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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
jbweaver
33 posts
 
I suppose whether an album is "overrated" must be assessed in reference to how an album is rated. When I was growing up, Sgt. Pepper's was considered the greatest album of all time by many, and it was the first record I owned. By that measure, it is clearly overrated for the reasons Tweak mentioned. Listening to it in the 1990s I found it dated. With an upgraded system, I have returned to it and enjoy listening to parts of it again. An influential album but not as good as the earlier hype or the other Beatles albums listed or "Pet Sounds" in some ways. Though far less talented than the Beatles, I have also returned to the early Stones stuff and found it much more clever and enjoyable than when I was listening to it on car speakers.

Though sometimes enjoyable, by the measure laid out above, I would consider The Who overrated. However, The Who and much of the music dismissed above I like much better than the new stuff I hear on the radio. Where might I turn instead?
ben_campbell
1,169 posts
 
Tweakgeek-give us a laugh-what are your Top 5 albums of all time?
kthomas
911 posts
 
I don't think "pretentious" is enough to seriously damage a record. I think it can keep an album off a "greatest" list, but not relegate it to "Most Overrated", especially since this is all for fun. Iron Maiden's "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" album, basically anything by Rush - of course this stuff is pretentious, but in some ways it makes it more entertaining.

For me, rock has to have energy. I nominated Hotel California above - I find the Eagles to be completely lacking in energy. I just can't get excited about any of their stuff. A lot of music is situation dependent - your age, where you're hearing it, etc. Guns 'N Roses in your car is great. Guns 'N Roses in the midst of some "serious" listening - well, you have to be in the right mood. The Eagles - I've never found a situation that makes me go, "Oh yeah!". Not that anybody would consider him highly enough rated to qualify for overrated, but Jackson Browne was/is the same way - geez, that's a tired sound.

Great Thread.

lazarus28
339 posts
 
hey, easy on the smiths. . . . . . johnny marr is some kind of living guitar god - one of the few true guitar-wizards who actually writes interesting licks instead of composing rediculous showcases of his ability that are boring and self-indulgent ie joe satriani, eric johnson, ect. (IMHO)

hmm, i guess i'm just adding fuel to the fire. . . . and after feeling insulted over the smiths comments. . . . . sorry guys.
tweakgeek OP
76 posts
 
Ok Ben,
I'll accept your challenge, sort of. First rule of any best album list is that greatest hits packages and compilations must be left off. To include them would be cheating. Second rule is that there is only one entry per pop star (I'm not going to dignify this silly stuff with the term "artist"). Also, none of my beloved Jazz & Classical recordings are included here. They play ball in a different league. Everything before about 1965, and almost everything from Jamiaca is excluded. The LP as a genre is largely irrelevant both to the 50's and to Reggae. You'll have to see my singles list for these. For the same reason, Soul and R & B are underrepresented here.

Ben, you are giving me a sort of Sophie's Choice. I cannot edit the list down past 18 entries. Here are Tweakgeek's fave pop music albums (in no particular order)

Joy Division-Closer
Clinic-Internal Wrangler
Van Morrison-Astral Weeks
The Pogues-Rum, Sodomy & The Lash
Roxy Music-Siren
Pere Ubu-The Modern Dance
The Stooges-Funhouse
Curtis Mayfield-Curtis
Black Sabbath-Sabotage
AC/DC- Let There Be Rock
Abba-Super Trouper
The Cramps-Gravest Hits
Killdozer-12 Point Buck
David Bowie-The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
Bruce Springsteen-Nebraska
The Rolling Stones-Exile on Main Street
The Stone Roses-The Stone Roses
Led Zeppelin-Physical Graffiti

Now folks, can we get back on topic?
Let the abuse of my faves begin!
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