I prefer their earlier stuff...

U2... Sunday Bloody Sunday, then they peaked....

Pixies, pre-breakup. Anything from Doolittle of course, Mr Grieves is a cracker when I'm running:

...but Wave of Mutilation is the one:

Their post-reform stuff isn't bad exactly; Indie Cindy really gets in my head, but it's not the same
https://youtu.be/Njf8Pp6oyMU

Arctic Monkeys. Whatever you say... is one of my favourite albums. After that, some great singles, but the albums don't float my boat.

The Pixies - Their post-reform stuff isn’t bad exactly

I refuse to listen to it. I absolutely loved them as a yoot and don't want to taint that with a middle-aged version 😂
Same reason I haven't seen the new Trainspotting...

The Beta Band's first ep, Champion Versions, and especially Dry the Rain. Amazing song 😎

Arctic Monkeys odd number albums are good, even not so. This means next one should be good again.
The worst culprits for me are Kings of Leon. First album best and steadily getting worse across their catalogue, gave up after 5 so not heard recent stuff.

The worst culprits for me are Kings of Leon. First album best and steadily getting worse across their catalogue, gave up after 5 so not heard recent stuff.

Great shout! Youth and Young Manhood is an absolute classic album, still holds up now as one of my top 20 albums. Aha Shake Heartbreak isn't my cup of tea in the same way but is solid. After that it was a steady slide into stadium c*ck rock and joke tracks tbh.

Great thread idea.

A couple from me:

Mercury Rev's first two albums are their best for me, was lucky enough to see them touring to support both.

Stereolab's very early material was amazing.

And has anyone made a better techno album than Orbital's "brown" one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWID22olFWE

Pixies, pre-breakup.

Well obviously, but most of the cool kids will say the first couple of albums were the "real" Pixies and Bossanova and Trompe le Monde weren't so good.

Don't tell anyone, but those two are my favourite albums of theirs, overall.

I haven’t seen the new Trainspotting…

Keep it that way.

🙁

Biffy Clyro - first three albums are criminally underrated with the second, Vertigo of Bliss perhaps being their masterpiece.

After that went increasingly commercial. Still a great live band but the subsequent albums lack the depth and complexity.

Same reason I haven’t seen the new Trainspotting…

Excellent decision. I tried watching it, gave up after 15 minutes or so. Now I'm too scared to go back and watch the original in case it turns out that it was actually crap and I only liked it because I was young and stupid.

Sonic Youth-Sonic Youth ep
Fairly different to what they later released in some ways, although you can hear it in there.
Brilliant.

Now I’m too scared to go back and watch the original in case it turns out that it was actually crap and I only liked it because I was young and stupid.

😂

I know, it's terrible getting older 😭
Seen Pete Docherty lately?

Comes to us all... 😐

Bad Brains - Big Takeover
Just an incredible band. Hard-core punk Rastas.
Helped form my massive love for roots reggae now too.

Great choices Kayak23. I saw fugazi a few times when they first came to the UK to promote the first EP. Only about 10 people showed up for the Wigan gig 🙁

For me the debut Instigators LP was mind blowing. All subsequent releases never came close.

Early Parkway Drive - magnificent.

Current stuff - meh, a bit dull and predictable.

early Architects - superb. Aggressive, lots of feeling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS8sYmTcM4w

Current stuff - dull as dishwater, a band trying to be 'heavy' whilst radio friendly. A massive disappointment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X45uvccd5rA

Got the t-shirt

Blimey, now I can't stop thinking of them.

DJ Shadow: Endtroducing is an all-time classic album, probably quite influential. The Private Press is pretty good, solid. The Outsider is not so great, although I saw him touring it, and after that I lost touch with his work until about 2019 with Rocket Fuel.

RJD2: Deadringer, absolutely excellent. Since We Last Spoke is decent, but The Third Hand kinda lost me.

Archive stand out to me, but it's more to do with a complete change of focus and personnel. I love Londinium, it's a great trip hop album. But then they shifted gears and never really produced anything like it again. Morcheeba similarly shifted away from trip hop more to lounge music, and it's fine, but not as good as Who Can You Trust.

