Is Foster the People as good as Pumped up Kicks?

January 10, 2013 5:07 AM

I used to hear a song I liked, and if I really liked it I'd buy the album. But often that has left me feeling disappointed with the quality of the album as a whole. Sometimes all the songs sound the same and the song I liked is the best possible version of that song. Sometimes the other music on the album just doesn't have the feature(s) that made me love the first song I heard from it. So for a while I've only bought the song I liked, and maybe a few others that sound ok when I preview in iTunes. But I'd like to buy whole albums. Hivemind, what are the awesome albums, new or old, that bear listening all the way through, again and again?
posted by bunderful to media & arts (32 answers total)

The Lumineers. Every. Single. Song. Is. Awesome.

I'd vote "no" on Foster the People. I listen to full albums on Spotify of artists I like, and bookmark any that are good and I want to listen to again. They aren't bookmarked.
posted by DoubleLune at 5:10 AM on January 10 [2 favorites]

Also, Fun. I basically rotate between them and the Lumineers.
posted by DoubleLune at 5:11 AM on January 10 [1 favorite]

The most recent M83 album is pretty awesome.

FWIW, I like Foster the People but Pumped Up Kicks makes me want to puke at this point. They have SOO many better songs than that one overplayed song.
posted by floweredfish at 5:20 AM on January 10 [2 favorites]

They did a Tiny Desk Concert on NPR with some live takes of their popular songs.
posted by danep at 5:21 AM on January 10

Came here to say The Lumineers!

Also, Mat Kearney and Brandi Carlile. I listen straight through all of their albums on a regular basis.
posted by jschu at 5:32 AM on January 10

Musically speaking, what do you like? Folk, indie rock, radio pop?

Last year there were just a few that I listened to over and over.

Damien Jurado's Mariqopa
Denver's S/T
nthing The Lumineers
Spirit Family Reunion
Shakey Graves -- full disclosure, he has a live album coming out soon that was recorded at a house show I organized and put on. But everything he has done is gold.


But I have an admitted folk bent so these might not be up your alley.
posted by youandiandaflame at 5:34 AM on January 10

Answering your title question: YES! The whole Foster the People album, Torches, is great!
posted by The Deej at 5:39 AM on January 10 [1 favorite]

Also, I can listen to basically anything from the Avett Brothers over and over and over. Old and new, that band kills.
posted by youandiandaflame at 5:42 AM on January 10

Another one who likes Foster the People but is incredibly tired of Pumped Up Kicks.

I want to add Two Door Cinema Club. There's not a single song on either of their albums that I skip.
posted by sephira at 5:47 AM on January 10

I like 80s, folk, indie, pop, jazz standards (not experimental). Haven't been able to get into hip-hop or metal.

Just bought Sigh No More by Mumford and Sons, which I do like. Also most of Paul Simon, Pink Martini, Codeine Velvet Club, Annie Lennox, Rolling Stones, Rufus and k d Lang.
posted by bunderful at 5:53 AM on January 10

Why don't you preview them using a service like Spotify? Then you can listen to it as much as you want and give them money if you think it's worth it.
posted by thylacine at 6:01 AM on January 10 [7 favorites]

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue.
Charles Mingus, Ah Um.
posted by soundguy99 at 6:05 AM on January 10

The internet has entire albums on it, you can give them an listen of albums that contain singles you like and then decide to buy them! (ie. Spotify, Rdio, itunes if you only need to hear the first few seconds.) Won't your own opinions be more important than ours? Especially since you want to know if bands you already know are worth it, rather than learning about new bands (which is what would give our opinions primacy.)

That being said, i listen to entire Foster the People album on Rdio and i like it.
posted by Kololo at 6:30 AM on January 10

yeah, Spotify is your friend here! And I love the whole Torches album.
posted by dawkins_7 at 6:38 AM on January 10

With what you like, I'm going to take a stab and say Cocteau Twins, Heaven or Las Vegas.
posted by BibiRose at 6:48 AM on January 10

You should also get Babel by Mumford and Sons. As much as I like Sigh No More, I like Babel better.

Seconding Two Door Cinema Club

I'm also a big fan of Winter of Mixed Drinks by Frightened Rabbit.
posted by Jacob G at 6:53 AM on January 10

Given To The Wild - The Maccabees
posted by metaxa at 7:17 AM on January 10

The Bright Eyes album I'm Wide Awake It's Morning is one that I always listen to all the way through.
posted by The Deej at 7:42 AM on January 10 [1 favorite]

Even after 40 years, I think Jackson Browne's For Everyman and Late For The Sky are two completely solid albums. Not a single piece of filler on either one.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 7:56 AM on January 10

Of Monsters and Men, My Head is an Animal
Arcade Fire, Funeral and The Suburbs
Sigur Rós, Ágaetis Byrjun
Alt-J, An Awesome Wave

Nthing that Rdio is well worth the money. It only costs the equivalent of one album per month to get unlimited access to their whole collection, and they have useful artist discovery tools.
posted by zjacreman at 7:56 AM on January 10

If you're a Paul Simon fan I may not have to recommend his most recent album So Beautiful or So What to you, but if you haven't picked it up, it's great.

