Anomalous Albums
I was listening to Planet Rock yesterday when I started to wonder about bands where one album is in a different league to the rest of their work. Wishbone Ash is an obvious example: before Argus they were a fairly run of the mill British rock band with some interesting ideas; with Argus itself they hit a creative, coherent seam of genius; then they just faded away into an obscurity of bland US jazz-rock.
Or consider Al Stewart. As a singer-songwriter in a folkie style he was entertaining, but not really that special. Past, Present and Future suddenly showed that he had the potential for something more - Roads To Moscow is a fantastic track - but neither it nor the successor album Modern Times came close to realising that potential. Then he released Year of the Cat - the perfect Al Stewart album. And that was it - subsequent albums were, frankly, dull. It was as though he realised he'd done the best work he could do, so he had nothing left to aim for.
Or again - how about Meat Loaf. A fantastic first album, Bat Out Of Hell, then every other album an also-ran.
Yet there's a pile of other bands - Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath spring to mind - where you can have a sensible argument over a pint of beer about which is their best album. You can make a case for any one of Zeppelin's first six; and comparing Paranoid, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Heaven and Hell has long been a kind of bottom-sniffing ritual for Sabbath fans. Pink Floyd had a clear peak (in my view) with Dark Side of the Moon, but Wish Year Were Here is in the same league, as is the flawed genius of The Wall and even, in rather different styles, The Division Bell and The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.
The song that got me thinking about this was The Who's Baba O'Riley. I reckon that Who's Next is vastly superior to every other album The Who released but, if I'm honest, this is an opinion that I can't really stand up. I think there is a good case that this was The Who's best album, but it's not really in a different league to the rest. I just like the style a lot more than their other albums, but that's a different matter.
There must be a pile of other bands who excelled themselves on one album only (remember Budgie, anyone) - any thoughts?
Evanescence Fallen was good, Open Door sucked.
Snow Patrol 'Eyes Open' was good, 'Final Straw' sucks
My goodness...you could even have that same argument over which Beatles
album is the best!! Wait...did I see Beatles mentioned in that post? I'll
have to read it again :)
Spike, I couldn't agree more about Evanescence. From reading interviews
over the years, it seems to me that they have completely lost the creative
tension in their songwriting, along with the 'edge' that I always felt in
Ben Moody's guitar playing.
The Killers - Loved 'Hot Fuss', really didn't like 'Sam's Town'
James Blunt - Loved 'Back to Bedlam' don't like 'All the lost souls'
I have to respectfully disagree about the best album from The Who.
Quadrophenia is far and away their best album, both in terms of
the musical quality and the implementation of an idea.
Yeah, The Who were a bit odd in terms of who likes their albums. I think
maybe it's down to their penchant for concept albums/rock operas. To me,
both Tommy and Quadrophenia are typical overblown double-concept-albums,
whereas to very many commentators they are works of genius (Quad'ia more so
than Tommy). Strokes for folks, I guess (or should that be different
horses, different courses?) :)