I hate going back to the 2008 well (especially after Skillz has wrapped everything up), but until 2009 coughs up some more news, this is what we’re stuck with… looking back on 2008 and thinking about what music didn’t live up to our possibly inflated expectations.
Guardian blogger Tony Naylor’s top choice was Hot Chip’s Made In The Dark, which wasn’t nearly as troubling as an album to me as it seemed to be to so many others. After all, even Naylor admits there were a few good songs within, and I’m not sure I thought the The Warning was “deep soul music made by discreetly clever men.” Maybe my expectations were lower? Glasvegas’ full-length isn’t out here yet, so I’ll reserve my opinion on that for another week, although his third choice was maybe a little more shocking than the other two.
3) Santogold – Santogold (Atlantic)
We wanted the Santogold of Creator, but what we got was 11 songs that sound a bit like the Strokes. We wanted the Santi White who made the (exceptional) Top Ranking mixtape with Diplo; we got the slick professional songwriter. You can’t deny that the likes of I’m a Lady are the work of a skilled craftswoman, but neither can you find any genuine emotional or sonic vitality in this album. Forgotten, but not gone.
I was more excited by Top Ranking than the album as well, but the complaint “11 songs that sound a bit like the Strokes” seems to be inaccurate.
I had a hard time thinking of an album that really “disappointed” me this year, especially since there weren’t that many I was really all that excited for that didn’t pay off. The Magnetic Fields’ Distortion wasn’t exactly what I wanted it to be; the Hives’ shine has worn off for me; and there were obviously highly acclaimed discs I didn’t share the world’s enthusiasm for (Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver).
The closest thing I could come to a “disappointing” album was the Roots’ Rising Down, which I listened to twice before it was doomed to the CD rack of no return. I used to like the Roots so much that the idea of not obsessively listening to an album of theirs over and over would have been unthinkable to me during the Things Fall Apart era, but there are probably a number of reasons for that shift in my listening habits that have nothing to do with whether or not an album lived up to my expectations.
So, do you have a disappointing purchase haunting your memories of the last 12 months?
The most disappointing albums of the year [Guardian]
Not a purchase per se, but Real Emotional Trash was a big letdown.
Skeletal Lamping pissed me off, but I was sort of expecting it to be a letdown. I think the one album I actually bought in a store that let me down was Hard Candy… (Luckily Santogold and Lil Mama and Portishead all came out on the same day, though.)
Can I repost?
The Breeders and The Gutter Twins.
The new Stooges album was suprisingly not so exciting.
The Raconteurs, Consolers of the Lonely.
Have Heart was a big let down for me, not sure if anyone that reads this listens to them at all.
Most disappointing live show was Of Montreal. It’s a waste of time, too many props and dancers and shit. You’re better off staying at home and watching a vhs copy of “CATS”.
Sun Kil Moon’s “April”.
Couldn’t get into. And Ghosts of the Great Highway is one of my all time faves.
Apollo Sunshine’s Shall Noise Upon was my most anticipated album of 2008, and consequently also my biggest disappointment. I loved the band’s first 2 albums, but the new one seemed completely drained of energy and all the ideas that used to make them great. And even more depressingly, the new one was generally really well reviewed and seemed to be more successful than its predecessors.
I would say Girls Aloud, but I knew it was over long before, when I heard “The Promise”- I guess I’d have to go with Bit-Bit’s Circus. It has really faded fast.
“Chinese Democracy.”
I gave up on Way to Normal by Ben Folds after about 3 spins. The songs all seemed like throwaways, and the lyrics gave me the creeps.
Dear Science, though I’m well aware I’m pissing in the wind here. I thought it was a pale shadow of everything else TV On The Radio had done, overly polished and poppy, and, with the exception of Family Tree, remarkably forgettable. A real disappointment.
Mine was excitedly preordering the super-deluxe “Brighten The Corners” reissue, realizing it came out November 18, not October 18, watching the release date get pushed back to December 9, then having Matador or the USPS fuck up and not receiving my copy until just before the new year.
No complaints with the finished product, but the wait nearly killed me.
