Recommendations of the Editorial team
The most disappointing albums of all time (14): Neil Young – “Hawks & Doves”
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 from an incredibly talented artist such as Radiohead or U2 be considered a masterpiece 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 (14): Neil Young – “Hawks & Doves”
Between the first album by Buffalo Springfield in 1967 and “Rust Never Sleep” S in 1979 Neil Young had one of the biggest phases of lasting brilliance in the history of rock. And then the eighties came.
It is a little unfair to criticize Young for his work at the beginning of the decade when you consider that he spent most of the time to take care of his son Ben, who was born with cerebral palsy.
The most disappointing albums of all time (14): Neil Young – “Hawks & Doves”
This explains why he knocked “Hawks & Doves” together within a few days and was strongly based on outtakes from the seventies. These are these songs (“Little Wing”, “Captain Kennedy”, “This Old Homestead”, “Lost in Space”) that prevent “Hawks & Doves” from becoming a total fiasco.
But the originals on page two are not only lifeless, they are also strangely conservative and chauvinistic and reflect his short support for Ronald Reagan. The album came onto the market days before the election in 1980 and was immediately forgotten.