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Bands Who Only Made One Good Album For You


Bucksstudent

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I know some of you have a band you are iffy on because they only have one or two albums that really do it for you. Please list them and the reasons you don't like their others.

 

Mine:

John Mellencamp - Scarecrow

I listened to his other albums, and they all felt pretensious and weak.

 

Wings - Band on the Run

For me, McCartney was never the strongest member of the Beatles, but his first two solo albums, plus McCartney II and Flaming Pie are great records. Wings always felt like a soft-rock band; an outlet for McCartney's commercial "granny music" (as Lennon called it). Interestingly enough, I hate Lennon's solo albums.

 

The Golden Palominos - Visions of Excess

Arto Lindsay, Michael Stipe, Richard Thompson, Jack Bruce, Henry Kaiser, John Lydon, and Syd Straw. Fantastic musicians making a great album together. Ironically, R.E.M. fans probably bought it for Stipe, ignoring the other musicians. The other Palominos records felt less cohesive.

 

Brian Wilson - Brian Wilson

The irony is that he was wacked out of his mind when he made this album, and the rest of his solo albums felt like cartoon impressions of his work with the Beach Boys.

 

The Black Keys - Chulahoma

I bought this album without ever listening to the band, and it is actually an EP. I remember Thom Yorke saying he liked them and they influenced In Rainbows, so I bought it on his recomendation alone. This record sounds nothing like them. The rest sounds like a more retro White Stripes.

 

Soundgarden - Bad Motor Finger

I didn't even care for this one that much.

 

Pearl Jam - Ten

Great album, and I even bought Vitology without even liking it from an intial listen. When I finally listened to it, I wanted my five dollars back.

 

Weezer - Blue Album

People talk about Pinkerton a lot, but that felt like a sloppy album to me. Of course, their album with "Beverly Hills" was insanely popular when I was in junior high. I'm 23 now. I keep saying I'm 22 because my birthday was October 4th, and I can't remember my own age.

 

Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden

I think this album kicks ass, but I really don't like Bruce Dickhead's vocals. He sounds like an evil wizard on crack.

 

Bob Dylan - Bringing it All Back Home

Dylan's voice was never the problem. I find most of his music boring or annoying. I love it when other artists cover him, though. I mean, people love Hendrix's "Watchtower" so much more than the original.

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I agree on Weezer. I loved that first album when it first came out, and I still like it just as much now. Pinkerton wasn't bad at all, I don't think, but it didn't have that same vibe that the debut had. Subsequent albums by them have a song or two that's pretty good, but that vibe they had on the first album was never repeated. The first album had funny moments and nostalgic moments, and the whole thing was just fun.

 

How about Boston? I like that first record, but not really the other one or two. The first one is a little cliche now, I guess, but I still think it sounds great.

 

 

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kayd_mon wrote:

 

I agree on Weezer. I loved that first album when it first came out, and I still like it just as much now. Pinkerton wasn't bad at all, I don't think, but it didn't have that same vibe that the debut had. Subsequent albums by them have a song or two that's pretty good, but that vibe they had on the first album was never repeated. The first album had funny moments and nostalgic moments, and the whole thing was just fun.

 

 

 

How about Boston? I like that first record, but not really the other one or two. The first one is a little cliche now, I guess, but I still think it sounds great.

 

 

 


 

Ironically, the first Boston album only featured one member playing all of the instruments: Tom Scholtz.

 

I think Weezer relied too much on their nerdy image and didn't expand much from there. Had I been a fan when the Blue album came out (I turned four in 1994, so...), I probably wouldn't have expected them to last this long. Other bands from that period, like the Presidents of the United States, certainly didn't.

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This is really hard for me.  Generally I either love an album and like (but not love) others, or dislike them all, or like/love an album but haven't explored others.