That Santogold record was disappointing, but I really liked the album she made with the band Stiffed, so I’m in a pretty small minority as far as the expectations I came in with. I haven’t been disappointed by too many records this year - I liked Death Magnetic a lot, I liked Chinese Democracy, I liked Black Ice…I’m not allowing myself to be conned into buying things based on Pitchfork or general blog-jabber recommendations anymore, so I haven’t been burned the way I was in past years with, say, Dizzee Rascal and M.I.A.
Oh, wait; I got that I Love Dubstep 2CD set and that fuckin’ sucked. So there you go.
The Sigur Rós album seemed like a huge step backwards for them, with the exception of maybe “Gobbledigook.” Most of the songs were aimless with little or no melodic payoff.
The Devil, You, + Me. We waited 6 years for a new Notwist album, and we got a lot of dull with one decent track (the title track) that wasn’t even that good.
And while I stand behind the live shows they did in support of it, I’m going to have to agree with the general consensus that Kissing the Beehive was lacking.
I guess that it really proves the subjective nature of music though. Made in the Dark and Dear Science were two of my favorite albums of the year.
I gave into the hype surrounding the Hold Steady picked up “Stay Positive.” Complete and utter shit. Generic-sounding, bland, annoying, lowest-common-denominator shit. They sound like every band I hated hearing ad nauseum on the radio between 1995 and 1999 — a horrible hybrid of the Counting Crows and some shitty bar band trying to emulate the Counting Crows.
And yet it made the year-end “Best Of” lists of several reputable music magazines and Web sites, while stunners like Beck’s “Modern Guilt” went largely unloved. No justice, I tells ya …
She & Him, Volume 1
I loved the song they did on Conan O’Brien with Yo La Tengo, and I’ve loved everything M. Ward has done by himself, so I was really excited to hear this. It was really disappointing to get this in the mail and find that the rest of the album is a whiney mess.
TV on the Radio, Dear Science
This may in fact be a great album, but the super-loud mastering makes it unlistenable, so I will never know.
Tapes ‘N Tapes, Walk It Off
They went from releasing the great lost followup to Trompe Le Monde to releasing an album of outtakes from The Cult of Ray.
@Bong14:
amen, bong.
@Bong14: Seriously, i was SO looking forward to Dear Science, didn’t download it or anything. and when i bought it…terrible dynamic killing mastering, and not as good as there others. it has started to grow on me a bit, but i can’t stand most of the slower synth songs on it.
so glad i didn’t buy into the Santogold hype, and downloaded it first. again, terrible mastering, but also, half the record just sux. she seems like she has potential, if she could focus on what works.
That Peter Moren record was pretty disappointing - it was so mediocre it might have angered me more than anything else I bought this year.
The My Morning Jacket album was a big let-down, after their career highlight Z.
And the Pas/Cal album had some good stuff on it but was overall a frustrating listen after three or four years of waiting.
The Streets’ latest. Mike Skinner give it up. You’re over!
I would have said Skeletal Lamping but have been enjoying it as of late as superb workout music. So I’ll go with Ladytron, whose record was really boring.
And @mervelousMEGUMI: I’m always disappointed that anyone listens to the Hold Steady. I finally listened to Stay Positive after they were so hyped to me, but I think the music is so generic and I hate the way the vocals are so up front and loud. Good call on the Beck record too, I like that one a lot.
@raycummings: Oh boy, that Malkmus record was pretty bad. I had my doubts about it when I saw the Jicks in SF before it came out. More guitar solos than Satch!
Y’know, I’ve had that new Roots CD in the center console of my car for months. Out of the shrink, but never been in the deck. Just can’t bring myself to it for exactly what you’re describing.
I was pretty careful about what I bought this year otherwise. Really, I think I had more non-reissue albums that I seriously dug this year than maybe the last four or five. Not to say music was magically that much better, just that I bought smarter.
I desperately wanted to love Beach House’s Devotion, but after listening to it three times, I had to say to myself….y’know what, I should’ve just bought the single.
Did you know that Destroyer came out with an album this year called “Trouble in Dreams”? I ask because I made myself forget until just now.
