What's a band that has one album that is just about perfect in your opinion, but rest of their discography misses the mark with you?
One of mine is Commit This to Memory by Motion City Soundtrack. I basically took the title verbatim and know the album word for word. And while I would love if it did, the rest of MCS's stuff just doesn't hit the same way.
And if you're not an album person, maybe a period of time in the artist's work? Whatever works for you.
*Lots of mentions of hit debut albums that subsequently petered out, which follows with the dreaded sophomore slump that hits many artists. Anyone with mid or even later career albums that stand alone? Those always intrigue me.
Alice in Chains - Dirt. Like, you can't get any better than that and their quality after Dirt was wildly fluctuating and it didn't help that the band was dealing with a struggling Layne Staley until his death.
Sabaton - The Art of War. A handful of my favorite tracks is coming off from this album (Ghost Division, Firestorm .etc). A lot of this band's discography, I like a max amount of like 4 songs per album while the rest is forgettable. But Art of War has just a little more to it.
Disturbed - Believe. This is easily one of my favorite albums of all time and definitely my favorite album of all of the Disturbed discography. Their sound matured off from The Sickness and it was only their sophomore album. Their quality of sound gradually decreased every album release since to where I'll only find a favorite track or two from them.
Believe is also my favorite from them. I remember when "Evolution" came out and being disappointed by how forgettable it is. I actually had to go search for it so I could remember the name of it.