Prolific bands/arists with one super special album that will always mean the world to you but you don't really care for the rest of their relatively sizable discography

This may have been done before but as the unwieldy title shows, it's not an easy concept to encapsulate into an easily searchable phrase...

This isn't about albums you like a little, this is a sore thumb of a release that would be a Desert Island Disc for you, something that when you make up to album lists you know it'll be on there, maybe in the number one slot. And it's by a band with a half dozen other albums or more - some of them possibly more critically acclaimed or bigger sellers than the one you hold so dear - but the best you can get from listening to them is vehement ennui that you're just wasting your time not listening to that other album you adore.

For me, Boys and Girls in America is literally one of my favorite albums ever. I still play it once or twice a month and it never gets old. Yet despite a decent discography, that is the only album I ever really listen to by The Hold Steady. Sometimes I try and check out Stay Positive on Spotify but it doesn't click. I dutifully listen to anything new the band or Craig Finn releases but nothing comes close.

Does anyone else have albums you consider some of your all-time favorite music but nothing else they have done even comes close to working?

The first Violent Femmes album.

for me, the one that really sticks out is the psychedelic furs' all of this and nothing. kind of cheating, as it's a compilation, but i don't completely love any of the albums that stuff comes from. that compilation is perfect, though.

Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part 1. Part 2 is ...decent, but nowhere near those heights, I guess I liked Walls of Jericho, but I like little else in their catalog. but Keeper is the only one I return to at fuckin' all.

Rage - Perfect Man. there is zero other album of theirs that hits anywhere like this one. it's usually the only one I listen to

I guess LedZep 'Houses of the holy' would go here, for me.

link wray - link wray

Queen - A Night at the Opera

Spoon - Transference

Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska

Meat Puppets, "Up on the Sun".

Blonde Redhead - Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons. Never gave a fig for anything else I heard by them.
David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name (although I do like the Byrds)
Ian Dury - New Boots and Panties!! - couple more singles are good I suppose but he really dropped off in quality after this.
Traffic - Mr. Fantasy, after which Dave Mason left and they turned into a choogly rock band.

Me too, Treblekicker.

Good question! I'll need to think on it.

Duran Duran - Rio is absolutely & completely this for me

that's probably because all the other Duran Duran albums are basically crap.

Not inclined to disagree! But that album, man. I don't know how they found something so beyond themselves and sustained it for the entire dura(tio)n.

the first Duran Duran album is not crap

you're right. it's exceptional all the way through, and somehow perfectly isolated & distinct from everything else they put out (Rio, that is).

I don't care much for the first one, but I know a lot of folks really like it.

Nas – Illmatic

Big Science is accidentally like this for me. It is a huge album in my life but I've been sorta scared to explore her discography more, as though I'm worried about being disappointed.

^^^this was my other potential answer

keep getting told to listen to that 4-disc live thing. one day

I have a few of these:

Fairport Convention – Liege & Lief
The Human League – Travelogue (bit of a stretch, as they were really a different band after this)
Radiohead – OK Computer
The Cure – Pornography

Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska

Telefon Tel Aviv is the big one for me. That first album is indelible, listened to it hundreds of times. Never made it through another one more than once or twice. :(

This is gonna be laughably obvious, but... Metal Machine Music.

modern lovers

there's a recurring theme on The Snow Goose by Camel that I absolutely love and think is like the greatest prog ever but I haven't really liked anything else they've done

System of a Down - Toxicity
Smashing Pumpkins - Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Anthony Braxton - For Alto

I enjoy, to varying degrees, some of his other records -- some are near-great, some unspeakably bland -- but this one is uniquely special. He dug deeper on this than on most of his subsequent records.

Destroyer - Kaputt

John Mayer - Continuum

(come at me, I dare)

For me, Boys and Girls in America is literally one of my favorite albums ever. I still play it once or twice a month and it never gets old. Yet despite a decent discography, that is the only album I ever really listen to by The Hold Steady. Sometimes I try and check out Stay Positive on Spotify but it doesn't click. I dutifully listen to anything new the band or Craig Finn releases but nothing comes close.

Does anyone else have albums you consider some of your all-time favorite music but nothing else they have done even comes close to working?

