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MusicRadar names and shames the 'classic' long players that fail to deliver
The MusicRadar Team, Tue 10 Jun 2008, 10:26 am UTC
It seems like every few days there's a new list that claims to compile the best something-or-others of all time.
However, there are times in life where you just have to be cruel to be kind. Even musical geniuses are capable of taking their eye off the ball, and how often have you given a supposed classic record a spin and wondered exactly what other people can hear that you can't?
Take our hand as we lead a procession of sacred cows to the abattoir in the MusicRadar team's run down of the most overrated albums in the history of popular music…
Now, don't get me wrong. I love The Beatles. But I noticed recently that I hardly ever delve any deeper into Pepper than giving A Day In The Life an occasional airing on my iPod. Given that I listen to Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver and The White Album on a regular basis, this struck me as odd.
Isn't Pepper supposed to be the most important album of all time? Yes, the production still amazes, and yes, there are a few stone cold classic songs on it. Hell, even the artwork is brilliant.
But as a cohesive album, I just don't see how it hangs together in the way that Revolver or Rubber Soul does. It's just too confused a collection of disparate ideas and sonic sketches, with a 'concept' that even the band themselves got bored with two songs in.
In addition, how any record containing two slices of throwaway whimsy like Fixing A Hole and When I'm 64 can be spoken of in such universally reverent terms is beyond me. And the best Beatles song from the Pepper sessions – Strawberry Fields Forever, of course – isn't even on it. The prosecution rests. (CV)
Twenty years after The Beatles established the double-album as a forum for artists to expand and exhaust their musical impulses, Sonic Youth rammed it into a brick wall of redundancy and tedium.
Listen, I'm down with experimental: Glenn Branca, Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno - I get it. But art rock should provoke wondrous thought as it stirs emotions, and unfortunately, the constant thought bubble over my head while I listen to tracks such as Teenage Riot and Providence is, "Tune your guitars already!", and the only emotions I feel are anger and boredom.
Alternate tunings can, of course, be utilised in new and exciting ways (just ask My Bloody Valentine), but the manner in which Sonic Youth grind their axes (this on top of Kim Gordon's mumbled chanting) wears thin quickly. Spending any amount of time with Daydream Nation feels like going to a job you hate - and to me, music should always be the antidote to punching the clock. (JB)