Five Amazing Bands that Disappointed
November 29th, 2009 | by jason grishkoff | published in playlists | 26 comments
I’m sure we’ve all shared this experience: you find an absolutely amazing album, whether it be through a friend, on a blog, or by another means. Then you start to listen to it. And you listen, and listen, and keep on listening. Eventually, like it or not, you listen to the album so many times that it starts to lose your attention. And it’s often then and there that you wish you could hear something new from the artist. You wonder, “When the hell will their next album come out?”
Flash forward two years to when they release that album. Imagine your disappointment when it sucks. That is, completely blows. As far a music goes, nothing tends to get me down more than that. And so, in the following list, I will share with you five instances in which bands that I love released absolutely terrible follow-ups. I will post a song from one of the artist’s good album(s). Then I will rail on the artist’s failure to live up to expectations. No doubt, some of my choices may be controversial. But hang with me–this is all my subjective opinion. I’m not expecting you to agree. You might, though.
5. Bloc Party
What went wrong?
When Bloc Party released their debut Silent Alarm in early 2005, Drowned in Sound’s Gen Williams described the album as mature and expansive, and noted that “the autonomy, creativity and sheer, elastic beauty that spans this debut more than justifies the rapidly accelerating hype that Bloc Party are currently generating”. Indeed, I got caught up in that hype: this album blew me away.
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download: bloc party – she’s hearing voices.mp3
full album: click on album cover to support the artist
Unfortunately, Bloc Party set the standards too high with their new breed of tight, dancey UK post-punk. Though they had always been walking a fine and pretentious line, it is my opinion that they stumbled on their next two albums, A Weekend in the City and Intimacy. I’ll commend them for trying to change their sound by upping the experimental factor, but where they failed was in getting me to listen more than three times. There’s always next time, right? They’re a young group with a future ahead of them, and I maintain some faith in these guys. After all, Silent Alarm still lives on my iPod.
4. Cursive
What went wrong?
With each record that Cursive released, the band grew increasingly more amazing. Ultimately, Domestica set the stage for one of my favorite albums: The Ugly Organ. The album was remarkable for it’s storyline, and stands out in my mind as a perfect example of a “conceptual” album. It was not simply twelve of their best tracks in any particular order; rather, it was a musical piece of artwork.
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download: Cursive – Art is Hard
full album: click on album cover to support the artist
Riding the crest of the Saddlecreek movement (captained by Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes), Cursive proceeded to release three new albums, each more and more disappointing–each sounding more and more like Tim Kasher’s side project, The Good Life. Artists evolve. Unfortunately for me, Cursive evolved in a manner that I couldn’t quite stomach. Maybe it was the fact that their cellist quit. More likely, it was me: the merciless angst-ridden songs are just too much emo for me to stomach these days
3. The Mars Volta
What went wrong?
Their first full album, De-Loused in the Comatorium, was a phenomenal work of art: a unified web of speculative fiction telling the first-person story of someone in a drug-induced coma, battling the evil side of his mind. Like Cursive’s The Ugly Organ, I think it is the unique conceptual approach to this album that hooked me in: when I listen to all 10 tracks in a row, I am at high risk of becoming completely and thoroughly absorbed.
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download: the mars volta – rouette dares (the haunt of)
full album: click on album cover to support the artist
The problem with near-perfect conceptual albums is that you need to somehow follow them up with a work of equal prowess. Unfortunately, Frances the Mute didn’t quite hit the right notes. While I find Pitchfork’s assessment of the album (“a homogeneous shitheap of stream-of-consciousness turgidity”) to be a little harsh, they were strikingly predictive of the work to come: Things just kept getting more redundant and drawn out with each subsequent release.
2. Air
What went wrong?
Air was on fire. Man, were they on fire. Their debut LP, Moon Safari (still among my favorites) was followed up with huge successes, including the Virgin Suicide’s soundtrack and Talkie Walkie. Six solid albums, and they had to go and ruin it with Pocket Symphony.
