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What are the 5 most overrated rock albums?

1. The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. The songs on this album are nowhere near as memorable as those on "Revolver" and "Rubber Soul". For that matter, this album is nowhere near as innovative, nor ultimately as influential, as either "Pet Sounds" or the first Velvet Underground album. I'm not the first to point out that blame for such artless excess as all seventeen minutes of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida rests primarily with Sgt. Pepper.

2. Pink Floyd: The Wall. All of the criticisms usually applied to late 70's stadium rock, i.e., that it was pretentious, bloated, pseudo-intellectual,and self-indulgent; apply doubly to this crock opera. If you want witty and insightful philosophizing on the human condition, read Nietzsche, H.L. Mencken, or Michel Foucault. To seek such wisdom from pop music, a genre defined by its righteous Dionysian folly, is the greatest folly imaginable.

Pearl Jam: 10. Johnny Rotten was bang on when he described Pearl Jam as "bloody awful" and as sounding like "Joe Cocker singing for Black Sabbath." To my ears, this sounds like so much bland 70's rock (e.g., Bad Company). As The Monkees are to The Beatles, so are Pearl Jam to Nirvana.

4. U2: The Joshua Tree. I don't know where to begin. These guys plagiarized Joy Division, and set their sublime riffs to dumbass lyrics bespeaking the most niave sort of Oprah Winfrey meets Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farms bourgeois liberalism. I've said it before, I'll say it again: If you make me listen to a record by someone named Bono, his first name better be SONNY.

5. Bob Marley & The Wailers: Exodus. Not only was Bob Marley not, by a long shot, the best pop music figure to come out of Jamaica, he wasn't even my favorite member of The Wailers. The monomaniacal cult of personality surrounding the deceased Robert Nesta Marley comes at the expense of all the other, far more exciting, music to come out of that poverty-stricken island. As Lester Bangs put it:

"Toots and the Maytalls, who never got promoted properly, are the real heat from a Stax/Volt kitchen, whereas Marley always struck me as being so laid back he seemed almost MOR. Rastaman Vibration was the last straw: an LP obviously calculated to break Disco Bob into the American Kleenex radio market full force, complete with chicklet vocal backdrops chirping 'Pos-i-tive!'
tweakgeek
jeffloistarca
1,004 posts
 
Interesting how you picked five records to disparage and I happen to like all of them quite a bit. Oh well, to each his/her own. I'm not sure I could honestly pick out five recordings to slam, like Sean they tend to come in bunches from the same artist.

1)Anything by Genesis (including the early days with Peter Gabriel) is garbage. Quickest way to get me to turn off the tuner in favour of a record or CD, put some Genesis on. Phil Collins' nasal whining is worse than nails on a blackboard. You want art rock? Try Gentle Giant, Yes, Jean Michel Jarre on for size.

2)REM can't figure out if they should make an attempt at being art-rock or writing hooks to get radio play. They fail miserably at both. Fascinating to listen to their catalog, a band truly without a purpose.

3) This selection will go over like a fart in church with many here, but...The Grateful Dead. I'm Grateful the band is Dead.

4) Aerosmith. How can a band write lyrics that closely resemble random thoughts of an average four-year old, then back it up with even less talent and become a mega-band?

5) The Rolling Stones. The most successful 3 chord garage band in history. If you can find any real meaning behind any of their lyrics, my hat's off to you. The musicanship is sub-par as well, the guitarist sounds like he died. Come to think of it, if you've seen Keith in the last little while, he has died and nobody told him.

sattothestars
233 posts
 
I agree with Sean.Other than Asbury Park,anything after that album has been nothing to shout about.My 02 cents.
kthomas
911 posts
 
The Eagles - Hotel California
The Doors - L.A. Woman
Green Day - Dookie
beowulf
29 posts
 
I thought the criticism of the Stones and Springsteen and some others was interesting. Its not supposed to be art. Mick got it right: "its only rock and roll but I like it." So what if its only three cords. Some great painters never used more than the primary colors. You can dissect it if you want but you miss the point. When you get the sound right, and turn it up does it light your candle? Without proclaiming something "is" or "is not" art I will answer the question on this thread as to what is "most overrated". For me that's anything by Jethro Tull.
tbadder
103 posts
 
The Wall is a horrific album. One can create all the thematic nuance and depth and still sound boring. A complete rip off of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Jean Paul Satre's No Exit, and too many others to mention. This was Rock's most pretentious excercise. While I don't deny it's social relevance (a lot of people were sucked in by this album) it's still musically lacking in ideas, originality, and insight. This is proof that any thing can be sold to any one. I feel dirty writing about. Always loved Roger Waters though, very candid and funny. My favorite quote from him? "We're just bloody awful, and bloody rich." He then went on proclaiming how stupid Pink Floyd fans were and how he could fart on record and it would go platinum. Very funny guy.
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