I’ve written before about how I consider myself a completionist when it comes to music. If I like a band or a singer, I’ll typically want to get all of their albums, albeit with some exceptions on the album type (sorry, remix and live albums). When these artists announce and release new albums, I’ll want to either buy them or at least give them a listen.
Then there’s the artists who I have a few albums by, and when I listen to those, I think “you know what? I’m good.” This may seem surprising, given the fact that I’ve kept up with and reviewed a fair amount from bands that many argue have “fallen off” (e.g. Bloc Party), but it’s true. Even I hit a point of apathy with some artists.
Maybe they had an unsustainable level of hype that came crashing down, and I wasn’t immune to jumping off the bandwagon. Or maybe they changed their style too much and I couldn’t enjoy their new sound. Or maybe they just started to suck. Either way, here are seven indie or alternative artists whose discography I can look at, know that my collection of their work is incomplete, and be ok with that decision. I have a feeling I’m not alone with most of these. To keep things interesting, all of these bands have released music since 2015, and none could be considered one-hit wonders.
1. Kaiser Chiefs
Like a few other names on this list, Kaiser Chiefs were a big name in the mid-2000s when there seemed to be an almost insatiable appetite for new indie rock bands, especially in the UK. Their debut Employment made waves when it was released in 2005, garnering significant critical praise, winning multiple awards, and being certified 7x platinum since then. While many of their contemporaries did their best impressions of the Strokes’ garage rock, Kaiser Chiefs distinguished themselves by adding in some synthesizer and fully embracing pop melodies. The band’s 2007 sophomore album Yours Truly, Angry Mob didn’t do nearly as well with the critics, but it didn’t matter – its single “Ruby” turned out to be a megahit. This song topped charts, performing better than any single from Employment, and still has double the plays of their next-biggest song (“I Predict a Riot”) on Spotify.
What Happened?
As it turns out, having a much-beloved debut and then a hit single doesn’t guarantee lasting success. Kaiser Chiefs released Off With Their Heads just one year after Yours Truly, Angry Mob, and it did better with critics but got much less attention. It sold 75% fewer copies than Yours Truly, Angry Mob, and a whopping 90% fewer than Employment – a precipitous decline from just three years prior. They tried a gimmick with their fourth album The Future is Medieval in 2011, initially having listeners pick 10 out of 20 available songs to create their own unique tracklist. This turned out to be the only memorable thing about the album, and it continued their streak of getting mediocre reviews and decreasing sales. This has been the status quo for the band since that time, and the three studio albums they have released since then (most recently Duck in 2019) haven’t reversed their fortunes.
Personal History
I got the first two Kaiser Chiefs albums in the late 2000s due to the hype, thought they were fine, and then that was it. True to this article, I just haven’t had much of a desire to get more of their music.
2. Cold War Kids
Cold War Kids were one of those bandied-about indie rock band names during the mid-2000s that you kept seeing in blogs, concert venue calendars, and festival lineups. Like many bands of that era, their debut album Robbers & Cowards received much critical praise and internet hype when it was released in 2006. Also, like many bands of that era, they hit a sophomore slump with second album Loyalty to Loyalty in 2008, and much of the hype disappeared as fast as it came.
Unlike many bands of that era, Cold War Kids kept pushing along, and scored some significant radio airplay with later releases. Their third album Mine Is Yours had “Louder Than Ever” in 2011, and fourth album Miracle Mile’s title track would chart two years later. However, it was their fifth album Hold My Home and its single “First” that really stole the show, becoming their first number one single in 2015. Musically, the band mixed indie rock with elements of soul, and singer Nathan Willett sang in a distinctive falsetto that you either loved or hated.
What Happened?
For starters, the same people who loved Robbers and Cowards probably were not the same people who loved the single “First.” The former was embraced by the hipster crowd, the latter was something you’d hear in supermarkets and department stores. They went from being something of an “album band” to a “single band,” as these radio hits didn’t translate into high album sales. None of their albums after Robbers and Cowards also received much critical praise, which probably didn’t help things.
