Re: Only one album needed

My teenage daughter has recently gotten into older music and has started borrowing some of my vinyl. I gave her my copy of Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road to borrow, and when I went to pull out the other EJ records I own...they weren't there! I must have gotten rid of them at some point. Then the thought occurred to me that GYBR is the ONLY Elton John record I really want or need. Doesn't mean I don't like other songs of his, just that I have no desire to own additional albums.

Do any of you feel this way about an artist, especially one with a large discography, for whom there is only one album you want or need? Others for me:

Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
Rush - Signals
The Pretenders - debut

Well, if we are talking Elton John I would definitely miss "Tumbleweed Connection", "Honky Chateau" and "Rock of the Westies" so I would not be as aggressive as you in paring down my collection.

With the exception of Tom Waits, I wouldn't narrow any of those artists down to just one album.

OK, great!

So, are there any artists that--for you--you are OK with only having one?

(The idea wasn't to choose from my list, but find out what the case is for others.)

I'm gonna assume naming a greatest hits or comp is violating the spirit of the question. And I'll count only artists for which I've actually chosen to own only one, as opposed to thinking, "I could really pare that guy down to one album."

Angel Witch - s/t
Diamond Head - Lightning to the Nations
(I'd take either of these over Iron Maiden any day, but I can't be arsed to go any further into their catalogs)
FM - Black Noise (recently got another of this Canadian prog trio's albums called City of Fear, but it was fucking terrible - it went into the discard pile the same day I got it)
De La Soul - 3 Feet High & Rising
the Figgs - Low-Fi at Society High

Taking a quick glance at my CDs (rather than the vinyl, which is spine out and more effort to go through with my aging eyes), it looks like I have more twosomes than singles. Like I have two Explosions in the Sky albums, and don't feel that I need anymore. Two Spiritualized albums. Two Wishbone Ash albums. Two albums by various second-tier 70s soul/funk bands who made a million albums (Mass Production, Brass Construction, Con Funk Shun, Rose Royce, etc.). Guess I like to take shallow dives for some folks, rather than deep ones.

I’ve put some thought into this thread... it’s a good topic! I agree that Greatest hits albums are cheating (my $1 Seals & Crofts greatest hits lp is likely all I need by them).

I’m a collector. Constantly looking to build the library. Not at all content to have everything through Spotify, etc. I’m reminded of this article about “Lester Bangs’ basement”HERE.
Bangs’ goal was to have every released album in his cellar... and now he theoretically could have it in his pocket.

Zoo, I seriously wish I shared your spartan approach to your music collection.

But I can’t think of ANY artist that I’d be content to own only one album by. It starts that way, of course. In junior high I told myself I hated Rush. Then I bought a cheap copy of Moving Pictures because it was so familiar to me. Figured that would be it. Then I wanted Signals. Then Power Windows. Then 2112.... now I pretty much own all of ‘em up through the early 90s.

I guess I figure if lightning struck once for a band, it likely happened again... somewhere in their collection.

The very first album that came to mind for me was What's the Story Morning Glory by Oasis. The first album has a couple of good cuts but meh, the second one has everything I need. It is crazy but I have hardly even listened to their other releases, don't even own anything after Glory.

I am TOTALLY with Zoo one "The Pretenders." I liked the US EP that followed, because it had the great B-side "Cuban Slide," but when I my spouse got a copy of "The Singles" I marveled at how uninteresting the stuff after album one was. I could barely listen to it all the way through.

And I'm with Mr. Toland on FM's epic "Black Noise." It's my absolute favorite late Prog album that I've never tired of for 43 years. It was the first album I bought when I got a stereo the year of its release. But when I got the next album I saw, "City Of Fear," it was completely uninteresting. Losing Nash The Slash [r.i.p.] was fatal to that band.

But the first thing that popped into my mind on this topic was The Pretenders. The quintessential "the one to have when you're only having one" band.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2021 09:31AM by Post-Punk Monk.

This was tough for me, because like Bip, I'm a collector at heart. But looking through my collection, I took a different mental approach: If I had to take just one album from each artist with me into exile, which one would it be? The answers that came more easily were:

Duran Duran – Rio
AC/DC – Highway to Hell
Aerosmith – Rocks
Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Oasis – What's the Story, Morning Glory?
Descendents – I Don't Want to Grow Up
Brian Eno – Here Come the Warm Jets
Green Day – Dookie
Nada Surf – Lucky
Van Morrison – Moondance
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Exodus
Nirvana – Nevermind (that was easy)
Old 97s – Fight Songs
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Damn the Torpedoes
Radiohead – The Bends
The Psychedelic Furs – Forever Now
Spoon – Gimme Fiction
Weezer ("The Blue Album")

I could've added a few others to this list, but we're talking about artists who just have too many good songs sprawled across their respective catalogs. (Allowing for greatest hits comps would make the choice a heck of a lot easier, for a lot of those artists.) For some other artists, the selection is just too hard to narrow down. (If you twisted my arm to choose between The Soft Bulletin or Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, I'd be crying and screaming more from struggling to make the choice than from the arm-twisting.) As my wife said, when viewing the ridiculous array of CD titles for sale at Joe "King" Carrasco's merch booth, "I guess you don't need any of them unless you need all of them."

