Worst Albums of 2011

[Zeus 7997]

Pandabear has been kind enough to start up the sister topic here but for every good album that was released this year I'm sure there's an album or two that we've come across that we weren't too fond of. I personally don't like starting these topics until the last day or two of the year and unless you're a Touhou fan you don't have a wealth of releases to look forward to on December 31st of every year, so I'm sure that a lot of us have a good idea of what we didn't like from this year.

So denizens of MH, what were the worst albums that you've listened to this year? I'll be back with my list a little later.

EDIT: Here's my list:

Para:noir - a 21g meaningless existence

Why?: There's copious amounts of auto-tune where there shouldn't be any, ill-fitting electronic samples and too many filler tracks. This could have been good if they dropped all the gimmicks and culled the weak tracks. As it is, it's a very weak album from a band that shows promise but then manages to trip up trying to incorporate too much.

the GazettE - TOXIC

Why?: Everything about this album just screamed "desperation". It's obvious that they didn't have any inspiration or ideas, so they turned to whatever happened to be "in" during the recording sessions and incorporated everything they could think of hoping something would click. Nothing does. The wobble-wobble brostep intro and the equally as crappy outro (is it the intro reversed?) pretty much set the tone for what is their worst album this side of Stacked Rubbish. Haven't they learned that they do better when they don't try to be "diverse"? So, so disappointing for their follow-up album to DIM.

Versailles - Holy Grail

Why?: There are a whole lot of fancy passages and great instrumentation here but what's lacking is SOUL. This is a by-the-books power metal/neo-classical album courtesy of Versailles and while it doesn't do anything wrong, it doesn't do much right. MASQUERADE is the killer track here and had the rest of the album followed in this vein, it would have been spectacular. Sadly, the rest of the album is forgettable and Faith & Decision which is supposed to be the epic of the album is just epically boring - it's literally two songs smashed together to create a 16 minute snoozefest. The two singles were also pretty lame, with Philia being the more bearable of the two. This pretty much killed my Versailles fandom in one go. Holy Grail is easily their worst release by far and I know they know it - that's why they never bothered with promoting it. Props to Masashi though for the slamming bass work - he's stretching out Jasmine's shoes something fine.

Sujk - ARKHELISM

Why?: This album was flawed from the get-go. Sujk just isn't a good composer and a lot of the guest spots on this album sounded awful for one reason or another. The artists themselves were OK but I think even they knew that they couldn't save this sinking ship no matter how good of a performance they put on. I can't really say anything more than I initially expected better from a member of DELUHI but afterwards I then expected something this awful from a band who was only as good as they were because of Leda.

ReivieЯ - a dedicate to all of you

Why?: Jey's vocals were awful on this album. He's out of tune 80% of the time when he sings and most of this album is full of him trying to hit notes above his capabilities. They also butchered the re-recording for [words], which is probably one of their best songs along with DEEP INSIDE and ...for ideal. Very disappointing last mini from a very hit-or-miss band.

MUCC - Arcadia

Why?: I haven't been into the direction that MUCC was going since they've released Kyuutai. Karma was just awful but Arcadia takes a step back into the right direction. I don't feel like MUCC feels comfortable playing this music in this track. There's no inspiration and I get the niggling feeling they're trying to emulate Karma without repeating the formula. What results is a technically sound but boring track. I think they like this song however because the entire single was like this and the previews for their next song don't sound much better. C'mon MUCC - play whatever what you want but if you're going to genre hop, do it well.

Stygian Riverside - Sadistic Scarlet Sister＜BR＞+

Why?: PEATH2's track here was average but acceptable. MAX BEAT's track was awful. The vocalist comes in with harsh vocals that sound like an angry garbage disposal and he sounds like he's garbling through a tin can the whole song. Then the "light chorus" bit comes in with the only relatively Touhou-y part of the entire song and his harsh vocals do not work at that point. It's literally bad enough to drag the whole EP down. Good enough for picking up PEATH2's track but delete the first two.

Lycaon - 嘘と女と『　』

Why?: I'm not a very big fan of their ska-punk EROS-like sound but even with that put aside, this album is only average at best. The material here ranges from average to awful, with only a couple of tracks reaching for a good idea and holding onto it for a while. This continuous "we're erotic bisexual let's get jiggy with it + constant fanservice" theme is really starting to stifle their compositions. They created barely enough tracks to get by here and some songs sound like demo versions for other songs on the album. What's even worse is that they tried to spice up the deal with re-recordings of older material, but come to find out these re-recordings are of inferior recording quality. Try again Lycaon.

