Massive disappointments from artists you love

Lone's "Reality Testing" album always comes to mind.

Don't get me wrong, it's marginally grown on me the past couple of years. But compared to his first three studio albums, it really is the weakest out of them.

Pearl Jam: Every album after Vitalogy

Massive Attack: Every album after Mezzanine

Tool: Every album after Ænima

Boc: TCH

Burial: Temple Sleeper

Squarepusher: Every album after Ultravisitor

Plaid: Every album after Double Figure

Tricky: Every album after Pre-Millennium Tension

  On 8/28/2016 at 2:47 PM, Rubin Farr said:

Zero 7 after the first album

Pixies after they fired Kim Gordon

New Order after they fired Hooky

Two Lone Swordsmen after Double Gone Chapel

NIN after Ghosts

Tame Impala

Depeche Mode after the 90s, lol

Psychic Ills

Midnight Juggernauts

Jai Paul, bc he still hasn't made an album

Justice, when they forgot to plug in their drum machine

New Order didn't have anything good since Republic

NIN didn't have anything good since Year Zero

Now, the one thing I take exception to - Depeche Mode - you really can't say their post-90's output hasn't been great - Exciter, Playing The Angel, Sounds of the Universe - hell, even Delta Machine (which I couldn't STAND at first - THAT was a real letdown) has grown on me after leaving it alone and coming back to it.

Do any of these albums' tracks come near the greatness that Violator (best DM album and one of the best albums, EVER IMO) and Songs of Faith and Devotion produced? No - some close ones, sure. But even then there are some really good songs on their post-90's output.

Justice is a one-trick pony, IMO - after songs like Genesis and DVNO, I don't think anything else has come close. Just my opinion, of course.

Daft Punk falls into the same category - the only songs of theirs I've even remotely liked was the TRON soundtrack and that's it.

Squarepusher - if I am being honest, I really haven't liked the majority of stuff since Selection Sixteen (!), although there songs here and there that capture some of that past brilliance, but most are forgettable and I skip the majority of the tracks on anything since then. Tom's a great musician, but for me personally, his output is too hit or miss for my tastes, and when he misses... gah.

But for me, the biggest, most earth-shattering disappointment for me is MGMT - after their first album, I thought "holy shit, these guys are going places", and then their shitty second album came out and they went all neo-hippy shit. I actually get mad every time I even see or hear anything about MGMT now, even the tracks I liked from the first album.

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 if I am being honest, I really haven't liked the majority of stuff since Selection Sixteen (!), although there songs here and there that capture some of that past brilliance, but most are forgettable and I skip the majority of the tracks on anything since then. Tom's a great musician, but for me personally, his output is too hit or miss for my tastes, and when he misses... gah.

my fav album of his is ultravisitor, and the title track is one of my favorite tracks, maybe top 5. What do you think of this album? Or Go Plastic. It's interesting seeing a lot of people here drawing the disappointment line earlier than a lot of people with various artists

merzbow after barbie girl 

  On 8/29/2016 at 4:03 PM, scumtron said:

Pearl Jam: Every album after Vitalogy

Massive Attack: Every album after Mezzanine

Tool: Every album after Ænima

Boc: TCH

Burial: Temple Sleeper

Squarepusher: Every album after Ultravisitor

Plaid: Every album after Double Figure

Tricky: Every album after Pre-Millennium Tension

Savage!

Didn't see Pearl Jam coming over the horizon on watmm! I agree Vitalogy has (a few)  very cool tunes on (Corduroy, Not for You). Can't stand anything else by them, just pure (grunge?) shmaltz. Compare Ten to Badmotorfinger? Badmotorfinger grinds Ten into dust, then firebombs the dustcloud with slick napalm warheads.

  On 8/29/2016 at 4:03 PM, scumtron said:

Pearl Jam: Every album after Vitalogy

Massive Attack: Every album after Mezzanine

Tool: Every album after Ænima

Boc: TCH

Burial: Temple Sleeper

Squarepusher: Every album after Ultravisitor

Plaid: Every album after Double Figure

Tricky: Every album after Pre-Millennium Tension

Clark: Every album before upcoming album

DJ Shadow - The Less You Know, The Better

unpopular opinion but I actually like The Outsider

  On 8/29/2016 at 1:18 PM, Raktorn said:

Lone's "Reality Testing" album always comes to mind.

 

Don't get me wrong, it's marginally grown on me the past couple of years. But compared to his first three studio albums, it really is the weakest out of them.

the past 2 Clark albums have been kinda disappointing, though i still like them.

  On 8/29/2016 at 4:40 PM, Brisbot said:

 

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 if I am being honest, I really haven't liked the majority of stuff since Selection Sixteen (!), although there songs here and there that capture some of that past brilliance, but most are forgettable and I skip the majority of the tracks on anything since then. Tom's a great musician, but for me personally, his output is too hit or miss for my tastes, and when he misses... gah.

my fav album of his is ultravisitor, and the title track is one of my favorite tracks, maybe top 5. What do you think of this album? Or Go Plastic. It's interesting seeing a lot of people here drawing the disappointment line earlier than a lot of people with various artists

 

My biggest issue with Ultravisitor was the mastering - sounded so flat and quiet, I had to turn it up just to hear anything. I have both the limited and regular releases, and compared them just to see if perhaps one was a bad disc, etc.

