Everyone knows what a one-hit wonder is – they sell the same damn album every couple years with the same old tired songs. (I’ll give you a real list at the conclusion of the list.) But what about the guys who creep in unannounced, release an exceptional album and then fade away into the background.
The one album wonder is a more curious beast, they don’t simply strike it lucky once with a hook or chorus, but create an entire album of quality, then for various reasons never manage to follow it up.
Some learn to love the fame and high life too much and can never recapture the magic (Urge Overkill – who apparently over-indulged and did nothing but fight among themselves once they finally hit big), others choose babies over $ (Lauren Hill – though to be fair her one album created more than enough $ to take a break), some albums are the result of side-projects or early efforts where key members continued on to greater success (Disposable Heroes, Black Star, Lovage) and most are simply unfortunate enough to release great albums that fail to find a market (Ruby, Killer Mike, Cannibal Ox, Baby Namboos), and in the case of one Marvin Young AKA Young MC, the man was simply too nice to remain on top when all around was starting on the botches and hos.
In any case here are ten albums that remain in high rotation from my collection despite most of the artists not being heard from again.
Killer Mike - Monster
Killer Mike is the rarest of commodities, an angry rapper who makes angry music that is actually good. Let’s face it 90% of so called ‘gangsta’ rap is empty posturing by cartoonish idiots purpose built to suit an image that they could never back up. Killer Mike was – at least for one excellent album – legitimately aggressive and unfortunately underrated and under-acknowledged by the music buying public.
Introduced to the world through a couple guest appearances on Outkast tracks including The Whole World and Snappin’ and Trappin’ (which contains one of my favourite lines ever, when Big Boi spits the following poetic masterwork “Killer Mike calm down son, things gonna get a little crazy. Ol’ girl might yell rape G, might as well give her a throat baby”. Beautiful isn’t it?), Killer Mike seemingly came and went.
I bought Monster off ebay purely on the strength of the Outkast connection, and only because it was so cheap. Turns out to be one of the better impulse purchase that I have made in recent years.
Monster starts angry with the excellent but brief ‘Monster’ which ends with some random skank screeching “You better watch out for me”, which is more oddly amusing than ominous. Then the album continues with solid tracks ‘Akshon’, ‘Rap is Dead’, ‘Home of the Brave’ and the hooky but still OK ‘A.D.I.D.A.S.’.
Killer Mike is a reasonable rapper, he loves to yell his choruses and on almost every song tries to punctuate at least one verse with either a yelled profanity or threat (sometimes backed up with a gunshot… oooooh scary). Even now as I trawl my eyes down the track list I am humming along to some of the choruses and wondering why Killer Mike hasn’t made anything even remotely this good since. The fact is he actually released two more albums “I pledge alliegance to the Grind parts 1 & 2, both of which totally sucked, in fact I bought both on ebay also in a package deal, which I guess must count as the opposite of Monster, an impulse purchase that I now totally regret.
That doesn’t cheapen the impact of his accomplished and unexpected debut. Monster is consistently Good and occasionally Excellent, and while it doesn’t boast any songs that demand attention it is all solid enough to wonder why he hasn’t been able to produce anything of note since.
Monster is definitely more aggro than Outkast and in truth is quite different to their output, but I wholeheartedly suggest that you give it a listen if you like your Wu-Tang or the like.
Nathaniel Merriweather - Lovage, Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By
I am not sure how ‘jokey’ this was all supposed to be or indeed how it all came together. I know the mastermind behind it Dan the Automator is more a producer than creative genius. But if Lovage is truly a one note joke album it bests even Tenacious D’s brilliant debut by having no less than 6 classic tunes that are worthwhile even if they aren’t meant to be anything more than tongue in cheek filler.
Mike Patton takes a break from being angry and mildly insane to half whisper, half growl lyrics that alternate between cheesy and almost menacing, and Jennifer Charles is both sickly sweet and devilishly sexy, coming off as part ingénue, part torch singer on her tracks. I am amazed that she hasn’t managed to create something worth more attention, as her tracks are immensely entertaining and her voice is eminently listenable.
