10 Rock Bands That Saved Their Careers With One Album

Rock and roll has never been known to be the most stable of occupations. Even though it might be fun to make your way to the top, the pop world is unpredictable, and you can find yourself going back down to the bottom of the barrel in no time at all. It can take only a few months for people to forget about you, but it can also take just one project to turn things around.

Because before these albums, these artists were far from their peak. For the past few releases prior to these albums, these bands were either on their last legs or going through some of the rougher parts of their career. This was definitely considered a slump era for them, until these albums turned things around. Now does that mean all of these albums are perfect? No. In fact, there are a lot of albums on here that are far below the usual standards that these bands were known for.

What gave them the edge though was their commitment to the band, with everyone giving as much as they could to the project and no longer trying to phone it on or rest on their laurels. They had spent enough time in the doldrums, and this was the moment where they reminded us why we considered them legends back in their prime.

If you were to look at the state of rock in 1994, it would be safe to say that you wouldn't have heard from any other members of Nirvana these days. Kurt Cobain's death was practically a shroud around the entire alternative scene, and there was no reasonable way for Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl to continue on without him. Though Krist found another life in the world of politics, Dave actually managed to get up and starting walking again just from making a few demos in his spare time.

Because the Foo Fighters' debut record is just that, made up of a bunch of tracks that Dave Grohl was working on to get him out of his grief and depression. Playing most of the instruments himself, Dave never thought that it would be an actual band or anything, just recording some of his favorite songs that he wrote and even having the chance to become Tom Petty's drummer at the time. Dave decided to take the gamble with his own band though, and this was the skeleton of what he would become.

While the rest of the band aren't accounted for yet, the core sound of the Foos is already there, just with a bit of a grunge tinge to it. Though you can hear memories of the In Utero days on a song like X-Static, the more bombastic heaviness like I'll Stick Around wasn't nearly as depressing as what had come before. Fans needed to start moving on, and this one gave us a sign that rock could still thrive even with the voice of a generation gone.