The very premise of this site is to evaluate and discuss the greatest artists, albums and songs out there. All of us come here as avid music fans, and our intense passion can sometimes take peculiar trajectories. So this is the thread to trash songs you hate by artists you love.

As for me, it's no secret that I'm a huge Prince fan. I've seen him live 22 times and have over 200 Prince CDs, along with hundreds of records and tapes. I met my wife through a Prince website. Needless to say, I'm a regular drinker of the Purple Kool-Aid. In any case, there are some songs of his that I absolutely detest, and even an album or two that I dislike. My choice for my least favorite Prince song is 2001's "Mellow". The song is typical neo-soul schlock that Prince was keen to produce at the time (see also "U Make My Sunshine") after several newer neo-soul artists claimed him as an influence. To say it is derivative of not only his own material, but that of his watered-down successors doesn't even begin to tell the story. You see, Prince has a ginormous ego, as is evident by him trying to set a "cool vibe" by nauseatingly name-dropping Macy Gray and Common. The whole thing reeks of Prince trying so hard to stay cool and relevant, while doing just the opposite. To make matters worse, the song is awkwardly placed in The Rainbow Children, an album with an overriding theme of spiritual doctrine, so it is quite out of place in this religious odyssey. Other titles in this shameful category include:

Call My Name
Satisfied
Future Baby Mama (and this won a Grammy!)

So, have at it, folks!

Worst 5 Beatles Songs:

Yellow Submarine
Hey Jude
Dig It
One After 909
When I Get Home

I'll try to do this for my top four favorite artists (according to my last.fm profile):

RADIOHEAD
1. "Creep": derivative crap. True fans don't even acknowledge it anymore. And why should they? Even the band disowned it a long time ago.
2. "We Suck Young Blood": proof that even newer Radiohead doesn't always equal brilliance. It's spooky, but more or less an exercise in production that fails to leave any sort of lasting impact.

THE BEATLES
1. "Yellow Submarine": too whimsical, too childlike. The one cringe-worthy moment on an otherwise legendary album.
2. "Michele": this one just reeks of... well, something. And it's something bad.

PEARL JAM
1. "Last Kiss": Pearl Jam are known for live covers that range from Neil Young to The Who to Split Enz. They should keep them that way. The last thing Pearl Jam needed to do was officially release a remake of a really bad, unsuccessful '60s song. I'm not sure what they were thinking, but they haven't tried it since.
2. "Bugs": a strange lo-fi, beat poetry-esque number released near the end of the Vitalogy album. Featuring some really amateurish acordian playing courtesy of Eddie Vedder!

OASIS
1. "Hey Now!": the lone stinker on "What's the Story..." It's value is heightened only by proximity, but alone would be an embarrassment.
2. "Magic Pie": the microcosm that represents everything the critics hated about Be Here Now. Bloated, indulgent and a bad melody to boot.

'Creep' is Radiohead's most acclaimed song(and might I add it is disadvantaged being older than most of their songs and also it came out when they were hardly known)

Since the top ten artists thread popped up again, I decided to use the artists I posted then:

The Beatles: “Till There Was You” (the frickin’ MUSIC MAN? Are you kiddin’ me?)
Blur: “There’s No Other Way” (way back when they were still trying, and failing, to be the Stone Roses)
The Clash: “This Is England” (only because the choice had to be from Cut the Crap)
Bob Dylan: “Gotta Serve Somebody” (only because the choice had to be from Slow Train Coming or Saved)
Pixies: n/a. There’s not a single song of theirs I haven’t enjoyed at some point.
Prince: “Batdance” (but I know virtually nothing he’s done in the last 15 years)
Ramones: “Somebody to Love” (umm…ill-advised choice. Not every great band can play every great song.)
R.E.M.: “The Wrong Child” (imagine if the character singing “Shiny Happy People” suffered head trauma)
X: “See How We Are” (the closest they ever got to easy listening)
Neil Young: …………. I’m drawing a blank.

Here's some more (because I felt like it). And these are some of my favorite bands!

U2
1. "Miami": I mentioned during the album poll that since Achtung Baby, U2 have grasped unsuccessfully at relevance by exploring electronica (and failing) and by writing MOR stadium anthems. This song is an example of the latter; just a whole lot of posturing, and not much else.
2. "Elevation": Millennium Bono must have trouble writing lyrics. When he's not crafting verses that use really awful rhymes, he's resorting to no words at all. Case in point: "El-e-va-tion! Wooo-oooo! wooo-ooo-oooo!"

R.E.M.
1. "Shiny Happy People": for reasons already discussed.
2. "The Ascent of Man": the last track on Around the Sun (and if you were able to make it to that point of the album... wow, good for you). Just a lazy, uninspired dirge. Stipe's probably got a message here, but even if I could get past the ridiculous single-word chorus, I wouldn't be interested to figure out what it was.

NIRVANA
1. "Scentless Apprentice": Cobain's lyrics are difficult to decipher on the best of days, but this one's damn near impossible. A boring guitar riff, some screaming, no real melody to speak of - would've fit nicely on any Hole album.

