I've heard pretty mid songs that turned out to be incredible albums and I've heard amazing songs where it's the only good track. But I always try to listen to an entire album in most cases. There's so much good music out there, just under the surface.
And the most popular songs of any band, which are generally the ones you'll hear randomly, might not turn out to be the ones you like the most from that album or artist. I've had songs I liked and listened to a lot but just never got around to exploring the band until years later, and then found some of my all-time favourites after doing so.
A perfect example for me is my favourite song from one of my favourite bands, which I just never heard before actually sitting down and going through their whole discography:
Totally. If I hear a really good song sometimes I’ll do a hyper study over a period of time listening to every album, all collabs, the collaborator’s albums, and so on. Definitely did this more when I was younger. But when I hear that sound, it’s mission time.
I've done that with artists on spotify but end up not really finding anything then I try on YouTube and find a bunch, it's hit or miss what their popular* songs are on different platforms and if I'll like them or not