Have you regretted any of your 2001 album purchases?

Or, to broaden it even further. Have your freinds bought and then PLAYED for you any albums you personally think they wasted their money on?

I completely regret shelling out 17 bucks for that shitty White Stripes album.

yeah, but only one record i think. i bought "sticky fingers" by the rolling stones but only liked two songs on it. it just doesn't compare to exile and let it bleed i'm afraid. so i gave it to menelaus who is obsessed with camel toes.

Hmmm...I usually think everything's great when I buy it, but after I while I look at some CDs and realise I haven't felt the urge to put them on for quite some time. 'So Addictive' falls into that category, I'm afraid.

i bought some ridiculous electo-tribute to serge gainsbourg; had one listen and took it back immediately...tortoise's standards wasn't nealry as good as i wanted it to be...

Yeah Tortoise Standards was a major letdown

Ed Harcourt - Here Be Monsters

Nich wieder.

the only real "disappointment" was that i spent $22.95 on the avalanches import only to see it "new" @ tower around xmas time for 11 bucks. (also, the n.e.r.d. record probably wasn't worth the import if they're gonna re-release it over here.)

But Jess, aren't they re-releasing it with - SHOCK HORROR - * live instruments* all over it?!?!?

they are?!

good gawd. i cant decide if that's gonna hold trainwreck fascination or no...

The N.E.R.D. record, not the Avalanches record.

But latest I've heard is that Virgin has actually announced "oh the hell with it" and isn't going to be putting out any version of the N.E.R.D. in America, since it doesn't have anything that screams Obvious NEPTUNES!! Hit on it.

How brilliant, though. Is the NERD album the Smile of its day, without the insanity factor? Or maybe with it. Anyway, glad I have my copy...

Pink. Cynical Yuuuuccckkkk. Hope Sandoval. Tedious Yucccckkkkkk. Garbage. Disappointed Yuuuuuccckkkk. Chocolate Genius. Confused Yucccckkkk. Eels. Down-with-the-ship yuuucckkkk. Bogdan. Precocious Yuccccccckkkkkk. Spring Heel Jack. Pretentious yuuccckkkkkkk. and, er, N.E.R.D. Yuuuuccckk-oh!-no-wait-right-yuccccckkkkkkkkk.

As a general rule of thumb, it seems that the more I spend on a recording, the less I like it. Expensive imports are usually a dissapointment, but some of the best must I ever heard was on three dollar cassettes I bought from a middle eastern grocery, or better yet, the tapes I made of tapes the guy in the grocery loaned me. (I mourn my long lost Mohammad Abdou boot-leg, accidentally left in the car of a political activist who could probably never get past the fact that he has ties to the Saudi elite. The best music I have ever found for cleaning my bathroom to, oddly enough.)

"Patty Waters Sings" Reading Diamanda Galas's description of Patty Waters's singing made me curious, but I quickly moved it into my pile of CDs to try to sell on half.com. I guess I should never have expected to like whatever Diamanda Galas likes, but I like some of the singers she talks about the most.

Every once in a while I buy a CD that contains a track I taped off the radio, say, twenty years ago, and I am almost inevitably disappointed. I bought John Coltrane's "Newport '63" album after being told that it was probably the album that contained the version of "My Favorite Things" that I had on one of my old tapes, and that I've always liked. My tape was a mono recording, and I had trouble recognizing the CD version as the same track, though I'm pretty sure now that it is. The CD just doesn't sound right to me after years of listening to what I taped off the air. I also bought the Art Ensemble of Chicago's "Les Stances A Sophie" which includes the song "Theme De Yoyo," another thing I've had on tape for many years. The CD version sounds okay, but the rest of the CD is slightly disappointing to me. It's not bad, but it's not anyting I think I am likely to want to play very often. Even "Theme De Yoyo" seems like a song that it is good to have heard, and good to listen to occasionally, but somehow not every day listening.

Maybe the real problem is that I am buying too much jazz, trying to track down every possible shred of jazz that I might like, even though I don't like jazz for the most part. I'm not trying to force myself to like it, or pretending to like it, but I did try it out a lot over the past year. Even with Coltrane, I find that while I still like him, I am not coming to love his work increasingly over time, which is somehow what I expected would happen.

Also disappointing: Marc Anthony's "Libre." For some reason, I bough into the hype around this. Some of the songs build very nicely, and it has its moments, but Anthony still tends to be "wrapped in a blanket of overly felt emotion," as one critic put it. I wish they would ditch the synthesizers unless they can put them to better use than this. Sussan Deyhim's "Madman of God" which sounded promising based on the audio clips I listened to online is also a bit of a dissapointment. Also inherited a bunch of CDs, mostly electro/nic/a (take your pick), most of which I didn't like. (Plaid's "Rest Proof Clockwork" was one of the only ones I kept, and Moby's "Play," but it's easy to see why the latter would appeal to someone who is more R&B oriented than electronica oriented.)

