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Post by Kapitan on Jun 11, 2021 15:16:46 GMT
This topic/exercise has been really fun in the Beach Boys section, so I thought maybe we could do the same with other groups' albums, singles, etc. I think there are plenty of major bands that enough people here are roughly familiar with to make it worthwhile, and we can always move on from group to group easily enough.
How about Led Zeppelin albums? I would argue:
Last Great: In Through the Out Door Last Good: Coda First Bad: n/a (If I had to pick a least good, I'd pick Presence or I, probably. But I think they're both quite good.)
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Post by kds on Jun 11, 2021 16:48:41 GMT
Here's my Led Zeppelin picks
Last Great: Physical Graffiti Last Good: In Through the Out Door First Bad: Coda (it's not a bad album, per se, but by LZ standards, it's the only one I feel fits)
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Post by kds on Jun 11, 2021 17:29:36 GMT
I'm going to rate my favorite band, Pink Floyd. For this exercise, I have to remove my fan cap for a moment. I love, LOVE, The Division Bell. It might actually be my favorite album, by any artist, of the 1990s. It's a 1990s album that IMO actually warrants a 60+ minute runtime. But, it is a truly "great" album? That's probably debatable. But for the purpose of this exercise, I'll lean more towards personal favorite than great.
Last Great: The Wall Last Good: The Division Bell First Bad: More
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Post by jk on Jun 11, 2021 22:30:49 GMT
PF aren't my favourite band, although they came close during their Piper days...
- Last great: regrettably perhaps, their debut - Last good: Wish You Were Here - First bad: probably Atom Heart Mother
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2021 1:05:50 GMT
Switching back to Zeppelin, which I've owned all the albums, first on vinyl, then on first run CD, then on 90s remastered CD's, so I think I can make a fair entry.
Last Great--Houses of the Holy. Their last album I feel is top notch all the way through. The only underwhelming track of course is "The Crunge" but I've always been able to see it as the goof it is, and I can live with it. Highlights of this album: everything else.
Last Good--In Through the Out Door. I would love to say this is a great album, but I find it too uneven to consider it so. It contains great songs like "Fool in the Rain", "All My Love", and "In the Evening". It contains good songs like "Carouselambra" (which I like the different sections of, but the vocal is pretty much buried throughout, and the instrumentation is a little too disco-y for me), and "I'm Gonna Crawl" (I love a good blues tune, but this one is wayyyy too overproduced for me to fully enjoy). The rest of the songs are meh to me. Hot dog!
First Bad--Presence. With the exception of "Achilles Last Stand" I've always found this album very boring. "Nobody's Fault But Mine" has potential but it is too long and repetitious for my liking.
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Post by B.E. on Jun 12, 2021 6:18:59 GMT
Regrettably, I haven't listened to Led Zeppelin since we went through their catalog a while back...
Last Great: Physical Graffiti. It's my favorite album of theirs.
Last Good: In Through The Out Door. I agree entirely with sockit's criticisms of "Carouselambra". Like a carousel, it gives me an uncomfortable, dizzying feeling. I'm also a bit underwhelmed by the opener "In The Evening" - which is something of a quirk of mine, as I'm also not a big fan of openers/fan favorites such as "Achilles Last Stand", "The Song Remains The Same", or, even, "Whole Lotta Love". Otherwise, a very strong album highlighted by "Fool in the Rain" and "All My Love". "Hot Dog" might actually be my next favorite.
First Bad: Presence. This is kind of MIU territory for me as I don't dislike the album, and I'm tempted to take the easy way out and go with "n/a" (or in the BBs case "SIP"), but Presence does represent their first truly subpar album, IMO. Along with Coda, I'd rate 'em only about a '6'.
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Post by kds on Jun 13, 2021 0:44:59 GMT
Queen
Last Great: Jazz. I was going to go with A Day at the Races, but a recent listen to Jazz swayed me that way. Nothing against their 80s and 90s material, but they were never this consistently great again.
Last Good: Innuendo. Very strong album, but just enough fluff to keep it from greatness. (Delilah, anyone?).
First Bad: Flash Gordon. Other than the title song and The Hero, this is utterly disposable. Including film dialog with the music doesn't help.
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Post by Kapitan on Jun 13, 2021 11:37:40 GMT
Similar answers for Queen.
Last Great - The Game Last Good - Innuendo First Bad - Flash Gordon
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Post by kds on Jun 17, 2021 14:51:42 GMT
Deep Purple
Last Great - Perfect Strangers (1984) - I was tempted to go as far back as Burn, but I think this is a helluva reunion album.
