… wasn't that good, actually.

And no good ever came out of a bass solo.

I don't agree with a great many of those, although you've got my vote on Sgt. Pepper and Moondance.

He's fantastic, everybody loves him, and therefore love Reggae

Actually, most people only have "Legend" and love about 5 tracks

Everyone brought up in the 1980s remembers them with enthused nostalgia.

I don't.

Greatest Hits albums are normally enough
There's no double album that wouldn't be better as a single.
The best decade of music is 1966-76
The best bands either have 3 members or loads.

are all awful - and loved mainly as they provide a kind of easy to make Angel Delight - Nostalgia flavour.

But like Angel Delight - although evocative of grazed knees, Action Man and The A Team - they are sugary, synthetic and tasteless.

Carpenters, Bread, Hot Chocolate, Bee Gees - on the other hand - are like properly made chocolate mousse. Silky, light and delicious. A recipe that stands the taste test and the test of time.

The best albums are those that sound great when you're driving alone at night...

could actually play a bit.

Dolores Riordan (from Cranberries) has the most annoying voice in pop and rock. Oh, except for Gladys Pugh out of Catatonia...

Manic Street Preachers really should have split up before releasing any records as they first promised.

The Ruts were much better with their reggae than The Clash.

..after "Heart Attack and Vine"
The Stooges and The Velvets exist only for rock critics and blokes who want to be rock critics.
Yes are better than Can.

should have had a couple of extra sides.

...have had a bigger impact on modern pop music than the Beatles, or just about any other act.

really were better with Bill Berry.

up to and including "Trick of the Tail" than after. This clearly demonstrates the old adage that there's an inverse relationship between sales / success and great music.

- Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd were, actually, a bit crap.
- No rock song was ever improved by the addition of a cello.
- People who can't sing, shouldn't. I'm looking at you, Coyne.
- Trout Mask Replica is not a work of art.
- No band can be considered truly great until they have released a great live album.
- Back for Good is the perfect pop song.
- Dave Grohl was the talented one in Nirvana.
- Good guitar playing is an art, not a competitive sport.
- The less notes, the better.
- The answer is, more often than not, David Bowie.

- Any band previously unadorned by such additions as backing vox and horns, either on record or live, will sound too cluttered and pretentious with these. Brass instruments are wonderful but no-one needs or wants a line of saxophonists going 'parp parp' every 4 beats on a song that didn't originally include them. See also 'Oooh Oooh' from a line of otherwise unemployed backing singers

- ELO are shit.
- Fleetwood Mac aren't as good as The Wiggles.
- Richard Thompson's a good guitar player but an awful songwriter.
- Catch 22's not funny.
- The most recent Madness album was crap.
- The Wire's not as realistic as "Allo Allo".

isn't funny.

Any act that comes on stage and says "We are going to have a great time tonight".
Invaribly this means the artist is feeling below par and is just going to go through the paces, getting off stage as soon as he can.

isn't funny.
Bad News On Tour is funny.

...rather than their body of music. Examples:

Jarvis Cocker. Pulp had one handful of good songs, that's all.
Ian Dury. How many really great songs, five? And how many good albums - one?
Barbara Streisand. Sells out arenas for about $500 a seat. What was her big song/album?
Lenny Kravitz. Seal. Have I missed something?

Mike Love had a point

Is the Emporer's New Clothes and not very good really.

Heathen is better than anything Bowie has recorded since Aladdin Sane.

is not just an awful songwriter, he's an awful singer as well.

Kind of Blue is a bit dull.

..the greatest band of the 60s.
Scott Walker was only good in the Walker Brothers.
American punk is enough reason to regret its British predecessor.

Subterranean Homesick Blues is the only decent thing Bob Dylan has done.
David Bowie produced some good singles in the seventies - that's all
The Clash are the most overrated band - 999 were better
Crosby Stills and Nash were the worst act on Woodstock
Prog rock and jazz fusion - meandering dreadfulness (and you can't whistle the tunes)
Good Beatles albums - the first two, The White Album and Abbey Road.
The chords on Waiting for the Man are the most exciting things ever
The Velvets' studio albums are patchy - the live albums and bootlegs are better
You only appreciate Nick Drake/Van Morrison/Joy Division when you're over 30
You only appreciate The Doors when you're under 30
Irma Thomas' Need Your Love So Bad is the greatest slowie
Super Furry Animals would have had a string of the hits in the sixties
Simply Red made some great albums and Mick Hucknall is a fabulous singer

Is there any year in the history of pop music in which the taste of teenage girls hasn't proved, in hindsight, to be more astute and 'right' than that of chin-stroking rock-mag-readers.

