If you really believe that Rumours is one of the ten worst albums of all time, then you seriously need to listen to more albums.
Rumours may not be to your liking, but there is nothing on it that is poorly written. The band features three very good songwriters, all at their peaks. The playing is exceptional. The vocals are very good. There is nothing wrong with the flow of the album, or the production. If you don't like it, then you don't like it...but if you are somehow offended by an album that is well crafted, written, played, sung, and produced...I'm sorry. I don't buy it. And if you don't like it because it's "middle of the road pop"...that's still far from being offensive. And check yourselves before you put down an album like Rumours for being pop...this is the same forum that sees nothing wrong with the pop of groups like ABBA, and the same group that will defend the pop of Justin Bieber to the death.
Rumours? I don't buy it at all.
I genuinely prefer the vast majority of the respective outputs of ABBA and Bieber to Rumours. I just can't fucking stand that album. It's not one of the worst ten I've ever heard, but it's pretty fucking awful. You can call it "well crafted, written, played, sung, and produced", but if it doesn't contain composition, writing, playing, singing, or production that appeals to my sensibilities or tastes then what use is that? To me, 'Baby' or 'Waterloo' far surpass every single song on Rumours. I understand there might be people who just use these albums as examples of things they hate to be contrarian, but if anything from Rumours ever comes on the radio then I'm very quick to change the dial. No thanks, not for me, nosiree.
Anyway, coming up with the ten worst albums I've ever heard is difficult, because different things affect me in different ways. For example, I really fucking hated Jay-Z's last album, from its tired, undercooked lyrics, to its shamelessly swagger-jacking beats, to its completely unrelatable, hyper-capitalist worldview. But I didn't find it genuinely unlistenable in the way I found Pharmakon's album genuinely unlistenable. I hate The Wall by Pink Floyd, because it represents pretty much everything I don't want from the music I listen to, with its excessive and unnecessary showing off, uncomfortable shoehorning of a terribly conceived narrative into the music, and the implication it brings with it that bigger is better. But I would be lying if I called it a more unpleasant listening experience than Buyer's Market, for example.
And yet I'd be more inclined to put the likes of Magna Carta Holy Grail, The Wall and, yes, Rumours on a list of the worst albums I've ever heard, simply because they're albums made in a style that I find quite palatable and yet feature music that I can't stand. I don't find these albums distressing or headache-inducing; they're just really, really shit. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
Rumours may not be to your liking, but there is nothing on it that is poorly written. The band features three very good songwriters, all at their peaks. The playing is exceptional. The vocals are very good. There is nothing wrong with the flow of the album, or the production.
I think it all depends on what someone considers "worst". Some people might consider the worst album of all time to be something that's expertly constructed to sound exactly as music shouldn't sound (in their opinion).
My personal opinion is that, although I find Rumours to be very dry for an all-time great album, I do enjoy it at some level, so it wouldn't approach my worst of all time list.
Necharsian wrote:
If an album had the ability to cause me physical pain I would put it on my overall chart immediately. What powers it must hold.
Well put.
Last edited by sp4cetiger on 07/08/2014 17:13; edited 1 time in total
If an album is bad, I switch it off before it has ended, so I haven't listened to a bad record entirely. However, I've listened to some which probably weren't that good either, so here's ten of them (you should also note that I've only listened to most of these once, so there's probably not much reason to take this list too seriously):
This EP reminded me of small kids with too unauthoritative parents who consequently hand them a bunch of greasy desserts which the kids are somehow incapable of eating properly and thus their faces gets smeared with jam or chocolate or whatever nauseous stuff the desserts happen to be stuffed with
Seemingly, this band has two obsessions: one being their singer who can belch in a manner which evokes uruk-hais; the other being their ability to play really fast. So their songs are them playing something for some minutes, so that they have an excuse for their singer to suddenly belch loudly and consequently the band instantly explodes into a section which is really fast
The worst sounding album I've listened to (for its entire length). It's not because I have a problem with metal music like this being too harsh or dissonant or something; this just sounded really fucking bad
This album contains what are perhaps the worst guitar riffs I've ever heard. I swear there was a song in which the guitarist just chugged along on a single note on a slacking string, set to incredibly limp distortion. This might've been fun in a different setting, so it was too bad that the album - besides impotent riffs and distortion - consisted of theatrical female choirs, theatrical synthesizers and a male vocalist who at some point chanted "GOD! WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?!" like he was viking in shabby film/videogame kneeling on a battlefield with a 46 inch axe stuffed into his asshole
This album made me picture elephants crying in pain due to very serious constipation
Honorable mentions (aka albums which I had less interesting things to write about):
Natural Snow Buildings - Daughter of Darkness (there was one song which I really liked; would've made my list otherwise); The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium; Weather Report - Heavy Weather; Robert Fripp - Exposure; Diablo Swing Orchestra - The Butcher's Ballroom; Earl Sweatshirt - EARL; Kitty - D.A.I.S.Y. Rage; Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
mickilennialThe Most Trusted Name in NewsProfile Detroit
Birds Of Fire by Mahavishnu Orchestra
At The Heart Of Winter by Immortal
Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield
Blood Fire Death by Bathory
Monotheist by Celtic Frost
This EP reminded me of small kids with too unauthoritative parents who consequently hand them a bunch of greasy desserts which the kids are somehow incapable of eating properly and thus their faces gets smeared with jam or chocolate or whatever nauseous stuff the desserts happen to be stuffed with
🙁
As for Rumours, I still like it. 😨 Surprised with the hate on here for it though. _________________ Doubles & Conch
meccaleccaVoice of ReasonProfile The Land of Enchantment
I'm from the firm belief that the worst albums are the type that can fully destroy an artist's career, and are somewhat unavoidable. You know what you're getting into with a brokeNCYDE or Justin Beiber record. But when an artist you otherwise respected drops a massive turd on top of their otherwise solid discography, it changes everything
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