There are several reasons why I prefer to release my most disappointing records in January, For one, readers feel beat down in December by a month-long torrent of lists from every music and news publication under the sun. At least, by publishing in January, some of the fatigue may have worn off and there’s more room for readers to breathe—and check out music from the list. Also, the more practical reason is that, when releasing such lists in December, there may still technically be more releases yet to come. What happens to those? Are they sent to the Island of Lost Records?

So, in the name of a call to stop releasing year-end lists before the 12 months of the calendar are albums that most disappointed me. Here are the albums that most disappointed me. I’d like to think I’m helping you avoid bothering with these.

Arcade Fire: Pink Elephant (Montreal’s finest plateaued so highly with its first three albums that it seemed there was nowhere to go but down. Unfortunately, that’s where AF have headed. While “Pink Elephant,” “Ride or Die,” and “Stuck in My Head” are fine and even somewhat epic tracks, most of the rest of this album is a severe and big disappointment)

Morgan Wallen: I’m the Problem (saying a Wallen release is a disappointment is like saying the same about a Kanye West one. They both are questionable-to-rotten dudes who have quite a way with melody. I really like “20 Cigarettes” and “Falling Apart” but probably because they are essentially carbon copies of my favorite Wallen classic “7 Summers.” There are some other decent tracks as well, but this album totals 37 songs! Why?).

Bon Iver: SABLE, fABLE (Having become a bit of a fan of this Wisconsinite when he worked with Taylor Swift, I was expecting more from his new album. I like “Things Behind Things Behind Things” and “Everything is Peaceful Love,” but there’s way too much cheesehead soft R&B elevator music)

Jeffrey Lewis: The EVEN MORE Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis (I’ve really liked a lot of this New York City art scenester’s past work, but despite arguably the greatest album artwork of 2025, the catchy Juno-like tunes are mostly too long for their one-trick spoofiness and become exhausting. The only song I added to my library is closer “The Enless Unknown,” with its pretty and depressing strings and Lou Reed vibe.)

Lucy Dacus: Forever is a Feeling (I’ve really liked this popular Richmond, Virginia songwriter’s last two albums, but this one just fails to grab me after several listens. It’s mostly dreary, even opening with a haunted Victorian Era-sounding instrumental. The two songs I do like are “Ankles” and “Best Guess”)
Beirut: A Study of Losses (while there are beautiful moments, like “Villa Sachetti” and “Guericke’s Unicorn,” this is a bloated and depressing collection that nowhere near matches the Balkan-song band’s early classics like Gulag Orkestar and The Rip Tide)

BRONCHO: Natural Pleasure (“Class Historian” and several other tracks on 2014’s Just Enough Hip to Be Woman were very fun and promising. Then Double Vanity was my 72nd-favorite album of 2018, even though I noted that it was “a big drop-off from the Norman, Oklahoma band’s [earlier work], but it’s like getting another Jesus and the Mary Chain album, so that’s good.” This new release is almost entirely unrecognizable, and not in any good ways, as it’s unfortunately a fuzzy mess of Cigarettes After Sex knockoffs—at best)

Paul Weller: Fly On the Wall: B-Sides & Rarities 1991-2001 (I’m a huge Weller/Jam/Style Council fan, but I should have known that my least-favorite period of his would produce a bunch of non-album songs that I just don’t like very much. I do like “Here’s a New Thing (Japanese Version),” “The Loved,” “As You Lean Into the Light (Acoustic Version),” and “Black Sheep Boy,” but those are slim pickings on a 39-song reissue set of the original 2003 collection)

The Raveonettes: PE’AHI II (I used to love this shoegazing Danish duo in the early 2000s because of their catchy melodies buried in walls of sound, but this release forgets the melodies part)

Miley Cyrus: Something Beautiful (I’ve liked quite a bit of this superstar’s music in the past, but there is not much to stick in my head from this one. There are a couple of pleasant Lada Gaga knockoffs like “Golden Burning Sun” and the title track, but this is mostly an unlistenable mess. I want to like it, but I can’t stand it)

Lifeguard: Ripped and Torn (this hardly ranks as a disappointment since it’s the Chicago teen-band’s debut album, but Kai Slater’s other band Sharp Pins was such an Earth-shattering blast of lo-fi pleasure that I thought this would match it. “A Tightwire,” “It Will Get Worse,” and “T.L.A.” are noisy fun, but that’s about it)

Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts: Talkin to the Trees (I’m not sure why I even keep trying to listen to Young’s new material. There’s already plenty to enjoy from his overwhelming canon. This is a group of unlistenable to uninspired compositions, half in the style of his great 60s and 70s folk-rock classics and half like Crazy Horse rockers)

The Velvet Sundown: Dust and Silence (for any entirely AI-formulated band, I figured the creators would make something pretty awesome, but this is the most boring album I listened to all year. It sounds kind of like My Morning Jacket with zero heart and is a truly depressing step backwards for the robots)

Alice Cooper: The Revenge of Alice Cooper (don’t get me wrong. I love Alice Cooper and have lots of his great creepy-rock in my collection. But this is a pretty uninspired, although still always pretty melodic, batch. The only ones I’m adding to my library are “Blood on the Sun” and “Money Screams”)

Neko Case: Neon Grey Midnight Green (I know a lot of people love Neko Case, and I’m a big fan of her work in The New Pornographers, but every time she releases a solo album, I kind of like a handful of tunes and find some of them unlistenable. “Tomboy Gold,” I’m looking at you on this new album. There is just not enough draw to keep me coming back)

Rhett Miller: A lifetime of riding by night (after such recent great albums as his solo The Misfit and his band the Old 97’s Twelfth, I had the bar set pretty high for this release. But it’s a long fireside whisperer that doesn’t have much steam. I’m hoping for better moving forward, and perhaps this one will still grow on me, much like a lot of his band’s work has done over the years)

Tobias Jesso Jr.: s h i n e (I wouldn’t call this a sophomore slump. I do like it, and I like what the piano-based singer-songwriter seems to be reaching for. It almost feels like this isn’t a proper second LP—more like a musical diary entry. There’s a lot of talent simmering in this guy; maybe he’s still too hesitant to use it, but if he ever lets loose, we could have a star on our hands. See my full review at Northern Transmissions)

Emma Pollack: Begging the Night to Take Hold (the leader of the superb Delgados continues to display her Chrissie Hynde-like brilliance on her fourth solo release in numbers like “Prize Hunter” and “Future Tree,” but the songs take an overly dramatic turn in a less-enjoyable second half)

AVTT/PTTN: AVTT/PTTN (Mike Patton’s vocals are all over the place, from sounding like Chris Cornell to Orville Peck and many others, in a surprisingly joyless set from the usually reliable Avett Brothers, who need to drop the Faith No More singer)

Words by Paul Mackie