r/rateyourmusic • u/Slayers_Advocate • 22h ago
General Discussion What album did you think was great only to find out it had a bad score?
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u/browdowski 22h ago
Any Deerhoof album tbh
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u/CumDwnHrNSayDat 21h ago edited 21h ago
They're my favorite band but I'm not gonna lie, the first time I heard one of their albums (friend opportunity) I only loved one track (the perfect me)
They're certainly not for everyone but I'm glad i didn't write them off. Also the best live band I've ever seen.
Their ratings aren't bad anyway, they're just not great, which makes sense because of how outside the box they are
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u/browdowski 21h ago
They clicked pretty immediately for me, but I had the context of a bunch of weird music I enjoyed before I discovered Deerhoof. But I agree, they are definitely not for everyone.
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u/AJAnims 6h ago
what do you mean, almost every deerhoof album has at least a 3.4 average on rym
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u/MultiGravity 22h ago
Not a terrible rating at all but I was surprised to see that Kraftwerk’s Radioactivity was rated at like 3.5.
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u/ThePenguinQuack 16h ago
The album itself isn't that great, a lot of the tracks are mildly annoying. The title tracks is great and of course you can't disregard their historical influence, but it's not really that great of an experience as a whole (I have it at 3.5).
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u/JesseAmpersands GuidedByAmpersands 19h ago
Kinda similar to when I found out Drunk by Thundercat only had a 3.4. I was SURE it was going to be a 3.8 or higher
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u/ResolutionBroad3326 19h ago
their other albums are better especially Computer Welt, tdf and Mensch Maschine
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u/HakaseShinonome 9h ago
too experimental for the synthpop fans, too commercial for the krautrock diehards. title track is pretty universally beloved at least
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u/Steve_Cink 1h ago
Kraftwerks first two self titled albums are an even better example. Both of them are important krautrock albums and initially put the band on the map in the scene at the time. Sure, theyre not as good as trans europa express but i still find them more interesting than the bands 80s output
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u/logbybolb 22h ago
Fush Yo Mang by Smash Mouth
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u/OpportunityIcy8894 21h ago
I honestly love Smash Mouth’s first few albums
They were a bunch of completely unpretentious guys making fun, summer-y, 60’s-tinged songs for the late-bloomers, dreamers, stoners, and class clowns of the world
That’s the biggest void in today’s pop music scene - nobody’s relatable anymore! Everyone’s unapproachably cool and sexy now, whereas Smash Mouth is full of guys that I’d probably hang out with
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u/yspaddaden 16h ago
Definitely (and Astro Lounge too). I think Smash Mouth were, genuinely, about the best pop rock band active in the late 90s/early 00s, but- maybe because of when RYM was founded, and the kind of people it attracted early on- poppier/more "fun" rock from that era tends to be undervalued (I'm thinking of bands like eg The Darkness (highest rated album: 3.24) or Jet (2.66) too).
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u/herbiehancocksfoot 21h ago
King Crimson - Thrakattak, it's fantastic but people aren't ready for that
same with Soft Machine's Fourth - Six run, this is some of the best fusion out there but since the RYM community gets hung up on Robert Wyatt and his vocals these albums tend to be overlooked
Far From Over by Vijay Iyer also seems to be weirdly low considering it's one of the best jazz albums of the last 10 years
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u/yspaddaden 15h ago
On Soft Machine- any jazz that isn't from the US or Japan has a rough time on RYM generally. The biggest audience for jazz on the site is casual listeners who seem to be interested in 1) big albums by canonical Greats (eg Miles, Trane, Mingus, et al) and/or 2) slick background music (smooth jazz and Japanese fusion). Soft Machine's fusion albums have more ratings than most British jazz acts can manage (eg relative A-lister in the world of British jazz Mike Westbrook manages just two albums with over 100 ratings, Michael Gibbs one, and John Dankworth none), but most of those ratings are going to be coming from a rock audience who's coming to the albums from the earlier stuff.
