One-album wonders: one perfect record, then silence

Lee Mavers spent years chasing a sound he could hear and nobody could record, disowned the 1990 result, and never released another album. The result he disowned contains "There She Goes" and eleven other perfect jangle-pop songs.

Grace (1994) was the only studio album Buckley completed before drowning in the Wolf River in 1997 at age 30. Its reputation has grown every year since, a voice that made "Hallelujah" definitive and ten originals that match it.

The 1998 solo debut that won five Grammys, fused hip-hop and neo-soul, and sold over 20 million copies. Hill never released a second studio album. The silence only made Miseducation louder.

Cardiff, 1980: one drum machine, one bass, one whispering voice, forty minutes of negative space. Colossal Youth invented a kind of quiet post-punk nobody has improved on, including the band, who split within a year.

The only studio album punk's most notorious band ever made (1977). The band collapsed within months of release; the record rearranged rock music permanently. Rarely has one LP done so much damage.

Recorded mostly in 1972, shelved, and released in 1976 after Jonathan Richman had already moved on to gentler things. "Roadrunner" alone makes it proto-punk scripture; the band that recorded it never made another record.

A side project conducted by mail (Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello swapping tapes) that went platinum and outgrew both members' day jobs. One album in 2003, one reunion tour a decade later, no second record. Ever.

The 1985 album that accidentally invented emo. Guy Picciotto screamed about feelings in a hardcore scene built on toughness, the band burned out within a year, and Picciotto folded into Fugazi. The blast radius is still expanding.

Technically a second album, but Slint dissolved before Spiderland (1991) was even released, and its whispered-then-screaming math-rock blueprint stands alone. Every post-rock band since has been answering it.