If ever you could argue a concept is universal, then surely ‘a bad day at the office’ has a strong case. We’ve all had them – late bus, pissing rain, boss on the warpath, deadline missed, no time for lunch, bollocking from MD, work late, miss train, home at 8pm freezing, pissed off and borderline suicidal that you need to go back the next day. It happens to us all. But at least when it has gone, it has gone. Think of our poor, benighted rock stars. Not only do they suffer in their jobs, there is a permanent document of their misendeavours for all to share in. It’s there forever . Here we look at some examples by otherwise talented performers….
U2 – Rattle & Hum; U2′s elevation to ‘Most Important Band in the World’ after ‘The Joshua Tree’ had a crippling effect on them. Unsure of what direction to take, they decided on a rag-tag, half-live/half-recorded double album with the spurious and loose aim of celebrating rock’n'roll history to prove that they, the biggest band in the world, were still fans. That struck the critics as pretentious and already uncomfortable with U2′s values in the glossy and soulless 80′s they savaged it with a ferocity that shattered the band’s confidence. It’s not all bad – ‘Desire’ and ‘Angel of Harlem’ sit comfortably with their other more celebrated 80′s output – but it brutally ended the big hats and flags era. They went away, struggled and found a new direction and returned swathed in irony and leather and embarked on the greatest period of their career, starting with the excellent ‘Achtung, Baby!’ and ending with the underrated ‘Pop’.
Morrissey – Kill Uncle; Post-Smiths Mozzer really snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with his excellent debut ‘Viva Hate’ and then a great run of singles (collected on ‘Bona Drag’.) For this 1991 effort, he curiously decided to write with fairground Attraction’s Mark Nevin and produced a strangely passionless, anodyne album. Without doubt his most drab album, there is none of the sparkling wordplay which characterised the rest of his work (‘your boyfriend he went down on one knee, could it be he’s only got one knee?’) Again, not a total disaster – ‘Our Frank’, ‘Mute Witness’ and ‘Sing Your Life’ stand up well – but it took a re-awakening of his love for Glam Rock and the production skills of Mick Ronson for him to rally with the glorious ‘Your Arsenal’.
The Cure – Bloodflowers; The Cure’s critical and commercial peak, which people often forget, was not in fact the 80′s at all, but the early 90′s. With grunge in full flow, Bob’s madcap gang led the line for traditional British Indie values of not being able to get your end away and stunningly good tunes. 1992′s behemoth album ‘Wish’ led to 6 hit singles (all of them great) and two year tour, two live albums (one of them a double) and a plan to take a break, watch England in the 1994 USA World Cup and then start writing again. Sadly, Graham Taylor rather scuppered that plan, and six months turned into two years, before the band returned with patchy 1996 effort ‘Wild Mood Swings’. After such a long gap, returning with a lightweight collection of knockabout songs was never going to do, and in a Britpop-dominated world the band seemed to have lost their raison d’être. Panicking, they decided they’d dance with the girl they’d brought and recorded an almost industrial, gloom-ridden gothic extravaganza. Sadly, it sounded like some old men trying to record an almost industrial, gloom-ridden gothic extravaganza. Career put back on track by Ross Robinson (producer of nu-metal bands Limp Bizkit, Korn and Slipknot) who challenged them for the first time in 15 years on 2004′s rather good ‘The Cure’.
R.E.M. – Around The Sun; The sound of a band trying to find some relevance and failing. Spending far too much time trying to produce into shape an album of simply sub-par songs, the Athens legends produced by far the worst album of their stellar 30 year career. Lacking drive, dynamism and above all tune, this album meanders in, meanders out and leaves absolutely no impression on the listener. The bands confidence was shot; they seriously considered giving up. They re-convened for 2008′s ‘Accelerate’ and actually made a decent album. Still hanging in there.
Wings – Wild Life; It’s easy to knock Wings because, mostly, they weren’t very good. Making music for his own sake and sadly not stopping to let the creative well fill up again, Paul McCartney kept the band on a crazy touring and recording schedule throughout their existence. you don’t have to be Dr. Frasier Crane to work out that he was running away from something. this particular turkey, recorded in the midst of intra-band strife and with no discernible purpose, is the biggest miss in his back catalogue. Contains a song called ‘Bip-Bop’ (‘bip-bop’, it went, ‘bip-bop song’.) Not one for the casual fan.
