Albums that bombed

[Borracho]

I've just been reading about Robin Thicke's latest album, a cri de coeur which he knocked together in the space of a few weeks with the aim of winning back the heart of his estranged wife.

Apparently this wretched thing sold 530 copies in the UK in its first week, 550 in Canada, 158 in Australia, and has managed a miserable 30,000 units shifted in the US in two months. That's pretty impressive.

I also seem to recall that Goddess In The Doorway by Mick Jagger racked up three-figure sales in its first week too, despite (or perhaps due to) the helping hand of a five-star review in Rolling Stone by his old buddy Jann Wenner.

Any more for any more?

[Stumpy Pepys]

Albums that bombed

Duffy's second album tanked so badly she stopped making records.

[Borracho]

Albums that bombed

Glasvegas's third album has sold 6,248 copies in the twelve months since it came out, even though the reviews were fairly reasonable. Jesus, that wouldn't even cover the recording costs.

[Jah Womble]

Albums that bombed

Duffy's second album tanked so badly she stopped making records.

Must be a name to avoid: the 'other' Duffy (Stephen 'Tin Tin') saw his debut solo album Ups and Downs tank (only c 12,000 copies sold) despite it containing a major hit in Kiss Me (and another Top 20 follow-up). This came on the back of first band Duran Duran cleaning up after he left, the underwhelming success of The Lilac Time, and preceding the relative failure of his Britpop career during the nineties.

[Borracho]

Albums that bombed

Jah Womble wrote:

Duffy's second album tanked so badly she stopped making records.

Must be a name to avoid: the 'other' Duffy (Stephen 'Tin Tin') saw his debut solo album Ups and Downs tank (only c 12,000 copies sold) despite it containing a major hit in Kiss Me (and another Top 20 follow-up). This came on the back of first band Duran Duran cleaning up after he left, the underwhelming success of The Lilac Time, and preceding the relative failure of his Britpop career during the nineties.

He did, however, make a fair amount of money working with Robbie Williams in the mid-2000s before Williams returned to Take That.

Kiss Me was a great tune.

[Jah Womble]

Albums that bombed

Oh sure, his associations with other artists kept the guy in coffee for the foreseeable.

I quite liked Kiss Me, as well - and his London Girls from 1995 was a great pop moment.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Albums that bombed

There could be a pattern here.

Bernard Butler was clearly the brains behind Duffy. Ditto Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke.

[Benjm]

Albums that bombed

The 'US Remix' 12" of Kiss Me that was knocking around a couple of years before the fussier re-recording eventually charted was great, much better than the later version.



Kevin Rowland's My Beauty was reputed to have only sold 500 copies, although Rowland has always said that the actual sales were comfortably into five figures. It is certainly quite a rare item now.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Albums that bombed

The Velvet Underground & Nico 10–50,000 copies in it's first five years.

Forever Changes Peaked at 154 in Billboard on its release.

Some of us have been trying to disguise our prescient smugness ever since.

[Borracho]

Albums that bombed

Yeah, but both of those bands were complete unknowns at the time when those records were released. I'm talking about big-name artists putting out albums that completely stiffed and sold a tiny fraction of what might have been expected.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Albums that bombed

Well then that should have been clearer in the title or opening post.

As it goes, Love weren't "completely unknown" FC was their third album, the previous two had sold respectably and both included hit singles.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Albums that bombed

am listening to forever changes. They're like a left banke without the gift for catchy melodies. It's quite accomplished and quite musically interesting, but I can see why it wouldn't have stood out in the sixties.

[Borracho]

Albums that bombed

Amor de Cosmos wrote: Well then that should have been clearer in the title or opening post.

Well, I hardly meant "albums that didn't sell very well" per se, because that would include 99.9% of all albums ever made.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Albums that bombed

Alone again or and Maybe The People Would Be The Times or Between Clark & Hilldale aren't catchy melodies?

There aren't as many as on side one of their previous album, Da Capo, perhaps. But it's the lyrics that are remarkable. Not what they say but their construction and how it fits with the music.

The generally accepted reason why Forever Changes didn't do better is Arthur Lee's refusal to tour, coupled with the band's disintegration after the recording was finished.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Albums that bombed

not catchy. and if you're reduced to arguing about the lyrics of popular music, then you should send me some of BC's finest so I can get into your frame of mind from back then.