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Monday, November 23, 2020 11:18 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

have you tried Separation Sunday? that's where I would go not Stay Positive which was already the decline..Separation Sunday is better or as good as Boys and Girls

...or the whole Lifter Puller discography who were a way better band than Hold Steady

Big Science is a great answer but for me, this is Tusk.

Graham Parker - Squeezing Out Sparks

more and more, even though I was super into them and have multiple albums...I don't listen to Guided By Voices often anymore, so when I do I always reach for Bee Thousand

definitely some hair metal bands would fit this category for me, except they're knocked down by the 'prolific' requirement.

for example, Skid Row, really only Slave to the Grind, but that one is sick.

Richard and Linda Thompson - I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight. Plenty of other R&L Thompson and even R Thompson stuff is "good" but there isn't really another album I love.

Not the same thing exactly, but there are a lot of prolific artists with 3-5 albums I like, but I still probably listen to just one ~75-90% of the time I listen to that artist.

Joni Mitchell - Blue
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
John Prine - s/t
Patty Griffin - Impossible Dream
Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill

Also, Separation Sunday is the best Hold Steady album.

I can't think of an album that quite fits this for me, but I like Taylor Swift's Lover a lot, and everything else she's done (including folklore) leaves me cold.

I can't think of an example that is quite as extreme as the situation in the original post, but the closest is Vespertine by Bjork. As mentioned, The Snow Goose by Camel is also much better than their other records.

Emperor In The Nightside Eclipse - that thing is transcendental. They tried to recapture that magic when they reformed, they tried to do other stuff afterwards, it all failed miserably.

Not the same thing exactly, but there are a lot of prolific artists with 3-5 albums I like, but I still probably listen to just one

yes this is a very real thing

Goldfrapp- Felt Mountain
Literally cannot stand anything else she's done

Pink Floyd - DSOTM
Few scattered tracks I like on other albums but find most of the rest of their discography icky

Nas – Illmatic

― pomenitul, Tuesday, November 24, 2020 5:01 AM

fucken a!

one undisputed classic followed by literal garbage trucks of albums.

Graham Parker - Squeezing Out Sparks

Yeah, this is the only one I own. Earlier albums are okay imo, and then none of the bazillion followups matched what he hit on with this one.

Nas – Illmatic
― pomenitul, Tuesday, November 24, 2020 5:01 AM

fucken a!

one undisputed classic followed by literal garbage trucks of albums.

― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Tuesday, November 24, 2020 11:59 AM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

herb opinion

Mayo Thompson's Corky's Debt to His Father is quite special for me, whereas I've been somewhat nonplussed by the half dozen Red Krayola albums I've heard (I like, but don't love God Bless...).

I was going to say Rocks falls into this category for me, but that's not true, I really like most of Aerosmith's stuff through Night in the Ruts.

But Rocks is head and shoulders above everything else except Toys in the Attic.

I don't see how someone could pick one Fugazi and completely dismiss the rest. I could see either loving or hating them, but they were so consistent!

otm. Apart from the disappointment that was Steady Diet (whose songs were exponentially more powerful live — you’d never guess they were from a sub-par record), everything from Kill Taker on is a marked (and usually thrilling) improvement over its predecessor.

Ballads is the Coltrane LP that always works for me.

i agree with beard papa about fugazi, but their first two records really are far more popular than the rest of their discography

i agree with beard papa about fugazi, but their first two records really are far more popular than the rest of their discography, at least at this point in time

honestly a little baffled by steady diet being called sub-par and trash, that is an incredible record and the received wisdom on it is completely confusing to me

not saying that anyone here is just parroting the conventional take, I just came to it when its reputation was already set and couldn't believe people really thought this was their "shitty" album

Neue Jesse Schule – have you heard Kangaroo! or Amor and Language? (Corky's is unique, but those are the two other Mayo/RK things that may be easiest to get into.)

not saying that anyone here is just parroting the conventional take, I just came to it when its reputation was already set and couldn't believe people really thought this was their "shitty" album

I came to Fugazi as "Ian from Minor Threat's new band" and heard the first three records (plus the Three Songs 7") in sequence as they were released, and then my younger brother bought Steady Diet and I just couldn't believe how much more turgid and dull it seemed than what had come before.

same for me - thought the first three were amazing, nothing that followed ever really grabbed me even though i tried my hardest to make myself love them

Steady Diet felt like a step down at the time. Not a dramatic one, but they sounded self-conscious -- what seemed effortless on Repeater felt forced. Kill Taker was a stunning rebound, though. I was lucky enough to see them once just after Steady Diet came out, and twice after Kill Taker.

