6 Artists Whose Best Album Didn't Sell Well: The Beach Boys, Kanye West, and more

If a musician is lucky enough to reach a wide audience, the best they can hope for is that their fans support them through any whims of experimentation and artistic growth. This worked great for the Beatles and Radiohead, but there are plenty of other musicians whose artistic peaks didn't match their commercial peaks. Here are six artists whose best albums didn't sell as well as their other albums.

1. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (1966)

In the early to mid-'60s, the Beach Boys was one of the most popular bands in the world, but lead songwriter Brian Wilson had grown tired of the band's highly successful surf-pop formula. Initially intended as a solo album for Wilson, the band released Pet Sounds in 1966, and though it's considered to be one of the greatest albums ever recorded, its radically different orchestral sound and sophisticated production wasn't as popular as the Beach Boys' previous work, peaking at number 10 in the US. The album didn't go platinum in the US until 2000.

2. Weezer - Pinkerton (1996)

Though there are convincing arguments to be made about whether Weezer's eponymous debut or its follow-up Pinkerton is the band's best, it's Pinkerton that has undergone a more significant critical re-evaluation since its release. Weezer's sunny debut remains its best selling release, going triple platinum, but the negative reaction that the dark Pinkerton received in 1996 (Rolling Stone claimed it was the third worst album of the year) caused it to perform under expectations.

3. The Kinks - The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968)

Though the Kinks released many excellent singles during its early commercial peak, none of its LP's during this time was as well constructed as anything during the band's 1966-1972 "Golden Age," especially The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society from 1968. Despite its thematic sophistication and far more developed and varied songwriting, the album sold just 100,000 copies.

4. Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (1989)

As I mentioned in my article about great sophomore albums, the leap in quality between the Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill and Paul's Boutique is remarkable, like the difference between a high school orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. Licensed to Ill sold nine million copies because it's a fun, simple, yet almost self-consciously juvenile record, while Paul's Boutique's highly dense and experimental production made it less accessible, selling only 2 million in the ten years after its release.

5. Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden/Laughing Stock (1988, 1991)

Talk Talk was just one of many English new wave bands to find commercial success during the '80s, but the band eventually underwent the most radical transformation of any band of its era. Having grown tired of synth-pop, the band moved in more arty directions with 1986's The Colour of Spring, which became Talk Talk's best selling album. However, the band's final two albums, Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock, dispensed with pop altogether, opting for a more improvisational jazz sound that would inspire the post-rock bands of the '90s. Though considered to be Talk Talk's finest albums, they were relative commercial failures.

6. Kanye West - Yeezus (2013)

Based on the excitement that Yeezus stirred up within the indie/alternative community last year, I wouldn't have guessed that the album generated Kanye West's lowest ever first-week sales, despite going to number one. Though Kanye's previous albums are classics in their own right, I find Yeezus to be his greatest work yet. It's the most abrasive major-label album since Nirvana's In Utero and the most experimental since Radiohead's Kid A.