Though we're only two episodes into Albummer, I already like it an awful lot! (I'd say the same thing about all the new shows as well!) I was talking about the premise with some friends, and we got to thinking about which albums could be subjects for the show/what we would be fun to see covered/what we'd want an opinion on/etc., and I figured I might as well bring that conversation here.
So... what are some bad albums you'd like to see the show tackle? Some albums that came to mind for me:
My Teenage Dream Ended by Farrah Abraham (Would be interesting to hear them weigh in on the "Is it anaccidentalmasterpiece?" discourse.)
Rebirth by Lil Wayne
There's of course a lot of obvious stuff (Lulu, the Kevin Federline album, etc.), and of course, none of these should be taken as "THEY HAVE TO COVER THIS!!!" But what do you got?
(NOTE: The lack of spaces in "an accidental masterpiece" is a thing the post keeps doing on its own.)
After Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby they put out Zooropa--- which is pretty universally disliked, but I will fight anybody that Zooropa is secretly rad-as-fuck. But, at the time, I remember hearing that U2 apologized for Zooropa and said their next album was going back to what they do. Pop is total garbage. Hot trash. And also in a time frame that I dont think any of these people will know or care. Zooropa goes places, Pop goes in the dumpster fire.
Just trolling through my 0.5 ratings from my rateyourmusic account, some stuff I mentioned when the show was first announced plus some other stuff that didn't come to mind. I haven't watched the show, and I get the feeling they might have somewhat narrow musical interests (or, more generally, mostly care about rock music of a certain vintage) but I'd be happy to be proven wrong!
The industrial pain of this album has only sunk deeper over time, as Asher Roth went on to drop the major label goals of fame and money in favor of the blog rap apparatus, re-connecting with the goofy stoner Jew misfit persona his early radio freestyles portended before it all got junked in favor of "I Love College". There's not even an endless parade of awful music here, it's just so decidedly soulless as to become infuriating. Plus, it has a Weezer sample, a track roped around a Mario Kart reference, some Sublime references and some PS1 sound samples, so it's got non-tangential relations to things these guys are interested in and the general video game vibe of old Giant Bomb!
Honestly, if the Very Online Show ever wanted to engage with less of-the-moment internet phenomena, "crunkcore" would perhaps be the most entertaining and intoxicating episode they could come up with. If you were there for it, you know, and if you weren't, you're lucky. Right? Or is it a shame that the true nadir of music, thankfully refraining from ever taking over the world the way nu-metal did a decade prior, has become little more than a footnote among music enthusiasts of a certain age?
Gorilla Zoe - 28 Days of Mixtapes
This is not a single release, but rather a promise - depressingly - fulfilled. In February of 2010, as rap blogs and mixtape aggregators began to fundamentally alter the business of rap music for most of the following decade, Gorilla Zoe saw a moment and pounced on it. From Day 1 of February Day 28, he released mixtapes containing an average of 15 full length songs without slacking or delay. While goofy gimmicks sometimes result in truly revelatory material, this was decidedly not the case here. Gorilla Zoe was a league average Atlanta rapper of his day, and had decent pop crossover when he put his mind to it (and had the right combination of songwriters and producers behind him). None of that is on display here, and while it'd be absurd to ask anyone to seriously consider hours and hours of recording studio ephemera from over a decade ago, there are some truly trashy bangers that have this project to thank for their existence.
Serving as a mirror image to the Asher Roth fiasco, Lupe Fiasco's Lasers was one of the most prominent artist vs. label fiascos in recent music history. Having already proven himself as one of his generation's most articulate and considered conscious rappers, Lupe was saddled with a couple of albatross he could never quite shake: the early connection to Kanye West he refused to capitalize on, and the relatively huge success of "Kick, Push", a single that confused executives into thinking he could make something of himself in the pop world. A devil's bargain was made here: if Lupe made Lasers with aspirations to fill an album full of "Airplanes" and "Nothin' on You" type radio hits, Atlantic would give him the time, space and most importantly money to make the widescreen conclusion to his Michael Young trilogy (Food & Liquor, The Cool). But Lupe's heart clearly was not in it (he denounced this album often in the press leading to its release) and the dude really wore that apathy on his sleeve during the recording process, resulting in an album that's both horribly dated by its desperation to dominate circa-2011 pop radio stations and resoundingly uninteresting due to Lupe's lack of interest. Ouch!
