Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you're doing well because we may be in for a rough one today as we have a list.

A list, a list, a list, a list, a list, a list, a list, a list, a list from none other than music publication extraordinaire, Rolling Stone, who have compiled 50 of the most disappointing album releases of all time. I believe I may have an opinion or two on such things, and I'm interested to see how much Rolling Stone and I line up on this.

Frankly, over the years, there have been some album releases that I think the public has been a bit too harsh on, maybe because they were ahead of the curve or a bit too weird or experimental. Meanwhile, there are other albums that, to my ears, hit like a wet goddamn noodle upon impact, and yet everybody freaking loves them. So again, let's go through this list, see how much we're lining up with Rolling Stone. My hopes for this list are high, and Rolling Stone is correct right here in the opening sentence of the blurb. Hot Streaks can't last forever. No artist just drops heat until the end of time.

Plus, as we've come to learn as music fans studying the history of the music industry and the discographies and creative trajectories of various artists, there are usually a lot of outside factors impacting impacting, whether or not a new album from a band is good or not. Was there a lineup change? Was the budget there? Were there any personal problems going on? Lots of different issues can impact the quality of an album at the end of the day. I'm curious to see how many famous duds end up on this list. Let's hit it.

Scrolling down, we are starting off strong. Chance the Rapper, The Big Day. Yeah, this was most definitely one of the biggest disappointments of all time for highly anticipated album releases in the hip hop sphere. So disappointing that Chance the Rapper's career has just slowed down to a grinding halt. Where's that damn mixtape he's been teasing?

It's just crazy because at one point, Chance the Rapper was easily one of the most beloved modern hip hop artists, and this record completely turned the tide against him, and you really just can't find many Chance the Rapper fans anymore. Maybe there are some people who are showcasing some warm or sentimental feelings toward tapes like Acid Rap, but there are not a lot of current-day Chance the Rapper fans. I think a lot of it comes down to this freaking album right here.

Following that, 49. Radiohead. Yes, this was a disappointing album. And while that was very clear upon release originally, in the basement tapes performance version of this record is so much better than the original. In the year since this album has come out, a lot of people have gaslit themselves into believing it's better than it actually is and that we were too harsh on it when it originally came out. No, we not. This is a weak record. It's one of Radiohead's weakest albums, point blank, period. Let's not force the narrative on this album to be anything other than what it needs to be. Forget about it. There are better Radiohead albums. Let's move on.

Wings, Wildlife. I mean, I feel like if this album disappointed you, that's a you problem, because as good and as amazing as Paul McCartney is as a singer, as a songwriter, when it comes to a Wings album, I just don't think your expectations should be or should have ever been that high. It's more the exception than the rule that side projects and spinoff bands are good. So again, I just don't think you should have been setting your sights that high.

Okay. LL Cool J. Bad. Yeah, frankly, I'm not vibing with this one. Maybe you could argue bad as a sophomore slump in comparison with LL's debut, but it's still not that bad of an album. And certainly, there were bigger dips in his career than from radio to this, creatively and commercially. This feels like they're throwing something in, just throw it in there.

Oasis, Be Here Now. Artistically speaking, yeah, sure. I suppose you could argue this was the beginning of the end of the band, musically speaking.

Okay, guys, do we have some more recent disappointments on here? Because, again, I get it in the greater context of Aerosmith's career, was this the first major dip in quality? Sure, you could argue that. But was Aerosmith that amazing of a band to begin with? Were they ever at a Led Zeppelin level? No. So a creative dip for Aerosmith is really just relative at the end of the day. Really goofy ass album cover, though. We can say that.

Okay, damn. Really? I actually did end up loving this album when Kanye really finally came down to fixing the mixes and properly grooming the album. It's still a very chaotic work, mind you, but an enjoyably chaotic work at that. But with that being said, I think it is true

The Life of Pablo does mark the beginning of an era in Kanye's career where he just clearly stopped giving a shit about how his albums sounded when they initially came out. And he figured that whatever issues or problems or changes of heart come up in the wake of releasing an album, he can just alter it later down the road and it'll be fine. And that's how we essentially end up at a point now where we're at Vultures 2, and Kanye is essentially just releasing pure and utter garbage, just total unfinished trash, and he doesn't even think twice about it.

