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What are the 5 most overrated rock albums?

1. The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. The songs on this album are nowhere near as memorable as those on "Revolver" and "Rubber Soul". For that matter, this album is nowhere near as innovative, nor ultimately as influential, as either "Pet Sounds" or the first Velvet Underground album. I'm not the first to point out that blame for such artless excess as all seventeen minutes of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida rests primarily with Sgt. Pepper.

2. Pink Floyd: The Wall. All of the criticisms usually applied to late 70's stadium rock, i.e., that it was pretentious, bloated, pseudo-intellectual,and self-indulgent; apply doubly to this crock opera. If you want witty and insightful philosophizing on the human condition, read Nietzsche, H.L. Mencken, or Michel Foucault. To seek such wisdom from pop music, a genre defined by its righteous Dionysian folly, is the greatest folly imaginable.

Pearl Jam: 10. Johnny Rotten was bang on when he described Pearl Jam as "bloody awful" and as sounding like "Joe Cocker singing for Black Sabbath." To my ears, this sounds like so much bland 70's rock (e.g., Bad Company). As The Monkees are to The Beatles, so are Pearl Jam to Nirvana.

4. U2: The Joshua Tree. I don't know where to begin. These guys plagiarized Joy Division, and set their sublime riffs to dumbass lyrics bespeaking the most niave sort of Oprah Winfrey meets Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms bourgeois liberalism. I've said it before, I'll say it again: If you make me listen to a record by someone named Bono, his first name better be SONNY.

5. Bob Marley & The Wailers: Exodus. Not only was Bob Marley not, by a long shot, the best pop music figure to come out of Jamaica, he wasn't even my favorite member of The Wailers. The monomaniacal cult of personality surrounding the deceased Robert Nesta Marley comes at the expense of all the other, far more exciting, music to come out of that poverty-stricken island. As Lester Bangs put it:

"Toots and the Maytalls, who never got promoted properly, are the real heat from a Stax/Volt kitchen, whereas Marley always struck me as being so laid back he seemed almost MOR. Rastaman Vibration was the last straw: an LP obviously calculated to break Disco Bob into the American Kleenex radio market full force, complete with chicklet vocal backdrops chirping 'Pos-i-tive!'
tweakgeek
sean
6,231 posts
 
To respond to the above comments, all i will say is that unless you know a lot about the internal workings and conflicts within Pink Floyd AND have a solid background on English politics at street level, you will never come close to understanding what all of the hoopla is about with this movie or album. Even with good insight into both areas mentioned, one can watch this movie over and over again and still find new and hidden meaning almost every time.

As to being "over-rated", i'm probably going to step on a lot of toes here. Let's just say anything that Bruce Springsteen has ever put out. These alone might fill up the top 5 slots. Sean
>

PS... just my personal opinion. please don't hate me for sharing my point of view : )
ben_campbell
1,169 posts
 
Good to a see a nice negative post-I like most of the ones mentioned so far to some degree however I concede that they may be flawed or overblown or most certainly overplayed but in the spirit of the thread here goes......

1.In Utero-Nirvana-Let's not forget Cobain renegotiated his recording contract so that he got most of the cash just before this release,how punk,what a hypocrite,sadly this pile of junk reflected the mess his tragic life was in,,in a crippling bout of pretentious self-indulgence he tries to rebel against his misunderstood last album and produce an unlistenable mess-he succeeds,sadly Nirvana's legacy becomes a load of 13 year old kids the world over standing in shopping malls and street corners with their Slipknot sweatshirts........
2.Out Of Time-REM
Sometimes it's just the right time for a band but this uneven mess was their WORST album up to that time,right time,right place,wrong record.
3.Brothers In Arms-Dire Straits
A sign of the times,a greedy attempt to sell millions and millions of records that worked-apart from maybe 3 tracks a real mess of an album,with the most annoying keyboard sound in the history of rock,Knopfler takes his magpie style too far,rips out most that was good about the band previously and turns into a man whose arrogance is only matched by his dullness.
4.Forever Changes-Love..
Always in the greatest albums ever-I always take it off right after Alone Again Or.............
5.Freedom-Neil Young..
Ah the last Neil Young album is always rated as his greatest since the 70's-this one got a particulary big cheer-featuring lyrics a 10 year old would be ashamed of.
He also reuses the same three chords to All Along The Watchtower in three different songs and well since he's using the chords may as well use the tune as well,like the sad sight sight of watching your grandfather playing his Gibson SG in the garden,Mr Young has neither the grace nor gumption to realise he is making a fool of himself.
Keep On Rocking In The Free World-somebody unplug that old geezer's guitar-pleeeeese.
Truly the worst collection of checked shirts in rock too...........................
gregm
3,405 posts
 
Actually Sean, that makes two of us (to hate) re: Springsteen. Also never caught on to The Smiths, and never understood what all the fusss was about.
jeffloistarca
1,004 posts
 
Interesting how you picked five records to disparage and I happen to like all of them quite a bit. Oh well, to each his/her own. I'm not sure I could honestly pick out five recordings to slam, like Sean they tend to come in bunches from the same artist.

1)Anything by Genesis (including the early days with Peter Gabriel) is garbage. Quickest way to get me to turn off the tuner in favour of a record or CD, put some Genesis on. Phil Collins' nasal whining is worse than nails on a blackboard. You want art rock? Try Gentle Giant, Yes, Jean Michel Jarre on for size.

2)REM can't figure out if they should make an attempt at being art-rock or writing hooks to get radio play. They fail miserably at both. Fascinating to listen to their catalog, a band truly without a purpose.

3) This selection will go over like a fart in church with many here, but...The Grateful Dead. I'm Grateful the band is Dead.

4) Aerosmith. How can a band write lyrics that closely resemble random thoughts of an average four-year old, then back it up with even less talent and become a mega-band?

5) The Rolling Stones. The most successful 3 chord garage band in history. If you can find any real meaning behind any of their lyrics, my hat's off to you. The musicanship is sub-par as well, the guitarist sounds like he died. Come to think of it, if you've seen Keith in the last little while, he has died and nobody told him.

sattothestars
233 posts
 
I agree with Sean.Other than Asbury Park,anything after that album has been nothing to shout about.My 02 cents.
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