[caja-dglh]

Albums that bombed

For some reason I cannot find the excellent photo of a second hand store with "No Parlez" at the front of every rack.

Even though that points to it selling well and then being identified by owners to be dreadful.

[Jah Womble]

Albums that bombed

FWIR, No Parlez went to number one and sold shedloads in 1983. So, hardly an 'album that bombed'.

Yeah, but both of those bands were complete unknowns at the time when those records were released. I'm talking about big-name artists putting out albums that completely stiffed and sold a tiny fraction of what might have been expected.

Well then that should have been clearer in the title or opening post.

Well, I hardly meant "albums that didn't sell very well" per se, because that would include 99.9% of all albums ever made.

I have to admit that I was reading it in slightly broader terms than merely 'big-name artists' - hence my suggestion upthread of Stephen Duffy, who'd had hits and was expected to clean up, but was by no means a 'big name'.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Albums that bombed

and if you're reduced to arguing about the lyrics of popular music, then you should send me some of BC's finest so I can get into your frame of mind from back then.

"BC's finest" (?)

Discussing song lyrics doesn't necessitate a reduction does it? In fact it's perhaps easier to talk about lyrics rather than music because you're dealing with words instead of sounds. I mean "not catchy" isn't really right up there discourse-wise is it?

The strength of Arthur Lee's lyrics is often as a dark counterpoint to the orchestration. The Red Telephone is maybe the extreme example:

"Sitting on the hillside, watching all the people die." and the ironic/plaintive repeated last lines "We're all normal, and we want our freedom."

This was unusual both thematically and structurally at the end of "The Summer of Love" and largely overlooked on the album's release.

There are also the playful run-on verses in Maybe the People Sould be the Times... etc.

What is happening and how have you been
Gotta go but I'll see you again
And oh, the music is so loud
And then I fade into the...

...Crowds of people standing everywhere
'cross the street I'm at this laugh affair
And here they always play my songs
And me, I wonder if it's...

... Wrong or right they come here just the same
Telling everyone about their games
And if you think it obsolete
Then you go back across the street.

Vocally both Lee and Bryan MacLean were never better on Forever Changes. Though it deteriorated as he aged, the former had one of the warmest voices in rock music at that time.

[caja-dglh]

Albums that bombed

Jah - I am sure that is correct. For whatever reason this thread sent me hunting for that image.

I am trying to think which albums Fopp seemed to have barrel-loads of due to some printing madness by major labels. I would suspect the second Darkness album bombed.

[George]

Albums that bombed

That Naomi Campbell album was a fairly notorious flop in the UK back in the mid 90's but it's seems to have been big in Japan (sorry) and sold over a million worldwide.

[Borracho]

Albums that bombed

Jesus christ, she covered Ride A White Swan on that record. I almost want to hear it.

[The Bean Counter]

Albums that bombed

Kaiser chiefs was the first band I thought of when I saw the thread title. Think their first album outsold the second more than 10 to 1.

Surely the big bomb of 1967 was not forever changes, but smiley smile?

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Albums that bombed

Neither Fish nor Flesh (nor Any Fucking Good, to give it its unofficial subtitle at the time) by Terence Trent D'Arby was a big drop in sales from his debut album, although Wiki reckons it still went gold in the UK so not that spectacular (but probably rarely played if it's as bad as people made out at the time).

As well as the previous Mick Jagger mention, Primitive Cool in the mid 80s was reportedly a poor seller.

[Borracho]

Albums that bombed

According to this link, which is citing a royalty statement, the first Velvet Underground album shifted 58,476 copies in the first two years. That's not great, but it's probably better than what the vast majority of other US rock bands shifted in the late 1960s.

http://www.richieunterberger.com/vumyth.html

[Jah Womble]

Albums that bombed

Yeah, Terence Trent d'Arby's the name that usually comes up in these kind of threads. The first, of course, went multi-platinum and spawned a run of major hit singles. By contrast, Neither Fish Nor Flesh (NAFG) peaked at #61 in the US - and didn't produce a hit either there or here.

As if to emphasise the public's cooling toward him, the next pair of albums didn't even graze the US Top 100.