Other albums I love as a whole experience:

King's X, Gretchen Goes to Nebraska
HoneyHoney, First Rodeo and Billy Jack
Band of Skulls, Baby Darling Dollface Honey and Sweet Sour
Guster, Lost and Gone Forever and Easy Wonderful
Fountains of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers
Saigon Kick, Water
posted by PussKillian at 8:11 AM on January 10 [2 favorites]

Calexico, Algiers
Chris Whitley, Living with the Law
Grouplove, Never Trust a Happy Song
The Cardigans, First Band on the Moon and Long Gone Before Daylight
Blue Rodeo, Five Days in May
Sun Kil Moon, Ghosts of the Great Highway
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 10:09 AM on January 10 [1 favorite]

weezer: pinkerton
counting crows: august and everything after
aimee mann: bachelor no. 2 or the last remains of the dodo
ben folds five: whatever and ever amen
posted by koroshiya at 11:46 AM on January 10

Nthing the "get on Spotify and check stuff out" advice. It seems like the self-titled Fleet Foxes album might be right up your alley if you haven't already heard it.
posted by wolfnote at 12:14 PM on January 10

I've had Justin Townes Earle's Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now on repeat from start to end for about two, three months now, so I'd suggest that one, if you have any interest in an americana/soul album.

Also Josh Small's Tall is one where I couldn't/wouldn't want to miss any songs on it. Folksy with a strange, underlying 70s rock feel.

Veda Hille's Spine is perfect in its entirety. Indie, poppy, poignant, choppy, perfect!

Bob Dylan's Planet Waves was one that grew on me. I think in terms of the Dylan canon, it's often overlooked, but the album gets better on each listening.

As for Foster the People, I have nothing to contribute, as I don't care for "Pumped Up Kicks" at all.
posted by dearwassily at 12:31 PM on January 10

Both albums by The Do - "Both Ways Open Jaws" and "A Mouthful"
Anything by Frightened Rabbit
Purity Ring -"Shrines"
Slow Club - "Yeah So"

I did the same thing with Jessie Ware's album "Devotion", and love the song that drew me to impulse purchase, but the rest of the album is a bit meh.
posted by robotot at 1:41 PM on January 10

There are two albums that I can listen to all the way through on a regular basis:

"Cruel to Be Young" by Jonezetta and "A Toast to Bad Taste" by Far-Less.

The Far-Less album is particularly good for one-sitting listening because most songs have a bit of the next track woven into the end of them, but in a slightly different form. So at the end of Track 2 you might hear a haunting voice singing something indistinctly, and when you listen to Track 3 you realize that the chorus is the same as the voice at the end of Track 2. I really like it. And the singer's range is amazing in a Freddy Mercury kind of way.
posted by tacodave at 1:50 PM on January 10

Whiskeytown - Stranger's Almanac
posted by platinum at 3:11 PM on January 10

The Velvet Underground & Nico
David Bowie Low
Talking Heads Remain In Light
Fleetwood Mac Tusk
Television Marquee Moon
Nick Drake Pink Moon
The Feelies Crazy Rhythms

If you like the kind of music Pink Martini make, why not get Serge Gainsbourg Comic Strip

a few more recentish full albums I like -

Cat Power The Greatest
Blonde Redhead Misery Is a Butterfly
LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver
The XX (s/t)

I have a feeling Beirut might be the sort of band you'd like? Not my thing but a lot of my friends like them, as in, listen to the whole album. Same for these:

Fleet Foxes self-titled album in 2008 was a big thing.
Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca
Neutral Milk Hotel In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Neko Case Fox Confessor Brings the Flood or Blacklisted
Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot might be something you'd like if you haven't already heard it.
Yo La Tengo I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One and Painful (they have a lot of albums that are prob also quite good, these are the two I know best).
posted by citron at 4:14 PM on January 10 [1 favorite]

You folks are amazing. I honestly did not think of Spotify - I'm a slow adapter and though I have it downloaded I rarely think to use it and tend to go for Pandora.

I can't wait to check out all of this music - so many artists that are new to me! - and will be back to mark best answers.
posted by bunderful at 7:09 PM on January 10

Honestly, I thought Torches by Foster The People was an outstanding album. Another fun one kind of along those lines: The album Odd Blood by Yeasayer. Skip the opening intro track though. The rest is superb.
posted by 2oh1 at 8:12 PM on January 10

Listen to the album Someday My Blues Will Cover The Earth by His Name Is Alive. for some reason it stands out as an album I can still listen to after 10 years. It's (eponymously) blues-y.
posted by WeekendJen at 9:29 AM on January 11