First few Queen albums were a world apart from the bland stuff they were dragging out by the end.

Seems to happen a lot with me, like the early stuff then lose interest. Good examples are kings of Leon as mentioned, arctic monkeys, courteeners, even stuff like green Day and the offspring.

I think I like the more simplistic, rough around the edges sound. Then when bands become more confident, get more production value, it's just not the same.

Mt wife will like a band no matter what they do. Arctic monkeys for example can do no wrong for her. I like the first album and the demo tapes, but now they're a completely different band and I'm not interested any more.

All are commercial sell outs after the first demo comes out...

I have admit liking many bands early efforts, often some feeling of freshness and creativity, wild song ideas and such will be lost as band gets more professional and starts to follow sub-genre conventions and repeating themselves.

Metallica , peaked with master of puppets and nothing since has been as good.

Slayer, reign in blood is one of the best albums ever . The next album , south of heaven, just sounds like a slowed down version of of reign in blood.

Black flag, I prefer the stuff pre Rollins so would have to say "the first four years" is their best work. Rollins brings in a shouty intensiveness that is sometimes too much

You have all your creative impulses from your entire life to draw on for your debut. You then get to hone it for a few years of constant touring / gigging. The wheat gets cut from the chaff over and over again. By the time you hit the studio its the culmination of years of graft and inspiration.

You then have 12 months to record your follow up...

Black flag, I prefer the stuff pre Rollins so would have to say “the first four years” is their best work. Rollins brings in a shouty intensiveness that is sometimes too much

Amen to that. For me Dez was the best vocalist they ever had, followed by Keith, then Ron.

I've got a couple more.

I loved Flaming Lips when they were a mad acid feedback rock band...

Objectively their successful albums were probably more accomplished (and I like them too), but I still prefer their earlier stuff.

And likewise, I love It's a Shame About Ray, but the early Lemonheads stuff was amazing and got played a lot more on my turntable. Some of you might know if they have much kudos in the punk scene?

As much as I still love the Manics, they were at their best when arty, arrogant and angry rather than melancholic.

(for the purposes of this post, I'm pretending that Gold Against The Soul didn't happen)

(slightly NSFW lyrical content)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoCh4XOynGY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5PI7k_ZiQ0

Although every so often during their later career, they do rediscover that same spark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS-S-YSEpso

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh0gT1ZdwUs

south of heaven

probably their best IMO

For me, it's probably Mastodon. They were great up to Crack the Skye, then sharply downhill from there. Leviathan is the high mark, but always loved Remission too.

Pixies, yes. I like the later stuff too, and the Frank Black solo stuff that I've heard. There's nothing like Doolittle, though!

Chili Peppers peaked at Blood Sugar Sex Magic for me. I love the in your face exuberance of the first 3 or 4 albums. BSSM is so good, so many really really great tracks. I should give it a full listen next time driving or on the train. I like some of the later stuff, but it doesn't get me in the same way. On a summer holiday at school, I read a Clive Barker novel straight through over two or three of days, listened to One Hot Minute on repeat. can't listen to any of it now without thinking of that book!

nicko74

Pixies, pre-breakup

Surely stuff before Doolittle then! Come On Pilgrim & Surfer Rosa are their best. Also have no interest in the reformed version.

I prefer their earlier stuff…

Are the words that come just before a music bore goes off on one in a smug, self satisfied attempt to demene all before them with their superior taste and knowledge; but in reality just mark themselves out as a true chicken choker to everyone in the room with a life.

Pixies - yes. But go back a couple and stop at Doolittle - I prefer their earlier stuff 😉

Manic Street Preachers and Chilli Peppers are wise choices.

Echo & The Bunnymen were my fave band when I was 16. After Ocean Rain.. er, was there anything after Ocean Rain?

Are the words that come just before a music bore goes off on one in a smug, self satisfied attempt to demene all before them with their superior taste and knowledge

I er, think, erm... that's the joke??

Liars. I love all their stuff, even the weird out of tune middle era stuff.
Early was blinding though.

Last album was great, but yeah, prefer etc.

See also PJ Harvey

Oh yeah, Original Pirate Material by The Streets too. That was brilliant.