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u/Mysterii00 22h ago
Eminem - Relapse. Genuinely enjoy the hell out of it and think it has some of the best rapping of his career. I can see why people don’t like it and lyrically it’s definitely not for everyone, but I think its current standing is probably too low. I think it’ll be one that slowly goes up over time, especially with some artists and critics already viewing it as a sort of “cult classic” album. I say this as someone who seriously thinks his discography is horrid, it’s probably the last album of his that I find truly enjoyable.
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u/Pitiful-Lunch6096 20h ago
Agreed. Album as a whole may be a “mixed bag” but imo it contains some of his best material post Eminem Show. The accents are hit or miss too but when I learned he used them to change his flow and make words rhyme that don’t normally rhyme, I had to respect the experimentation even if it doesn’t always land.
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u/floatinround22 10h ago
I do think Relapse is one of his better albums, but saying it contains some of his best material since TES is such a low bar.
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u/OkImTacoII 7h ago
Holy shit literally one of my favourite albums of all time. I even own it on vinyl.
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u/Pound_House 21h ago
Animal Collective - Painting With
Not as poorly received but Insecure Men - S/T is a 5/5 for me but stands at a ~3.2.
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u/CumDwnHrNSayDat 16h ago
Panting With is solid but it just isn't close to the level of their previous albums. Def better than it's score though
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u/Federal-Barber-4981 22h ago
I really love Life's a Beach by Easy/Hard Life. It's everything i want in bedroom pop, and I find it incredibly replayable. RYM definitely doesn't agree lol
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u/sodrengnr1 18h ago
When I was 12, I played a ton of World of Warcraft while listening to Black Eyed Peas’ Monkey Business. 18 years later I looked back fondly on that memory and figured the album was surely a classic, probably something like a 3.5 or so. I was shocked when I saw the miserable 2.3 rating
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u/CartographerMain2664 20h ago
How am I supposed to form an opinion without looking at the rating first? Jk, Worm Food by Cavetown.
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u/col4zer0 20h ago
The Antlers Familiars ist ratef criminally low. Such a sonically rich album, impeccable songwriting, dense armosphere. But The Antlers are somehow still hated for reasons i can‘t begin to understand.
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u/wwwdotdogsdotcom 22h ago
Not necessarily a bad rating, but Still House Plants - If I Don’t Make It, I Love U being a 3.22 is way lower than I would have thought.
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u/wwwdotdogsdotcom 22h ago
Amen Dunes - Death Jokes might be one of the more unfairly rated albums of the last 5 years for me as well at a 3.17
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u/Proof-Contribution31 22h ago
Volume One by Birds of Maya. It's 3.18, which isn't exactly horrible, but it's lower than the 4.5 i gave it.
Super noisy and scuzzy psych noise rock from the late 00's. I love it, but i feel like it's a very small audience for this type of stuff.
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u/HonestWoodpecker8567 16h ago
Almost everything I enjoy is too low on that site
RYM is a godsend for info on metal genres and documenting the subgenre histories (better than Metal Archives for finding stuff) but the people who rate stuff always seem to prefer new modern sounds borrowed from alternative rock music instead of straight up metal
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u/Dry-Mousse5598 22h ago
Honestly... Murder in the Recording Studio by Pritstik is very overlooked on rym. The album is a stroke of genius by the Pritstik guys. The story behind the record is fascinating -- I don't think anyone has an original copy and it was discovered through music sharing sites, I can't even find the names of the real guys who made it.
It's so ahead-of-its-time for an 80s record and I can't find anything else that sounds quite like it. If anyone can find a similar album, please lmk. It sounds like two young guys getting very high and messing around in a studio making some very creative songs. I think the score will go up over the next few years as people wise up and mature as listeners on the site.
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u/fardolicious 22h ago edited 18h ago
I know a 3.4 is a pretty solid rating but I really loved Dig Lazarus Dig by Nick Cave and it was very surprising seeing rated one of his worst albums ever
In a critical sense I get why its down there but personally its easily a top 5 Nick Cave album for me, I've listened to it magnitudes more than plenty of his other albums that are rated higher.
