10 moments of delusional self-confidence in music
No one can make a name for themselves in the music industry without some level of confidence. The audience never comes to the artists, so they have to work tooth and nail to ensure they have something as close to perfect as possible. When bands start believing their hype, expectations get a little too high, and self-confidence gets the better of acts like Oasis and U2.
Although these moments may have produced some decent material for each of these individual acts, they were not prepared to walk the walk they set for themselves. Despite having all the confidence in the world, the projects in question never hit the mark, as bands talked themselves up in the same breath as legends before audiences could make up their minds.
Not all of these have to be self-congratulations, though. For some of these projects, artists promised to share all new sides of their personality, only to give their fans more of the same material they were used to. Instead of having some bold new reinvention, the hype behind the artist led to lots of underwhelming performances.
Although each of these artists still has merit behind them, they had to scale things back to get themselves back on track, either course-correcting or going in the complete opposite direction of what they had just done. Ambition is always good to have, but these moments happen when that ambition consumes someone.
10 moments of delusional self-confidence in music
Cut the Crap – The Clash
Throughout the ‘70s, The Clash lived up to their self-moniker ‘The Only Band That Mattered’. As much as The Sex Pistols may have been into destruction, Joe Strummer focused on what happened after everything was knocked down, looking to break down the walls of genres on albums like Combat Rock. The Clash were always a democracy, and leaving Mick Jones was their death blow.
After years of contributing hits to the band, Jones was let go by Strummer in the early ‘80s, thinking that he had become too much of a rock star. No matter if they were down one member, Strummer created a new version of The Clash for Cut the Crap, which sounds like the dying gasp of a once-thriving band.
Outside of a few holdovers from their glory period, every song on this album feels like a misstep, from Strummer writing meaningless lyrics to adding unnecessary synthesisers into the mix that makes the album feel like a chore for fans. The Clash could have evolved into the ‘80s, but cutting off Mick Jones is the punk equivalent of The Beatles carrying on without John Lennon.
Passages – The Carpenters
During the Carpenters’ glory years, they started to get a nasty reputation as passe. Although their hits made them pop darlings on the strength of songs like ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’, Karen’s pillowy voice and laid-back instrumentation made them look like elevator music compared to the hard rock crowd. The Carpenters could still play, but no one expected them to flex their muscles simultaneously.
Looking to shed their old skin, Passages is one of the strangest albums made by a pop act, going in the opposite direction and creating songs that go from lounge music to prog-rock epics to their usual sound. While their version of Klaatu’s song ‘Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft’ is certainly a ride for any curious fans, there was no way this album would reach the masses.
Despite wanting to stretch their muscles, every one of these bold new experiments never registered with the public, only confirming the duo’s tailspin before Karen’s untimely death. The Carpenters would get a far better reappraisal years later. However, fans can never forget that one album where they tried everything they could to impress their audience.
Johnny Borrell’s Bob Dylan dreams
Most artists need to do something extra in the pop world to carry them over. Even though the rock scene has its agenda, being flung into the mainstream media is always challenging, and that means artists have to talk themselves up like some sort of musical second coming. While most artists come off as humble, Johnny Borrell wasn’t looking for humility when interviewed for The Guardian.
During one of his conversations, the Razorlight frontman compared his songwriting to that of Bob Dylan, which is far more self-aggrandising than most fans were ready for. Although Razorlight has some decent tunes in their arsenal, it’s impossible to compare one’s songwriting skills to Dylan, who practically rewrote the book on how to write rock and roll lyrics throughout his run in the ‘60s.
Though it’s easy to take some of these comments with a grain of salt, Dylan will never be outclassed by a new generation. Long before acts like Razorlight were even a thought in Borrell’s mind, Dylan’s way with words was miles above anything most rock writers would ever hope to write.
Binaural – Pearl Jam
Most American bands weren’t looking to get political in the early ‘00s. In the aftermath of 9/11, artists were thrown into a sense of blind patriotism as George Bush launched the War in Iraq on transparently flimsy reasons. While Eddie Vedder was angry about the President’s decisions, his choice for rebellion became one of the biggest missteps of Pearl Jam’s career.
Looking to provide a more nuanced view of the political upheaval, Riot Act was created as a way to peacefully protest the war going on. While some songs hit on a nerve, like the Bush mockery tune ‘Bushleaguer’, most of the album is far too syrupy to have a political agenda, dominated by acoustic tunes, mindless art rock musings, and decent rock songs that are kneecapped by criminally slow tempos.
While Vedder was known for getting fired up about his beliefs onstage, this entire album doesn’t play into the band’s strengths, trying to have a thorough conversation and then stopping themselves before making a decent point. There are a lot of sketches and a few decent ideas on Riot Act, but any Pearl Jam album without its teeth exposed feels wrong for fans of the grunge heavyweights.
‘Roll the Bones’ – Rush
The number one rule for Rush is that no genre is off the table. The Canadian icons played to their strengths throughout their career while expanding their horizons, going from intense prog-rock beginnings to synth-heavy songs in their middle period. As the ‘80s died down, the band bit off more than they could chew going into the Roll The Bones album.
