For example, I first heard Suburban Legends - Polyester, so I went to check Suburban Legends and they were just a regular ska band.
What’s your “that song was great, I wish the band did more of that” song and band?
Lana Del Rey - A&W
Lana makes great music, but none of it really matches the vibe of A&W, which is unfortunate as that song is phenomenal
Harder to Breathe by Maroon 5 got me to buy the album only to find that rest of the album was completely different.
Sugar Ray.
They have their few pop songs… But every other song and their previous stuff is totally different. I remember as a kid, listening to “Big Black Woman” after listening to one of their hits and being shocked.
7 Mary 3.
They had a hit that sounded dark and grungy. “Cumbersome”. The rest of the album was much less angsty/original/grungy. Disappointing.
“My My” on the same album had a lot of energy to it.
Water’s Edge was also on the radio at the same time and had a pretty similar sound I thought.
The best part was the demo version of cumbersome was so much better than the album version…WJRR in Orlando was instrumental in breaking them and it they played the original cumbersome all the time.
In my experience a lot of bands were one hit wonders with alternative music. Cracker low
The decemberists - here i dreamt i was a soldier
Chumbawamba - Tub thumping. I had no idea they’ve always been an anarchist sea shanty band and that song was the outlier and a total piss take. I am here for it.
same band that did the song Torturing James Hetfield.
Also, Tubthumper (the album) is entirely amazing. The popular song included
Sea shanties‽ I absolutely love Uneasy Listening and will blast English Rebel Songs, but they’re not sea shanties.
yeah, it’s called english folk or something
LOL!
Came to this comment section to say exactly that, just to discover it to be already the first comment!
But it’s kinda the reverse thing OP had in mind, I think…have you tried “The Big Issue”? it’s from the same album and is kinda the same thing, except the vocals are far more female-dominated and the song extends the melancholy a bit
That whole album has the same vibe as Tubthumping
in fact the album is called Tubthumper
the follow-up album, WYSIWYG, also has the same vibe
Yeah, they went through a few different sounds and that was their party era.
They did a few songs that have a catchy repetitive chorus to be fair. Mouthful of Shit for example. Just not quite to the extent of Tubthumping.
He drinks a whiskey drink, he drinks a vodka drink
I preferred Mary Mary and it had the same problem. No others like that that I heard.
Yeah, Fear Factory, Linchpin is a headbanging classic but the rest of their stuff just doesn’t do it for me. Maybe their Cars cover, but that’s it.
Gotye. Loved “Somebody That I Used to Know.” The rest of his music wasn’t for me.
The Beatles - Revolution 9
And good thing the rest doesn’t sound like it.
90s glam hair rock bands all had a hit ballad, despite rock tempo wall of main sound. Then there’s Extreme. “More than words” is one of the best ballads of the time. They had the glam hair look. The rest of their music is jazz fusion funk. Decent, but no real hits/bangers.
I think Extreme is one of the best examples of this where their most popular song is absolutely nothing like the rest of their music.
Also the power balland bands all had similar singing styles Motley Crue/Axel Rose screaming out tone that you knew were part of the generic rock genre. In addition to the ballads having big rock climaxes. More than words is like a Simon and Garfunkle song, even if rest of catalogue pretty loud.
Dax - Dear God.
It’s an amazing rap song about question beliefs. The rest of his music is mostly country.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/dear-god/1480917084?i=1480917085
“People” - The 1975
I learned about them from a cover of the song by one of my favourite bands, FIDLAR, and was saddened to find out that the rest of their music isn’t in the same style. Or at least, the albums it’s on is, to say it lightly, is far away in style from “People”. Imagine a single punk song on an album filled with slow electronic music. That’s that album.
Talking Heads (Once in a Lifetime) and Joy Division (Love Will Tear Us Apart)
Outkast - Hey Ya!
Mrs Robinson is the only other Outkast song I can stand.
Also Blur - Song 2, but in a good way. Song 2 is great, but their other music is very different but also great.
IIRC Song 2 was supposed to be a parody of how simple radio friendly rock music had become, then became their biggest hit.
Wasn’t Smells Like Teen Spirit also kinda like that? They have similar places in my head and I think I remember something about Cobain hating how popular that song got.
But Nirvana’s other songs were similar enough that that one didn’t come to my mind for the main question. Blur is like a different band from the one that did Song 2.
I think with Smells Like Teen Spirit is Kurt always felt that like he didn’t deserve as much praise because he considered the song to be a Pixies rip-off. It wasn’t done to poke fun at the Pixies but out of his love for them.
There’s like ten plus great Outkast songs, you need help
I might have given up too soon but the vibe is way different from Hey Ya! for the ones I did try.
Completely agree with the first part (Hey Ya is the only song of its kind, Andre3000 is a genius) but not the second part (you can’t stand their other songs?? What is wrong with you??)
B.O.B., come on!
outkast is an insane take
they have nothing but banger albums (including idlewild)
Not in the same way, but Slipknot — Vermilion, pt 2
It used to be my goto recommendation when asked for some new music, in expectation that the one asking will be surprised when checking out the rest of their music.
But as for me, I liked the rest of the songs, too, but didn’t listen to the new albums for about 10 years now
