In light of high profile artists such as Sugababes and Anastacia coming back with poor lead singles and awful album artwork, what were some eras/projects that you found truly awful?

I'll start with a few:

 

Kelly Clarkson - My December what on earth was this, the follow up to Breakaway was a melody free affair with about 4 good songs, none of which were released as singles...instead, the only UK single was Never Again, which wouldn't have even been b-side quality for the Breakaway era

 

The Corrs - Home an Irish album!?! it was fairly terrible, there were a few nice songs, such as the Sharon led Dimming Of The Day, and the lovely Peggy Gordon, but aside from those it wasn't that great

 

Christina Aguilera - Back To Basics the singles were ok, but far from the quality of any of the Stripped singles...the album was far too long, it would have been much better with 12 tracks as a single album, the double disc format really made the album too long and overblown...oh and has she rejoined us in 2008 now after her time warp back to the 1940s?

 

Delta Goodrem - Delta My favourite singer of all time, her first two albums were amazing. In This Life, Believe Again, both incredible songs...so I bought the album and aside from Possessionless, there is really nothing of note on here...a real shame. The b-sides of this era however have been fantastic, and I just can't fathom why Take Me Home, Fever and Breathe In Breathe Out missed the album in favour of One Day, Woman (sounds like a Westlife song) and Angels In The Room

 

Kylie Minogue - Body Language Really really bad album from another of my favourite singers...Slow was ok but a bid odd, Red Blooded Woman saved the day but nothing else on the album caught my ear for more than 1 or 2 plays...really not a good album

 

Pink - Try This It all looked like it was going wrong here...3 average singles and lowish album sales for Pink's usual standards...luckily I'm Not Dead put her back on track and Funhouse seems to be ready to take her to another level

 

Natasha Bedingfield - NB now this album had a number of excellent songs tucked away on it, not that anyone would ever get to find out, being instantly put off by the diabolical artwork and awful lead single, I Wanna Have Your Babies. Thankfully the best songs were saved for the US release Pocketful Of Sunshine, so her huge US audience never witnessed her dramatic 2007 slump in form

 

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Shoot From The Hip Read My Lips was a fantastic debut, an excellent mish-mash of pop, disco and indie...she tried but failed to follow the formula on her average second album...the artwork was just odd, she didn't look quite right with blonde hair, and the singles (Mixed Up World, I Won't Change You) were good but nowhere near the standard of the Read My Lips singles...

 

James Blunt - All The Lost Souls How do you follow up an album that sells close to 3 million copies in the UK? not with this...same format as Back To Bedlam, 10 song album, except these 10 songs weren't up to much. 1973 was a good enough first single, but those that followed (Same Mistake, Carry You Home, I Really Want You) were hardly comparable to the standard of High, Wisemen anf Goodbye My Lover

Jamelia's 'Walk With Me' era was a mess. The album itself was brilliant, but it was purposely handled poorly by her former label (wrong timing of comeback, wrong lead single, c**p tracklisting, c**p artwork, etc).

 

Both Vanessa Carlton's 'Harmonium' and 'Heroes & Thieves' era were a mess, too. Again, brilliant albums but both were handled very poorly by her record labels.

it looks as if Annie's Don't Stop era is going to be a train wreck too...

 

the worst track on the album released as the lead single, gets no airplay and precitably flops, and now the album has been pushed back until next year TBC

Ciara- The Evolution

I completley disagree about Sugababes, C&S looks like an amazing era <3

 

Anyway, a few that spring to mind:

 

Madonna - Hard Candy :: It was OK, but very MEH in Madonna terms.... went off it fairly quickly with about 4-5 good songs...

 

Mariah - E=MC2 :: Just, what WAS this? :( In comparison to the amazingness of Emancipation of MiMi, she produces THIS?! 4 good songs, nothing amazing, a total FLOP of an era :(

 

Kylie - X :: Same as Madonna, maybe a few more listenable songs but still very MEH

I found Delta Goodrem's second album very bad. It was like listening to one long song with some of them. I didn't like any of the tracks, and found it very bland.

 

Shayne Ward's second album "Breathless" is rather bland too. It seems as if he was trying to appeal the US market with their by the numbers R and B. Only "Breathless", "Tangled Up", "Damaged", "Stand By Your Side" and "Just Be Good To Me" are the decent tracks. The rest are just bland R and B.

