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Worst discs of 2018


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Rox Diamond - Let the Music Do the Talking.   There were several weak albums last year, but in most cases I could still point to some positive aspects about them.  Whether it be good musicianship, quality production, a good track or two, etc.  But I'd be hard pressed to find anything complimentary to say about this release.  Weak production, terrible songwriting, and an overall piss poor effort from a band whose prior two releases I enjoyed.

Edited by Crazysam
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can't do a worst but these are the ones which didn't meet my (high) expectations :

Nordic Union (too one paced)

Care of Night (songs too long, accented vocals annoyed me)

Magic Dance (songs all sound the same, again)

Ammunition (songs just not there)

Grand Design (horrible vocals)

Hard-core Superstar (Still a long way off their best)

Halestorm ( didn't do much for me)

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Always controversial threads... far more so than the reverse threads. Issa, Care of Night, Magic Dance have all been mentioned and I think all three and excellent albums. 

Heartwind, Hardcore Superstar and Grand Design were all okay albums, imo... certainly not anywhere near the bottom of the year. 

My list of prolific releases that were awful would look a bit like this;

Rox Diamond ; totally agree with above - shocking album

Rick Springfield     -    The Snake King ; what an absolute piece of shit. Massive fan of this dood, but this is dreadful.

Lee Aaron     -    Diamond Baby Blues ; I quite like some of her stuff, but this was a really bad album. Terrible to see someone trying to be someone they're not rather than just doing their thing. 

Black Stone Cherry     -    Family Tree ; not too surprising as they only ever had one kind of okay album... but like Shinedown, they're back to their worst. 

Ten     -    Illuminati ; this one's been mentioned, but a once-great band are now officially unlistenable, more or less. Horrid.

Panic! At the Disco     -    Pray For The Wicked ; not for most people here, but I don't mind these guys... kind of. This is just dreadful. 

Salems Lott     -    Mask of Morality ; these guys are really quite bad. Ugly stuff.

Dare Force     -    Callin' Your Name ; no need for this to be released. Rubbish. 

Rso     -    Radio Free America ; foolishly, I actually hoped for a bit from this one but it's very poor. I don't understand what makes two rock guitarists think it's a good idea to release drivel that doesn't showcase what they do at all.  

Two Of A Kind     -    Rise ; after a ver nice debut, this was a massive step back - didn't like it at all. 

Enuff Z'Nuff     -    Diamond Boy ; please just stop.

You Me At Six     -    VI ; very, very reliable modern roc band delivered their worst effort yet. Very sad, despite one excellent song.

Daughtry     -    Cage To Rattle ; another one who just needs to stop... or find his balls again. One of the two. 

Roxanne     -    Radio Silence ; didn't expect the world from this, but it was an interesting concept to see them back. Thoroughly unenjoyable album for me, though, despite a few others getting joy from it. 

TNT     -    XIII ; I did actually like that 'We're gonna make it' song - very catchy. But the rest - generally terrible.

Karo     -    Heavy Birthday III ; not really sure what this one was or when it was recorded... but it's awful.

Breaking Benjamin     -    Ember ; their sound has always been pretty tired, but this was their worst in a long time. 

Bulletboys     -    From Out Of The Skies ; absolutely love the 'Best moment of my life' condescending rubbish song on this one... but the rest of the album is awful. 

Tommy Paris Band     -    Tommy Paris Band ; really, really should not have released this one. Very bad. 

5 Seconds of Summer     -    Youngblood  ; one of my recent favourite bands join the bandwagon in completely abandoning any rock roots they had. Like a few others in this list, there's one absolutely killer song on this ('Talk fast') but the rest is garbage. 

Smash Into Pieces     -    Evolver ; been a fan of this band in the past, but they've also strayed a bit and released a very poor collection of songs.

Shinedown     -    Attention Attention ; again... they only ever released one okay album so it shouldn't shock me... but this is just loud, annoying noise to me.

Airrace     -    Untold Stories ; disappointing collection from an otherwise decent band.

Reece     -    Resilient Heart ; it didn't surprise me that this wasn't good, but one album I genuinely couldn't figure out why certain people thought it wasn't bad. Just can't figure this one out because to me it's Reece at his weakest, by-numbers. 

Fifth Angel     -    The Third Secret ; disappointing resurrection that shouldn't have happened. Not an awful album, but their discography didn't need it. 

