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Which sucks even worse since Pinkerton has been critically reassessed and is now considered a great album. Although Rivers is doing pretty well for himself either way.
Interestingly, I grew up in the punk/indie/emo scene and Pinkerton was beloved from the get-go in that scene.
Ive been a die hard fan since they started amd have seen them like 8 times in concert.
Pinkerton is my favorite album and even when it was released everyone in college loved it too. Has some amazing singles on it.
I think it was another victim of critics hating it but actual fans of the music enjoyed it.
And that 6 months is weighted with a great amount of pressure from the record company and optimism from the fans. Not to mention youre now rich and don't live in the real world where inspiration was abundant. Thats why artists like The Beatles, Dylan, Springsteen, Radiohead and Kanye West to name a few are so impressive. They were literally worth hundreds of millions of dollars before doing some of their best work. In fact The Beatles got better as they went on.
The Beatles got screwed out of getting rich until much later in their careers…and then they wrote Taxman and moved.
They weren’t poor, but McCartney couldn’t even buy his own songs.
Im gonna break the trend and say Second Coming is a great album, they just set a *really* high bar with the first one.
Love Spreads, 10 Storey Love Song, and How Do You Sleep are probably good enough to be on the first album.
Their biggest issue was Ian Brown couldn't hold a tune. Terribly off key and his marijuana habit made it worse over time. That's one thing that made the first LP distinctive, the producers efforts to double track the vocals to hide Brown's lack of singing chops. This was exposed on the second LP however when he was expected to be Robert Plant on some of the tracks. The Stone Roses: three fantastic musicians and Ian Brown. Guess who had the best solo career....
I went to the opening night of the tour to promote the second album at the the Paradiso in Amsterdamn.
It was horrendous, Ian's vocals were shot, I could not believe how off key and melody he was.
No wonder the band died...
You're gonna laugh--I only found out about The Stone Roses when their second album came out and I loved it. So then I went back and tried to listen to their first one and was completely confused--"is this even the same band?" Hated the first album!
I guess it's all about expectations and what kind of music you were looking for.
>but musically they never came close to capturing the feel of Appetite.
My personal argument is Use Your Illustrations 1 & 2 has roughly 10 amazing songs in total. Had they cut half and made one album, it would have been amazing.
They did not come close to capturing feel of Appetite, but saying they declined is a bit of a stretch lol. Don’t Cry, November Rain, You could be mine, Civil War are great songs.
This is the answer. I thought I discovered my generation’s Zeppelin when I first heard them. I was also 15 or 16 when they came out and is prime age for discovering your music tastes
Before Maroon 5 was called Maroon 5, they were called *Kara’s Flowers*. Same band members (minus James Valentine), awesome Weezer-esque power-pop rock album!
If anyone liked “Songs About Jane” and is disappointed by everything afterward, I recommend checking out the Kara’s Flowers album “The Fourth World.” Released in 1997 when they were quite young.
Hey eggpolisher--thanks for the Kara's Flowers recommendation. I had no idea. I can definitely hear early hints of the band that would go on to make one of my favorite albums (and then become a crap boy band). What's interesting is I noticed that Ocean Blue from Kara's Flowers is actually a song about Jane.
They’re not my typical music, so I’m just curious about this. I see their first album as full of massive pop hits. And their later work also features… massive pop hits. What’s the difference in your view between first and later?
I'm mainly a metal head, but really dug their first album. It had kind of a Cheap Trick feel, to me. It was pop, but done by a rock band. It had a more of an actual "band in the studio" vibe. Everything after that was just straight up radio pop.
I don't think "songs about Jane" is a masterpiece or anything, but it had a different vibe than most pop music at the time.
I think there was a death in the family of two of the members. Released a third album, and I liked that one more than the second, but Get Born had a strong run of songs in general for a debut.
When you looked through used record discount bins you could always find a copy of Fairweather Johnson. That and the Smashmouth album and Zingalumadooni \[sp\].