(Scarpers hastily, having donned tin hat)

are the best

The Bends knocks OK Computer into a cocked hat.
John Peel was a brilliant broadcaster but had awful taste in music.
1978-1983 was the most exciting time for music in the UK.
Damon Allbran's post-Blur output has been way better than the Blur stuff.
All Urban music is shit.

I think my record collection is pretty different to nicktf's so here goes:
The Beach Boys were and are better than the Beatles
R&B means Rhythm & Blues and nothing else
Gram Parsons couldn't sing - he made wonderful records though
Comedy is not the new Rock n Roll
20 CDs on the mantlepiece is not a record collection!
Buzzcocks were/are the greatest ever singles band

is even more boring and derivative than their last.

The Smiths were/are the greatest singles band ever.
The Rolling Stones are overrated.
Coloured vinyl singles were a thing of beauty (as were picture discs).
Ricky Gervais is funny.
Frankie Boyle is not funny.

made all their best singles whilst wearing matching suits with no collars.

The Rolling Stones made all their best singles while Brian Jones was alive.

Dire Straits with David Knopfler were very good indeed.

Elvis Costello made his best records with Bruce Thomas on bass

'Good Vibrations' is not the Beach Boys finest moment on 45. 'Do It Again' is. These are the facts.

Bob Dylan is a hugely gifted biographer and an awful musician.

If you see any guitar player on stage with more than one Stratocaster, Telecaster and Les Paul there will be an unwelcome extended guitar playout to a song either mid-set or during the finale.

Tin Machine, Tin Machine 2, Never Let Me Down, Tonight and Let's Dance are all far superior to Young Americans - by far Bowie's worst album (only has two decent songs - the title track and Fame).

Decent 1960s singles band. Irrelevant nostalgia act for, really, 40 years now.

Absolute horseshit.

shouldn't necessarily be about good musicianship.

Some of the best rock singers can't actually sing very well.

Robert Pollard ex Guided By Voices
Pete Shelley from Buzzcocks
and Matthew Sweet

are criminally underated songwriters whose work should be taught at the Royal Academy of Music!

could release an album of barrel-scrapingly bad Christmas songs and rock critics of a certain age would still acclaim it as a work of genius. Oh.

Felice Brothers 'do' Dylan much better than he does himself these days.

There is generally a very good reason why rare and unreleased tracks are rare and unreleased.

Neil Young's Archives is the single most self-important and absurd release in the history of popular music.

- Oasis don't actually sound like the Beatles
- MP3s, CDs and vinyl are all good and can all co-exist peacefully
- Good quality MP3s sound exactly the same as CDs

Stops you getting laid.

Any list that disses The Ramones is not for me.

Any music described as "jazzy" or "jazz-y" will be rotten. I like jazz, but can't stand jazzy.

are not worth collecting.

Stevie beats Marvin - true

(and I mean an honest-to-god 100% successful creative rennaisance after a long wilderness period that is nothing to do with nostalgia)

is Johnny Cash.

I don't think Johnny Cash changed at all in 1994. But his publicity sure did.

Elvis presley is over-rated.
Radiohead aren't half as good as they're made out to be.
Paramore is NOT a rock band.
Kasabian's latest really isnt that good.
The sex pistols couldn't play their instruments.
Pearl Jam are rubbish.

... that Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space was a miles better album than OK Computer

Stock Aitken and Waterman had their moments

The best albums are rarely longer than 35 minutes long

Songs sung by hippy-ish women strumming accoustic guitars featuring the word "you" in the title are generally to be avoided.

Laura Nyro was miles better than Joni Mitchell

Bands with behatted lead singers are never good.

Songs with the word "funky" in the title are always brilliant. Even Funky Gibbon.

Soul singers seem to have an awfully short life expectancy.

