I wanted to explore this, it seems like it mostly happens in classic rock. I like it because it's like the group delivering a thesis statement for the content of their music or their intended commercial trajectory.
I think it works even better when it's done by a band later into their career, like they're reflecting on the culmination of their work. Can people link me examples? I'd love to see if this has happened more outside of the rock genre
Off the top of my head:
Bad Company (debut album)
Black Sabbath (debut album)
Damn Yankees (debut album)
Blue Öyster Cult (11th album)
Dimmu Borgir (8th album, black metal)
Run the Jewels (debut album, rap)
Eyes of Noctom (debut album, black metal, fun fact: this is Nicholas Cage's son)
Highwaymen (debut album, country)
65 Comments
YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca · 21 pts · 4d
"Iron Maiden" by Iron Maiden off their debut album called "Iron Maiden".
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 4d
Ooh, that should have been obvious. Iron Maiden was always a bit of a blind spot for me but that song inspired something:
Menschlicher_Fehler@feddit.org · 15 pts · 4d
Living in a Box, by Living in a Box from their debut album Living in a Box.
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 4d
Holy HELL i loved that. New fixation unlocked.
Menschlicher_Fehler@feddit.org · 4 pts · 4d
It is a catchy one.
SandLight@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 4d
They Might Be Giants have a self titled track (but not album) included in their third album Flood
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 4d
Their first album is self titled, always bothered me that the eponymous song wasn't on the eponymous album.
SandLight@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d
You're right. I had the collection of their first two albums with bonus tracks. I forgot it was actually self titled originally.
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 4d
You mean Then: The Early Years? There are some solid bonus tracks. The Joshua Fried remix of The World's Address is great
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 4d
Lol what genre is this? I love the utterances of BOY
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 4d
TMBG defies genres, but they can't be silenced.
chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 4d
They are a little bird house in my soul.
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 4d
Not to put too fine a point on it
0ops@piefed.zip · 2 pts · 4d
BOY
Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 4d
I saw them play and record a song backwards and then play the tape backwards for us to hear the song forward. Does that make sense? Too much musicality for my brain…
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 11h
Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love played backwards, seemed like a COVID project, considering the timing. Not the first time either, On Earth My Nina was the then (officially) unreleased Thunderbird backwards.
ThomasWilliams@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 4d
Then there's the band Flowers that released an album called Icehouse, and halfway through the release changed their name to Icehouse - to not be confused with a Scottish band called Flowers - so the early albums are called "Icehouse by Flowers" and the later ones "Flowers by Icehouse".
Taleya@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 4d
You missed the fact the last track on the Icehouse album is also called Icehouse.
The international release is icehouse by icehouse containing the track icehouse
Maestro@fedia.io · 10 pts · 4d
Iron Maiden playing the song "Iron Maiden" from yheir album called "Iron Maiden": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufp75XlTp-Q
Cardigans@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 4d
Slave to the System by Slave to the System on their album Slave to the System.
I thought this was the tackiest shit ever when I was younger, but looking it up now I guess they were a super group so the very on-the-nose-ness of it feels a little bit less bad. I have no idea how I came across the album but I listened to loads of random music.
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 4d
The best way to find new music.
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 4d
I love this though! Tackiness in music is great, it's what we have headphones for.
cabbage@piefed.social · 6 pts · 4d
Ramones covered R.A.M.O.N.E.S. by Motörhead on their final album, Adios Amigos.
Wilco (the song) appears on Wilco (the album), which is the seventh studio album of Wilco (the band).
Kryptkravler@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 4d
Electric Wizard by Electric Wizard is easily one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands. I especially love when the wizard speaks in this song
tidderuuf@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 4d
Big Country - In A Big Country
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 4d
I like this vibe. Shoutout to music videos that are just the band members goofing around doing stuff that they construct to give a short narrative.
_NetNomad@fedia.io · 5 pts · 4d
ABBA maddeningly released an album called ABBA and an album called ABBA: The Album
nullPointer@programming.dev · 4 pts · 4d
green day
motorhead
slip knot
rammstein
canned heat
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 4d
Oh hell yeah, I wish I had known about that Rammstein one long ago. I need to catch up with their music. The video was adequately sexually charged and disconcerting for what I would expect from them
cabbage@piefed.social · 3 pts · 4d
Sadly this seems to apply in the worst possible way to Till Lindemann on a private level as well. 🤮
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 4d
Indeed. One of my favorite people said that there's something more deeply wounding about sex crimes when they're perpetrated by people from countercultural and alternative art movements. Like a huge thesis of counterculture is that there should be nothing to fear in the darker aspects of the human experience. But then a guy like Till or Manson or Victor Salva will fuck it all up. They reinforce the cultural narratives about fear of the other, social hierarchy, and the invincibility that their fame earns them.
Those ones really fuck me up
cabbage@piefed.social · 4 pts · 4d
Yup.
Another issue I have is when artists make art about the fucked up sides of human nature, and you buy into it and think they are brilliant for portraying it. And then you find out that nope, they're just giant creeps who tell on themselves. It makes it pretty much impossible for me to enjoy their art after.
I believe, in some degree, in separating the art from the artist. I can listen to the Beatles even though Lennon was a wife beater, though the line "I used to be cruel to my woman I'd beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loves" hits a bit harder than it should. But when the art mirrors the artist it becomes impossible. The jokes of Louis CK would have aged a lot better had they not all been about behaving like a total creep. With Rammstein I can't help but feel that the trademark uneasiness is just Till telling on himself, and I feel like a gullible idiot for using to enjoy it without realizing it wasn't an act. Like the joke was on me.
