Making a solo album after leaving (or taking a break) from a great band must be terribly difficult. Fans will want something akin to the band they love, but the musician might want to try something completely different. It is a crap shoot and a great risk.
Many musical artists have pulled off the trick, though. Genesis was great with peter Gabriel, but Gabriel was just as great, if not greater on his own. The same could be said of Paul Simon after he left Simon & Garfunkel.
But the albums below are not good examples of how some solo albums can turn out great. In fact, they are all unlistenable. Sadly so.
These solo albums by members of great bands should have never been made
George Harrison - Dark Horse (1974)
This album is as sad as it is bad. Going through the motions of divorcing his wife and clearly dealing with being physically spent, Harrison's voice sounds either awful or the production of it was. That was part of the problem as well. Harrison tried to emulate Phil Spector so the whole sound is far too big.
This record might have been better if Harrison approached it like Bruce Springsteen did Nebraska. While the album would be nowhere near the quality of Springsteen's work, at least a sparse production would have echoed the songs Harrison wrote about his breakup. His voice would have fit better, too.
Chris Cornell - Scream (2009)
Cornell wanted to go in a completely different direction with this album, but the direction was unclear. Leaving behind the metal-punk of Soundgarden, he hired Timbaland to produce a record that strained to be pop. Cornell had a fantastic voice and could do anything, but he needed to stick a bit more to his tried and true.
Pop was not his idiom. He had the voice of a rock god, and he could brood. Everything about him screamed that he wasn't pop nor should anyone want him to be.
Peter Criss - Let Me Rock You (1982)
It is sadly difficult to pick just one Criss solo album as the worst. He had several. He was basically the Ringo Starr of Kiss, though Starr at least had some charisma. Criss did not on his own music. He kept the beat and wore the makeup, but Kiss would have been just as good without him.
He simply did not have the vocal quality to pull off his own work. His style did not give fans a chance to give him a chance either. There was no glam-metal here, but instead a bunch of useless ballads and pop. It was awful, just as it would have been had Paul Stanley made it. Except the vocals would have been better.
Dee Dee Ramone - Standing in the Spotlight (1989)
Who doesn't want to hear Dee Dee rap? Well, hopefully, no one wants that. He changed his identity on this record to be Dee Dee King, which shows he knew very little about hip-hop culture. Instead, he comes off like a parody of the genre, and an embarrassment to what he once was.
The problem was that he was seemingly so nice of a guy one wanted to root for his album to be good. There was little way around it, though. The record was a complete waste of time for anyone to chance a listen.
Keith Moon - Two Sides of the Moon (1975)
This article is not intentionally trying to disrespect drummers who made solo albums away from the great bands they left. Phil Collins is great for a reason, for instance. But while Moon was rightfully legendary with the sticks, his pull had its limits.
The record featured a bunch of covers that Moon either didn't try to change much or changed to the point of being wretched pieces of awfulness. Of course, Moon also dealt with mental illness, so one might want to take that into account when they hear the album. Or, better yet, just stay away from it completely.