...is rubbish. And so are the Guillemots.

were no more influential than The Wiggles.
- Jeff Lynne spoilt music.
- Peter Gabriel's new covers album is comedy gold.

SUCKS!

Abba were the greatest singles group.
Glastonbury is a swamp of venality.
Later is mostly crap.
Two bass drums are just a pose.
"Most people wouldn't know music if it bit them on the ass."Frank Zappa and neither would Frank.
Whitney,Beyonce et al can sing,no they can't.
Hunky Dory is better than Ziggy or Scary Monsters.
Live Aid,great cause,mostly crap gig.

Albums I bought and really regretted later:

Trout Mask Replica - Captain Beefheart

200 Motels - Frank Zappa

Tin Machine - Tin Machine

Coda - Led Zeppelin

Face Dances - The Who

this thread!

Gonzo journalism is tiresome and boring.

Every long song can be just as good, or better, when limited to 4 minutes.

Permanent wearing of shades, chewing open-mouthed and adopting a rock & roll posture when shopping in Adddlestone can and does make you look like a tit. I'm talking about *you*, Gerry Cott out of the Boomtown Rats.

Making a great pop song is harder than any other musical discipline.

Jay Leno has a funny face, that's it, and this has served him well.

The correct way to pronounce U2 is "Oy Toy"

Pop music is a perfectly acceptable genre to like.
Your own CD collection is far better than anyone elses.
Liam Gallagher was the least talented member of Oasis.
The best bands are formed whilst still at school.

were a great band, no really!
Level 42 were a great band, no really they were!
Del Amitri were a great band, no really don't move on they were!
I don't belong here.
Who's Richard Thompson?
Where am I?
Help!

... is brilliant in theory - agony in practice.
The Smiths were the most talentless band ever.
Until Radiohead.
Stadium Arcadium has 28 songs which are all the same.

Sgt Pepper is underrated because it has been so overrated. It's actually wonderful.

Avant garde plus pop is often great but avant garde alone is tedium.

The development of pop and rock as we know it today was pretty much over by mid-seventies or thereabouts. This is not nostalgia. Not to say much good music did not follow.

Slow, folky or singer-songwriterly covers of rock and pop songs are dreadful.

Manufactured chart pop can be just as great as music that is not (like singer-songwriter stuff, folk and rock).

The opinions of those who don't think Abba made some of the best pop records are suspect.

Bowie's best period was from Station to Station to Scary Monsters.

Not so many interesting people formed bands after the seventies - was it due to the end of old style art schools?

This is fun. I could go on.

Don't forget:
The Jam, The Buzzcocks, Slade & Squeeze

Another truism for the list:
A lot of people associate Stevie Wonder with I Just Called To Say I Love You, and never find out how fantastic the 70s albums were

And:
Oasis weren't as bad as some people suggest

Monty Python is funny
The Sweeny is superb and should NEVER be re-made
Twiglets are the King of Snacks
Mushrooms are evil

- A major band's weaker albums usually have the most interesting outtakes. Usually there are songs better than what made the album.

- Holland and Wild Honey are ciminally underrated Beach Boys albums. Holland is the Beach Boys' version of Abbey Road, Wild Honey has some great covers and some of the group's greatest late 60's songs, especially Let the Wind Blow.

- Spotlight Kid and Clear Spot are far far better Beefheart albums than Troutmask.

- You could easily whittle Led Zeppelin's output down to one decent 70 minute cd.

- Jerry Lee Lewis deserves a serious reappraisal. In the 50's he set the rock star mold and then he had a second life as a great country singer.

- Steve Hackett leaving Genesis killed the band dead. Duke and the better moments on Abacab were a last gasp. After that, just utter shite.

- The Who By Numbers is highly underrated. I think Imagine a Man is a better Who semi-ballad than Behind Blue Eyes.

- Joni Mitchell hasn't done anything worthwhile since Wild Things Run Fast.

- The Doors are better than you think.

- The Moody Blues' To Our Children's Children's Children is an amazing album.

- Ween's Quebec is one of the best albums of the last decade.

- Most of the currently praised indie rock/ pop rock bands just pound out 80's music or Velvet Underground pastiches to critics that lap it up

There's nothing good about sting, even less re his wife. Kaftwerk influence but don't entertain.