LED ZEPPELIN:
1. "Kashmir": What's his face - y'know, that rapper that keeps changing his name? Yeah, he ruined this one for me.
2. "D'yer Mak'er": Plant is a sleaze and Page has forgotten how rock. This one's inexcusable.

For "Miami", replace "latter" with "former". *sigh*

Anthony! Noooooo...

Why would a rapper ruin a song for you? Can't you just pretened it never happened, and listen to the original song with a... uh, pure mind?

And is it the fact that "D'yer Mak'er" is relaxed that you mind?

"Anthony! Noooooo...

Why would a rapper ruin a song for you? Can't you just pretened it never happened, and listen to the original song with a... uh, pure mind?

And is it the fact that "D'yer Mak'er" is relaxed that you mind?"

Yeah I know - crazy isn't it? These people voted off 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling' in Bracketology because some cover ruined it for them. All I can think is FORGET ABOUT THE BLOODY COVER - JUST LISTEN TO THE CLASSIC VERSION IN ALL IT'S GLORY

You can use the "some cover ruined it for me" argument for pretty much every popular song in existence, really.

Never mind the fact that the orginal isn't that great either. The remake just put it over the edge.

It's a funny thing about human psychology - sometimes our mental constructs CAN be replaced by other, less enjoyable experiences.

It's like watching a film, and then reading the novel it was based on. No amount of magic can convince you to picture the characters in the novel as something other than what the director has already shown you.

No amount of magic can convince you to picture the characters in the novel as something other than what the director has already shown you.


It's hard. It's like tackling two realities at once. But you can do it!

Well, looks like I have the chance of not having the same favourite artists as most people, so here I am. They are almost the only artists who I know the complete discography (well, if you except some bands with just 2 or 3 albums). It is almost "all the songs I dislike by those artists".

Elliott Smith :
Coast to Coast
King's Crossing
Last Call

Queens of the Stone Age :
Battery Acid
Everybody's Gonna Be Happy (totally failed cover)
I Was A Teenage Hand Model
Walkin' On The Sideways
You Would Know

Beastie Boys (not counting the Mix-up):
3 the Hard Way
Crawlspace
Dedication
Dr Lee,Phd
Hold It now, Hit it
Paul Revere (I don't know why this one is acclaimed...)
Rhymin & Stealin

All of my other top artists either have a complete album I dislike or still have some albums I don't know much.

How come you dislike "King's Crossing" so much? It was his most depressing song, I think.

Those BB songs are great! I love the spread of love and the atmosphere of "Dedication", one of the highlights towards the end of Hello Nasty!

Some of these songs listed are great! I think in this forum,one person's shit song can be another's classic...

I'll go with the entire FABOTH album for Elliott Smith. I love every single one of his songs released before that and that whole album was really bad. I'll never get the acclaim for that album... I'm a huge Elliott fan but that album stinks to high heaven. Perhaps it was just elevated because people saw it as his suicide letter or that it was the first album that new fans heard. But, it doesn't even come close to comparing with anything before that.

Not even "Twilight"? "A Distorted Reality Is Now A Necessity To Be Free"? Those are two of his most heartfelt songs.

The album is bleak, and confused, and confusing. But there's a shattered beauty in it, when you realize he means every single word.

It's the same reason I don't like Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers that much. I appreciate when people make music despite their problems like Elliott and Daniel Johnston not music affected by their problems. Or rather an artist coping rather than sinking.

I am completely against the notion that music that sounds like a band/artist falling apart at the seams is a good thing.

What about Exile On Main St.?

I'm not sure if that falls into the same category but I don't think that's even close to the Stones best. But, that's not for the same reasons I don't like the others. The problems the Stones had didn't have a negative effect on the music. They dealt with it in one way or another and made a Stones album.

I think it's a "fagged-out" album just like the others.

But I can understand your viewpoint. You look at the music as opposed to the context of the music, and that's fine in a way.

I just think, though, that emotion is the part of music that is most vital. It has to make you feel something. Rebellion, celebration, sorrow, whatever it is.

And ignoring the contexts means you can fall prey to simulations of emotions. Which is fine; sad songs sung by happy people don't have to be bad. They just feel slightly more stale.

Whereas something heartfelt can be sublime.

I guess I just try to find the soul of things, and not always care so much about the ways it shows itself to us.

But I can see what you mean when you say those albums are flawed in execution.

And "XO" is just as much of a "suicide album" as "From A Basement On The Hill," of course. Given how he tried to kill himself after making it.

I was just saying that... there's something to a man's last words that makes them mean so much.

And do you really not like "Twilight"?

An emotional, sorrow filled album doesn't have to sound like a guy standing on a ledge. It can still have melody and cohesiveness.

I'm not saying that these are terrible albums (actually I might have said that), I just don't like listening to them. They aren't terrible, I just don't get why they seem to be more revered. It's much more interesting to me to listen to an album that should have been terrible considering the circumstances than an album that was affected by the circumstances.

Twilight is ok but that whole album lacks what I love about Elliott Smith. The melody and masterful guitar is gone in place of a guy strumming his guitar while reading his journals.

Well. Okay. :)

Oh, have you heard any of his numerous B-sides and outtakes?