Peak Music

Not so much as a best album or best song - but when did a musical artist first achieve greatness? Even if "success" came later.

I'd say U2's Unforgettable Fire may not have sold as many as Joshua Tree, but they weren't a better band when the put out Joshua Tree, just more folks became aware of them.

Michael Jackson - Off The Wall

 

Nevermind

 

Back to Black, Amy Winehouse.

 

Rolling Stones, "Exile on Main St."

 

A Ghost Is Born, Wilco

 

Ride The Lightning through Master of Puppets, Metallica.

Alice in Chains’ Unplugged set.

 

It's interesting thinking about the usual career arc of a musical act - Big Debut (spend your life creating the first album, you have two years max to come up with songs for the follow-up), sub-par follow up - maybe a new direction for the third which garners praise and awards, then you get to the "we should do important stuff" phase and start writing songs about social issues" which is a coin-flip, might suck, might be good - then usually personal problems (drugs, women, bankruptcy), then a comeback - then a jukebox musical on broadway.

 

I can think of several artists where their peak was the debut album.

The Killers' Hot Fuss was the best thing they ever put out, and it's not even close.

Hootie and the Blowfish went straight to irrelevancy after Cracked Rear View. The second album sounded exactly the same and they basically faded into obscurity after that.

Violent Femmes' self-title debut was definitely their career peak.

The bluster of the Use Your Illusion albums aside, I think GNR hit its peak with Appetite.

 

I hate when artists get mad that not all of their albums achieve equal success.

I still get annoyed at Nirvana’s Unplugged set when Cobain introduces a song by saying “This is from our first album — most people don’t own it.”

It’s insulting, like anyone who bought Nevermind but not Bleach is a poser. Maybe most people don’t own Bleach because it sucks (I don’t agree, but it’s not nearly as good as Nevermind).

 

As one who never quite got over the disappointment of Fairweather Johnson, they only wish it sounded the same. Old Man & Me was a banger though.

 

Oasis peaked with their first 2 albums.

Oasis' best -- most mature -- work was 14 years later with their final album Dig Out Your Soul.

The Turning should've been a Bond song, and still can be. The entire album is magnif.

 

Bleach was good, but raw. It would not have been a huge commercial success on its own. Nevermind absolutely benefited from Butch Vig's production, and it sounded a lot more polished than Bleach. Thus its success.

Jimmy Eat World bitches in the same way that Clarity was their best album. Just deal with the fact that Bleed American was the record that got the band into the mainstream.