The only thing more tedious than people banging on about the first Stone Roses album is the album itself.

is far sexier/dirtier than Madonna EVER was.
The Hacienda was not as much fun as The Ritz.
Thomas Dolby is owed far greater respect than he gets.
Scott Walker's later work will not be appreciated properly for another 10 years.
The best thing about Britpop were the really hot girl singers.
David Sylvian's gone off the deep end and we can't get him back to the paddling pool.
You'll never cry more than you will at a Blue Nile concert.
Guns n Roses were to Metal what Oasis were to Indie - utter bloody cock.
The Sugababes were crap the moment Siobhan left.
There's still time for a SKY revival.
Iron Maiden should all be awarded Knighthoods for their services to British Music.

(1) Most bands have probably benefited from the involvement of record companies in their music, despite their protestations to the contrary.

(2) Most musical 'scenes' consist of a couple of excellent bands and a hundred that are utter tripe.

(3) Most bands benefit from having a producer who isn't afraid to say "Sorry lads, that's shit."

(4) The very best musicians are often the most anonymous.

(5) Audiences at hard rock concerts are the friendliest.

... has produced music any better than those before or after.

Originality isn't the be all and end all.

It's impossible to be the new Beatles/Stones/Kinks,etc (no harm in trying though).

Some music associated with other countries (World music/Americana etc) is only raved about out of pure snobbery.

Blur, Boo Radleys and Primus are all incredibly talented bands (or were).

is always right. Don't try to persuade yourself something you don't like will get better with repeated listening.

......the better the music they record is.

If Kraftwerk were British or American they would be much more lauded.

The acid house/dance music scene of the late eighties was far more exiting than punk.

Nick Cave legacy as a all time great songwriter is growing with each and every release. Give it ten years and he'll be mentioned alongside Dylan.

The Cure are one of the 3 best singles bands ever. Madness were another one, you can guess the 3rd....that's right Depeche Mode.

Prince Is better than Bob Marley, John Lennon (Solo), Stevie Wonder or Michael Jackson.

The Monkees were more influential than The Stones

Trout Mask Replica is actually very funny

What's Going On is underrated

A lot of rap is modern prog rock

Good throwaway pop is always more timeless than the thought out stuff

rarely sound any better than the originals

also

the people buying deluxe remastered reissues are old rockers with deteriorating hearing

no one listens/watches the bonus Cd/ DVd more than once

or 'back to basics' will be nothing of the sort
Oasis are more like Slade than The Beatles
If REM had split up after Automatic for the People they would now be spoken of in the same terms as The Beatles
A sax solo should never be longer duration than on a Little Richard single (jazz not included)
Scott 4 is the best Scott Walker album
You can fit the best of The Clash onto a single CD
Revolution 9 should still have been included even if the White Album had come out as a single album.
A single album should come to 45 mins in length, no more. If it can't fit onto one side of a C90 then it's too long and at least one song will be filler.
Nebraska is the best Springsteen album.
Jeff Buckley was better than his Dad.
Five Leaves Left and Pink Moon are better albums than Bryter Layter.
Gene Clark created 'cosmic American music' not Gram Parsons

are at least 75% wrong.

..are made up.

of all his "good albums" this is the one I least like

hating flute doesn't help

'Running up that hill' and 'cloudbusting', Kate Bush is tedious pre-Bjork ululating to no purpose whatsoever. *grabs tin hat and heads for Anderson Shelter*

John Fahey's 60's/early 70's albums kick the ar*e off most other guitarists works. 'The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death' is the DEFINITION of the word classic.

I think Kate peaked with Hounds of Love. She's never reached the level of that album since.

Most Ramones stuff is pretty samey but I like it anyway. Their fourth album, Road to Ruin has them branching out somewhat. It's mainly a more polished and commercial take on the sound from their first three albums but there's also the Cheap Trick-esque Questioningly and the slightly Country/ Byrds tinged Don't Come Close.

Sgt. Pepper was the Beatles worst album; Let It Be was their best.

Trout Mask Replica makes perfect sense once you've heard Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch.

Astral Weeks probably makes sense once you've heard it too, as it features the same bassist.

Nothing of any worth was every issued on the UK Bell imprint.

The new vinyl craze is just a means of extracting masses of money out of those who can afford it.