One exception is John Cale's "Fear".  I really like that album ("love" is a bit too much), but strongly dislike his other solo albums (at least the several I've tried), and in most cases dislike his contributions to collaborative efforts as well (eg, with Cale/Eno "Which Way is Up" and Cale/Reed "Songs for Drella" I program to skip his songs, just can't stand them).  I do like much of his work with Velvet Underground, though - that drove me to "Fear" in the first place - so even in this instance it's not all-or-nothing.

The question is good food for thought.

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Kansas, Leftoverture. My all time desert island album and song, Carry On Wayward Son. It's one of those "time and place" things for me. I've loved music forever and grew up on AM radio hits and 50s stuff thanks to an older brother, but Leftoverture took me somewhere I'd never been. For the first time I started paying attention to the different instruments. The individual musicianship and Steve Walsh's voice really got my attention. Their other stuff, while enjoyable, just doesn't reach those heights.

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brandass wrote:

 

 

This is really hard for me.  Generally I either love an album and like (but not love) others, or dislike them all, or like/love an album but haven't explored others.

 

One exception is John Cale's "Fear".  I really like that album ("love" is a bit too much), but strongly dislike his other solo albums (at least the several I've tried), and in most cases dislike his contributions to collaborative efforts as well (eg, with Cale/Eno "Which Way is Up" and Cale/Reed "Songs for Drella" I program to skip his songs, just can't stand them).  I do like much of his work with Velvet Underground, though - that drove me to "Fear" in the first place - so even in this instance it's not all-or-nothing.

 

The question is good food for thought.

 

I like Cale's seventies and early eighties work... A LOT. I think Reed had a weaker solo career, but he was still awesome. I think VU suffered when Cale left too.

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Pretenders (eponymous 1979) just one great track after another brilliant, She could never follow that for several reasons, some tragic

Led Zep III  I realise I am on my own with this one :)

Songs From the Big Chair  TFF never quite got that chemistry again, it was a moment in history.

Meddle  "Echoes" in particular, after the stupid 'bicycle' stuff but before Waters turned them all political and agitprop

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Meat Loaf - Bat out of Hell: the assertion above was 100% accurate

Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman

Dishwalla - Pet Your Friends

Presidents of the United States of America - Presidents of the United States of America

Spin Doctors - Pocket Full of Kryptonite

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome

The Cult - Electric

Dada - Puzzle

Los Lobos - How Will The Wolf Survive?

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak

 

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JRicoC wrote:

 

 

Meat Loaf - Bat out of Hell: the assertion above was 100% accurate

 

Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman

 

Dishwalla - Pet Your Friends

 

Presidents of the United States of America - Presidents of the United States of America

 

Spin Doctors - Pocket Full of Kryptonite

 

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome

 

The Cult - Electric

 

Dada - Puzzle

 

Los Lobos - How Will The Wolf Survive?

 

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak

 

 

 

I agree on Spin Doctors. I can't agree about Thin Lizzy. Johnny the Fox is an awesome, awesome album. Pat Benatar apparently thought so too...

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My list is pretty short:

- Big Country - In a Big Country

- Tracy Chapman's first album

- It's a Beautiful Day - It's a Beautiful Day

- Blood, Sweat and Tears - Blood, Sweat and Tears

There are a bunch of artists where I like two, and only two, of their albums...and an even bigger bunch that I can't stand any of them.

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I think in many cases..... a bands debut album is their best. It defines their sound for the rest of their career....and as hard as it is to get a record deal with a major label.... to actually get one, you have to be pretty damn special..... the odds of your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th album being as good is not likely......it has been done before.... but it's rare.

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JRicoC wrote:

 

 

Meat Loaf - Bat out of Hell: the assertion above was 100% accurate

 

Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman

 

Dishwalla - Pet Your Friends

 

Presidents of the United States of America - Presidents of the United States of America

 

Spin Doctors - Pocket Full of Kryptonite

 

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome

 

The Cult - Electric

 

Dada - Puzzle

 

Los Lobos - How Will The Wolf Survive?

