Top Ten Momentum Killing Follow-Up Singles to Breakthrough Post-Grunge Albums

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10. Afghan Whigs, "Honky's Ladder"
Greg Dulli is a package deal: if you want to get to his strangely engrossing misanthropy, you have to tolerate his overly reverent appropriation of black music, which can most kindly be described as "hit or miss." Following up Gentlemen, Dulli and the gang came up with the idea of making the first alt-blaxploitation album; while interesting in concept, in execution, Black Love ended up being hookless grunge that happened to have bongos and a B-3.

Pity the people at Elektra; the first line on "Honky's Ladder" is "got you where I want you motherfricker," but because it's the only song on Black Love with a tune, it became the single by default. Sure, for some time Dulli’s claim that Black Love was a concept album about the O.J. murders gave it far more replay value than it ever deserved, but even that explanation still doesn't explain "if you wanna peep on something / Peep what I got stuck between your eyes."

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05. Better Than Ezra, "King of New Orleans"
If you've kept up with BTE in the last half-decade, you might know them for releasing mixed bags of alt-rock that are almost always two years behind the times in terms of prevailing trends. But when they first got started, they were that timeless of creatures: a frat band. Though lacking traditional frat rock credentials such as marathon live shows, excessive noodling, and hemp necklaces, I saw more than my fair share of copies of Deluxe hanging around the house, and "Good" got by on its drunken sing-along vocal tic in the chorus more than it did any sort of melodic hook. Plus, there is also the issue of a rumor I heard that "Desperately Wanting" was about pledging Kappa Sig at LSU.

Anyway, the dividing line between the relative "eras" of BTE is "King of New Orleans," maybe the most overwrought piece of post-grunge to be left off a Seven Mary Three album. Whoever said that the '90s were all about irony never got a load of this song, with its needlessly overdubbed guitars, almost math-rock breakdown, repeated threats of kicking your head in, and, of course, the non-ironic vocal doubling on the key line "Cat Stevens was the greatest singer."

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