Bands whose albums all sound the same

I was mentioning in another thread that it's something of a double-edged sword. If the albums sound too samey one gets complaints and if they sound too different, that also gets complaints partially because people come in with set expectations. If I really like the sound of an album, that the band's next album sounds like more of the same would not make me dismiss it provided I still really dig that sound.

In my review of Magma's E-Re, I started by writing "Same old, same old, pretty much, but what a wondrous same old it is." That was my album of the year.

And your post is one of the most negative of the thread in my estimation, not that I'm saying you shouldn't be negative. That's your prerogative, live and let live, it takes all kinds, and all of that. Perhaps you mean topic rather than thread (a thread is a collection of all the posts under the topic). Or perhaps you mean the direction this discussion has gone, as well as where it started.

I find various posts interesting, so the thread doesn't strike me as negative and pointless as it does with you. I tend to dislike negativity mostly when it comes to people being negative about others perceived negativity -- especially when I'm the one doing it.

One might say if you don't like a thread, then don't read through it, but I find such statements commonly overly simplistic. One can think of thought experiments and various reasons why one would subject oneself or be subjected to something that one doesn't enjoy. Sometimes people do seem a bit masochistic when it comes to forcing lots of art and other things on themselves that they don't like (sometimes that's hoping that something will click down the road, and sometimes it does),.

Or if one finds a thread too negative try to turn it in a more positive direction (a bit of humour can help I find as that can help people to loosen up, enjoy themselves and look on the bright side of things). If one finds it pointless, bring your sense of purpose to it. Of course just because one person finds something pointless, that doesn't make it pointless for everyone. That may be due to one's own deficit, lack of creativity and associative power, and lack of empathy.

I haven't read the whole thread, which is a collection of everyone's posts that contributed to it, so I can't say how pointless and negative it is. I like to think that we can all strive to bring our own meaning and points to the table. Some say life is pointless, I like to think we can bring our own sense of purpose into life.

Not quite sure what your point was as I haven't read through this, but if one likes a band's sound, then having them all sound the same is not necessarily a negative. I could think of a number of bands with multiple albums that sound much the same where I love every album. Mostly those would just be ones that released only two or three albums. I'm not a completest when it comes to many bands with many albums -- in PA the two bands that I have the most albums by are Art Zoyd and Magma, and I have almost all of Robert Wyatt and Kate Bush.

Sometimes not listening to them is not an easy option, say if one's roommate, sibling or partner plays all of them and one doesn't want to go out and one cares that that person wants you to listen to them, and you don;t want to disappoint that person. I probably would not have heard all of Rush's albums had I not been that my best friend is very into Rush. Had I hated the music, well, maybe I would have made my excuses and left.

Anyway, I'll take the time out to properly read through and digest this thread, then maybe I'll understand your insight/ perspective on the thread better. It takes me some work sometimes to try to figure out where people are coming from, and I don't like to make assumptions or oversimplify things (principle of charity and all that).

Now this post me I do consider rather pointless, in that it feels an utter waste of time to type. I at least would have done better to read through the whole thread first to get a better feel for the discussion and for your perspective.

hehehe

Lewian wrote: I don't agree with Magma but I can understand well why they're nominated. If you have a musical position that is in quite some distance from them (and you may not be tempted to go there and explore more), all Magma will come from the same direction and therefore sound pretty much the same for you. That's a general thing with this thread. If the sound of a band rubs you up the wrong way (or at least a specific aspect of it), you will always recognise their unique way of annoying you, but you won't put yourself in the middle of it to see how their different albums deviate in all kinds of directions from this core. I stopped exploring the Ozrics at some point because on top of the two or three albums I really like, my impression was none of the others adds something all too worthwhile for me, instead it's all more of the same. But that may just be a result of not trying enough and not becoming a proper part of their "universe". Similar case with Hawkwind actually, but I'd never suggest that all their albums sound the same to everyone in any "objective" sense.

