I was recently chatting with my brother-in-law about albums that did not age well. One that came to mind for both of us was The Love Below. Now, I enjoy Outkast plenty, and when that album came out, I adored it (along with Speakerboxxx). But upon listening again, it turned out what used to seem brilliant now seemed like, in my brother-in-law's words, "a novelty album with a couple of hits squeezed in for some reason." Yup.
What are other albums or songs that just haven't aged well? Is that a function of personal growth, society changing, musical tastes changing, etc? Is it any different than fashion or film or... anything else? I can think of movies that once seemed great too, that haven't aged well. Is music the exact same? Why are there so many lasting songs then?
So give us songs that didn't stand the test of time, and drop your list if you've got one.
See what I mean?
01. "Upon Settling on the Frozen Island, Lecithin Presents Claude and Coquelicot With His Animal Creations for Them to Approve or Reject (The Rejected Inventions Walk Towards the Reverse Magnetizer)" – of Montreal – Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse
02. "I Kill Your Love, Baby!" – I Break Horses – Hearts
03. "You Do Something To Me" – Sonny Rollins – The Bridge
04. "Comeback Kid" – Sleigh Bells – Reign Of Terror
05. "Borderline (An Ode To Self Care) – Solange – A Seat At The Table
06. "Summer Holiday" – Wild Nothing – Gemini
07. "Oh Jim" – Lou Reed – Berlin
08 "Moon & Back" – Torres – Torres
09. "Sunken Treasure" – Wilco – Being There
10. "Desolation Row" – Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited
The songs on my lists have all aged well, at least in my opinion.
1. Sweet Baby James--James Taylor
2. If Not For You--George Harrison
3. Lady--Styx
4. America--Simon and Garfunkel
5. Sylvia's Mother--Dr. Hook
6. Couldn't Get It Right--Climax Blues Band
7. Fly Away--John Denver
8. Song for a Winter's Night--Gordon Lightfoot
9. The Show Must Go On--Three Dog Night
10. I Love You--America
I have argued that Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band hasn't aged well. I acknowledge it's place in music history and how it changed what we all thought an album could be but..... there are like 4 songs on that album that have stood the test of time and are listenable. For the Benefit of Mr. Kite? C'mon man.
I'd say that the whole album itself is listenable, but only if you're listening to the album. If you're just picking songs to listen to, then I'm buying what you're selling.
I concur. “Mr. Kite” is a fun bit of weirdness when you hit it in sequence. It’s the eqiuvalent of pickled daikon & carrot on a bánh mì; you don’t want to eat a whole jar, but you’re glad they’re there in the mix.
I've also been on record that the entire Beatles' discography fits this.
"I acknowledge [their] place in music history and how [they] changed what [people born before 1960] thought an album could be but..... there are like [10] songs [they've recorded] that [I actually find] listenable. [The Beatles (White Album)]? C'mon man."
In sports talk radio this would be known as a flaming hot take.
Do we need a “most overrated British Invasion artist/band” poll? Because AMR is describing how I feel about Donovan.
I like a few of his songs, but listening to his full albums didn't do much for me.
He has more than two songs?
Not that it was amazing, but there's a compelling argument that Ace of Base's Happy Nation is almost entirely Nazi propaganda. Really hard to listen to it now.
?
It's on cracked.com, so it must be true. (I haven't read it.)
Something else I haven't read and can't vouch for debunks it.
Here
huh.
Hey Beau (and others) not sure if you listen to Podcasts but the Slate Hit Parade Podcast has a episode on CCR and the weird fact that they had five #2 hits but never a #1. It goes into their history and describes the situation with each song and what ended up being #1 and why. An interesting 1 hour of your time if you like CCR, history of the top 40, and how a song becomes a chart topper. etc.
!!!!
I am so listening to this.
Thanks for this, free. CCR is the band I most associate with my early–mid childhood, as Pops was a huge fan. (Terry Kath-era Chicago is number two on that list of associations.) I’ll definitely listen to this.
One of my favorite things ever is John Fogerty being sued for plagiarizing himself.
I will be interested in hearing your thoughts. I know the CCR hits of course but a bunch of this was new to me.
The reason behind the 4th #2 hit made me laugh.
A few weeks back when we were talking about covers how did we overlook Ike and Tina’s cover of Proud Mary? Both songs are amazing and stand on their own.
1. Julien Baker “Even” Turn Out the Lights
2. Lana Del Rey “West Coast (Radio Edit)” Ultraviolence
3. Ma$e “Feel So Good (Radio Edit)” Feel So Good (single)
4. Craig David “Fill Me In (Radio Edit)” Fill Me In (single)
5. Boom Bip & Doseone “21 to 35” [Circle]
6. Faithless “Postcards”* Sunday 8PM
7. Twilight Circus Sound System “Romy” Horsie*
8. Painted Ladies “Living My Life by the Day”* Painted Ladies Play Selections from 'The Loner'
9. So So Radio “Moenjodaro” Dustcovers
T. Tracey Thorn “Raise the Roof” Out of the Woods
*Notes:
6. With chorus vocals from Dido, the same chorus later used in her own song "My Lover's Gone". (Dido's brother Rollo was one third of Faithless, with Sister Bliss and rapper Maxi Jazz. Holy carp, I just saw that Maxi Jazz is 20 years older than me. I guess he had a bit of a career before Faithless.
7. Highly recommended instrumental dub from Ryan Moore, formerly of Legendary Pink Dots. For fans of the Massive Attack vs. Mad Professor album.
Though I tried other Twilight Circus albums and... they seemed a bit samey to me. Different versions of the same tunes under different titles that left me wanting the ones I had grown accustomed to. Might only need one. Or maybe I should have tried one that wasn't released within a year of Horsie.
8. Vic Simms cover. It's his album The Loner covered, not Neil Young's, or Gary Moore's, or Caroline Rose's (just released).
I've been on record as thinking The Love Below was mostly crap from the start.
I think my comment was on the lines of "So it wasn't that Andre was pushing Big Boi into weirder more inventive stuff, but that Big Boi kept Andre from making garbage."
This sounds legit, if generous: "a novelty album with a couple of hits squeezed in for some reason".