10 Hard Rock Albums That Are Worse Than You Remember
...Maybe You Had To Be There.
When it comes to rock music, there's no real sense in calling your shot. No matter what kind of amazing music you may have coming down the pipeline, the only way that it's actually going to hold up is if still resonates after a few years. Though the best records can work in any time period they're in, these records are part of the reason why hindsight is 20/20.
Rather than be the gold encrusted masterpieces they were talked up as, these records have aged a lot worse than a lot of their contemporaries, either because of a horrendous album production or just from the lack of inspiration on the part of the musicians.
That didn't stop the fans from buying it in droves though, leading to these albums becoming either embarrassing in retrospect or forgotten entirely. Are all of these records really all bad though? Well, no.
While a lot of these records hold together fairly well as good slices of rock and roll, there's just no way that they can compete with the other material in the group's catalog.
Then again, you also aren't safe from a few stragglers that had no business getting successful in the first place. It may have felt right at the time, but time has been all too cruel to these records.
10. Down to Earth - Rainbow
If you remember anything from Rainbow nowadays, it normally comes from the pedigree behind nearly every instrument. Starting out as just a side project for Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, the outlandish medieval rock he made with Ronnie James Dio on albums like Rising and Long Live Rock and Roll hold up as the progenitors of what would become power metal. Then again, you wouldn't get that impression if you had heard the album that sent them to the top.
After Dio left to join Black Sabbath, Blackmore's drafting of Graham Bonnett for Down to Earth was far from their best look. Though the song Since You've Been Gone gave them their first American hit, the rest of the album feels wrong when you realize who's behind every instrument. While not horribly played or anything, the amount of pop rock fluff on this record is not really what you come to Rainbow for, as Blackmore is reduced to just a decent lead guitarist rather than his wild self.
Even though Bonnett is doing his best to sell this thing, you just get the impression that he's fronting the wrong band, with his clean cut style not really lending itself to the sounds of harsh rock and roll. Rainbow certainly has an identity of their own, but Rainbow's version of Bad Company is far from their greatest look.