One (or two) album wonders

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Some bands have a back catalogue that would fill an aircraft hangar. Multiple best-ofs, ultimate collections and even collections from different decades.

Then there are some bands who release one album and vanish, or who make it big with one and their follow up album or EP just doesn't capture that same magic.

Which are your favourite albums from such bands or musicians? Don't include bands who have only just started out and therefore of course only have one or two albums to their name.

My first is going to be Elastica's album "Elastica" which came right during Britpop era in 1995.

Anyway, five years later and after various break ups etc, Elastica released "The Menace" which was a big waste of time and arrived far too late. Still, "Elastica" was perfect for that period.

My second choice for now will be My Vitriol's "Finelines". They've been around for absolute years now but never put out a proper follow-up to it.

[deli]

The Stone Roses. Obviously.

[Colly]

Late of the Pier (or Dartz). Did I do the thread right?

Edit: nope, did the brackets wrong.

Edited August 16, 2013 by Colly

[METALMAN]

There was this group called Black Kids that made a brilliant, synthy, noisy funky album a few years back. I remember listening to it a lot when I just started uni, and it was the first I reviewed for their magazine. I really enjoyed it but they haven't done anything since. It was one of the best pop records I've heard.

Dennis Wilson made a wonderful atmospheric album called Pacific Ocean Blue. It's a beautiful, broken record. Then he died.

Anyone remember Klaxons? They made a really fresh and exciting album that I pretty much listened to for all of 2007. Then they took about five years to make a follow up. It was shit and nobody cared anymore,

Late of the Pier is another good one. I agree with Colly. Where did they go?

[Colly]

While you're on Klaxons I'd meant to mention Testicicles. Terrible name, but basically the sound that Klaxons nicked while living next door to Dev 'now fucking massive' Hynes. I actually tend to find that outside of a few songs Myths of the Near Future has dated horribly.

Edited August 17, 2013 by Colly

[METALMAN]

It does sound very much of its time but I liked that time!

[KONGO]

The Raveonettes. Whip It On is fantastic, everything else is drek.

[Matt]

Are we talking about bands that made one or two really good albums and then everything else was poor or everything else was unsuccessful. If the former then Arctic Monkeys, first album is great, second is good for the most part, third and fourth are gash.

Other than the aforementioned Stone Roses, I'm struggling to think of a band that only made s couple of albums before disappearing, though. The Darkness maybe, I remember having their album and it was quite good, despite how cheesy their singles were.

[Colly]

You're wrong on Arctic Monkeys. Very wrong.

[Matt]

There seems to be a divide between people who like their new stuff and people who like their old stuff. Very few people seem to like both.

[LittleDaniel]

There was this group called Black Kids that made a brilliant, synthy, noisy funky album a few years back. I remember listening to it a lot when I just started uni, and it was the first I reviewed for their magazine. I really enjoyed it but they haven't done anything since. It was one of the best pop records I've heard

Wizard of Ahhs still gets fairly regular play from me, its great.

P.S. Eliot were amazing and then they broke up fairly quickly. Same with Spraynard.

[Colly]

I think its just the case that some people just wanted more and more jaunty pop rock, which would've eventually devolved into Milburn at best. Instead they evolved their sound into the sometimes Teenage Fanclub-esque Suck it and See, which for my money is their best album. I'd put it 4-1-3-2, Favourite Worst Nightmare is good but its just a poor man's Whatever People Say...

Can't stand his weird new talking voice though.

[METALMAN]

The first two Arctic Monkeys albums are some of the most dull and unimaginative dreck outside of the singles. Their fourth album is easily their best.

[KONGO]

A Perfect Circle's Mer de Noms. Fantastic album.

[tristy]

Sleigh Bells is the first and only band that came to mind when I saw this thread. Treats was fantastic, an amazing fucking record. Then Reign of Terror comes a long and the band hasn't progressed at all, it's just more of the same. I mean, it's a good album, but I expected them to expand on the sound they established with the first album. I don't know, it was just an all around disappointment.

[LittleDaniel]

Crystal Castles was good, but Crystal Castles fucking sucked. I never kept up with Crystal Castles after that.

[GA!]

The first two Arctic Monkeys albums are some of the most dull and unimaginative dreck outside of the singles. Their fourth album is easily their best.

Agreed! Arctic Monkeys were fucking dreadful until Josh Homme got involved. Now they're a damn good band.

[Jimmy]

There seems to be a divide between people who like their new stuff and people who like their old stuff. Very few people seem to like both.

I used to be like that, I love their first, and their second only slightly less, but since the release of a few new singles, I completely reevaluated Suck it and See and I love it. It's fantastic to see a band evolve their sound so successfully and continue to progress. Plus, I can't see how people who love the first two albums don't love 'Library Pictures', it's very much the love child of songs off the 1st and 4th album.

[MDK]

Remember listening the shit out of this album when I was younger

[KONGO]

M.O.P.! To the Death is fire front to back, but then Li'l Fame took over production and their beats all became proto-G-Unit tripe. Beats make rap to me, especially when you have guys with a style like M.O.P. that doesn't emphasize verbal dexterity. Their new one with Snowgoons was alright but I missed the dark, bluesy backdrop of their first one.