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!
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.
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.
You’re wrong
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
In the realm of 90s Canadian quirky-core folk rock,
Three words for you, then. Moxy Früvous, Bargainville.
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.
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.
Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt. I love everything about that album, even today. Their other stuff is OK at best. Just not my thing.
This was the example that popped into my head when I saw the question prompt. Listening to this now still hits me as strongly as when it came out, and the rest of the albums just don’t feel as strong to me.
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 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.
Oh wow I had no idea they stopped using the band name. Definitely for the best, I don’t think they’ve really been a band for quite some time.
Megadeth. Rust in Peace is a masterpiece. The rest of the albums are just boring.
I honestly don’t know why other bands are bothering to continue making music when Rust In Peace exists. It’s embarrassing.
*credit to The Onion
Megadeth is just one of those bands where you’ll only like select tracks per album. But there’s almost no album of theirs that’s perfect from beginning to end.
Alice in Chains - Dirt. Like, you can’t get any better than that and their quality after Dirt was wildly fluctuating and it didn’t help that the band was dealing with a struggling Layne Staley until his death.
Sabaton - The Art of War. A handful of my favorite tracks is coming off from this album (Ghost Division, Firestorm .etc). A lot of this band’s discography, I like a max amount of like 4 songs per album while the rest is forgettable. But Art of War has just a little more to it.
Disturbed - Believe. This is easily one of my favorite albums of all time and definitely my favorite album of all of the Disturbed discography. Their sound matured off from The Sickness and it was only their sophomore album. Their quality of sound gradually decreased every album release since to where I’ll only find a favorite track or two from them.
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.
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.
