Karma Police

Rocks Off

Classic albums of their kind, that initially fell upon their share of deaf ears.

Radiohead — OK Computer

"Dud of the month... Radiohead wouldn’t know a tragic hero if they were cramming for their A levels"

Robert Christgau - Rolling Stone

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

"Hunky Dory presents a blatant roll call of influences: "Andy Warhol," "Song for Bob Dylan," the warmed-over Lou Reed of "Queen Bitch." Bowie's acknowledgment of his heroes is refreshing, but the songs remain wordy and flaccid...The effect is of an artist who's shucked one identity without finding another."

Scott Isler - Rolling Stone

Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin

"Alternates between prissy Robert Plant's howled vocals fronting an acoustic guitar and driving choruses of the band running down a four-chord progression while John Bonham smashes his cymbals on every beat... Page is a very limited producer and a writer of weak, unimaginative songs.”

Rolling Stone - John Mendelsohn

John Lennon - Imagine

"In its technical sloppiness and self-absorption, Imagine is John's Self-Portrait... it asks that we imagine a world without religions or nations, and that such a world would mean brotherhood and peace. The singing is methodical but not really skilled, the melody undistinguished."

Ben Gerson, 10/28/71 - Three stars

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love

"...the Mistress of Mysticism has woven another album that both dazzles and bores. Like the Beatles on their later albums, Bush is not concerned about having to perform the music live, and her orchestrations swell to the limits of technology. But unlike the Beatles, Bush often overdecorates her songs with exotica."

Rob Tannenbaum - 2/13/86

Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street

"Exile on Main Street came out just three months ago, and I practically gave myself an ulcer and hemorrhoids, too, trying to find some way to like it. Finally I just gave up, wrote a review that was almost a total pan, and tried to forget the whole thing."

Lester Bangs - Creem January 1973

Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure

"Remarkably inaccessible...Side two drones on with a nine-minute instrumental that sounds like a rip-off of the Doors' Alabama Song. The title tune ends the album, but is it a tune? It sounds like dogs barking repetitively for minutes on end. Maybe it is Eno's genius at work, but if so you've gotta be Mensa level to understand him."

Paul Gambaccini, 7/5/73

Tom Waits - Small Change

"Waits has broken no new ground. Unless he expands his musical foundations and investigates the themes of his world, Waits will remain an appealing, but limited, artist."

Kit Rachlis, 12/30/76

The Stooges - Fun House

"The Stooges perfected moronic metal, stripped to its most elementary components and elevated to the level of aesthetic nihilism. Spurred on by Iggy Pop's bestial growls and onstage antics, the band stumbled through some of the dumbest, most abusive rock ever waxed."

Jim Miller, 7/4/74 Rolling Stone

Björk - Debut

"Rather than sticking to rock & roll, Debut is painfully eclectic...Producer Nellee Hooper has sabotaged a ferociously iconoclastic talent with a phalanx of cheap electronic gimmickry. Björk's singular skills cry out for genuine band chemistry, and instead she gets Hooper's Euro art-school schlock – and we do, too."

Tom Graves  9/2/93 Rolling Stone 2 Stars

Let it Be - The Beatles

"Musically, boys, you passed the audition. In terms of having the judgment to avoid either over-producing yourselves or casting the fate of your get-back statement to the most notorious of all over-producers, you didn't. Which somehow doesn't seem to matter much any more anyway."

John Mendelsohn - 2 Stars - Rolling Stone 6/11/70

Magazine - Real Life

"Virtually unrelenting in its mongering of doom 'n' gloom...The band's more passionate subscribers claim to discern irony in some of Devoto's lyrics, but it's hard to see the humour. The lad's dire singing doesn't help...Magazine comes off ultimately as posturing."

Paul Evans - Rolling Stone

Kraftwerk - Autobahn

"Like any other piece of complicated machinery, your car will need regular attention & service to make sure that the Emission Control System continues to function properly. This is the owner's responsibility. The manufacturer cannot guarantee that emissions will not rise to unacceptable levels... etc"

John Mendelsohn - Rolling Stone 6/19/75

Robert Fripp - Exposure

"...all the cleverness boils away, and the music seems slapdash and thin - more like a session player's first tentative record than the work of a ten-year-plus veteran of demanding progressive music."

Michael Bloom - Rolling Stone 8/23/79

Lou Reed — Berlin

“Certain records are so patently offensive that one wishes to take physical vengeance on the artists that perpetrate them. Reed's only excuse for this kind of performance (which isn't really performed as much as spoken and shouted over Bob Ezrin's limp production) can only be that this was his last shot at a once-promising career. Goodbye, Lou!”

Stephen Davis - Rolling Stone

Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets

"Lacking any mentionable instrumental proficiency, [Eno] claims he ‘treats’ other musicians’ instruments — though the end product of his efforts would have to be classed as indiscernible… His record is annoying because it doesn’t do anything.”

Gordon Fletcher - Rolling Stone

Bridge over Troubled Water

"All the campus folkies were in a tizzy. The big day had finally arrived! That the duo could only come up with 11 new songs in 2 years didn't seem to bother those fans. That nearly all of those songs were hopelessly mediocre fazed them even less.

Gregg Mitchell - Rolling Stone 5/14/70

Neil Young - After The Goldrush

"Neil Young devotees will probably spend the next few weeks trying desperately to convince themselves that After The Gold Rush is good music. But they'll be kidding themselves. For despite the fact that the album contains some potentially first rate material, none of the songs here rise above the uniformly dull surface."

Langdon Winner - Rolling Stone 10/15/70

Sparks - Kimono My House

"...blood-curdling operatic synth-pop..."

Mark Coleman - Rolling Stone

Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers

"As I listened to Sticky Fingers for the first time I thought Brown Sugar was good, but not that good. I certainly hoped it wasn't the best thing on the album."

Jon Landau - Rolling Stone 6/10/71

David Bowie - Low

"Such technosheen music requires a detached master to hold the reins, and Bowie, the cracked actor, is just too much of a ham...Bowie lacks the self-assured humor to pull off his avant-garde aspirations. His role playing long ago blew his detached mystique."

John Milward - Rolling Stone 4/21/77