Overall, this has not been a good year for me, for music purchases. Based on what I've heard on the radio and online, I don't think I would have been happier buying Missy Eliot, Jay Z, or the wildly overrated Destiny's Child.

I don't think I've made 2001 album purchases. What is this, a thread for Dr Martian and Ned Raggett only?

if that slip was freudian nick i don't want it analysed...

Last night a DJ saved my life so I got confused.

mine was actually rather cheap ($12 plus tax)--Electroclash 2001 compilation. I didn't even wait for it to come into the rekkid store I work at, I just bought it new. showed it to a coworker before bringing it home and he told me I'd be returning it soon--since he and I have marked differences in opinion re: electronic music I figured him wrong, but no. played it that night, returned it first thing the next day. ugh.

The Bogdan Raczinsky totally shocked me. I'm still wondering whether I regret the purchase (used for 9$) or not.

Clem Snide's Ghost of Fashion. There are just so many smirking attempts to be clever I can stand.

I've had the Bogdan Raczynski album for a week and I'm already telling people it's one of my favorite albums EVER. Has there been a thread about it?

aqua's aquarius = k-lame. turns out i shd have got aquarium which = k-rad

The new Techno Animal. Having not heard much of their stuff since the excellent Re Entry I was expecting a hip hop version of that album. How wrong could I be? Fortunately, the Cannibal Ox album filled the gaping void of my expectation nicely.

Only one thankfully. 'Suburban Tales of Every Happiness' ~ Bitter Springs. I spent ages searching for it, somehow thinking it was just the album I needed. When I finally got it, I discovered it wasn't very good.

Oh, I bought the Cosmic Rough Riders album as well. Tcha, what was I thinking, eh?

Arling and Cameron. was getting rave reviews on a couple of mailing lists, but it's disappointing
at least it only cost me 6 quid at the Music and Video Exchange

got a few disappointing reissues as well throughout the year, including the African Music Machine LP (very short, e.g 20 mins, and the tracks besides the two singles are forgettable)

The last Susumu Yakota full length on Leaf. I don't understand what all the hype is about. I mean I really cannot figure it out. I actually listened to it several times to see if there was something I was missing. Am I missing something?

mt

Mike, that one took a little while with me. I had an "epiphanic" hearing in headphones one night when I was REALLY tired though, and every time since it's managed to spark at least some of that magic. I'd give it more time...

Hmmm, I've liked pretty much everything I've bought this year, which is sort of unusual, specially considering how much random stuff I've been picking up. OMD's 'Architecture and Morality' hit me sort of funny at first, but now I love it to death. Synth-pop usually works like that with me tho; once I get past certain really dated-sounding parts, it really clings to me.

A lot of dissappointment here, my own effort to buy into some new stuff, was Muse's Origin, where the 2 bands I loath ( Queen and Radiohead) are combined together and sadly the Zoot Woman CD (I loved the video for the Magazine-single) is not that much on my playlist anymore.

I was on the verge of buying the JJ72 album but after the Muse tragedy I keep my euro's in my pocket

That new 4-Hero album.

The previous 4-Hero record didn't teach you, then? ;-)

I've been pretty lucky this year (or it's just been a v. good year or something). ILM has certainly helped me avoid disappointments. I did buy the Beta Band album over Christmas, however, and haven't yet made it through to the end.

bogdan raczynski. prefuse 73.

the self-titled debut from the stuck-ups.

also i still have not taken 'feminist sweepstakes' out of its shrinkwrap.

I've very rarely actively REGRETTED anything I purchased, though it's true I've been very disappointed by certain albums once getting them home and listening through them. Probably the biggest disappointment was the Clinic album, which sounded amazing on the listening station at the store where I picked it up, but sounded amazingly boring once I got it home (just garagey sludge). That's probably the biggest issue with me...hearing something at the store that excited me enough to buy it, then getting it home and...ehhhh.

hmmm, I was gonna buy that Clinic album. I bought an LP by the Get Up Kids that was real disappointing. Sounded like an unenthusiastic Superchunk (who are still performing, and enthusiastically).

Re: I don't think I've made 2001 album purchases. -- N. (nickdastoor@hotmail.com),

Dastoor has caught pinefox-itis - a condition that is fear of new contemporary music, it has symptoms of living in the past - frozen in time - unable to move - particularly linked to one overriding obsession - in Dastoor's case the pinefox-itis is known by the virus of Belle & Sebastian ;}

You may still like it, Sean...everyone else seems to be raving it about it. It's probably just me.

