Meh debut album, uphill afterwards

Counterpoint to that other thread

Discuss musicians who released albums ranging from aight to meh to supahshit before moving on to bigger & better things. Maybe they needed time to hone their craft, maybe they rushed the first album, maybe they went for years unsuccessfully trying to do one thing before trying something totally different & nailing it.

Of course lots of musicians improve there skills over time, so it's probably better to focus more on cases of "whoa where did that come from" than slight gradual improvement.

For me:

-Tom Waits. He didn't go crazy until like a decade into his career

-Beach Boys going from surfrock to Pet Sounds

I'm drawing a blank right now but I know I had more

Radiohead and Beck are two notable ones.

Meh worthy debuts, uphill afterwards (well, kinda):

Mobb Deep – Juvenile Hell (downhill again after Hell On Earth)

Talk Talk - The Party's Over

Gang Starr - No More Mr. Nice Guy

Susumu Yokota - The Frankfurt-Tokyo Connection (that's his debut, right?)

None these artists has had weak albums for me, but their later stuff has just been better. So they are not exactly "meh". But anyway:

Machinedrum - Now You Know

Jetone (later Tim Hecker)

Caribou – The Milk Of Human Kindness

Four Tet – Dialogue

Biosphere - Microgravity (N-Plants kind of meh)

Cujo (later Amon Tobin) (ISAM was also a bit meh)

chris clark - clarence park

My Bloody Valentine

Blur

The Beatles

The Knife

Wilco

Depeche Mode

  On 2/3/2012 at 8:12 PM, Gocab said:

chris clark - clarence park

I don't agree with that.

Body Riddle might be his best effort. But Clarence Park is one of Clark's best albums in my opinion.

Autechre

  On 2/3/2012 at 8:28 PM, couch said:

Autechre

Yea I figured that would happen. rofl

But I mean like...you can see how their style developed. Especially in the first 5 albums. It's at it's most basic on Incubala of course.

  On 2/3/2012 at 8:40 PM, couch said:

Yea I figured that would happen. rofl

 

 

But I mean like...you can see how their style developed. Especially in the first 5 albums. It's at it's most basic on Incubala of course.

Well.. They've never really made a bad album (phanboi comment). So it could end up as a very very long discussion, and one there's probably already been a million times before.

But Incunabula is probably my favorite of theirs. And I don't care if Rob & Sean has called it "cheesy" themselves. I love that album.

Chris Clark was also the first to spring to mind for me, but i don't know that each album has been a steady improvement. Close to it, for sure. Wilco, Beatles and Tom Waits are all close to steadily improving throughout their careers. Hmm... Meshuggah and Merzbow perhaps. Oh, and Nick Cave.

*edit: Nirvana, Elliott Smith.

I don't really think any of these artists have released mediocre albums, save maybe Chris Clark's debut.

Autechre

Aphex Twin

But you can get where I'm coming from though right? (@ Dropp)

dont hate me :(

  On 2/3/2012 at 9:03 PM, couch said:

But you can get where I'm coming from though right? (@ Dropp)

 

 

 

dont hate me :(

Sure I can. Choosing which is better: early ae, mid ae or late ae. That's a tough one, I love it all. And i'm sure most users here om watmm feels the same.

But it just happens to be early Auchre that's slightly better to me

Goddamnit I feel like such a fanboy right now

Cool, fwiw Autechre is my favorite of our featured artists.

  On 2/3/2012 at 8:28 PM, couch said:

Autechre

I'm not a tru fan but I agree, they didn't really get good until untilted (save a few tracks on LP5).

  On 2/3/2012 at 9:19 PM, chimera slot mom said:

  On 2/3/2012 at 8:28 PM, couch said:

Autechre

 

I'm not a tru fan but I agree, they didn't really get good until untilted (save a few tracks on LP5).

Wouldn't agree. My favourites are Confield and Draft 7.30, closely followed by Tri Repetae. Tracks like Parhelic Triangle, Uviol, Surripere and V-Proc are in my opinion the pinnacles of their career.

Perhaps my problem with Incunabala is when I put it on I think "oh sweet, mellow early 90s techno with a slight srs bsns vibe to it". But anything afterwards I think "fuck yea Autechre!"

I know it's probably not a cool thing to say round these parts, but: Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective.

And also, Autechre's best releases in order from amazing to great go: Confield, Draft 7.30, Gantz Graf, Untilted, and then the rest is up for debate.

Lol at these Autechre posts! Each to their own though, but I can't get involved with this thread now.

^Of course Autechre's involvement in this thread was inevitable. It's Watmm for christ sake.

/last post

lool, my bad. :( I like your gifs tho.

Well I was actually just using that post as an excuse to use that gif, lol.

/last post(2)

David Bowie

R.E.M. needs a thread meh to great to meh...or

Flying Lotus (arguably) and Boards of Canada, if you start with Twoism

bob dylan