One of the explanations offered for Prince’s 1987 shelving of his Black Album project was that he felt it was of inferior quality and didn’t want to release it. Considering that he released Lovesexy instead might be a good reason to doubt the rumour (along with the other, more interesting explanation that he had a religious experience related to it), but true or not, it does bring up the topic of albums that should have remained on the shelf. The list is endless, I’m sure, but I’d like to know what albums by bands that should have known better saw the light of day when they should have remained on the tapes. Here’s a few I could think of off the top of my head, but the list is probably endless:
- The Clash – Cut the Crap: This wasn’t even a real Clash album and it certainly sounds it. It has none of the passion that made the Clash “the only band that matters.”
- U2 – Zooropa: It’s okay to experiment, but when the experiment goes awry, it’s a bad solution to unleash it on an unsuspecting public.
- The Police – Every Breath You Take – The Singles: Aside from the fact that everyone should own all of the regular studio albums, the only new song here is a putrid remix of “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” that makes me dislike Sting more than usual just thinking about it.
- Mudhoney – Piece of Cake: I remember talking to someone at Sub Pop Records about this one and their name for it was a piece of something other than cake. It lacks all the bizarre, psychotic energy of both their earlier and later releases.
- Nirvana – In Utero: I think this album would get the beating it deserves had Kurt Cobain not been murdered by his wife.
- Emerson, Lake and Palmer – Love Beach: What’s worse than mixing prog rock and palm trees? Mixing bad commercial rock and palm trees.
- COC – Deliverance: Why would a great hardcore band want to become a bad stoner rock band? Ask Pepper Keenan.
- Pink Floyd – The Final Cut: Roger Waters’ self-indulgence had gone too far with The Wall, but at least it had a few good songs and worked with the movie. The Final Cut‘s only saving grace is that it’s shorter.
- Joy Division – Still: I don’t know if Joy Division was a bad live band or if their show just didn’t translate well to record, but Still is a terrible live album.
- Guns n Roses – The Spaghetti Incident – Throwing in a cover here and there is one thing, but I think we all could deal without a whole album of GnR trying to show the world that they liked some real bands. They didn’t trust that we could hear their influences.
- Judas Priest – Turbo – Why would a band who had done so much to define heavy metal choose to embrace such a watered-down version of it here?
- Kiss – The Elder – There are a number of Kiss albums one could make a case for nixing, but this one is clearly at the top of that list. At very least, it would have saved us from seeing Gene, in makeup, with tears streaming down his cheek in the “A World Without Heroes” video.
- Rolling Stones – just about everything after Exile on Main Street: With few exceptions, the Stones didn’t do anyone any favors over the last 30-some years. They’re now the world’s greatest Stones cover band and that’s pretty sad. If I had to single out one of their albums to be removed from circulation, I think it’d be Steel Wheels, but there’s a lot of competition.
What albums would you add to the list?