Okay, this is a hilarious inclusion because this is definitely not the first crappy U2 album. But also, I feel like if this record hadn't been forced onto our iPhones, if anybody remembers that bullshit, yeah, if this album hadn't been forced onto our iPhone in the way that it was, I think it mostly would have just flown under the radar.

The reason that it has such a negative reception with many people is because of that horrendous memory.

Okay, Meat Loaf at 40, Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose. I feel like in order to have high hopes for Bat Out of Hell III, you would have had to have enjoyed Bat Out of Hell II, which also was a pretty prominent dip in quality from Bat Out of Hell, but yeah, this is not good.

The sophomore Sugarcubes album at 38. Yeah, this is a bit confusing because not only is it not that much worse than the Sugarcubes debut. But for the most part, in the grander scheme of alternative music history, the Sugarcubes are mostly seen as just a place for Bjork to have started her career, eventually launching it into the amazing solo trajectory that we know her for having accomplished today. So again, this just seems like filler in the list.

Yeah, this Devo album was not good, and I'm a huge frigging Devo fan.

Black Sabbath, Technical Ecstasy at 34. Okay, I don't disagree with this. That transitional era between Heaven and Hell Sabbath, and a Sabotage Sabbath, is most definitely freaking rough. This could have even been higher. What an awful album cover, too.

Peter Frampton. Really? I don't think anybody with any good sense would have been expecting Peter to really smash it on I'm In You, honestly. Just really, really, though.

MGMT, Congratulations. No. This album has become so beloved in the years since it's been released. I loved it on impact, and frankly, I thought the very cold public reception toward the album, sucked and was reflective of the audience's lack of imagination. And MGMT has, I would say, even a track record and history of dropping records that people tend to appreciate with time.

Their latest album, despite so many fantastic tracks on it, was seen as underwhelming by many. Little Dark Age took time to hit as well and has multiple tracks on it now, which are incredibly popular in the TikTok sphere. Congratulations was not disappointing. The audience was on this one. I'm saying that.

One Hot Minute, Red Hot Chili Peppers. I mean, this album's got some bangers on it. It's less annoying than Californication. I'll say it, Californication is substantially more annoying than this album.

Pink Floyd, The Final Cut, that's obvious.

Van Halen, Balance. Why would you be expecting a 1995 Van Halen album to be great to begin with? The only truly good or great Van Halen albums are the debut, 1984, and that's it. The Van Halen catalog, generally, is way more misses than hits.

What the fuck? I'm blown away by this album cover because this came out in '86, and yet it looks like frigging CGI from 2002. What is this? Some weird animorphs, snake/lion/human hybrid. What the fuck? I honestly didn't need to know this John Fogerty album existed.

Who's anticipating a 1996 Monkees album? Obviously, that's going to suck. Just being real. I would go back in time and bet my entire life savings on a 1996 Monkees album sucking. Again, you have to have expectations to be disappointed in the first place.

Yeah, a Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead album was never going to be good. News flash.

The Stone Roses, Second Coming should have been better than it actually was. I will give Rolling Stone this.

No. No. I'm sorry, but Patti Smith's second record, Radio Ethiopia, rocks. This is one of the better art punk and protopunk records out there. I don't get why this is on the fucking list. I mean, sure, you could argue that Horses overshadows it, but Horses overshadows a lot of albums. It's considered one of the greatest records of the '70s. Just because radio Ethiopia isn't quite on that level doesn't mean it's a disappointment.

God, who approved this Duran Duran album cover? This is definitely one of those moments where the music industry should have stepped in and been like, 'Guys, sorry, can't do this. Nobody's going to know what the fuck this album is.'

Well, as disappointing as A Single Man is, you have to at least give it to Elton John, he wasn't lying with the album title on the cover. He is but a single man with some slay-ass boots on. I'll say that.