Catfish and the Bottlemem.

Peaked before their first album was released, lead guitarist quit and they rerecorded/reproduced all of their first album, which wasn't as good as the EPs with the original guitarist.

Arctic Monkeys for me. First two albums were iconic, from then they were just bland.

Are the words that come just before a music bore goes off on one in a smug, self satisfied attempt to demene all before them with their superior taste and knowledge

I er, think, erm… that’s the joke??

😊

Fugazi-Waiting Room

Still epic!

On topic... nearly every band or artist I'm really into has improved on a strong start. One exception is Pulp, they had lots of weak releases before their material got strong, and stayed strong 'till the end.

Off topic...? A song for you...

Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd
Genesis
Yes
(Peter Green's) Fleetwood Mac

Good shout on Mastodon. Leviathan, Blood Mountain, Crack The Skye, bloody amazing. Since then I just struggle. Fair play to them: lots of people love it all, and that's fair enough, and it's nice to see a band maturing and developing. It's just not my cup of tea so much.

That Pixies track is good but is just too long. Both the Doolittle era examples are like 2 minutes long, and excellent. The new one is 4 minutes plus, and for no reason. Hey ho.

Anyway, a few from me.

Weezer Blue Album was part of the soundtrack to secondary school for me, and were a wonderful blend of unabashedly geeky, with fuzzy-as-hell guitars and fantastic melodies. They had a video based on Happy Days which was on the Windows 95 CD for heaven's sake.

and then fast forward 20 years or so and this happens. It's just. Well. It's just plain hard to see how you got here from Buddy Holly. And more generally, being a geeky lovelorn kid when you're 18 or so is OK, but when you're playing the same schtick in your 40s it's a bit creepy to be honest.

And similarly, QOTSA. First record was a fantastic slice of gritty, poppy, punky, trancey stoner rock which sounded like it had been recorded in a garage, and probably had.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0_i_1RJH_A

Then of course they had Rated R, which kind of pushed into weirdness, successfully for the most part, and Songs For The Deaf, which coalesced the weird and the pop and the rock in a kind of perfect storm.

But now we have:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lw6MZBmY-U

Which I guess is OK in it's way, and yes I get they're playing for laughs to no small extent in the video. But still.

Is the answer 'All of the bands ever' ?

Everyone has a lifetime of ideas for album one, then 12 months interspersed with touring etc to come up with the next one.

My specific shouts would be:

Pearl Jam - Ten
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
The Doors - The Doors
Steel Pulse - Handsworth Revolution

Notable exceptions:

RHCP - Blood Sugar Sex Magic
Nirvana - Nevermind
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

Yeah, I've got a couple of 7" singles from QOTSA's early days. I can't bring myself to click on that last video!

RATM - RATM
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Black Sabbath - First two albums are great. Remainder not so much.
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever ago and ST
J5 - J5

Is the answer ‘All of the bands ever’ ?

It can't be because you have Talk Talk who started good and just got better

Catfish and the Bottlemem.

Peaked before their first album was released, lead guitarist quit and they rerecorded/reproduced all of their first album, which wasn’t as good as the EPs with the original guitarist.

Love it! We were really good before you heard of us... 😀

Is the answer ‘All of the bands ever’ ?

Everyone has a lifetime of ideas for album one, then 12 months interspersed with touring etc to come up with the next one.

To be fair as the op, I didn't pitch it as 'bands that were great and then went downhill' but it's kind of gone that way.

I was just thinking of great debut songs/Albums/releases and celebrating them. 👍

Difficult not to compare it I suppose.

Rolling Stones, brilliant up to and including Exile. After that, not so much.

Arcade Fire – Funeral

Yeah it probably is their best, but to me they're a band that has stayed very strong throughout their later albums. Probably helps that they've taken their time over each.

Pixies up to Doolittle
Depeche Mode up to songs of faith and devotion
Wedding present up to George Best
Snow patrol up to Final Straw

Probably most bands I listened to in the late 80's early 90's have got shit as they aged.

