Albums that have no business being good.... but are.

[Stadler]

You know the album:   two unlikely pairs teaming up, sounds like a trainwreck, but the album isn't half bad.   Or famous band loses key member, obstinate rest of band decides they don't need 'em and puts out... a damn good record.    Or sessions are fraught with peril - drug use, death, fighting - and yet the end product is... a pretty good listen.   

5. The Cars - Move Like This (Ric's voice is unique, and I think it was Ben Orr's smooth as silk voice that gave it context, but with Ben gone, Ric had to carry an entire album... and he did it.)

4. Liam Gallagher - Liam Gallagher (Without his ex-Oasis mates Gem and Andy Bell, and without his brother who did all the heavy lifting in terms of songwriting and arranging, and yet this record has everything you'd want from a guy who has named one of his kids after John Lennon.   Great melodies and that voice...)

3.  Aerosmith - Night In The Ruts (Following a commercial bomb, deep in debt, and with one guitar player with his head in a pile of white powder (with a disenfranchised wife whispering in his ear) another guitar player with one foot out the door, a rhythm section bathed in a cloud of smoke, and a lead singer with a god complex and a needle in his arm and you do NOT have a recipe for a strong record.  Yet, the band delivered, and NITR is solid with only the cover of "Reefer Headed Woman" to drag it down.)

2. Kiss - Music From... The Elder (yea, I love it.  A bombastic three-chord rock band who is more show than dough decides to put out a concept album with a new drummer and a distant-and-leaving lead guitarist, and yet, it's in my top five or so Kiss albums, and one of the records I still go back to frequently).

1. Coverdale - Page (a clearly desperate Page, sending a message to Plant, who called Coverdale "David Coverversion" more than once, and yet the record is sharp, the songs are solid, the production is crisp, and the album holds up to this day.   Plant even sang a CP song - Shake My Tree - live during the "Walking Into Clarksdale" tour)

Honorable mentions:
Van Halen - A Different Kind Of Truth
Mother Love Bone - Apple
Yes - Drama
The Panic Channel - One

[The Walrus]

GnR - Chinese Democracy. Shouldn't work. Should be a trainwreck. I think it's a masterpiece. I know a lot don't agree.

[MirrorMask]

GnR - Chinese Democracy. Shouldn't work. Should be a trainwreck. I think it's a masterpiece. I know a lot don't agree.

I've always had the curiosity to check it out. Mind you, I'm a very casual GNR "fan", or daresay acquaintance; they were my introduction to hard rock along Bon Jovi (metal happened with Iron Maiden and Metallica), so I played to death cassette tapes of them, but I've since grown past them. Can't really stand Axl's voice and it's aeons since I got back to any Appetite song, but this summer I spun the Use your Illusions albums and save some duds, it was a good experience as any.

[The Walrus]

GnR - Chinese Democracy. Shouldn't work. Should be a trainwreck. I think it's a masterpiece. I know a lot don't agree.

I've always had the curiosity to check it out. Mind you, I'm a very casual GNR "fan", or daresay acquaintance; they were my introduction to hard rock along Bon Jovi (metal happened with Iron Maiden and Metallica), so I played to death cassette tapes of them, but I've since grown past them. Can't really stand Axl's voice and it's aeons since I got back to any Appetite song, but this summer I spun the Use your Illusions albums and save some duds, it was a good experience as any.

CD sounds nothing like any of their other records, hell even Axl doesn't sound like Axl. Worth a shot. Very interesting record with a smorgasbord of musical styles. Never thought I'd hear breakbeats and synth string ambience in a GnR record.

[Adami]

Metallica - Hardwired

Mostly fantastic album by a band that should’ve lost their mojo a long time ago.

[faizoff]

Agreed about Chinese Democracy, great album and amazing production quality.

Other mention, I thought Bon Jovi's Lost Highway was an interesting take on the country genre. It's a pretty good album with some really stand out tracks.

[Zook]

................................... Risk.

[HOF]

I was going to start a similar but different topic based on my take on Van Halen III which I still might do, but for purposes of this thread, I’ll go with VHIII.

[pg1067]

Drama by Yes.

You lose one of the most iconic vocalists of the 70s and a classically trained keyboardist with rock sensibilities and replace them with:



And yet the album becomes Yes's version of Permanent Waves.  Machine Messiah and Tempus Fugit are amazing songs.

[Buddyhunter1]

King Gizzard's Infest The Rats' Nest. The only metal album they've ever done, and it kicks ass.

[Lowdz]

................................... Risk.

Yes.

