13 Great Bands with Albums That Jumped the Shark

If you think about it, the most prolific bands have the highest chance of putting out at least one album that's total sh*t - but one bad album does not a bad band make. In fact, plenty of bad albums by great bands exist. Sometimes the artists bounce back (David Bowie took six years off after Never Let Me Down flopped to work on a comeback album), and sometimes they can't recover (RIP classic Weezer). We rounded up the 13 worst albums by good bands to prove that even the best in the biz have low moments. Do you agree?

Bruce Springsteen: Working On A Dream (2009)

Blue-collar hero Bruce Springsteen abandoned his usual material - the problems of the American everyman - for 2009's Working On A Dream. The uncharacteristically upbeat collection of songs received mixed reactions, from 5-star ratings to "exhilaratingly bad" reviews. Although it did debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, Dream is definitely Springsteen's least "Springsteen"-y album to date.

Age: 69

Birthplace: Long Branch, New Jersey, United States of America

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Weezer: Make Believe (2005)

2005's Make Believe brought the world the song we all hate to love and love to hate: "Beverly Hills." Frontman Rivers Cuomo's attempt to poke fun at the world of celebrity missed the mark and made Weezer - a genre-bending rock band with a cult following - part of the pop culture problem. Make Believe gave Weezer their first Top 10 song, but also alienated longtime fans. In short, it was their sellout album.

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Metallica: St. Anger (2003)

Metallica is a band that broke barriers when they first came on the music scene in the eighties. They brought heavy metal/thrash rock to the masses, and the masses loved it - especially 1991's The Black Album, which debuted at No. 1 in ten countries. Following a legal dispute with Napster and some unfavorable press in the early aughts, Metallica released St. Anger, meant to go back to their garage-rocking roots. The attempt didn't quite work out. The album got mixed reviews but most critics agreed that the lo-fi production was more noisy than raw and real, and Metallica took a lot of shit for abandoning their signature sound.

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Robin Thicke: Paula (2014)

Pop and R&B star Robin Thicke's rise to fame was a slow burn. He spent the beginning of his career writing for other artists before his own single, "Lost Without You," was released in 2006 and Thicke became known for his sultry, white-boy R&B sound. His 2013 single with Pharrell, "Blurred Lines," catapulted him to superstardom. After a highly-publicized cheating scandal and subsequent separation from his wife, Paula Patton, Thicke released Paula as an attempt to win her back. The whole album was sappy, semi-creepy, and slightly stalkerish - a total turn-off for fans.

Age: 41

Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, United States of America

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