The tone of the album is quite lounge, most of the songs feature seductive – and occasionally saucy – lyrics over languid beats with a myriad of cinema dialogue samples that seem to set the time period in the 50s and 60s. Just when you think that the gimmick is done a new killer song comes out and ensures you remain involved for at least a few more minutes. Highlights include Strangers on a Train, Stroker Ace and Sex (I’m a) where Charles and Patton trade lines that become increasingly passionate, leading to Charles eliciting some pretty damn sexy grunts and gasps near the conclusion… of the song.
The joke songs are joke songs, nothing too memorable or amazing aside from perhaps Herbs, Good Hygiene & Socks where (I think) Afrika Bambaataa extols the virtues of basic personal maintenance in a more bizarre than practical manner.
I could have very easily put either Deltron 3030 or Handsome Boy Modelling School in here (HBMS for the sublime Sunshine), but where both of those albums sounded like jam sessions and one off collaborations to create quality but discordant tracks, Lovage works well as an album, in fact if you excised the jokey songs and toned down the lyrics somewhat I can imagine Norah Jones (or similar) selling thirteen squillion copies of the resultant album to bored housewives everywhere.
Ruby - Salt Peter
OK Ruby actually had two albums and a couple of remix EPs, but the second album blew dog and was so different to the first – read: bad – that they would have been better served staying a one album wonder and retaining the mystery. To be frank all the signs are there that this could all fall in a heap, as the uniformity of the bulk of the tracks is the album’s strength and when they veer from that formula – which they did on every track on the boring and bland second album – the results are… less successful.
But Salt Peter is now 15 years on and remains in my rotation, and at least once a year I drag it out when home alone and crank the volume to remember music used to be good and exciting, rather than all lank-emo-haired and depressing.
Ruby were basically a Scottish lead singer who made no apologies for her accent and a producer who favoured loud percussion… and repetitive choruses backed by loud percussion.
Salt Peter is not really trip-hop, not really punk, not really industrial and I don’t know what “alternative” even means, but it does contain elements of all these, a couple of songs even seem to harken back to 80s Prince in some of the lyrics and the cadence of the choruses.
The lead singer Lesley Rankine has a pretty perverse way with words, with pseudo sexual language mixed in with references to various dark and sarcastic verbal imagery. Hoops even has a cool singalong chorus (more or less) with the cheery line “Shit and the shovel, the ass-lick and the grovel” – and who says romance is dead?
As mentioned the best songs adhere to the formula: bouncy bass with a little guitar before at some point, usually the chorus, the volume goes up a few notches with guitar and drums being hammered, and Rankine either wailing or shrilly floating over the top of it all.
The absence of a straight up dud track is admirable for a first album, but you could argue that the final dreamy 7 odd minute soundscape that closes the album is filler or rubbish. By that stage though you’ve had six bona fide great tracks and a few decent ones, I would think that you’d be happy enough to let an extended outro slide.
Black Star - Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star
Well the title of the album tells you who they are, but even then a lot of people haven’t heard of Talib Kweli. Mos Def on the other hand is a hip-hop staple, has guested on dozens of albums, released more than a few of his own, acted in films and appeared quite a few times on Chappelle’s Show a few years back.
He raps in English and Spanish, seems very intelligent and capable of remarkable phrasing, he is also socially conscious… *SIGH* what a guy!
But in reality Mos Def is also extremely underwhelming, lacks consistency and has never released a truly good album – let alone a great one – in fact I’d go as far as to say his two compilation albums featuring guest appearances, remixes and alternate versions of almost 100 songs spread over 6 discs represents far and away his best work. Disappointing as someone so gifted and obviously capable keeps on piss-farting around and dabbling and experimenting all over the shop rather than fine tuning and mastering what he is obviously good at.
Even Outkast hung around and released 4 classic albums before getting a little clever for themselves and getting the acting bug. Ahhh “Who’s your caddy?”, what a film that was…
Back to Black Star, this album works because Mos Def elevates Talib Kweli, and Kweli obviously was able to focus Mos for time enough to create a solid, consistent and richly textured album. There are no wahay stand out tracks that you simply must here, but there aren’t any duds either, and even an average track with these two superior MCs is better than 90% of what passes for hip hop nowadays.
The Black Star side project album is far better when listened to in its entirety, but half a dozen tracks made it through the ipod screening process and are all good songs in their own right. While not “Great”, the album will have to settle for Very Good, no shame there.
