Bands whose most iconic record is their first one, but which is also stylistically an outlier in their catalog

ABC?

Wait, it's Albatross, not Dragonfly. Not memorable, not iconic

i'd definitely agree on Ride.

― piscesx, Thursday, March 2, 2017 3:25 PM (forty seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Can you clarify? Are they really that stylistically different?

Oh yeah, I really like "Stephanie Says", although it wasn't on an official album, in my semi-defence.

yeah i mean the post Nowhere albums are nothing like the debut. the debut and the EPs sound alike but they got very clean and slick after IMO.

Wild Beasts.

I guess production aside the formula doesn't seem all that different, and it's not like I'm a stranger to the early 90s Creation records sound. I thought this thread was more for bands that more significantly changed their whole approach.

xp

Lana Del Rey (Born To Die has an uptempo Pop/Hip Hop mentality that gradually got downplayed in subsequent releases)

team imago

I don't think you could describe "Pink Flag" as a straightforward punk record tbf.

OK more straightforward...

what with Futureheads, MGMT and others, I feel that mid-00's indie might be quite a fertile zone for this. Don't say Arcade Fire or other similar shit though ffs, all their albums are the same dirge

how is the futureheads 1st album that much different than the 2nd one? (other than having better songs)

Isn't Fleetwood Mac's first lp the s/t one with garbage cans in an alley on the cover and isn't it a pretty straight Chicago Blues lp. Then Play On has things concurrent to Albatross which was a non lp single and has other originals on.
I could never get into that first lp really, probably has some pretty stellar guitar on but too straight for me.

Beastie Boys (taking 'most iconic' to mean 'biggest selling')

Violent Femmes
Weezer

https://goo.gl/photos/EZBwdTWpvjPbAM6fA

Lana Del Rey is a good shout. I miss that Lana.

Could make an argument about Van Morrison & Astral Weeks. Have to overlook the Bang Records "Blowin' Your Mind!" thing.

"want a danish?" is van morrison at his most iconic as far as _i'm_ concerned.

Swans, maybe? People tend to think of stuff like Filth as their iconic era, although they dropped that style pretty quickly.

The Knife

Even if that were true, which I'm not sure of, was Cop really a radical departure? xp

No, but both Filth and Cop are outliers in their catalogue as a whole.

Oh, I read the thread as being about iconic individual records.

Having the first album be the "iconic" LP of the artists catalog is the tough part of the equation. There are many other bands that stylistically diverged from where they started, but often the first albums is not the one they perhaps are most known. I gave it a good thought and came up with four possible choices. A couple of these are bands where the first record lineup just didn't last past the first record and in some ways the first one was very timely for their sound. The other two were major albums but are by artists that have such extensive catalogs, there is probably debate on what is the iconic album.

The Damned - Damned Damned Damned

The Damned never really abandoned what they did after the first record, but they did evolve and change as the lineup shifted. It also perhaps might not be the 'iconic' Damned album in the UK.

King Crimson- In the Court of the Crimson King

This lineup made this record, which is huge in the beginnings of progressive rock then split. The 70s group and 80s group did much more music, but perhaps this record is still the one KC album.

Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True

I'd probably lean that This Year's Model is perhaps the iconic EC album, but this one does have many of his most popular songs and since it was before the Attractions has a much different sound from what followed.

Frank Zappa - Freak Out

Zappa's music was pretty much constant change, even still if you were going to pull out one out of all of those albums this might still be the one. It is similar to In the Court of the Crimson King that it was a major record at the time and foreshadowed change.

The Doors maybe

Ignoring the pre-album years, Black Flag's Damaged. Though in retrospect My War doesn't feel like the departure it did at the time.

I will say Gallowsbird's Bark, but I know most people on ILM seem to like their later stuff better.

The Fiery Furnacese, like many of the bands/artists mentioned itt, have no release that could even charitably be considered "iconic".

I considered Freak Out and the 1st Violent Femmes album, but they are pretty damn similar to Ruben And The Jets and Hallowed Ground stylistically, which was the OG question. Not totally sure they qualify, but they also get the "iconic and somewhat different from the rest" badge

^ "Freak Out" is a good call

Hallowed Ground's plunge into darkness distinguishes it from the relatively upbeat debut, though the arrangements, performances & production are similar. Enough for me to call it an outlier, anyway.

Mercury Rev - Yerself Is Steam? Though I guess one could argue Deserter's Songs is more popular...

No way on the Doors, all of the first album and Strange Days, and some of Waiting For the Sun were all from the initial batch of songs the band had prior to signing

there are probably a few ILMers who consider 'piper' pink floyd's iconic record

(i am not one of them)

Dizzee Rascal, perhaps?

DJ Shadow

bless you imago for saying what i was thinking as i ambled thru this bollocks

Can't Buy a Thrill is in no way the most iconic Dan record btw

yea wtf close thread

VU was always weird and droney. Zappa's "Freak Out" had that extended "Who could imagine?" bit with the silly voices. The Doors, as noted above, spread the same batch of songs across their first 3 albums.

pretty much all of these suggestions are weak. i don't have any good ones though - imo this isn't really a thing at all.

I feel like Immolation fits this because even though most hardcore DM fans find their whole catalog to be amazing, the 'famous' album of theirs that everybody, including non-diehards knows is Dawn of Possession, which is a good album but doesn't really sound like any of their other albums as it's more of a traditional death metal album.

there's also Pearl Jam's Ten which, again, the non-diehards all rave over this one and it's the most polished, commercial sounding cut of their history, which they never really replicated (a good thing).

Bathory. First album is totally iconic and invented Black metal (even the cover is iconic).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathory_(album)#/media/File:Bathory_album.jpg

But the band quickly merged off and invented Viking Metal. Although the change was not immediate, gradually happening over the first handful of releases, the first one remains a quality that the band abandoned, yet there are many who still point to it as it's finest hour.

http://www.bathory.nu/00discography/bathory.jpg

Ignoring the pre-album years, Black Flag's Damaged. Though in retrospect My War doesn't feel like the departure it did at the time.

― juggulo for the complete klvtz (bendy), Thursday, March 2, 2017 6:07 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is a good one

not the iconic Bathory album (maybe the iconic album art) and also not radically different from the other pre-viking stuff.

xp

impvho interpol's subsequent output is different enough from the 1st album that they qualify

how is the futureheads 1st album that much different than the 2nd one? (other than having better songs)

Their first album still feels unique to me...short, Zoloish phrases, cool a capella bits, big early XTC influence. Nothing about their subsequent albums made me want to hear them again.

Yeah Bathory is not really a good example, they did two more black metal records (more successful than the debut too) before going folk/viking.

Thinking of Robert Miles, there must be more dance producers that had initial succes with a novelty/commercial sound but then quickly moved on. Kevin Saunderson maybe (the Inner City debut was his first album, no?), Erick Morillo (Reel 2 Real), etc.

i'm afraid that is Rong xxp