With the release of Damon Albarn's first solo LP Everyday Robots, I've started thinking about other artists who have been in the music game for a long time, but have never chosen to go solo. Here are six artists that I would love to hear solo albums from.
1. Jeff Tweedy of Wilco
Jeff Tweedy recently played a folk singer in an episode of Portlandia, which made me realize that he has never actually released any solo work. Wilco works excellently together as a band and indulges all of Tweedy's experimental tendencies, but he could probably write an excellent folk/country LP by himself.
2. Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian
Belle & Sebastian may be a band (a massive one, at that), but the earliest Belle & Sebastian songs seem like Stuart Murdoch solo recordings featuring his friends. When the band became bigger and other members began contributing to songwriting, the albums were still great, but they lost the folky intimacy of the early work, which is why I'd like to see Stuart Murdoch return to his lo-fi roots on his own, at least for one album.
3. Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney/Wild Flag
Both Sleater-Kinney and Wild Flag are no more, which has left a massive void in the music world shaped liked Carrie Brownstein. Though she's probably busy enough with all of her Portlandia work, she's far too talented to not be releasing music. She seems like the kind of person who's more comfortable within a band, but any album with the name "Carrie Brownstein" on top of it would do very well, and hopefully turn a lot of people on to Sleater-Kinney and riot grrrl who would otherwise never know about them.
4. Michael Stipe of R.E.M.
As far as I can tell, Michael Stipe never contributed to the music on any R.E.M. album, just the lyrics and vocal melodies, so the type of album he would make if he were completely in charge is a total mystery. He could do an arty punk album in the vein of his friend Patti Smith, or maybe he would return to R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People gloom-folk phase. The album might not even be any good, since he has no history of writing music, but it would be interesting at the very least.
5. Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse
A lot of Modest Mouse's music has always sounded to me like some freaky, twisted sort of country rock, and if the acoustic songs on The Moon & Antarctica are any indication, an Isaac Brock solo LP would be a breathtakingly beautiful and heartbreaking album.
6. Guy Picciotto of Fugazi
The last album Fugazi released was The Argument, all the way back in 2001. Since then, Ian MacKaye started the Evens with his girlfriend Amy Farina, but Guy Picciotto hasn't recorded an album with any project since The Argument, choosing to focus on producing albums instead. Since it doesn't seem like Fugazi is returning any time soon, I'm sure Fugazi fans would be thrilled if Picciotto returned to the studio on his own.
Who do you think should go solo? Let us know in the comments section!