Delvin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This was tough for me, because like Bip, I'm a collector at heart. But looking through my collection, I took a different mental approach: If
> I had to take just one album from each artist with me into exile, which one would it be?

This would be easy for me, but ONLY for the artists I listed in the original post...since I only care to have one! But if you're going to make me choose between This Year's Model or Get Happy, or Vienna or Rage in Eden, that's too hard to contemplate.

The B-52's - Bouncing Off The Satellites
The Cramps - Songs The Lord Taught Us
Meat Puppets - Up On The Sun
Green Day - Kerplunk
Husker Du - Zen Arcade
Let's Active - Cypress
R.E.M. - Dead Letter Office
U2 - The Joshua Tree
XTC - Skylarking

Oh, and how could I forget:

Negativland - Helter Stupid
Circle Jerks - Wild In The Streets

IHeartTP Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The B-52's - Bouncing Off The Satellites

> R.E.M. - Dead Letter Office

Interesting choices for sure! Considering Dead Letter Office is an odds and ends collection, I'm wondering why you hold it in such high esteem?

zoo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> IHeartTP Wrote:
> -------------------------------------------------------
> > The B-52's - Bouncing Off The Satellites
>
> > R.E.M. - Dead Letter Office
>
> Interesting choices for sure! Considering Dead
> Letter Office is an odds and ends collection,
> I'm wondering why you hold it It such high esteem?

For the one-album-only rule, that's the REM album that's most characteristic (relatively speaking, anyway) of pre-major REM. For album proper, probably "Reckoning" if comps are cheating - and that choice might have been.

Spoons "Arias & Symphonies"
I loved this album, all of it, and so I started tracking down their other releases. This wasn't easy in the US at the time as the other releases were Canada-only. Well, I should not have spent the effort. "Arias & Symphonies" is a wonderful anomaly in the band's discography, and the only album I need.
P.S. They came out of dormancy in 2019 and released a new album which isn't half bad, so I'm excluding that one from the observation, I was thinking of their 20th century output.

mathmandan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Spoons "Arias & Symphonies"
> I loved this album, all of it, and so I started
> tracking down their other releases. This wasn't
> easy in the US at the time as the other releases
> were Canada-only. Well, I should not have spent
> the effort. "Arias & Symphonies" is a wonderful
> anomaly in the band's discography, and the only
> album I need.
> P.S. They came out of dormancy in 2019 and
> released a new album which isn't half bad, so I'm
> excluding that one from the observation, I was
> thinking of their 20th century output.
While I like other Spoons albums I have, it's true that "Arias + Symphonies" is simply incredible. The best Canadian album, ever, in my opinion. And high on the list of best album out of North America for me. We might have to lay that one at the feet of John Punter, who produced.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2021 09:16AM by Post-Punk Monk.

I'm certain there are many many more than this, but off the top of my head:

*Fleetwood Mac - Rumours. Controversial, perhaps. I absolutely love that record, but I feel no need to own any other Fleetwood Mac.
*Material Issue -Destination Universe. Good enough, but doesn't prompt me to buy more.
*The Tragically Hip - Road Apples. Some great tunes, but this is enough.
*Doug and the Slugs - Cognac and Bologna.
*Laibach - Let it Be.
*Elvis Hitler - Disgraceland.

It’s funny as I read this thread I find myself yelling at all of you. You crazy crazy fools.

I want to ring all of your doorbells with a pile of records and a portable turntable under my arm (maybe haul them around with a little red wagon) and show you how wrong you are, and convince you that you need more...more...MORE!!!

Don’t you want to cram your limited living space full of potential listening delight? Am I the only SANE one here??

Bip Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Don’t you want to cram your limited living space
> full of potential listening delight?


Of course I do (and I have and continue to do so)! Wanting to cram my living space full of records and tapes and cds doesn't mean I want all such items. Surely there is at least one recording somewhere that you don't want to own, isn't there?

Bip Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> I want to ring all of your doorbells with a pile
> e of records and a portable turntable under my arm
> (maybe haul them around with a little red wagon)
> and show you how wrong you are, and
> convince you that you need more...more...MORE!!!
>

Oh, I do want more! Just not more of Elton John, The Pretenders, Alice Cooper, etc. Because I only need one from them!

Actual, honest-to-God examples of great records by artists from whom I own only a single proper album (not compilations):

Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Robyn, Body Talk
Prefab Sprout, From Langley Park to Memphis

Fair enough, you like what you like and I'm certain lots of people would quibble with my list. For the record, though, if you haven't heard Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen (released in the US as Two Wheels Good), I commend it to your attention, for what it's worth (you don't know me!). More idiosyncratically, I also looooove their record Swoon.

Meatloaf - Bat Out Of Hell
Band Of Horses - Infinite Arms
Avett Brothers - I and Love and You
Stevie Nicks - Belladonna

> Don’t you want to cram your limited living space full of
> potential listening delight? Am I the only SANE one here??

Yes, I do ... but I wouldn't expect anyone to take that fact as evidence of my sanity.

Just heard "She Sells Sanctuary" on the radio and was going to come here to say that Love is the only album anyone needs to own by the Cult, then remembered I don't even own a copy of that and don't feel especially impoverished in my soul for it. So never mind, I guess.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2021 06:01AM by breno.