40 greatest one album wonders.

Kilgore · April 2021

I'm surprised that AC/DC's album isn't listed. Admittedly, they've re-released it over a dozen times, but still.

Whitecat · April 2021

The Postal Service’s “Give Up” would probably be in my top 5 albums of all time by anyone. Love that record, it was lightning in a bottle and in many ways I’m glad they never could find the time for a followup because there’s virtually no way it could be as good.

Philly_Q · April 2021

I haven't got many albums on that list (just Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog and the Sex Pistols), but there are a lot of familiar names on there - I wouldn't have realised some of them had only released one album.

@EricTheWeary has already mentioned Hughes Thrall, who might have popped into my head eventually.

A few more I really like. A lot of them are side projects:

Forty Deuce - Nothing to Lose (a Richie Kotzen project, the best straightforward hard rock album he's done)
Unida - Coping with the Urban Coyote (John Garcia post-Kyuss, they did record another album but it was never officially released)
Pride & Glory - self titled (Zakk Wylde's one-off, pre-BLS band, the best thing he's done by far)
MD.45 - The Craving (Dave Mustaine and Lee Ving... when they remastered it Ving's vocals were mysteriously "lost" and replaced by Mustaine's)

english_bob · April 2021

DiscoStu said:

There's gonna be the (acceptable) argument that Jeff Buckley had more than one album, but he only had one studio release during his lifetime.

I don't think you can really count the slew of posthumous releases (all but one of which AFAIK are live recordings) as being the same thing as a studio album released (with the artist's endorsement) during their lifetime. Buckley only worked on one full length album to completion, and to his own satisfaction, and that's good enough for me.

Philly_Q · April 2021

I'm going to stretch it and mention the first, self-titled Masters of Reality album (also known as The Blue Garden).

They'd been together for about ten years when that came out, then guitarist Tim Harrington, who's credited as co-writer on all the songs, promptly left the band. They went on to release several more albums and they're good, but none of them have the magic of that first album and they all feel like Chris Goss plus sidemen.

ICBM · April 2021

Philly_Q said:

I'm going to stretch it and mention the first, self-titled Masters of Reality album (also known as The Blue Garden).

They'd been together for about ten years when that came out, then guitarist Tim Harrington, who's credited as co-writer on all the songs, promptly left the band. They went on to release several more albums and they're good, but none of them have the magic of that first album and they all feel like Chris Goss plus sidemen.

On that score I would say Evanescence's Fallen as well - there were a couple of EPs beforehand, but Fallen was the first proper album - Ben Moody left after that and the 'band' became just Amy Lee plus sidemen really, nothing they've done since is even close to as good.

Philly_Q · April 2021

ICBM said:

Philly_Q said:

I'm going to stretch it and mention the first, self-titled Masters of Reality album (also known as The Blue Garden).

They'd been together for about ten years when that came out, then guitarist Tim Harrington, who's credited as co-writer on all the songs, promptly left the band. They went on to release several more albums and they're good, but none of them have the magic of that first album and they all feel like Chris Goss plus sidemen.

On that score I would say Evanescence's Fallen as well - there were a couple of EPs beforehand, but Fallen was the first proper album - Ben Moody left after that and the 'band' became just Amy Lee plus sidemen really, nothing they've done since is even close to as good.

Yeah, fair point. I do like the subsequent albums - though not as much as Fallen - but I like them because of her voice and the melodies she writes. She's only got roughly two different songs which she keeps writing over and over again... but I like them both.

Grumpyrocker · April 2021

I like the new album.

It's not as if Moody et al had lots of new ideas. They recorded as We Are the Fallen and got a singer that sounded like an Amy clone.

Philly_Q · April 2021

Grumpyrocker said:

I like the new album.

It's not as if Moody et al had lots of new ideas. They recorded as We Are the Fallen and got a singer that sounded like an Amy clone.

I love that We Are The Fallen album too. Not claiming any moral high ground.

Grumpyrocker · April 2021

I like it too. But it was a bit creepy they cloned Amy.

Like a guy marrying someone who looked the spit of his dead wife.

Philly_Q · April 2021

I used to watch American Idol in those days, so I knew who Carly Smithson was and it didn't seem weird when she appeared in We Are The Fallen - in fact I was quite pleased.

ICBM · April 2021

Grumpyrocker said:

It's not as if Moody et al had lots of new ideas. They recorded as We Are the Fallen and got a singer that sounded like an Amy clone.

They’re a perfect example of a whole that was more than the sum of the parts, and neither of them appear to know, or maybe accept, that. There are countless other examples...

prowla · April 2021

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

40 greatest one album wonders.

Comments