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download: Air – Cherry Blossom Girl
full album: click on album cover to support the artist
I remember when I first got their new album, I couldn’t wait to play it in my car as I drove from LA down to San Diego. The first two tracks seemed to be on-par. The third track, however, was absurd. For a second I thought it might have been a joke–what on earth would possess Air to sing like that? What followed was an exploration of mood and emotion, as Air tried as best as they could to produce an atmospheric bummer. The hummability and pop of prior albums were gone. In its place was a big, heaping spoon of boring.
1. The Arcade Fire
What went wrong?
This one’s going to get me in trouble, so let’s start where we all agree: Funeral was a bloody amazing album. It opened up new musical worlds, enrapturing listeners from start to finish. Upon release in 2004, the album blew up both critically and commercially. When they bought a run-down Church in Montreal to begin recording their second album, music geeks world-wide marked their calendars in anticipation.
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download: The Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
full album: click on album cover to support the artist
Enter Neon Bible. The first time I listened to it, I hated every single second. In fact, I probably turned it off (I don’t quite remember). For me, the worst part was that half the work was out-of-tune. I’ll let Rolling Stone help me out on this one:
On Neon Bible, the reverb is so big and black that the beat becomes boom and the orchestral garnish, arranged by Chassagne and Final Fantasy’s Owen Pallett, gets pressed to the margins. The result is a huge sound that only sparkles on the edges, leaving Butler alone in the middle, railing against rising tides, falling bombs and the nonstop rain of shit on television like he’s singing from the pulpit of an empty cathedral.
I tried to listen to the album a good ten more times, both alone and with other Arcade Fire fans. Unfortunately I just couldn’t get into it: I felt they’d lost their edge, and I was closer to annoyed than entertained. Pretty disappointing, indeed.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:08 am (#)
Man, Everyon. Seems to hate on ‘Neon bible.’ It wasn’t nearly as good as ‘funeral,’ but I still liked it
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jason grishkoff Reply:
November 30th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
good to see you’re still around, bud
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November 30th, 2009 at 2:11 pm (#)
yeah i actually really like neon bible
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jason grishkoff Reply:
November 30th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Haha yeah, i hear mixed reviews on it. i think that most people in general thought it was a good album. i just thought it lacked the creative inspiration of their first release — there may have been too much thought put into it?
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December 2nd, 2009 at 1:34 am (#)
Some thoughts:
I thought cursive only had a few good songs to begin with, and all the rest were bordering a bit too much on emo for myself. There were so many amazing saddlecreek artists, but alot that fell short for me.
I love that one arcade fire ep more than anything else they’ve ever released (blanking on the title right now), but I was down with “my body is a cage”.
most disappointing new release for me was definitely arctic monkeys, I had a soft spot for them, defended their legitimacy to others, and every second of their latest album was pure garbage. it hurts me to think about it, even now.
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jason grishkoff Reply:
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Totally spot on with the arctic monkeys. i enjoyed their earlier work, but everything else was just, well, redundant.
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December 2nd, 2009 at 5:24 am (#)
if i were to create a list to that subject it would have pretty much looked like this. well, i don’t care enough about air, maybe i would have chosen maximo park at that place (“quicken the heart” is pretty lame). i did find some beauty in “neon bible”, in “mama i’m swollen” (which has some pretty nice moments indeed), even in “happy hollow” (“bad sects” is pretty good!) … but all these albums couldn’t step out of the large shadow of their predecessors.
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jason grishkoff Reply:
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:31 pm
you’re right about happy hollow. it definitely had some good tracks, but as it was SUCH an anticipated follow-up to the ugly organ (considering that cursive had broken up!), i was really really let down. )-:
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December 2nd, 2009 at 5:42 am (#)
Interesting list, although I don’t quite agree with some of it…
First off I never really listened to Cursive, so I can’t comment on that one but I’ll take your word for it.
Secondly, although Bloc party’s more recent albums don’t quite live up to silent alarm they are still damn fine albums that I very much enjoy in their own right. I’m not sure it’s fair to put them on a disappointed list.
