Arctic Monkeys – ‘AM’

You have to give Arctic Monkeys credit for how consistently they have been able to push boundaries throughout their career. When you release a debut like Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, you could quite easily settle into the spoils which come with replicating that sound throughout your lifespan as a band, but the boys from Sheffield were never content with doing that.

They constantly strove for excellence within various styles of music, and in doing so created an absolute gem with album five, AM, where the songs were either hard blasts of classic rock like ‘Do I Wanna Know’ and ‘R U Mine’, or they were slow and epic ballads, such as ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ and ‘No 1 Party Anthem’.

With these two extremes on display, it feels weird listening to the album and stumbling across ‘I Want It All’, a tune that tries so hard to embody both sides of the spectrum that it doesn’t manage to become either. For an album which has so many great songs, this is one which can be left behind, as it doesn’t reach the high bar set by the tracks surrounding it.

Cream – ‘Disraeli Gears’

Cream is widely celebrated as one of the greatest bands of all time, not just because of how they sounded, but because of how innovative they were when blending various genres together.

“[Cream] was far and away my favourite band when I got old enough to appreciate rock music, and I was getting more and more into rock,” said Geddy Lee when discussing the band’s influence, adding, “Cream was such an influence on early Rush and me as a bass player.”

Their album Disraeli Gears is one of the most exciting rock records to come out of the ‘60s, as it merged a number of different styles and helped give rise to prog in the process, but regardless, the final track is a somewhat strange addition, which realistically doesn’t need to be on the record at all. ‘Mothers Lament’ is an a-capella track about a mother who washed her thin child and dropped them down the sink. The band included it to reflect their humour and uniqueness, but at the end of what is such a game-changing rock album, the whimsy just feels out of place.

Metallica – ‘The Black Album’

Metallica’s Black Album was more than just thrash metal; it was emotional and carried a sentiment that their records prior hadn’t managed to achieve, with their track ‘Nothing Else Matters’ remaining one of the Metallica songs that connects with fans on the deepest possible level.

“It’s about being on the road, missing someone at home, but it was written in such a way, it connected with so many people, that it wasn’t just about two people, it was about a connection with your higher power, lots of different things,” said James Hetfield, “I remember going to the Hells Angels Clubhouse in New York, and they showed me a film that they’d put together of one of the fallen brothers, and they were playing ‘Nothing Else Matters.’ Wow. This means a lot more than me missing my chick, right?”

Given the album was such an elevated representation of the band, it felt odd ending it with a song which is so lacklustre, and not that ‘The Struggle Within’ is necessarily bad, but it doesn’t pack the same punch as the other songs on the record, and The Black Album is an LP which could have done without it.

Aerosmith – ‘Aerosmith’

Their first album certainly isn’t Aerosmith’s best, as the band were still fleshing out their sound; however, there’s no doubt the album has some highlights, as they clearly have a lot of potential, even if it’s yet to be perfected. That is, of course, until we come to the final track on the band’s self-titled debut.

That being said, despite being a record predominantly filled with positives, the closing track, ‘Walkin’ The Dog’, is one of the worst renditions of the track ever recorded.

Considering this is a blues staple that has been covered by many great bands, you can’t include it on your album unless you’re incredibly confident in your execution, and Aerosmith had no reason to be.

Oasis – ‘Definitely, Maybe’

There has never been a debut album which has made as much of an impact as Oasis’s Definitely Maybe, whose songs still fill dancefloors no matter where they’re played, as they are completely timeless both in their energy and raw appeal.

The whole album, from start to finish, is an absolute masterclass in bottling up an exciting sound, shaking it, and spraying it everywhere; well, almost the whole album.

‘Married With Children’ feels incredibly out of place as it has a recording quality that seems almost akin to demos the band will have put together before they had enough money to step into a studio. There’s nothing wrong with this grainy sound, as it can often come across as more personal than songs polished and produced, but on an album which generally has a crisp and clear production style, the track simply doesn’t work.