While there is no Casa Bey or Get By among the dozen or so songs, it is the unfortunate truth that this represents the artistic peaks for both artists involved, and I hope that in the future they listen to it and either pull their finger out and really put in the yards with their solo careers, or get back together for another Black Star project.
Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein
Several years ago I bought a hell of a lot more CDs, sometimes I’d buy stuff on the strength of one song that I knew, others because the artist was name checked by someone I already liked eg De La Soul CDs have lead me to many other purchases, they have so many guest vocalists and collaborations that occasionally one would impress me enough to check them out – hence the presence of Tribe, Jazzyfatnastees, Mos Def and many others in the racks.
Once I even bought a CD based upon someone recommending them on Rage, Maybe 6 years ago Andre 3000 of Outkast guest programmed Rage and played I Hate to say I told you so by The Hives, on the strength of Andre’s word and one impressive (OK Great) track, I have since bought every album they have made and now look forward to the new one.
Only once though have I bought an album with no advance knowledge and no credible recommendation. When I first got the internet at home in (I’m guessing) 2001, we had dial up which was sloooowwwww. Anyway I was doing some incredibly slow surfing and I think was on amazon.com for the first time clicking away inanely yet happily, one of the links was along the lines of “Guys who bought this also liked…” and I followed it through to Cannibal Ox. Now a decade or so on I’m pretty sure the name hooked me in…
Anyway one Customer Review started with “It’s like egg-on-bun, it shouldn’t work, it sounds awkward but it’s just right.” Not having any idea what the hell that meant – egg-on-bun still sounds horrible and I am yet to try that – me and TOG started describing almost everything for the next month as “it’s like egg-on-bun” despite the fact neither really knew what we were saying.
Get to the point? OK a few weeks later in the CD shop I saw Cannibal Ox – The Cold Vein on the shelf, chuckled, made four or five silent egg-on-bun jokes and said what the hell and bought it.
The Cold Vein might not be the best album on this list, but it is the most unique, and ten years on there is still nothing that is really like this.
Cannibal Ox are two NYC rappers and a producer named El-P. The rappers Vast Aire and Vordul Mega are perfectly adequate and at times sharp and funny, but what separates this album from all others in my 500+ collection is the production. I’ll run out of adjectives but orchestral, oppressive, industrial, ominous and cluttered spring to mind, the album lacks the skits and filler of most hip-hop, and samples are kept to short spoken intros (Yay The Prophecy!), or are mixed and chopped up to be unrecognisable.
15 tracks. Zero duds. No “you gotta hear this NOW!” songs but at least 6 that get the 4* treatment on the ipod. The music sounds dangerous and the MCs are profane, witty and at times similarly dark. This is the soundtrack to the post-apocalypse. I’ve heard various MCs go on about how they ain’t “commercial” before the blonde back up singer with big tits steps in – which De La Soul hilariously lampooned on one of the AOI albums – but you’ll go a long way before you find an album as deliberately non-conforming as this one, an even longer way before you’ll find one this good.
This album reminds me of a line from Near Dark, when the (horny) young human guy says to his vampire “prey” “I’ve never met anyone like you before” and she immediately replies “No you’ve never met anyone like me before”.
Aside from an El-P solo album which was equally dense musically but lacked the vocals – there is nothing like Cannibal Ox in my collection, if you like experimental – but still great – hip-hop you could do a lot worse than picking this up…
You could eat egg-on-bun for example.
Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Hiphoprisy is the Greatest Luxury
The Disposable Heroes burst out of nowhere in the early 90s with a couple of the catchiest and cleverest singles in a long, long time, Television: The Drug of a Nation continues to be on rage every month or so almost 20 years on.
An unconventional duo of a tall, dreaded skinny black guy and a short Japanese guy who manufactured dense and claustrophobic industrial soundscapes out of things most people throw off the back of a rusty trailer – hell he probably even smacked a pipe against the rusty trailer for some of the noises!
Michael Franti was the tall skinny black guy whose socially conscious yet fierce raps were both entertaining and amazingly clever. He has since gone on to a long and prosperous career mining the same vein with Spearhead, though he is a lot quieter now. Rono Tse was the Japanese guy banging away in the background making songs that 20 years on still sound like nothing made since.