Last Good - Now What? (2013) - I think Infinite (2017) and Whoosh (2017) each have some good songs, but I'm feeling like I like them a little less on each listen, where as I feel the exact opposite about Now What?
First Bad - Deep Purple S/T (1969) - Bad might be stretch, but they'd taken their "UK version of Vanilla Fudge" thing as far as they could go by this point.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2021 0:16:18 GMT
The Who
Last Great: Quadraphenia. I really had to think about this, because it's challenging to consider what exactly would constitute "great" in the Who catalogue. There were a lot of ups and downs all through their career. Much of their "good" material would be "great" by many other bands' standards, IMO. And yet there is a fair share of Who music that does nothing for me. I wouldn't call it "bad", just not for me. Even though I don't revere it as much as Tommy, Quad has many moments of greatness, particularly in the songs. The story and concept are pretty good, but again, not as dynamic to me as Tommy. So, what about Who By Numbers and Who Are You? Not "great" albums in my book. A few great songs, but lots of "not for me" material.
Last Good: WHO (2019). A surprisingly solid, good sounding album, especially after the disappointing Endless Wire (see below). It's almost great, as I feel it surpasses their previous three or four studio albums. I was hooked on the first listen.
First Bad: Endless Wire. I wasn't anxiously awaiting the release of this album or anything, but I did purchase it after hearing "It's Not Enough" on the radio a number of times. I was disappointed to find it was the only really good song on the album. The rest just didn't do anything for me. Roger wasn't in the best of voices, and the instrumentation was nothing special. Very uninspiring. I'll sit through any other Who album, but you can have Endless Wire.
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Post by kds on Jun 18, 2021 13:13:52 GMT
Good one
Last Great - Quadrophenia - Peak Who. They would never be better.
Last Good - WHO - The closing Wire and Glass Suite on Endless Wire sounded very much like a farewell, but lucky for Who fans, that was not the case. Dare I say, best album since By Numbers.
First Bad - It's Hard - A very aptly named album as it's hard to listen to at times. By this point, Pete was more focused on a solo career. Its got its highlights, but thankfully this would not prove to be their swan song.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2021 0:37:42 GMT
Good one Last Great - Quadrophenia - Peak Who. They would never be better. Last Good - WHO - The closing Wire and Glass Suite on Endless Wire sounded very much like a farewell, but lucky for Who fans, that was not the case. Dare I say, best album since By Numbers. First Bad - It's Hard - A very aptly named album as it's hard to listen to at times. By this point, Pete was more focused on a solo career. Its got its highlights, but thankfully this would not prove to be their swan song. kds, I mostly agree with you, except I never felt like It's Hard was a bad album; just a bit boring. I don't feel like it was any better or worse than Face Dances. I can endure either. But your description is exactly how I feel about Endless Wire. It sounds like a Townshend solo album.
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Post by kds on Jun 19, 2021 1:13:16 GMT
Good one Last Great - Quadrophenia - Peak Who. They would never be better. Last Good - WHO - The closing Wire and Glass Suite on Endless Wire sounded very much like a farewell, but lucky for Who fans, that was not the case. Dare I say, best album since By Numbers. First Bad - It's Hard - A very aptly named album as it's hard to listen to at times. By this point, Pete was more focused on a solo career. Its got its highlights, but thankfully this would not prove to be their swan song. kds, I mostly agree with you, except I never felt like It's Hard was a bad album; just a bit boring. I don't feel like it was any better or worse than Face Dances. I can endure either. But your description is exactly how I feel about Endless Wire. It sounds like a Townshend solo album. I actually really enjoy Endless Wire. I've grown to appreciate Face Dances in recent years. I really can't say that about It's Hard.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2021 1:18:21 GMT
kds , I mostly agree with you, except I never felt like It's Hard was a bad album; just a bit boring. I don't feel like it was any better or worse than Face Dances. I can endure either. But your description is exactly how I feel about Endless Wire. It sounds like a Townshend solo album. I actually really enjoy Endless Wire. I've grown to appreciate Face Dances in recent years. I really can't say that about It's Hard. I have both WB albums on vinyl, so they only get occasional listens.
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Post by kds on Jun 19, 2021 1:22:30 GMT
I actually really enjoy Endless Wire. I've grown to appreciate Face Dances in recent years. I really can't say that about It's Hard. I have both WB albums on vinyl, so they only get occasional listens. I'd been playing the two post Moon albums on Spotify a bit lately.
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