Came to it later so my view was probably tinted by its reputation, I expected it to be a major step down and not "better songs on average than the second half of Repeater, but with weaker performances/production."

my thought on fugazi is this:

despite their obvious consistency, they still made some boring (read: not bad per se) albums. 13 songs then repeater +3 are damn solid and i easily understand how anybody could hold that material in extremely high regard.

after that, some boring albums. maybe i'm just not that big of a fan, but the material between repeater and red medicine doesn't bring me any enthusiasm and it never has. those are not bad albums, but they do strike me as `second tier.` red medicine through the argument is my favorite material and when i do go back to the band, it's that stuff.

Heron Oblivion might be my favorite record of the past ten years, but I've never connected with the many other things Meg Baird does, not for trying. I love the voice, but I think I needed Ethan Miller to feel the voice.

If I'm being honest the only Fugazi albums I listen to are Repeater and The Argument.

I feel like Burning Airlines isn't THAT different from Jawbox

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Saturday, February 25, 2023 6:03 PM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Probably, but that first BA album is so razor sharp, with everything perfectly in its place, plus absolutely incredible drumming.

Btw not liking A Love Supreme is a crazy opinion to me, as I've always felt it's a showcase of the quartet in all its best modes (no pun intended) - uptempo, midtempo rubato, the mozambique thing, all with great themes and solo moments.

yah seems like a super contrarian opinion, maybe an overcorrection from it being the only trane album on a bunch of rock lists

been 30+ years since I read psychotic reactions but didn't Lester Bangs also hate A Love Supreme? I think he said it was too much like easy listening or something. not lester's finest moment tbh

think his favourite was Ascension though, so if that's where he was coming from...

Spacemen 3 - The Perfect Prescription

I'd have thought if you rate that one then you'd find plenty to love on their other albums too.

While I do quite like a lot of Todd Rundgren's output, A Wizard, A True Star is the only one I really love. So doesn't entirely fit the thread remit but it's head and shoulders above the rest for me.

The Holy Bible from Manic Street Preachers for me.

Re: A Love Supreme. Shrug. I have listened to a great many albums, and that was one that I just couldn't get into. I tried. It resisted me. I moved on.

At the time I wasn't really thinking in terms of its place in the pantheon or whether it had been overpraised. I didn't know what a challops or a controp were at the time.

Glad to hear it makes other people happy though. Bop on, y'all.

I'm actually surprised no one's actually named a Zappa album yet. Hot Rats seems like the perfect answer here for obvious reasons

I remember Vektroid saying she can't stand Zappa's stuff but regardless still loves the album Jazz From Hell. That's gotta be an all-time weird answer to this question.

_Spacemen 3 - The Perfect Prescription_

I'd have thought if you rate that one then you'd find plenty to love on their other albums too.

I remember Vektroid saying she can't stand Zappa's stuff but regardless still loves the album Jazz From Hell. That's gotta be an all-time weird answer to this question.

yeah when she said that I listened to it and thought "whoa kinda sounds like R + 7"

i only heard 'night school' off jazz from hell last month and now it's the first and only zappa album i've ever been interested in buying

Carole King’s Tapestry is my #1 pick for this

I thought I hated all Zappa, and every time somebody would say "oh but you have to listen to [album]" I'd listen to it and it'd just be dick jokes in 15/8 and I'd want to go back in time and scream at the guy

Then somebody finally recommended Uncle Meat and I gotta say... it's great. I guess it's still dick jokes in 15/8 but for some reason it works for me

(ctrl+f "zappa" 0 results)

not sure what to make of this.

― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Wednesday, November 25, 2020 9:18 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

he doesn't have one lovable album?

― Evan, Wednesday, November 25, 2020 9:54 PM

Uncle Meat is … kind of the right answer? For me the One Zappa Album is “Money” but I couldn’t blame anyone choosing anything before Just Another Band From LA. After which you could also choose almost anything, but it would mark you as most likely an irredeemable asshole.

