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)

    • sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyzOPEnglish
      6·
      4 days ago

      Ooh, that should have been obvious. Iron Maiden was always a bit of a blind spot for me but that song inspired something:

  • ThomasWilliams@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    4 days ago

    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.zoneEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      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

  • SandLight@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    4 days ago

    They Might Be Giants have a self titled track (but not album) included in their third album Flood

  • Cardigans@lemmy.zipEnglish
    7·
    4 days ago

    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.

  • scytale@piefed.zipEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    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.

  • riquisimo@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    3·
    3 days ago

    Seethed has one. It’s a b-side that was eventually released on the album “Curiosities, Rarities, and Paraiahs.”

  • cabbage@piefed.socialEnglish
    5·
    4 days ago

    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).

    • sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyzOPEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      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.socialEnglish
        3·
        4 days ago

        adequately sexually charged and disconcerting for what I would expect from them

        Sadly this seems to apply in the worst possible way to Till Lindemann on a private level as well. 🤮

        • sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyzOPEnglish
          3·
          4 days ago

          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.socialEnglish
            4·
            4 days ago

            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.xyzOPEnglish
              2·
              4 days ago

              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

  • eupraxiaEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    glass beach - glass beach (from “the first glass beach album”)

    from the chorus:

    In here, you’ll be okay
    And when your heart breaks, I’ll be beside you
    So please stay here with me
    Breathe in like waves on a glass beach

    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.