Many world music acts are just their country's equivalent to Westlife.

All of David Bowie's good records are down to his producers.

I think their best albums are Please Please Me where you get a snapshot of what they were like in their Hamburg/ Cavern days, Rubber Soul which has some great overlooked songs like the The Word, Think For Yourself and You Won't See Me in amongst the recognized classics and Abbey Road.

is their best album

1. Only one other person in the last 50 years have ever occasionally come close to Paul McCartney as a pop composer, and their names are Paul Simon and Elton John.

2.A New York-based Jew named Jerry was the driving force behind the development of soul music, agreed - except his surname was Ragavoy, not Wexler.

3. Nobody has ever played an electric guitar with more creativity, feeling and aplomb than Rory Gallagher and, I fear, probably never will (sorry, Jeff).

4. Jefferson Starship were not only not remotely rubbish, but "Miracles" was the best song of 1975 in any genre.

5. Joni Mitchell can sing, yes, but she can't deliver a lyric. Tammy Wynette could do both.

6. The Velvet Underground were no more "authentic" than The Spice Girls.

7. Anyone who voluntarily listens to more than one Joy Division song a year would be well advised to review what they hope to get out of life.

8. The Face was as editorially embarrassing as it was typographically inept.

9. The most recent soul record released was Johnnie Taylor's Taylored in Silk in 1973.

10. Lady Gaga is the most accomplished pop star since Marc Bolan.

Having commented merrily on others' truisms, here are mine:

Elvis Costello is a vastly overrated blowhard whose voice has deteriorated into a malfunctioning foghorn. He's also not as clever as he thinks he is - being able to talk the hind leg of a donkey does not equate to having a lot to say. One CD compilation of his early material (some very good stuff in there, I'm not denying it) is all you need.

The Clash? An EP is all you need. Great rhythm section, two singers who couldn't sing.

Primal Scream are world class poseurs with not one original musical or lyrical idea between them.

Laura Nyro was a genius. Joni Mitchell isn't. Don't know why, that's just how it is.

Steve Winwood is a genius. Eric Clapton isn't.

Ringo was a better singer than George.

I agree with Pat Metheny, Kenny's talents are quite teeny.

Abba are the greatest singles band ever.

With very few exceptions, any record with an autotuned vocal is rubbish - that includes you, Kanye.

Cheryl Cole's solo single is one of the most underwhelming records ever made.

Bananarama were just as good as Girls Aloud.

Prog rock is a very broad church. King Crimson sound NOTHING like Caravan, who sound NOTHING like ELP. And so on.

John Lydon has one of the most instantly recognisable voices in any form of music. This is a good thing.

If Karen Carpenter had been allowed to stay behind the drum kit, things just might have turned out better for her.

Virtuosic bass players are all dull after the first few bars of their solo. This includes Stanley Clarke, Tal Wilkenfeld and all the rest of them.

Music in the 80s sure had its ugly moments, but produces some of the best pop acts of all-time (Human League, ABC, Aztec Camera).

Tindersticks aren't miserable

People who are obsessed with the pursuit of new music (a la NME) are just as narrow-minded as those who want nothing to do with new music

Hejira is the best Joni album, and that's primarily because of the bass-playing of Jaco Pistorious

Radiohead really are as good as critics will have you believe

The majority of people only buy two or three albums a year, and they all buy the same two or three

The Jonas Brothers are extremely talented songwriters and musicians (no, really)

Simon Cowell is the only person on the X Factor living in the real world

If you're under 25, people over the age of 30 will try and start conversations about music with you by trying to impress you with their fondness of a current band (obviously does not apply to the fine people of this parish)

Yo La Tengo are much better than you think they are

Dizzee Rascal, Calvin Harris, Lady Gaga and Girls Aloud prove that pop music today is in extremely good hands.

The Sugababes, however, are even less of a band than Trigger's broom was a broom

Bono's lyrics let him down badly on some tracks but it certainly delivers tunes (Discotheque, Staring at the Sun, Last Night on Earth) while Gone and Please are among the best things U2 have ever done ...

1) Critics and journalists over-emphasise the good points of a pop music act and play down the negatives. The reverse is true in most other forms of criticism.

