Top 5: Commercial Suicides

Fleetwood Mac – Tusk (1979)
Guitarist/songwriter Lindsey Buckingham had no interest in replicating the lush vistas of 1997’s Rumours, then the best-selling American album ever. Instead, obsessed by Talking Heads and post-punk, he wanted to create something sparse and awkward. Cue tissue-boxes for drums and vocals recorded while lying flat on his belly.

Pulp – This Is Hardcore (1998)
The record-buying public couldn’t wait to ignore the gloomy follow-up to 1995’s all-conquering A Different Class, which managed to strip away everything people had loved about Pulp – big choruses, class-conscious lyrics, sweeping synths – and offer up instead a litany of bitterness and regret, summed up by final track The Day After the Revolution, with its desolate roll-call: “The rave is over, Sheffield is over ... men are over, women are over, cholesterol is over…”

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Dazzle Ships (1983)
“We wanted to be Abba and Stockhausen,” explained vocalist Andy McCluskey. Unfortunately, the three million people who’d bought 1981’s Architecture And Morality preferred synth-pop anthems such as Enola Gay to the icy, Eastern Bloc-obsessed soundscapes served up on Dazzle Ships.

Mariah Carey – Glitter (2001)
A botched pastiche of New York’s early-80s club scene, the soundtrack to the flop movie emerged, ominously, on 11 September 2001, and tanked in a way no-one could have predicted, least of all EMI/Virgin, who had signed Carey the previous year for an eye-watering $80 million. Guy Hands never would have stood for it.

Metallica – Load (1996)
Out went gleaming thrash-pop anthems such as Enter Sandman. In came mid-paced chugs, earnest lyrics about mum (Mama Said), and cover art that depicted semen mixed with cow’s blood. The result? Millions shrugged.