And I love Music From The Elder too. The first KISS album I got on release.

[HOF]

Drama by Yes.

You lose one of the most iconic vocalists of the 70s and a classically trained keyboardist with rock sensibilities and replace them with:



And yet the album becomes Yes's version of Permanent Waves.  Machine Messiah and Tempus Fugit are amazing songs.

This is a really good call.

[ProfessorPeart]

Drama by Yes.

You lose one of the most iconic vocalists of the 70s and a classically trained keyboardist with rock sensibilities and replace them with:



And yet the album becomes Yes's version of Permanent Waves.  Machine Messiah and Tempus Fugit are amazing songs.

This is a really good call.

Yup. I avoided this album for years simply due to Jon being replaced by..........the Buggles? C'mon. Well, it is possibly my favorite Yes record.

[MoraWintersoul]

That Coverdale/Page album is pretty good.

[Sacul]

Ulver's The Assassination of Julius Caesar. Mostly because the band has done black metal, ambient, experimental electronic, and lots of serious stuff. Then they drop a synthpop album that just SLAPS

[Zydar]

I definitely agree on The Elder and Drama - I love both albums. I guess I'll add Never Say Die by Sabbath to my list. Great record, but also pretty maligned as well.

[The Walrus]

Ulver's The Assassination of Julius Caesar. Mostly because the band has done black metal, ambient, experimental electronic, and lots of serious stuff. Then they drop a synthpop album that just SLAPS

Huh. I would think that's just the norm for Ulver given their track record. When I went through their discography it sure didn't feel out of place at all. But it is a damn good album!

[Stadler]

That Coverdale/Page album is pretty good.

I love that album.  I'm a big fan of Coverdale's voice (the acoustic record in Tokyo is one of my favorite records ever) and I think it works with Page's more symphonic writing (as opposed to the metal or the blues in Whitesnake).   It's got a shimmering quality that I love.  I just wish they toured.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

I know probably not one person on this forum will agree, but I really don't think Lulu is as bad as everyone says.

It's biggest issue is honestly some dreary and meandering songwriting on a couple tracks, but on the songs where they really let loose, it can get quite exhilarating. I also find the grotesque nature of it all really intriguing. Like a nasty car wreck that you just can't look away from. There's a really visceral quality to the rudimentary instrumentation and the vulgar lyrics that are, at the very least, worth gawking at. On the whole, it's an album I would rather listen to 100 times over a snoozefest that even some of my favorite artists have put out.

[jingle.boy]

I'll throw out a couple, probably more personal taste driven.

Motley Crue / Dr. Feelgood.  With the direction they were headed after Theatre and Girls, along with Nikki's "death", how they recovered and put out this album is nothing short of fantastic.  Bob Rock producing likely had a significant role.

Poison / Native Tongue.  Losing CC should've been a big blow to a band that was at the top of the Glam-Metal frenzy, along with market seque to grunge.  Enter Ritchie, and a glorious blues-infused rock album, with very little of the glam and sleaze of their first 3.

BTW, Coverdale/Page made my Top 50.  Love that album.

[faizoff]

I'll throw out a couple, probably more personal taste driven.

Motley Crue / Dr. Feelgood.  With the direction they were headed after Theatre and Girls, along with Nikki's "death", how they recovered and put out this album is nothing short of fantastic.  Bob Rock producing likely had a significant role.

Poison / Native Tongue.  Losing CC should've been a big blow to a band that was at the top of the Glam-Metal frenzy, along with market seque to grunge.  Enter Ritchie, and a glorious blues-infused rock album, with very little of the glam and sleaze of their first 3.

Love the two albums, in fact I might be in the minority that actually loves the follow up to Dr. Feelgood, the self titled Motley Crue album. I think it's actually my favorite of the bunch.

[Stadler]

Great call with Dr. Feelgood.  That was a good tour, too.

[Evermind]

1. Coverdale - Page (a clearly desperate Page, sending a message to Plant, who called Coverdale "David Coverversion" more than once, and yet the record is sharp, the songs are solid, the production is crisp, and the album holds up to this day.   Plant even sang a CP song - Shake My Tree - live during the "Walking Into Clarksdale" tour)

Definitely agree with this. I think Chad sent me something from it in my roulette and I liked it so much that when I found the (used, obviously) original print for $5 at a random street market during one of my trips to Europe, I was very happy. Whisper a Prayer for the Dying is a hell of a song.

I also found original Marillion - Marbles, Metallica - S&M, the PF's Division Bell there, so I guess that might've contributed to it too.

