Source link : https://las-vegas-news.com/9-albums-that-were-ripped-apart-by-critics-but-are-now-called-masterpieces/
Every so often, an album lands and the reviews come in cold. Critics call it self-indulgent, incoherent, a career misstep, sometimes worse. Then a strange thing happens over the following years or decades: the same record that got dragged through the press starts showing up on greatest-albums lists, taught in music classes, and cited as an influence by artists who weren’t even born when it came out.
This kind of reversal isn’t rare, but it is instructive. It says something about how critical consensus forms in real time versus how it settles once an album has had years to breathe. Here are nine records that went from critical punching bags to certified classics.
1. Lou Reed – Berlin (1973)
When Lou Reed released this bleak concept album about a doomed couple spiraling through addiction, abuse, and suicide, the reaction from the era’s most influential outlet was brutal. Rolling Stone called it a disaster, taking the listener into a distorted and degenerate world of paranoia, schizophrenia, degradation, pill-induced violence and suicide, adding that there are certain records so patently offensive that one wishes to take physical vengeance on the artists who made them. The review reportedly ended with a farewell to Reed’s career entirely.
Decades of reassessment tell a different story. Initial critical reception was mixed, but appraisals warmed over the years, and by 2012 Rolling Stone itself ranked the…
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Author : Matthias Binder
Publish date : 2026-09-03 12:32:00
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