Ryan Adams – Rock’N'Roll – Adams has always been far too prolific for his own good, and struggles with the dichotomy between what an artists is and what he actually thinks he is. Always sounding uncomfortable when pulling on the leathers and trying to be Suicide, this shambolic collection of driftwood was assembled in two weeks after Lost highway staggeringly declined to issue the brilliant ‘Love Is Hell’ on the grounds it was ‘not commercial enough’. A pathetic thing to say for an indie label, frankly (it came out later as two EP’s.) Drugged up, rambling, unfocussed and hopeless, ‘Rock’N'Roll’ was the first time the boy wonder was roundly criticised and man, was he ever. ‘Uncut’s review could have been termed an assault, but ‘Burning Photograph’ apart, it’s hard to disagree with it.
Tin Machine – Tin Machine; His bus was late. the dog ate his homework. Every excuse he could possibly find, well, the Thin White Duke did. ‘You should hear the demos!’ he famously told Rolling Stone, begging the question, obviously, as to why he didn’t simply release the demos. An over-produced, under-written scab of an album, it pleased precisely one Bowie fan – himself – before crawling back under the rock it crawled from. Simply ghastly.
Mick Jagger – She’s The Boss; Hard as it is to imagine now, there genuinely was the suspicion that if Jagger’s solo career had taken off in the mid-80′s, we’d have no more Stones. Luckily, this crap precluded any chance of that happening. An unspeakably stupid record, from the shiny 80′s production to the half-sexist, mostly inane tripe he peddled as lyrics. Had a song on it called ‘Let’s Work’ in which a millionaire urged young black kids to get off their arses and get jobs. Norman Tebbitt would probably have felt it was a tad crass.
Guns’n'Roses – The Spaghetti incident? Oh Lord, save us from albums with ‘amusing’ titles. Deciding to ‘give something back’ to their influences and not in any way filling a contractual obligation, on no sir, they released this atrocious album of punk covers, including such luminaries as the UK Subs. Yes, those UK Subs. Sadly stands as the bands last will and testament at this point. But not as bad as….
Metallica – St.Anger; A dreadful, post-therapy, possibly post-talent unblocking of creative pipes. Band as parents bickering in front of fans as children. No tunes, no hope and surely the worst album ever released by a Stadium act. And I include Genesis in that.
So there you have it. It happens to the best of us! Come on, it’s nearly the weekend…..
Filed under: General Stuff Tagged: | David Bowie, guns n roses, mccartney, Metallica, Morrissey, R.E.M., Ryan Adams, the cure, U2, wings
I hear rumblings that the new my morning jacket is going down this road. I ahve to say, this was reinforced by the first listent he single, which is, in local parlance, shite.
Rock’N’Roll – You mean Adams’ so-called Smiths tribute album? Heh. Never liked it. Can actually remember a few critics talking it up at the time though.
Had not heard of that Mike Jagger album before. Seem to be the lucky one for that! As for the song “Let’s Work” – thank Jaysus we re-discovered irony in the 90s.
the Spag Incident has possibly the worst cover version of a Johnny Thunders song its possible to achieve. The wonderfully ragged “Cant Put Your Arms Around A Memory” is played so straight its untrue. They miss all of the nuances and tortured heroin-addicted pathos of the original. And Duff McKagen actually does a “This ones for you, Johnny” intro. Appalling on so many levels.
The new my morning jacket album has been getting a fair bit of airplay in my neck of the woods ; the single – if its ” Highly Suspicious ” ? isnt too indicative of the rest of what Ive heard
I actually quite liked one song on REMs ” around the sun “………….not a good return Ill admit.
The mick jagger album , what Ive heard , is frankly awful. Then again , keefs solo work is not anything to get excited about either ; the sum of the parts and all that.
I do believe Neil Young might have a ropey album or two in his back catalogue, but then again , he is NEIL YOUNG so he can do whatever the fuck he likes.
Johnny Thunders being covered by GnR is just wrong.
As for Neil Young, I have to admit to despising ‘This Note’s For You’…but then, my Mum loves it, so he didn’t totally strike out.