Does Every Band Have Only One Truly Great Album???

[Alex]

So there are bands that have released several great albums, some ok albums and some duds. My question is, does every bands back catalogue have only truly great album???

For example Guns N Roses have released six studio albums, yet it is said all the time Appetite For Destruction is their best album. Sure people may like GnR Lies, Use Your Illusion I and II, The Spaghetti Incident and Chinese Democracy, but usually everyone says Appetite For Destruction is their best album.

Nirvana released three studio albums and yet Nevermind is seen as the classic album. People like In Utero and its seen as good but Nevermind is seen as the classic (some people have never even heard of Bleach)

I was recently asking someone about Skid Row and what albums should I get, he said get the first one (Skid Row) as 'That's the only album worth having' saying the rest weren't as good. I did a bit of background reasearch and lots of forums were saying the same thing.

So would you say a band has only one truly great album or does it really depend.

 

[Mike C.]

The perfect example of this would be The Beach Boys, since Brian Wilson went fucking nuts trying to create something as good as Pet Sounds.

But no, there are bands that have more than one album that are considered great. Not that it is necessarily my taste, but The Beatles have The White Album, Sgt. Pepper's, Rubber Soul and Revolver, Bob Dylan has Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, The Stones have Exile on Main Street and Sticky Fingers.

 

[Mac Attack]

There are several bands that have had several hit albums. I think you are confusing the word best and great. If this thread was about one best album the answer is yes however several artists and bands have several great albums that people will love and cherish for a long time. The poster above showed the Beates and I think that iosthe greatest case as to how to disprove your point. They have tons of hit songs from different albums and all their albums are famous. Taking this a step forward to today's time period and I say that every album will live in fame from the singles artist. But back to the initial point no each band does not only have one hit album.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

There are many bansd who have only ever managed to produce one truly legendary album, and nothing else they ever made quite lived up to that, The Stone Roses, Guns N Roses and Nirvana are 3 bands that immediately spring to mind.

However, Oasis are the band I am going to use as an example to disprove the point.

Their first album "Definitely Maybe" is regularly voted by UK music magazines as the greatest album of all time, and I personally think it is. Every song is amazing. However, their second album "(Whats The Story?) Morning Glory" is also regularly put forward as the greatest album of all time as well. The 2 albums are almost always voted in the top 10. While none of their later albums ever quite lived up to the magic of those first two, they have 2 albums that can be certainly called GREAT.

 

[Cracka Jack]

I immediately thought of The Beatles when I saw the thread title (Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's, Rubber Soul, etc.), along with Nirvana (Bleach, Nevermind), Pink Floyd (The Wall, Dark Side of the Moon), and Radiohead (OK Computer, Kid A). There are surely many others to add, but it does seem like plenty of bands only put out one truly great piece of work. It actually seems like a trend by recent bands, who can't match the longevity of past greats. I honestly can't think of why that would be. Maybe I'm looking to much into it...

 

[Shadowmancer]

The perfect example of this would be The Beach Boys, since Brian Wilson went fucking nuts trying to create something as good as Pet Sounds.

Please tell me you be Trollin'? As that is a fallacy beyond anything as that is the critic's views and it is a perpetuated myth, Pet Sounds wasn't rated that good by critics when it came out but it is still rated now as one of the best albums ever. Sunflower, Surf's Up and Holland are all underrated gems that people haven't taken the time to listen to because of the "lack of involvement" of Brian Wilson in them.

 

[Alex]

However, Oasis are the band I am going to use as an example to disprove the point.

Their first album "Definitely Maybe" is regularly voted by UK music magazines as the greatest album of all time, and I personally think it is. Every song is amazing. However, their second album "(Whats The Story?) Morning Glory" is also regularly put forward as the greatest album of all time as well. The 2 albums are almost always voted in the top 10. While none of their later albums ever quite lived up to the magic of those first two, they have 2 albums that can be certainly called GREAT.

You make a good point about Oasis' first two albums, but the thing is people I've talked to say either one or the other as Oasis' greatest album. I mean the people who say Definitely Maybe is their greatest album think (What's The Story?) Morning Glory is good but not as good and vice versa. I guess bands like Oasis can put out two albums which split their fans over which one is better, but they'll still rate one as great and the other as really good.

 

[Mike C.]

Please tell me you be Trollin'? As that is a fallacy beyond anything as that is the critic's views and it is a perpetuated myth, Pet Sounds wasn't rated that good by critics when it came out but it is still rated now as one of the best albums ever. Sunflower, Surf's Up and Holland are all underrated gems that people haven't taken the time to listen to because of the "lack of involvement" of Brian Wilson in them.

Well it wasn't too serious since I went on to dispute the notion shortly thereafter with three examples of bands that the idea didn't apply to.

But Pet Sounds is my favorite Beach Boys album, having listened some to the other albums you listed but admittedly not as much as I have listened to Pet Sounds. I don't know much about the reception from music critics at its release though I know it didn't sell well... however I'm not sure you get better praise than Paul McCartney saying that Pet Sounds was so good it made them write Sgt. Pepper's. That was an immediate positive reaction from when it came out.

 

[SorgFamily]

Like others have stated I would cite The Beatles as the example to dispute the question. I personally am a big fan and I would rate Sgt. Pepper's, Abbey Road, Revolver and Rubber Soul all as "truly great" albums.

It actually seems like a trend by recent bands, who can't match the longevity of past greats.

This does seem to be true. Bands like The Vines, Jet, The Killers (Sam's Town was alright but not as good as Hot Fuss) and a lot of nineties bands (Live and Candlebox to name just a couple) all made killer albums and then kind of faded. This is also kind of an impossible question since people like myself can latch onto a band like The White Stripes and say all their albums are "truly great" (Which I whole heartily believe bar Icky Thump).

Unless you wanna throw statistics in the mix and look at album sales and hit singles and things like that, which don't necessarily make a great album.

 

[iwinulose]

if i may toss some band names out, yes many bands only have one hit wonders, but what about metallica? or megadeth? motley crue? eminem? ac/dc? slayer? anthorax? avenged sevenfold? asking alexandria? just some band names off the top of my head but they have many good albums.

 

[Cookie]

It actually seems like a trend by recent bands, who can't match the longevity of past greats. I honestly can't think of why that would be. Maybe I'm looking to much into it...

You are.

For one, more recent bands don't have as large of a body of work so they're less likely to have more "great" albums because they have less albums in general. More albums = greater chance of having more great albums. This is assuming that the bands we're talking about are already capable of creating "great" work, of course.

I think there's plenty of newer artists that have absolutely created more than one great album. I'd throw the Arcade Fire out there off the top of my head as an example with both Funeral and The Suburbs being considered great albums both by fans, critics, peers and industry professionals.

So to answer the question, no, every band does not only have one truly great album. Some bands only have one, but not every band. That's just a sweeping generalization that would be really hard to prove.