i'm looking for grand disappointments, some discussion, and validation.

Panda Bear - Young Prayer

I guess I thought this would be similiar to Animal Collective, but instead it's 9 tracks of someone moaning into a microphone. Pitchfork gave it a good review and I trusted them.

for which year?

Wow, I love this album. It's so moody and just perfect for when I'm miserable and so full of hate.

so did your mom tell you that you were funny, or was it some kindly aunt.

for me it was
and it's not even because it's a bad album in any of the genres that it spans, it's actually horrific across all lines and styles of music. it's the audible equivalent of actually being edward furlong.

I don't know who recommended this to me but it was boring as fuck. I listened to 3 songs and then sold it a few days later.

Ghostface. Not out-and-out awful, the beats are decent enough. It's got Miss E, so I guess that counts for something. Just a lot of the posturing and boasting that I associate with mainstream hip-hop, and it turns me off.

It's like in 24Hr Party People where Toni says something like "it's avante garde, it's good" and the media guy looks at him and says it's fucking horrible.

I don't get Young Prayer and I don't want to get it.

that was probably darrin. i liked it ok, but you're right, i don't think that i've listened to it in several months and don't intend to.

R.E.M.-Around The Sun

I tried, I wanted to like it, I even liked monster, up, NA Hi-Fi, and even some songs off of reveal, but I couldn't listen to this.

wow, just wow. i thought that the beats on this were spectacular and that ghost actually showed off some vulnerability with the lyrics. i like that he's verbally, confrontationally boastful in new and interesting ways.

Mos Def.

I brought it to work, we listened to it / mocked it, then snapped it in half.

god awful. he should be ashamed.

At the risk of being banned from this board for life, I'm going to say that my biggest personal disappointment in 2004 was TV On The Radio's Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. Ironically, I liked it upon first listen, and it slowly deteriorated from there...

Everyone called it a grower - one-by-one, people were falling for it. Yet after >10 listens, I put it on the shelf, disappointed more in myself than in it. That damn thing is still sitting there, and after it came in @ #2 (I mean, for fuck's sake, #2?) on the Schmoo Poll, I'm wondering if I've made a grave mistake in not giving it more time.

jesus, i forgot about that one, deliberately. that was really, really bad. i liked "sex, drugs and money" or whatever that song was, that had a really simple beat.

Panda Bear and Mos Def are definitely contenders... but I would either vote for Guitar Wolf or Telefon Tel Aviv. Both baleyhooed and highly anticipated by yours truly... both trashed after a week.

Perhaps, but I can see how someone may not think it's great. I personally love it. It was my No. 3 of the year.

My biggest disappointment of the year is probably The Bigger Lovers. Before this year, they were one of the best pop bands with their jangly melodies and poignant lyrics. Honey In The Hive (2002 I think) is probably one of my favorite pop albums of all time. But their 2004 album was nothing but a bunch of hollow rock riffs and generic hooks. Blah!

yeah that surprised me too. the ghostface would've been in my top 15 had i made a list for last year...


i still don't see what the big deal about this one was...these guys manage to piss me off more than anything else.

also, the handsome boy modeling school was fucking pitifula dn the Le Tigre album, while i wasn't expecting much, still shocked me with its crappiness.

It took me quite a while to grow into that album. Same with cLOUDDEAD. Now, I adore both.

I agree with Cotton. Le Tigre was atrocious. Sad to say.

Le Tigre


stanked up my ear canals something fierce

Have avoided the Le Tigre thus far, but that Handsome Boy Modeling School album is awful, save the track w/ chan marshall.

Biggest waste of talent/most hatred I think I have ever had towards an album is that "David Candy" album. AWFUL

that's a good one, but i actually really like the casual and dres tracks. maybe it's nostalgia, those were two of my favorite mcs in highschool, but i still think that those handsome boys make great hip-hop tracks and that it falls apart when they try to experiment.

Microphones, Live In Japan- Just dreadful. After one spin, I was so stunned by the enormity of the badness of this album, that I tried to listen to it again to make sure I hadn't been abducted and gang-raped by aliens during the first go-round. I didn't make it through spin #2. If I was Phil Evrum, this is the one that would make me spend the rest of my life fearing that my children and grandchildren might stumble across it and forever curse their stained ancestry.

Oh, yeah I also loathed most of Paul Weller's covers album.