A sad occasion always happens when a beloved band calls it quits after making one final album and that album turns out to be rubbish. Even worse is when a band announces their next record as their last and then lays an egg with the release. Unfortunately, the situation happens more than fans or the bands would like.
There are a lot of reasons for atrocious last records, of course. Maybe some members of the band have left. Possibly the band is just tired of being around one another and is just fulfilling their record contract.
For fans of the band, no matter what the situation that causes no more new albums, it's sad. Music is a part of life and a favorite band being no more feels like a loss. To be fair, it is. Here are three bands whose farewell albums left us wanting more (because the records themselves were trash).
Three bands that had awful final albums
Men At Work - Two Hearts (1985)
This Australian band had a massively popular first album, Business As Usual, that even had they remained around for 15 albums they likely would have never equaled the success of their debut. Business As Usual was years of well-crafted songs that had been worked out in hardened Aussie bars where if the patrons did not like a band, violence could ensue. But even after that debut record, the band released Cargo which was also terrific but then the wheels fell off.
But by the time their final record, Two Hearts, was released the band did not like each other and were never in the same room while the record was being recorded. This caused disjointed tracks and an inconsistent album overall. The shame is that there are some really good songs on the record, but the whole thing feels like a bunch of solo songs thrown together.
Sadly, because of the situation with the group falling apart, and it is obvious the band would not make any more albums, we were left with a record with excellent songs such as "Everything I Need" and "Maria" and the pish-posh that is "Giving Up" and "Sail to You." At least vocalist Colin Hay has churned out a number of very good solo tracks since the band's break-up.
The Velvet Underground - Squeeze
The recording of this album happened about a year and a half before its release. That might give you an implication that the band simply wasn't ready to put out a final record. The fact is that the Velvet Underground you might have known at the time did not exist for this record. This LP was simply a Velvet Underground album in name alone and was more of a Doug Yule solo work.
Yule at least was part of the group when Lou Reed was still involved so at least it wasn't some random player going by the name of the band. Lou Reed was not a part of the album and nor was John Cale who Yule had previously replaced. If Yule had done the correct thing, he would have simply eschewed the band's name for the record's release and put his own name on it.
That is part of the problem with honestly critiquing the album. If one did not know who had made the record, the songs were still mostly underwhelming, but it would not be as disappointing. Even what had become a watered-down Velvet Underground line-up could still produce some solid songs. Even Yule said the recording sessions were "like the blind leading the blind, me leading myself. That's what came out of it, I don't even have a copy of it."
Yule was not a bad musician and he wasn't a terrible songwriter, but he was not Cale or Reed. At least one good (and odd) thing came from the album. The band Squeeze took their name from the LP.
The Doors - Full Circle
If you do not know the full history of the Doors and I were to ask you if you would be interested in an album by the band that did not include Jim Morrison, would you be? After Morrison passed away in 1971, the rest of the band continued to put out albums. This was not truly a money grab, though, because the band did have some excellent musicians such as Ray Manzarek and John Densmore. But without Morrison, any charisma or style the group had was gone.
The main problem with Full Circle, however, is the overall collection of tracks is not good and the recording sounds bad. Part of this was that Bruce Botnick, who had engineered all of the band's album, said "no thanks" to Full Circle so the sound one had come to expect from the Doors was different and far less satisfying.
Lyrically, the album was atrocious. "Good Rockin'" is one of the better-known tracks on the record but even the title of the song sounds desperate. Without Morrison, the group had lost its ability to be poetic. The musicians could perform any kind of music easily, especially combining jazz and rock, but without Morrison's iconic voice and words, what one is left with is something akin to a bad movie soundtrack.
The record still charted at number 68 on Billboard's album charts, but that was due to the name of the band only. There are some who might love this album because they have to love everything Doors. But this isn't a real Doors record without Morrison.