NoGoD - 現実

Why?: Genjitsu is indicative of both a lack of passion and inspiration. Their third major album Kakera hinted at this as well but that album's major problem was it had a few too many slow tracks disrupting the flow. This album has a lot more variety but the individual songs themselves are forgettable to the core. There is no killer track like II-Kaigi or Ring-a Ring-o and III-Jitsuzon was 7 minutes of absolutely nothing. This band, which used to be one of the best bands visual kei had to offer, needs to take a rest.

V.A. - Barrage Am Ring 1 A-side

Why?: So many prominent circles, so many terrible choices. The Reincarnation of Faith was awful and Isolation isn't much better. Touhou has notoriously bad harsh vocalists and this release indicates that. Let's not forget that some of the better circles make no appearance here. No Pizuya? No Thousand Leaves? No Foreground Eclipse? No thanks. Here's hoping B-side will be better.

CROW'SCLAW - Blackened Fangs and Bloody Claws

Why?: Arrange artists still haven't gotten the message that melodeath and metalcore vocalists do not mix. No one short of Bach's Thousand Leaves can seem to make it work. I normally like YAMAGEN's voice but he sounds too out of place here. A lot of the riffs are also substandard. Unless you are a hardcore CC fan, this is definitely a pass.

EDIT: I'm not going to keep describing the following albums here. If someone wants, they can ask me what I think about them. Here are some more releases that disappointed me this year:

Old Silver Key - Tales of Wanderings

girugamesh - GO

As I remember more I'll add them...I listened to a crapload of new music this year.

[Maiku 4]

Toxic by The GazettE.

[Yasupon 18]

Some songs on Toxic are actually pretty decent but the intro and outro just scream "help me."

[Jigsaw9 6783]

To be honest, I haven't heard anything extraordinarily crappy or anything that disappointed me too much. The new Gazette and Kuroyume could've been better but I wasn't expecting anything mind-blowing anyway. Can't remember anything else.

[fitear1590 2414]

To be honest, I haven't heard anything extraordinarily crappy or anything that disappointed me too much.

Pretty much this. I'll agree the Versailles album was "disappointing," mostly because they were one of my favorite bands, but I still enjoyed quite a few tracks and revisit them every now and then. I can't really call it one of the worst albums of 2011.

Hmm... Other than that, I suppose the Royz and Administrator albums were extremely meh? I listened to each only once and they made absolutely no impression so I deleted them.

And that's the issue I'm having with this. Anything that was particularly crappy or just meh, I probably already removed from my harddrive and my mind, haha.

[Number Girl 48]

Dir en Grey - DUMB Spiro Spero

No, not really. Although it wasn't my personal favorite. I thought Versailles' album was bad, but I can't decide if it was lame enough to be considered among the worst. It had some good points to balance out the hilariously awful, long ballads/X Japan syndrome. I agree that Masashi did a very good job.

I think Kuroyume's singles were the most disappointing, with a few of Gackt/Yellow Fried Chickenz works trailing close behind it - particularly "End of the Day." Sorry, but I didn't even like cheesy 4Kids adaptations of anime theme songs even when I was a kid, so Gackt and six other people didn't improve it to say the least. So far, nothing massively horrible ever struck me. I didn't really pay attention to much this year aside from artists I already like.

[sai 868]

The first that comes to mind is the GazettE's TOXIC. It was so awful on so many different levels that it wasn't even funny anymore. The singles preceding it weren't very good either but the samples raised my hopes. It's like Zesshoku said, they just threw something together and hoped it would work. It didn't. This is the most pathetic album of theirs ever and I hope they get their shit together soon.

Others that made the list:

DIR EN GREY - MOO (wtf guys, really?)

Sujk - ARKHELISM (I don't even...)

Sadie - COLD BLOOD (why was this necessary again?)

Lycaon - 嘘と女と『　』(...no comment)

[evilcoconut 109]

Sujk - ARKHELISM

Dir en Grey - DUMB Spiro Spero

Are the only things I can think of off the bat. I tend to forget crap quickly, lol. Unless it's by a major band. I'll enter L'arc's into the running for next year though. ;p

[Licio123 181]

I agree with NoGoD's 現実, what a big disapointment. Arkhelism wasn't THAT bad, but it was definetely weird.