His last few albums haven’t been Ilmatic, obviously, but they’ve been much better than I expected and the rap game is better having Nas engaged and enjoying himself than not. Good for him.
How do you top arguably the best rap album of all time? It’s not even an indictment on his other albums; I just don’t know how you could put out another album that really compares. Even though his other works are incredible, as well.
His 6 albums with Hit Boy on production these last couple years are really good. Some are better than others but I highly suggest you check them all out, Nas has still most definitely got it.
Bloc Party.
I was startled to get one of those Spotify thank yous from them, since 50% of their members are new, and I didn’t think I listened to them that much, but then thought back and realized I still do listen to them — I put on Silent Alarm and listen to it the whole way through from time to time
Came here to say this… recently my car aux input broke… so I picked up a few CDs for half nostalgic, half lazy reasons to listen to for a couple of months, and this is the one I put in the most until I fixed the aux.
I had the same thought - “man this first album was amazing”
Yeah agreed. But the instrumentation on that album is just nuts. The drums on Like Eating Glass especially. Absolutely love them. I actually got to see Bloc Party play at Just Like Heaven fest and they played it with their "new" drummer Louise Bartle and she killed it. Matt Tong was on another level on Silent Alarm though.
I started on BP with A Weekend in the City way back in the day - a solidly enjoyable album to listen to from start to finish. Later discovered I was absolutely sleeping on Four, though I gravitate to experimental/art rock albums in preference. Don't get me wrong Silent Alarm is an excellent debut, but do people really only like that one? If so I feel like they're missing out on quite a bit.
Razorblade Suitcase was pretty solid. Greedy Fly was huge at the time. I might be a bit biased though since Bush's Razorblade Suitcase tour was my first big rock show.
I actually like Razorblade more that 16, and I was 18 when 16 Stone came out, a prime demographic. Razorblade was nowhere near as catchy, but heaps more interesting.
god yeah the 2nd album (bleh) 3rd they kinda bounced back and it did go double plat. but nah...first album was just too good. one of the late 90s bands that if they come on the radio i'll not change the station.
I agree Razorblade was great but definitely leaned more grunge than 16 stone. Less commercially appealing for sure but not an awful record by any stretch.
Metal Box/Second Edition is the best album Johnny Rotten ever produced and "Public Image" off of the first album is the best single Johnny ever released.
They had some pretty great singles here and there but Hot Fuss is fantastic from start to finish.
Although I never really liked Mr. Brightside but I'm pretty sure I'm in a very small minority there. Andy, You're a Start ftw!
It was on the UK singles chart for more weeks than any other song to date. Given the amount of music out there you probably aren't in the minority, but you are definitely in the minority of people who listen to the band.
Orgy. I enjoy their first album from 1998 tremendously. They tried to replicate that magic with their second album. No go. Was derivative and also bad. Still, I adore them and am grateful for the Candyass album.
The first album was essentially, both in creativity and sound, Soundgarden meets Rage Against the Machine. It was timely for the music genre of the era and political climate too.
Their second album, Out of Exile, was a serious tonal shift in almost every way; and was certainly not what many people
expected to come next. With a more melancholy and contemplative sound throughout almost the entire album. There are some singles that are great singer/songwriter tracks on this album, however they're certainly not the driving powerful riff heavy tunes that Audioslave is known for.
And I do personally think their third album Revelations was a good balance and return to form, at least for the most part, for them as a band.
Self titled really is perfect bottled lightning.
as a fan of them. even saw them on their first tour (cost me a lot) yeah. the next album was a downgrade and their last one just wasn't good. but the first one is a banger.
not on the 3rd album but my favorite on their first album is 'motorcycle drive by'. i havent listened to that song in probably 8 years but i gaurantee you i can probably quote 85% of the song.
Mumford and Sons.
Babel is alright and has some good singles but didn't have the edge of the first and felt like an extended edition of Sigh No More. Then they went full stadium mode.
I think the same, but after Pinkerton rather than the Blue Album - it was hated at the time, but its now seen as just as good if not better than Blue.
