Good albums with bad singles

[salt]

We've all been there. An album comes out, filling the radio with awful earworms that we just want to go away. However, sometimes these singles are misleading and make the album seem worse than it actually is.

My biggest example would be Bruno Mars- Doo Wops and Hooligans. Back in 2010-2011, I couldn't stand Just The Way You Are, Grenade, and The Lazy Song, and I wanted that guy off the radio ASAP. However, he's released better music since then, so recently I decided to actually listen to that album in full. My opinion hasn't changed on those 3 singles, but I ended up really liking the deep cuts like Runaway Baby, Talking To The Moon, and especially The Other Side.

Any albums that you all like but wish the singles were either left as deep cuts or scrapped entirely?

[Deleted]

Toad The Wet Sprocket "Coil". The singles were mediocre "Crazy Life" and "Come Down" when the most album is excellent with outstanding "Rings", "Don't Fade" and "Little Man Big Man". Another album is Kate Bush Houndsd of Love which should have different singles for US like "Mother Stands for Comfort" after "Running Up That Hill". Suzanne Vega should have follow up "Luka" from Salitude Standing album being not the title track but "calypso" or "Language".

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

Alanis Morissette - So Called Chaos

Everything was a dud of a single. Right Easy Steps also wasn’t a great one. I don’t know if the album really had anything great in the way of a good single, but overall I’d say it’s my second favourite from her behind Jagged.

[Groovy]

Lover, the album is amazing but Me and YNTCD are both terrible.

[bat1990]

MJB's Good Morning Gorgeous. The pre-release tracks are weaker than the rest of the album.

[mkarns]

Mar 23, 2022 5:09:36 GMT -5 @sigur said:

Suzanne Vega should have follow up "Luka" from Salitude Standing album being not the title track but "calypso" or "Language".

Or she or someone else should have gotten the idea to turn "Tom's Diner" into a dance track, three years before it was. :)

[312999]

Dawn FM will be like that right now for choosing Out Of Time over Less Than Zero.

[degen]

Mar 23, 2022 12:51:15 GMT -5 312999 said:

Dawn FM will be like that right now for choosing Out Of Time over Less Than Zero.

I don’t understand why so many fans are so hellbent on “Less Than Zero.” What format would this even take off on other than Top 40 and Hot AC? It has Zero cross-format appeal and at this point he needs more than 2 formats support.

[312999]

Mar 23, 2022 13:54:37 GMT -5 degen said:

Mar 23, 2022 12:51:15 GMT -5 312999 said:

Dawn FM will be like that right now for choosing Out Of Time over Less Than Zero.

I don’t understand why so many fans are so hellbent on “Less Than Zero.” What format would this even take off on other than Top 40 and Hot AC? It has Zero cross-format appeal and at this point he needs more than 2 formats support.

For me it sounds like a perfect smash waiting to happen. I personally think it has smash written all over it and hopefully I am not wrong too, because it is an amazing song. 

[degen]

Mar 23, 2022 13:56:39 GMT -5 312999 said:

Mar 23, 2022 13:54:37 GMT -5 degen said:

I don’t understand why so many fans are so hellbent on “Less Than Zero.” What format would this even take off on other than Top 40 and Hot AC? It has Zero cross-format appeal and at this point he needs more than 2 formats support.

For me it sounds like a perfect smash waiting to happen. I personally think it has smash written all over it and hopefully I am not wrong too, because it is an amazing song. 

Well “Out of Time” peaked at #20 during album release week and “Less Than Zero” was #32. So based on this data and the fact that Out Of Time is Top 20 on Urban AC, it would’ve been stupid for them to not release it as the 3rd single.

[Ｓｏｕｎｄｃｌ🕤ｃｋ]

Mar 23, 2022 14:00:49 GMT -5 degen said:

Mar 23, 2022 13:56:39 GMT -5 312999 said:

For me it sounds like a perfect smash waiting to happen. I personally think it has smash written all over it and hopefully I am not wrong too, because it is an amazing song. 

Well “Out of Time” peaked at #20 during album release week and “Less Than Zero” was #32. So based on this data and the fact that Out Of Time is Top 20 on Urban AC, it would’ve been stupid for them to not release it as the 3rd single.

that's Canadian's chart. In the US, OOT debuted at #32 and LTZ at #53, but yeah, your point still stands.

[Au$tin]

Kelly Clarkson - Piece by Piece
"Heartbeat Song" is a derivative retread of the All I Ever Wanted album that sounds a lot like a watered down version of Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle." I love "Invincible," but man that was a choice of a single. "Piece by Piece" worked. I just have issues with the production. The regular album version sounds the best, but still is very meh overall. The radio remix was awful. The Idol version, performance wise, rules supreme over them all, but when they turned it into a studio recording, it lost all of its edge. That being said, it's still a brilliantly written song. The album itself is a bit messy and disorganized with dated as hell production, but there are quite a few gems in there. You wouldn't know it given these singles.

