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.
The Queen is Dead is the only Smiths album I like, the others just don’t do it for me.
I loved Strangeways Here We Come but I can’t listen to anything Morrissey anymore.
Johnny Marr has done some interesting stuff solo so we’ve got that going for us.
Infected Mushroom.
Classical Mushroom is fucking amazing to the point I can hear the whole album in my head including every note if I want. But after that it just fell apart.
Huh. I’ve been a fan of pretty much everything they put out. I’m curious what this album had that the others didn’t for you.
It was all the E notes.
Seriously though how am I supposed to answer that?
I love Return to the Sauce. So good.
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.
Other Tragically Hip albums have some standout tracks, but the only album of theirs I really enjoy beginning-to-end is Fully Completely.
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.
Augustana. Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt is a fantastic album, but everything else they’ve put out is meh.
That the one with the Boston diddy?
No, that’s their first album, All the Stars and Boulevards. A few years before. Sweet and Low is their big hit from Can’t Love Can’t Hurt.
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.
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.
Yes! That song is so weird (in a good way).
You could say it was ‘state of the art’
That’s his one and only song on my ‘liked songs’ play list. Love it
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.
What’s most impressive are his animations. This is on his main YouTube channel. Really good stuff.
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
Boy’s Night Out made the album Trainwreck, a concept album about a man having a night terror and strangling his wife to death and coping with her loss. It’s fucking great.
Everything else they’ve ever done is aggressively mid
You left off the best part that he “copes” by cutting off his hands afterwards. I love that album.
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!
Groove Armada’s Black Light.
I highly doubt if anyone but me is listening to it.
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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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.
This is all personal opinion. Sometimes music just doesn’t click for some people and that’s alright.
I would put Hybrid Theory and Meteora on the same level as far as albums go. Everything after that… Not so great.
The Ataris, with So Long, Astoria
For me is Silent alarm by Bloc Party.
I was so pumped to see them in concert. Unfortunately, Matt Tong (their drummer) suffered a collapsed lung when opening for Panic! At the Disco. The show was going to be Bloc Party, Jacks Mannequin, Panic! At the Disco. I was really excited to see Bloc Party & Jacks and Panic! wasn’t a bad option to see too (though their sound mixer was awful and it sounded like shit). Instead of Bloc Party, we got Plain White Tees. Just a brutal replacement.
LEN - You can’t stop the bumrush
Other than the one pop song that got tons of radio play, it’s a great album. It’s still a great listen.
Every other album or song since then seems to be a weak grasp.
Red Hot Chili Peppers and Stone Temple Pilots both have controversial albums that illicit love or hate from their fans.
- elicit.
Illicit = of legally dubious origin
Having read Scar Tissue, there was a lot of illicit love with the fans.
- elicit.
