I only half like it, but the half I like is really freaking good
 

Anyone else have this: Albums you love, that when you think about it are pretty hit or miss from track to track, but the good tracks are so good that you rate the album pretty highly anyway? I thought of this today while I was listening to Hell's Winter by Cage, realizing that, even though I skipped over a lot of tracks, the ones I listened to I really, really like (such as "Good Morning", "Grand 'ol Party Crash", "Stripes", "Perfect World", "Lord Have Mercy" and "Hell's Winter"). Walk Among Us by the Misfits is another I'd put in this category. I love this album, but really it's just "I Turned into a Martian", "All Hell Breaks Loose", "Hatebreeders", "Night of the Living Dead", "Skulls" and "Astro Zombies" that I love. The rest of the album is a little meh to me, but those songs are so god damn great that it's still a beloved album for me.

The Slow Motion World of Snowpony. I picked it up in a cut out bin, I like the cover, didn't really know the band. When I first the played it I found I love the first few tracks, but I then the last tracks I didn't really get into. I don't know if I ever played it all the way through since the first time I played it.

The second half of Satanic Panic in the Attic is unremarkable, but the first half is some of Of Montreal's best work.

Always a shame, I find, when I feel like that.

http://178.73.198.211/images/greates...albums/155.jpg



Side one if stood alone would make a short list of the best albums ever made. However, the only song I like on side two is "Mystery Achievement". Yes that includes "Brass In Pocket". I always thought that song was kinda bleah compared to blistering tracks such as "Precious" and "Tattooed Love Boys".

I agree completely.

I find this is the case with all the later Mars Volta albums...Meccamputecture and the Bedlam in Goliath both start off really strong and then by the end of it, I just don't care. I also feel this way about early Pink Floyd...Meddle is really a crap album, but Echoes is so freaking good that I definitely rank the album highly. I guess the fact that it's over 20 minutes kind of makes up for it.

The first album that popped into my head when I saw the thread title was:

http://www.flowmi.com/wp-content/upl...8/07/neu-2.jpg

The four songs on side one are really, really good, up there with the best stuff on NEU! and NEU! 75. But the second side of this album is incredibly frustrating to listen to. What I understand is that they had run out of money to finish the album and so they decided to fill the second half with tape experiments and remixes of existing songs. The results are less than impressive.

I'm going to be kicked for this but for me a lot of 80s Bowie stuff falls into this category. So much that is good, but also a lot that is really unremarkable and generic 80s. I'm a Bowie fan and I wish I could get more into some of said unremarkable stuff... but I can't.


Walk Among Us is all good to me. Some songs are more memorable than others but most of them fit well in context. Astro Zombies is probably the only one I dislike.

Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road". Starts off with a punch to the guts, continues on for all of side one, then side two wimps out and ends up pinching your arm and telling you you're not a nice person. Batlord knows what I mean. Such a dichotomy in one album. And it has such a badass cover too: first thing that attracted me to it!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rhead_road.jpg

Black Flag's My War would be a perfect example of this.

First half of the album is amazing, the second half is like Chinese water torture.

Combat Rock by The Clash. It would have made an excellent EP with side one, exchanging Red Angel Dragnet for Overpowered By Funk.

Two albums that come to mind as I listened to them recently.

Atoms For Peace Amok. This album builds slow for me. Starting with track 5, "Unless" through the final track, "Amok" is pure joy. But I have yet to cozy up to the first four songs. Well, I'm liking "Dropped" more than I have before now but still...

An oldie but favorite: Elton John's Madman Across the Water. Really love his early '70s stuff. Side 1 is brilliant: "Levon", "Tiny Dancer", "Razor Face" and the title track. But every time I try to get into side 2 I can't, except maybe for "Rotten Peaches".

Funny, I feel the exact opposite about Amok.

The Wall by Pink Floyd has like, six good tracks, and the rest of it is crap.

I also get the same feeling after seeing this thread and was looking for if someone has already posted this or not and here I got it. Our choices are very similar and I hope so.

I feel this way about ELP's Tarkus. Side A with the title track, brilliant stuff! Side B .. not so much. At best, side B is good but not very much so. At worst it is atrocious.

I thought Amputechture was a fantastic record straight through, but I agree with Bedlam in Goliath. It gets stale after the first five tracks.

Forgive me for quoting myself, from the ELP thread in the Prog section

Haha, yeah .. Seems we pretty much agree :p:

Black Sabbath's debut is an obvious one. Side one is the best thing they ever did and makes it my fav Sabbath album all by itself, but side two is just a big sack of meh. I don't know who told them they knew how to jam, but that person is obviously a pathological liar.

God yes. I can only assume that the record label told him he had to fill the B-Side with B-Rate ballads.

I feel this way about "Appetite
for destruction" by guns n' roses.
I thought the album had a lot of
potential and guts. Unfortunately
also too much generic 80's commercial
metal.

I'd take Sleeping Village, Wicked World & Warning over that tiresome dirge of a title track any day of the week.

http://www.progarchives.com/progress...4419102008.jpg


Actually I like even less than half of it, but what IS good is transcendent

U2 - The Joshua Tree.
Hate the first 3 tracks (their big hit singles) and then Bullet The Blue Sky kicks in and it's like yes this is damn good and then it dips again before Trip Through Your Wires and Exit really get me again.
Every QOTSA album.
Every Faithless album.
Moby - Play.
The last half of the album really dips in terms of energy although there are some good tracks. If the running order was tweaked to include the down tempo stuff earlier I would rate it so much more.
Arcade Fire - Funeral.
Neighbourhood No. 3 and Haiti are brilliant tracks but the rest of the album is meh for me.

I agree for the most part, but I think Songs For The Deaf is all great. Not much that strikes me as filler on there.

I used to feel the same, it's definitely a grower, and it doesn't grow very fast. But after many a listen, it's one of my favorites.

Well I bought the album 18 years ago, the rest of the album hasn't grown on me at all. I feel the same way about DV in 2013 as I did in 1995. I'm glad the rest of the album clicked for you, it never did for me. For the life of me I can't imagine playing "The Bends" on purpose.

It's a good party song.

Well, if it's any consolation, the three that I posted utterly blew me away in 1995 and continue to do so to this day

You don't like this?



That's honestly my favorite on the album.

Well, again, I'm glad you like it. You'll have to take my word for it, I've owned the album for 18 years and I really only listen to the 3 I posted.

I couldn't agree more with that. I think Deloused in the Comatorium is the best album I've ever heard in my life but after Frances it just got hit and miss. There were some great tracks thrown in there but something was just missing. It was like the sporadic mess of awesome I loved was replaced with an entire different sporadic mess.

I always preferred California to Disco Volante. I find Patton is at his experimental best with Fantamos.

Heart - Bad Animals. The first side has the four singles, which are all at least decent. The second side seems to be filler, although I admit I've spent little or no time listening to it.

I might edit this message later, if I think of other feast-or-famine albums.

Everything Must Go by the Manics. A Design For Life Australia, Kevin Carter, Interiors and No Surface All Feeling are awesome, Further Away is one of my favourite songs ever. About the other half of it I've always found pretty 'eh'.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...n_Space-cd.jpg


This album is basically the ultimate example of "I only like half, but the half I like is incredible" for me. The opener, Broken Heart, Cop Shoot Cop... are all nearly flawless tracks, but the rest of the album is relatively uninteresting to me.