10 rock albums that went from hated to loved
(Credit: Name, Billy)

Music

10 rock albums that went from hated to loved

Not every band is meant to write a classic every time they go into the studio. After all the blood, sweat, and tears poured into an album, there’s a good chance some of the best albums of all time don’t hit a nerve with their core audience. Time can always be kind to music, though, and some of rock’s finest outings from Metallica to The Velvet Underground had to age slightly to truly appreciate.

Although some of the albums by these artists are still a bit questionable for some people, the discourse was nothing compared to when they were released. For most artists, this was the album that forever tanked their reputation or represented the absolute low point in their career. After repeated listens, though, each of these projects has something new to offer that not many artists would have been trying for at the time.

While some artists might not have been as inspired as they were on previous albums, some of their missteps made for the most intriguing music of their career, either breaking new ground for the genre or bringing their distinctive styles to new corners that they hadn’t tried before. Even if some of them didn’t pan out well on the final product, many of the techniques utilised would be better used on the next handful of projects.

Despite being either the most forgettable or regrettable from legendary artists, these albums have been the musical equivalent of fine wine, needing that extra time to sit with the listener before being heralded as something special. While it’s not reaching the same heights as the classic material, the quality material is hiding just underneath the surface.

10 rock albums that went from hated to loved

10. Desperado – Eagles

The Eagles made a point to hit the ground running when they came out with their debut album. Having been veterans of Linda Ronstadt’s backing band, Don Henley and Glenn Frey had built up a musical camaraderie that made for California sunshine, with songs like ‘Take it Easy’ and ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’ taking off almost immediately. When their debut took flight, though, the band weren’t quite as successful when cutting their second album.

Although Desperado is known these days for some of the best songs that the band would ever write, it became an overwhelming bomb upon release, with their label getting upset that they made a cowboy record instead of a rock and roll album. Written like a conceptual piece, each song inhabits the outlaw mindset, from the freedom of not having to listen to anyone’s rules to the dangers of living outside the law.

Though the title track and ‘Tequila Sunrise’ would become staples of the band’s setlist later in their career, it wasn’t until Ronstadt covered the title track that it started to gain traction amongst the public, giving the group some of their first major crossovers with country music. The rockers might not have been happy seeing their favourite new band suddenly go the Western route, but Desperado has had a tremendous journey from being a weird concept album to one of Johnny Cash’s favourites.

9. Wild Life – Paul McCartney and Wings

After leaving The Beatles, Paul McCartney wasn’t equipped to be in any other band. His bandmates from Liverpool had been part of his musical family for a decade, and their dissolution left him heartbroken and confused about what to do next. Once his collaborations with his wife Linda fell on deaf ears, McCartney decided to make a new band and start again.

When McCartney fans heard Wild Life, they were even more horrified than before, with one of The Beatles’ greatest perfectionists crafting songs that sounded half-finished at best. Although most of the tunes on the album feel spotty in spots, Macca seemed to capture the sound of his band discovering the songs in real-time, riffing off each other for the hell of it and settling into their roles in the band, like busting out the Little Richard chops on ‘Mumbo’ or having fun on covers like ‘Love is Strange’.

After the public spat with former writing partner John Lennon, McCartney also made nice on the song ‘Dear Friend’, written as an olive branch to his old friend so they could stop all of the petty squabbling and business BS. While the record might have gotten Wings off to a shaky start, it’s not hard to see all of the potential for what would come later on Band on the Run.

8. Maladroit – Weezer

In the aftermath of Weezer’s first breakup, Rivers Cuomo had lost most of his confidence as a songwriter. Since their sophomore album Pinkerton was all about his internal struggles with life as a rock star, the public’s nasty rejection of it made him question if he was any good at writing songs in the first place. While their return to form with The Green Album put them back in the fans’ good graces, Maladroit deserved a little more than just a passing mention by the public.

Organically working with the fans, many of the tracks on Weezer’s fourth outing were approved by fans online, giving their input to what they did or didn’t like. While there are traditional nerd rock gems on the album like ‘Dope Nose’, Maladroit is a far more eclectic beast than any Weezer project, toying with the sounds of punk, metal and even funk in a few places to keep the band on their toes.