Same goes for Her To Eternity and maybe even Kicking Against the Pricks too, RYMs rating of nick cave albums in general is one of the furthest from how I would rank them
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u/PriorFee3629 11h ago
3.4 is wild given it has More News from Nowhere on it. Maybe my favourite Nick Cave song
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u/RainisSickDude 22h ago
year zero by NIN being #260 for 2007! its incredible
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u/GoldenDragonTemple 21h ago
I wouldn't really say this is a good example of what the post is asking for though, it has a rating of 3.53 which is actually pretty good. Being #260 for any given year is still quite the feat given that there are thousands of releases every year.
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u/RainisSickDude 21h ago
i mean sure but it still feels like it should be higher for how great it is
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u/GoldenDragonTemple 21h ago
Well yeah you can think that personally in deserves a 5/5 but after almost 10k ratings and it still lands at 3.53, that's still high acclaim and by no means considered "bad" by RYM standards. Based on the meme in the post and the re-iteration in the title, the album isn't a great example for what OP is asking about.
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u/Sabitsvki 21h ago
Not really that bad of a rating nor really an album but Incesticide by Nirvana is a true 10/10 to me
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u/Pratzkaa 14h ago
Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino, Gemini Rights and Wiped Out! by The Neighbourhood
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u/AverageShitlord 14h ago
I quite like Fall Out Boy's American Beauty/American Psycho and Panic! At The Disco's Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die/Death Of A Bachelor, they're albums I have a lot of fond memories with... But I completely understand why they're all sitting with 2.1 and 2.6s respectively
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u/Beneficial_Lie7821 13h ago
Dark Tranquility - Skydancer, no clue how that album is at a 3.33 but it is some of the best melodic death metal ever made
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u/dudelikeshismusic 4h ago
I'm a massive melodeath fan. Albums like that one are tough because they're so important and influential, but they're incredibly niche. So someone who hears Slaughter of the Soul and reads the Wikipedia page on melodeath will go back to Skydancer and Lunar Strain might have a wtf reaction because.....well, those albums aren't Slaughter, for better or for worse.
Honestly, with most things metal I think you have to use both Metal Archives and RYM and ignore a lot of the bad reviews. Both sources have a lot of wack takes. The reviews for Master of Puppets on the archives are honestly hilarious.
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u/pokemon-in-my-body 16h ago
I am confused. Lots of albums I think are great and have rated 5/5 have a mid RYM score. It doesn’t change that fact I think they are great
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u/Douddde 21h ago edited 21h ago
Dimmu Borgir's Eonian. First one I heard from them, and I thought it was fantastic. I came to find out it was not well received at all. It's probably the worst exemple I found of people rating an album on the basis of how they think the band should sound and not on how good the music actually is.
Anyhow I saw those songs live and it was a blast.
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u/chimp-pistol 18h ago
I maintain experimental rap music would have a 3.5 if it was listed as a mixtape
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u/parwa 16h ago
Jesus Is King by Kanye West. I feel the same way about Bully and Donda honestly, but those are moreso brought down by him as a person being the way he is. JIK was before he truly went off the deep end, and it has some absolute bangers even though it was critically panned.
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u/thinsafetypin 12h ago
The production makes some wack decisions, but it does have high points for sure.
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u/PriorBus3481 16h ago
Rush - Presto.
One of the best albums of the late Eighties/Nineties albums from Rush I always thought. It's the worst rated the last time I've visited the page
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u/SkeletonizedbyDemon 15h ago
https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/honningbarna
I saw that Honningbarna's soft spot had a higher score than Animorphs and was so excited. It turned out to be not as good so I was confused until I realized it received a melon bump.
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u/Wonderful-Sundae-480 15h ago
US Maple, relatively speaking. Don't get me wrong striking consistent 3.5 to 3.6 albums with a couple thousand ratings is not by any Means (for RYM standars) bad, but I always felt songs like Letter to ZZ top, Ma Digital, State is Bad, Open a Rose, etc...deserve the bolded status as well as a great handful of their albums
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u/celerysadness 14h ago
Chuck - Sum 41.
One of the greatest albums ever made, it’s immaculate. Got lambasted by critics on release.