Nick Cave - No More Shall We Part. I spent ages looking forward to this coming out. Wise Music Friend warned me not to get it, but no... Huge disappointment. Totally uninspired, overproduced, rehash of Let Love In.

I still haven't gotten that new Cave album, actually. Maybe I just want to hold onto the brilliance of the semi-solo show back in March (lord knows I've love a recording from that tour...anyone?).

Sean, you pick up that Clinic album RIGHT NOW. And, Maura, I would leave the shrinkwrap on that Le Tigre joint - that record would have to be my offering to this pyre.

STILL, Ned?

Clinic as "garagey sludge" = what I was trying to get at on that cover design thread, actually. It took their videos -- and the blocks M2 deigns to air them in -- to make me realize how much of their work could be read as "electronica," which I currently suspect is why the record plays across so well. An out-of-context listen to "Distortions" followed by "The Second Line" backs this up with a vengeance; I suspect there's something brilliant in the fact that they can set this "garagey" tone and then run off in the other direction without your having noticed that anything's changed.

I just picked up that singles comp of theirs, though, which leans closer to Sean's complaint. But not much. Mostly it sound "promising," and while I thought at first that I only felt that way because I knew what happened next, I'm now thinking that the "promise" lies in that early material's being v. "smart" and v. interesting but v. unfocused at the same time.

I still havent made it through the end of Autechre's "Confield". The Tortoise album was dissapointing too. I havent been impressed by the Pulp and Aaliyah albums except for the odd track.

"Dastoor has caught pinefox-itis - a condition that is fear of new contemporary music"

I think it was a joke, DJM.

Maybe I'm just not terribly adventurous (or easy pleased), but I can't think of any of my record purchases last year as being disappointing exactly. I mean, I can think of a clutch of purchases around the same time in mid-summer (Pinkie Maclure, Anja Garbarek, Aluminum Group) which, in terms of decent material, would struggle to pad out an EP between them but, seeing as I barely spent an EP's worth of cash on them, I can't really complain (see also: Klute, Jake Mandell, Gnac).

I'm still fairly underwhelmed by the Bjork record, and the Ilpo Vaisanen thing on Mego didn't live up to the packaging.

Like Simon Reynolds says in the Wire this month: "Drukqs" sukqs!

Deeply regretted buying "The Tragic Epilogue" at the time. But later realised it was a blessing in disguise as it helped me avoid the far worse fate of owning cLOUDEAD, Cannibal Ox, Co Flow and Mike Ladd albums.

The Beatminerz's album was rubbish, too. I bought it for that Lord Tariq track then realised that the rest of it was utter toss.

To clarify further, DJ Martian, it was a joke reliant on the odd phrasing of the question "Have you regretted any of your 2001 album purchases?" As in "But Lord Custos, what makes you think I've bought that many albums?". Geddit?

if that's comedy i'd rather have my brush caught in a mangle *BOOM BOOM*

sorry, that shd be "me brush"

But Dastoor you called me Dr Martian - so I diagnosed your condition - geddit ;)

[by the way..the medicine to treat this condition is to read my weblog regularly.]

I may go back to that Clinic album and listen through again...maybe slip it into the middle of a Jukebox playlist and see if it grabs me. It actually brings up something that I noticed about my listening habits in 2001, in that I bought an awful lot of stuff that disappointed me greatly on first listen, but as soon as I started listening to it more I started enjoying it a lot more. Perhaps it's because I'm getting very jaded, or I've gotten into a mode where I cannot, absolutely CANNOT listen to an album without trying to compare it to the previous album (or indeed, to my own expectations), and therefore give it short shrift. Biggest offense this past year was writing off the Super Furry Animals album as duff after only two listens, but coming back to it later and realizing that it's probably one of my favourites of the year (and the title track may actually be my favourite track of the year, too). 2001 for me was the year of the "grower". Back to the old stacks.

Sorry - yes, it wasn't a very good joke. But I just wanted to make it clear I have not become the pinefox. I have bought a few new records in 2001. None of which I regret, I don't think. Reading your weblog just scares me, Dr Martian.

Eels - Souljacker
REM - Reveal
The Great Lakes
The Best of Buffalo Springfield
The Minders - Golden Street
Ladytron - 604
Neu's first album (Neu 75 is great though)

I honestly wouldn't buy these records if I had the year again. I guess I just don't know what I'm gonna like these days.

forgot:
Kid 606 - PS I Love You.

Records this year I've instantly regretted but have come to absolutely adore:

Eve - Scorpion