 

I bet this bode well with Leona either. Her new single is awful! A brilliant singer like her is wasted on that song.

I completley disagree about Sugababes, C&S looks like an amazing era <3

 

Anyway, a few that spring to mind:

 

Madonna - Hard Candy :: It was OK, but very MEH in Madonna terms.... went off it fairly quickly with about 4-5 good songs...

 

Mariah - E=MC2 :: Just, what WAS this? :( In comparison to the amazingness of Emancipation of MiMi, she produces THIS?! 4 good songs, nothing amazing, a total FLOP of an era :(

 

Kylie - X :: Same as Madonna, maybe a few more listenable songs but still very MEH

 

I didn't say Sugababes new era is bad, I said it's started badly with a rubbish single and awful artwork, I can't pass further comment before hearing the album, which I will of course be buying & I'm still excited about hearing it

 

I agree with Mariah and Madonna to an extent that they were worse than their previous albums, both had some excellent songs on though...X was odd, the whole album just doesn't fit together as a package at all, there are some good songs and some awful songs, some pop, some r&b, some electro, it just has no flow, making it quite hard to listen to

I found Delta Goodrem's second album very bad. It was like listening to one long song with some of them. I didn't like any of the tracks, and found it very bland.

 

I found it to be a very powerful album in places, especially Electric Storm, Be Strong, Last Night On Earth, Extraordinary Day and Mistaken Identity. I agree that the era was handled very badly though. Out Of The Blue was a nice song, but not an album seller and a terrible choice of lead single, and then after it's peak position flop (it still sold around 200k in the UK), we only got Almost Here after that, which was more of a Brian than a Delta single. It would have been better for her to have released the album two months later in January 2005 with Mistaken Identity as a lead single, then Almost Here and then whatever else she wanted after that...

 

I bet this bode well with Leona either. Her new single is awful! A brilliant singer like her is wasted on that song.

 

I like her new single more than Better In Time :o she can't belt out powerful ballads all the time :heehee: it's good for her to go a different direction every now and then

 

JoJo - The High Road I'm surprised no-ones mentioned this. SMASH lead single then everything else just completely tanked. Not giving the 2nd single a video?! NOT EVEN A CHEAP LIVE VIDEO?! wtf. Releasing "How To Touch A Girl" in the US as second single?! WTF. The album was originally released in the UK BEFORE "TLTL" was released... so they had to re-release the album at a later time. It was just a complete mess. The album itself is AMAZING and miles better than her debut (which sold about 3x more world wide).

 

Mariah Carey - E=MC2 :mellow: first of all the album isn't as good as TEOM at all but only 1.8mil WW?! The 2nd single well and truly murdered this era, then the 3rd buried it, and 4th will probably flop just as hard if not harder. Really poor single choices, the album would have been HUGE otherwise I'm sure. Avoiding Migrate is a bit odd too, especially since EVERYONE and their mothers wants it released.

 

Michelle Williams - Unexpected SO much potential on this album, completely ruined by her $h!te management team, album leaked about 2 months before release because they "forgot" to cancel the Japan release. Single doesn't take off in the US or the UK so they think releasing the album with Zero promo will help? Ridiculous.

I love Back To Basics, if only for Hurt.

 

Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree:

Apart from 4 tracks, this album is awful after the brilliance of Supernature

 

Usher - Here I Stand:

Bland, mid-tempo. He will never come close to Yeah again

 

Gwen Stefani - Wind It Up

Some good songs in here, but a complete let down after LAMB

 

Madonna - Hard Candy I really didn't like this era too much. I couldn't stomach 4 Minutes and thought it was a blatent excuse for Madonna to get another hit single (the formula worked). The artwork was appaling and generally the concept was bad.

 

Hilary Duff - Dignity Generally, the album is a pop masterpiece. Promotion wise, it was a hot mess. The single choices were messed around with, so many unreleased good singles a la Gypsy Woman, Outside Of You. It's suprising why Hollywood wanted to waste so much money.

 

Geri Halliwell - Passion A good CD, but again the label f***ed up the release of thsi one.

 

Ashley Tisdale - Headstrong Another pop masterpiece which Hollywood totally f***ed up the release of. Firstly, releasing a single, which then charts (generally low) and then stops all promotion for the single and CD until one year later when they release the video. The fact Not Like That wasn't given a general release.

