One of mine is Commit This to Memory by Motion City Soundtrack. I basically took the title verbatim and know the album word for word. And while I would love if it did, the rest of MCS’s stuff just doesn’t hit the same way.
And if you’re not an album person, maybe a period of time in the artist’s work? Whatever works for you.
*Lots of mentions of hit debut albums that subsequently petered out, which follows with the dreaded sophomore slump that hits many artists. Anyone with mid or even later career albums that stand alone? Those always intrigue me.
Live-Throwing Copper. It’s an absolute masterpiece. Their other albums have some gems, but the rest of the discography is nowhere near the quality of TC.
I personally like Mental Jewelry best and feel like its a shame they asked the bass player to chill out. TC is great though.
I was going to say the same thing!
Linkin Park.
Hybrid Theory was amazing, but most of their other albums were mostly “meh” for me. Meteora had a couple of good songs, but that’s about it.
I would put Hybrid Theory and Meteora on the same level as far as albums go. Everything after that… Not so great.
M83. “Hurry up we’re dreaming” may not be perfect but it’s a great album all their other stuff pales in comparison to.
“Wolfmother” by Wolfmother. Period.
“Cruelty and the beast” by Cradle of Filth, although they had a good run around that time.
“Origin of symmetry” by Muse. It is the almost perfect sweet spot between too rough and too polished in their discography.
“Seeds” by TV on the radio.
“Boy King” by Wild Beasts.
“Passage” by Samael was peak song writing and composing. A text book concept album. Brilliant.
“The Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi. Absolute banger, not an album though.
I’m kind of curious, I’ve tried Seeds over and over, but it’s unlistenable to me. Especially compared again Dear Science or Desperate. What is it you like about that album? I really want to like it because it’s probably the last of what we’ll get from them. Got any tips on appreciating it?
I think it’s one of the albums that “just click” and then you try to discover more of that great stuff and it doesn’t work. There’s this mood and vibe in the album I couldn’t find in the others.
“Passage” by Samael
I’m just going to assume you have never heard Ceremony of Opposites. That’s the only explanation.
Or Worship Him which is by far their best work.
I did (and sometimes still do). It’s okay, too doomy and far from being refined. Passage takes the stomping doom metal parts and surrounds them with the right amount of electronic sound, great lyrics, and interesting composing and arrangements. Without Ceremony, Passage wouldn’t exist, tbf, but it gets out maneuvered by its (indirect) successor in every aspect.
Correct answer
Are you a fan of the Four Seasons Recomposed, by Max Richter? I discovered it this past year and have been loving it.
I’m conservative on this one. I like the versions with Anne-Sophie Mutter and the one by Europa Galante the most. Interpretations can be so different, I’m content with that.
Sorry but Return to Cookie Mountain fromTV on the Radio is great, and staring at the sun was on their first album. But I was at peak concert going age in 2003 when that came out so I’m biased toward that.
Seeds is my second favorite album (after Cookie) and still pretty underrated though.
I loved that Wolfmother album
Songs for the Deaf. A very brief moment QOTSA existed in that form and nothing before or after even gets close.
I respect your opinion, but hard disagree - SFTD is good but both Villains and (especially) …Like Clockwork are better musically and lyrically imo.
Interesting, I love all of their albums except for Villains, just can’t find my way in to that one. And …Like Clockwork is probably my next least listened to, but I do love a bunch of the tracks on it
I think all of their albums have songs equal to or better than SFTD. Is SFTD the most consistent throughout?? I don’t know. This coming from a guy that had SFTD in his cd player from 2002 to 2006. I
I prefer Rated R and Lullabies to Paralyze to Songs for the Deaf. Fight me.
I’m with you there. SFTD hit a great balance between dark and light. I think Josh needs Nick Oliveri’s approach, though I know he had his problems (maybe still?). Musically though, I think they’re a case of a whole being greater than the sum of its parts.
How about we take it a step further: Gotye’s song “Somebody That I Used to Know” is sooooo different from the rest of his discography. The rest of that album is great but is stylistically very different and never blew me away like that one single.
Lol. I’m the opposite. Love his other stuff. I can sing along to most of the songs on two albums, but that hit… It’s an instant classic, but very much a pop song. His other stuff is almost antipop
The track where he sings about his new keyboard tech goes harder than it should. That whole album is great.
That’s his one and only song on my ‘liked songs’ play list. Love it
You could say it was ‘state of the art’
Yes! That song is so weird (in a good way).
Antipop is definitely a great way to describe all his other stuff. And to be clear, I kinda went against the theme of this discussion because I genuinely quite like his other stuff, just not to the degree that I like that one hit.
‘As I lay dying’ might appeal to you. It’s another song that’s great but nothing like the other stuff in the catalog piece
Until very recently, I thought that the whole track was an original production. Turns out Gotye is something of a sampling genius - mad respect for the craft in STIUtK, and what a killer set of melodies on top of everything else.
I heard a story once that he made that song to show how easy it is to have a mega hit song even though he didn’t like it himself, kind of like the guys that formed MGMT. Unsure of the source on that and it could very well be untrue but it would make sense.
MGMT is another good one! First album was amazing, 2nd one was really good, everything else is meh except Little Dark Age (just the song).
little dark age (album) really just should have been 7 copies of little dark age (song). for some reason I always want more but nothing ever quite fits to follow up
What’s most impressive are his animations. This is on his main YouTube channel. Really good stuff.
