Bands that only made one classic album

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Inspired by listening to Girls At Our Best's "Pleasure".

Bands who have only had time to release one album don't count. Nor do bands who also have live albums, outtake albums etc (eg. Rezillos, Sex Pistols) or who had later releases under different guises.

― everything, Thursday, 14 October 2004 21:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, of course, one album and nothing else ever.

― everything, Thursday, 14 October 2004 21:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Meaning "one classic album and no other albums ever (but didn't, like, die before they could release another album)"?

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:02 (twenty-one years ago)

United States of America

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Cyndi Lauper

― chuck, Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:04 (twenty-one years ago)

http://theband.hiof.no/albums/labat.html

this album is better than revolver!

― duke labat, Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Jefferson Airplane? Is anything besides Surrealistic Pillow worth owning?
I guess Young Marble Giants and stuff like that doesn't count then, right?

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Young Marble Giants

The Gordons

― peepee (peepee), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

OOOOOps.

I misread the thread. Use your WhiteOut above.

― peepee (peepee), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Mary Margaret O'Hara (although not actually a band)

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:14 (twenty-one years ago)

How about if I suggest Public Enemy and Ian Dury and the Blockheads?

― peepee (peepee), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Elastica

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Sagittarius and The Millennium

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:21 (twenty-one years ago)

? Mark and the Mysterians

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Portishead

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Classic may be stretching it a bit but ... Jill Jones

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Moby Grape
Neneh Cherry
Kiss (the first one, despite some other isolated okay singles)
Black Flag (the first one, despite some good earlier tracks)
Bad Religion (the one that sounds like Hawkwind)
Dream Sydicate
Violent Femmes (though even that album wasn't all that great)
Fishbone (a long EP, anyway)
Meat Loaf
Point Blank (maybe, I forget what their post-debut stuff was like)
SRC (if I remember right)

― chuck, Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Circle Jerks (debut)

― chuck, Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I agree with all of Chuck's except Kiss (as both Dressed to Kill and Destroyer are not to be belittled in my book).

Meat Loaf owns this thread. As do Boston, i suppose.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Circle Jerks (debut)

As much as there are great tracks on Golden Shower of Hits, Chuck OTM here....Group Sex is all you really need.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Boston made two GREAT albums, Alex.

― chuck, Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:32 (twenty-one years ago)

ABC, Aztec Camera and personally I'd also add Status Quo (their debut)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Devo
Malcolm McLaren
The The

― peepee (peepee), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Which Devo album??? (The first four or so are all pretty good, and their pre-debut album stuff is better than Black Flag's, even.)

And which Malcolm McLaren, too?

― chuck, Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Fat Boys

― chuck, Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:39 (twenty-one years ago)

and which The The?!
(x-p)

― kit brash (kit brash), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:40 (twenty-one years ago)

For me, "Are We Not Men?" "Duck Rock" and "Soul Mining" are considerably more classic than they're others (though I haven't heard too much of the Devo pre-album stuff)

― peepee (peepee), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Guns n' Roses
The Zombies

― darin (darin), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:43 (twenty-one years ago)

mottdeterre OTM, except those were more or less the same act ;)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:44 (twenty-one years ago)

If GnR ever made a classic album, then that album was called "Use Your Illusion" rather than their overrated debut.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:44 (twenty-one years ago)

*Spaghetti Incident* and *Lies* both beat the pants off of either *Illusion* (and if not for those two albums, they might deserve to be here.)

And *Duck Rock* may well not be Malcolm McLaren's best album.

― chuck, Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Wait, I thought it was supposed to be "one album (which was classic) and after that they didn't release anything else?".

Nevermind, it seems we've moved on to "*debut* album was classic and everything else (if there was anything else) was shit". In that case,

The Feelies -- Crazy Rhythms

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Kiss: The Elder

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, I think we all know which Gn'R album will still be in print 50 years from now...

― darin (darin), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:51 (twenty-one years ago)

If solo acts quality, then I guess Tracy Chapman belongs here

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Solo definitely acts Quality.

― Thea (Thea), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:54 (twenty-one years ago)

re: Devo...to many people Freedom Of Choice is the classic, so that's debateable.

re: the Feelies, the Good Earth is totally as classic as Crazy Rhythms.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:57 (twenty-one years ago)

The Daughters of Albion...and what Dan said about The Good Earth seconded.

― dlp9001, Thursday, 14 October 2004 22:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Wild Man Fisher

― peepee (peepee), Thursday, 14 October 2004 23:00 (twenty-one years ago)

the adverts
999
milli vanilli (wait, did they relase ANYTHING after their debut? if not, i guess they don't belong here)
tiffany
debbie gibson
expose'
cover girls
pajama party
lisa lisa and cult jam
sheila e.
new kids on the block

― chuck, Thursday, 14 October 2004 23:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Devo do NOT apply here.