If I had to choose one Zappa song, it’d be “Dog Breath In the Year of the Plague” but I also understand that that’s likely some sort of weird accident of neuropsychomusicological lightning-strike; by any objective measure it’s unlikely to make anyone’s Zappa Top 25

and yet

and yet

Neue Jesse Schule – have you heard Kangaroo! or Amor and Language? (Corky's is unique, but those are the two other Mayo/RK things that may be easiest to get into.)

Re: A Love Supreme. It's just never done much for me, but that's true of lots of esteemed records. Maybe my taste is a bit idiosyncratic, I don't know. I played it again tonight. It's ok, don't get me wrong, but not a record I reach for. Coltrane seems to spend too much time in a plaintive register which I find not terribly appealing, and McCoy Tyner's comping grates in kind of a static, repetitive way. The rhythm section seems to be always narrowly avoiding finding a groove. And just about when the last track does start getting going, the record's over.

Spacemen 3 - The Perfect Prescription

I'd have thought if you rate that one then you'd find plenty to love on their other albums too.

― groovypanda, Thursday, 2 March 2023 20:51 (yesterday) link

yeah, i realized i misread the thread title after posting. but in terms of the entire spacemen 3/spectrum/spiritualized catalog i'm content for the remainder of my days with just that one.

the first Marina and the Diamonds album

the correct zappa album to pick is One Size Fits All

been 30+ years since I read psychotic reactions but didn't Lester Bangs also hate A Love Supreme?

Nope. Just checked, and the only Trane album he mentions is Africa/Brass (which he apparently loved).

Personally, I never loved A Love Supreme. I much prefer The John Coltrane Quartet Plays… and Sun Ship, as quartet albums go. It’s not a bad or even slightly-not-good album by any stretch, but I felt like its fullest realization happened on the 1965 Antibes show — it really sprang to life in live performance.

I've got a dozen Zappa LPs I haven't listened to since 1994 (anyone want a Thing-Fish?) and yet I do occasionally spin Weasels Ripped My Flesh, where the puerile bits aren't completely absent, but don't distract from a broad representation of this strengths. Not super special to me, but does remind me of where my mind was at 16.

ok its funny that now like 10 different Zappa LPs have been mentioned. I think for me this actually wasn't Hot Rats but rather We're Only In It For the Money, one of the few Zappa albums where the satire actually kind of lands

If I had to choose one Zappa song, it’d be “Dog Breath In the Year of the Plague”

that's a good choice, it's stuck in my head all the time. I always thought "Oh No" was the perfect representation of all his strengths, plus it's real short so if you don't like it you don't have to endure much. fucking dumb lyrics though

"Hot Rats" is the only Zappa album I own, but it doesn't fit the thread because a) it doesn't mean the world to me and b) there's interesting stuff spread across some of his other albums (especially the Mothers stuff).

I hate the Mothers records. But I hate Piper At the Gates of Dawn too, which kinda sets me apart from most Pink Floyd fans.

(xp) Yes, there's a few Zappa albums I like a lot, a few that are quite good and more that are OK but none that I could describe as being "super special".

Dog Breath also a personal favorite. "Fuzzy dice... Bongoooos in the back". Catchy as hell and the production is unusually interesting.
Apart from that Money, Hot Rats and Uncle Meat is probably all I need.

Re. Spacemen 3: I also misread the thread title - thought we were doing bands where one album is all you need by them (no matter how great / similar the rest of their output might be)

I've recently gotten way into There Is Nothing Wrong With Love... I've owned it since '95 or '96, always liked a little, thought it had a few good songs, whatever... but it's suddenly snapped into focus, and I think it's just a total classic.

Meanwhile, I can't make it thru Ultimate Alternative Wavers (it's too rough)... Built to Spill Caustic Resin is pretty good (especially track 4, the Kicking Giant cover); and "Still Flat" (on The Normal Years, also with Caustic Resin, is another great track. That's about it. And when it comes to the band's post–TINWWL career; I'm all too familiar w/it, and it ain't for me. That one album was the sweet spot – a meld of jam-band sensibility, twisty guitars, and skewed pop that totally hits. It's like they were moving along a spectrum from rickety indie-rock to Neil Young gtr workouts, and the two beams converged for that one shining moment.

Talking Heads: 77
Mudhoney - Superfuzz Bigmuff