As long time readers know, (obviously) we love rock n roll at B&V. And I have always tried to keep it positive around here when talking about the music we love. Heaven knows, there’s enough negative energy out there to sink us all. And at the heart of it, I’m a lover, not a fighter… but I digress. While I’m still as crazy about rock n roll as I was when I was 13, even I have to admit occasionally, some of my favorite rock artists have… well… let me down. I have indeed been disappointed by an album from a band/artist I had always depended on from time to time. It’s hard to explain the feeling… It’s a little like that scene in the Robin Williams/Nathan Lane movie The Bird Cage when Robin says to Nathan as they’re pretending to be macho, “How do you feel about those Dolphins,” and Lane replies, “I don’t know… betrayed?”

I have, on several occasions, spoken about the curse of expectations. When an artist puts out a really great album or better yet a string of great albums and we as the fans feel a connection to the artist and their music, expectations start to creep in with each new release. I’m sure the fan expectations are nothing compared to the expectations and pressure the artist puts on himself. It’s like the cliche about debut albums – you have your whole life to write your first album, and 6 months to write your second. It’s almost a rigged game. As our expectations climb (and our love, yes love, of the artist grows), and the pressure on the artist intensifies, it becomes a recipe for disappointment. When the artist stumbles creatively, we’re all left feeling… well, let down. We end up standing in front of the turntable like Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda, where he’s left standing over the empty safe he intended to rob and screams “Disappointed,” while firing his handgun into the safe.

Many things can contribute to this fan disappointment. Some artists change their music to slow down the runaway freight train of fame they’ve created. Springsteen did it twice with Nebraska and then later Tunnel Of Love, making more personal, smaller albums to counteract the commercial juggernaut that preceded it. Prince’s entry on this list is certainly an example of that “escape fame” thing. Sometimes the artist has a spark of creativity that takes them in a different direction like Lindsey Buckingham when he pushed Fleetwood Mac in the direction of Tusk…of course that might have been fear of having to top Rumours and maybe a reaction to punk. Sometimes the artist is just plain burned out and needs a break. But it’s hard not take my fair share of blame for my disappointment driven by those damn expectations I carry around.

While this list isn’t complete (even just for me), here are the albums that left me sitting on the couch, shaking my fist at the rock god’s above and wondering why I’d been a fool. In the early days I used to wait until I’d heard three good songs on a record before plunking down my hard earned lawn mowing money for an album, which was a weird rule. But as I got older certain artists – Springsteen, the Stones, Robert Plant, U2 among others – became “automatic buys” for me. They put out an album and I was at the record store on release day with my money in my hand. Or I’d read something about an artist or an album and I’d take a chance on something I hadn’t heard and sometimes the gamble just didn’t pay off. More typically it was an artist whose records I’d been buying for a while when I got “let down.” To really feel pain you have to have really loved somebody, or so I suppose.

While these albums are my disappointments, I realize that this list probably won’t match yours. I’ve already written about the “Dirty Dozen” albums that maybe only I like. There may be albums on this list that you like. There’s nothing wrong with that. I am in no way judging you for liking an album that I didn’t. Music is for everyone but it hits everyone differently. You may have a record that really disappointed you that I love. Season to taste, as the saying goes. Here are my heartbreakers:

