Most overrated album of all time

This is mine:

What is yours?

Anything by Pink Floyd

Any prog rock album.

anything championed by NME

Tubular Bells

Good call Surf Mat – probably number 2 in my list

Music is so subjective though, it's like saying "What colour don't you like".

I wonder about people though when you look at things like the best selling Album lists, and find that Stars by Simply Red was a multi platinum selling album…Things to make you go hmmmmm…

philsimm, most underrated album?

… waits for ok computer …

Stupid thread IMO, you might as well ask what the most popular album is in a genre you hate 😛

3 albums pictured were arguably much more about what they represented than the music recorded.

surf-mat and philsimm are wrong

gets my vote

What can I say. I liked the cover.

<runs for cover>

they're all here

From docrobster's link…whoever wrote this has some ego issues….

I wouldn't consider any of these albums bad. Most of them are pretty good albums. It's just that none of these are masterpieces and they're way overrated. I have personally overrated most of them in the past, blinding myself to better albums (actual masterpieces) which is probably the main reason I felt encouraged to post this list.

By the way, with "overrated" I am referring to general critical ratings and list rankings. For an album to appear on this list, it must've been highly rated per numerous reviews and/or ranked highly on critics' list(s), and found undeserving of these accolades by myself. There are no other factors being considered. Thus, the albums are ranked in order of how much distance there is between how great I consider them

compared to how highly regarded they are critically. Fan voting and general consensous is also considered when it is frequent enough to garner recognition.

As an example, Rubber Soul almost always gets 5 star ratings and somehow even makes it into the top 10 of most American lists, and the top 20-50 of most UK lists. Personally, I would give it about 3-3.5 stars (out of 5) and probably wouldn't even consider it for my top 500. That's a considerable distance, and so it holds the #1 position,

The thing is, it's contextual. "Never mind the…" was great in it's time. "Nevermind" was also great in it's time.

Sleep – Dopesmoker. I got it expecting some awesome stoner rock/metal like their other stuff. Instead I have droney guitars and feedback. Alright for a few minutes but otherwise it's **** boring. They aint no Electric Wizard!

I like Never Mind The Bollocks. I learned how to play every song on it when I was just starting guitar.

A few of the best from the last 20 years:

Orbital – In Sides
Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie
Leftfield – Leftism
Pearl Jam – Ten
Prodigy – Music for the Jilted Generation
Moby (!) – Play

.. waits for ok computer …

Stupid thread IMO, you might as well ask what the most popular album is in a genre you hate

So Rich – what is yours? And IIRC Ok Computer was pretty much universally acclaimed at the time of release apart from the NME who thought it was a bit shit – they soon changed their minds the fickle ****

I think its important to comment, that good singles, does not automatically a good album make – there are some amazing bands out there who have written some of the greatest singles but who's albums turn out to be bland, samey mediocre tripe (cf. Oasis, U2, chilli peppers)

Equally, there are a small, select number of albums out there that are true masterpieces, expressions of the art of laying together songs that take you on a magical 45 minute long rollercoaster ride, whether due to the prevailing time and context of its release, or for the quality of the music, and regardless of the quality of the individual songs or their success as singles (badly drawn boys hour of bewilderbeast, Bjorks Debut, NWA's Straight outta Compton to name but a few)

Re: the 'they're all here' link above…I'll agree with only one of their choices…

29. A Rush of Blood to the Head-Coldplay (2002)

Don't hate any genres so don't have an answer 🙂 NME hated OK Computer because it only had one rawk track, they just wanted The Bends part 2…

nickc – Member
philsimm, most underrated album?

Shack – HMS Fable?
Doing what Oasis did years before they did it and much classier IMO – only very moderately succesful at the time but now probably considered a modern classic

Anything by radiohead! What a bunch of middle class winey art school bollox.

Every single album by the beatles.

Surf-Mat, are you suggesting that In-Sides is overrated? Or just a good album?!

How it even made the Billboard 200, is beyond me ……. overrated shite.

IMHO

philsimm – ever heard of The Real People? There was even an out of court settlement by Oasis because they ripped them off so much. Really nice guys as well.

ANYTHING by Coldplay… No specific album, just absolutely anything they've done…

… waits for ok computer …

And IIRC Ok Computer was pretty much universally acclaimed at the time of release apart from the NME who thought it was a bit shit – they soon changed their minds the fickle ****

Given that Pablo Honey was a pretty good first album, and that The Bends is/was/should have been the album of 1995 (iirc it came second to What's the Story Morning Glory by Oasis), OK Computer was utter shite and turned me right off anything Radiohead post The Bends!

Anything by radiohead! What a bunch of middle class winey art school bollox.

Trust me, give The Bends a listen, but after that, absolutely agree with you…

anything by Elvis Presley. Single most overrated pop star ever. Close second, Michael Jackson

Anything by radiohead.

anything by alleged kidi fiddler… Jackson
Hold on you cannot slander the dead but i wont risk it

Nick – that was on my list of great albums!

Sgt Pepper

Not a bad album as such and has its moment of greatness ( A Day in the Life) but very overrated IMO.

phew, was a bit worried there.
I listened to Morning Glory last week, not having listened to it in years. Honestly, it made for quite depressing listening – it's just not that great.

Second vote here for Tubular Bells along with Dark Side Of The Moon