Perhaps it was the overtly political and critical nature of Franti’s lyrics, or maybe the sparks flying out of your ears due to the scratching, grinding and wailing was too much for some people. Whatever the reason Hiphoprisy sold precious little copies which is a shame, and likely caused the group to break up so Franti could continue in a more commercially successful genre. (Note I’m not saying he sold out: I own (I think) 5 Spearhead albums and they all have merit.)
Hiphoprisy is the Greatest Luxury is an album like no other, ferocious and original still 20 years on. The best tracks: Television, The Language of Violence, Amos N Andy, Satanic Reverses and Water-Pistol Man all hold up extremely well today. Probably the fact that it was so hard to categorise due to the industrial, hip-hop, political and controversial topics is the same reason it was unfairly overlooked. This album is not for everyone, but if you are looking for something different – but still very good – and you like hip-hop, look no further.
Lauren Hill - The Miseducation Of…
The most commercial album on the list but one I couldn’t leave off. I originally bought this for my wife, she listened to it, said thanks and it ended up in my collection.
At ‘one tine’ she was one of the Fugees (never liked ‘em), but when they broke Lauren went solo.
Lauren Hill is smooth and soulful and has been gifted a cool smoky voice. Her solo lyrics occasionally veer into the hokey territory but in the main are quite clever and well written, and most notably she is one of the only female artists that can hold her own when it comes to rapping (she “Yo’s” too much though, if you got a 10c refund for every Yo through the album it would have been free).
Strangely enough despite my anti-commercial leanings the best tracks are some of the most popular, like my brief and surprising love affair with Beyonce’s early singles (Crazy Right Now is still a good song, but a better film clip!). I can’t think of a dud on this album though, but I could definitely lose the between songs classroom interludes quite happily.
For some reason Lauren never made another album (of original stuff at least), deciding instead to go slowly insane and rant about the state of the world, politics and society’s failings for over a decade.
Each to their own I guess.
Urge Overkill - Saturation
I know full well that Saturation is by no means Urge Overkill’s only album, but trust me when I say it is their only good one.
It means nothing but Saturation was my first ever CD.
The stuff they made before Saturation was college rock with a hippie flavour, blatantly aiming for commercial appeal along the lines of The Bloodhound Gang and similar crap. It is really quite disposable and better left ignored. The stuff they made after started and ended with one lamentable album – Exit the Dragon – which was lifeless, uninspired and basically dull. Shortly after that the group broke up and/or got arrested, never to be heard from again.
But 1993 saw Saturation, from the gradually building ominous metallic sound effect that opens the album to the awful (as in awful-but-entertaining) joke song that closes the album after about 25 minutes of silence they were united in rocking.
Saturation has the huge chunky guitar sound that even Rolling Stone magazine has declared dead last year. Although the lyrics are hardly mind blowing the big riffs, big hair and huge drum sound works extremely well when played at extremely loud volume.
Sister Havana opens the album at pace, with a singalong chorus and lyrics that make absolutely no sense at all. Thankfully you have no time to ponder that fact as Tequila Sundae and Positive Bleeding continue on unabated, allowing no time to breathe until Back on Me slows the pace down to a more reasonable mid-tempo.
Perhaps two minor duds on the album, (Woman 2 Woman, Erica Cane), redeemed though by the opening trio, Bottle of Fur, Stalker and Nite and Grey, which features a brilliant squealing guitar riff.
Urge Overkill rose from patchy beginnings to create this minor classic with great riffs, a solid sound and some humour, so it is strange that Exit the Dragon – released only a couple of years later – departed from this winning formula and sucked… hard.
They seemed right on the edge of breaking big, one major single and some radio play and they could’ve been a Live, Bush, even a mildly less hairy Pearl Jam, the problem was that they didn’t play the emo ‘woe is us’ card, but openly desired fame, wealth and adulation. Behind the scenes though things weren’t so positive and rosy, one dud album, some illicit substances poorly stashed and a backstage tiff later and all that potential counts for squat.
Saturation isn’t just a high point for a group that never really was, but the only point worth even acknowledging.
Young MC - Stone Cold Rhymin’
Now hear me out, I know Young MC is known less as a one-album wonder than a one-hit wonder – he even named a poorly received comeback album “Return of the One-Hit Wonder”, but he deserves better than that, though admittedly he stayed in the shallow end of the rap game.
