10 Good Songs From (Relatively) Bad Albums

At the risk of starting another deluge of comments from enraged Nicki Minaj fans, our post a few days back about the best opening lines in music got us thinking about various things, and one of those things was how “Did It On ‘Em” – a suggestion from one of our readers of an opening line we should have included – shines as a killer song on a largely underwhelming record. Of course, Nicki’s not the first artist to deliver a shitty record that is enlightened by one or two great songs, so here’s a selection of most excellent songs from records that paled in comparison to their best moment.

Nicki Minaj – “Did It On ‘Em”
From Pink Friday (2010)

It’s a shame about Nicki. Her history could start and finish with the killer verse off “Monster” and she’d still warrant a decent mention in the history of post-millennial hip hop, which only makes it all the more disappointing that Pink Friday was such a pile of homogenized, commercial pap. But even though the album was largely forgettable, there were flashes of the manic energy that characterised her “Monster” star turn – and the best track by far is “Did It On ‘Em,” which contains the immortal line “If I had a dick, I’d pull it out and piss on ‘em.” Eeek.

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[...] 10 Good Songs From (Relatively) Bad Albums [...]

adore is beautiful. a departure from past style, but still beautiful. and i would hardly call sgt pepper's a "bad" album. maybe go as far as to say 50/50 split, but not "bad."

how could you have said, 1, there is no such state of being as 'suicidal' and then mentioned ways to make your listeners past tense; and, 2, you consider courtney love superior to gwyneth paltrow as a fantasy woman?

"Emotional Rescue" was a joke. Perhaps if it had been recorded before "Miss You" I'd feel differently, but it was just a rehash of a much better song. Speaking of jokes, "1979" was the Pumpkins best song and it's only tolerable. They suck, as does The Bravery. I don't disagree about Sgt. Peppers being overrated, and "A Day In The Life" is the best track, but "Lucy" and the song "Sgt. Peppers" are also pretty solid.

St. Pepper's is an amazing album. Flavorwire Fail. I guess your staff is simply too young to understand the groundbreaking effects of this album. 90% of the shitty bands that are considered cool today couldn't exist without it.

I could say more about this Sgt. Pepper's thing but even in the lowest points of my relationship with that record I knew it had more than one good song. And isn't that the point of this article - bad albums with ONE GOOD SONG. So I nominate Let The Rhythm Hit'Em by Eric B. & Rakim. After the astonishing debut and the nearly-as-good 2nd album, this bloated thing landed on my ears with a thud. But Mahogany, a lurrve jam with an awesome Al Jackson sample is so stone cold classic that I still put it on every other party mix I make. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayKyAqnF9ao

Disagree on Nicki Minaj's album. Sorry, it's heads and tails above Kanye's last bloated overrated mediocrity.

"begging you" is not the best song on Second Coming, by far, it's a jumbled mess of guitars that has no soul (and a poor derivative of the sound on Jesus and Mary Chan's Honey's Dead. "Love Spreads" is the true gem on this album. It's got the rock, groove and soul from the Stone Roses tracks we grew up on.

How dare you say ANYTHING negative about the Beatles. You are going to HELLLLL!!!!!

thanks for taking a stand against the crap "you must like the Beatles by imperial fiat or else you are no longer allowed to like music or have opinions on it" bullshit that's tediously and predictably regurgitated in the comments here. music somehow peaked between 1960 and 1970, did it? i can't think of a more boring and depressing cultural meme. if you think like that, srsly broaden yr horizons.

Yeah the Beatles aren't that good and Sgt. Pepper's sucks.... unbelievable, you bunch of fucking idiots.

Agree Sgt P is overrated compared to Revolver or TWA, but A Day In The Life is not the only "best" on it, Getting Better is also great. Agree Emotional Rescue is crap, but then the Stones lost it (and never fully regained it) when Goat's Head Soup was released.

Emotional Rescue is an drop-dead, awesome song.

I thought I was alone in my lack of respect for "Sgt.Pepper's...",so I always kept my mouth shut also.But I agree wholeheartedly about "A Day In The Life".Thank you for letting me think I'm not crazy after all.

I agree that Sgt Pepper is over-rated, frequently called 'the greatest album of all time' and I don't think it's the best Fabs record either but I wouldn't call it bad or 'relatively bad': the first three songs alone are stunning. Give the writer credit though for carefully maneuvering around this minefield and noting the album's significance. But still, everyone who's a pop or rock fan doesn't have to love the album though, do they?