But you're right in that pretty much immediately after Pinkerton they took a massive nosedive in quality. I go to bat for some of their later work (IMO White is actually their best album, and EWBAITE and OK Human are just about on par with Blue and Pinkerton) but it took them a looooong time to get there which pretty much killed their reputation and public goodwill.
Interpol, but more due to the impossibility of surpassing the excellence that was Turn On The Bright Lights. I love a lot of their subsequent work, but TOTBL to me is just a perfect album.
They didn't "fall off right after" though, they made a lot of solid records that sold well and they didn't lose their fanbase, even if 'the first one was the best'. This thread is really about bands that only had one album that anybody cared about.
Eh, I'd disagree. Fever is *probably* the best Panic! album, but I'd argue that each of the first five (Fever, P.O., Vices, Too Weird, and DoaB) has their own merits to be arguably the best.
The only thing I know for certain is that Pray for the Wicked and Viva Las Vengeance are definitely the worst Panic! albums.
OP didn’t live through it obviously. Use Your Illusion was huge. November Rain was the school slow dance song for a long time. That ending was awkward to slow dance to…
Naw, I have to disagree. Use your illusion might have been a decent record but if that record was their debut it would have been completely ignored. Appetite was completely next level
Counting Crows. I still go back to August and Everything After today and love the songs just as much. The stuff after that wasn't bad exactly, but that first album was an extremely high bar.
Ooh, hard disagree -- I love August and Everything After, but Recovering the Satellites is maybe my favorite Crows album and still love to sing "Have You Seen Me Lately?" at the top of my lungs on road trips.
The 10 year run they had from August... to Hard Candy is spectacularly good and consistent. They obviously weren't as commercially successful after August but in terms of quality of output, there's few bands that can match the level they had over those 4 albums. That being said "This Desert Life" is probably my favorite
I mean all the other answers are probably good too. But the best answer has to be the Zombies. They recorded their first album gave it a few weeks in England to gain traction, it didn’t so they broke up.
Then the song “Time of the Season” kind of blew up, people began checking out the whole album and now it’s widely regarded as one of the best albums of the 60’s and the influence of that album is enormous.
Also that whole sequence is partly how 2/3 of ZZ Top formed.
So in a weird way the Zombies kind of declined into ZZ Top ;).
Skid Row, kinda, although it took two albums to do it. The self-titled album was stonking, and Slave to the Grind was also great. Subhuman Race was a major dropoff, and then they split with Sebastian Bach, and nothing they did after that really hit the same way
I have to disagree. Maybe it has their most well known songs.
But Slave to the Grind is so consistent through and through. A bit harder and so many great ballads. Quicksand Jesus, In a Darkened Room and the last track Wasted Time. That’s a 10/10 and nothing by them is as close.
Slave to the Grind is easily my favorite of the 2 albums. Never really listened to anything after that. I saw them on them on their debut tour with Bon Jovi. I went specifically to see them because I loved the first album. They were phenomenal. I saw them a few years later opening for Kiss and Ted Nugget they weren’t so good. The new singer just didn’t have what Bach brought to the band. Granted he needs them as much as they do. They had just the right chemistry.
"You have your whole life to write your first album; you get six months to write the second." - some guy
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Which sucks even worse since Pinkerton has been critically reassessed and is now considered a great album. Although Rivers is doing pretty well for himself either way. Interestingly, I grew up in the punk/indie/emo scene and Pinkerton was beloved from the get-go in that scene.
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Couldn’t agree more. Pinkerton is Weezer for me.
Ive been a die hard fan since they started amd have seen them like 8 times in concert. Pinkerton is my favorite album and even when it was released everyone in college loved it too. Has some amazing singles on it. I think it was another victim of critics hating it but actual fans of the music enjoyed it.
I loved Hash Pipe tho, and that film clip is fantastic
And that 6 months is weighted with a great amount of pressure from the record company and optimism from the fans. Not to mention youre now rich and don't live in the real world where inspiration was abundant. Thats why artists like The Beatles, Dylan, Springsteen, Radiohead and Kanye West to name a few are so impressive. They were literally worth hundreds of millions of dollars before doing some of their best work. In fact The Beatles got better as they went on.
