I may be resurrecting an old thread,but what do we think are the worst, most embarrassing albums by the top Prog bands.

I would like to start off with Tormato by Yes.

Given that this album was recorded by the full established band line-up it is appalling. Even "Dont Kill The Whale" cant save it from being an all-time turkey!

See how we all differ... I love Tormato.  Its one of my favorite Yes albums.  Release, release is a masterpiece of complex vocal timing.. as well as UFO and Future Times.  My least favorite on that album is Circus of Heaven. My least favorite Yes album is Big Generator. Now thats a bomb!!

But my favorite band is ELP... my least favorite album (this will probably shock everyone, well maybe not since you guys are getting to know me...) but my least favorite is Works 2.  I actually love In the Hot Seat.. and most of Love Beach.

I'm a Floydian myself. Cannot think of anything crappy by Pink Floyd... but, in that stream, despite it ain't a studio album entirely, "Works". The worst compilation album by them...

Then, the never-ending story... "90125" by Yes, "Love Beach", ELP... hmmm "Invisible Touch", "Abacab", "The way we walk - The Shorts and The Longs" by Genesis... "Radiation", "Fall Out", "Anoraknophobia"... etc, MARILLION. Lemme see... hmm "Images and Words", DT...

when I think of more, I'l come back here and update my list

edit:

Oh yes! and "Volle Molle" (live recording) and "Illegal" by Grobschnitt

As a Floydian, Land ( Floyd being my second favorite band).. you're gonna get a kick out of this....hehehe

http://www.rogerwatersonline.com/comf_numb_version.mp3 - http://www.rogerwatersonline.com/comf_numb_version.mp3

GENTLE GIANT - Giant for a Day (except for the two acoustic ballads) ; Civilian (75 % of it)

GENESIS - Abacab (except for Man in the Corner) ; Genesis (75 % of it) ; Invisible Touch (except for The Brazilian) ; Calling All Stations (a pity, since the vocalist's voice is awesome)

MARILLION - Radiation ; marillion.com   (IQ also had their unabashed pop era, yet their two albums from that time still contained some prog real gems, and the performnces were always energetic and ballsy, anyway)

ELP - Love Beach (I like For You, and most piano parts in the Gentleman suite, but let's face it, it lacks so much of the ELP fire - it can only be enjoyed for sentimental reasons, not aesthetic ones) ; In the Hot Seat

YES - Big Generator (75 % of it) ; Union (85 % of it) ; Open Your Eyes (except for The Balcony)

JETHRO TULL - Under Wraps

PINK FLOYD - The Final Cut (85 % of it)

No embarrassments from IQ, DREAM THEATER, KING CRIMSON, or VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR, just relative disappointments.

threefates wrote: As a Floydian, Land ( Floyd being my second favorite band).. you're gonna get a kick out of this....hehehe http://www.rogerwatersonline.com/comf_numb_version.mp3 - http://www.rogerwatersonline.com/comf_numb_version.mp3

A stabbing pain just struck on my chest like a lightning...  all I can think of now is Bob Geldof wearing leather pants while twanging off a monster guitar from hell in between top 10 "Miss America swimsuit", bathing themselves in cheap champagne and a numbing screaming crowd claiming "choke, choke, choke!"  

I though I tossed and turned enough in bed the night I first listened (in my defense, by mistake) to the "Scissors Sisters" pseudo-dance version of "Comfortably Numb"... one of my favorite ballads by Floyd turned into shreds... dreadful. I thought it'll be over after this crappy band covering "Another brick in the wall, pt.2" for "The Faculty" movie (booo)... but no. It had to be this way.  

Please Lord, gimme a sign if I should forgive the others trying to measure up to Floooooyd!!! Just a sign, a thunder, a flood, a non-alcohol beer... anything!!!

Invisible touch - Genesis (Dross pop Rubbish)

Rush - Rush (No Peart. Not prog. Poor mans Zep)

Raindances - Camel (Boring, dreary and a massive dissapointment after Moonmadness)

ELP - In The Hot Seat

Genesis - Abacab

Yes - 90125

Marillion - Anaraknaphobia.

What a turkey!

A friend of mine bought copies of the masters and we tried very hard to remix it - but there was nothing to salvage once we'd got rid of the bad bits.

Genesis - Genesis. 'nuff said.

James Lee wrote: I'm not a big fan of anything Floyd did after "Wish you were Here" but then again I can't totally call them bad albums. I think there was mostly junk on "Obscure by Clouds", though, and I can't let them off on the soundtrack loophole because "More" was mostly a pretty decent album.