Boston made two GREAT albums, Alex.

Are you suggesting that the entirety of Don't Look Back constitutes a classic album? Hmmmm...maybe you're right. I haven't listened to it in eons.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 October 2004 23:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Greil Marcus (who should know -- he is also a fan of "Dirty White Boy" by Foreigner and "Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams!) actually claims *Don't Look Back* is *better* than the debut, and he may well be right, Alex! (He also says there has never been a bad record *called* "Don't Look Back", which also may well be possibly true.)

― chuck, Thursday, 14 October 2004 23:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll stand down, Chuck. I'm not familiar enough with Don't Look Back to challenge the point (although the title track alone kicks a giant platter of ass).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 October 2004 23:11 (twenty-one years ago)

(xpost to Chuck)
There was a second Milli Vanilli album, it did come out around the time the scandal broke. IIRC, the vocalists on their debut also released an album under the name "The Real Milli Vanilli" AND Rob and Fab released their own album featuring their own vocals.

All of these albums flopped, of course.

But who cares, 80% of the bands listed here have more than one album, so MV should stay.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 14 October 2004 23:12 (twenty-one years ago)

The The

C'mon now.....the man's muse may have abandoned him recently, but I'd say Soul Mining and Mind Bomb are both classics (and there are some great cuts on Infected and Dusk.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 14 October 2004 23:13 (twenty-one years ago)

(Or maybe Greil was a fan of "Run to You"; I forget.)

I am amazed nobody has mentioned the 4 Skins yet.
Or Au Pairs.
Or Supergrass
Or Amy Grant
Or the Flaming Lips's debut EP.

(actually, I'm not amazed at all.)

X-Ray Spex don't count, right?

Ace of Base are a weird case, since *The Sign* and *Happy Nation* are both classic albums, but two-thirds of their songs are the same as each other. We may need to call in the Supreme Court for that one.

― chuck, Thursday, 14 October 2004 23:18 (twenty-one years ago)

And oh yeah, Savage Garden, duh!

― chuck, Thursday, 14 October 2004 23:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I am absolutely not suggesting that there aren't many great tracks on those The The albums, or Devo's first albumS, but I still think that only "Soul Mining" and "Are We Not Men?" are completely void of a weak track.

― peepee (peepee), Thursday, 14 October 2004 23:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Dusk is really THE the The classic.

― Gear! (Gear!), Thursday, 14 October 2004 23:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Ace Of Base' US debut and European debut I would say are the same album

(and it is clearly not classic!)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 14 October 2004 23:23 (twenty-one years ago)

anti-nowhere league

― chuck, Thursday, 14 October 2004 23:36 (twenty-one years ago)

a bit confused - is this thread about great bands that released several good to great albums but only one truly rock solid, no filler from opening to end note classic for most all who consider themselves fans? if so, i nominate the following artists whose entire body i've heard (mostly): flaming lips hit to death in the future head, sonic youth daydream nation, american analog set know by heart, gastr del sol upgrade and afterlife, fugazi red medicine, neutral milk hotel on avery island, pavement crooked rain crooked rain. if not, sorry.

― j.m. lockery (j.m. lockery), Thursday, 14 October 2004 23:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Flaming Lips have now released at least two classic albums.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 15 October 2004 00:49 (twenty-one years ago)

AaronHz, I think Volunteers is the equal of Surrealistic Pillow, but that's just me.

― William Crump (Rock Hardy), Friday, 15 October 2004 01:30 (twenty-one years ago)

sorry but i disagree - i dont feel late period flaming lips is as groundbreaking as their middle stage, (in a priest driven ambulance through clouds taste metallic), despite all the superheated critical fawning over the soft bulletin, which is a great record, but not classic. but that's just one fan's opinion.

― j.m. lockery (j.m. lockery), Friday, 15 October 2004 01:36 (twenty-one years ago)

oops, referring to geir's xpost.

― j.m. lockery (j.m. lockery), Friday, 15 October 2004 01:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I agree about the Lips, late 80's-mid 90's was the peak for me. Soft Bulletin is like their Aja for me, i.e. still really good songs but a bit too slick compared to earlier stuff, which makes Yoshimi Gaucho, I guess.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Friday, 15 October 2004 01:52 (twenty-one years ago)

mos def :(

― Symplistic (shmuel), Friday, 15 October 2004 01:54 (twenty-one years ago)

You mean Black Star or Black on Both Sides?

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Friday, 15 October 2004 01:57 (twenty-one years ago)

The Silos

― frankE (frankE), Friday, 15 October 2004 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Red Red Meat

― frankE (frankE), Friday, 15 October 2004 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

i agree that Dusk is the THE THE classic album, the others all fail somehow, somewhere. But that record is great from the first track to the last.