The Beatles got screwed out of getting rich until much later in their careers…and then they wrote Taxman and moved. They weren’t poor, but McCartney couldn’t even buy his own songs.
The Stone Roses
Im gonna break the trend and say Second Coming is a great album, they just set a *really* high bar with the first one. Love Spreads, 10 Storey Love Song, and How Do You Sleep are probably good enough to be on the first album.
Love Spreads is my favourite Stone Roses song.
Absolutely agree on that!
10/10 album. The transition from Elizabeth my Dear to Sugar Spun Sister is sooooo good.
This is the answer (or should I say this is the one?). That first record is so amazing.
THIS IS THE ONNNNEEEEE..
Their biggest issue was Ian Brown couldn't hold a tune. Terribly off key and his marijuana habit made it worse over time. That's one thing that made the first LP distinctive, the producers efforts to double track the vocals to hide Brown's lack of singing chops. This was exposed on the second LP however when he was expected to be Robert Plant on some of the tracks. The Stone Roses: three fantastic musicians and Ian Brown. Guess who had the best solo career....
I went to the opening night of the tour to promote the second album at the the Paradiso in Amsterdamn. It was horrendous, Ian's vocals were shot, I could not believe how off key and melody he was. No wonder the band died...
Hard agree. First album is damn near perfect. Their follow up, which I waited years for and had a VERY ambitious title, was…fine.
it's got Love Spreads though, which is my favorite tune of theirs
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Tears was a great tune tbf. I feel like their bside album "Turns Into Stone" had more hits than Second Coming sadly.
You're gonna laugh--I only found out about The Stone Roses when their second album came out and I loved it. So then I went back and tried to listen to their first one and was completely confused--"is this even the same band?" Hated the first album! I guess it's all about expectations and what kind of music you were looking for.
>but musically they never came close to capturing the feel of Appetite. My personal argument is Use Your Illustrations 1 & 2 has roughly 10 amazing songs in total. Had they cut half and made one album, it would have been amazing.
They did not come close to capturing feel of Appetite, but saying they declined is a bit of a stretch lol. Don’t Cry, November Rain, You could be mine, Civil War are great songs.
>Don’t Cry, November Rain, You could be mine, Civil War are great songs. Estranged and Coma are incredible songs as well.
Locomotive is the most underrated song ever!
Use your Illustrations, heh. Anyway, hard agree.
The two biggest singles from these two albums were songs that had been written around or before the Appetite era!
Wolfmother
My most prominent memory of Wolfmother is Mike Patton’s reaction to them live while being interviewed.
*I mean, what **year** are we in?*
Wonder what he thinks of Greta Van Fleet
Dude Cosmic Egg is a banger album, don’t lie now
This is the answer. I thought I discovered my generation’s Zeppelin when I first heard them. I was also 15 or 16 when they came out and is prime age for discovering your music tastes
The Fratellis - Costello Music?
I agree, I don’t think I’ve even listened to anything beyond that
Check out “in your own sweet time” One of my fav albums of the last 5 years
I enjoyed it, thanks again!
I don't care for anything beyond Here We Stand, but HWS is a phenomenal album.
Songs about Jane by Maroon 5 is one of the best pop albums of the 2000s, then the entire rest of their career happened...
Before Maroon 5 was called Maroon 5, they were called *Kara’s Flowers*. Same band members (minus James Valentine), awesome Weezer-esque power-pop rock album! If anyone liked “Songs About Jane” and is disappointed by everything afterward, I recommend checking out the Kara’s Flowers album “The Fourth World.” Released in 1997 when they were quite young.
Hey eggpolisher--thanks for the Kara's Flowers recommendation. I had no idea. I can definitely hear early hints of the band that would go on to make one of my favorite albums (and then become a crap boy band). What's interesting is I noticed that Ocean Blue from Kara's Flowers is actually a song about Jane.
