Have you got any songs that you love, that are in your opinion, spoiled by a certain element contained within?

Say for example you might love Baker Street, the smooth voice, the Deirdre glasses, the whole beard thing, but when the saxophone 🎷 operator goes off on one in the middle, it makes your toes curl and want to turn it off.

Or maybe you like a bitta Dire Straits, Money for Nothing but when that annoying teacher from the North East comes along, you just wish they’d never asked him?

For me, it has to be Slint, and their song Good Morning Captain. Love the song. Love the slow and lo-fi heavy rhythm to it, the darkness of it. But then, at about 6.45 (it’s a long song), he starts screeching and screaming his head off. I know it’s meant to be some sort of crescendo, but for me, it taints an otherwise brilliant song. I just don’t like listening to shouting any more I suppose 😀

What songs have been knackered for you?

Yep. And with you on Baker St.

For me, whilst it doesnt ultimately spoil the track, the excessive keyboard solo during “Do It Again” by Steely Dan, annoys me. There is just no need for it, excessive and embellished, annoying.

anything by guns n roses is fine until axl starts opening his trap.

toto africa fine until they force serengetti into the lyrics.

Actually, I generally dislike solos of any kind in songs. Bleurgh! 🎸

Think that’s why I gravitated towards hardcore punk in my youth, over say metal.

The whole of that Valerie ‘cover’ by Amy Whingehouse. It’s not as good as the original and irks me that people think it is the original!!

New Order’s world in motion, and yes, the rap section.

I haven’t got anything to add other than you’re all wrong about Baker Street.

toto africa fine until they force serengetti into the lyrics.

Surely the worst lyric in the history of popular music.

Songs are quite often spoiled by a sloppy solo.

Yeah,love the song but at first I hated got annoyed with the 1 minute intro.
I am ok with it now though.

Can’t for the life of me fathom the love of Michael Kiwanuka… he’s just so ordinary. Or.. is that what it is??

Anyway, on topic..
Any song which contains a lyric about the song itself bugs me. eg. “Why do I find it hard to write the next line” — but that’s ok, cos I hate the whole song. But when it comes to LCD Soundsystem “You wanted a hit” I cringe a bit, but still love it. There are others, but the actual songs escape me at the mo.

The screaming on Good Marning Captain is marvellous btw 🙂

Ed She-ran

Love? Nope.

Lots of Hate though.

🤷‍♂️

The whole of that Valerie ‘cover’ by Amy Whingehouse. It’s not as good as the original and irks me that people think it is the original!!

Never a truer word said. Any song where the original is way superior but the cover is regarded higher because the performer is trendier right at that moment. Old drunky’s version is all the worse that she couldn’t even turn up for the video and we had Mark “hey, why can’t producers be famous too” Ronson feature instead to grin like a weirdo all through the video because he once bought a “Best of Motown” album and wants to make everything sound the same

……and relax

Shoehorning in rap to an Ed Sheeran style song is overly used now. I can’t imagine the ginge midget having much connection with the streets

Can’t for the life of me fathom the love of Michael Kiwanuka… he’s just so ordinary easy listening. Or.. is that what it is??

Will ask me uver half,she’s taking me with her to see him in March 😉

The intros to most ACDC songs are OK (admittedly it’s dull MOTR shite for people who don’t like music, but that’s for another discussion I guess) but as soon as Brian Johnson starts “singing” (and here I’m being generous with the definition of singing) it can **** right off.

Also see Layla, the first half is barely tolerable, but the piano coda on the end feels like another song stitched on, like Clapton was on piece rate so the longer the song the more he was paid. utter shite

…and relax

Ooh, how much abuse would I get if I’d written that??! C’mon people Darthpunk has a strong music opinion.. ATTACK!
(Totally agree btw 😀 )

Ray Parker Jnr, Ghostbusters. Makes me cringe when he does that ultra-camp “I hear it likes the girls”. Just no need.

The Serengeti line isn’t the worst, Razorlight did worse

“I met a girl, she asked me my name… I told her what it was”

new levels of meaningless there

Back in my clubbing days I used to hate the way they felt the need to add a vocal to house tracks before releasing them on general sale, for example Spiller’s Groovejet having Sophie Ellis Bextor added to it.

Antony & The Johnsons – Hope There’s Someone

Love the vocal, love the first half, hate the waffly waily bit that takes up just under half of the track – from about 2:30 to about 4:00.

We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,

CLANG just awful and wrecks a great song.

Not really a song, but “A Man Needs A Maid” always slightly ruins Neil Young’s Harvest for me.

Its otherwise a great record, but I can’t get along with “A Man Needs A Maid”, I just find it totally overblown and kind of at odds with the rest of the album. I may be in the minority on this one though.