Usually, if you wanna talk rough Mariah Carey experiences, you're going to reach for either Glitter (an overambitious movie tie-in album that lacks much reason for being other than capitalism) or Charmbracelet (decent songwriting marred by the unfortunate truth that depression and fatigue had completely shredded Mariah's vocal chords) but if you're a fan, I've always felt this was the true disappointment. At least her previous errors came at a time that made sense - four albums in, most divas take a dive. But this is the post-comeback album, released at a time when the early career ambitions that defined much of Carey's success had come to dominate popular R&B. Unfortunately, reuniting with The-Dream and Jermaine Dupri this time around led to the exact opposite result of The Emancipation of Mimi, a total slog of by the numbers hip-hop/R&B hybrids that did little to showcase Mariah's returned immense vocal talent and instead hamstrung her into an oddly oversexed, middle-aged woman trying to fit in with the kids. Aging popstars are almost inevitably due for their "hello, fellow kids" album, but rarely do they release both a great and awful one back to back like this.
Talent Couture - Jersey Shore Couture: The Mixtape
Neither an album nor something I actually wrote about, so I can't re-write or expand on my thoughts regarding this mixtape from 2010, but man! Just look at this guy!
Some I've suggested elsewhere in previous discussions and some new ones:
Bad Religion - Into the Unknown
Neil Young - Trans
Celtic Frost - Cold Lake
Ministry - With Sympathy
Megadeth - Risk (Inspired by the woodstock 99 discussion on the bombcast)
Tori Amos - Y Kant Tori Read
Any pre-Cowboys From Hell Pantera
For an extremely deep cut, Whatever the fuck that Trey Spruance/John Zorn/Mike Patton collab was called that Spruance said was so bad that nobody should buy/listen to it
Shining - Animal (How did I forget this one? Now that I remember it, I'm almost certain it will show up on the show)
I would not be shocked if Morbid Angel's Illud Divinum Insanus winds up showing up here. The much hyped return of a former frontman to a landmark death metal group whose first handful of releases has inspired many and that album is what comes out.
A dull slog whose best songs are misinformed experiments that wouldn't be too bad on a b-tier Rob Zombie disc and whose worst tracks turned the band into basic cartoon characters. I saw them tour for this album and as much as people give Kip Winger shit for doing ballet spins on stage or pick on Ratt's Juan Crouicier for being a goofball with his stage moves while paying bass, David Vincent was just as big of a ham on that cycle, right down to wearing outfits that had to have come from his time with the Genitorturers. I think the metal world is already at the point where its just pretending like the album didn't happen, especially after the Morbid Angel camp wound up recruiting the more comforting auto-mechanic outfit wearing Steve Tucker back into the fold and put out the Mozart by comparison Kingdoms Disdained. But wow, do I remember the reaction to this one being virulent when it first hit.
Just a complete misfire. On top of this, they had the gall to have a two and a half hour industrial/electronica remix album of this thing come out a year later and it may be one of the most difficult listens out there because now not only do you get not-great songs, you get them multiple times and in multiple forms and there is absolutely no saving it. It's the auditory equivalent of trying to walk through a tar pit. I'd suggest they tackle that instead if I didn't expect that I'd have six angry people booking flights across the country to kick my ass after they went through it.
@nodima: I too would like them to break away from the rock lane. But the thing for me personally is that I haven't been in that particular lane in a music fandom sense in such a long time that I'm generally less familiar with what they've been talking about so far, which is kind of exciting for me personally.
That said, the reason I haven't been in that lane is because I'm, to my core, a hip hop kid. So of the ones on your list, the one I read and thought "Yeah, that one!" is Lasers. Obviously shitting on Crunk Core is always a good time. (And I would watch that Very Online episode as well!) But I was at the exact right age/place in music fandom to get particularly burned by that album.
@thebeardedfellow: This reminded me of another U2 album that might be kinda fun
I think Songs of Innocence could make for a decent episode as it's the only album I can think of that was hated for reasons completely unrelated to its actual content - olds like me might remember when it was force-downloaded to every single fucking ipod/iphone on the planet. I've never actually listened to it.
This could be really good if they edited a few clips in, because everyone would need the context for it, but absolutely nobody outside of the show should have to seek this out on their own.