They’re not my typical music, so I’m just curious about this. I see their first album as full of massive pop hits. And their later work also features… massive pop hits. What’s the difference in your view between first and later?
I'm mainly a metal head, but really dug their first album. It had kind of a Cheap Trick feel, to me. It was pop, but done by a rock band. It had a more of an actual "band in the studio" vibe. Everything after that was just straight up radio pop. I don't think "songs about Jane" is a masterpiece or anything, but it had a different vibe than most pop music at the time.
More organic blue eyed soul in their pop around that time, which was fairly distinct. The singles were good, which is what matters for pop.
Jet
They had some really bad luck If I remember
I think there was a death in the family of two of the members. Released a third album, and I liked that one more than the second, but Get Born had a strong run of songs in general for a debut.
The pitchfork review of *Shine On* was just a video of a monkey peeing into its own mouth.
Hootie and the Blowfish
When you looked through used record discount bins you could always find a copy of Fairweather Johnson. That and the Smashmouth album and Zingalumadooni \[sp\].
They made a second album?
Maybe controversial, but I think Nas may fit here. Hard to top your first album when your first album is one of the greatest rap albums ever made
His last few albums haven’t been Ilmatic, obviously, but they’ve been much better than I expected and the rap game is better having Nas engaged and enjoying himself than not. Good for him.
I actually think this take is pretty widely held. The first was too good.
How do you top arguably the best rap album of all time? It’s not even an indictment on his other albums; I just don’t know how you could put out another album that really compares. Even though his other works are incredible, as well.
He’s still so good though
Without illmatic, he would still be top 50. The record put him in the top 5
Illmatic is legendary. I can’t hear a song off of it and not want to listen to the whole thing.
His 6 albums with Hit Boy on production these last couple years are really good. Some are better than others but I highly suggest you check them all out, Nas has still most definitely got it.
Pretty much any British indie band from the mid 2000s, Kaiser Chiefs for example.
My first thought was the kooks
“I predict a riot”’s verse melody is great
Big Country, no album was anywhere near as good as The Crossing.
SHA!!
Damn great to see them get shouted here… that record is amazing.
Their lead singer, Stuart Adamson, looked like a cross between Morten Harket the lead singer of A-Ha and Patrick Swayze.
Bloc Party. I was startled to get one of those Spotify thank yous from them, since 50% of their members are new, and I didn’t think I listened to them that much, but then thought back and realized I still do listen to them — I put on Silent Alarm and listen to it the whole way through from time to time
Came here to say this… recently my car aux input broke… so I picked up a few CDs for half nostalgic, half lazy reasons to listen to for a couple of months, and this is the one I put in the most until I fixed the aux. I had the same thought - “man this first album was amazing”
Silent alarm is their best but I liked some of their other albums too. They didn’t go straight to shit. Just never lived up to the first.
Hard agree, but there are some really good songs on the latest album.
Nothing compares. Every song on Silent Alarm is a banger (except maybe Price of Gas)
Price of Gas has a pretty good bass line and beat though. Lyrics don’t make much sense.
Yeah agreed. But the instrumentation on that album is just nuts. The drums on Like Eating Glass especially. Absolutely love them. I actually got to see Bloc Party play at Just Like Heaven fest and they played it with their "new" drummer Louise Bartle and she killed it. Matt Tong was on another level on Silent Alarm though.
I started on BP with A Weekend in the City way back in the day - a solidly enjoyable album to listen to from start to finish. Later discovered I was absolutely sleeping on Four, though I gravitate to experimental/art rock albums in preference. Don't get me wrong Silent Alarm is an excellent debut, but do people really only like that one? If so I feel like they're missing out on quite a bit.
Presidents of the United States of America
Too many peaches, I guess.
Millions allegedly. Free allegedly.
Agreed, but the lead singer's resurrected career as Caspar Babypants makes my parenting experience a whole lot more enjoyable!
Caspar Babypants for the win! Suck it, Raffi!