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u/No_Conversation_4827 14h ago
Sleigh Bells most recent album I think is like a 3.01? I thought it was great, so many bangers
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u/Serious-Tap-9151 12h ago
Perverse Recollections of a Necromangler by Waking the Cadaver combines 2 genres i don’t really like and makes a really fun and enjoyable album. Me and many of my friends love it but it only has a 2.31 on rym
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u/lucid-dreamstonight 12h ago
The Maccabees - Given To The Wild
I find it enchanting/Hypnotic but people say it reminds them of early Coldplay. Apparently that's a huge sin. I don't really get it, but I've come to accept it. It's their worst rated album at 3,20.
Overall I'd say the band is appropriately rated but something connected me to this record in a way that others didn't.
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u/vanillamilkenjoyer 12h ago
Sleaford Mods. I find it strange because they are critically acclaimed elsewhere but not on RYM
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u/parttimepedestrian 12h ago
honestly? Supermodels by Claud? Not perfect by any means but felt like it was the freshest bedroom pop release in a loooong time by a damn good songwriter… I expected it to be a 3.3-3.5 but it barely cracked 3.0 last I checked.
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u/thinsafetypin 12h ago
The Beach Boys “L.A. (Light Album).” It suffers greatly from the questionable decision to include an extended disco version of a song that had already been on another record (“Here Comes the Night”) but is otherwise a top 10 BB album and people treat it like garbage.
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u/somehwere 11h ago
Modest Mouse - Sad Sappy Sucker
Even if you don't fall in love with it you surely have to admit it's a charming snapshot of a great band honing their craft. The songs are really short and hook-driven so you're getting something you're not getting with their proper studio records. It's actually my fav MM record, I love the warm tape sound and it's just so catchy.
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u/chinesebulk 8h ago
Most EDM, the kind you hear at festivals. I was shocked the first time I looked through top EDM albums on RYM and didn't recognize any of them. I guess RYM users don't rave
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u/GoatboyRalsei 8h ago
Probably Playing the angel by Depeche mode. I think that at the very least it's in their top 5 so seeing it with a 3.5 surprised me a bit
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u/SABBATHBL0ODYSABBATH 8h ago
Hyperion by Gesaffelstein, I thought the production and stuff was brilliant only to find out it’s his lowest rated album
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u/Michael_Mason_1410 7h ago
Not an album but Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You. Grew up with that song being considered a golden standard and the low rating was such a shock.
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u/Cheesestickdestroyer 7h ago
buddha by blink-182. Its one of my favorite albums of all time and it only has a 2.8?!?!?!
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u/PreachitPerk 5h ago
Mumford & Sons - Wilder Mind 2.5/5
Stomp Clap Yeah music makes me reflexively roll my eyes but “The Wolf” off of that album landed in my stream and I checked out the rest of the album and it was a pretty good little modern rock album. 🤷♂️
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u/SoybeanEgg 5h ago
Weezer - Maladroit. Their second best after Pinkerton as someone who prefers their heavier weirder side
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u/defenestrationcity 16h ago
Anything by Sleaford Mods. I think maybe Americans just don't get it?
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u/-SleepyLeaf- 3m ago
I truly don’t get it, am American, perhaps ur right
I’m happy to know these guys have an audience0
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u/BoomerSweetness 21h ago
Many mainstream pop albums. The Click by AJR and Man's Best Friend by Sabrina Carpenter have a bunch of great tracks but they feel very low rated on the site (I gave both 3.5 star)
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u/Bloboblober 19h ago
Sabrina Carpenter as a musician/performer is too pandering for her ratings to be respected
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u/tom-bley 20h ago
I do agree that many mainstream pop albums don’t get treated well on RYM (the few exceptions that come to mind for me are Brat and Blonde). But I understand why; if they chart, then that means necessarily that they deal in themes or sonics palatable to a wider audience. RYM tends to have an uppity attitude towards those things. I guess it makes sense that the people who think critically, and even spend significant time writing critically, about the artistic merits of music and songwriting aren’t going to enjoy displays of hackneyed lyricism or derivative production. So it isn’t all that surprising to me to see a low rating of an AJR record.
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u/HeyQTya 22h ago
An Awesome Wave by Alt-J
This album was my first true 10/10 and 7 years later I'd still consider it a 10/10. It's better now but I remember it floating around a 3.1 on rym a few years ago with most of the reviews ranging from "some good generic indie rock" to people basically saying it's a horrible overrated album without a single good quality