The 10 Most Overrated Albums Part 2

The 10 Most Overrated Albums Part 2
5. Imagine - John Lennon

Imagine is a good album and probably has my two favorite John Lennon songs, but it is overrated. And again, it comes down to a numbers games. There are 10 tracks, and only 4 are above average. The rest are either average or below average. Jealous Guy, Imagine, How Do You Sleep?, and Crippled Inside, are the standouts. While the rest stand away. When people list Imagine as a great album, I always get the feeling that when some listen to it, they listen to it while having a great nostalgia for what John Lennon and the Beatles were, rather than what that album actually is. John Lennon was an amazing songwriter, and the Beatles were an amazing group, but Imagine is not an amazing album.


4. Sandinista! - The Clash

The only band that matters, indeed. The Clash were one of the greatest punk groups ever (some consider them to be the best). They made classic albums such as Give Em' Enough Rope, The Clash (US or UK, which ever suits you), and London Calling, but often Sandinista! is also put up alongside these classic works also. Unfortunately though, it does not stand up. Yes I'm picking on the triple disk album. And yes I'm sure I'll hear the "its not fair to pick on the weak songs, its a triple disc album". My retort is, "if you know you have a lot of weak songs, then why make a triple disc album?" Anyways, Sandinista! has some great songs, but there are just too many weak songs. I often think that this album would have been one of the greatest albums ever, had it not been a triple disc album. There was just not enough material to spread across 3 discs, and the album as a whole suffers for it.

3. Exile On Main St. - The Rolling Stones

Now don't act surprise now. I previously went after Bob Dylan and The Beatles for having overrated albums, so you had to expect the Rolling Stones at some point. And yes, I am picking on another multi-disk album. This was one of the hard albums to put on this list, just because it has one of my favorite Rolling Stones song on it (Shine A Light). But just as with the Clash, there seems to be a lack of quality. I also wonder how much better this album would have been if the Rolling Stones had scraped the idea of a double album, and had only gone with a one disc album that only had their best songs. Songs such as: Shine A Light, Rip This Joint, Tumbling Dice, Rocks Off, and Soul Survivor). Unfortunately though the Rolling Stones went on a different path, and I think that the album suffers as whole for it.


Nevermind - Nirvana

Okay so before anyone accuses me of hating Nirvana, just go and look at my list of the 10 Most Underrated Albums of All-Time. Okay, done? So Nevermind is probably one of the most influential albums of the 90's, which mean that I'm probably going to have to really explain why it's on this list. The reason that it's on this list is because I'm not judging on influence, but on the strength of the songs on the album. If it came down to influence, then Nevermind being on this list would be ludicrous, but I'm not. When it comes to the strength of the songs, Nevermind is overrated. Especially when one takes into account that Rolling Stone has it at #17 on its 500 Greatest Albums List. No one can argue as toward the greatness of tracks such as: Smells Like Teen Spirit, In Bloom, Come As You Are, Lithium, and Polly. Unfortunately, Nevermind also suffer from single-itis. Once one get past the singles, the rest of the songs are average. This is especially apparent toward the end of the album with song such as: Stay Away, On A Plain (which weirdly enough was a single), and Something In The Way, try to finish the album off. At some point the album just fizzles out.

1. Revolver - The Beatles

And queue Beatles fans heads exploding. I know what you're thinking. "How can an album with Elanor Rigby, Taxman, I'm Only Sleeping, Yellow Submarine, Good Day Sunshine,, Got To Get You Into My Life, and Tomorrow Never knows, be overrated?" Well if you were counting, you'll notice that I just named off seven songs. So what about the other seven? Well that's why this album is #1 on this list. Firstly, Love You To is a pretty bad song. Here There Everywhere is an okay song, but it probably should have been regulated to b-side material. She Said She Said is actually a pretty song, so it probably should have been included with the list of seven. Also, And Your Bird Can Sing is a decent song, but it has always sounds somewhat incomplete to me. For No One is at times beautiful, but much of the time it is underwhelming. If there's a Doctor Robert fan out there, then I'm sorry, but I just do not think that this song is better than a filler. A good filler comparative to other fillers, but a filler non the less. I Want To Tell You just shouldn't be on this album. Revolver is an enjoyable listen, and certainly one of the Beatles 5 best albums, but in the end it's not the 3rd greatest album of all-time as Rolling Stone has stated. It's definitely in the Top 100. Probably somewhere between 90-100. But it is not the third best album, nor in the Top 10, 20, 50, or even 75, of all-time. A great album, but not an album that deserves to be as highly regarded as it has become.