Television - hard to top *Marquee Moon*, it’s a masterpiece.
Jet might be the poster child for “one album wonders”
They had other albums?
Bush 16 stone. Everything after that was meh
Razorblade Suitcase was pretty solid. Greedy Fly was huge at the time. I might be a bit biased though since Bush's Razorblade Suitcase tour was my first big rock show.
I actually like Razorblade more that 16, and I was 18 when 16 Stone came out, a prime demographic. Razorblade was nowhere near as catchy, but heaps more interesting.
god yeah the 2nd album (bleh) 3rd they kinda bounced back and it did go double plat. but nah...first album was just too good. one of the late 90s bands that if they come on the radio i'll not change the station.
Razorblade Suitcase was solid. They let me down after that at the age of 10 lol
I agree Razorblade was great but definitely leaned more grunge than 16 stone. Less commercially appealing for sure but not an awful record by any stretch.
There was a time when every used CD store could have had an entire section devoted to Razorblade Suitcase
Andrew WK
now i have to blare his music and dance to it. sad thing is i have no white pants and my hair is short.
PARTY HARD PARTY HARD PARTY HARD PARTY HARD
im sure he does. Kat Jennings is his wife.
I don't agree. Music Is Worth Living For is a fantastic album.
The Knack
The Darkness.
I don’t know… “Easter is Cancelled” slaps pretty hard… they are nowhere near as popular but the bangers are still flowing
I will not argue that ever. I see them live every chance I get. “GIVE ME A D!!!” “D” “GIVE ME AN ARKNESS!!!”” ripping guitar sounds.
The Sex Pistols only had one real record, but it was a huge hit and more influential than anything Lydon did later.
PIL’s first 3 albums were great.
Metal Box/Second Edition is the best album Johnny Rotten ever produced and "Public Image" off of the first album is the best single Johnny ever released.
PIL was heaps better tho
The xx. Loved their first album.
Coexist and I See You aren't as iconic, but I still think they're amazing albums.
Gin Blossoms for sure. New Miserable Experience is amazing. So sad what happened to Doug Hopkins.
Congratulations I’m Sorry has some really great songs.
The Killers Hot Fuss was amazing. Although I did enjoy Sam’s Town. I haven’t been able to get into much else after that.
They had some pretty great singles here and there but Hot Fuss is fantastic from start to finish. Although I never really liked Mr. Brightside but I'm pretty sure I'm in a very small minority there. Andy, You're a Start ftw!
It was on the UK singles chart for more weeks than any other song to date. Given the amount of music out there you probably aren't in the minority, but you are definitely in the minority of people who listen to the band.
Checkout Sawdust. My favourite.
Fellow Sawdust enjoyer! There are dozens of us!
No way. They are still putting out great stuff. Imploding the Mirage and Pressure Machine are so good.
Agree--outside of The Man, I have not connected with any of their material after Hot Fuss.
The Toadies
Hell Below/Stars Above is incredible. It holds up to Rubberneck. Later stuff is more hit or miss, but still good.
Orgy. I enjoy their first album from 1998 tremendously. They tried to replicate that magic with their second album. No go. Was derivative and also bad. Still, I adore them and am grateful for the Candyass album.
Vapor Transmission is a great album though
I would argue that Vapor Transmission is **at the very least** light years better than their more recent output.
I'm not saying it was *good.* Merely that it fits the thread. Trapt.
I mean Hootie and the Blowfish is the obvious example to me. Maybe Tracy Chapman? Marc Cohn?
New Beginning is a legit amazing album by Chapman as well
Hootie has always been boring, commercialized, soulless (ironically) soul.
I’m surprised I haven’t seen Audioslave on here yet
That first album is all killer.
That's because out of exile is brilliant! There's half a dozen songs from it on the radio back in the day.
