Comments on: 5 All-Time-Classic Albums That Critics Despised

By: Armchair critic

Armchair critic — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:26:49 +0000

It’s annoying when people cherry pick from reviews to make a point. That’s dishonest. Rolling Stone’s original review of Pinkerton was hardly a pan. Rob O’Connor didn’t love the album, but he liked it. He gave it three stars. That means “good.” One star is poor, two is fair, three is good, four is excellent and five is classic.

Also, to say Lenny Kaye represented “Rolling Stone” in his review of “Exile” is, well, puerile. It represents a fundamental misunderstanding of critical analyses. A critic for Rolling Stone (or Spin, or Vibe, or whatever) doesn’t necessarily represent the likes or dislikes of “The Magazine.” He or she is (or should be) simply a professional giving his or her educated opinion of an album. His or her educated opinion might differ from that of another critic. It would be boring if album reviews represented the likes and dislikes of “The Magazine” instead of those of a particular critic.

It is not contradictory, in any way, for Rolling Stone or any other magazine to publish a critic’s three-star (or one-star) review upon an album’s release and then come back and have another critic give it five stars. It’s not even contradictory for a specific critic to give album album four stars upon its release and then, after seeing the staying power of that album, to come back later and give it five stars, for “classic.”

There certainly is such a thing as “critical consensus.” For an accurate list of albums that were critically panned, you would have to gather lots of reviews from different sources, as metacritic.com does. That’s how magazines come up with lists like “The Top 100 Albums of All time.” Those lists DO represent the likes and dislikes of “The Magazine,” because for them, the editors gather their critics and come up with a “critical consensus.” You could have done the same thing here, and you kind of did. But because of your dishonest citations about Pinkerton, it’s hard to take the substance of your list seriously.

By: Linkblog for Nov 08 to Nov 15 @ Unreality Music

Linkblog for Nov 08 to Nov 15 @ Unreality Music — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:03:46 +0000

[...] 5 All-Time-Classic Albums That Critics Despised A negative review doesn’t mean that your album’s going to bomb – in fact some all-time classic records have managed to survive a critical mauling and sell bucketloads. [...]

By: Time Tracker

Time Tracker — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:48:45 +0000

I’d also drop Prince’s 3 disc Emancipation collection to this list. Panned by critics, but featuring some of Prince’s best work to date.

By: Seth

Seth — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 21:06:26 +0000

When I first heard Weezer’s “El Scorcho” I fell in love. Not only because I also share River’s Asian fetish, but the song traveled from a light bouncing groove to a driving anthem that every outcast wished they could say to that one dream girl. “Pinkerton” was different (and that never goes well with critics and shallow fans) but it retained the same excellent song writing trading in the bubble gum of their first album for a mouthful of jerky.

By: djalicat

djalicat — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:35:31 +0000

pinkerton is my favorite weezer album…i loved it when it came out and still love it now!

let’s not forget that beastie boys ‘paul’s boutique’ was panned too! it was such a departure (at the time) from ‘license to ill’ that everyone freaked out. i now consider it to be the first real beastie boys album as most of their music has more in common with ‘paul’s boutique’ than with ‘license to ill’.
now everyone claims that it’s their favorite beastie boys album…btw it’s not mine it’s my least favorite my fave is ‘ill communication’.

By: Lyrics Ringtones

Lyrics Ringtones — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 05:19:14 +0000

Exile on Main Street was class!! Most of it was done whilst partying and getting wrecked in the South of France with a few mademoiselles around for company!!

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 01:22:15 +0000

what about the velvet underground? they were highly hated so much so that on there album they printed a lot of the bad reviews that they got, and now they are considered a pioneer in music

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:44:51 +0000

Thank you for recognizing the greatness of Pinkerton, and also for recognizing just how wrong Rolling Stone was. Mr. O’Connor must have been listnening to something else when he wrote his review. And seriously, the 2nd worst album of 1996??!! Unbelievable. It’s funny that everyone later came back to their senses to proclaim it to be as great as it always was. To this day my favorite Weezer album and quite possibly my favorite album of all time.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:50:31 +0000

I’ll second Adam. I loved Pinkerton when it came out, and the negative press, to me, seemed like people who got into “Buddy Holly” could not stand the more raw, less produced sound and even intent of Pinkerton. Not to mention, it’s a rock record based (extremely) loosely around an opera. Thanks for the cool list on a great topic!

By: TD

TD — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:45:12 +0000

Pinkerton is the only Weezer album that I would buy again if my collection was stolen. By far their greatest achievement to date.