Go Plastic didn't inspire me either - can't recall any track on that I liked.

Do You Know Squarepusher was largely forgettable for me) except for his Joy Division cover.

Now, Hello Everything was a nice album - great songs like Hello Meow, Welcome to Europe, Planetarium and others are in my track rotations and playlists.

Unfabulum was largely forgettable as well, with perhaps Dark Steering being the only one I can recall liking.

I was not impressed at all by any of the Just a Souvenir, any of the Shobaleader One stuff, and Damogen Furies I can't recall a single track that grabbed my attention. 

I have to admit, Computer Controlled Instruments II did nothing for me. I'll take orphan deejay and cheetah over that any day.

Not his music so much but wayne coyne of Flaming Lips turned into a huge asshat in the last few years

Daft Punk Random Access Memories might be my #1 answer. Wasn't even that bad but the amount of overwrought circlejerk delusional praise for this MOR album still makes me disillusioned. Few good songs, a lot of mediocre ones, and a huge hole where their perfection of filter house used to be. As long as an artist seems sincerely bent on making music they want and not shamelessly bowing to pressures of style, commercial appeal (and if they are DJ oriented producers I am forgiving of this anyway), etc. or just fucking with fans I don't hold gripes. That's how I felt about the recent Grimes album for example. 

Ditto on Mr. Oizo and Justice in being disappointing though. And Jackson and His Computer Band. He and Mr. Oizo went from underappreciated to better known producers putting out predictable club/EDM. Jesus, I guess just major French electronic musician in general. Except M83.

I'm struggling to think of anyone else honestly...most of my favorites either put out decent stuff to lesser and lesser noteworthiness, retire (props to REM for doing this), or do their own thing I don't care much for but have no qualms with. 

  On 8/29/2016 at 4:03 PM, scumtron said:

 

Tricky: Every album after Pre-Millennium Tension

Hey! False Idols was a fine album. Tricky back on form, imo!

  On 8/29/2016 at 5:37 AM, ghOsty said:

The Avalanches' Wildflower is pretty forgettable IMO

 

also love FlyLo, but I've still not been able to get into You're Dead! I'd say some of his signees on Brainfreeze are doing more interesting things these days.

I thought it was going to be the biggest shitfest after hearing "Frankie Sinatra" but the rest of Wildflower is pretty good. Avalanches' made the best album they possibly could considering the hype/expectations, SYBG was a fluke classic anyway.

Flylo hasn't topped Los Angeles and Cosmogramma but I liked You're Dead! Until The Quiet Comes is still overrated imo. Apparently his live show sucked for a bit too during that album's run, friend saw him and he was high as hell and went into some rant about how great Gentle Giant was, a rant that included him stopping the show to pull up underwhelming youtube videos of the band.

  On 8/29/2016 at 1:12 PM, valleyinaire said:

I think most of my massive disappointments stem from my favourite alt-rock heavyweights entering the 2000s; Pixies, Weezer, Smashing Pumpkins, etc. Of course there's some good material, but the majority of their post-90s stuff has been absolute wank.

 

DJ Shadow's new album was also a big disappointment. I know he hasn't released anything noteworthy for a very long time, but I was expecting a slight return to form with this new one. Unfortunately it was pretty fucking bad

 

  On 8/29/2016 at 5:37 AM, ghOsty said:

 

I have a friend who has a SP heart tattoo and loved their classic stuff. I can't imagine trying to absorb the work and oft absurdity of post-2001 Billy Corgan.

I feel bad for DJ Shadow so I don't judge his new stuff much, I do recall being bummed by Outsider because it was so dull. I think now he's got a wealth of good ideas and talent he just can't flesh out into something either engaging or novel or objectively great, Same with UNKLE/James Lavelle. Both have a iconic albums they don't want to re-hash and come from genres that sounded inherently date or at best "throwback" now. It's an impossible situation for them to break out of. 

  On 8/29/2016 at 6:25 PM, Joyrex said:

 

I was not impressed at all by any of the Just a Souvenir, any of the Shobaleader One stuff, and Damogen Furies I can't recall a single track that grabbed my attention. 

 

I think Squarepusher acknowledged the burden of expectation by changing his name to Shoebaleader One. A direct response to the underwhelming reaction to JAS. I liked JAS and D'emonstrator as separate entities.....but theres that thing in your head when we all know it's Tom it isn't good enough.

  On 8/29/2016 at 6:13 PM, QQQ said:

 

  On 8/29/2016 at 1:18 PM, Raktorn said:

Lone's "Reality Testing" album always comes to mind.