Although the fans might have been happy with the results, Cuomo wasn’t as satisfied, not really seeing the draw in the material and becoming uncomfortable with the way the fans started to toy with his music. Maladroit might not be discussed in the same vein as the all-time greats in Weezer’s catalogue, but fans would probably prefer many more albums like this if it meant not having to hear something like ‘Beverly Hills’ again.

7. Caress of Steel – Rush

The Rush army remains one of the most faithful fanbases in rock and roll. Geddy Lee has often referred to the band as the most popular ‘cult’ act in the world, and he’s not exactly far off, with a following that’s only rivalled by The Grateful Dead. While Rush may have had people lining up in droves until their final concerts, not many fans showed up when they put out their third record.

After making a dent in the charts on Fly By Night, Caress of Steel was the album that nearly destroyed Rush, going for something too progressive and the label considering dropping them before the tour for the record was over. In hindsight, though, this was the first time Rush experimented with some epic pieces, with ‘The Fountain of Lamneth’ being their first side-long epic that told a story over ten minutes long. Outside of the bombastic tunes, album opener ‘Bastille Day’ has become a fan favourite, having one of the greatest melodies of their early period before they transitioned into prog grandeur on later projects.

Although Rush needed a small miracle to get back in the good graces of their label, their resilience on 2112 paid off in droves, with fans worldwide relating to the band’s 20-minute adventure about space federations. For any other band, making an album like Caress of Steel should have been a career-ender, but it takes determination and nerves of steel for Rush to make something that insane and still have some staying power. 

6. The Last DJ – Tom Petty

One of the biggest challenges any rock star faces is trying to keep up with the times. Although rock and roll never goes out of style, there are only so many times to sing about being young and dangerous before fans ask questions. Tom Petty’s music always had a timeless quality, but fans were not ready for him to take on music politics on The Last DJ.

Inspired by the manufactured side of the music business, most of the album was poorly received by fans and Petty’s label. Petty came off as a curmudgeonly old man talking about how things were so much better back in the day. Once people looked past the social commentary of songs like ‘Money Becomes King’, though, Petty was painting a picture of a version of rock and roll that was starting to fade from view.

After the advent of shows like American Idol, Petty reflected on rock and roll’s early days when he was a kid on songs like ‘Dreamville’, capturing a time and place with minimal words and raw emotion. And it’s not like Petty was off the mark with his commentary, with much of modern touring life being about serving the bottom line rather than giving fans a show to remember. Petty can get all the criticism about being an old man, but it’s tragic that fans are now living in the dystopia he prophesised. 

5. Tusk – Fleetwood Mac

When Fleetwood Mac became superstars, topping themselves would always be impossible. The magic that came with an album like Rumours only happens once in every career, and there was no chance that every band member would make another excursion of their passionate relationships. They knew they had to dream bigger, though, and Tusk was everything to know about Fleetwood Mac spread out across two slabs of vinyl.

Although the first singles from the album had done very well, most fans thought The Mac’s double album experience was a mess, boasting some of the best and worst songs they had to offer. While there are a few tracks that should have been left on the studio floor, the separation between every main songwriter makes for an intriguing listen, from the rootsy sounds of Stevie Nicks’s tracks to Lindsey Buckingham almost managing to make the Brian Wilson-esque symphonies he heard in his head.

Even some of the more questionable ideas for the album go over well, with the marching band on the title track adding extra weight to the final mix. Tusk is not the first album to show any aspiring Fleetwood Mac fan first, but it’s also the equivalent of hearing the band’s collective brain on fire. 

4. Warning – Green Day

In just under a decade, Green Day was becoming dangerously close to becoming yesterday’s news. After Dookie exploded on the scene in 1994, the pop-punk legends spent the rest of their time trying to get as far away from pop-punk as possible, flexing their muscles on albums like Nimrod with every genre that sparked their fancy. If the original punks were upset with ‘Good Riddance’, their hatred was sent into the stratosphere when Warning came out.