2) Anna-Frid was patently dirtier than Agnetha

3) If the Libertines are a poor man's Clash, then The Clash are just a poor man's Mott the Hoople.

4) Neil Sedaka is more influential than quite a few of the "influential" acts listed above. He's just modest.

5) Don't read any autobiographies of musicians you like because you probably won't like them once you've finished. (I'm looking at you Ian McNabb, especially)

2. Metallica are an awful band. Every song is overlong and boring. The singer has an unpleasant voice and the lyrics are rubbish. And Justice For All is the most boringly tedious album ever released. The "darkness" of their music is also contrived. Their best song Master Of Puppets is twice as long as it should be.

3. Buying CDs on the grounds that you might regret not getting it while it's cheap is stupid. The CD in question will in 99% of all cases be of no interest to you at any point in your life. It will just take up space and will never be enjoyed. And the one play through you do undertake will be by force. In effect you've just paid £X to be bored for Y minutes.

4. There is no point buying CDs by indie-pop bands like Franz Ferdinand or Kaiser Chiefs. Classic Rock magazine nailed these type of bands in a review for Snow Patrol's Eyes Wide Open album. They said something like, "Congratulations. They've cracked that magic formula that makes their songs sound even better after the twentieth play on the radio than it does on the album it belongs to". These bands exist on the radio and perhaps occasionally on shuffle. Sitting down to listen to one of their albums from start to finish after the first three months of buying it will rarely happen.

are just not worth buying - even if you were at the gig.

The sixties, despite the HJH and the purple patch in the middle, was dominated by ballad crooners like Ken Dodd and E. Hump.

The seventies produced many classic albums, granted, but the beginning was tainted by unauthentic "country", the middle by landfill prog, and the end by punk, most of which was lousy.

The eighties had a really nice genre mix, disco was big. Unfortunately, everyone was seduced by the new glossy/plasticky studio production.

The nineties continued the diversification, probably because of the lack of seriously good artists.

The noughties plus the internet have managed to devalue music as a serious listening medium.

And Archie is so right with Gaga, wish she'd stop listening to BoneyM though.

Taste of Honey's "Boogie Oogie Oogie" is a seriously underrated song that has aged well.

(1) White, British bands that have attempted to mimic black music styles have never managed to get it quite right, but in the attempt have ending up creating a sound that is properly their own (The Rolling Stones, R&B / blues. The Police, reggae. The Clash, reggae / hip hop).

(2) It is often said that every great band has a great drummer, but I would say that equally important is that every great band needs a great bass player. McCartney, Entwistle, Bill Wyman, John Paul Jones, Bernard Edwards etc etc.

(3) Great-sounding records are most often made in rooms with great acoustics.

(4) It is far easier to write a sad song than a happy one. That is why The Beatles were so brilliant.

(5) And it is harder still to write a song that is simultaneously happy and sad. That is why Abba were so brilliant.

First time caller. My go:

1) McFly are actually pretty good.

2) 'Roadblock' was the best SAW song, period. And probably the best R&B song of the 80s.

3) Radiohead have recorded little of merit since OK Computer.

4) Spotify / other similar services are really too much like hard work to bother with.

5) Chris Moyles isn't actually all that bad.

6) Truisms should be one line only.

And not an essay.

7) If you have to really try to like an album because someone says you should, it probably isn't worth it.

(That's for my Cousin Daniel when he was 15 and felt he ought to like The Smiths a bit too much)

....by this topic:

manufactured pop group + faintest semblance of melody + selling records to children = Word Reader demonstrating how edgy they are by saying, y'know, [crap pop group] are better than the Beatles really

Listening to Abba is like being punched by a screechy dog made out of Viennetta

Girls Aloud are dreadful

Lady Gaga only knows what day it is when it's payday

And:

Rock music is now 48,000 times more boring than it would have been if punk hadn't happened

Jools Holland is the worst presenter on God's Earth

World Music is so-called because the only people who like it live in countries WHICH AREN'T THIS ONE

(don't shoot the messenger...!)

John Martyn spent the last 20 years of his life repeating himself......hmm, hmm,hmmm, mumble, mumble, mumble.

Dino Valente ruined Quicksilver Messenger Service,

Similar used to be said (unfairly?)f Chris Farlow and any band he joined.