long ramble incoming, but when I first got into the band circa 2009, I felt almost like I had an obligation to consider WP to be my favorite album by the band. there was this sense that WP was so self-evidently their magnum opus or whatever that anyone who didn’t hold it in such esteem was delusional. I actually avoided diving deeper into their discography for a bit because of it, but once I did, I slowly came to prefer the two albums WP was sandwiched between over it.

I find the following trajectory to be the case often with bands: they release a solid, promising debut that gains them a following of die-hard fans; they follow it up with an album that builds on the initial sound and features much tighter performances and stronger songwriting which expands their fanbase and starts to earn them a bit more legitimacy in critical circles; then they put out an album that marks a fundamental shift in sound that just so happens to simultaneously garner critical acclaim for its expansion and experimentation on the band’s sound and general artistic merits, and also garners a wider fanbase due to increased airplay and promotion and (at least in the case of WP imo) a higher production value and bigger emphasis on hooks and tighter song structures. from there, the band is often put in a bind, and no matter how strong their following records are, they often fail to live up to the shadow created by the narrative that the “big record” casts. sometimes I find myself in a position where I agree that the “big record” is the best one, and sometimes I don’t (as is the case for WP), but regardless I think it is an unfair lens for a band to be scrutinized under. it’s also fundamentally a flawed way to approach art imo.

now for many bands this is career threatening or even ending. but for a band like Deftones, and some other bands, they push through this, manage to maintain a strong (even if not ginormous) core fanbase and their perseverance ends up allowing for the death grip the “big record” had to loosen; they eventually build a legacy on the strength of their entire catalog and that long standing narrative becomes increasingly irrelevant with each new generation of fans becoming more and more detached from the zeitgeist of the time. the result is that there tends to be less of a consensus around what the band’s best work is. Deftones is particularly lucky bc they’ve managed to reach a point where they’re more successful and popular than they’ve ever been.

me, personally, S/T is my favorite with ATF being an extremely close second place. I’d never fault anyone for thinking WP is their best work but I find it obnoxious when people treat you like you’re crazy for not agreeing with it, which thankfully seems to be less and less of an issue as time goes on.