Before he even wrote his one hit Young MC helped write Tone Loc’s singles Funky Cold Medina and Wild Thing. He wrote and completed his own debut while still at university, which explains the frequent references to his brain and knowledge rather than his glock and his cock.
When Bust a Move came out I was 15 and thought I liked rap music (at 14 you can think what you want but you really don’t know anything yet), I loved Flea’s dog pants in the video but I think the dancer’s hotpants with the love heart on the butt was what won me over.
I bought the tape shortly after.
Stone Cold Rhymin’ was chock full of clever yet PC and PG rhymes, straightforward production and obvious yet classic samples, though I had precious little idea of the sources at the time. The beats were effective and even if Young MC’s lyrics were a little on the polite side his flow and cadence couldn’t be questioned.
If Young MC had a problem it was that his songs were too catchy, Bust a Move has been used on dozens of soundtracks over the years, and was even lamentably covered on Glee, much to my wife’s amusement (and my distress). Over the years people think of the song and MC himself as a novelty along the lines of Who let the Dogs out? (I wish they would find out and let us move on…)
A quick glance at Wikipedia tells me that Young MC has actually had 8 albums released in the last 20 years (name another one… don’t bother, you can’t!), but although he has become known as the only rapper from the 90s whiter than Vanilla Ice Young MC can always sit back smug in the knowledge that he crafted one underappreciated minor classic that’s only sin was being too nice. (Plus even though Glee sux he must’ve made some fat royalties off then covering his song. Good for you now-not-so-Young MC.)
The Baby Namboos - Ancoats2Zambia
Apparently the Baby Namboos only got an album deal due to one of them being related to Tricky. To which I give a measured high five to the power of nepotism.
Ancoats2Zambia is more than a strange title, it is a grab bag of trip-hop infused influences and odd ‘shouldn’t work but sorta do’ effects, all held together by a smokey voiced chanteuse Zoe Bedeax who single-handedly elevates a couple tracks to minor classics and lifts the album beyond the standard bargain bin filler by seeming on the edge of tears or throwing down.
Tricky’s cousin Mark Porter jumbles his way along… Tricky style really, neither rapping nor singing, more filling the empty spaces with words. On a couple songs he manages a coherent verse or two, only even on these tracks he is often over-shadowed by others, the titular track being a fair example with both Uncle Trick and Zoe stealing the more memorable moments.
Probably more an album for trip-hop fans than anything else (are there any left?), standout tracks include Hard Times, Ancoats2Zambia and Holy, which never fails to slay me when played loud. (And Trials and Tribulations scores points for a cool drum and bass breakdown and a frantic verse by ‘Miss Everywhere’ Zoe.)
In truth The Baby Namboos may not have got a guernsey on this list if I decided 9 albums was enough, but the fact they never released an album after this, and the strength of the better tracks – and the fact that lists need ’10’ to exist – means it earns the final spot here. Ancoats2Zambia is no classic, but it is better than hundreds of albums by talentless hacks who nonetheless manage to score long term contracts on the basis of little more than radio familiarity and a mainstream that fears change.
One Hit Wonders
The tracks on this list will differ from most “One-Hit Wonder” lists because most of these songs were never, ummm… hits. But they are excellent tracks and deserve space on your ipod.
- The Aloof – Bittersweet
- Amerie – 1 Thing
- Antenna – Come on Spring
- Atlas Strings – Carelessly
- Atmosphere – Trying to find a Balance
- Beats International – Dub be good to me
- Boo-Ya Tribe – Another Body Murdered
- Dream Warriors – Wash Your Face in my Sink
- Fun-Da-Mental – White Gold Burger
- Handsome Boy Modeling School – Sunshine
- Hardknox – Come in Hard
- The Jackson Code – Bring Yourself Home to me
- Lucas – Lucas with the lid off
- Lucy Pearl – Don’t Mess with my Man
- Margot & The Nuclear So & Sos – As Tall as Cliffs
- Monster Magnet – Space Lord
- Rail – I am Awake
- Sneaker Pimps – 6 Underground
- Spain – Every Time I Try
- Young Disciples – Apparently Nuthin’
That oughta hold ya till next time.
OGR
