Production is an essential element to recording a good album; even the strongest set of songs can be ruined when the person behind the controls doesn’t give them the right treatment. With that in mind, let’s look at some albums that were severely marred by production that was either poor in quality, or simply didn’t fit the tone of the music in question. To be clear, some of these albums still would’ve been flawed even if they had been better produced, but in every case, an inept, or ill-fitting production job prevented them from reaching their full potential. This is far from a complete list; feel free to add your own candidates in the comments.
R.E.M. – Around the Sun
When drummer Bill Berry left R.E.M. in 1996, the band chose not to replace him. Or, rather, they replaced him with a drum machine. The result was a more atmospheric sound, which could be characterized as difficult, but ultimately rewarding. At least that was the case on the first two post-Berry albums, Up and Reveal. Around the Sun was where the bottom fell out. Rarely has an album ever felt so much like it was deliberately trying to sound boring. The thing is, a lot of the songs actually seem like they could have been really good. There are some interesting vocal melodies, and a surprising amount of memorable choruses. Lead single “Leaving New York” feels like it could’ve come from the Automatic for the People era, while “Wanderlust” is the best song The Turtles never wrote. Unfortunately, the drab production scrubs the life away from so many of these tracks, rendering it R.E.M.’s worst album by a fairly wide margin.
Metallica – St. Anger
We saw what happened when the unholy snare drum sound from this album was added to “Master of Puppets,” but what would have happened if Metallica’s most-maligned album (non-Lou Reed division) had been cleaned up a bit? Well, it still might not be a masterpiece, but it probably would improve drastically. The whole idea behind this album was to get Metallica back to their headbanging basics after Load and Reload. Unfortunately, what they might have thought was “raw” struck most listeners as “bad on purpose.” The songs here aren’t Metallica’s best (“frantic-tick-tick-tick-tick-tock” was not James Hetfield’s finest moment as a lyricist), but if they had made smarter decisions when it came to production, this could have been a solid Metallica album, rather than the horror show that it was.
Rush – Vapor Trails
In rock n’ roll, we’re conditioned to believe that louder is always better, but that isn’t the case. In the late ’90s and early ’00s, rock producers tried to be as loud as possible in what became known as the Loudness Wars. The result would often be overly compressed music that would blow your speakers, but wouldn’t allow you to actually hear individual instruments. Vapor Trails was a huge victim of this phenomenon, as most critics appreciated the songwriting, but were thoroughly put off by the production. With every other album on this list, we’re forced to wonder what could have been, but Rush actually addressed the problem. In 2013, the band released a new mix of Vapor Trails, which was widely considered to have a much cleaner sound than the original.
Every synthpop album released by a classic rock act in the mid-to-late ’80s
Yeah, there was no way I could leave it at just one here. Here’s a few examples off the top of my head:
Paul McCartney – Press
Neil Young – Landing on Water
Rod Stewart – Camouflage
The Moody Blues – Sur la Mer
This is just a sample; dozens of dreadful albums came out around this time. Synthpop can be incredible when it’s in the right hands, but so many of these albums felt like they were made by old fogies trying to tap into the Hip New Sounds That The Kids These Days Are Into. Interestingly, a lot of these performers got their groove back when they returned to a more guitar-oriented sound, like Neil Young’s Freedom and Paul McCartney’s Flowers in the Dirt.
Chris Cornell – Scream
Few musical collaborations have ever made less sense than Chris Cornell and Timbaland. On paper, it might have seemed interesting to get two innovative musical minds with drastically different visions together and see what happens, but the result was one of the most confused, frustrating albums ever made. Quite simply, grunge and Timbaland don’t mix, as his beats just don’t jibe with Cornell’s aggressive hard rock growl. In all fairness, we should also point out that Badmotorfinger probably wouldn’t have worked with Justin Timberlake on vocals.