 

Don't get me wrong, it's marginally grown on me the past couple of years. But compared to his first three studio albums, it really is the weakest out of them.

i wouldn't say it was a massive disappointment exactly, but it definitely wasn't the album i was hoping for after Galaxy Garden, which was amazing. fortunately Levitate put him right back up there.

 

the past 2 Clark albums have been kinda disappointing, though i still like them.

 

I mean at least in comparison to his earlier work such as Emerald Fantasy Tracks, it just didn't have the lushness and punchy sounds that his previous work did – with maybe the exception of Airglow Fires. the album itself wasn't bad as its own standalone release, but thinking about it as something Cutler put out kinda made me feel dispirited at least, if that makes any sense.

And I've never listened to the entirety of Levitate yet, but I WILL say that its version of Crystal Caverns 1991 has pretty much left me in this positive limbo, in which I'm anticipating the rest of the album when I actually get around to listening to the damn thing.

Airglow Fires and Begin to Begin being released as stand-alone tracks a year before Reality Testing was a weird move and didn't help the album either.

P.s. you should def listen to Levitate.

For a long time I would have said Orbital post-TMON - if I was in a bad mood, I'd say post-In Sides, as TMON is so safe in comparison, despite having some good tunes. But at some point I finally 'got' The Altogether, and I can now appreciate it for what it is - Orbital doing a simple, clean sounding poppy album. In some ways it's quite a daring album, and it certainly challenged their fanbase. It's still far from my favourite of theirs, but I have a certain respect for it. 

Blue is obviously an incredibly mediocre album - Transient is brilliant, but then the four following tracks are nice ideas executed in the most boring way possible, and the last four are really bad - but then Wonky for the most part exceeded expectations by being mostly really good. So yeah, nothing will beat the first four or five albums, but as time goes by I'm much more comfortable with the second half of Orbital's career.

  On 8/28/2016 at 5:03 PM, danshoebridge said:

Photek and dj shadow spring to mind straight away for the most precipitous drop in quality (though I quite enjoyed solaris, I'm thinking more of the later pendulum-esque edm stuff).

I love Solaris. Obviously it's not as good as Modus Operandi, but I think it's mostly a really nicely put together album with a wonderfully spooky atmosphere.

Form & Function 2. That's the fucking atrocity. I remember it being hyped as a return to dnb and was really excited, knowing just how incredible his programming is and how he managed to even make the tracks without pads sound really atmospheric. Then it was all this fucking Pendulum-style pop-dnb shite. The only song I like on that record is the remix of Ni Ten Ichi Ryu. 

Consequently I had no hopes of him doing anything worthwhile again, and a few of his EPs didn't do anything to change that, so when Ku Palm came about and was actually somewhat reasonable I was absolutely amazed. I think I like that album more than it deserves, purely based on how fucking terrible it could have been (i.e. the whole thing could have been like the last three tracks).

i.e. the album where he forgot how to sing. The whole album is just one note. Literally. Horrible record. I've met a couple of other people who agree with me over the years, and it's always refreshing to hear other people say it.

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Do You Know Squarepusher was largely forgettable for me) except for his Joy Division cover.

Kill robok is surely one of the best and most mental pusher tracks!!!

Speaking of System of a Down, Memorize/Hypnotize was the first of these type of disappointments for me. First album I ever bought at 13 was Steal This Album, and I can still listen to and enjoy that and Toxicity. Was a huge letdown to hear the guitarist take over as lead singer/songwriter from Serj... wtf? Still great in concert in 2006 tho.

Machinedrum - Vapor City

SXLND, Room(s), and Sepalcure were huge for me, so realizing that it was only downhill for TStew was a big deal.

Chance The Rapper - Coloring Book

Criticizing labels while having features from Future, 2Chainz, etc. and release site being filled with pointless merch... LOL. Acid Rap is good.

OPN - R Plus 7

Actually was super exciting at first, but was kind of the opposite of Replica, in that the more I listened to it and got into the aesthetic, the more off-putting I found it. I like warm music, and the whole uncanny valley vibe is just icky. GoD has some of that too, but it's a bit more layered, and it also expands on old themes.

OPN - R+7 and GoD liveshows

Left both early. Not so great live. was hoping GoD would be more energetic, but I feel like he kind of intentionally killed the fun. I go to shows for fun.

Opposite of Expectations Letdown:

Aphex - Syro, SoundCloud Dump (omg the first time I heard Parking Lot and 8 Utopia... Chills.)

Vsnares - Thank You

Come to think of it, most things that are announced a long time in advance lend themselves to this kind of disappointment. Most of my favorite shit was announced out of the blue or I found out about it after it was released

Whoever said plaid is a dumb idiot.

Weezer i guess but Pinkerton suxks too now that i think about it

Weren't you in diapers when the Blue Album came out?

Hudson Mohawke and Rustie after their first albums.

  On 8/30/2016 at 1:30 AM, Wyern said:

Hudson Mohawke and Rustie after their first albums.

Agreed. So talented, so underwhelming lately.