Bands That Were Good But Never Made a Great Album

[Soot and Stars]

What's a band that you thought had a good sound, plenty of talent and overall potential but never made an actual album you enjoyed?

 

[Cosmic Harmony]

The only group that comes to mind off the top of my head is Quiet Riot outside the "Metal Health" album. They had a lot more potential than that one album but it just never went anywhere.

 

[The Beatles]

The Monkees

 

[Soot and Stars]

IMO, Incubus has some good tracks but never made an album that I enjoyed in it's entirety!

 

[FretBuzz]

Well, there a re a couple of examples that come to mind.

There was a local band called the Roys here in Atlanta in the early 80s. They were perhaps the best band here for a few years. They got a record deal, and cut an album...but the label went out of business before they could release it. The album got tied up in some kind of legal limbo hell and never was released...and the band broke up shortly after that.

There were two English 'Mod' bands in the 1960s who have a small devoted cult following today....the Creation and the Attack. Neither band ever recorded an album though, just a handful of singles for each band.

I know that there are lots of Asia fans out there, but IMO they never released a good album based on all the amazing talent in that band. When they started they had one of the world's greatest rock guitarists at the time (Steve Howe), one of the best drummers (Carl Palmer), plus they had the excellent John Wetton on vocals - however the band's musical direction was very slick and commercial, and didn't utilize the incredible technical ability of its members at all.

 

[aeroplane]

For me, the answer is most definitely UFO and Uriah Heep. At least pre-1980's. They are two of the few veteran rock bands that a lot of casual rock listeners have never heard of and will ask you who they are if you bring them up.

During the 80's, I would probably say the band Kix. They were together for over a dozen years, released six studio albums, were played on MTV regularly, were played on radio regularly, were covered by the magazines regularly, toured constantly and everybody who was into the "hair band" era seemed to know who they were. But nobody ever talked about an individual album that really defined them and they never had anything resembling a hit album. As a result, their highest selling album barely cleared half a million copies.

In the 1990's, the band Live was selling a lot of albums each time out and I never really knew why.

 

[Soot and Stars]

For me, the answer is most definitely UFO and Uriah Heep. At least pre-1980's. They are two of the few veteran rock bands that a lot of casual rock listeners have never heard of and will ask you who they are if you bring them up.

During the 80's, I would probably say the band Kix. They were together for over a dozen years, released six studio albums, were played on MTV regularly, were played on radio regularly, were covered by the magazines regularly, toured constantly and everybody who was into the "hair band" era seemed to know who they were. But nobody ever talked about an individual album that really defined them and they never had anything resembling a hit album. As a result, their highest selling album barely cleared half a million copies.

In the 1990's, the band Live was selling a lot of albums each time out and I never really knew why.

I love Live myself dude and I think they really stood out from the crop of grunge bands they came out with. I never understood the distaste for them personally but I guess we'd have to agree to disagree on that one!

 

[aeroplane]

I love Live myself dude and I think they really stood out from the crop of grunge bands they came out with. I never understood the distaste for them personally but I guess we'd have to agree to disagree on that one!

Well since you referred me to these forums and all, if I ever come across any Live albums in my travels (I don't see them very often used), I will humbly take your advice and give them another chance in case I missed something.

 

[Soot and Stars]

Well since you referred me to these forums and all, if I ever come across any Live albums in my travels (I don't see them very often used), I will humbly take your advice and give them another chance in case I missed something.

What albums have you heard that might have given you an initial distaste for the band. For example, an album like the follow up to their breakthrough Throwing Copper, Secret Samahdi could throw anyone off the trail with it's weirdness!

 

[Fisha]

Bowling for soup, undermined their good songs by filling up the albums with too much novelty stuff