@scott pgwp: I heard (and liked)the Peter Moren single and then never heard anyone mention it ever again. And didn’t even know PB&J had a new album out until last week. Guess there’s no whistling on the new one?
Kanye’s “808s and Heartbreak”
For all the hype, it wasn’t all it could’ve been for me. Though it had some good tracks, I’d rather have just purchased the two songs I love than the entire album.
There, I said it. Don’t hate me!
You people hating on Malkmus and OM are insane to me
@unperson: Heh, hope that wasn’t my doing.
Anyhow, I’m a Beck fanboy from back in the day where everyone thought he’d be a one-hit wonder, but with the exception of a couple tracks, Modern Guilt was boooooo-ring. Not as tedious as Sea Change’s fake-Nick-Drake navel-gazing, but it’s clear that Danger Mouse has been steering just about everyone he works with into bummerland. And while that works alright for Cee-lo (protip: Cee-lo actually sings on The Odd Couple), it makes Beck sound kinda uninteresting to me. Weird that the two commenters who’re the most vitriolic about how bland and generic the Hold Steady are (and fine, hate ‘em, just don’t give me the shit-eye for enjoying Stay Positive) thought Modern Guilt was exciting.
The Devil, You, and Me by the Notwist.
Neon Golden became the soundtrack to my mental collapse in 2003 so to be completely unmoved by this new music feels like the band is trying to stab me in the chest with a butter knife. It’s not going to do any damage but the bewildering disappointment stings all the same,
And to take six years! C’mon!
@Elijah-M: While I couldn’t disagree more with your opinions of the She & Him and TV on the Radio albums, that description of the Tapes & Tapes follow-up is sublime.
As for myself, I was most disappointed in the Jenny Lewis’ Acid Tongue. However, its partly my own fault as I had heard Lewis play most of the songs in the past, and I wanted “new” material, not new-to-most-people material.
Oh, and I only made it through Skeletal Lamping twice. Perhaps I should give it another chance, but it was hard enough to get through those two times. And it was mentioned more than once above, so at least I know its not just me.
@bcapirigi: The new PB&J is a mix of instrumentals and Swedish-language monologues. I think they have a real album with vocals and shit coming out later on (late this year / early next?).
Agreed on the Wolf Parade and Streets.
The new Beck album was ass. was that even this year? I’ve tried to block it.
Hercules and Love Affair
W/o a doubt, To the Five Boroughs.
Keane - Perfect Symmetry. A big letdown after how much I enjoyed several songs off Under the Iron Sea.
Anything advertised in an Idolator banner ad.
I was looking forward to the new Jennifer Hudson.
Oh no. Be forewarned hat was terrible.
@Antijyn: except “Pocketbook” which is straight up amazing.
Just couldn’t get into Bloc Party’s Intimacy
Still giving Cardinology some spins in the hope that it grows on me, it’s the RA fanboy in me.
Day & Age was pretty darn disappointing, just cannot get into it, same for the Weezer record.
No Age - Nouns
so. not. worth. it.
@Nunya B: see, i thought “out of control” was a let down from tangled up and then i looked on my iPod list and saw that i had more songs from this album than any other (the promise, the loving kind, miss you bow wow, untouchable, love is pain and revolution in the head). however, none of these songs touches the excitement of sexy no no no or call the shots.
Usually, you can see disappointments coming from a little distance. I used to love The Streets, but that fourth album wasn’t likely to be much cop. My expectations were maybe a little too high for Be Your Own Pet, The Roots, Santogold, Beck, Q-Tip and Rex the Dog, but they stil weren’t bad albums. Genuinely disappointing though, I’d say The Futureheads, Spiritualized, Nas, Luomo and Beyoncé.
Oh wait, you said purchase. There no need to be disappointed by a purchase really, is there?
CSS owned ‘Disappointment of the Year’ for me. Their first album was so, so, so much fun, but Donkey was just over-produced and over-engineered, and had zero personality (with the possible exception of Move, but that was still over-produced)
CSS most certainly sucked hard with their second album, but Dear Science was more of a disappointment because I had such high expectations. Dear Science is god awful and predominately “cheesy”
He’s a what he’s a what he’s a bad rap rocker.