 

-_-

I love Back To Basics, if only for Hurt.

 

Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree:

Apart from 4 tracks, this album is awful after the brilliance of Supernature

 

Usher - Here I Stand:

Bland, mid-tempo. He will never come close to Yeah again

 

Gwen Stefani - Wind It Up

Some good songs in here, but a complete let down after LAMB

 

Gwen's album is called The Sweet Escape, I agree it was a like the leftovers of LAMB, but it had some brilliant songs on it :wub: I haven't heard Seventh Tree but I'm not too intrigued, I didn't like any of the singles after A&E...

this was a nice read

 

I agree with Kelly Clarkson: Breakaway was amazing, My December did seriously NOTHING for me!

 

Mariah - E=MC2 - Not a good album in itself but realesing Bye Bye just killed any chances the era had of being a minor sucsess.

 

Mutya Buena - Real Girl - What a dissapointment this was. The first 2 singles were brillaint and then there were just one or two decent songs left on the album. Loads of potential with Song 4 Mutya aswell but the video just screwed everything up.

 

JoJo - The High Road - Mikal points everything out on this one. It was just a mess.

 

Jamelia - Walk With Me & Greatest Hits - Both albums were just disasters. Beware Of The Dog should have been lead single and they didnt choose a good time to realese it at all.

 

The 411 - Between The Sheets - Where did it all go wrong? It was all going fabolously until the c**p decision to realese Teardrops.

The 411 - Between The Sheets - Where did it all go wrong? It was all going fabolously until the c**p decision to realese Teardrops.

 

Precisely. It was when "Teardrops" was released that everything fell apart. The ladies and fans did not want that song released at all. We all wanted "China Girl", and that was set for release but the label changed it at the last minute.

 

Also, the ladies were working out a new record deal after Sony dropped them, but Sony screwed that up for them.

Kelly Clarkson - My December what on earth was this, the follow up to Breakaway was a melody free affair with about 4 good songs, none of which were released as singles...instead, the only UK single was Never Again, which wouldn't have even been b-side quality for the Breakaway era

 

:cry: I love this album :(

 

Hmmm... So far I can only think of,

 

Usher - Here I Stand:

LMFAO! What on earth was this? Only three Great tracks (Love in this club, Moving Mountains & Will Work For Love). All the others are $h!t (including Love in this Club Part2 -_-) Ne-Yo's 'Year of the Gentleman' will be what 'Here I Stand' was destined to be.

 

Mariah Carey - E=mc2

Well everyone in this thread has pretty much summed this album up. -_-

Some stuff I've had a listen to,

 

Mariah - E=MC2, I've only kept one track downloaded from this album,- Migrate. :D Everything else was pretty awful.

 

PCD - Doll Domination - Had a quick listen through, didn't like one single song.

 

Kelly Clarkson - My December. No need to explain really.

JoJo - The High Road I'm surprised no-ones mentioned this. SMASH lead single then everything else just completely tanked. Not giving the 2nd single a video?! NOT EVEN A CHEAP LIVE VIDEO?! wtf. Releasing "How To Touch A Girl" in the US as second single?! WTF. The album was originally released in the UK BEFORE "TLTL" was released... so they had to re-release the album at a later time. It was just a complete mess. The album itself is AMAZING and miles better than her debut (which sold about 3x more world wide).

I know worship Mikal :yahoo:

Bring on All I Want Is Everything and hopefully Universal will handle it better -_-

 

Hilary Duff - Dignity. I mean COMEON?! One of The Duffs best albums and Hollywood treat it like c**p. So glad she has left them now.

 

Pussycat Dolls - Doll Domination. I expected so much more.. I was disappointed by this bar a few songs.

E=MC2 - I dont get the hate for this album bar 2 songs i absoloutely love it, this has to be one of the worst handled projects i have ever seen though, singles were alll wrong, promotion was at the wrong time, the videos were boring and it was just a mess.

 

Doll Domination - Completely rushed, too much Nicole again and just a let down, lead single wasn't an album seller by any means. I hate this part would have been far better.

 

Sweet Escape - Yummy should've been released it would have been huge, and Wind It Up shouldnt have been the lead single.

 

I could go on but those are my main ones.