Terra Nova     -    Raise Your Voice ; how does an album get released with a production job like this?? Why? Sounds like a shredded ballsack. In typical Terra Nova form, some songs are quite good and others are awful. But it's all just nullified by the terrible, terrible "production" job. 

Thirty Seconds to Mars     -    America ; sad to see what's happened to these guys. Another band that have more or less abandoned any rock sound. Again, like others, one killer song on this one very much in their older style... but the rest of the album is poor.

Kenny Leckremo     -    Spectra ; don't really understand this one. Really didn't work for me at all.

Reach     -    The Great Divine  ; disappointing album after these guys offered some promise. This end of the list is getting better than the top half... but I was disappointed in these guys. Poor album. 

Dynazty     -    Firesign ; they seem like a lost cause now. Any hope of them returning to a sound/style where they played interesting songs seems to have passed now. I feel like the last 3 albums have just been one long, average song divided over three discs.  

Guild Of Ages     -    Rise ; great band with an exciting return... but my word is this a dud. Not a hook in sight on this one. So disappointing because of what they're capable of.

Slash     -    Living The Dream ; I've hated a lot of his solo stuff but still expect something these days. This was his worst album in a few years.

Fall Out Boy     -    Mania ; once-decent modern rock band getting worse and worse as time goes on.

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus     -    The Awakening ; another once-good modern rock band as above... going downhill fast.

Tokyo Blade     -    Unbroken ; their last album was pretty cool but this was very disappointing.

Palace     -    Binary Music ; massive fall from grace here. After a very promising debut this was a huge letdown.

Jaded Heart     -    Devil's Gift ; these guys are gradually wandering well into Dynazty territory. Heavy is good. Shit songs, however, is not. 

And I should leave it there. Plenty more disappointments like Vega and co, but nowhere near the worse albums of the year. 

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yeah but I didn't last 10 seconds with most of those so can't comment.

I'm sure the worst albums of the year are some jazz or rap albums.

I could only really comment on what I genuinely though would be great but turned out to be poor.

Most of those you listed I could have told you would be crap without even hearing them ;)

 

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6 minutes ago, Glen said:

when I say poor I mean nowhere near my high expectation. 

Prob 20% below what I hoped. 

Yeah. Perhaps a better title for the thread would have been Most Disappointing Disc of 2018.

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I'd agree too, and that is basically what my list is. I didn't expect albums of the year from those guys, but Rick Springfield, Jaded Heart, Palace, Guild Of Ages, 30STM, 5SOS, Fifth Angel etc. have all been up with my favourite releases in previous years... so we're not talking chopped liver. I had a massive list of just shit... but these were the ones I found really disappointing. 

In terms of higher rated disappointments, I was very disappointed with Vega and White Widdow too... but they're not as bad as these. In fact, overall, Vega would be one of my biggest disappointments in 2018, to be honest. I rate those guys so high, and even aside from that terrible production job, it was a pretty average collection of songs by their standards. 

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I have a tough time responding to this....Mostly because I know what I like and generally aren't buying or listening to stuff I don't like.

I guess one that sticks out for me is the Dallas disc.  I thought I'd really like that but found it pretty terrible outside of a couple songs.   

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when is the best of 2018 list  coming out----I am in anticipation---help  ahahaha

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Joe Perry - Sweetzerland Manifesto

American Tears - Hardcore

Daughtry - Cage To Rattle

Muse - Simulation Theory

Thirty Seconds To Mars - America

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Thankfully, with so many platforms available to hear either samples (HH, Amazon, NEH, etc...) or full songs (Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, etc...) the days of purchasing a 100%, complete and utter turd of an album should be behind us; just no excuse to do so anymore.