The Beatles – ‘The White Album’

The White Album arguably saw The Beatles at their most creative, as each band member was putting forward ideas that didn’t need to be connected so long as they were good enough, and as a result, the album is pretty inconsistent in tone, but the songs are of such a high quality that it doesn’t matter.

The Beatles’ epic is a fantastic record to listen to, yes, but it’s one song too long, regardless of how much John Lennon wanted to push the boundaries of music, for ‘Revolution 9’ didn’t hit the mark.

Some hear this track and celebrate it as a work of genius, with Lennon providing his take on what he thinks music might sound like in the future, but this track was likely more of a push back on some of Paul McCartney’s more pop-oriented offerings rather than being an individual work of brilliance. Despite being a masterpiece of an LP, there is no escaping The White Album could have done without this experimental number.

The Beatles – ‘Rubber Soul’

Yes, The Beatles are on this list twice; I suppose when you’re writing as much as The Fab Four did, simply by the law of averages, a couple of bad songs are going to slip through the cracks.

This is what happened on their album Rubber Soul, as while the record was a great offering by The Beatles, the song ‘Run For Your Life’ was a sinister and twisted number that would have been better left on the editing floor.

It’s a song that continued to spark dissention even decades after it was released, as the dark lyrics made a lot of listeners particularly uncomfortable, to the point where in 1992, a radio station in Ottawa went banned the song, saying they had listeners complain that the line “I’d rather see you dead little girl, than to be with another man” leaned too heavily on the controversial side.

Guns N’ Roses – ‘Use Your Illusion II’

When Guns N’ Roses released their debut, Appetite for Destruction, they re-engaged a dying Los Angeles scene, as rock ‘n’ roll had venom once again. The bland style over substance approach was gone, and suddenly a genre that generations prior had fallen in love with had taken new form; hence, on their next records, the Use Your Illusion collection, Guns N’ Roses moved away from this straight down the line rock approach, and instead decided to experiment with new styles.

For the most part, this turning point was a huge success, as Guns N’ Roses were suddenly making music that was experimental and showed how layered the group of musicians were.

However, there were some downsides, and for Guns N’ Roses, this came most prominently on Use Your Illusion II and the song ‘My World’, where Axl Rose tried his hand at industrial music, and it sounded messy and poorly put together (that’s not a compliment). During what was an expansive period for Guns N’ Roses, this track fell short of the mark.

The Rolling Stones – ‘Some Girls’

Look, it doesn’t matter how good a band you are, and how good an album you’ve made, if one of your songs almost sparks civil rights outrage, it’s a song that doesn’t need to be on the LP.

In this case, the song in question was the title track, as the lyrics from ‘Some Girls’, particularly the line “Black girls just want to get fucked all night”, were understandably poorly received.

Civil rights groups around the world spoke out about their disdain towards the song, which led to many people completely boycotting the record. Mick Jagger, however, doubled down on the song’s meaning despite the controversy, saying, “It never occurred to us that our parody of certain stereotypical attitudes would be taken seriously by anyone who heard the entire lyric of the song in question. No insult was intended, and if any was taken, we sincerely apologise.”

The Last Shadow Puppets – ‘Everything You’ve Come To Expect’

The Last Shadow Puppets saw Miles Kane and Alex Turner have what looked like the most fun in both of their careers, acting more flamboyantly than fans had ever seen, and their music was a reflection of that flamboyance.

Songs featured orchestras, had nonsensical lyrics, and time signatures which both artists were yet to dabble in, which meant that Everything You’ve Come To Expect is one of the band’s most unique-sounding records.

But, despite being so much fun to listen to, there is no getting over one big question: what the hell is ‘Bad Habits’ doing on there? On a flamboyant and over-the-top indie rock album, the track stands out as bland and boring and doesn’t need to be anywhere near this record, let alone one of the lead singles that the duo put out.