In last round of our “One Hit Wonder” series, we gave a listen to Bringing Down the Horse by The Wallflowers. Overall the album was generally liked with some differences of opinion on some of the positives and negatives of the album. We also mature and share our reasoning of what qualifies as a one hit wonder and decide if this band qualifies based off the performance of “One Headlight” and the rest of the slbum. Tune in to the episode to see what we thought of it.
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In the third installment of our One Hit Wonders round, we listened to Blu Cantrell’s debut album, So Blu.
The album was released in 2001 and featured the very famous and very awesome song “Hit em’ up Style (Oops!)”.
But what about the rest of the album? Equally awesome? Well, that’s what we endeavored to find out this month as we dissected So Blu. Does Blu Cantrell deserve to be better known for her body of work? Was she done dirty? We seemed to be aligned for the most part. Tune in to the episode to see what we thought of it.
So here, it is, the second review of our One Hit Wonders round, this time listening to New Radicals’ Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too. If you haven’t listened to/read about why we picked it, check that out first.
The album was released October 16, 1998, and is essentially an album by lead singer, Gregg Alexander, who is the only person to play on all the album’s tracks. He enlisted a swath of session musicians (28) to play instruments while recording, really making this an album of hired guns. The very successful You Get What You Give charted high on most Top 40 lists around the world, then the band broke up in 1999. A second single, Someday We’ll Know, was released shortly after the band called it quits and the rest is history.
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Sonic Collective member Darren Scott started off our one hit wonder round by choosing a-ha. a-ha is often considered a one-hit wonder, largely due to the immense success of their debut single “Take on Me.” The song reached number one in the United States and several other countries in 1985, and its innovative music video became an iconic part of 80s pop culture.
We now go back and listen to this album and explore this band a little deeper to see if they deserve the negatively perceived one hit wonder moniker. Listen along to see what we discovered about this band from Norway, we think you will be surprised at some of the things we discovered.
Enjoy! Darren @ The Sonic Collective
Scott’s pick had the team split. We had a range of opinions covering the entire spectrum. We’re usually more into music where the guitars are plugged in, so country music has a hard time breaking into the mix. Still, everyone found something to appreciate (or at least not dislike!) about this album, even though the scores hit both ends of the spectrum. Have a listen and see what each member of the team thought after a month of listening and see who you matched up with most.
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Alain’s pick for March 2023 had us listen to The Velvet Underground’s debut album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, which was released in 1967, but failed to really make a splash on the music scene until nearly a decade after its release for a variety of reasons. The Velvet Underground would ultimately go on to leave a legacy of influence and high regard in the annals of music history, and we decided to start at the beginning to see if the band is worth the hype.
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February 2023 saw us listen to King Crimson’s debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, which was released on 10 October 1969 and hit #1 on the UK charts.We went into this with pretty high expectations being how many times we had read about this album being a major influence on bands like The Who, and cited by many rock publications as one of the best ever prog rock albums. Well… let’s just say we weren’t that wow’d and don’t really get how it has cultivated the legacy it has.
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After completing a fun series of shows that spotted connections between albums, we have gone back to our roots and started a new round of reviews of classic influential albums. Darren picked this Pink Floyd album that followed their success after Dark Side of the Moon. This album is familiar Pink Floyd, but yet a bit darker and more serious than their previous concept albums. Listen to this review to hear what we discovered, and if we think you should spend your time revisiting this Wish You Were Here album.
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Sonic Collective member Scott Gregory picked this album to give us a chance to explore 2010s pop with a message. Check our pick for August, 2022.
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Sonic Collective member Alain Dupuis picked Alice in Chain’s album Dirt after his girlfriend randomly talked about how much she enjoyed it. All of us knew the band pretty well, however none of us had taken time to listen to a full album before. Find out how we felt after ruminating on Dirt throughout the month of July 20.
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