10 classic rock albums that are ruined by bad production

Good production is half the battle for any classic album to get off the ground. Throughout rock history, some of the most famous songs in history have been lauded for their great production, from pristine mixing to sounds that feel like they’re coming from another planet. Then again, for artists like Metallica and The Velvet Underground, great production tends to be only a suggestion when making a future classic.

Although the songs across each classic record might stand the test of time, the production could have used more than a few tweaks, from shoddy mixing to horrible balancing of the levels. Despite having some of the best in the business at their disposal, a selection of the most celebrated works by rock music's finest tend to have production that sounds like the instruments were recorded underneath a muffled pillow or at the bottom of the ocean.

There's more than one way to have terrible production, though, and sometimes the best albums of all time have some questionable production choices from the opposite direction. Even though the songs might still be there, the overproduction of the songs might work to their detriment, making the guitars’ bite sound too clean or making the singer sound like a robot rather than a human.

Whereas most artists can have their best songs shine through some terrible production, these classics were in for an uphill battle when they violently assaulted their listener's eardrums. For all of the quality material in the mix, some rock fans might want to proceed with caution when diving into these records.

Every facet of metal had to shift on a dime the minute the ‘80s kicked in. Although thousands of artists were profiting off of the success of MTV, there were just as many legacy artists scrambling to find out what the next phase of their careers would be like. While Ozzy Osbourne may have kicked off the next generation of metal with some flash, Judas Priest had a bit of a rough adjustment period on Turbo.

Originally thought of as a double album, Turbo succumbs to one of the tackiest recording jobs of the mid-80s, with guitars that are closer to what synthesisers were doing at the time, leaving Glenn Tipton's trademark solos to sound surprisingly muted. Even with Rob Halford's impressive croon on songs like ‘Turbo Lover’, most tracks tend to sound like they should be blaring out of some cheap knockoff of a Nintendo console, with Judas Priest serving as the metal-clad badasses.

Despite the decent songs all the way through, Turbo remains more a relic of its time today than anything too special, with the bad severely correcting themselves before coming back even stronger in the ‘90s on Painkiller. The new wave of British heavy metal may have sunken their teeth into the music video format, but Turbo is the kind of cheesy that only stays cool for the first 30 seconds it starts playing.

Success can sometimes be just as disconcerting as failure. Although Aerosmith had been celebrated as a mainstay act of old-school rock and roll, it wasn't until the ‘90s that they scored their first number one hit, with ‘I Don't Want to Miss a Thing’ becoming a staple of the Michael Bay epic Armageddon. Once they were on top, ‘The Bad Boys From Boston’ felt that the next logical step was to do the same thing all over again…just more poppy.

As if the syrupy strings of their huge hit weren't indicative enough of the late ‘90s, Just Push Play ushered in Y2K in the most stereotypical way possible, with everything fed through the modern lens of pop. Although Joe Perry does have some tasty licks sprinkled throughout the record, they are all but nullified by the bland production, which sounds like Steven Tyler desperately wants to turn himself into the male equivalent of Christina Aguilera.

Outside of the hit single ‘Jaded’, the rest of the album tends to feel like they’re trying to remake the success of ‘Miss a Thing’ without a big movie attached to it, making for a bunch of soundtrack fodder that was never going to be playing in the background of any ‘00s-era action movie. Most of Aerosmith's legacy was already intact, but their introduction to the new millennium had some hard rock fans wondering where it all went wrong.

No punk rock record has necessarily been known for its pristine production values. Any cursory listen to albums by Black Flag or the Sex Pistols will let the audience know that none of these players were looking to be the next Pavarotti. Even though Ramones may have kickstarted the whole genre back in the day with their debut, that also meant they inherited some of the negative traits of the genre as well.

While most of their first songs provided the litmus test for what punk rock would be, it also features some of the most fractured production of all time, with every instrument hard-panned to one channel that leaves modern listeners disoriented. Though this tactic may have worked fine in the vinyl era, the entire audio experience is ruined when someone removes an earbud, with the bass and guitars being shifted to one side and the vocals right up the centre.

Then again, the songs behind the production could be some of the greatest punk rock music ever made, giving a more lighthearted spin on such macabre topics as beating on brats and having an intense desire to sniff some glue. When bands have a punk rock budget, they have to work with whatever they have, but even a few of these details could have been glossed over a bit more.

It feels blasphemous to put the words "bad production" and "Steely Dan" in the same sentence. From the minute the group began, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen always envisioned the group as a studio creation, always working with the best in the business to create pure sonic vignettes on every album. That's essentially what's available on Katy Lied…but the mixing process made things a bit more complicated.

Although this record is home to some Steely Dan classics, it was also made around the time that certain noise reduction technology was being used by big-name artists. Since it was known to give every record the optimal quality, Becker and Fagen went for the new technology at the earliest opportunity…only for it to ruin the initial mix of the record.

Even after some touchups and various remixes over the years, both members of The Dan refused to listen to the album's original mix because of how inferior it was to what they heard in their heads. Then again, their faults here could have easily prepared them for the later triumphs down the line. Katy Lied might not be the smoothest listening experience in their catalogue, but getting to something like Aja later is worth it.

Since leaving The Beatles, John Lennon had a bit of an albatross around his neck. After having to deal with departing one of the biggest groups in the world, Lennon found himself having to repay a copyright claim that he had for ‘Come Together’, promising Chuck Berry's estate to record a handful of covers with the proceeds going to him for ripping off ‘You Can't Catch Me’. In theory, Rock & Roll should have been a fun romp, but Lennon's ‘lost weekend’ had other plans.