Kelly Clarkson - All I Ever Wanted
Speaking of All I Ever Wanted, I also think its single choices were whack and do not do the album justice whatsoever. Like, yeah, "My Life Would Suck Without You" wound up being her first non-Idol number one hit, but that doesn't make it a particularly good song. (We're talking about quality in this thread, not success.) Then "I Do Not Hook Up" came second, which is honestly kind of an embarrassing addition to her catalog. "Already Gone" came third, and this is easily the best song in the list of singles here because it's actually, you know, an incredible song, even with the Ryan Tedder controversy. "All I Ever Wanted" is a good song as well, just a weird single choice. The album is honestly really, really good outside of two first singles. "Impossible," "Cry," "Don't Let Me Stop You," "If I Can't Have You," "The Day We Fell Apart," "Tip of My Tongue," "Can We Go Back," "Long Shot," and "I Want You" are all tracks that reside in my all time favorite Kelly Clarkson songs.

Carrie Underwood - Cry Pretty
"Cry Pretty" is a good song and made the most sense as the lead, so I don't really have issues with it. But it was followed up with "Love Wins" which sounds like a fifth grader wrote it. Then we got the ultra country radio pandering "Southbound" third. Thankfully she finished it up by releasing "Drinking Alone" fourth, even if it wasn't a big hit it is a very amazing addition to her singles discography. Thank God most of the album is in the realm of "Cry Pretty" and "Drinking Alone" and not "Love Wins" and "Southbound." (And "The Campion.")

Demi Lovato - Dancing with the Devil: The Art of Starting Over
Honestly, this album, while being a big step down from Tell Me You Love Me, is still an enjoyable listen. But "Dancing with the Devil" just doesn't quite go where it thinks it does while "Met Him Last Night," while cute, lacks the punch needed to really be a great song. "Butterfly," "Carefully," "Lonely People," "My Girlfriends Are My Boyfriend," "The Art of Starting Over," and "Sunset" all outserved a million times over.

Mar 23, 2022 8:08:38 GMT -5 Groovy said:

Lover, the album is amazing but Me and YNTCD are both terrible.

And "The Man." Literally 3/4 of the singles could have been left off the album entirely. Hell, those three don't even make thematic sense with the rest of the album.

[312999]

But just because a song also charts higher than another, doesn't mean the higher one becomes the biggest hit. Wasn't In The Night the song that debuted the lowest when that album came out, I believe 100 while every other one was higher, and In The Night became a single and became a hit. So that isn't always the case.

[dovahduck]

Mar 23, 2022 14:36:48 GMT -5 312999 said:

But just because a song also charts higher than another, doesn't mean the higher one becomes the biggest hit. Wasn't In The Night the song that debuted the lowest when that album came out, I believe 100 while every other one was higher, and In The Night became a single and became a hit. So that isn't always the case.

Although I love "Less Than Zero", the reality is, that at this current moment, "Out of Time" has more hype. I've seen way more people talk about the latter online, and in-person, people have told me its the standout from the album. A lot of people are tired of The Weeknd's fast paced 80s sound (unfortunately) so this is the best single option at the moment. I'd argue even "Is There Someone Else" is a better option than "Less Than Zero" too. "Less Than Zero" should definitely be pushed either in the late summer or early fall for it to reach its full potential, especially since the momentum that "Save Your Tears" still has should die down by then. 

[irice22]

Mar 23, 2022 8:08:38 GMT -5 Groovy said:

Lover, the album is amazing but Me and YNTCD are both terrible.

They are not as bad as people make them out to be, and I get why they were chosen. But wow just a colossal misfire.

[gikem]

Hot take, but outside of the title track, Thank U, Next by Ariana Grande. I do understand the defenses people have brought up for both 7 Rings and BUWYGIB, but I can confidently say that I’ve never liked either song, and 7 Rings is especially awful IMO. The rest of the album is pretty decent otherwise.

[Future Captain]

reputation and Lover. both have exactly one good single out of the 4 released from each in Delicate and Lover respectively. The rest range from "meh" to "what the fuck make her think this is a good idea"

[Zeebz]

Reputation

Most of Taylor’s latter albums have had questionable/mediocre single releases, but this one in particular stands out to me. “Look What You Made Me Do” was a fine choice for a lead single just on the basis of how it introduced the era (and “Delicate” is great), but I remember hearing both “…Ready For It?” and “End Game” at the time and losing all of my hype for the album. Granted they’ve grown on me with time and I can appreciate both, but I still don’t think they were great single choices. I mean, “Getaway Car”, “King Of My Heart”, and “Call It What You Want” were RIGHT there.