Acts whose entire album output has always been on the decline, with no exception

Guns n Roses is the obvious answer.

the obvious answer to being twiddly dogshit from the outset perhaps, yeah

Michael Jackson

You think Ben, Music & Me, and Forever, Michael are all better than Off the Wall??

GnR might work, if Spaghetti Incident had come before the two Illusion CDs, but it didn't.

And if Chinese Democracy wasn't great.

Also, 8 Diagrams is better than Iron Flag, and I could even argue that it's better than Wu-Tang Forever.

Do you really think that Ummagumma and Saucerful and Atom Heart Mother >> Dark Side, WYWH, Animals, and the Wall?

Frankly, I do!

Interpol is the most obvious one for me.

gtfo with idea that 8 diagrams is better than of the four albums before. don't even want to hear that bullcrap.

Great argument, I'm convinved.

Convinced.

Personally I'd rate them: 36 Chambers = The W > Forever > 8 Diagrams > Iron Flag. Iron Flag has a nice start, 4 of the first 5 tracks (except for "Soul Power") are really good, but the it veers off to autopilot Wu mode with nothing particularly new or interesting.

iron flag is my favorite wu album except for the debut. it's their party record. 8 diagrams isn't worth a bowl of warm piss

really one of the most disappointing albums i've ever heard

Yeah Michael Jackson almost works if you disregard the solo albums he recorded from 1972-1974. They really are not that good and MJ himself didn't write anything (as he was like, 13).

still Michael Jackson albums tho innit

My highly subjective opinion vs. common wisdom, but for me, The Replacements. If you disregard "Stink" as an EP vs. LP, my far and away favorites are the debut and "Hootenanny" >>> the highly overrated "Let It Be" and everything that came after.

Yes to the Junior Boys!!

The Smithereens?

xp Yeah, I'm pretty sure I mentioned the Replacements somewhere upthread, too. Wouldn't have thought this in the '80s, but I really do think they peaked with their punk-rock debut, and got progressively worse from there.

>the replacements came dangerously close to fitting this model. and there's probably 1 or 2 days out of any given week when i could convincingly make the argument<

This morning I am actually thinking they might be one of the best examples of it.

― xhuxk, Thursday, 25 August 2005 12:51 (5 years ago)

Slow enough morning for me to research it, glad some others agree!

The Replacements? Not in this reality! Let It Be, Tim, Pleased To Meet Me all way better than Hootenanny alone. At the very least, Tim is better than Let It Be.

hootenanny >>>>>>>>>>>> tim >> pleased to meet me.

hootenanny is funnier, looser, brattier, catchier, pretty much everythingier. on any given day, hootenanny, sorry ma..., or let it be could be my fave of theirs, and all of them blow away anything they recorded for sire, and on those 1 or 2 days per week noted above, i'd definitely support the replacements argument in this thread.

<<Pavement, though mostly by minor degrees.>>

this is true.

Yep, I love the slapdash Hootenanny WAY more than when they seemed to be straining harder to make a polished recording. I've tried for years with Tim, believe me.

Belle and Sebastian. Peaked with Tigermilk and then downhill all the way.

I could understand how someone might make the argument for the replacements EXCEPT for Hootenanny being better than Let It Be. I don't agree that they fit this thread, but I could understand something thinking it, except Let It Be just seems better in almost every way than Hootenanny.

Speaking of...what about R.E.M.?

10,000 Maniacs is a good example I think.

Lots of people here would agree re R.E.M.

Re: Belle & Seb - wouldn't agree w/ Tigermilk being their best, but could see the argument. No way Fold Yr Hands & Storytelling are better than DCW & TLP tho.

Ah right, forgot to show all before searching for R.E.M.

dEUS, probably.

dEUS

does not exist afaik

What?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU3JrXt_cPk

Aha, I see.

Worst Case Scenario > In a Bar, Under the Sea > The Ideal Crash > The other two

(ignoring My Sister = My Clock on the basis that it's not really an album)

10,000 Maniacs def does not fit, their debut was kind of ropey and their last was one of their best

Yeah Michael Jackson almost works if you disregard the solo albums he recorded from 1972-1974. They really are not that good and MJ himself didn't write anything (as he was like, 13).

I like his 80s albums better than "Off The Wall" but know there are lots of "Off The Wall" fans here. Seriously I think the new tracks on "HIStory" were considerably better than the ones on "Dangerous" though.

I agree with Geir, History was a better album than Dangerous.

I've been mentioning her a lot lately because I'm a rehabbing Lamb: Mariah Carey. WHAT HAPPENED AFTER EMANCIPATION OF MIMI!?! E=MC2 and Memoirs sounded like the cast-off crap that ends up on a typical DJ Finesse or DJ Ant-Lo baby makin' mixtape. Merry Christmas II You was what finally made me snap and give up on her completely.

I also absolutely loathe the Butterfly album but I think that has to do with both Mariah and her Lambs still being a creepy level of obsessive over the CD nearly 14 years later. I'm of the rare mindset that it's no longer 1997 and Butterfly hasn't aged very well.

love e-mc2 except for the six "we belong together" rewrites that sucked, which doesn't sound like a hearty endorsement, but the rest is really fun

Montrose

Good call Bill.

History has some of the best songs ("Stranger in Moscow" is hands down his best song post-Thriller) but as an album it's really, really boring past like track 6. Dangerous spreads it out a bit more and generally has more interesting things going on. But I see where you're coming from.

I would say the tracks on "Dangerous" sounds a bit too much alike, particularly the Terry Riley produced ones. "HIStory" has a better combination of different producers and different styles. And the ballads are also slightly less sappy, say what you like about "You Are Not Alone" and "Earth Song", but they are still considerably better songs than "Heal The World" and "Gone To Soon".

Call me a sap but I really like "Will You Be There?". I think Dangerous is good if you don't try to listen to it all at once. I guess I could go both ways. In the end I think the first 6 songs or so of History are definitely his best post-Bad. Also there were a couple of tracks on Blood on the Dancefloor that were killer...

"Will you be there?" I had to stop when I heard this.

Back in the day, when Scritti had their direction change to pop music, the b-side of "Sweetest Girl" was "Lions after Slumber", and I remember thinking "MJackson should hear this one".

Clearly, he did. Compare the end bit of "Will you be there" to it.

"Will You Be There" is OK, but not really a slow song to the same extent as the ones I mentioned though.

But, sure, of course "HIStory" also contains his version of "Smile", which is the king of sappiness. And "Childhood" as well is rather horrible. "Little Susie", for all its strangeness and weird subject matter, I think is quite nice though, reminding me a bit of "Like An Angel Passing Through My Room" from ABBA's "Visitors" album.

Cut Copy: I Thought Of Numbers > Bright Like Neon Love > In Ghost Colours > the two teaser tracks from the new one

I'd nominate Charlotte Hatherley, all three of her albums are great but they've got slightly weaker.

I'm tempted to say The Hidden Cameras, although the last two albums are about equal.