10 Hard Rock Albums With Only One Bad Song
And the filler stacks up....
Most of the greatest rock albums of all time have come from the harsher side of the spectrum. While many acts like the Beatles may have set the groundwork for what rock and roll would become, the real work didn't get done until the genre really got some hair on its chest around the '70s. Some of them are bangers from start to finish...but there can be a few turds in the punchbowl.
Since no album is perfect, there are always those few songs from every artist that can usually be seen as filler. While not always being downright terrible, these songs just don't seem to measure up nearly as much as the rest of the album had to offer, with it just being there to occupy time more than anything else. Hell, if you're not careful, some of these lesser tracks tend to even go in weird directions, which kills the momentum of the rest of the record pretty much on a dime.
One minute you might think you're listening to the hard rock answer to something like Thriller, and then this song comes on and throws everything else out of whack. While every artist has their right to experiment from time to time, did we really need to be subjected to stuff like this?
10. My World - Guns N Roses
After pulverizing the rock world with Appetite For Destruction, the future of rock seemed to be ripe for Guns N Roses once the '90s got underway. Despite the obvious shift towards alternative rock in the wake of the grunge movement, the Use Your Illusion saga still holds up as two decent pieces of rock and roll, as we get a peek into the more grandiose side of the World's Most Dangerous Band. Then My World comes on and yanks you out of the whole thing.
Written in what was reportedly just a few minutes by Axl Rose in between the sessions, My World just feels like some vain attempt to reach the industrial side of the rock spectrum. I mean, you've already tried piano balladry and long drawn-out songs...why do you need to dip your toes into Trent Reznor's territory at this point?
The kind of threatening demeanor isn't even all that convincing coming from Rose, who ends up sounding like just school bully who threw you up against a locker and is refusing to let go. While the story of Rose being under the influence of magic mushrooms during this recording has been contested, it's not hard to see why people would jump to that conclusion. As much as GNR would hit their peak with these records, this is the sharp dropoff that no one wanted.