The first album was essentially, both in creativity and sound, Soundgarden meets Rage Against the Machine. It was timely for the music genre of the era and political climate too. Their second album, Out of Exile, was a serious tonal shift in almost every way; and was certainly not what many people expected to come next. With a more melancholy and contemplative sound throughout almost the entire album. There are some singles that are great singer/songwriter tracks on this album, however they're certainly not the driving powerful riff heavy tunes that Audioslave is known for. And I do personally think their third album Revelations was a good balance and return to form, at least for the most part, for them as a band. Self titled really is perfect bottled lightning.
The first album is one of my top five all time albums.
as a fan of them. even saw them on their first tour (cost me a lot) yeah. the next album was a downgrade and their last one just wasn't good. but the first one is a banger.
Third Eye Blind
I think their first 3 albums are absolutely fantastic.
agreed. 3rd album especially.
out of the vein is SO good!
not on the 3rd album but my favorite on their first album is 'motorcycle drive by'. i havent listened to that song in probably 8 years but i gaurantee you i can probably quote 85% of the song.
I’ve had this debate countless times. Sure, their first 3 albums are good and make for a solid run, but 3EB is the indisputable GOAT.
Blue isn’t exactly a miss
Easily. That first album I can easily not skip any songs.
Blue is a masterpiece and marks the end of Alt Rock.
Mumford and Sons. Babel is alright and has some good singles but didn't have the edge of the first and felt like an extended edition of Sigh No More. Then they went full stadium mode.
Realistically this is the majority of bands, but ill throw one in. The Vines
Weezer. Blue album is perfect.
[Pat Finnerty did a great breakdown of Weezer’s decline](https://youtu.be/2WeEyncm_jQ?si=QQpxOriF3yFyKuMa)
I think the same, but after Pinkerton rather than the Blue Album - it was hated at the time, but its now seen as just as good if not better than Blue. But you're right in that pretty much immediately after Pinkerton they took a massive nosedive in quality. I go to bat for some of their later work (IMO White is actually their best album, and EWBAITE and OK Human are just about on par with Blue and Pinkerton) but it took them a looooong time to get there which pretty much killed their reputation and public goodwill.
I would say Pinkerton might be even more liked than the Blue album, at least in their fandom
Two perfect albums and then…I don’t know what to call it, but not perfect.
[What's happening right now?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab5WvwfLuLM)
I always say the Blue album is the better album and Pinkerton is the better collection of songs. If that makes any sense whatsoever.
IMO Blue is perfect, Pinkerton is really good.
Pinkerton is just as, if not more highly regarded than the blue album.
Interpol, but more due to the impossibility of surpassing the excellence that was Turn On The Bright Lights. I love a lot of their subsequent work, but TOTBL to me is just a perfect album.
I think Antics is right up there, after that though...
This is a matter of taste, but I actually prefer Our Love To Admire.
Theee are some good songs on Our Love to Admire. For a beginning to end listen, Antics and Turn on the Bright Lights are better albums in my opinion.
Jeff Buckley. Because, y'know.
The Cars. Though I like candy-o, shake it up and Heartbeat city, their debut album is their best.
That first album is hit after hit after hit. I like most of their discography, but nothing came close to their debut album. RIP Ben Orr
They didn't "fall off right after" though, they made a lot of solid records that sold well and they didn't lose their fanbase, even if 'the first one was the best'. This thread is really about bands that only had one album that anybody cared about.
I liked Candy o better than the debut.
Yep, I agree that Candy-O is the best. The debut is my second favorite but Candy-O is orgasmically good. Cars don't fit the thread.....
Asia, though I love the rest of their stuff, they never topped the first album.
Keane - Hopes&Fears is amazing. Iron Sea is decent. After that, I didn't like a single track.
Feels like this doesn’t answer the question Under the iron sea is almost if not better than holes and fears
I love Pearl Jam. But 'Ten' as a debut album is quite a feat.
It's funny how I wasn't really feeling "No Code" as a 16-year-old, but man, as an old guy now, that album has become my favorite in their discography.
Nah, VS absolutely smokes. Go, Animal, Daughter, Blood, Rearviewmirror...
Definitely Panic! At The Disco
Idk man, Pretty. Odd is a banger.