 

With that said, some albums that I found to be disappointing in 2018:

Age Sten Nilsen's Ammunition - Ammunition: Most of the songs just weren't very memorable

Dare Force - Callin' Your Name: ditto

Dream Child - Until Death Do We Meet Again: I've enjoyed the other Dio inspired projects (Last In Line and Resurrection Kings) but again, the songs just aren't very memorable on this one

Gioeli-Castronovo - Set The World on Fire: "Through" is absolutely superb... the rest of the album, not so much, especially that horrendous cover of "Need You Now"

Jaded Heart - Devil's Gift: well played, just not much sticks with you

Kenny Leckremo's Spectra - Spectra: Really enjoy the title track, and the rest is pretty "meh"

Ted Poley - Modern Art: Don't care for Degreed, but figured my love of most things Poley could overcome that.. nope. Another thoroughly "meh" disc

Red Dragon Cartel - Patina: Great guitar playing doesn't necessarily translate into great, memorable songs

Rox Diamond - Let The Music Do The Talkin': another where overall, the songs just aren't very memorable, and as mentioned, the production does it no favors

Shinedown - Attention Attention: LOVED The Sound of Madness and Amaryllis, but this is nothing but shouty, rap inspired noise for the most part

*4 of Geoff's disappointments are in my honorable mentions for 2018! :P

 

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1 hour ago, whiplash1972 said:

Thankfully, with so many platforms available to hear either samples (HH, Amazon, NEH, etc...) or full songs (Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, etc...) the days of purchasing a 100%, complete and utter turd of an album should be behind us; just no excuse to do so anymore.

It was a double edged sword wasn't it. There was no better feeling than taking a chance on a Disc and then getting home to discover that it was a killer. Very much like a drug related rush. As you mentioned though the flip side of that was ending up with a turkey. I'm sure we've all been there. CD's have never been cheap and i've felt my share of buyers remorse. The worst thing was the fact that once opened, you couldn't return them. Luckily we knew of a few little independent niche stores that allowed you to have a listen first, but with the larger chains who put on their own packaging,...forget it.

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10 hours ago, whiplash1972 said:

Thankfully, with so many platforms available to hear either samples (HH, Amazon, NEH, etc...) or full songs (Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, etc...) the days of purchasing a 100%, complete and utter turd of an album should be behind us; just no excuse to do so anymore.

 

With that said, some albums that I found to be disappointing in 2018:

Age Sten Nilsen's Ammunition - Ammunition: Most of the songs just weren't very memorable

Dare Force - Callin' Your Name: ditto

Dream Child - Until Death Do We Meet Again: I've enjoyed the other Dio inspired projects (Last In Line and Resurrection Kings) but again, the songs just aren't very memorable on this one

Gioeli-Castronovo - Set The World on Fire: "Through" is absolutely superb... the rest of the album, not so much, especially that horrendous cover of "Need You Now"

Jaded Heart - Devil's Gift: well played, just not much sticks with you

Kenny Leckremo's Spectra - Spectra: Really enjoy the title track, and the rest is pretty "meh"

Ted Poley - Modern Art: Don't care for Degreed, but figured my love of most things Poley could overcome that.. nope. Another thoroughly "meh" disc

Red Dragon Cartel - Patina: Great guitar playing doesn't necessarily translate into great, memorable songs

Rox Diamond - Let The Music Do The Talkin': another where overall, the songs just aren't very memorable, and as mentioned, the production does it no favors

Shinedown - Attention Attention: LOVED The Sound of Madness and Amaryllis, but this is nothing but shouty, rap inspired noise for the most part

*4 of Geoff's disappointments are in my honorable mentions for 2018! :P

 

lol, that last comment made me sad as we had so many same ones in the list. Hard to imagine from that from my list your favourites are in it too... but oh well, let's have a look and see. 

Just want to make it clear to people I thought the Ammunition album was terrible too... but then, I was one of the few who acknowledged how bad the debut was too, so it wasn't a disappointment or a surprise that the follow up was just as bad. ;)

But, again, in the year of single smash hits... I do love 'Miss Summertime.'  

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17 minutes ago, Glen said:

did I read in this thread 'I don't care for Degreed '

oh the blasphemy ;)

 

Yeah, I thought the same.

Did you see some clown said Magic Dance and Care Of Night were no good too? 

Some real jesters in this thread. ;)

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15 minutes ago, Geoff said:

Yeah, I thought the same.

Did you see some clown said Magic Dance and Care Of Night were no good too? 

Some real jesters in this thread. ;)

not no good, just didn't meet my v high expectations. 

Both albums are perfectly OK.....just more 75% (rather than 90+) ;)

 

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8 hours ago, Glen said:

did I read in this thread 'I don't care for Degreed '

oh the blasphemy ;)

 

Lol, it’s okay; I make up for it by not liking Eclipse or Vega either! 🤪

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