Don't you like "Animals" then? My fave, though this may be for personal nostalgia reasons. Definitely my fave floyd sleeve. Battersea power station, talk about "Dark satanic mills"! (this may be an English thing!) 

http://bps.fika.org/ - http://bps.fika.org/

James Lee wrote: "I think there was mostly junk on "Obscure by Clouds", though, and I can't let them off on the soundtrack loophole because "More" was mostly a pretty decent album."

As threefates said earlier, how we all differ. I think there's some great music on "Obscured By Clouds" and rated it as a 4-star album. They're all relatively short tracks, and quite rough, but all 'hit the spot' in my case (Well, OK, the last track is nothing special but is at least an oddity with the chanting/singing of Papua New Guinean tribesmen). Judging by the reviews of that album in the Archives, I'm in a minority though: the average rating to date is just a tad over 3 stars (six reviews at 4 stars or above; ten reviews at 3 stars or below). Mind you, a few of the reviewers appear to like it as much as I do.

emdiar wrote: Don't you like "Animals" then? My fave, though this may be for personal nostalgia reasons. Definitely my fave floyd sleeve. Battersea power station, talk about "Dark satanic mills"! (this may be an English thing!)  http://bps.fika.org/ - http://bps.fika.org/

Since Animals is my favorite PF album.. I love that Battersea cover.. I took my own beautiful Battersea shot last year... its still a "dark satanic mill"! But I undersand they are going to turn it into a museum...

threefates wrote: Since Animals is my favorite PF album.. I love that Battersea cover.. I took my own beautiful Battersea shot last year... its still a "dark satanic mill"! But I undersand they are going to turn it into a museum...

Cool pic three!  All it needs is a pig flying by...

Well being my favorite band Genesis, I have the sad duty to admit is very hard to choose the worst album, the 80's and 90's have a lot stuff to choose from, but I'll go with the self titled Genesis .aka. Shapes, I hate Mama and Invisible Touch has at least one good track with The Brazilian.

Some others:

Focus...."Focus Con Proby":  PJ Proby and Focus members are great musicians, but this album sounded inferior to everything they did.

Kansas...."Vynil Confessions": Not only the absence of Walsh, but the trying to change Kansas into a religious band was a mistake, I'm a religious man, but there's a place for everything.

STYX...."Kilroy Was Here": STYX always played in the limit, but this album was an aberration

Triumvirat....."A La Carte": The Rat turns POP (Some POP is good, this one sucks).

Hackett and Howe...."GTR": Not a favorite band for me, but surely my favorite prog' guitar players, this thing stinks.

Yes.....Big Generator: 90125 was bad (Not terrible) but this one is even worst, maybe Onion is even worst but having Wakeman and Bruford together with Yes deserves some attention.

ELP....."Re-Works": Dance and Prog together? This album makes Love Beach sound as a masterpiece.

ELO...."Discovery": The name says it all Discovery = Very Disco.

Iván

emdiar wrote: James Lee wrote: I'm not a big fan of anything Floyd did after "Wish you were Here" but then again I can't totally call them bad albums. I think there was mostly junk on "Obscure by Clouds", though, and I can't let them off on the soundtrack loophole because "More" was mostly a pretty decent album. Don't you like "Animals" then? My fave, though this may be for personal nostalgia reasons. Definitely my fave floyd sleeve. Battersea power station, talk about "Dark satanic mills"! (this may be an English thing!)  http://bps.fika.org/ - http://bps.fika.org/

yeah, I had time displacement syndrome...I meant everything from "The Wall" to present. "Animals" is at the peak for me too...I think that was the only one besids DSOTM I gave a fiver to

I was SO disappointed with Rush's Vapor Trails' but i'm not sure its their worst album Caress of Steel is probably close.

Sometimes though you just grow out of a band, maybe this has been the case for me and Rush.

Pink Floyd - Tonite! Lets All Make Love in London

Jethro Tull - Its down to Rock Island or Catfish Rising

King Crimson - Islands

Rush - Presto

Yes - 90125

There are some very interesting replies, inviting the proverb"one man's meat is another man's poison."

Of the one's we all seem to agree on, the question has to be: how does it happen?

Our heroes go through the process of composition, recording and mastering, lovingly crafting their art and then release a turkey. If the album is an early release or the last release ever before a rift because of "musical differences" then one can probably understand eg "Caress Of Steel" or "The Final Cut" are probably good examples of this (though judged with the benefit of hindsight.)  Presto (by Rush) is probably a good example of a mid-career hiccup, Tormato and Animals too in my opinion. It is too easy to believe that groups as professional as Rush,Pink Floyd and Yes had become sloppy (although you always had the personal tensions in Yes and Floyd.)