God, is there nothing recent on this goddamn list? Like, no 2000s disappointments, no 2010s disappointments. Do we need to be this stuck in the past? Shocker, yes, the album cover with Blondie's worst hairstyle ever was not that good.

Yeah, AC/DC really should have gone back to the fucking drawing board with, literally, the drawing board with this album art that some high schooler drew on their composition notebook.

Michael Jackson, Invincible. Yeah, nobody had high hopes for this record, I'm going to be honest. This really was not Mike's era, nor was it the era of a lot of pop artists who hit it big in the '80s.

Was this record as good as Close to the Edge? No, but I feel like you could make the argument that Yes's late '70s or '80s output was far more disappointing to fans. So why are we're going out of our way to bully Tales From Topographic Cceans? I don't know.

Okay, this Stevie Wonder inclusion just feels forced to me that you've got to dig this deep into the Stevie Wonder discography to, I don't know, find an album that's disappointing or not appealing super widely. It's a weird-ass soundtrack with a bunch of new age bits and ambient bits in there. It's not really seen as a core Stevie Wonder work. Not only that, but Stevie has '80s output that's not that great. So, why the hell are we pulling on this record for a top 10 spot on the list?

I'm actually surprised that Rolling Stone is daring to say anything even slightly negative about Smiley Smile, that Beach Boys era. I mean, personally, I don't get a whole lot of gratification out of it. I feel like it's messy. It's a little all over the place, as the first blurb describes. It's a "charmingly odd low-fi experiment that somehow stands out as one of the best Beach Boys albums in their vast catalog."

There are some silly and fun tracks that I feel like came out of this record. But yeah, I agree with the sentiment that it's definitely a step down from Pet Sounds. It's just funny because there are a lot of Beach Boys fans who will defend this album with their lives. They will take a bullet. They will take a whole clip of bullets for this album, for the Smile sessions, the demos, everything. Very gutsy of Rolling Stone to be as critical of Smiley Smile as they are here, putting it on this list.

Eh, not a bad inclusion on this list. Transitioning out of the '80s, it was definitely not prime time for Bruce Springsteen.

Oh, yeah. Chinese Democracy is trash.

Tonight by David Bowie, I suppose you could say that. I mean, there was also Pin Ups earlier in his career. As great and as ground-breaking as David Bowie was, his catalog is not perfect.

Bob Dylan's Self Portrait is really not a good record of his. It's pretty much a mess in comparison with the other albums surrounding it. It's definitely a step down in quality. I don't disagree with this inclusion.

At number two, Their Satanic Majesties Request from The Rolling Stones. I don't know if I agree with this one, honestly. I feel like there are much bigger dips in quality in the Stones' discography deeper into their catalog. Sure, you could say the music and the cover are definitely like, try hard, but I don't know. I feel like this inclusion is a little forced.

Damn, John Lennon, Some Time in New York City. I don't know. I mean, disappointing. I feel like by this point, John had established how weird and how not commercial his solo career was going to be. Keep in mind, Wedding Album also dropped before this record. But with that being said, there are tracks on this record, especially the fucking opener, which we've even blurred some of this cover out for that reason.

Yeah, there are some tracks on this album that have aged horrendously. But I don't know about being disappointed by this album, because by this time, I feel like John had established himself as being an artist who was going to, in many cases, prioritize message over music and rawness over commercial studio-level production, even if an album such as Imagine proceeds this one. Again, I feel like at this point it was already clear on some level that John Lennon was going to be on some weird out there unpredictable shit. Putting this on this list in the top 10, specifically at number one, is just getting down on Lennon for that.

Kind of a mid-list, unfortunately. Very mid-list. Wish there were more recent inclusions in here, but honestly, I feel like all that does is put me in a position where I feel like I should make a Most Disappointing Albums of the 2010s list. I actually think that would be genuinely fun.

So I think I'm going to do that. I think I'm going to do that. Let me know what you guys thought of this list. What are some of the most disappointing album releases of all time to you? Let me know in the comments. I'm sure you will. You're the best.

Anthony Fantano. Disappointing Albums. Forever.