Putting Sgt. Peppers in here is beyond ridiculous, and "Tom Hawking" loses all credibility as a judge of music. After winning every listener and critical poll for DECADES I can understand the desire to take it down a few notches. People feel the (often unjustified) need to attack and discredit popular things. OK fine, maybe it's not the BEST album of all time - always a subjective call anyway. But with all the garbage that has been recorded in the past 50 years, to associate this album and band with one-hit-wonders transcends personal nastiness; it's shoddy "journalism" and myopic idiocy. There is more musical worth in the weakest Beatle song than in most bands' entire careers. Calling, even playfully, Sgt. Peppers a BAD album makes you all look like fools on a hill, and undermines any of your critical value.

@Good Karma Why is Tom's name in quotation marks?

Second Coming is a great album, top to bottom.

As a Beatles fan and Gen Xer, I cannot disagree with you more about Sgt. Pepper. It is largely overrated, save for some really good songs ("She's Leaving Home", "A Day in the Life", "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Lovely Rita", "Within You, Without You"), and the rest I could do without. Besides, "Rubber Soul" is my favorite Beatles album anyway. Why does anyone talk about that album?

Pardon me, but "Babe, I'm on Fire" is probably one of Nick Cave's best songs ever. Last song on Nocturama. Dealwithit.

Way to sow controversy. No easier way to get page hits than to dis' the Beatles. So you like the White Album and Revolver better. Okay. But Sgt. Pepper is in no way a bad album. Not on the level of that Bravery album. Jeez.

I like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, and I disagree.

Yo Tarah, I think you meant to say "better grammar and FEWER typos." Is that the kind of editing to which you were referring?

Don't flatter yourself. Not enough people read your pathetic drivel to organize a lynch mob. You should hire an editor as well. I've seen better grammar and less typos while reading Lil Wayne lyrics about lasagna.

Cool article. Thanks! re Sgt Pepper -- Not quite a baby boomer, but I can remember my mom getting this album and playing it over and over again so it has some nostalgia for me. I've always hated She's Leaving Home because it affected me so strongly as a child. :) I think part of the worship of Sgt Pepper is its significance at the time of release. The Beatles were great fans of the Beach Boys and Sgt Pepper was supposedly their Pet Sounds. (Not saying this too well here...) So perhaps you could view A Day in the Life as the Beatles' Good Vibrations.

@Lewis I kinda love Machina too.

I don't even like the Beatles, but the last bad thing I would say about Sgt. Pepper is that it is inconsistent in quality.

I thought Stand Inside Your Love was a better song off Machina, a much worse album, would have been a better shout. Also, Oasis' Don't Go Away is a fantastic song from a horrendously band sonic coke binge, Be Here Now.

ADORE is a great record. Billy doesn't whine, it's totally proto-post gothtropop. What isn't there to love?

you have lost all credibility by throwing in Sgt Pepper's

Way to nail Sgt. Pepper's. It's such an overrated record loved only by the writers of Rolling Stone and the delusional boomers and tweens that read it. That being said, "A Day in the Life" is my favorite song they ever recorded.

I'll tell you what is tedious and irritating: people born after 1964 who repeatedly lump so-called "baby boomers" into some monolithic glob of un-hippness that is ruining things for everyone else. What a bunch of spoiled crybabies you young(ish) folk are. That said, I find most of the Beatles' catalog wanting. I don't own a single album. They should be noted for creating the modern pop band concept, but they are hardly the "Best Band of All Time." Making excuses for pointing this out is also getting old, so knock it off. The Replacements were 100 times better and had only one song writer. I know of local bands who went nowhere who had better songs on all levels. The Beatles were all about PR and merchandising, just like another mediocre performer named Elvis and another before him named Frank. They called the Monkees the "pre fab four," but that moniker fits the Brian Epstein run Beatles, Inc. just as well. They were great guys, I'm sure, but look elsewhere for musical genius.

The White Album? Really? I am so over that little fiction, one *our* kids are going to roll their eyes over for sure. The argument made here about Sgt Pepper is even stronger there. Yes yes, Happiness is a Warm Gun," but also "Martha My Dear" and "Bungalow Bill." The final song is "Good Night" - that hideous purple string arrangement! So let's be reasonable and not call it their best work, shall we? Just another Beatles album with some great songs.

The ass shots of Mick Jagger and his bad disco dancing is hilarious in the video for "Emotional rescue". But it is still better than the Dancing the street video with Bowie(drugs are bad kiddies).

Ohhh my god the Bravery. What a one-song clusterfluff they were.

And finally, thanks for speaking the truth about the Beatles.

Thanks for speaking the truth about Bowie and the Stones.

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