When listening to Kyuss I’m always 50:50 on John Garcia’s vocals. Part of me wishes they’d been an instrumental band. Heresy again, probably.

The lack of bass on ‘And Justice For All’.
Ruins a decent record.

80’s glossy production on pretty much anything.

The chorus on Prefab Sprout’s King Of Rock And Roll.

And yes, Waxl’s voice………..

Nick Turner’s screaming on the single version of Silver Machine.

Excessive House piano.

Syn drums or bass played on keyboards.

The Stock, Aitken and Waterman house sound.

The terrible, flat production on the first Band album.

A lot of the production on later Zappa albums – a scratchy, over trebley mess.

Kiwunuka is great, can’t wait to listen to his new album. That cold little heart live session on YouTube is pink Floyd tastic

What about ‘for your love’ by the yardbirds. Great verse with lovely minor/diminished chords then cheese fest Mickie most/Freddie and the dreamers chorus

I love Freddie Mercury , hate Brian May’s guitar noodling .

When listening to Kyuss I’m always 50:50 on John Garcia’s vocals. Part of me wishes they’d been an instrumental band. Heresy again, probably.

Even One Inch Man? Other than that I get where you’re coming from.

A lot of Stone Temple Pilots songs have a shite chorus or verse followed by a really catchy chorus or verse. See Art School Girlfriend as an example. It makes the good bits better though as you’re looking forward to the bad bit stopping.

Don’t fear the reaper

Fear the shite bit in the middle.

Antony & The Johnsons – Hope There’s Someone

Good call on the twiddly bit.

but when the saxophone 🎷 operator goes off on one in the middle,

You leave Bob Holness alone – he was trying his best. 🙂

I quite like all of bakerstreet

The much maligned middle 8. Eight bars (not always Fibonacci and all that) of genius or a crowbarred in train wreck.

The Smiths’ oeuvre is awesome, apart from that Morrissey arsehole’s sense of melody.

Tho for my money the very worst lyric ever (in a *popular* song) is the Police’s Don’t Stand So Close To Me –

“it’s no use, he sees her; he starts to shake and cough

Just like the old man in that famous book by Nabokov”

Ugh.

The worst lyric of all time, though, (IMHO, natch) is in a less popular song – Stranger by the Minute by Porcupine Tree:

“A few minutes with me inside my van
Should be so beautiful if we can”

It’s almost pristine in its majestic hideousness.

That line in no small part opened my eyes to how execrable the rest of their lyrics are – I can’t listen to the band at all now!

For me, it has to be Slint, and their song Good Morning Captain.

Utter perfection as it is. The heartfelt ending to an amazingly emotional album. Without the cries at the end, it would have had less impact, and might not have changed the world of music in the way it has. And I’m not exaggerating for effect (much).

Edit: it is annoying in that demo version you posted though.

Back in my clubbing days I used to hate the way they felt the need to add a vocal to house tracks before releasing them on general sale, for example Spiller’s Groovejet having Sophie Ellis Bextor added to it.

The 90’s was a bad decade for that. There’s almost too many to name. Cringe worthy out of place rap sections and/or atrocious vocals, out of key/tune/time/ridiculously repitched. And then you get some production and performance experiments/errors that worked and became a sound/trend!

Phoned-in and dubbed-on rap sections in 90s pop songs were annoying then, and unbearable to listen to now. For some reason, Pet Shop Boys, having avoided this horror in the 90s, decided to have a go at it when creating a 90s style song a few years ago…

Shame on them.

Not really a song, but “A Man Needs A Maid” always slightly ruins Neil Young’s Harvest for me.

Its otherwise a great record, but I can’t get along with “A Man Needs A Maid”, I just find it totally overblown and kind of at odds with the rest of the album. I may be in the minority on this one though.

I’m with you on this one too. It’s an utterly depressing dirge in the middle of an otherwise perfect album.

A lot of the production on later Zappa albums – a scratchy, over trebley mess.

Crikey. Which ones?

@Kelvin – oooff horrible shame indeed.

They were a hangover from the 80’s in the 90’s. So trying the same shit again won’t wash this time round either. The face of audience confusion in the video priceless!

West End Girls was peak PSB.

Manics – great tunes, spoilt by 6th-form student union level lyrics and a singer who equates emotion with shouting.
G’n’R – average AOR music, ruined by Waxel’s strangled caterwauling.
Toto – Africa – Serengeti 😖
Sugarcubes – great band, spoilt by the shouty bloke barging in at random moments.
Madge’s execrable version of American Pie – bloody awful.

West End Girls was peak PSB.

Nah, I prefer their work this century. I even like that song… although I had to make a version without that rap so that I can listen to it without screaming.