[pikawel]

I didn't see one of these in the first three pages (real extensive search) so here it is: List your most disappointing musical happenings in 2002.

Beck - Sea Change

Ok, I've listened to it once. I was sober and at work. I have breaks every 55 minutes... well, I listened to this album for 45 and COULD NOT MAKE THOSE LAST 10 MINUTES. It was just so *******ed boring.

A lot of my friends that enjoy this album are Radiohead and Deftones fans which I'm not. Perhaps I'm just not on that mental plane yet because there's just something I'm not getting.

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Plastic Fang

If you don't know who JSBX are, I'll try and sum it up: White man's pseudo-blues rock with Elvis mockery. They've got the Pavement mentality so it sounds like they just don't try sometimes... but they do, of course. Usually managing to combine strange, catchy riffs with comedy, they're very original.

"Orange" is one of my favorite CD's... definitely in my top ten. "Acme" also kicks major ass and "X-Tra Acme" will RIP YOUR SOUL APART. This CD does neither. They claim to have actually put effort into selecting their gear for this recording as opposed to picking up the first cheap-ass Harmony electric lying around. Well, it doesn't work out.

To add insult to injury, I saw them live two months back and they didn't play ONE song from "Orange." It's like seeing Metallica live and having them not play anything off of "...and Justice for All" or seeing Pearl Jam and having them only play songs off of "No Code" *shiver*.

 

[chillysalsa]

Future Sound of London - The Isness

I think I mentioned this in the “Best of 2002” thread, but I’ll expand. Having followed this group from the stark, and organic-sounding early releases like Lifeforms, to the rip-snorting Dead Cities, I was let down by their latest work. After about 3 tracks I was glad I bought a used copy, and can see why a previous fan would return it. It DOES have a moment or two on the album where they come up with something worthwhile, (such as track 7 “Divinity” if you like that sort of thing), but it goes in a TOTALLY different direction than their other albums. The intricate textures, alien soundscapes, and vague samples are replaced by sittar, tabla drums, acoustic guitar, strings, and sentimental (if not mediocre & amateur) lyrics.

To me, it sounds like the boys went to India, and came back with a lot of instruments, inspiration, and weed. I hope they stop smoking it while producing their next album, because it definitely doesn’t enhance their musical abilities.

 

[TimSchirmer]

David Bowie - Heathen

Damn... it ended up sounding pretty much like most of his other new stuff. WAAAAY too many keyboards and synth.

 

[pikawel]

Yeah, how many albums has he not had vocals on now? There were some alright tracks on Heathen but... only for the use under the influence, heh.

 

[wasifazim]

"Have you fed the fish?" - Badly Drawn Boy...the sound of an increasingly self-indulgent Damon Gough. A pity, given the lo-fi brilliance of "Hour of Bewilderbeast"..

- Wasif

 

[Mr.PD]

Iron Maiden-Brave New World.
I swear that on almost every song they came up with about 2 minutes worth of lyrics and decided to stetch them out to a 4 minute song by repeating the same line 7 or 8 times. Then doing that at least twice in each song. This has got to be the most uninspired cd that I have ever heard. It actually iratates me to listen to it. I've tried 4or 5 times to get all the way through it, and I just can't. I even skipped some songs so as not to be so pissed and I still can't get through the remaining tracks.

 

[fyrfytrhoges]

I am mildly disappointed in the new "pearl jam" album, after several listens it certainly has not grown on me like the flips yoshimi did, or the beck album did, but again I'm not vedder.

 

[pikawel]

I don't understand Pearl Jam sometimes. This seems to be the quality pendulum they're on:

Vitalogy - Great
No Code - Crap
Yield - Great
Binaraul - Crap? ( haven't heard it )
Riot Act - I figured this was up in the air... will it be good? Will it be crap?

Well, it's mediocre. Vedder must be in a mood because they vary pretty heavily. Luckily, I purchased Riot Act the same time I did Audioslave so I weighed out the bad with the badass.

 

[plainsong]

I'm still kinda new here so I don't wanna make waves and maybe anger a few people with my sonic opinions..

But for me a huge dissapointment was a soundtrack (score) for a very popular movie... there's nothing wrong with the score itself, and whoever mixed the score for the movie did a great job, but the recording isn't as good. I don't know if it's the mixing, or the acoustics, or probably both. And I don't know why it's not mixed as well as it was for the movie. But the soundtrack turns out to be a dissapointment because of bad production.

I felt like a conductor telling the bari's/basses in the choir..."Ok, here's this cool part..we wanna hear it" and "trumpets/horns back way off"

Bad thing about great headphones..they don't lie about badly mixed stuff.

 

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

Pearl Jam hasn't had a good album since Vitalogy so its not suprising. At least Mike Mcready is soloing like he did on the first 2 albums...

The rage in Vedder's voice is gone.

Biggie.

 

[minya]

Quote:

Originally posted by chillysalsa Future Sound of London - The Isness

I can understand your point of view, especially if you were expecting a "real" FSOL album. To say this album is a little different from their previous work would be the understatement of the year.

Regardless, if approached with an open mind, I think you might find the album is quite good. It's varied, intelligent, innovative, and just plain weird. It's not "Dead Cities" but it's great in that "and now for something completely different.." kind of way.

- Chris

 

[SliPkNoT]

Ya, I agree with BIGGY. Pearl JAm just doesn't have it anymore.