25 Unpopular Albums

I like the Focus album---especially-- I need a bathroom

The only one's of these that I know are The Album, Merci(both of which I legitimately like, especially Merci).. And the pretty bad(imo) Thing-Fish. 

If you could have named any Camel album except that one, I would have liked it. Can't find anything else to like either.

"Le Orme find magic in the land of smog!"

First vote for Merci, much better than all I've heard from that list. I wonder if that album would be more accepted if it was released by someone else.

I listen to most of the artists and bands on this list, but I am only familiar with one of these albums, which I do not enjoy at all. That is Magma's Merci. If the vocals were removed it would be good, but Vander's singing is unlistenable. Thus, no vote.

^ I'm glad to see that The Residents album get a vote.

Meltdowner wrote: First vote for Merci, much better than all I've heard from that list. I wonder if that album would be more accepted if it was released by someone else.

Sometimes I've thought people don't get past the opening track. I like Merci considerably (the B side was easier to initially appreciate).

That's exactly how I've felt about Comus' To Keep From Crying. People's expectations can get in the way of enjoyment, but I'm happy for bands to try different things (and some were revolted by the dark themes of the conceptual First Utterance and because of that won't give To Keep From Crying a chance)

I said, I don't usually vote in my own polls, but I'm giving votes to Igor Wakhevitch (good atmosphere for Halloween) and Comus (wish I could access the track "To Keep From Crying" from youtube).





Ad no votes for the Klaus Schulze opera. ;) I actually enjoy it, but it wouldn't be for most tastes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgeX98G8sj0

I’ve heard of some of these, but have never actually heard any of them. I guess I owe the Camel album a listen since so many of you think there are at least 24 worse albums...

Edited by patrickq - October 29 2019 at 20:36

jamesbaldwin wrote: Personally, I consider RYM's ranking to be completely arbitrary and worthless. When I read the chart of RYM's top 20 (or top 120) albums, the only thought I have is that it lacks any logic, other than representing fan groups, starting with Radiohead. Incidentally, I would like to point out that the Italian groups are completely absent.

It represents a collection of individual opinions based on what the raters know and like (it's rate YOUR music). The logic is that it is calculated based on an amalgamation of user's ratings (and it has many, many users). Of course it's going to attract some kinds of users more than others.

Whatever you think of Radiohead (and many at PA have loved Radiohaead), many people do love the band's albums, and of course that is the general music chart. I happen to like OK Computer a lot as well, and love the fifth choice, The Velvet Underground & Nico. What I find rather interesting is how well progressive music is represented in the general music chart (in the top 20, I have heard all of those but three and own most of that 17). What would you expect in such a list which collates ratings from users? And I guess it just doesn't have a strong Italian user-base, but whatever the general ranking, that database still contains way more Italian music than this site does as it is a general music site, and I have found way more Italian albums that I wanted to look into there than here, and I don't even visit there that often (nor am I member), but I am more likely to use their database as a resource than PA's.

Just in case it's not clear, while I decided to add the ratings for these albums in my original post, rateyourmusic played no part in my choosing these acts. I decided on them, then used PA to determine which albums to include of the acts I had opted for -- quite a few I knew were the lowest rated already at PA (while discounting some according to my criteria). Then decided to check and those ratings with RYM (I was interested to see how PA and RYM compare when it comes to the ratings and ranking of the albums of each act in this list of mine). I would trust the rankings/ overall ratings at RYM on those as much as PA. But such comparison wasn't the purpose of the poll (just thought some might find it interesting).

I find RYM to be a useful resource, and I have for a long time. It has been useful as a resource when suggesting and adding bands and albums to PA (in coordination with some other sites). I like the multi-genre album tagging, and find the custom chart useful because of the way I can search genres, and there are so many more tags at RYM for music of interest to me (it is a more general music site). PA has the limitation of categorising all albums by a band in one category. It's easier for me to discover "psychedelic folk" albums from the 60s and 70s at RYM, for instance, so that will be of more use to me than trying to find those at PA. And if you're interested in Italian acts, you can search for those. I don't care much about PA's top 100 general chart (with no filters of my own) or RYM's, in both cases, the charts I care about are customised. Since my tastes extend beyond Prog music, I wouldn't want to limit myself to a Prog-based site.

By the way, looking up the progressive rock chart at RYM, Italian Prog does not fare as well as in PA, Storia di un Minuto is the first Italian one in the list at number 71. What fares much better at RYM is Krautrock. Can's Tago Mago is at number 7 at RYM, and at PA it doesn't make the top 250. Wyatt's Rock Bottom is at number 19 at RYM and at 61 at PA in the all-time progressive rock charts.

What about when comparing the ranking for PFMs album on the album page at PA and RYM. Well it places Storia di un Minuto as the number one album at a 3.85 average with 2, 392 ratings and 51 reviews. PA puts Per un Amico at number one with 4.41 and 1648 ratings. I prefer Storia di un Minuto. I find RYM average ratings and rankings for acts to be no less valuable than ProgArchives, in fact for my general music research purposes, I find RYM's more valuable. And when it comes to their Progressive Music chart, it actually fits my tastes better.

The general audiences are rather different, and as someone said here, RYM tends to attract more hipsters. t will have attracted many who do share similar tastes. I suppose if you spent time in their forums, you'd get a better idea of people there (I haven't).

For me the RYM charts has been a useful reference tool, but it depends what one is using it for. I've discovered quite a lot of new-to-me albums thanks to going through custom charts at RYM and have found it more useful as a research tool than PA's charts for quite a few years (I prefer its search engines, prefer the interfaces, and find it more stable).

I also like the list that people come up with at RYM, such as this, which just came up with a google search: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Edward_Kelly/italian_albums_in_rym_top_5000/

EDIT: there is something of a learning curve when it comes to using the charts effectively, as well as other aspects of the site, as a means to discover many types of music. There are a huge number of genre tags to choose from when customising the charts to find the kinds of music you are most interested in. Be it Vietnamese Classical music, Algerian chaabi, or Italo-disco, and I have found it to be a useful guide (especially since I am interested in much more than the music we have in PA). I've used it for looking up electroacoustic progressive electronic music, for instance. The top ranked one of any genre/genres may not be my taste, but I will find ones that will interest me if I put some time into it.

I personally wouldn't see much point in focusing on the general music chart list because I use it as a research tool to look for specific kinds of music, sometimes also from specific years and countries. I like its filters more than PA for discovering albums, and as I said, that it categorises by the album.
Rather than how albums are ranked, what's more important to me at RYM is if the albums have been tagged well with multiple genres.

Anyway, interesting though such discussion is, and I'm happy to go off on any tangents (I care most about the conversation even when making polls), how RYM rates music was not what this topic was about, nor did RYM determine my choices (it was a little helpful in discounting some albums though, since their discography list may offer more info than there). That said, I would like to better understand the logic behind your post as I feel I must be missing something in your thought process.

It might seem disloyal for me to be extolling what are to me the virtues and advantages of RYM, especially as a collab here, and I've put plenty of work into this site and none there, but what I like best about PA is the community and the fora.

I'm guessing you didn't know or like any album off my list enough to choose one. Shame I missed the Robert Wyatt when making my list, perhaps you would have voted for that.

Edited by Logan - October 30 2019 at 00:59

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: I haven't heard much Kate Bush at all but I have heard the red shoes and always thought it was good. I could never understand why so many seem to dislike it. If that's the case her other albums must all be masterpieces or something.