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 15 October 2004 02:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I think you all just get a kick out of typing the The The.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Friday, 15 October 2004 02:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Woodentops

― frankE (frankE), Friday, 15 October 2004 03:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Geir -- Of course I knew that and laughed my ass off.

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Friday, 15 October 2004 03:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Frazer & Debolt -- "Fraser & DeBolt With Ian Guenther"

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Friday, 15 October 2004 03:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Blind Faith is my answer.

― jim wentworth (wench), Friday, 15 October 2004 04:55 (twenty-one years ago)

If we're talking brillant opener, rest shite, ladies and gentlemen, I give you THE HUMAN LEAGUE

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Friday, 15 October 2004 06:47 (twenty-one years ago)

> If we're talking brillant opener, rest shite, ladies and gentlemen, I give you THE HUMAN LEAGUE

Eh. You do know that Dare wasn't their debut, right? And anyway, their most recent album, Secrets, is an absolute cracker, arguably their finest yet.

― Palomino (Palomino), Friday, 15 October 2004 12:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Shocked SPEECHLESS that Chuck thinks the Flaming Lips' debut EP is their only great record. Zuh?

― Mr. Snrub, Friday, 15 October 2004 12:41 (twenty-one years ago)

the monks

― doomie x, Friday, 15 October 2004 12:45 (twenty-one years ago)

"Dare" may be Human League's only fully fledged classic, but they've come close so many times that they don't really fit in this thread. Apart from "Hysteria" and "Crash", all of their albums are great.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 15 October 2004 13:26 (twenty-one years ago)

The Flaming Lips' best moment (so far) is the "Yoshimi..." album. That one was even better than "The Soft Bulletin".

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 15 October 2004 13:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Fishbone (a long EP, anyway)

Quite OTM.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 15 October 2004 14:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, the Flaming Lips peaked in 19fucking84. This has always seemed completely obvious to me. Their best song ever: "I Want My Own Planet," no contest. Next couple albums were okay, and they have a couple good career retrospectives out that avoid their completely boring recent Muzak. But basically they were best when they started out (Okie acid-punk hick teens accidentally crossing Amon Duul with Zep; how the fuck could they go wrong??) and went downhill from there.

Jefferson Airplane's best album is quite possibly either *After Bathing at Baxter's* or *Crown of Creation* (or *maybe* *Surrealistic Pillow* or *Volunteers*, they're fine too) (though as with the Lips, I mostly defer to greatest hits albums -- *2400 Fulton Street* is the best one I know about -- unless Great Society albums count.)

― chuck, Friday, 15 October 2004 15:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Rocket From the Tombs. Oh, wait....

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Friday, 15 October 2004 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd plump for Cerebral Corps - Attributed To.....

IMHO It still stands up against Robyn Hitchcock/Lilys/OTC and the rest.

― mzui, Friday, 15 October 2004 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Many, many good choices here. I'll just add although they did the occasional good song here and there, the only Scorpions LP I really like is their first, Lonesome Crow, with a 16-year old Michael Schenker on guitar before he left to join UFO. And that UFO themselves would belong here, except they have TWO classics: Their first two, both ironically pre-Schenker.

Mahavishnu Orchestra never came close to equalling their debut, The Inner Mounting Flame, the finest jazz-fusion LP on which the name "Miles Davis" doesn't appear (except maybe in the liner notes.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, 15 October 2004 20:19 (twenty-one years ago)

my feelings on the flaming lips stated are based on the litmus of "classic album from a classic band" which is why i choose "hit to death..." with "clouds taste metallic" coming in a close second (xmas at the zoo kinda being the tie breaker in clouds' disfavor). to geir's credit, i do think "soft bulletin" is a great album, it just seems less intensely interesting and career defining as my choices. i've only heard "yoshimi" once and found it deathly dull, like a sad self-parody kind of along the lines of liz phair's last album. i so think the slide began with the Zaireeka release, and i'm completely at a loss as to why people think the lips are better now than ever before.

― j.m. lockery (j.m. lockery), Friday, 15 October 2004 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Stiff Little Fingers (Inflammable Material)

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 15 October 2004 20:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Jefferson Airplane is an interesting mention. I will say they actually have TWO classics: Surrealistic Pillow & After Bathing at Baxter's. The latter is a real twisted mindfuck of a psych record. It's much noiser and freaked-out than Surrealistic Pillow, which I feel is dropdead gorgeous.

Now lets talk Jefferson Starship. I believe they have only one classic album: Blows Against the Empire.

How about these two bands for one classic album status? (Hell, they only made one album each, period.)
Autosalvage
Kak

― Justin Farrar (Justin Farrar), Friday, 15 October 2004 20:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Kak!

― Helios Creed (orion), Friday, 15 October 2004 20:49 (twenty-one years ago)

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