[nekkichi 6042]

gazette - toxic

boogieman - loops. they went from guilty pleasure band to a giru-ty clone and lost most of their indie charm with weird vocalist leaving.

this mini was horrible.

everything else I kinda don't care for, MOO was a big disappointment but it had a good track or two (different sense was good)

Para:noir - a 21g meaningless existence

doesn't everyone sort of love para:noir right now?

[Zeus 7997]

Para:noir - a 21g meaningless existence

doesn't everyone sort of love para:noir right now?

That's exactly why I gave their album a shot. Needless to say that it's not my cup of tea but for all the hype that this band gets both around here and other places I frequent, they did not live up to my expectations. The album was crummy tbh but few people here share my opinion on that matter.

[Masamune 72]

MUCC - ARCADIA

I know people say trying different stuff and experimenting is good but mucc failed so hard with this album,

i' ve been a fan of theirs for Good knows how many years but when i listened to this album i felt like crying, it was that awful.

the GazettE - Toxic

Urghh, i don't know why i even bother with these guys anymore, the last few years they have become so stale and boring.

Its like one of my friends said, these days most of their fans are female who are more into the members than the music, kinda agree.

girugamesh - GO

Another one of my fave bands who slowly over the year tuned into a bad jpop band,

just thinking of how much they changed makes me RAGE!

At the moment i can only think of these 3, i'll probably think of more later on.

PS: Agree with Zesh on Para:noir, gave them a try a few times but didn't like them,

needs to layoff the autotune.....do they even have a song where they dont use it?

I've never heard them without it.

[nekkichi 6042]

^ amaryllis is great, and they don't use autotune per se (more satsuki-style voice postfx )

[Asakusa 95]

the GazettE - TOXIC

nuff said

[LIDL 692]

Kuroyume's Headache and Dub Inch Reel.

It's bad, really bad. I don't even bother to review it.

Say whatever but i feel what i feel.

And it truly lives up to it's title, it making me headache just by listening to it!

This is the only Japanese release that i heard and disappointed with for this year.

I could have added more, but as i didn't listen to it yet, (i.e: Lycaon, NoGod)

and dunno if i will so i better keep my mouth sealed cos it is not fair to

say an album bad before i experience it myself.

as for Western releases:

1. Rihanna - Talk That Talk

I have more than 1001 words of hatred that i can say about this super banal and rushed album.

I have expressed for couple of time or so on how much i am

so dissapointed with “Talk That Talk”

I wish this album just never released, it stained Rihanna discography, in a totally bad way.

I wish she could just take a little more time.

This album is just too raw, i take it as shit demo instead.

It’s that bad.

2. Blink-182 - Neighborhoods

Why i say so? Because this album just didn’t live up to my expectation.

It just bland and uninspiring. Worst than lukewarm.

I cannot feel the same energy like they used to anymore.

Just like a couple who got divorced and then trying to reunite for the kids. It it always tricky.

Some will suceed, but not little who also failed.

And the latter one definitely fit with Blink 182.

Perhaps they should just remain disbanded.

3. Laura Marling - A Creature I Don’t Know

This is dissaponting release from her,

after her glorious “I Speak Because I Can” especially.

Although it is still enjoyable, it just saddened me

that the quality is regressing than the opposite.

I was wishing something on a par with actually.

Guess i was putting my hopes to high.

4. Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto

I don’t know, man. They always have soft spot within me.

But this album just didn’t do it for me as a whole.

Although their singles were good.

But again, it doesn’t live up to my expectation.

Especially with their experiments to pop and electronic music that even bolder in this album.

I am not really impressed by that. Totally the weakest album from them so far.

5. Alexandre Desplat - The Tree Of Life OST

Something’s wrong with this scores.

The movie is excellent, and the scores from Desplat here

complements every each of the scenes well.

But i did not enjoy it as much when i playing this on my stereo.

Desplat have always been brilliant composer.

But this one definitely not the best one from him.

[Shaolan974 6185]

MUCC - ARCADIA

the GazettE - Toxic

girugamesh - GO

Evanescence - Evanescence

vistlip - ORDER MADE

Aicle. – Aruku

the fool - DO THE FOOL

[Masamune 72]

^ amaryllis is great, and they don't use autotune per se (more satsuki-style voice postfx )

I'm curious now, gonna go check it out.