Here is "Primitive" by Killing Joke, off their 'Killing joke' album from 1980.

oh ffs I can't do the link apparently

Foo Fighters , (RIP Taylor) first few albums were brilliant, but after that just churned out the same old songs album after album.
Marillion -The Fish era was sublime, Market Square Hero's/Punch and Judy. Once fish left and Hogarth carried on they did one decent album (Seasons End) and then just humdrum forgettable stuff.

Before the bland syrupiness of Simply Red, the beautifully simple and raw Frantic Elevators:

+1 for Fleetwood mac. Then Peter Green left ......

Anyone remember the Incredible string Band? First 3 or 4 albums fantastic then they discovered Scientology .....

Stone temple pilots

and

Fronted by Scott Weiland that some might be more familiar with from Velvet Revolver

I'm a big STP fan, but for god sake do not listen to this.....

@monkeysfeet My good god why did you post that!

For Dorset_Knob - (great choice) Although I actually prefer the Turn To Red EP 😉

Fleetwood mac. Then Peter Green left …

I saw a documentary about Peter Green - sounded to me like they were just a dull whiteboy blues band early on. Not that their later stuff did much for me personally, but at least there was originality there.

I was just thinking of great debut songs/Albums/releases and celebrating them.

Yes indeed, that's what I thought. At least one person actually read your post anyway 😛

Biffy and Muse mostly. Muse genuinely seem to have forgotten/to no longer understand what made them great- I don't mean that in the usual "change is bad" way, but every time they say "we're going to be super heavy" or "this one's going to really have that Muscle Museum vibe" or whatever, it just never does. They seem to mean it too...

Biffy, meh, just evolved and I don't like what it evolved into as much. Those first albums were incredible. But at least it feels like they know what they're doing.

I saw a documentary about Peter Green – sounded to me like they were just a dull whiteboy blues band early on.

Hang the heretic!

@IdleJon

Original video

New version

Somehow the guitar in the original just sounds better to me.

Marillion, first two brilliant albums then mediocrity from Misplaced Childhood.

The Verve. Up to and including A Northern Soul, although that seemed quite a departure I did really like it, apart from "This is Music" which I have mixed feelings about, seemed to be over hyping itself.

The Gravity Grave single was a favourite, A Man Called Sun is unbelievably blissed out mellow! No Come Down was also a favourite once I got past how different the USA Mix of Blue sounded.

Never liked anything of theirs from when the drugs stopped working, it was just too bitter sweet 😉

The Orb: Little Fluffy Clouds, the Blue Room, UFOrb, Aubrey Mixes, Beyond the Ultraworld, Orblivion, Pomme Fritz. Also bought Bicycles and Tricycles but just never found as much enthusiasm for it.

Joy Division who then turned into new order and the first couple of albums were fantastic but then the 90s happened and I just couldn't really listen to new order. They still did make some ok stuff but it just wasn't for me.

Jane's addiction...the ep, then first 2 albums were marvelous and then they just went shite. Perry Farrell's solo stuff was so bad it's shameful.

Stone roses...first album was a master piece...second was like a naff homage to led zep...I'm sure they were going to release a third album a few years ago but the teaser songs were so bad they must have seen sence and canned it.

I quite like the idea that people don't consistently like a band's output. I'd imagine that for everyone on this thread bemoaning the change in direction, there's an equal group of people complaining that the earlier music wasn't to their taste, and how much better their latest album is.

'tis a good thing.

Shame this thread has taken a mildly negative turn from its intention, which was-

Bands that you love.
Tracks from debut singles/EPs/Albums/Downloads

It happens... 😂

Reason I thought of it originally was I was listening to 6 music and they played 'There's no other way' by Blur. A fantastic single (not their debut quite but it made me think of it. 'She's so high' was the debut) and of course they went on to be massive and all of them still are (except maybe the drummer who nobody knows his name...😉)

In fact, if you look at how Damon sings in she's so high, you could argue that Liam Gallagher nicked his stance directly. 😊

https://youtu.be/LJzCYSdrHMI

OK, towards the original intent. This was a Peel band, I'd heard some of their songs and session tracks on the radio and they had this new album out. I was 15 and on a shopping trip to town I went into Our Price and bought it, on cassette. I unwrapped the cellophane and passed the cassette to my mum who was in shotgun seat (although in 1984 she didn't have to call it, she just got it, that was the way), and we slipped it into the cassette stereo radio player of my Dad's car. And got 2 minutes and 11 seconds of "William, it was really nothing"

To me, it had everything - shimmering jangly guitars, the bouncing funky bass, just the opening line of lyrics of the rain falling hard on a humdrum town - summed up Reading in November perfectly. Although it came 2 years later - I knew the lyrics to Panic at that point; songs that 'say nothing to ME about MY life'. Well, these ones did. And the voice, ascending to the final falsetto finish.....and then straight into "What difference...."