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 4d
That's EXACTLY what it is. Like, oh you weren't portraying anything artistically this is just how you live.
Same, I like to think I can and prefer to appreciate art sperate from the artist's private lives. But that's the kind of transgression that rewrites and recontextualizes the work. Also that Louis CK shit is wild because if you listen to him talk about it afterwards he still doesn't really understand what went wrong with what he was doing. Now that I'm thinking about it this might have been why I never checked in on Rammstein after the last time I heard they were still making music
ThomasWilliams@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 4d
Big in Japan were not from Japan but they were big in Japan after they released their single "Big in Japan".
Davel23@fedia.io · 1 pts · 4d
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 4d
Wow search engines kind of hate them. Interesting case of normative determinism though and it looks like they all went on to be in other more famous acts.
Ertain@feddit.online · 3 pts · 4d
I heard one yesterday from the band Hammerfall (I'm sure you can guess the name of the song).
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 4d
No way! I guess I gotta go see what they do now. They only had two albums when I first heard them
ThePunnyMan@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 3d
This one always makes me laugh. Living in a Box on the album "Living in a Box" by the band "Living in a Box"
Fermiverse@gehirneimer.de · 3 pts · 4d
Cloven Hoof, with Album Cloven Hoof and first track Cloven Hoof.
chicagohuman@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 4d
Belle and Sebastian had a song called Belle and Sebastian
PrimeErective@startrek.website · 3 pts · 4d
Angel Witch - Angel Witch - Angel Witch
riquisimo@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 4d
Seethed has one. It's a b-side that was eventually released on the album "Curiosities, Rarities, and Paraiahs."
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 4d
Self-titled albums were a big thing in the sixties, when the record industry was still starting properly. David Bowie's first two albums are both named ‘David Bowie’. With some artists, it's a bit difficult to track all this crap, since vinyls were basically issued whenever anyone was at the factory and not when the artist had a particularly artistic vision.
Weezer had a gag about it, putting out seven albums named ‘Weezer’ over thirty years, the latest one upcoming in a week.
Songs are different, of course, but the reason you see them in classic rock is probably because those dudes are old.
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 4d
This explains a lot. I wasn't aware of the Weezer gag, that's pretty funny
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d
Wait until you hear why vinyl singles had different sizes of the center hole. It's just because RCA wanted their singles to be incompatible with any other jukeboxes. So there was a whole micro-industry of adapters made to play RCA vinyls on normal turntables.
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 4d
You know seem to know a lot of lore about the music industry. Do you have any documentaries you'd refer me to? I'd like to learn about all the weird ways industry has shaped art like that. One that caught my interest years ago was Barely Sociable on youtube made a 80 minute one about payolla.
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d
Unfortunately I've learned about it in snippets of Wikipedia articles snatched here and there. So can't point you to any particular doc as the source of truth.
With Youtube, what worked great for me is looking through the recommendations on any good video, and saving promising ones in a 'watch later' playlist — or rather a dozen of such playlists per topic. I now have a year or two worth of videos saved this way.
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 4d
Fair enough. Please send me one though if you come across any that that are notable again!
scytale@piefed.zip · 2 pts · 3d
This one is the other way around: Planet X. When Derek Sherinian was kicked out of Dream Theater, he wanted to create something that would be better, so he released an album titled Planet X together with Tony Macalpine and Virgil Dontai. It was so good and built up a fanbase that they then formed a new band called Planet X and released 3 albums in the next couple of years.
bitchkat@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 3d
Big Country's most famous song is called "In a Big Country"
MumboJumbo@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d
Talk Talk
crazyduck@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 4d
The doors
eupraxia@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 3d
glass beach - glass beach (from "the first glass beach album")
from the chorus:
fuckin incredible song, album, and band. glass beach has sadly disbanded but their vocalist has a new project called "you are an angel" with another self titled song that I can recommend too.
Vinny_93@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d
Shadows of Paradise
dvlsg@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d
God's Hate
thousandyardstare@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 4d
Artist: Low Roar
Album: Low Roar
Song: Low Roar
hairyfeet@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 4d
Alphabeat - Alphabeat (2006)
eezeebee@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 4d
Electric Wizard - Electric Wizard
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 4d
This is a vibe. I love how he's sensually whispering Wizaaard throughout the track
SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 4d
Crash Land - Crash Land is one of my fave songs, which has been in my rotation for quite a long time. Originally one of the remixes made its way into a playlist of mine. When I checked out the original, I was hooked.
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 4d
I can see why you like that, I really like this Rootkit one. As a serial job-hopper with autism this is really speaking to me. I am a fucking alien
Hexanimo@kbin.earth · 2 pts · 4d
This doesn't fit the prompt in a technical sense, but does so thematically:
The band originally known as Imagica changed their name due to overlap with another artist. For one week they went by Nothing and Nowhere (shared with their first album and a track that would appear on a later album) before settling on their current name, The Birthday Massacre. The Birthday Massacre was the original third track of the Nothing and Nowhere LP, but was renamed Happy Birthday during the band's final name change.
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 4d
I like it a lot though. Going to listen to more of them.
edit: Fuck this is really good. It goes so well with retrowave and some goth music I've collected from lemmy.
eleijeep@piefed.social · 2 pts · 4d
Beethoven's 9th Symphony by Beethoven
datavoid@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 4d
From my angsty youth, Billy Talent - Billy Talent