[nekkichi 6042]

^ watching PV @ youtube will do it, b-sides are terrible as well

I guess it's their first track produced by speed-dsk, thus the quality jump; b-sides were live-distributed before afaik, and they're...like... typical paranoir, really pale.

[visualkeigirl 0]

I'm curious now, gonna go check it out.

Check out Cosmos as well, Masa. There is not that much autotune in it, save a couple of spots.

[Des 289]

Not a Japanese band, but I recently listened to the new The Subways album: Money and Celebrity.

I instantly felt like I got teleported into the room of a 14 year old tasteless girl. This is barely any better than the Jonas Brothers. So, how come that other people of around my age seem to like this childish garbage?

[Pretsy 1343]

Umm, why the heck are you listing singles as well? Totally irrelevant to the topic title.

Anyways, copied from my last.fm page - shortened ver. + comments :

Kuroyume - Headache and Dub Reel Inch

- Seems like Kuroboyz didn't even try to do something outstanding - it would be understandable, considering the fact that they had already some other things to do (Hitoki's solo vs. Kiyoharu's SADS gigs) but seriously, this is just dull.

Dir en grey - Dum Spiro Spero

- Doesn't matter even if I was confused in the first place while listening to this record, after awhile I realized that it had no plain structure in it - bass and guitars formed nothing but a big mush of cacophony in the end - it had one good song or two but yeah, I just can't go through this piece of unintelligible growlage rubbish. Kyo, just start singing again for heaven's sake + Kaoru, learn to play guitar and improve yourself right from the start.

the GazettE - Toxic

- Dubstep album? People, get ears ffs. I was pretty fine with "experimentation" in intro (it's a fad, i know) BUT recycling fest afterwards was anything but satisfying. Total downfall after DIM, seriously.

Versailles - Holy Grail

- Would've been better album without HGP-istic snooze-o-parts and Faith & Decision's long, boring solo jamming after such a promising intro in it. Not even trying, for real.

Sujk - Arkhelism

- I can understand already that why Leda couldn't let anyone but himself compose DELUHI's composition pieces. Blandest J-release of this year, no descriptive comments needed.

Korn - The Path of Totality

- Stop following the fads that won't suit you Korn, seriously. Most sucking release of this year. YOU DID IT AGAIN DAVIS AND CO.

Not caring about the others that much.

[Ro plz 1290]

The Gazette-TOXIC

LYNCH-I believe In me.

Worst of the worst...

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

The GazettE - TOXIC

The albums main faults remain that it's completely devoid of any ambition and energy. From songs like UNTITLED you can just tell how the song is there just because of the catchy part with the vocal effect. The rest of the song? Probably from the PSC random-generic-verse-chorus-generator that most likely worked overtime with this album.

At best TOXIC works as a guilty pleasure ( Suicide Circus, Pledge, Shiver. ) playing in the background while doing your hair, but at worst it's ear grinding ( Sludgy Cult, The last song whatever it was ). In the end, this album has nothing to offer. You tap your feet to the rhythm, notice how Pledge sounds nice and done. Completely vapid and soulless rock (<-- barely ) music.

DIR EN GREY - Dum Spiro Spero

I sort of respect their ambition with this one ( By mostly abandoning traditional song structures, but unlike with Uroboros there is no rhyme or reason with the song progression here. Stuff just happens ), but in the end it's just overproduced mallcore with some vision. The drumming is boring ( DOUBLE BASS OMFG SO SPECIAL ), the bass just makes sounds ( FPLONK FPLONK SO FAST SO RANDOM SO SPECIAL ) with no actual melodies apart from a few parts, the riffcraft is abysmal so the songs completely rely on production trickery and vocal hooks to make them memorable. Don't let the aesthetics and gimmicks fool you, it sucks.

MUCC - Arcadia

Jesus Christ. The most embarrassing effort on this single is the FUZZ remix that has some of the most godawful bro-"metal" riffs known to man.

Aicle - Aruku

Fuck this band.

[Number Girl 48]

Oh . . . how could I forget the X Japan's "Jade" single. I feel sorry for the fans that waited almost three years for that mess.

[LIDL 692]

i guess that's fine either way cos the topic itself is about albums and not singles.