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Top 15 One-Album Wonders

As music fans, we hear a lot of new music all the time from promising new artists. Some national debut albums really leave a mark on us, getting us pumped for the artist's career ahead. Sadly, some of these artists never even make it to album number two before they stop making music, break up, or just disappear.

This list is a countdown of our top 15 "One-Album Wonders" -- bands that released just one album before disappearing from the map for one reason or another -- leaving us to wonder what could have been with album number 2.

Outline


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Album Cover
#1. Acceptance
Phantoms

Release Year: 2005



Describing Acceptance as a one-hit-wonder isn't strictly true, as they had two EP's in addition to their one full-length release. Nevertheless, they didn't put out nearly as much material as many fans would have liked. Phantoms (their lone LP) was released in 2005, a seminal year in the world of emo and alt-rock. Perhaps being released in the same year as albums such as Copeland's In Motion, Anberlin's Never Take Friendship Personal, and Mae's The Everglow contributed to the limited exposure that Phantoms faced. Even so, it was a great pop-tinged alt rock album, with hit tracks like the upbeat "So Contagious" and the slow-burning "Different," and spot on production from the ever-capable Aaron Sprinkle (Fun fact: Sprinkle covered "So Contagious" on his most recent solo album, Water & Guns, released in 2013).

Even though we never got another Acceptance album, we did get to hear many more albums from guitarist Christian McAlhaney. After Acceptance folded, he went on to play with Anberlin, and considering the quality of the four albums he contributed to, it seems like a pretty fair trade.
        - Timothy Estabrooks

Top 15 One-Album Wonders

Intro | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1

ŠJuly 2014 Jesusfreakhideout.com



 

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