Recommendations of the Editorial team
The most disappointing albums of all time (48): Wings – “Wild Life”
The most disappointing albums of all time. A winning streak cannot last forever. And when you’re a successful recording artist with a long career, there inevitably comes a time when fans and critics are disappointed with a new album.
This may be because a big experiment didn’t pay off as hoped. The taste changed quickly. You are suddenly dismissed as a relic of the past. For creating something so bold and innovative that its genius will only be appreciated in years to come. Or that you simply produced a dud due to a combination of physical and creative exhaustion. The unbearable stress of trying to surpass yourself. And perhaps the influence of certain chemical substances.
For truly great artists, a disappointing album can be just a bump in the road to a long, successful career. Bob Dylan has many albums that can safely be described as “disappointing.” And they only made the sequels even 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 span multiple generations.
Rating: Also depends on the time
The American ROLLING STONE has compiled a list of the 50 most disappointing albums in music history. There are some important caveats that need to be made before various armies of fans make plans to set our offices on fire. Or unleashing SWAT teams on our homes. We absolutely love some of these albums. An album can be seen as disappointing the moment it comes out. And later be reevaluated forever.
This mainly has to do with the timing and the critical consensus at a particular point in time. And an album that’s considered B+/A- is still disappointing when it follows a string of A/A+ albums.
Also, a disappointing album from an incredibly talented artist like Radiohead or U2 would be considered a masterpiece if it had been published by almost anyone else. (We had a really hard time deciding to include “The King of Limbs” and “Songs of Innocence” here. But we ended up including them.)
(And if you’re going to storm our houses because we recorded your favorite band here, can you at least do it during the day? It’s annoying when they storm in in the middle of the night. Plus, “The King of Limbs” is damn good. Get a grip, Radiohead army.)
48. Wings – “Wild Life”
Imagine you’re a Paul McCartney fan in December 1971. The last two years have seen the release of “Abbey Road,” “Let It Be,” “McCartney” and “Ram.”
These are all excellent albums, to say the least. And absolutely unique. You’ve heard that Paul McCartney has formed a new band called Wings. It’s his first group since the Beatles.
Then you go to the record store and get “Wild Life.” “Disappointment” doesn’t even begin to describe most fans’ experience in such a situation.
Recorded in a few days in the summer of 1971, the album is a mix of half-baked originals (“Dear Friend,” “Tomorrow”), a pointless cover (“Love Is Strange”) and repetitions of songs (“Mumbo,” “Bip Bop”) that didn’t work the first time. Let alone the second time.
“McCartney copes with his own fluff. The overproduction sounds less cluttered this time. But it’s still fluff,” wrote Robert Christgau. “And not even goosebumps. Maybe the thrill of leading his own band distracted him.”
It didn’t take long for Wings to figure out their strengths and give the world “Band on the Run,” but they got off to an extremely shaky start on “Wild Life.”