I still haven't listened since I have absolutely no relationship to or interest in the two albums covered so far, but is it just dumping on albums that are considereed bad or is there room for like, a nuanced discussion or reappraisal of reviled albums? If the latter is the case, I'd definitely love to hear a discussion of Billy Idol's Cyberpunk, Ministry's With Sympathy (or the more recent From Beer To Eternity) or Skinny Puppy's The Process (which I still personally dislike a lot, but know a lot of people have come around on).
@fisk0: They've dipped their toes into reappraisal (kind of). But as the Weezer and Danzig albums are pretty recent, we're still in the emotional splash zone of their releases, so they haven't really had the opportunity to do a re-evaluation style thing yet. I'd also argue that both albums are bad in a way that a re-examination wouldn't change anyone's minds anyway.
I see they're doing Kevin Federline next, so older stuff is coming. I'd love to see the show go in more of a reappraisal direction, but with what they've covered, it's been (understandably) just dumping so far. I'd be down for that Cyberpunk re-listen.
@fisk0:The public and critical opinion/reception of the album is the one prerequisite. Which includes the spectrum of "reviled album that is actually good" to "reviled album that is as bad as its reputation". But not well liked albums that are actually bad.
It's mostly comedic dumping and related tangents/anecdotes. But their opinions seem fully formed.
Father of all Motherfuckers by Green Day. I'm a Green Day apologist up to a point (I think everything 21st century Breakdown and earlier is good to great), but FoAM is a truly atrocious record, and i'm not sure what they were even trying to do.
100% this, I was going to post Brokencyde due to the deep GB cut and also, holy shit that band is amazingly horrid. I think it would be an interesting breakdown too because they do try to splice in all these culturally "cool" or relevant things at the time (00s pop punk ala AFI, rap, dubstep, horrorcore) and just wiff the landing.
Honestly, if the Very Online Show ever wanted to engage with less of-the-moment internet phenomena, "crunkcore" would perhaps be the most entertaining and intoxicating episode they could come up with. If you were there for it, you know, and if you weren't, you're lucky. Right? Or is it a shame that the true nadir of music, thankfully refraining from ever taking over the world the way nu-metal did a decade prior, has become little more than a footnote among music enthusiasts of a certain age?
Some I've suggested elsewhere in previous discussions and some new ones:
Bad Religion - Into the Unknown
I would definitely appreciate this episode. I had always heard about how bad it was, and how they never played anything from it live for decades but I gave it a listen and I didn't hate it and still play it again sometimes. For an album that was reviled when it came out, I would definitely be interested in hearing people talk about it in 2021.
Some I've suggested elsewhere in previous discussions and some new ones:
Bad Religion - Into the Unknown
I would definitely appreciate this episode. I had always heard about how bad it was, and how they never played anything from it live for decades but I gave it a listen and I didn't hate it and still play it again sometimes. For an album that was reviled when it came out, I would definitely be interested in hearing people talk about it in 2021.
Jordan actually covered Into the Unknown with a group in a manner similar to Albummer a few years ago.
Yeah, well the article sounded rather vague and lazy like it picked up on a few opinions from the most negative reviews of the time and wasn't based on the writer's own impression at all. And it just made me laugh considering what they could have picked.
Second Coming has a different vibe to it but seems to me like it was pretty influential on some 90s rock and rock/electronic hybrids in terms of production and the beats. Tightrope, Ten Storey Love Song and Love Spreads are the other standouts for me.
Some I've suggested elsewhere in previous discussions and some new ones:
Bad Religion - Into the Unknown
I would definitely appreciate this episode. I had always heard about how bad it was, and how they never played anything from it live for decades but I gave it a listen and I didn't hate it and still play it again sometimes. For an album that was reviled when it came out, I would definitely be interested in hearing people talk about it in 2021.
Jordan actually covered Into the Unknown with a group in a manner similar to Albummer a few years ago.
Eddie Murphy's "How Could It Be" (If you think "Party All The Time" is a bad song, you should hear the rest of that album).
As it turns out, lots of money to spend on production and even hiring Rick James and Stevie Wonder to produce bits of the album can't make up for a complete lack of singing chops.
Necroposting this to suggest covering Cut the Crap by the Clash. One of the greatest and most influential bands of all time released an absolute turd at the end of their run, and it is fascinatingly terrible.
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