Having already made some questionable decisions on albums previously, like the song ‘Tai Shan’, the title track of this album starts as a decent Rush song before having a rap breakdown. Rather than having a professional rapper spit over the beat, the trio thought they’d make do themselves, as Geddy Lee performed the rap with his voice lowered during post-production.
Although the content of the rap verses has some eye-opening messages and good lyrics to take to heart, it’s impossible to take it seriously when it sounds like an average dad trying to get in touch with what his kids are listening to. Rush’s original plan was to have John Cleese come in and perform the rap as a joke, which would have worked a thousand times better than whatever happened here.
The Load era – Metallica
At the start of the ‘90s, Metallica was on top of the world. After taking the gamble of working with Bob Rock on The Black Album, the band were launched into superstardom, both enraging their snobby fans by ‘selling out’ while also becoming one of the biggest bands in the world. That was all in 1990, though, and the music scene looked a lot different by the time 1991 rolled around.
As Metallica completed their victory lap, they thought they could compete with the likes of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, reinventing themselves with a new image on the one-two punch Load and ReLoad. While there is a fair bit of decent material across both of these albums, fans saw through the band’s ruse, looking to double down on their fame by making songs that could fit side by side with Alice in Chains at the time.
The band were even convinced that this new direction would be better if drawn out, bragging on the cover sleeve that Load as long as a CD could hold at the time without sacrificing audio fidelity. Load and ReLoad could have made a decent record if squished together, but nothing was more important than the band raking in cash from the alternative movement.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s experimental albums
The relationship between John Lennon and Yoko Ono might be one of the most contentious pairings in musical history. As much as Lennon may have found his soulmate, Ono was inadvertently blamed for breaking up The Beatles, despite not having that much of a say in their business dealings. While Lennon got out his artistic frustrations on his experimental albums, each collaboration with Ono fell on the wrong side of listenable.
While Two Virgins captures the sounds of Lennon and Ono’s first romantic fling, there’s nothing on here that fans of The Beatles would care for, with the pair making some of the most discordant noise to be put on vinyl that decade. The first album was enough of a success for them to continue for two more albums, Life With the Lions and The Wedding Album, the former of which features some of the most grating noise imaginable on ‘Cambridge 1969’.
Granted, what Lennon and Ono were doing on these records was certainly progressive for the time, with one of the biggest pop stars in the world working with one of the boldest faces of the avant-garde scene. Unless there are people looking for music that elicits migraines, these albums should be avoided at all costs.
Brandon Flowers’s Sam’s Town announcement
It would be nearly impossible for The Killers to eclipse what they had made on Hot Fuss. With some of the best ear candy of the ‘00s, Brandon Flowers’s voice was full of emotion, capturing feelings of love, lust and heartache better than any rock star. Every album tries to outdo the album before it, but Flowers’s PR statement could have used a lot of work.
Prior to Sam’s Town’s release, Flowers praised his album to high heaven, telling Giant magazine at the time, “if somebody asks me what I think about it, I’ll say I think it’s the best album in twenty years”. While Flowers might have been trying to express confidence in his work, some fans saw nothing but pretentiousness, preemptively reviewing the album as lacklustre based on Flowers’s high expectations alone.
In the years since its release, Sam’s Town has been given a critical reappraisal, as it set the benchmark for what The Killers would do later, embracing the sounds of heartland rock and creating stories of what happens on the dark side of America. Flowers might have killed the album’s momentum before it started, but now that almost 20 years have passed since its release, he may have had a point.
U2’s Songs of Innocence debacle
U2 have been trying to escape their ego since the ‘80s. Although Bono might have a lot of love for the common folk in his heart, it’s always hard for the public to get on board when he starts congratulating the work that U2 has done for rock and roll and the planet. While some fans might squint through most of the documentary Rattle and Hum, millions jumped off the bandwagon when they made a deal with Apple.
In promoting their new album Songs of Innocence, the band decided to mass produce the album on iTunes, sticking the album on every iPhone without asking. Getting a new U2 album was far from a bad thing; there was a critical backlash immediately, with fans complaining that they had a hard time deleting the album from their music library.
Aside from the debacle, the album is pretty good for a later U2 project, as Bono makes lyrical strides and sounds much more alive than anything off of No Line on the Horizon. There’s a remarkable career renaissance hidden inside this album, but there was no way to enjoy it when the musical version of Big Brother tried to beat fans into submission.
Oasis’ entire career
When talking about some of the biggest rock acts of the ‘90s, Oasis is in a league of their own. Their cult of personality was only matched by the rivalry between the Gallaghers, whose animosity towards each other only created more headlines. In between their bickering, they only liked to talk about how much of a big deal they were.
From their earliest interviews onward, every press junket with The Gallaghers saw them proclaiming themselves as one of the greatest bands in the world. While Noel admits he is far from a musical genius, he doesn’t mince words about being one of the most important figures in music, looking to go down in history in the same club as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. It may have worked for a while, but things started crashing down towards the end of the decade.
After the blown-out production of Be Here Now, the band hit a wall, coming in at number one across the country with an album that sounded tired and way too noisy for its good. Looking back on their legacy, even Noel points to this album as the moment he started believing his own hype and squandering all of the band’s potential. Oasis certainly had the momentum to become legends, but this was when all of their musical charm finally stalled out.