• Bad Company, Rough Diamonds – Bad Company put out Desolation Angels when I was in middle school and me and my pals loved it, it was “our” BadCo album. I was so excited when Rough Diamonds came out. Only to find other than “Electricland” there wasn’t a good song on this one.
• Black Crowes, Amorica – After two fabulous records, Shake Your Moneymaker and Southern Harmony…, the Crowes dropped this musical disappointment. I knew from the second I heard “A Controversy” that something had gone wrong. I went from thinking they were the new Stones to worrying it was over for these guys…drugs were taking their toll. I was glad to be wrong about their career.
• David Bowie, Tonight – For those of us too young for Bowie’s “Berlin Trilogy,” the smash hit Let’s Dance was our gateway to Bowie. It led me to ChangesBowie and then later deeper into his catalog. What a letdown this one was as a follow up. Although, there are some tracks on this record I still like. “Blue Jean” and “Loving The Alien” were great but didn’t prevent me from selling this one at the used record store.
• Lindsey Buckingham, Law And Order – Everybody loved Fleetwood Mac. Stevie Nicks had launched an incredibly successful solo career and we all assumed when Buckingham ventured out of the Mac he’d kill it too. He took the experimentation of Tusk over a cliff on this one for me. I remember sitting in my brothers room listening to this album – he owned it – and scratching my head. All these years later… still scratching.
• The Cars, Door To Door – On the heels of the fabulous Heartbeat City, and a few solo projects, the Cars returned with this lackluster effort. We didn’t have to read it in Rolling Stone magazine that this band was finished, you could hear it.
• Don Henley, Inside Job – Henley arguably had the finest 3 album run of any artist from a big band who went solo with his first three discs. The man was a perfectionist and took years between albums. I bought Inside Job the day it came out… it did not last long in my CD collection.
• Billy Idol, Whiplash Smile – I was finally on Billy’s bandwagon after Rebel Yell, and we all thought he’d go even bigger with his next album. The first single, “Forgot To Be A Lover” instantly bored into my brain. Then I got the album home and thought, “Where are the songs?” Billy lost focus.
• Dave Matthews Band, Everyday – Like most folks in the 90s, I dug DMB. Their first three albums were in everyone’s collection. Then, in an odd decision to change directions, they dumped longtime producer Steve Lillywhite and hired Alanis Morrisette’s producer Glen Ballard…who had never heard their music. You could tell.
• Paul McCartney, Push To Play – I suppose there are a number of 80s albums from McCartney that you could have chosen for this list, but this was the one for me. I love Paul, but this album – where you could tell he was putting in the effort – leaves me cold to this day. I bought it the day it dropped and thought it would be his big “comeback.” I was… wrong. Admittedly, it’s grown on me over the years but at the time… “Disappointed!”
• Metallica, St. Anger – I had casually got into Metallica on the self titled “Black Album,” and a few tracks on Load. I never saw the painful listen that was St. Anger coming… This thing put me off Metallica for five years.
• Stevie Nicks, Rock A Little – The way we all loved Stevie after Bella Donna and The Wild Heart, I often think of her as the mistress to my generation. I saw her live on the Wild Heart tour and could swear she was singing “Beauty And The Beast” directly to me… it would have fit. Then she goes all slick and synthesizer on this one, given to me by my college girlfriend who was trying to send a message with “You Can Talk To Me.” A critic at the time said, “It should be called “Rocks Very Little”” and that should be the definitive word.
• Prince, Around The World In A Day – I got into Prince earlier than most kids from the suburbs. I was turned on to 1999 during my awful second semester in college. Everybody was on the bandwagon by Purple Rain. I bought this album the day it came out and couldn’t help but think, to paraphrase Greil Marcus of Rolling Stone speaking about a Dylan album, “What is this shit?” I tried to listen to this again a while ago, with more “mature” ears. It’s still an awful album with a few good songs. Not a worthy follow up to his masterpiece that we all wanted.
• Queen, Hot Space – Everyone I knew in high school dug Queen. The Game had captivated all of us. “Dragon Attack” remains a favorite song. Then they follow that up with this synth-laden, “dance-ish” album. Even tacking on the Bowie/Queen duet “Under Pressure,” that had been previously released on a Greatest Hits album didn’t drive any interest in this album. “Body Language” killed them in America for years.
• Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Getaway – I still love that first single, “Dark Necessities,” from this album. The rest is meh. They should have stuck with Rick Rubin as their producer, maybe he could have saved this one. I love the Chili Peppers, but Josh Klinghoffer was not the right lead guitarist.
• Lou Reed, Mistrial – After three great albums, including my first Reed purchase, New Sensations, I bought this drum-machine driven train wreck the day it came back. Lou’s decision to play lead guitar was…misguided.
• U2, No Line On The Horizon – We should have known from the grim, grey album art this was going to be a drag. Having killed it with All That You Can’t Leave Behind and then How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, U2 reacting to the critics saying they’d been too “safe,” decide to experiment. Sigh. This album was very bad U2.
• Beck, Colors – I believe I described this as an uneven disappointment. I stand behind those words and I love Beck. He’s a genius. This was a reach for me.
• Bob Dylan, Down Into The Groove – Dylan, like McCartney, had a rough time in the 80s. This album caused me to finally get off his bandwagon, where I stayed until Time Out Of Mine.
•  Neil Young, Landing On Water – Sadly, Neil follows the same story as McCartney and Dylan. This album featured Neil and Danny Kortchmar (great session guy) on keyboards and guitars. Steve Jordan, who later played with the Stones on Hackney Diamonds on drums and synth. Awful, just awful.
• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Last DJ – Tom was mad Echos didn’t hit the same way as Wildflowers did and he was down and out because of a divorce, vented his spleen on this angry record. It just didn’t work for me and I’d have run down a dark alley if Tom had asked me too.

If any of these are your favorites, we certainly don’t mean to cast any aspersions on you for liking that album. I just couldn’t connect with any of these records, save for a song or two. Are there any albums you’ve purchased, only to be disappointed? We all have one or two. If so, let me know in the comments section. I’m always interested to hear how people react to certain records. The good news here is that for each of the artists I mentioned above and the albums that disappointed me, the artist came back with strong music (eventually) that had me back up in the front seat of the bandwagon. What I’ve come to realize is that it’s fun to follow an artist through his whole career, warts and all…

Cheers!