Recommendations of the Editorial team
The most disappointing albums of all time: Van Halen – “Balance”
A strand of success cannot last forever. And if you are a successful recording artist with a long career, the moment in which fans and critics are disappointed is inevitably disappointed.
This can be because a large experiment has not paid off as hoped for. The taste changed quickly. One is suddenly dismissed as relic of the past. That you have created something so bold and innovative that your genius will only be recognized in the coming years. Or that you simply produced a dud, due to a combination of physical and creative exhaustion. The unbearable stress of wanting to exceed yourself. And maybe the influence of certain chemical substances.
For really great artists, a disappointing album can only be a little bump on the way to a long, successful career. Bob Dylan has many albums that can confidently describe as “disappointing”. And they only made the successors more impressive and interesting. The same could be said of David Bowie, Madonna, Jay-Z, Stevie Wonder, the Rolling Stones and other artists whose careers include several generations.
Evaluation: also depending on the time
The American Rolling Stone has put together a list of the 50 most disappointing albums in music history. Some important reservations have to be made before different fan armies make plans to set fire to set fire. Or to let go of SWAT teams on our houses. We absolutely love some of these albums. An album can be considered disappointing the moment it comes out. And later re -evaluated forever.
This has to do with the time and critical consensus at a certain point in time. And an album that is considered a B+/A- is still disappointing when it follows a series of A/A+albums.
In addition, a disappointing album would be viewed as a masterpiece by an incredibly talented artist such as Radiohead or U2 if it had been published by almost everyone else. (We made the decision to record “The King of Limbs” and “Songs of Innocence” here, but made it really difficult. But ultimately they recorded.)
(And if you storm our houses because we have picked up your favorite band here, you can at least do it during the day? It’s annoying when you storm in the middle of the night. “The King of Limmbs” is also damn good. Tear together, radiohead army.)
The most disappointing albums of all time (27): Van Halen – “Balance”
It is tempting to believe that Van Halen only succumbed to mediocrity when Sammy Hagar left the band and Gary Cherone took over the position of the lead singer. But this representation would mean that their LP “Balance” published in 1995 would have to be deleted from history.
Van Halen: “Amsterdam”:
The most disappointing albums of all time: Van Halen – “Balance”
Unfortunately, there is actually the deeply disappointing successor to the album “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge”, which was released in 1991. None of this can only keep up with the highlights “Poundcake” and “Right Now” from the previous album.
Instead we get from Van Halen The kitschy twin loving songs “Can’t Stop Lovin ‘You” and “Don’t Tell Me (What Love Can Do)” and “Amsterdam”, a tribute to the city in which Hagar is allowed to smoke openly. (Example text: “I have the bags full of money/in front of me there is a long night/drop in quickly in the bulldog/get me some Panama Red.”) And the album begins with real monk songs. The whole thing is just completely confused and a sad proof that Eddie van Halen had no more ideas.