^ I think Hawkwind made a massive jump with Quark , Strangeness and Charm in 1977 . Probably my favourite album of that year and I'm not a fan of the band at all. 

rogerthat wrote: Mortte wrote: rogerthat wrote: Mortte wrote: Sean Trane wrote: Ozric is the obvious one, but I always take a few minutes before trying to guess on which Magma album I am hearing (I'm not often successfull either). Ditto with Hawkwind I quess I should just not read this thread anymore cause this is hopeless...anyway Magma´s two first sound me really different than three next albums after that, then Udu Wudu & Attahk are really on their own and if somebody´s mixing Merci some other Magma album I think he´s deaf. Same in Hawkwind, all their seventies albums sounds quite different, I agree when thinking Hawkwind albums after Levitation excluding Into the Woods & Road To Utopia. Forget Merci, how do you mix up MDK and Kohntarkohz? They sound so different. Again, I am not saying there aren't bands that make samey albums. But for them, it was a choice because they knew their fan base wanted the same sound again. It's like I don't know the minutae of AC DC's catalog but I could listen to almost any album and enjoy it, whenever I am in a mood for bluesy hard rock that is. That is, in such cases, it doesn't matter that the albums sound the same. Bands like Magma so evolve and grow their style, OTOH. Also I think songs like "Soul Stripper", "It´s a long Way to the Top", "Live Wire", "T.N.T", "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", "Whole Lotta Rosie", "R´n`R Damnation", "Highway To Hell", "Touch Too Much" & "Beating Around the Bush" are really great R´n`R songs, they don´t sound same to me, although many have same elements (Touch Too Much is almost popsong). They are not absolutely the same but they are similar enough that I would find it hard to place which album they are a part of.

It´s glad we have wikipedia (also discogs) for that! I took those chronologial order from their seventies albums ("Soul Stripper" is from their australian "High Voltage"-album).

rogerthat wrote: Mortte wrote: Sean Trane wrote: Ozric is the obvious one, but I always take a few minutes before trying to guess on which Magma album I am hearing (I'm not often successfull either). Ditto with Hawkwind I quess I should just not read this thread anymore cause this is hopeless...anyway Magma´s two first sound me really different than three next albums after that, then Udu Wudu & Attahk are really on their own and if somebody´s mixing Merci some other Magma album I think he´s deaf. Same in Hawkwind, all their seventies albums sounds quite different, I agree when thinking Hawkwind albums after Levitation excluding Into the Woods & Road To Utopia. Forget Merci, how do you mix up MDK and Kohntarkohz? They sound so different. Again, I am not saying there aren't bands that make samey albums. But for them, it was a choice because they knew their fan base wanted the same sound again. It's like I don't know the minutae of AC DC's catalog but I could listen to almost any album and enjoy it, whenever I am in a mood for bluesy hard rock that is. That is, in such cases, it doesn't matter that the albums sound the same. Bands like Magma so evolve and grow their style, OTOH.

Also I think songs like "Soul Stripper", "It´s a long Way to the Top", "Live Wire", "T.N.T", "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", "Whole Lotta Rosie", "R´n`R Damnation", "Highway To Hell", "Touch Too Much" & "Beating Around the Bush" are really great R´n`R songs, they don´t sound same to me, although many have same elements (Touch Too Much is almost popsong).

Sean Trane wrote: Ozric is the obvious one, but I always take a few minutes before trying to guess on which Magma album I am hearing (I'm not often successfull either). Ditto with Hawkwind

I quess I should just not read this thread anymore cause this is hopeless...anyway Magma´s two first sound me really different than three next albums after that, then Udu Wudu & Attahk are really on their own and if somebody´s mixing Merci some other Magma album I think he´s deaf. Same in Hawkwind, all their seventies albums sounds quite different, I agree when thinking Hawkwind albums after Levitation excluding Into the Woods & Road To Utopia.

Maiden after the Di aAnno (very obvious) and the first two Dickinson, I couldn't possibly tell, as they all sound Martin Birch-y (except that phenomenal debut. 

Lewian wrote: Some of the nominations here make me wonder whether people can name a band of which all albums do not sound the same.