Daft Punk for me. Random Access Memories is perfect from start to finish but their other albums don’t do much for me even though I like many of the songs.
I’m the exact opposite, but I’ve been into house music for 20+ years
I wonder if The Avalanches have a simial divide of fans.
Honestly I love each of the avalanches albums, I understand that their sound changed a lot and that isn’t gonna sit well with everyone but I see the genius in each one for their own reasons
It’s not an age thing as I’ve been listening to electronic music since Prodigy dropped The Fat of The Land in the 90’s. I discovered Orbital and Daft Punk shortly thereafter. I was into the music at the time I just don’t think Daft Punk’s albums are great except for RAM.
Makes sense considering how musically distanced RAM is from everything else they’ve made, it’s a lot less house-y than their earlier albums. Talking as a die hard daft punk fan.
Haven’t heard that take before, interesting. When did you start listening to their music? No judgement, no quip coming, just interested; sometimes the order we hear music from an artist gives us a very different impression than someone who followed them chronologically.
Lol, I’m the exact opposite. I really dislike Random, and love everything else.
I have the same opinion! Once, I had the idea to check the album reviews on reddit, and I was surprised by people not liking it so much. As people commented here, Daft Punk fans do not like it because of the same reason hehe
Endtroducing by DJ Shadow was life-changing, but everything after that… meh.
Good call. That album is dirty, visceral perfection from start to finish.
challenge. and yeah, i could have gone for something more recent, but i figured if you like endtroducing and haven’t heard this, you will probably appreciate it.
Hot damn!
In the realm of 90s Canadian quirky-core folk rock, Crash Test Dummies… Well, I’m cheating a bit. Their debut album is indeed right up my alley, and even today there’s not a miss on it. Alternately funny and maudlin and nerdy, it was jauntily, unabashedly country-adjacent folk. One track even helped with the early chipping away at the walls of prejudice I was raised with as a southern-fried Mormon. I remain very fond of the album, though I only listen to it once or twice a year.
The reason I say I’m cheating is because I really did like God Shuffled His Feet as well, even Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm, but “quirky” was broadening into self-parody and even teenage me could hear it on several tracks. A Worm’s Life was… okay, I guess, sort of, but forgettable even for a fan, and nothing the band or Brad Roberts or any of he other members did afterwards really recaptured anything like that magic for me.
Probably not a ton of people representing for a meme-voiced 1.5-hit wonder from the early 90s, but I’ll stand and be counted, LOL.
There are so many great Canadian 80’s/90’s bands that many folks will never discover. CTD would definitely have been among them if not for Weird Al.
In the realm of 90s Canadian quirky-core folk rock,
Three words for you, then. Moxy Früvous, Bargainville.
Turn on the Bright Lights by Interpol is incredible, in my opinion it’s one of, if not the most impressive debut albums I have ever come across. The rest of their discography is ok, but nothing that I would rate anywhere close to that.
I kind of disagree. I think Our Love To Admire and El Pintor are much more solid albums with better songs and better construction that better contend for their best. They hit the highs of TOTBL, and then some - my personal favorites are Heinrich Maneuver, Anywhere, and Everything is wrong.
That being said, that doesn’t keep TOTBL from being one of their best - it really captures that feeling of pre-9/11 indie rock with songs that are really gripping. If anything, I would say that the 10th anniversary edition of TOTBL is the best version of that album that includes their EP and demo material for the band that shows that the album wasn’t just their first album, it was an entire era for the band through the material they released around that album.
Came here to post this.
Like, the rest of their albums are totally fine, that’s just how good their debut was.
I would kind of say the same thing about The Strokes, but I think some of their follow ups have aged well
Silent Alarm from Bloc Party is such a an absolutely incredible album. Fantastic upbeat indie rock songs spaced out with slower meaningful emotionally powerful love songs. It really takes you on a journey.
Their other albums after have been anywhere from okay to good with a few great tracks here and there, but Silent Alarm is just head and shoulders above the rest. If I were ever able to write a song as good as Helicopter, Banquet, This Modern Love, or Luno… I’d die happy.
I would have picked Intimacy for largely the same reasons!
Garbage V2.0
The first garbage album I ever bought. I agree with this. Along the same lines, I think Chumbawamba’s Tubthumper comes to mind. Besides “Tubthumpin” (I get kocked down), the rest of the album is actually really solid and still a good listen today.
Maroon 5 - Songs About Jane.
They used to be so delightfully unique and funky. They’re just sellouts now.
Makes me sad where they ended up, such a great album.
That’d be Gorillaz for me. I can appreciate them, but not my thing. But, Demon Days is so damn good, love it start to finish
The Strokes. Their debut *Is This It *is one of the best if not the best Rock debuts. Eveything else after is just meh to me.
You’re right. It’s an amazing album. “Definitely Maybe” by Oasis is my vote for best rock debut album but I think you’re spot on otherwise about The Strokes.
Metallica: Ride the Lightning
I love this album, but can’t stand any of their other stuff.
I prefer Master of Puppets to Ride the Lightning for the overall heavier sound, and the distinct lack of acne in Hetfield’s voice. However, those two albums are definitely their top two.
Agreed
Oh, the production quality on Lightning is trash. The drums sound like their not in the same room with the the microphones. Part of the charm. It sounds like a band who doesn’t know any professional producers.