More importantly, the band has changed their sound quite a bit over the years. There was a shift away from indie rock and into a pop sound in the 2010s, but it was generally tolerable. Then came L.A. Divine in 2017, which was a big swing and a miss in this direction. It received their harshest critical lashing yet, despite scoring them another (but less successful) radio single with “Love is Mystical.” Headstrong as ever, the band started the New Age Norms series in 2019, which were hardly rock releases at all, often stepping into R&B-styled pop. From what I can tell, they recently released a self-titled studio album, but it looks like it got almost no attention.
Personal History
I actually stuck with Cold War Kids much longer than you’d expect, getting all of their albums up to and including New Age Norms 1 in 2019. I was a pretty lukewarm listener by this time, and had pretty low expectations for New Age Norms 1, and this album was somehow worse than I could have imagined. The track “Waiting for Your Love” might be one of the most cringeworthy tracks I’ve heard. I did not get New Age Norms 2.
3. The Vines
During the great garage rock revival of the early 2000s, the Vines were right up there with the other great “The” bands: the Strokes, the Hives, and the White Stripes. Their 2002 single “Get Free” got as much play as any other big hits at the time (those halcyon days of “Fell in Love With a Girl,” “Last Night,” or “Hate to Say I Told You So”), and their debut Highly Evolved went platinum in their Australian homeland. Their sophomore album Winning Days failed to gain similar success in 2004, but the popularity of its single “Ride” defied the band being a one-hit wonder. While the Hives had their suits, the Strokes had their grit, and the White Stripes had their quaintness, the Vines stood out for their erratic, grunge-like energy.
What Happened?
The Vines seemed to have unfortunately drawn the short straw among the big name “The” bands. While the Strokes are still a big deal, the Hives released a successful album last year, and the White Stripes disbanded in 2011 (with Jack White’s solo work still going strong), everyone forgot about the Vines. It wasn’t for a lack of trying on their part either; before starting an unannounced hiatus in 2018, the band released seven studio albums. Ironically, this is more than any of the other big “The” bands. Unlike their contemporaries, the Vines’ hype never really translated into critical praise, and Winning Days was widely panned. The remainder of their albums got mixed reviews at best, and no singles came anywhere near “Get Free.”
The band’s singer Craig Nicholls proved difficult and unpredictable to work with, and his stage-trashing antics made venues and music press uneasy. Nicholls is also the band’s sole consistent member, with all other bandmates having either quit or been fired by him in rotating cycles. Behind the scenes, it turned out that Nicholls was having mental health struggles (he was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum around the height of their popularity), and the pressure of performing and touring weren’t manageable for him.
Personal History
I got Highly Evolved in the mid-2000s because I liked “Get Free,” and that was it for over a decade. I finally picked up Winning Days at a used CD store in 2016, and then got their 2006 album Vision Valley in 2020. These albums are not necessarily bad, but I honestly can’t remember much about them. I’m in no rush to get their fourth album Melodia, which looks to be their lowest-rated release.
4. Mumford & Sons
British folk rock group Mumford & Sons came onto the scene with their debut Sigh No More in 2009, but it didn’t really gain traction until the following year. Its hit singles “The Cave” and “Little Lion Man” were ubiquitous in 2010-11, and their sophomore album “Babel” capitalized on this success in 2012. In just a couple years, everyone knew Mumford & Sons, or at least their folksy looks and their heavy reliance on banjo strumming. Critics hated them, deriding them as “Stomp Clap Hey” (along with the Lumineers), but at least the band was self-aware enough to make fun of themselves in the “Hopeless Wanderer” video.
What Happened?
At some point, all of the snark about banjos must have gotten to the band, because they basically abandoned the folk sound entirely on their third album Wilder Mind in 2015. Instead, this album was all about traditional rock instrumentation, which made them much less distinctive and much more interchangeable with any number of other rock bands. Critics may have rolled their eyes at the waistcoat-clad sincerity of the first two Mumford albums, but they straight-up bashed Wilder Mind. Despite a few optimistic reviews, most called it a generic and aggressively mediocre release that not even Aaron Dessner’s (of The National) production could save. More pressingly, fans jumped ship in droves after the band switched things up, since the old-timey folk gimmick is undoubtedly what they found so endearing in the first place. Wilder Mind and its lead single “Believe” still topped charts, but was nowhere near as commercially successful as Babel.
