by the Waterboys was rather jolly I thought. And I reckon that the contractual-obligation set 'Chaos and Disorder' was by far the best thing Prince ever did. That's two commonly-perceived 'stinkers' to start with.
I can't wait for someone to nominate 'Yellow Submarine' as their favourite Beatles album.

I've always said this is a great album but it is ALWAYS passed off as crap in any overview of Morrissey's work. It's up there with 'Meat Is Murder' for me.

is The Road To Hell Part 2 by Chris Rea. It's a 1999 sequel in name only to his 1989 album. It has a very dated sounding synthesiser shimmer on all the songs and it's usually dismissed as his worst album. I think Rea himself has disowned it as a contractual obligation as none of these tracks turn up on any of his best of releases. I bought it for £2 from Music Zone with rock bottom expectations.

Although I didn't care for it, I did find myself coming back to it on a regular basis. Eventually I made space for it on my 20Gb Creative Zen and found myself seriously digging it.

My take on it is that it's not a conventional rock album, but an experimental piece that mixes blues rock, disco drums, ambient production and Pink Floyd style found sounds (there's lots of talking voices all over it). A great album that fans of The Wall era Pink Floyd should investigate.

my favourite solo John Lennon album really, truly, honestly, is the Lost Weekend-era, Spectored up to the hilt and proud of it Rock 'n' Roll.

For me, while I loved the charm and effortless tunefulness of the first album, this was the better release, as it fits well with my liking for loud rocky guitar heroics and good hooks. I played it to death in the car at the time; I was working a long way from home and spending inordinate amounts of time crossing the country on routes with no motorway option. Second Coming and Led Zeppelin 2 were on constant rotation, and probably kept me sane for 6 months or more.

Free's follow up to hti album Fire and Water was Highway. Generally slated for being more of the same. To an extent true, after all it was Free and they had a very distinctive sound. But ht e quality of the songs was exceptional. It's my favourite Free album.
Graham Parker's Stick To Me was panned on release. I can't really remember why. It's not his best by a long way (Squeezing Out Sparks was his peak) but it deserved a better reception than it received.

'Thirteen' by Teenage Fanclub. Still my favourite album by them despite both the band and just about everyone else slagging it off.

A big mess of musical enthusiasm, with something for everyone!

Pheessh....such revisionism!

Daybreak anyone?

Be Here Now - would have been a great album had a more disciplined producer been on shift. It's Getting Better Man would be a great 3m 30sec single!

My nominee for this would be Rock and Roll by Ryan Adams. The one the record company insisted he record after he turned in Love is Hell as a follow up to Gold. Great sounding "F*** You" record!

is a lot better than people think. When you get into the lyrics and the song structure you've got your standard, brilliant Cohen, simply housed in some typical Spector production. Still great though. And people always get put off by Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On which is actually a classic with a superb lyric - people are just prudish.

The other one for me would be Self-Portrait by Dylan. Whether this was to 'get out of the contract' or not I think it has some fantastic stuff on it like Wigwam, All The Tired Horses and Take A Message To Mary, plus a hilarious version of The Boxer. the whole CD seems like someone having fun and wildly experimenting. Maybe it wouldn't be so controversial nowadays but I can imagine why it offended so many at the time.

What helps with both these albums of course is fantastic playing and musicianship. That can't be underestimated.

I havent heard "Ladies Man" but "Self Portrait" s a very warm, friendly, enjoyable Dylan album.

- True Love Leaves No Traces is an ace tune with a fabulous, ambiguous lyric.

I seem to remember "Be Here Now" was hugely hyped pre-release and then lauded with garlands and 5 star reviews on its release, and certainly was claimed to be their magnum opus!

It's over time that it's been revised by the critics as "Not Quite As Good As We First Claimed".

Personally, BHN didn't do it for me at all... having loved the first two albums (and still do), I stopped buying their albums from then on.

The Juliet Letters, Spike and Mighty Like a Rose, in fact the majority of his 90's output seem to have had the 5 star treatment on release to be re-assessed afterwards...

I actually like Zooropa more than any other U2 records, even through it was met with a bit of a shrug when it came out as seems to have been regarding as one of their minor releases since, probably because Bono doesn't give it loads of messianic as on most of their other albums.

...with irate readers writing in about Charles Shaar Murray's rave review of 'Be Here Now'. The whole of the UK music press seemingly went mad about it when it was released; there was a comical blog on The Guardian a while back addressing this very subject. I remember Coldplay's 'X And Y' had a similar effect- when it was released, 5 stars were dolled out to it by various publications. Now it's seen as a bit of a clunker.

I need to give 'Zooropa' a go, I really like 'Achtung Baby' after all (probably U2's best and most inventive release), and it surely must be more interesting than their last two, very conservative, releases.

It's not as bad as people say, but I don't think it's great either. For me, Noel's lyrics took a bit of a dive on that one and this jumps out far more than the guitars. This one always sticks out for me in particular:

"And as you look into the eyes of a bloody cold assassin,
It's only then you'll realise with who's life you have been messin'."

Still, I'd say "D'Y'Know What I Mean" is probably my favourite Oasis single and the title track is really good too.

...by Yes.
Not nearly as long or pretentious as critics made out at the time.

I remember Mighty like a rose getting a panning but I think it is very good indeed - songs like After the fall, the other side of summer and So like Candy are exceptional and then Couldnt call it unexpected which featured as a staple closer of his live shows in recent years sung unaccompanied and without microphone. if you have seen him perform this live it gives a completely different dimension to the song.
Also if you have heard the promo interview he did for Itunes last year or the year before he spoke about the making of Invasion Hit Parade and then proceed to play an acoustic version of it. The beauty of many of Costellos songs is that they can be easily accomodated into different genres - witness the film noir version of Watching the detectives. Aside from being one of our very best lyricists he also has an exceptional musical ear.

I always thought Brutal Youth was a fantastic Costello album.

PJ & Duncan

Top Katz

Its even got Stepping Stone on it.

"Medics".........................!

This has been universally panned bith at the time of release and since but I love most of it. There are some good songs inclduing:

Some People Never Know
Dear Friend
and a nice version of Love is Strange

Granted Bip Bop and Mumbo weren't Macca's best work but fun nonetheless.

I like it. "Face Dances" is so-so but I enjoy "It's Hard". I like the dated synths on it and I think the songwriting is decent. Anyway, I prefer it to the rather stodgy "By Numbers" and "Who Are You".