Radio has a way of flattening a band into a single chorus. You hum the hook, you remember the video, and you assume nothing else is worth your time. Often that’s a fair guess.
Sometimes it isn’t. These eight albums sit behind songs everyone knows, and the deeper cuts hold up well. Most of these acts were one hit wonders mainly in the United States, so a few had bigger careers elsewhere.
Cornershop, When I Was Born for the 7th Time
Most people know this British band for Brimful of Asha, especially the Norman Cook remix that reached number one in the UK in 1998. In America it stayed their lone widely known song. The album it came from, released in 1997, is a lot looser and stranger than that single suggests.
It blends indie guitar, Punjabi language material, sitar textures and dance leaning rhythms. Tracks like Sleep on the Left Side and Good to Be on the Road Back Home show a band comfortable moving between styles. Played start to finish, it feels like a record made by people with a wide record collection.
Gotye, Making Mirrors
It’s hard to forget how often Somebody That I Used to Know played around 2012. The song went to number one in the US, and the album won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album. That award suggests critics saw more here than a single.
Wally De Backer recorded much of it at home in Australia, building songs from odd instruments and samples. Eyes Wide Open and Easy Way Out are good places to start if you only know the hit. The album is inventive without feeling cold.
Dexys Midnight Runners, Their 1982 Breakout Album
In the US, this band is the Come On Eileen band, the one with the fiddles and the overalls. In the UK, they were bigger than that, with a number one earlier in 1980 called Geno. Their 1982 album, the one that carried the famous hit, is stronger than its reputation.
It also includes Jackie Wilson Said, their take on a Van Morrison song, which became a top five hit in Britain. The record mixes Celtic folk color with soul horns and a lot of emotional push. It sounds like nothing else from that era.
Fountains of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers
The 2003 hit Stacy’s Mom was a joke that happened to be catchy, and it earned the band a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. The album around it is more sophisticated than the single’s novelty feel. Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger wrote sharp, funny songs about ordinary suburban lives.
Songs like Hackensack and Mexican Wine play like short stories set to power pop. Many critics have long treated Schlesinger as one of the best pop craftsmen of his generation. If you only know the one song, the rest of the album is a pleasant surprise.
Marcy Playground, Marcy Playground
Their 1997 self titled album gave us Sex and Candy, a slinky hit that topped the Modern Rock chart in 1998. The song’s laid back strangeness defined the band for most listeners. Behind it is a quieter and more sincere record.
John Wozniak wrote in a loose, folk tinged way, and Saint Joe on the School Bus is one of the album’s best known deeper cuts. The songs are small and odd, but they stick. It’s a good example of the gentler side of late nineties alternative rock.
Sneaker Pimps, Becoming X
Their 1996 single 6 Underground was the one that crossed over. It carried the moody trip hop sound that was popping up everywhere in the mid nineties. Still, the full album is more varied than that one song implies.
Tracks such as Spin Spin Sugar pair dark, tight production with Kelli Ali’s cool, drifting vocals. The record has real atmosphere, and it holds together as a whole. For fans of that era’s electronic pop, it deserves more than a single track’s worth of attention.
Harvey Danger, Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?
The 1997 song Flagpole Sitta became a college radio anthem, built on a sneering, bitter chorus. It overshadowed nearly everything else the Seattle band did. That’s a shame, because the album it came from is a smart, wordy rock record.
Songs like Private Helicopter show the same sharp lyric writing with more variety in tone. The band wasn’t just a joke about alienation, and the record has real emotional range. Listeners who stop after the hit miss a lot.
Tonic, Lemon Parade
Many people know Tonic only for If You Could Only See, a 1996 song that became a staple of late nineties radio. The album it came from, Lemon Parade, offers more than that one ballad. It’s a warm, guitar driven record with an earnest streak.
Another single from the album, Open Up Your Eyes, was also a rock radio hit. The record feels sturdy, with good melodies and tidy playing throughout. It reminds you that a band can be bigger than the one song people remember.
