Here they are in random order, the albums that I think have had a big cultural impact without really being able to carry their name, either musically, creatively or with originality.
The Velvet Underground & Nico, 1967
The famous album with Andy Warhol’s banana on the cover. Released during a musically revolutionary decade, but strikingly dull with grinding repetitions and an atonal approach, sometimes almost irritating. A challenge for the listener?
Deep Purple, Machine Head, 1972
An album hailed as a milestone, but does it really hold up? Highway Star offers a fantastic guitar solo, but with lyrics that are tiresome and cheesy. And Smoke on the Water – an iconic story, but as a song it’s one of rock’s most overrated yawns. Add Space Truckin’, which quickly becomes a tedious round of riffs and choruses. Sure, there are flashes of brilliance like Pictures of Home, but on the whole Machine Head feels like the opposite of the explosive and innovative In Rock. An uneven album despite all its fame.
Kiss, Destroyer, 1975
Considered by many to be Kiss’s best album, it features the iconic cover with the painted heroes standing against a burning background. Released after their best-selling live double, it would be the band’s shot to the stars. The old Kiss was rough, proto-punky and dirty, now the sound was suddenly polished and poppy. With hits like Great Expectations, whose lyrics are some of the most banal imaginable, even in this genre. The record contributed to the band’s establishment and image, but it didn’t sell as well as its predecessor.
Eric Clapton, Slowhand, 1977
Even if you’re a fan of the slow hits Cocaine and Wonderful Tonight, you have to admit that there are a lot of filler songs on this disc. It doesn’t really live up to the legend, guitar hero and former Cream member Clapton. Maybe a bit too slowhand?
Pink Floyd, The Wall, 1979
Pink Floyd’s so-called masterpiece and film, which was partly about former band member Syd Barret who became mentally ill through his drug addiction. There are some good songs here, my own personal favourite is The thin ice, but we also have Comfortly numb and Another brick in the wall. But anyone who has listened to the double album in a row knows that there is a lot of fillers against a dark depressing background. Pretentious and gloomy.
Michael Jackson, Thriller, 1982
For the world’s best-selling album by the world’s most celebrated artist, this is remarkably uneven. We have Thriller, Beat it, Billie Jean, the rest feels like filler from the abandoned 1970s song catalogue. It’s not as innovative or magical as so many people make it out to be, from an artist who is portrayed as a musical genius, songwriter and dancer.
Madonna, True blue, 1986
One of the greatest albums of the decade by an iconic artist. Very plinky and plonky even for the 1980s. Apart from the hits La isla bonita and Papa don’t preach, we don’t find much of interest. Some of the songs, such as Jimmy Jimmy, are pure bubblegum pop. The Madonna phenomenon was built on hit singles and her charisma, not on well-composed albums.
U2, Achtung baby, 1991
U2’s second best-selling album after Joshua Tree. Apart from One, which I consider masterful, I find it difficult to find well-balanced songs. There is a desire for musical development or change in the 1990s. We note sound experiments approaching German industrial rock, stridently atonal, combined with the familiar, Irish harmonic choruses. Perhaps an attempt to be more avant-garde than they are actually capable of? It feels lost.
Metallica, Black album, 1991
More drumming-friendly than before, but a bit dull and snowy? Many repetitive sequences that go on too long. At least if you liked the band’s earlier albums. Some say it’s part of the band’s development and maturity. Others don’t. When Metallica released Kill ‘em all in 1983, they broke new ground, the music was like a punch in the face, sharper, faster and rawer than Motley Crue, Bon Jovi and other contemporary bands. Those days are gone.
Taylor Swift 1989, 2014
Swift’s voice feels like it’s been auto-tuned, stripped of any vocal anomalies and any originality that might have existed. The album is more polished than many other pop albums, perhaps not so much filler songs, but the whole breathes uniformity and is rarely musically interesting. I had trouble locating the hit song. This album represents most of what is wrong with music today.
