I hate lists like this one from MSN Music.

In the way they are formatted making you go page by page to view each individual list item, it feels like a cheap attempt to drive up web traffic with posts that are virtually worthless.

Yes, we know that The Who need to stop making albums. And yes, we know that Madonna sucks too. We already read this on every other “artists that need to stop making music” list previously aired on other music/pop culture sites.

Here’s the list..

Madonna
The Black Crowes
The Who
Ray Davies
Joni Mitchell
Bryan Adams
The Rolling Stones
Elton John
Carly Simon
Def Leppard

I’ll give them credit for calling out a few “interesting” names that are typically “sacred ground” on critics’ turf – Ray Davies is surprising, and the Carly Simon mention feels like a cheap shot. Not being cruel here, but does the average person even realize that Simon has made a new album in the past 15 years?

I’ll also give credit to them for digging up the scariest picture of Def Leppard I’ve ever seen.

And I’ll flat out disagree with their assessment of Bryan Adams (yes, I’m kind of a fan.) I was just listening to Adams’ latest album 11 this past weekend, a 2008 release that got passed over in my initial listening. As I listen again, I think Adams did alright with this one.

Let’s face it, it’s unlikely that Adams will ever make another album like Reckless, and he might not even make an album like Waking Up The Neighbours. I can’t say that he’s putting out unlistenable crap, and actually, there is usually one particular track that jumps out as borderline great.

On 11, I’d pick that “Tonight We Have The Stars” (download) as that track.

On Room Service, it was “Open Road,” (download) without a doubt.

And the acoustic version of “Room Service” (download) that can be found on the Live in Lisbon DVD really makes me wish that Adams would have followed through on the plans for an acoustic release of the tracks on “Room Service.”

MSN Music writes of Adams:

Umm … how to put this gently? Never good (not “Summer of ’69,” not “Heaven,” not even “Cuts Like a Knife,” which I heard just last week), and only getting worse with age. If indeed, everything you do, you do it for me, I have but one request: Pull the plug.

I saw a humorous message board exchange last week asking how the new Bryan Adams album was, and the reply from another message board surfer was “desperately in need of Jim Vallance.”

Those of you that are fellow Adams fans, likely got a chuckle out of that one – I know, I did.

I’m most surprised by the slagging of The Black Crowes on this list. I’ll admit that Warpaint didn’t/hasn’t and probably won’t grab much of my attention, but I was surprised to see them on this list. That’s a pretty questionable slag in my opinion.

What do you think of the list?

Relevant Links:

Purchase Bryan Adams 11 from Amazon – CD

Purchase Bryan Adams Room Service – CD or MP3

Purchase Bryan Adams Anthology – CD

Purchase Live in Lisbon – DVD