Mastodon, "Black Tongue"
With Crack The Skye, Mastodon had kind of reached the end of an exploration, into very prog-y songwriting. In a lot of ways, it mirrored where Metallica had reached with ...And Justice For All, and with both bands, the next album represented a real break in style. In Metallica's case, it was driven by tragedy, with Cliff Burton's tragic death. In Mastodon's case, it seemed to be driven by just a desire to move in a new direction. The Hunter, the album in question, is not their best work. It's still very good, but I personally find the epic stuff from their previous albums more engaging. It's not until Emperor of Sand that I'm not back fully on board.
Superchunk, "Phone Sex"
By the time Superchunk reached Here's To Shutting Up, the limitless energy from classic records like On The Mouth and Here's Where The Strings Come In had finally dissipated. The three albums after Strings exhibited continually diminishing returns, and as the name of this album suggested, Superchunk hung up their guitars. Maybe an album or two too late, but I'm not someone who considers a legacy tarnished by less-than-perfect records.
Of course, much to my surprise, Superchunk ended up having a second act, which didn't eclipse their original peak records, but has turned out to be fantastic. This album wound up being their worst record, but was just a temporary dip and not a career petering out.
Deerhunter, "Agoraphobia"
Deerhunter is one of those indie rock bands beloved of the press that I listen to and like just fine, but I find totally forgettable. I'm clearly missing something, but it's not clear what it is. This is fine! I'm going to not recall a thing about it in ten minutes!
Cthulhu Rise, "Opus 24"
Instrumental progressive metal inspired by Lovecraftian literature? Why yes, I was definitely going to check that out. And yeah, it's fun! The Mythos touches are limited somewhat, being instrumental, but there are plenty of entertaining bits to this that make it worthwhile. I only have this one album, 42, and feel like it's enough.
Death Grips, "Two Heavens"
This is actually one of the more conventional moments on Government Plates, which I think we had another track from recently. This is relatively minimal, and there are moments in here that you could almost picture in a rap song from other groups.