Although I'd heard this before, I was absolutely hooked not just by how good it was but the effect on my parents' faces too - WTF is this was etched big.

By the time we'd got home and Handsome Devil had come on - I was, to my Neil Diamond and Elkie Brooks listening parents at least, a musical outcast; clearly not right. And that's just where I wanted to be.

They went on to be relatively successful, I think, before splitting up. Shame he turned into a dickhead (not my Dad, the other bloke "in the car" that Day)

Blackflag
Free Member
Black flag, I prefer the stuff pre Rollins so would have to say “the first four years” is their best work. Rollins brings in a shouty intensiveness that is sometimes too much

Amen to that. For me Dez was the best vocalist they ever had, followed by Keith, then Ron.

I can listen up to and including my war. After that I find them boring. The sludge of the output that came later is not my thing.
Didn't stop me getting a black flag tattoo at 17 though 🤣

Another vote for the manics. Peaked at the holy bible. Though I'd argue everything must go and it's b-sides are/is fantastic but the sound is just not the same.

Oasis is one. Not the same after the cocaine stopped and bonehead and guigsy left.

Pawel jam. After vitalogy they got so boring. Just boring.

David Essex's first single is a corker

@Blackflag - I love that Instigators album - played it recently and it's still brilliant. I thought I was the only one! Got the original vinyl.

Stereophonics first album was excellent. They've never matched 'Local Boy in the Photograph' since

Exactly as @blackflag says

You have all your creative impulses from your entire life to draw on for your debut. You then get to hone it for a few years of constant touring / gigging. The wheat gets cut from the chaff over and over again. By the time you hit the studio its the culmination of years of graft and inspiration.

You then have 12 months to record your follow up…

The rest of their work, imo, just seems boring

Oh yeah, the manic's early EPs - Motown junk, you love us, all the courting of controversy. Went downhill with their first album 😁

For me, I can't argue with the Stone Roses (even though I quite liked the second album)

There's also The Fratellis - Costello Music was glorious, since then it's a lot calmer.

Primal Scream.. Velocity Girl (from an EP I think) is such a wonderful archetype for 90s indie, then they found house and made Screamadelica... then it all went a bit rawk n rowl.

Does it ever go the other way? I'm struggling to think of a single band where I prefer the later stuff.

Not trying to be negative, but I remember when the Manics popped up and I took an instant dislike to them as cartoon punk tryhards.

Was I wrong? I'll admit I was a raging snob at the time, but I did have pretty good judgement.

Does it ever go the other way? I’m struggling to think of a single band where I prefer the later stuff.

For me Pink Floyd, someone else pointed out that Fleetwood Mac earliest form was a pretty generic (and let's be honest - forgettable) blues band, that could never had come up with The Chain or Go Your Own Way, and of course The Beatles. Radiohead from OK computer onwards have never stopped evolving - I think to keep getting better, I'll bet there's some who think they peaked at The Bends.

Was I wrong?

In every universe (expect this one) I should like MSP, they absolutely fall bang in the middle of "music I should like". I've tried a couple of albums and never really got any of it.

Does it ever go the other way? I’m struggling to think of a single band where I prefer the later stuff.

On that note, I was wondering if anyone had actually heard "Underneath the Radar" (1988) or "Change the Weather" (1989)... cos in 1994 came

and the brilliance continued (in fits and starts) until 2016

Does it ever go the other way? I’m struggling to think of a single band where I prefer the later stuff.

The Beatles? Sergeant Pepper generally regarded more highly than the poppier first albums
The Beach Boys? Pet Sounds
Nirvana? Bleach -> Nevermind