Then you realise that it could be our fault. I buy most albums without prior audition so the sales will be racked up regardless of artistic merit. Whilst art is not like a meal you can send back in a restaurant if you dont like it, most of us never bother to write to the bands to express our opinions (and I doubt whether  Neil Peart or Jon Anderson read this humble forum!) Rush claims to have a special relationship with its audience, but when you analyse this you realise that we stick by them through (mostly) thick and (occasionally) thin, and that we dont actually connect with any personal feedback.

Some of these aren't prog, but here they are anyway...

Pink Floyd - The Final Cut.  If they were continuing in this direction had Waters stayed, I'm glad he left.

David Bowie - Never Let Me Down.  He's had an inconsistent career, but this is just inexcusable.

Black Sabbath - Never Say Die.  The sound of a band that has completely lost inspiraton.

King Crimson - The ConstruKction of Light.  We all knew losing Bill Bruford and Tony Levin would hurt them, but this badly?

I was really disappointed with Mezquita's "Califas del Rock", but I guess that doesn't count, as they only had one other album.

Blacksword wrote: Raindances - Camel (Boring, dreary and a massive dissapointment after Moonmadness)

Well, it at least has 'A song within a song', 'Rain Dances' and 'First Light', wich are good in my opinion. It is certenlly worst (and Latimer own less appreciate work) 'The Single Factor', with just a couple of decent tracks. 

Petra wrote: I was SO disappointed with Rush's Vapor Trails' but i'm not sure its their worst album Caress of Steel is probably close. Sometimes though you just grow out of a band, maybe this has been the case for me and Rush.

As a life long fan of Rush, I would agree about Vapour Trails. Its unimaginative, and badly produced. A step backwards for the band.

I would dissagree about 'Caress of steel' though. I love 'The fountain of Lamneth' and 'The necromancer' If it's been sometime since you heard these, give them another go. You may be pleasantly surprised.

As a life long fan of Rush, I would agree about Vapour Trails. Its unimaginative, and badly produced. A step backwards for the band.

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Not badly produced....badly mastered. yet again it is a matter of taste. I would rate Vapor Trails in my Rush top 5! The best since Signals.

Worst (Peart) Rush albums:

1.Presto

2.Caress

3.Hold Your Fire

However I have definately read a review on this forum where someone says "Fire" is their favourite!

Dont miss this months edition of Classic Rock. A load of new Rush interviews, including Peart and a free prog CD on the cover!

Nice!

Jim Garten wrote: Have to disagree, there - Tull's real nadir was definitely 'Under Wraps'; Peter Vetesse deserves to be shot for the damage he did to Tull in that period (my own humble opinion, of course)

Just a bit more info on the subject: In the 'Walk into Light' CD notes, Anderson states that he was at the time very interested in synth music, citing people like Thomas Dolby as an influece (by the way, Dolby is the 80s synth musician that I think could appeal more to proggers). That means he embraced gladly Vetesse influence in the sound of Tull. Ironically, this solo album pre-under wraps has more co-written tracks than any Tull album, making it a Anderson-Vetesse combo effort. Then came under-wraps, and the (almost total) disaster.

I agree that Rock Island and Catfish Rising are not great records, but they still have some good tracks. And Kissing Willie....

Marillion: Anoraknophobia & Marbles for the way they sold it like a marketing company, not artist.

I buy mine in a shop, and surprise!!!!!! I got a carton piece instead a disc, and now I have a half disc

Sorry about my Englihs

Been listening to Rush back catalogue as the European tour hoves into view and have to say Hemispheres is one dreadful record

well half a dreadful record - The Trees and Villa are cool but side one? puh-lease!

What were they thinking. I believe from reading interviews that this was the most difficult aldbum they ever made, with a lot of tension involved between the three and it sure shows on side one - it's half-baked, ill-conceived, about 18 minutes too long and utterly directionless.

Rush, tho' i genuinely love them (and have done since first hearing them on the release of Permanent Waves) have, in between the gems, released some real stinkers over the years. How about 'Grace Under Pressure', which contains just the one good tune in 'Kid Gloves' or even 'Caress of Steel' which features the plaing awful 'Fountains of Lamneth', a desperate attempt by three sophomores to stretch an idea so that it would meet their desire for a one-song side. Ohh boy, it's rank.

Just as well they made up for them with 2112, Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures (all almost perfect records)

I wouldn't say I completely love Caress (it's no Hemispheres), but it was my intro to the band and I think it stands up pretty well...anyway, at the time it was their best album yet

I don't think Rush really has a 'worst' album (except maybe that first one that was somewhat less than 2/3rds Rush)...even the cringe-inducing moments on the later stuff is often redeemed by moments of excellence (sometimes, as in "Roll the Bones", in the very same song!).