I really like Ivy’s album Apartment Life. I’ve got several more of their albums, though, and while the sound is similar, none of them really go beyond OK.
I’m also a big fan of Nelly Furtado’s first album, Whoa! Nelly – it’s great pop music. Her subsequent albums? I’ve tried listening to each of them, but I always return to the debut.
What about you? What (reasonably prolific) artists have captured your fancy with one album but haven’t managed to do it again?
How about just one song?
I don’t get rap at all; but Eminem’s song Lose yourself rocks me the hell out. I’ve absolutely no use for any of his other songs though.
Pinkerton from Weezer. It’s probably in my list of 10 CDs I’d bring on a desert island. But everything else from the band? Meh.
The Grey Album by Jay-Z.
Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse.
FTR, I’m a big rap fan and I would rather subsist on a diet of liquid concrete than listen to one Eminem song ever again. Then again, I can’t stand most of the popular “artists” in the genre.
Baduizm, Erycah Badu.
That is all that I care to hear from her entire catalog.
Tori Amos, ‘‘Little Earthquakes.’’ It’s an amazing album. Her other stuff… meh.
Probably Calle 13. I love ‘‘Cabeco’’ but I don’t know about their new album. It’s always so disappointing when you fall in love with one album and then the artists’ subsequent attempts make you go, ‘‘Woah, wtf?’’
I am surprised no-one has mentioned Live’s ‘‘Throwing Copper.’’ (well okay, not many posts yet.) It feels as though I am one of a handful of people who think their other stuff is any good.
Joshua Tree is all I can take of U2. I can take less of Radiohead.
Oh wait. This thread is about “perfectly good musical artists”. 
I think Radiohead’s OK Computer is amazing. Possibly my favorite album ever. Can’t say I am into anything else in their catalog. I did not like Kid A.
I really love Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Possibly my SECOND favorite album ever. But other than “She Don’t Use Jelly” I’ve never even heard another Flaming Lips song.
I have The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, but I never got any of her other stuff. That album is fantastic, tho.
All I ever need to hear by REM is “Fables Of The Reconstruction.” Nothing else I’ve heard by them from before it or after it appeals to me at all, but that one album represents some kind of achievement for them, which they attained and then abruptly left behind.
You need to find a copy of The Soft Bulletin, like now.
For one album, I’ll say Interpol. Turn On the Bright Lights was amazing, but Antics and the new one just haven’t done it for me.
One song? That would be Bright Eyes, “Lua”. Hate the rest.
Dream Theater. I have “Images and Words” but subsequent albums just don’t do it for me.
Oooh, U2 is a good one – except the one album I like is Achtung Baby. The rest of their catalog is sonic wallpaper.
Seconded.
Oasis. Try as I might, I’ve never liked anything other than (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, which is great.
Will do. I think my brother has it, will get it from him. Thanks!
I recommend her early Fugees stuff. Only her parts though. She was the only good hip-hop lyricist in the group.
I’m the opposite - I LOVE Antics, can’t get enough of it, but Turn On the Bright Lights and the new one bore me to tears.
I’ll nominate Green Day’s American Idiot. If someone told me ten years ago that I would buy, and frequently listen to, a Green Day album, I’d have thought them barking mad, but it’s a great album. I find myself a lot more tolerant of their other stuff because I know they’re capable of making music like this. I have no interest in owning anything else of theirs, however.
Garbage’s self titled was great, but I can’t get into any of the others.
I’ll probably get skinned for this one… I really like Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell, but can’t get into the rest.
I’ll second Achtung Baby
I’m gonna cheat a little. Back In Black is the only post-Bon Scott AC/DC album you need.
I really really like Goldfinger’s self-titled debut. Everything else I’ve heard smacks of desperate bandwagon jumping to try to come up with another hit.
Blind Faith…
but they only had the one album.