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.
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.
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.
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.
Sevendust - Animosity - loved every track but only a few selected tracks from their other work
Disturbed - The Sickness - made my 2000
Orgy - Vapor Transmission - way ahead of their time
Limp Bizkit - Significant Other - still fun to listen to
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.
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This is all personal opinion. Sometimes music just doesn’t click for some people and that’s alright.
I just can’t agree. I wish having a different opinion didnt just mean people downvoted you to hell, you should be allowed to disagree with a popular opinion.
So, instead, i will just counter with: i think hybrid theory and meteora were written around the same time, ive always held that both albums are start to finish bangers. When one song finishes and im just “catching a mental breath”, but another one starts and im like “oh shit!” Because i know its another great track i cant help but think both albums are amazing.
They did, however, fall off a cliff after those albums. (Save for maybe reanimation, that was a fun album)
Also im not even particularly a fan. I know them second hand from my younger brother who is/was more die hard. Im more into Muse, dear hunter, radiohead and things like that.
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 loved that Wolfmother album
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.
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.
“Passage” by Samael
I’m just going to assume you have never heard Ceremony of Opposites. That’s the only explanation.
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
Or Worship Him which is by far their best work.
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.
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.
Kiko by Los Lobos is a masterpiece, to me. The rest of their albums are hit or miss, with The Town and the City being their 2nd best, but nowhere near as good as Kiko.
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!
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.
I’m not usually a full album guy, but the bands I do like every track on an album tend to only be from one album.
Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica. Outside of that entire thing, I really only like Shit Luck and Float On.
I love the first Kings of Leon’s album I ever heard, Aha Shake Heartbreak, but have disliked everything else they’ve ever done.
Same with Head Automatica; I’m not really big on metal so I could even count Pantera’s stuff (I like Walk and that’s about it) with it and still only like Decadence.
I can’t say just one modest mouse album does it for me, but Lonesome Crowded West and Good News For People Who Love Bad News are, for me, such better albums than the rest of their work.
Lonesome Crowded West rules above them all for me. They’re my favorite band and I’ve barely listened to anything that came out after Moon and Antarctica.
Their first album, Youth and young manhood is fucking great. Better than aha shake heartbreak IMO. It’s such a fucking nose dive after that second album though.
Regular Urban Survivors by Terrorvision. Most people probably know them by way of their subsequent album, Shaving Peaches, but RUS is far superior.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Lol, I’m the exact opposite. I really dislike Random, and love everything else.
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Believe is also my favorite from them. I remember when “Evolution” came out and being disappointed by how forgettable it is. I actually had to go search for it so I could remember the name of it.
Boston is the first that comes to mind for me. there’s their self-titled which is easily one of the best records of all time, and then everything that came wasn’t exactly bad but it was nowhere near the same level
Boston was my first reaction. Their first album is nigh perfect; everything after is merely decent '80s rock.
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.
Endtroducing by DJ Shadow was life-changing, but everything after that… meh.
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!
Good call. That album is dirty, visceral perfection from start to finish.
