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.
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
Remo Drive - Greatest Hits (which isn’t a greatest hits album) definitely fits the description. It’s extra sad since it’s their debut album, so it falls into your sophomore slump category. I respect the decision to not repeat themselves though, but I can’t help to feel like they would be able to make an album that both pleases the fans garnered from the first, and which isn’t just a rehash.
Parachutes by Coldplay was a really good kind of alt-indie-pop album. Much more stripped down than the rest of their catalog. Everything since then has either been overproduced or soulless.
If you want more chill, brooding, melancholy stuff — songs that sound about right for a band that named itself “Coldplay” — there are two EPs and a handful of B-sides from before Parachutes that are relatively unknown and have the same vibe.
Got any names for those eps or b sides?
EPs are Safety, The Blue Room and Brothers and Sisters, while the B-sides come from the better-known Parachutes singles Trouble, Yellow and Shiver. Some specific track picks I’d point to are “Easy to Please,” “Bigger Stronger” and “Only Superstition.”
Train. Drops of Jupiter was, in my opinion, just perfect. Others after that were meh at best, trying to recapture the spark that DOJ was. I always figured it was when a band loses one of its member, things like this happen…
When i realised that song was by trai many years after it was released it blew my mind. I dont think i knew the band by name until around 2009 or maybe later than that but i really didnt like them, they just felt generic and a bit forced. Then one day i heard the song drops of jupiter again and though, oh this a good song! Who’s it by? Looked it up and was gobsmacked. Never would have imagined the band that wrote drive by as capable of writing DOJ.
P.O.D. I legitimately did not know they released other albums because Satellite was that good. I listened to them. I shouldn’t have.
Satellite is undeniably their best album. However, the track “Southtown” from The Fundamental Elements of Southtown goes harder than anything they ever made after that, and I kept that cd for years just for that track.
Fr. People who only know Satellite might say POD stands for Payable on Death. Those who have heard everything else know it’s actually Pile of Dookie.
Morbid Angel Blessed Are The Sick. To me, they have never reached the peak of their second album. A was okay, too. But after B I would eagerly listen to C and D when they came out and just never felt the same enthusiasm as I did for B. I gave up and moved on even though I later went back and listened to F, G, and H, and F is interesting because it is so strange but I can’t really recall much about the other two. Never bothered with I, and that’s where my tale ends.
Epsilon by Blood Stain Child
Melodic death metal with techno/tranceI still like the rest of their work, but THAT album is by far my favorite.
Ryan’s Hope - Apocalypse in Increments. It’s from 2006 but I didn’t discover it until around 2012, by which point they’d already rebranded as The Reaganomics and adopted a more pop-punk sound that didn’t resonate with me.
Black Sabath Paranoid. Their other stuff has a decent song here and there, but this album is my favorite.
I think War Pigs/Luke’s Wall is one of the best anti-war songs. While so many of the era were very hopeful/happy (Youngbloods, Buffalo Springfield…), Sabbath’s take on the war song genre was a giant middle finger to the military industrial complex, saying “you are literally doing Satan’s bidding.” It’s awesome.
Fortunate Son, Gimme Shelter, and I’m gonna say Rooster round out my favorite Vietnam songs.
A Fever you can’t Sweat Out by Panic! At the Disco. I don’t know what happened after that album but it wasn’t good.
I actually think Pretty Odd is this best thing they ever did, but most people who love Fever objectively hate the non emo outing.
I like some of the songs on the subsequent albums but you’re absolutely right. That first album is just banger after banger and each album after got 30-50% worse until we ended up with whatever the hell panic at the disco is today.
Disbanded. They’re disbanded today.
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.
Goldfish has two. Get Busy Living and Three Second Memory are both amazing albums. Everything else? Meh.
That’s not really an answer to op’s question, though.
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.
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.
Agreed
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Boatman’s Call seemed like a solid album and mostly unweird, if not kind of cheesy. But his other stuff, earlier and later feels off. I imagine that’s blasphemous to a proper nick cave fan as BC was likely more mainstream and all that but it was nice, lovely, and at some points thoughtful.
I never really cared all that much for anything other than Lyre of Orpheus/Abbatoir Blues aside from a song here and there. Nothing else just hit the same for me.
Same. He’s pretty hit or miss. Like Tom Waites, for me, in a way. Some breathtaking songs but lots of mediocre stuff.
Songs for the Deaf. A very brief moment QOTSA existed in that form and nothing before or after even gets close.
QOTSA is not the same without DG banging on the drums.
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 respect your opinion, but hard disagree - SFTD is good but both Villains and (especially) …Like Clockwork are better musically and lyrically imo.