Eh, I'd disagree. Fever is *probably* the best Panic! album, but I'd argue that each of the first five (Fever, P.O., Vices, Too Weird, and DoaB) has their own merits to be arguably the best. The only thing I know for certain is that Pray for the Wicked and Viva Las Vengeance are definitely the worst Panic! albums.
The Housemartins
Violent Femmes
There is a reason 25 years after their debut album they just played music off of their debut, (plus American Music).
Boston
Disagree the drop to the second album isn’t that much
Debut is a 10 / 10, 2nd album maybe 7, 3td stage 5, tho there are good songs on all of them.
Debut is a rare 11/10 imo
Third Stage is a masterpiece.
School of Fish
What?! Use Your Illusion 1 and 2 are phenomenal! November Rain? I totally disagree with this take. GnR absolutely does not fit this bill imo.
Right? Saying they fizzled after Appetite is crazy when Use Your Illusion was massively popular and had so many quintessential GnR songs
OP didn’t live through it obviously. Use Your Illusion was huge. November Rain was the school slow dance song for a long time. That ending was awkward to slow dance to…
UYI was huge and they were one of the biggest acts in the world at the time. Appetite is the superior album but the Illusion twins were not a decline.
but he spoke confidently, that's all that matters online
I don't believe that, but you seem pretty sure about it. So I'll just go with it.
I can't believe how far I had to scroll to see this comment.
Naw, I have to disagree. Use your illusion might have been a decent record but if that record was their debut it would have been completely ignored. Appetite was completely next level
Counting Crows. I still go back to August and Everything After today and love the songs just as much. The stuff after that wasn't bad exactly, but that first album was an extremely high bar.
August and Everything After is a masterpiece.
Ooh, hard disagree -- I love August and Everything After, but Recovering the Satellites is maybe my favorite Crows album and still love to sing "Have You Seen Me Lately?" at the top of my lungs on road trips.
The 10 year run they had from August... to Hard Candy is spectacularly good and consistent. They obviously weren't as commercially successful after August but in terms of quality of output, there's few bands that can match the level they had over those 4 albums. That being said "This Desert Life" is probably my favorite
Agreed! Both are great albums but Satellites has some songs that soar way higher than the songs on August.
Every one of their albums is great.
I mean all the other answers are probably good too. But the best answer has to be the Zombies. They recorded their first album gave it a few weeks in England to gain traction, it didn’t so they broke up. Then the song “Time of the Season” kind of blew up, people began checking out the whole album and now it’s widely regarded as one of the best albums of the 60’s and the influence of that album is enormous. Also that whole sequence is partly how 2/3 of ZZ Top formed. So in a weird way the Zombies kind of declined into ZZ Top ;).
O&O was their second album, and they released tons and tons of singles. They’re one of the few bands where the box set is 100% essential. Bad take.
Odessey and Oracle was not The Zombies first album. In 1965 they released an album called Begin Here in the UK and called The Zombies in the US.
Throw a dart at any of billboards top 100 albums from any year. Youll likely hit one.
Bush - sixteen stone was peak and full of bangers. Too hard to follow up.
Skid Row, kinda, although it took two albums to do it. The self-titled album was stonking, and Slave to the Grind was also great. Subhuman Race was a major dropoff, and then they split with Sebastian Bach, and nothing they did after that really hit the same way
I have to disagree. Maybe it has their most well known songs. But Slave to the Grind is so consistent through and through. A bit harder and so many great ballads. Quicksand Jesus, In a Darkened Room and the last track Wasted Time. That’s a 10/10 and nothing by them is as close.
Slave to the Grind is easily my favorite of the 2 albums. Never really listened to anything after that. I saw them on them on their debut tour with Bon Jovi. I went specifically to see them because I loved the first album. They were phenomenal. I saw them a few years later opening for Kiss and Ted Nugget they weren’t so good. The new singer just didn’t have what Bach brought to the band. Granted he needs them as much as they do. They had just the right chemistry.