New series. In this show, we'll be looking at the records that ended thriving careers, and we're starting with the album that turned Jewel Kilcher from folksinger poet to poor man's Britney Spears
The Material Girl becomes - The Political Girl?? Madonna brought one of the longest winning streaks in pop music to a sudden, ignominious end in 2003 with her little-loved dip into politics.
I know you want it? No, no one wanted it. Robin Thicke's desperate attempt to save his marriage instead sends his personal and professional life plummeting into disaster.
Here's a tip, if you're going to make one of the worst-sounding albums of all time, don't make it easy for the critics by putting the word "Crap" in the title, like The Clash did with their career-ending final album.
Sometimes they wondered if it would ever end, and whoa buddy did it ever. Hootie and the Blowfish's rushed second album ended Hootiemania just as suddenly as it started.
The Beach Boys' endless summer had an ending after all, when they tried to capitalize on "Kokomo" and instead brought their comeback to a crashing halt.
Gangsta rap is so violent. Why can't all those rappers just sing about nice things?? Arrested Development showed why in 1994, when their weirdly-named follow-up to their acclaimed debut took a shot to the dome.
Oof, this one is nuts. Indie rock royalty Liz Phair made a pop album and got called a sellout left and right, so instead she made a baffling, bizarre shitpost of an album to destroy her image once and for all.
The biggest rock band in the world turning in a tuneless blast of cacophonous trash-can banging. How did the much-maligned "St. Anger" turn Metallica from gods of metal to rock-and-roll punchlines?
If you want to destroy your career with a obnoxious terrible second album, just go ahead now. The Spin Doctors kicked off the '90s jam band explosion but fell behind when they decided tunelessness was their path to cred.
Calling occupants of interplanetary what? Faced with falling sales and a sinking profile, '70s soft rock superstars the Carpenters tried everything to revive their careers: jazz, country, showtunes, and - aliens. Seriously, aliens.
This is what Scientologists actually believe. Just kidding, even they didn't want '70s rocker Edgar Winter's musical adaptation of L. Ron Hubbard's best-selling (?) sci-fi book series.
