quadrophenia the last quality Who album as their next 4 releases (By Numbers, Who Are You and the aforementioned and rightly disparaged Face Dances and It's Hard) were definitely "no cigar" material. If only Keith had bought the farm in '74...KIDDING.

The Kinks of course followed up the tremendous Arthur with Lola vs. Powerman (YUCK), and followed up Preservation Act I with A Soap Opera. They may be the kings in this territory.

James: Can't believe I missed that. And "the lyrics didn't sound like Cole Porter channelling James Joyce. Or vice versa" is a keeper...

Tim: October also suffered because, so the story goes, the notebook with the lyrics got stolen. Bono had to reconstruct/vamp the lyrics as best he could. I almost included that one on my list, but "Gloria" redeems all.

And I'll second "The Final Cut," which wasn't just the same three chords dripping with misanthropic narcissism: it was a long tedious rant against World War Two, of all things. It seems that Roger Waters was the only person who lost his father in the war.

"Not Now John" ends amusingly, though. In the rather crowded field of songs that conclude with a soccer hooligan attempting to ask a foreigner for the location of the nearest bar, it stands alone.

James (Lileks): "Not Now John" had one other redeeming characteristic: A short, searing and very-much-to-the-point David Gilmour guitar solo. I think he ran in to lay it down while double-parked at the curb, counting the seconds before he could get back outta there.

One other clarification RE late-period Jefferson Starship: It should be noted, by anyone who goes clear back to the Airplane, that Jorma and Jack are EXEMPTED from this dreck and never had anything to do with it. (As if you couldn't tell?)

Tim, Who Are You was a pretty decent album. It had songs like The Music Must Change and Goodbye Sister Disco which are vintage Townsend. Also, the cover had Moon sitting on a director's chair with the words NOT TO BE TAKEN AWAY stencilled on the back. Coincidence?

Guilty pleasure alert...

Styx, following up "Paradise Theater" with "Kilroy Was Here".

I mean, if you're the kind of guy who likes Styx, then "Paradise Theater" will give you a lift. Even Styx fans must admit that "Kilroy" was grasping on a number of levels.

Badda, you have forged a new layer of epistemology in this discussion; what has been the biggest disappointment after something one detested to begin with?

(Not a Styx fan, although Tommy Shaw could sure play)

Whatever MTV unplugged/spoken word brain-fart Lauryn Hill released after The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. I think it's called "Is that my navel or am I just happy to see me?"

Kerm: I may be in the minority but it's not a favorite of mine. I think many of the songs are too bloated, too long and too much (did you know Moon did not play on "Music Must Change"? He couldn't deal with the song's 6/8 time signature). I get some flack for not liking By Numbers but what are you gonna do? To me Quadrophenia effectively ended their career. Not a bad album to go out on.

Lileks said:

"And I'll second "The Final Cut," which wasn't just the same three chords dripping with misanthropic narcissism: it was a long tedious rant against World War Two, of all things. It seems that Roger Waters was the only person who lost his father in the war.

"Not Now John" ends amusingly, though. In the rather crowded field of songs that conclude with a soccer hooligan attempting to ask a foreigner for the location of the nearest bar, it stands alone."

James, you've listened to that album way too much.

Don't know if James has listened to it too much, but he may have devoted too much time becoming the world's foremost exper on songs that conclude with a soccer hooligan attempting to ask a foreigner for the location of the nearest bar.

While we're on the subject of songs that feature soccer hooligans attempting to ask a foreigner for the location of the nearest bar... wasn't that kinda the subtext in the Replacements' "Talent Show"?

(or maybe it was just Bob Stinson razzing a bunch of foreign soccer hooligans IN a bar, I dunno...)

Tim, "Momma's got a squeeze-box". That says it all.

And cut Lileks some slack. Considering where he works it's amazing he isn't "dripping with misanthropic narcissism" too. Rather like a coworker with the initials N.C.

For me it has to be "This Desert Life" from Counting Crows. Their debut work "August and Everything After" was visionary and they followed it with the rocking "Recovering the Satellites" and I'm thinking, Yes!

Then along comes "This Desert Life" and suddenly I'm looking at my cd player like the Aflac duck trying to figure out what Yogi Berra is saying. I was dumbfounded. Still am.

For me it has to be "This Desert Life" from Counting Crows. Their debut work "August and Everything After" was visionary and they followed it with the rocking "Recovering the Satellites" and I'm thinking, Yes!

Then along comes "This Desert Life" and suddenly I'm looking at my cd player like the Aflac duck trying to figure out what Yogi Berra is saying. I was dumbfounded. Still am.

"While we're on the subject of songs that feature soccer hooligans attempting to ask a foreigner for the location of the nearest bar... wasn't that kinda the subtext in the Replacements' "Talent Show"?"

So there are *two* songs in that genre? Hmm. Call it a tie.

All down hill for The Sex Pistols after Never Mind the Bollocks. Even Gary Oldman singing Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy sounded better than anything from The Great Rock and Roll Swindle. Also in this vein anything that Lene Lovich did after Stateless.

Mitch, anything by King's X is good, it just depends on which era between "good" and "best rock band ever." But,If you've never heard "Gretchen Goes to Nebraska," find an excuse -- it's on the new free Napster if you want. One of the best.

Foot: Their S/T was good, but it was clear they were in transition. I liked Dogman, but "Ear Candy" was a turn back in the right direction. The new one, Ogre Tones, is probably their best in 10 years.

True Believers--self-titled disc. They were one of the best live bands I've ever seen, but on the album they sounded comatose.

There are too many Bob Mould solo discs to add to the list. I keep hoping for a flash of Husker Du or Sugar, but I'm disappointed almost every time.

I thought Vs, Pearl Jam's follow up to Ten was almost as good. Animal, Daughter and Dissident are as good as anything on Ten. Now, I will agree Pearl Jam jumped off the cliff with Vitalogy and everything after when they decided a song didn't need any type of melody, sharp guitar riffs or any other cohesiveness. They were too busy battling TicketMaster (and losing) to bother with making good CD's.

I actually like The Who's Its Hard. Eminence Front and Athena are great Who songs. I always thought The Who By Numbers was a horrible follow up to the brilliant Quadrophenia (if you ignore Odds & Sods as not a "true original release").

Two of the biggest worst follow ups that come to mind are The Stones Emotional Rescue to Some Girls and Zeppelin's Presence to Physical Graffiti. Emotional Rescue seems like leftovers from Some Girls. She's So Cold isn't bad, but it's one decent song surrounded by filler that should never have been released.

I know the situation Zeppelin was in when they were recording Presence contributed to it, but Presence is by far the worst Zeppelin album (if there is such a thing) and definitely fits this list because Physical Graffiti is Zep's best and a top 5 Greatest Rock CD's ever.

I'm surprised no mention of Dylan, Clapton, Lou Reed, Neil Young, or Bowie. All have had incredibly bad albums (the words "Self Portrait" are forever ruined by Dylan). Young makes a habit of releasing flotsam admist the jetsam...or is it the other way around? But that is part of his appeal, for me.

Anyway, too many releases to cooment about by the above that have transcended what most others have done, and recorded dreck worse than most garage bands.