Recorded during his wilderness period in the mid-70s, Lennon was known for having an insane schedule to make the album, including a few times when he showed up at the studio more than a little buzzed. The recording cycle was also not as smooth as expected, with studio mastermind Phil Spector shooting a gun off in the studio and leaving with the tapes shortly before the album was finished.

Although the sound of Lennon paying tribute to his heroes on songs like ‘Slippin and Slidin’ is fun enough, the overblown Wall of Sound production doesn't suit his ramshackle voice, being one of the only things in the mix adding some kind of edge back into the music. Since Lennon was known as the experimental spirit of The Beatles, it's jarring to see him turn in something that sounds this squeaky clean as his finished product.

Bruce Springsteen has always thrived off the enduring power of The E Street Band. Throughout his tenure as a rock star, ‘The Boss’ has relied on every string reverberating from his band as his onstage power, always remaining humble about using his army of musicians to make each show levitate. When he decided to write the most delicate music of his career, though, Springsteen laid it more bare than usual on Nebraska.

Made without the help of any member of E Street, most of the takes from this album come from when Springsteen was demoing songs in his apartment building, usually using just an acoustic guitar and his voice. Although there's a certain aesthetic that comes from the abysmal production, it does become hard to listen to in spots, with Springsteen's howls clipping the microphone and the guitar being out of tune on a handful of songs.

However, this is one of the few times where the shoddy production value enhances the experience, with each rough mix being the perfect backdrop for broken heroes on the wrong side of the law or going through the tougher emotional struggles in their lives like ‘Johnny 99’ of ‘Highway Patrolman’. Springsteen had a lot on his mind when making Nebraska, and listening to the record in this format is the closest that fans will get to his fractured mind.

In the late-90s, Rush had come dangerously close to disappearing from the public eye entirely. After Neil Peart was hit with two tragic passings in a row, the journey back from the brink was never going to be easy, usually taking it daily with his bandmates before reforming for Vapor Trails. The entire record reads like a tale of redemption…all while sounding like nails on a chalkboard.

Since the record came out in the early ‘00s, Vapor Trails fell victim to the loudness wars, with some of the most ear-piercing production on a Rush album. Although great compositions are laced throughout the tracklisting, the initial volume is too pummeling to overlook, with every instrument clipping the microphone and making one's temples throb once they are through with the record.

Rush also seemed to feel the same way about the shoddy production, even making the 2013 remix of the record the definitive version, with the original loudness-wars version all but purged from history. The modern Rush fan may now have the means to hear the songs as intended, but the ones there from the beginning had the misfortune of having bleeding ears throughout their initial listens.

None of The Velvet Underground's classic material can claim to have the best production. As far back as their massive debut record, some of the biggest music outlets in the world were lining up to bash Lou Reed's strange art project for being the antithesis of what rock and roll was supposed to be. If they thought that a song like ‘Heroin’ lacked good mixing, White Light/White Heat is a middle finger to that line of thinking.

When the band started working on their sophomore album, their logic was to send every instrument into the red, making for one of the most caustic listening experiences of the late ‘60s. Although there are more than a few moments on the record where The Velvets take advantage of their massive wall of noise like on ‘Sister Ray’, it does make for a strange adjustment period, especially when trying to listen to the short story taking place in the middle of the song ‘The Gift’.

Even though the aesthetic may have been a bit disarming, the waves of punk rock were listening, with David Bowie loving the album and putting the title track into his Ziggy Stardust setlist for years. Although The Velvet Underground made music meant to push the limits of rock and roll, this is the kind of album that should only be listened to when in the foulest of moods and something abrasive is necessary.

Every Beatles album has thrived on having some of the best production in the business. Even though every band member was one of the masters of their respective instruments, it took George Martin to turn their songs into classics, from his masterful arrangement skills to his way of interpreting all their strange ideas. After the maligned sessions for The White Album dissipated, their way of bouncing back made for a mess of a recording.

After quitting the project halfway through to work on Abbey Road instead, Let It Be sat on the shelf for years before being polished off by Phil Spector, who added some of the most unnecessary arrangement choices. Although the album makes the listener feel like a fly on the wall during the sessions, the overblown production behind something like ‘The Long and Winding Road’ was way too much, even pissing off Paul McCartney enough for him to remix the album again.

While some songs feel like Spector's idealised version of the Fab Four, other songs still feel half-baked at best, like Spector having to replay parts of ‘I Me Mine’ because of its short runtime or including strange interlude-type tracks where the band are plodding away on jams that didn't go anywhere. Spector may have been given a mess when he got the initial tapes, but his way of salvaging the product was like trying to put a glossy sheen on something meant to be raw.

At the height of their fame in the late-80s, Metallica could most likely work with anybody. After becoming one of the biggest arena rock bands without so much as a video to their name, the band were set to capitalise on Master of Puppets when bassist Cliff Burton was tragically killed in a bus accident. Though every band member dealt with grief in their own way, the way to lash out on record was to not even acknowledge there was a new guy in the band at all.

Even though the band recruited Jason Newsted as their new man behind the low end, their way of hazing him on his first record was to drop his performance so low in the mix that no one could make it out. Trying to find any low-end on this album is pretty much impossible, with the only decent heaviness coming from the lower strings on James Hetfield's guitar.

Although the band would stick to their decision not to have any bass on the arrangements, the performances are still enough to blow the hair back, like the odd time signature on ‘Blackened’ or their closest thing to a hit on the song ‘One’. Then again, if James Hetfield claims they needed some sort of help, maybe the turn towards cleaner production on The Black Album was necessary.