Mumford and Sons have only released Delta (2018) since Wilder Mind, and it received a similarly underwhelming reception. More eyebrow raising is that the band’s banjo-turned-guitar player, Winston Marshall, quit the band in 2021 to become a conservative commentator and podcaster. Ten years ago, who would have thought Mumford and Sons would be “that nondescript arena rock band with the banjo player who left to make songs about Hunter Biden’s laptop?”
Personal History
Like pretty much everyone else who listened to this band, I got the first two Mumford and Sons albums in the early 2010s and then kind of forgot about them. I finally picked up Wilder Mind in 2020, and while it’s not a bad album, it’s also not memorable either.
5. Muse
In some ways, Muse are THE arena rock band. Everything about Muse is grandiose. Their guitar and bass riffs are always heavy, their drums often sound like they’re about to break the kit, and singer Matthew Bellamy goes between impassioned falsetto and raging shouts. This is especially impressive considering it’s all just three people, the same three members since they started in the 90s. The band’s 1999 debut Showbiz did fairly well, but it wasn’t until the early 2000s that Origin of Symmetry (2001) and Absolution (2003) solidified Muse’s trademark sweeping, full sound and gained them a big following in their native UK.
However, it was their fourth album Black Holes and Revelations that made them a big name everywhere when it was released in 2006. Fans of the first three albums’ pure rock sound were dismayed that Muse leaned into pop and electronica on Black Holes and Revelations, and having the single “Supermassive Black Hole” in the tween movie Twilight didn’t help claims that they had sold out. Regardless, Muse were huge by the mid-2000s, and seemed to be on a winning streak of four solid albums.
What Happened?
Muse’s output after Black Holes and Revelations hasn’t been as widely feted. When they released The Resistance in 2009, it seemed as if the band took the “bigger is better” formula that had worked so well in the past to its logical conclusion. Fans might have enjoyed when Muse echoed Queen before, but it was a little overdone on The Resistance, and ending the album with a 13 minute “symphony” didn’t exactly convey “easy listen.” Additionally, The Resistance marked the start of Muse making very political lyrics about nothing in particular. These criticisms barely made a dent in its very successful commercial performance, and it did pretty well in the reviews, but it still marked a turning point for Muse.
These releases had some fans saying “alright, let’s tone things down a bit,” but 2012’s The 2nd Law saw Muse respond with “you want us to take things up even more?” Just as showy as ever, this album even had the band try their hand at dubstep – remember when that was a big thing? It was only a small step down from The Resistance with sales and ratings, and it would not be until Drones came out in 2015 that they took a real beating. Its heavy-handed yet vague political lyrics made many cringe, and by this point Muse were starting to seem like a parody of themselves. Muse responded to this feedback by making the synthpop album Simulation Theory in 2018, which was even more divisive. Their most recent album Will of the People went back to rock in 2022, but also got a tepid reaction and was summarized as “corny.” Muse still have a massive fanbase and can sell out stadiums with the best of them, but there’s a general consensus that they’ve taken a dive in quality over the past 15 years.
Personal History
I got into Muse after hearing some singles from Absolution in the early 2000s, and then went backwards from there. While a little skeptical of Black Holes and Revelations at first, I ultimately learned to love it. I didn’t mind The Resistance that much, but compared to their first four albums, it didn’t do much for me. I kind of checked out of Muse after that (circa 2010), having no idea The 2nd Law was even released, and not enjoying what I heard from Drones at all. Maybe I’ll check back in with them sometime.
6. Weezer
You know Weezer. They’re alt-rock legends who have been around since the early 1990s, and can still sell out stadiums. They’re a household name, and one of the most frequently memed bands around. If you want to delight a room full of millennials or Gen-Xers, play one of their hits like “Say It Ain’t So,” “Island in the Sun,” or “Buddy Holly.”