[jingle.boy]

Yes... yes I did send you Whisper a Prayer for the Dying.  It sits in my personal Top 100 songs of all time.

[Buddyhunter1]

Ulver's The Assassination of Julius Caesar. Mostly because the band has done black metal, ambient, experimental electronic, and lots of serious stuff. Then they drop a synthpop album that just SLAPS

Huh. I would think that's just the norm for Ulver given their track record. When I went through their discography it sure didn't feel out of place at all. But it is a damn good album!

That's true, though up to that point they had never done an album that's even remotely poppy, so it was still a pretty considerable left turn for them, even given their track record.

[Evermind]

Yes... yes I did send you Whisper a Prayer for the Dying.  It sits in my personal Top 100 songs of all time.

I searched my roulette threads and came up with nothing which is why I was doubtful. I think what happened was when you missed out on my roulette as you weren't frequenting DTF at the time and just sent all the stuff via e-mail afterwards.

Either way, that album rocks.

[jingle.boy]

Yes... yes I did send you Whisper a Prayer for the Dying.  It sits in my personal Top 100 songs of all time.

I searched my roulette threads and came up with nothing which is why I was doubtful. I think what happened was when you missed out on my roulette as you weren't frequenting DTF at the time and just sent all the stuff via e-mail afterwards.

Either way, that album rocks.

Now that you mention it ...

[Kwyjibo]

That Coverdale/Page record is really good, best work of Page outside Led Zeppelin. And I still wonder what Plant was thinking when he heard of that project. For years he was dissing Coverdale as his clone and then Page goes to make an album with said clone. 

Also agree on Yes - Drama and VH - A Different Kind Of Truth. I didn't expect much, given the circumstances but both records delivered big time.

But Aerosmith - Night In The Ruts is an album that has no business being good, and well, it isn't. At least not for me.

[hefdaddy42]

I'm not sure I fully understand the concept of the thread, but that Coverdale/Page album is pretty good.

[Crow]

That time Devin Townsend made a country album and it ended up being his best one

[Stadler]

That Coverdale/Page record is really good, best work of Page outside Led Zeppelin. And I still wonder what Plant was thinking when he heard of that project. For years he was dissing Coverdale as his clone and then Page goes to make an album with said clone. 

Well, I don't know what he was THINKING, but I know what he DID, and that was invite Jimmy Page to join him at an Unplugged show in London, and they went on two subsequent world tours together.  If memory serves, there was even some overlap, and I seem to recall some tour dates cancelled in order for Page to do that.   

I've heard Plant say several times - including on the Dan Rather Big Interview and an interview on the Nine Lives box set - that he's frequently asked to write a book and he always demurs.   I think if I had to pick one guy that I'd want to write a book, it'd be Robert Plant. 

Also agree on Yes - Drama and VH - A Different Kind Of Truth. I didn't expect much, given the circumstances but both records delivered big time.

But Aerosmith - Night In The Ruts is an album that has no business being good, and well, it isn't. At least not for me.

I LOVE NitR.  Probably in my top three Aerosmith albums (Get Your Wings and Toys are probably one and two). 

[Elite]

That time Devin Townsend made a country album and it ended up being his best one

Casualties of Cool is amazing indeed. Good call!

[Sacul]

Ulver's The Assassination of Julius Caesar. Mostly because the band has done black metal, ambient, experimental electronic, and lots of serious stuff. Then they drop a synthpop album that just SLAPS

Huh. I would think that's just the norm for Ulver given their track record. When I went through their discography it sure didn't feel out of place at all. But it is a damn good album!

Now it makes sense but back in the day it took everyone by surprise.

That time Devin Townsend made a country album and it ended up being his best one

Casualties of Cool is amazing indeed. Good call!

Yeah, and Moon one of his best tracks. I should revisit it.

[Buddyhunter1]

Casualties Of Cool is great, though I wasn't exactly shocked at its quality given the prior existence of Ki and Ghost.

[TAC]

3.  Aerosmith - Night In The Ruts (Following a commercial bomb, deep in debt, and with one guitar player with his head in a pile of white powder (with a disenfranchised wife whispering in his ear) another guitar player with one foot out the door, a rhythm section bathed in a cloud of smoke, and a lead singer with a god complex and a needle in his arm and you do NOT have a recipe for a strong record.  Yet, the band delivered, and NITR is solid with only the cover of "Reefer Headed Woman" to drag it down.)

Good call here. The band was pretty down and out. This is easily my favorite Aerosmith album, and I love that whole era.
In fact NITR-Rock In A Hard Place-Done With Mirrors is my favorite Aerosmith 3 album run.