Oh - and I forgot to make mention of RS's placement of RHCP on this list. I argue that the categorization of them as a 'Great Band' is a massive overstatement... although One Hot Minute is an easy-in as a 'Worst Album.'

They are an abomination!

I also object to Aerosmith on the list, as everything they did post-Dream On has sucked beyond suckage.

And I can't believe they put Diver Down on there! Have they never heard "Little Guitars"??? Oh yea, but it's Rolling Stone... so who effing cares?

Also, way to include a complete pile of relic bands with only a couple artists representing the past like, three decades, RS. Gack!

Yes...I think David even knows that 'Tonight' was not his best.. nor was much that he did with Tin Machine, IMO. BUT otherwise... I ADORE HIM!!!!!!!!

is an interesting experiment; the band realized they had to tie then current hard rock into rock and roll history (hence doing Orbison, etc.) -- and they also did a lot of eclectic covers, something hard rockers hadn't done much on a studio LP. Roth's vocals have a great amount of Jewish soul, too ... this was a nasty swing by RS, a passed along notion gone unchallenged.

And "Down in the Groove" instead of "Self-Portrait" or a few other of his 80s records? Does it really sound that bad against a half dozen other Dylan releases? (That's actually a real question; I gave up on Bob after 'Infidels' and picked up again on 'Oh, Mercy.')

Most fans don’t recognize “Cut The Crap” as a true Clash album. For all intensive purposes “Combat Rock” was the last true Clash record. And “Face Dances” wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible either.

Re: Costello -

Mighty Like A rose has a few great songs but it's pretty uneven, like a number of his albums are. But it's better than his 'country' effort "Almost Blue" and light-years better than that piece of crap he did with Burt Bacharach. God that is one unlistenable retch-fest.

Mad Dog

The Pixies are a great band. I nominate Trompe Le Monde as a crappy album by a great band. UMASS? A JAMC cover? Puleeeze.

Oh - I like U-Mass! But I do think that the Pixies reforming is on the list of "Worst actions by great bands."

Their whole tour / release rumors / movie was for themselves - not for the sake of their legacy / music / fans. They were just going through the motions on that tour and ruined them in my eyes. Watching the Quiet Loud movie made me feel kinda dirty and used.

They should have gone with "The Raven".

I thought he was dead for years then all of the sudden he showed up at Bumbershoot, ambled on stage like a zombie coming down from a 3 day 'brrraaaains' binge, and read the entirety of Poe's The Raven over dissonant guitar fuzz for what seemed like 34 hours, to a mostly unenthusiastic crowd.

How the mighty have fallen.

Add to the list, in my opinion:

"How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" by U2
"Time Bomb" by Blur
"England, Half English" by Billy Bragg (and the Blokes)
Whatever the last Weezer album was called, that's just how bad it was...
Btw, I like "Trompe Le Monde". And being from Massachusetts, we all like Um-Ass. Oh sorry, U-Mass.

 

Costello: "Goodbye Cruel World" is worse than "Mighty Like a Rose." Not by much, but it's worse.

Bowie: "Never Let Me Down" is worse than "Tonight."

Dylan: "Under the Red Sky" is absolutely positively the worst piece of shite he even made, far worse than "Down in the Groove," which is saying something since "Groove" features the Grateful Dead on two tracks. (And has everyone at RS forgotten about "Self-Portrait"?)

Neither RHCP nor CSNY belong on a list of great bands.

Neither does Led Zeppelin in my opinion but I'm pretty alone on that one.

Will snark for food.

Oh, man, was that Billy Bragg album wretched. It was barely "adult contemporary".

A Momentary Lapse of Reason - Pink Floyd This album truly was terrible. Maybe two decent salvagable tracks. The Division Bell, though, I thought was good. The band was mostly back together then. But this album was balls... Squeeze - The Velvet Underground What a joke. This sucked so bad compared to their others. It's not even TVU. It's like the guitarist's solo album with the band's label on it. lame lame lame lame The Soft Parade - The Doors This wasn't too terrible, but compared to their other five albums (the post Morrison albums don't count) this one was kinda cheesy and lame. I'm not feeling the orchestra and Jim Morrison only wrote about half of these songs. Meh. yeah those are three that come to mind quick

I like "Kill Uncle"... I would say "Maladjusted" is a lesser effort by Morrissey, but even that album I would not put on this list. Also, "Diver Down" beats the crap out of anything in the Van Hagar era, and Led Zeppelin never released a bad record (Ok, maybe "The Song Remains the Same"...but certainly not "Presence")

This is interesting, even though the post is four years old. I am not much of a Led Zepplin fan, but I think that Presence is one of their best. Kill Uncle, although I don't have it, is supposed to be pretty good as well. At least that is what I have heard. Also, I don't think that there is anything wrong with Trompe le Monde. Here are a few awful records by great artists off the top of my head:

Tim Buckley: Look at the Fool - this is almost entirely unlistenable. How did such an amazing talent become so mediocre? 

The Psychedelic Furs: Midnight to Midnight - luckily they got it back together after this stale, overproduced record. The album after this, Book of Days, is my favorite.

Iggy Pop: Instinct: this is a pretty horrible hard rock album. He also was able to recover and release American Caesar a few years later, which is quite wonderful.

Nick Cave: Grinderman: I know that a lot of people love this, but I think that it is awful. This is coming from someone who loves The Boatman's Call and Tender Prey. Grinderman is low brow humor, mid-life crisis garbage to my ears.

Sun Kil Moon: Tiny Cities: Oh my god, Red House Painters fans and Modest Mouse fans all thought that this record was terrible. I haven't even attempted to play this since shortly after it came out.