What Happened?
You might notice that these hits are from Weezer’s first and third albums, out of fifteen studio releases. These albums continue to dominate their top tracks on Spotify, and their most recent hit was a cover of Toto’s “Africa” in 2018. After a legendary three-album run from 1994 – 2001 (second album Pinkerton wouldn’t be lauded until well after its release), Weezer released the good-but-not-stellar Maladroit in 2002 and then blew everything up with fifth album Make Believe in 2005. Many critics gave the album scathing reviews, with Pitchfork famously bestowing it with a 0.4/10 rating. Make Believe also gave us the divisive single “Beverly Hills,” which I personally can’t stand but others must love – it’s played almost as much as their pre-2002 hits on Spotify.
Weezer have released ten studio albums since Make Believe, and boy has it been an uneven ride. After critics were kinder to Weezer (The Red Album) in 2008, they hit something of a nadir with Ratitude in 2009 and then remained stuck in a rut with Hurley the next year. They had a brief renaissance in the mid-2010s with Everything Will Be Alright in the End and Weezer (The White Album), but then Pacific Daydream and cover album Weezer (The Teal Album) brought things back down, despite both albums providing hit singles. Of their most recent albums and the SZNZ series of EPs, only the 2021 orchestral album OK Human got a “hey, this is actually good!”
In other words, it’s very rare to find someone who hates Weezer. It’s even rarer to find someone who loves every Weezer album.
Personal History
I have fond memories of listening to Weezer in the early 2000s, and then thinking “what is this crap?” when I first heard “Beverly Hills.” I still have never owned Make Believe, and jumped off the Weezer bandwagon around this time. I jumped back on for Everything Will Be Alright in the End and Weezer (The White Album) a few years after those came out, but that’s been it.
7. Kings of Leon
If you’re old enough to remember 2009-2010, you’ll remember it was impossible to escape Kings of Leon and their songs “Use Somebody” and “Sex on Fire” that year. Their debut EP Holy Roller Novocaine and studio album Youth & Young Manhood both dropped in 2003, but it took quite a few years for this Nashville family band to catch on in the US. This wasn’t the case in the UK, where the Followills were quickly hailed as rock legends and found their most fervent fanbase. Their third album Because of the Times topped UK charts when released in 2007, and their fourth album Only By The Night (which contains their aforementioned megahits) is certified a ludicrous 10x platinum there. Notably, they have completely changed their sound since they started out, and their early releases sound nothing like their peak commercial albums.
What Happened
Almost everyone seemed to completely lose interest in Kings of Leon after 2010, and it’s hard to think of why. Critics never loved the band’s music, especially not Only By the Night, but that certainly didn’t stop them before. Their fifth album Come Around Sundown came out at the height of their popularity in 2010, but it failed to re-capture the lightning in a bottle of its predecessor. Granted, it still did very well commercially compared to other bands, and its single “Pyro” is still one of their most-streamed hits, but it still marked a major fall-off. The band would later admit that making this album was “not fun,” and the pressure from being called “sell-outs” by earlier fans while still trying to maintain their momentum really got to them. This culminated in a series of rocky tour appearances, and the band canceled their 2011 tour early after a particularly disastrous show. After averting disbandment and taking a much-needed break, the Followills got back together to release sixth album Mechanical Bull in 2013. Kings of Leon-mania had certainly died by this point, and did not come back for their seventh or eighth studio albums, but the band seems like it might be alright with a smaller fanbase and less-constant radio play.
Personal History
I actually got into Kings of Leon right when they started in 2003, enjoying their then-gritty, southern, sound as something of a novelty among all the other indie rock bands at the time. I cooled on them when they moved away from that style with Because of the Times and Only by the Night, and I think being inundated with their big hits in 2010 made me jump off their bandwagon. I actually did pick up Come Around Sundown a few years ago, and I have to say it’s not nearly as bad as I expected. Maybe I’ll eventually get Mechanical Bull too.