 

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak

 

 

 

I agree with all of your thoughts here except Los Lobos; have you ever listened to Kiko?  Not as much of a rocker as How Will the Wolf Survive?, with no radio hits, but simply sublime music.

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Bucksstudent wrote:

 

 

Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden

 

I think this album kicks ass, but I really don't like Bruce Dickhead's vocals. He sounds like an evil wizard on crack.

 

 

 

Sorry Bucks, but gotta take issue with this. MI saw Maiden sevarl times with Di'Anno and they were a shadow of what they becamne with Dickinson at the mic.

 

Technically I'd have to say that Dickinson is way beyond what Di'Anno could ever dream of although if you like thet gutter sound that people like Hetfield use then OK, but imagine Di'Anno doing Passchendaele?

 

Nah!

 

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I really dug Motley Crue's debut, Too Fast for Love. I spun that record enthusiastically for over a year, and I couldn't wait for their next album. I bought their second album, Shout at the Devil, the day it came out in September 1983. It was produced by Tom Werman. The "In the Beginning" prelude was ridiculous, and it led into "Shout at the Devil," which was a weak opener, IMO. Some of the songs, like "Looks that Kill" and "Too Young to Fall in Love" were very good, but on par, the performances sounded flat, without the fire, the hunger, and the garagey, trashy edge of the debut. I thought Mick Mars' sound didn't have the same edge to it. I thought their cover of "Helter Skelter" was butchered horribly, and that's when I knew I was pretty much past them. For years, I blamed Tom Werman bitterly for the pedestrian production, and I really think their recorded output in the 80s could have been greater with a better producer. It wasn't until they hired Bob Rock for Dr. Feelgood that they got a record that just smoked, and at that point I felt my hatred of the Werman records was fully justified. Still, Shout at the Devil was the last Motley Crue album I bought, thirty years ago this fall. Wow, where does the time go.

 

Guns N' Roses, who had one of the all-time great debuts in hard rock history, Appetite for Destruction, became a huge success, and then produced a bloated, indulgent double album that had none of the balls of their first record. I know "November Rain" is beloved by many, but to me it's pretentious in the extreme, and the video is so bad it makes my eyes water. It was a band trying way too hard, too inflated by their own importance -- there's so much Spinal Tap in there. I have still never heard the entire double album from start to finish in one sitting. In the great rock star tradition, they were doomed by their own success.

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Ratae Coritanorum wrote:

 


Bucksstudent wrote:

 

 

Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden

 

I think this album kicks ass, but I really don't like Bruce Dickhead's vocals. He sounds like an evil wizard on crack.

 

 

 

 

Sorry Bucks, but gotta take issue with this. MI saw Maiden sevarl times with Di'Anno and they were a shadow of what they becamne with Dickinson at the mic.

 

 

 

Technically I'd have to say that Dickinson is way beyond what Di'Anno could ever dream of although if you like thet gutter sound that people like Hetfield use then OK, but imagine Di'Anno doing Passchendaele?

 

 

 

Nah!

 

 

Why is every Maiden fan's defense of Dickenson that Di'Anno couldn't sing the same songs? Those songs suck.

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I'll also mention Zebra, a band that surprisingly still exists today (with its original lineup!) and thrives on the club circuit in the US south, apparently. They had a really promising self-titled debut in the summer of 1983, with people thinking of them as a cross between Rush and Led Zeppelin -- very lofty praise for a freshman release -- and then after that, they stalled right when they should have taken off. They never realized their potential for greatness, sad to say. Probably not fair for this thread, because they really only had one really good album -- but what a good album it was, especially at the time.

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Many bands listed in this thread are "singles" bands for me. Bands like RHCP anf GNR (mentioned here) as well as other bands like Rage Against the Machine, Dave Matthews Band, and almost Metallica (if it wasn't for Puppets) are great on some songs, but I have never enjoyed a full album by them. The "deep cuts" of many bands are buried for a reason.

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