Recommendations of the Editorial team
The Most Disappointing Albums of All Time (26): Rod Stewart – “Smiler”
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.)
The Most Disappointing Albums of All Time (26): Rod Stewart – “Smiler”
Rod Stewart has released so much mediocre work over the years that it’s easy to forget that his first four solo albums (“An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down,” “Gasoline Alley,” “Every Picture Tells a Story,” “Never a Dull Moment”) were all undeniably brilliant.
And if you factor in his work in the Faces at the same time, you could assume that any new Rod release you bought at the record store would be on the level of the previous releases.
Rod Stewart – “Let Me Be Your Car”:
The Most Disappointing Albums of All Time (26): Rod Stewart – “Smiler”
That expectation ended forever with the release of Smiler in 1974. With the sole exceptions of a tender cover of Bob Dylan’s “Girl From the North Country” and a rollicking rendition of “Sweet Little Rock and Roller,” nothing works on Smiler.
The low point is a cover of the Elton John super deep cut “Let Me Be Your Car,” which is just as stupid as it sounds. Not to mention his decision to rework Carole King’s “(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman” into “(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Man.”
Stewart would release far worse albums than Smiler over the course of his long career, but never one as disappointing.