Stripping away all of the punk from their DNA, most of the songs on this record were dominated by acoustic material, with Billie Joe Armstrong borrowing from classic songwriters like Ray Davies of The Kinks. Although fans were livid at the time, the experimentation throughout the project became its greatest strength as the years went on.

From one song to the next, Green Day were toying with what their band was about in the first place, making tunes that edge closer to blues on ‘Blood Sex and Booze’ and borrowing from nervy rockers like Elvis Costello and The Jam on ‘Deadbeat Holiday’. The biggest standout tracks come from ‘Minority’ and ‘Macy’s Day Parade’, each with a little social commentary about everyday American life. No one was coming to Green Day for this material, but Armstrong’s pointed statements were practically a warm-up for American Idiot. 

3. And Justice for All – Metallica

For a band that is one of the most successful acts in metal, it’s easy to assume that Metallica has access to some of the best contacts in the business. Even before getting legendary producer Bob Rock on their team, the thrash titans were already one of the biggest names in the metal underground. They even gave Ozzy Osbourne a run for his money when on the road. For all of their classic songs, how were fans treated to one of the worst production jobs on any album?

Long before the sounds of St Anger gave fans a headache, the common consensus was that And Justice For All infamously sounded awful, with no bass guitar to speak and a completely dry final mix. Outside of the gross production job, though, this is one of the most complex musical statements that Metallica has ever made.

Since this was the era of rock and roll virtuosos, Justice is the closest thing to progressive music that Metallica would ever make, stretching their songs beyond the seven-minute mark and taking fans on a journey with one slamming riff after another. Although the production is still paper-thin after the remaster, Justice remains the best showcase for what Metallica are like as instrumentalists rather than songwriters.

2. Be Here Now – Oasis

The entire collapse of the Britpop empire can be traced back to what happened to Oasis on Be Here Now. After being one of the biggest bands in the world and The Gallagher Brothers becoming instant rock stars, the massive walls of noise on their third outing gave a lot of fans an underwhelming feeling after they first bought it. With years in the rearview, though, this album did seem to accomplish everything that Noel had set out to do in the first place.

When Oasis was at their peak, Noel had mentioned being unable to sustain their insane momentum forever, envisioning the band going out in a blaze of glory after three albums. As such, Be Here Now is the sound of the Manchester group staking their claim as the greatest band in the world, with one guitar overdub after the next creating a psychedelic experience in the headphones for the listener.

Though Noel has retroactively apologised for screwing the whole thing up, the fan reception has gone from loved to hated and back to love again. Even for the abrasive production, songs like ‘Don’t Go Away’ and ‘Stan By Me’ still have the magic the band had harnessed on What’s the Story Morning Glory, as if the punk band from Definitely Maybe grew into the greatest band in the world. Although Be Here Now might seem like a forgotten relic of the ‘90s, its legacy feels closer to something like the Star Wars prequels: loved at the time, became the worst thing ever made, and the defenders are now emerging out of the darkness.

1. The Velvet Underground and Nico – The Velvet Underground

Most underground music fans will say it all returns to The Velvet Underground. At a time when most rock music was about the hippy mentality, Lou Reed was going for a much different niche, combing through his psyche to document the sounds of being a misfit punk in New York City. The album was grimy in all the best ways in 1967, and the reviews were…terrible.

From the minute The Velvet Underground and Nico hit shelves, critics and listeners were lining up to tear it through the mud, bringing up its unprofessional recording and Reed’s demented lyrics being out of touch. Although the songs might not have been the kind of music heard in San Francisco, Reed was painting a picture of rock and roll to come, with acts like The Stooges following in his footsteps before giving birth to genres like punk and alternative rock. 

While it’s easy for some of the straight media to be turned off by titles like ‘Venus in Furs’ and ‘Heroin’, Reed wasn’t looking to sugarcoat any of his songs for the pop market. There was much more to life than Flower Power, and The Velvet Underground and Nico is the sound of Reed putting a firm stake through the heart of the hippy generation.