Anybody else have albums they dig by artists with large catalogs but you just don't give a damn about the rest of that artist's stuff? I gave a quick listen last night the The Eels: Beautiful Freak, really like this album...but while the guy has a ton of other stuff out, much of which has gotten praised, nothing else he has ever done has connected with me at all. I can really enjoy listening to this one, but everythiing else just leaves me cold.



Next up...critical darlings Teenage Fanclub. Bandwagonesque is one of my favorite albums of that era, listen to it still. Yet, nothing else I've heard from these guys, even though its not like they really sound all that different elsewhere, has done a thing for me. Something about this one just connects across the board with me where everything else I've heard just misses, doesn't quite hit the target for me for whatever reason. And yes, many people have tossed out their suggestions of which ones I should try and why I should like this or that other one too....but I just don't. Nope, when it ocmes to Teenage Fanclub, it's Bandwagonesque or nothing.



So, anyone else have records they really like by someone but they can't listen to other releases? I can't be the only one.

Wow.
You picked two artists that I think have pretty damn strong catalogs all the way through!
But then, that is kinda the point of the thread, eh?
Nice start.

Here's mine, which is likely one more than any of the rest of you like by this band:

It's pretty much a perfect pop-punk record. Sounds like The Replacements, if their guitars sounded more like Hüsker Dü. No, I cannot stand the rest of their catalog, either. But I do love this one.

Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend is an album for me that I like, but never ventured to other albums.

Soul Coughing - El Oso is another. I picked up the other discs, but maybe listened to them twice because I liked El Oso so much more. (Probably because this was my first exposure.)

I think I'll probably have agreement from some folks on this one:

Totally fulfills the promise of their debut. And, sadly, they never did anything close to as good afterward.

And, only in regards to SOLO Weller:

Although, if you want to include the B-sides/outtakes collection from these sessions - More Wood (Little Splinters), then there are two. But, as far as "proper albums". It's just the one.

Their sound is just so basic, so consistent, that I don't feel like I ever need to hear anything else that they've ever done. Although I may be missing out, I don't feel like I am.

love caribou's "the milk of human kindness"
haven't felt nearly the same about any others

The new Black Lips album.

Maybe not, but you may want to give Mommy's Little Monster and/or Prison Bound a try.

Maybe this one is a no-brainer, but this is one of my favorite albums of all time:



I remember eagerly waiting for the follow-up to this, and then when Join The Army was released, they just lost me.

Totally agree with the Teenage Fanclub

100% in agreement with Suicidal Tendencies. Great debut and then a load of crap for years to come.

I was gonna mention something about Social Distortion too, but didn't wanna try to press someone to like other stuff after I started a thread about not liking other stuff by an artist. But yeah, Mommy's Little Monster and Prison Bound are stylistically different than the later Social Distortion albums and from each other.

Good idea for a thread, and something I'll have to think about to contribute. As for your selections:

I have a differing opinion to 'Beautiful Freak'. Save for the last couple of Eels records, I prefer everything that came after it.

Teenage Fanclub - I would put 'Songs From Northern Britian' a slight notch below Bandwagonesque which, like you, is a record I consistently play. The rest of the Fanny oeuvre is littered with great tracks, but as a whole, come up ostensibly short.

i find aimee mann to be a little meh but i absolutely love batchelor no. 2.

First exposure does make a difference with me too, I've noticed. However, the Matthew Sweet album I pull out more than "Girlfriend" is "100% Fun". Love it.

Alright, I know this is heresy to a good many of you, but the blues rock stuff the Stones put out is just not my thing. I have copies of all of their critically acclaimed albums, and like tracks off each, but Some Girls is really the only Stones proper album I can sit through, start to finish. I imagine this one I like because it is from my childhood, and I still have the vinyl copy my aunt gave to me when I was 10.

That album just doesn't quit, for what it is.

Great record.
I may be in the minority here, but I find Lost In Space to be equally as good.

So are you saying you don't like other Matthew Sweet albums or that you've just never heard anything else by him? Because if it's the latter I don't think that's really the point of this thread.

I know I have bands that I only like one thing by but I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Also personally, I like Teenage Fan Club's "Eleven" slightly more than "Bandwagonesque." I like a lot of their other albums but not nearly as much as those two.

What's 'Eleven' ?

I'm not all that much of a fan, but here's one that epitomizes this thread

For me that albums fall sunder the category of....I never understood all the hubbub on that.

My bad, I meant "Thirteen," which is the followup to Bandwagonesque. I like most all of Teenage Fanclub but think "A Catholic Education" and "Grand Prix" lack the consistency of "Bandwagonesque" and "Thirteen" and most of the post "Grand Prix" albums are good but a little too wussy pop to be in the same league.

I agree with The Rolling Stones, but for me the album is:


Love that album, but find the best-of Rolling Stones on my iPod is the only other thing from them I need to keep around.

How about Bright Eyes?

There is some killer stuff on this record, but nothing else I've heard from Bright Eyes does anything for me. In fact, I rather loathe everything else.

Bjork (Vespertine), Blackalicious (Blazing Arrow), The Blood Brothers (Burn Piano Island, Burn), Denison Witmer (Are You A Dreamer?), Make Believe (Of Course), Melt-Banana (Cell-Scape), Midlake (The Trials of Van Occupanther), Pattern Is Movement (Stowaway), Sam Phillips (Fan Dance), Starsailor (Love Is Here), and The Waterboys (A Rock In the Weary Land) all suffer similar fates, though to varying degrees. Too lazy to dig up pictures/reasons/reactions for all of them.

After Grand Prix, they discovered their inner-Byrds and turned the vocals up. When you do that, something has to give, and in their case, it was the guitars. After the first two tracks on SFNB (Start Again/Ain't That Enough) they were never able to strike that perfect balance.

Oh wow, Melt Banana. I forgot about them. They opened for someone in Athens waaay back. Tiny japanese women, "WE ARE MELT BANANA FROM TOKYO JAPAN ONE TWO THREE FOUR" and then buzzsaw guitars and shrieking.