Plenty of bands fall off after awesome debuts though – I’ve always imagined that when they make their first album they are friends working for an age touring and gigging, perfecting their songs and finding which ones work with an audience. Their second in more of a sit down and write an album in a set time and often seems more manufactured for that reason.
Plenty of bands do disappoint after impressive debuts though. Others that come to mind: The Kills, Gomez, Finley quaye, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Strokes
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jason grishkoff Reply:
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:34 pm
i’ll agree: a lot of it has to do with the inspiration and new sound that can come when a band first gets together. hell, in all likeliness, at least two of those members have been putting together songs for 10 years that they have been dying to finally play with a good band. come the second album, the ideas are running a little low, there’s pressure to live up to prior levels, and well, it ends up sounding more manufactured. i think it’s often the bands that can make it through that phase and produce a second good (if not better album) that end up making a mark.
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December 2nd, 2009 at 10:48 am (#)
De hecho, cursive es mucho menos conocido que los otros artistas. Bloc party, que pena, pero arcade fire? si a mi me gusto neon bible! tal vez hay algun otro grupo que debe estar en esta lista?
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Joe A Reply:
January 27th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Por que escribes en espanol en este blog????….vas a confundir a todos los lectores que hablan ingles…. acaso estas ejercitando tus musculos poliglotas??…..si es asi/… por que entonces mejor no abrimos un blog en el cual podamos dar todas nuestras opiniones en todos los idiomas???….. por ahora…mantengamoslo en nuestro idioma vernaculo.
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Jess Reply:
January 27th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Porque puedo, Joe! =)
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December 2nd, 2009 at 7:47 pm (#)
listened to a random song off of neon bible today, “windowsill” i think, not bad! I do remember being waaaaay to excited before i listened to the album for the first time. I think Mars Volta have rebounded a bit with their last 2 albums, bedlam in goliath and octahedron.
Also, i really liked the cold war kids first album, didn’t listen to the second more than twice. I cant even explain why. Akron/family’s first three albums are among my favorites, “love is simple” especially. While I like a few cuts off their most recent album it is definitely a let down for me, mostly due to the loss of orginal member/vocalist Ryan Vanderhoof. baaaah so dissapointing!
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robert Reply:
December 3rd, 2009 at 6:20 am
“windowsill” exactly represents my problem with “neon bible”: not quite as good, not quite as intense as the “funeral” songs, but stuffed with an epic production that simulates grandeur. more pomp, less substance.
however, overall it’s still very good, has some really great songs, it just that they have precursors that literally knocked me off my socks.
plus, i know exactly what you mean by being too excited listening to it. with expectations sky high an album simply can not catch you off guard.
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December 3rd, 2009 at 1:52 am (#)
i don’t know about this list.
1. silent alarm was a mid-decade masterpiece, no doubt. and fuck did buddy ever get obnoxious with some of the lyrics and vocals, like there are some stinkers there (“uniform”, like wtf). but there was some pretty nice instances of progress, like i think a “waiting for the 7h18″ represents a big step forward, and the gay hooky radio rock thing in “i still remember” is pretty cool. the new record, sure it’s pretty bad in parts, but “talons”! and of course, “ion square” is imo the best thing they’ve ever done, like a grown-up version of “this modern love”.
2. cursive was never all that good, but certainly they got more bland and banal.
3. pass.
4. yeah, what did happen to air anyway? that new record was a humongous piece of shit, just a disaster. french bands are pretty inconsistent, really, i blame it on the breadth of their musical interests. “yeah, i listen to free jazz, elvis presley, ganster rap, britney spears, and arcade fire!”
5. arcade fire. i think it ought to be mandatory for everyone to really dispassionately re-listen to these two albums. neon bible is two years more mature on every mark, even the lyrics, which have evolved from that annoying bright eyes solipsism to those (equally annoying?) ~y2k wto riots political themes. the preacher critique surely applies in equal measures to both records, but it’s just that when an indie dude is wailing abstractly about depression it’s less obvious that when he’s wailing abstractly about early twenties political awareness. by the way, according to radio3, arcade fire’s new record is out in may of next year, so you can pick this one up then. judging by his creative arc, he’ll probably be up to singing about nietzche or schopenhauer something along those lines.
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jason grishkoff Reply:
December 13th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
i guess cursive had a soft spot in my heart through high school. general feedback seems to be that no one liked them much, period.
and my god, i can’t help but think you’re spot on with that arcade fire assessment!
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December 3rd, 2009 at 9:01 pm (#)
[...] with electronica and german krautrock was mindnumbing. As I recently mentioned in my recent post, Five Amazing Bands that Disappointed, it can be really hard for a band to follow up a successful album with another one. Fortunately for [...]
December 13th, 2009 at 10:11 pm (#)
Okay jason, some of this i’m hearing you on. bloc party really did sink like a stone after the debut, and i was always mystified about the admiration for neon bible. cursive was always pretty horrible, so there’s no real drop off there for me. same goes for mars volta – they just leave me cold.
this bit about air though, this i have to take exception to: “The third track, however, was absurd. For a second I thought it might have been a joke–what on earth would possess Air to sing like that?”
that’s jarvis fucking cocker on the 3rd track! jarvis has more cool in his pinkie than all of us bloggers put together. he is unassailable.
i don’t really get the hate for pocket symphony on the whole. it’s very chill, admittedly, and not quite on the level of walkie talkie or 10,000hz legend but still solid in my book.
and jesus, did tim just claim that ‘no wow’ was disappointing?!? tim, you’ve lost your marbles. also, ‘take them on, on your own’ is much better than people allow for, and ‘room on fire’ is the only other strokes record i can even tolerate beyond the first. it’s like you kids are taking crazy pills!
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jason grishkoff Reply:
December 13th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
alright, so i’ll admit: i had to go look up who jarvis cocker was. right after doing that, i had to go and watch his stage invasion of the michael jackson show. so i’ll give you this: he’s a cool fucking bloke. however, i still don’t like the track one bit — it completely turned me off the album. perhaps i’m just uncultured (-:
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sean Reply:
December 13th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
well if you don’t dig his voice i’d stear clear of pulp, then.
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December 13th, 2009 at 11:35 pm (#)
i think this is exactly what’s going to happen to vampire weekend. killer first album that made me jump around the living room like a teeny bopper. If ‘horchata’ is any indication i think they might be done for.
also, mad props on cursive! ‘art is hard’ is one of my favorite songs off that album. writs-slitting music will always hold a special place in the emo corner of my heart.
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December 31st, 2009 at 3:01 pm (#)
I love Arcade Fire.
Friends I know say they like Neon Bible more than Funeral.
Probably in Neon Bible they have bigger production in sound.
I agree with the list minus Arcade Fire being #1
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Never heard of Cursive.
Bloc Party and Mars Volta I can see being disappointing.
Air, I don’t know if it was in Talkie Walkie.
My favorite track on it is Venus.
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January 26th, 2010 at 8:57 am (#)
man, neon bible was titty sprinkles. i guess, to each their own as they say. maybe if you saw them play these songs love you would change your mind. i saw them play neon bible almost in its entirety in an old theatre in chicago and it melted my face clean off. i thought it was about as solid a sophomore album as it gets.
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January 28th, 2010 at 5:51 pm (#)
Damn it! I love Arcade Fire, but I didn’t listen to Neon Bible, yet, because I wanted to save it for later. (when music died or something)
But now you said it sucked
Funeral is one of the best albums ever!
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March 13th, 2010 at 2:08 am (#)
Agree with Bloc Party and unfortunately with Mars Volta. But with a grain of salt, both of these bands have fallen short of their original glory, but have produced sounds capable of listen. It’s hard, especially in this new-every-moment era, to live up to the initial shock and awe that a new band brings to the musical table. While I agree that both bands have fallen short of their initial glory, their sophomoric and beyond efforts are not for naught- their albums have encapsulated sounds that I deem listen worthy. Given the calendar date and pace of innovation, I’d say both have succeeded at creating sounds that, while not the complete package, deliver executions that should not be shunned.
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