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

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oops, i just remembered that metallica's best album ever is neither *kill em all* nor *ride the lightning,* but rather *garage inc*! so cross them off the list.

― xhuxk, Saturday, 21 May 2005 20:38 (nineteen years ago) link

Supergrass are the opposite. Improved with every single album so far.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 21 May 2005 21:27 (nineteen years ago) link

three months pass...

Echo & the Bunnymen?

― late adopter, Wednesday, 24 August 2005 06:21 (eighteen years ago) link

Nurse With Wound!

-- Dadaismus (dadaismu...), May 20th, 2005 8:25 PM.

There must be at least 15 NWW albums that invalidate that, but at the very least: Shipwreck Radio is one of the best releases in years.

I'll submit A Certain Ratio.

― Sasha (sgh), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 07:05 (eighteen years ago) link

I think that it should be made explicit that the reason no-one responded to the suggestion of Massive Attack is that no-one felt they had to. Mezzanine>Protection by a mile.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 11:36 (eighteen years ago) link

Prince

― shookout (shookout), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 11:42 (eighteen years ago) link

Prince might work if Sign O' The Times was his debut.

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 12:15 (eighteen years ago) link

pet shop boys

I was going to mention this as a possibility, though I see that Xhuxk got there first. I can't say with certainty though, since I haven't heard their later albums.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 24 August 2005 12:52 (eighteen years ago) link

>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 (eighteen years ago) link

And I am more sure than ever that the Meat Puppets belong here (maybe even starting with their little *In a Car* EP).

And Prince might work if he started with his third album, as far as I'm concerned.

― xhuxk, Thursday, 25 August 2005 13:01 (eighteen years ago) link

A friend suggests Godspeed! You Black Emperor

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 25 August 2005 15:25 (eighteen years ago) link

PSB's output oscillates, although I have to say "Release" was an all time low.

― ryansf (ryansf), Thursday, 25 August 2005 15:31 (eighteen years ago) link

I can't take the Red Kross comments up above. They had a long slow climb to reach the peaks of "Third Eye" and "Phaseshifter". Am I wrong or do they not urinate on "Teen Babes" and "Neurotica"?

― everything, Thursday, 25 August 2005 16:06 (eighteen years ago) link

The Raincoats
Xiu Xiu (who probably were never all that good in the first place, but still).

― xhuxk, Saturday, 3 September 2005 17:19 (eighteen years ago) link

I think Xiu Xiu's kept improving, personally, although I haven't heard their latest yet.

Echo & the Bunnymen?
Sorry, I prefer Heaven Up Here over Crocodiles.

― Ian Riese-Moraine: Let this bastard out, and you'll get whiplash! (Eastern Mantr, Saturday, 3 September 2005 17:41 (eighteen years ago) link

nah, *Crocodiles* was definitely their peak, no contest. They never came close to "Rescue" or "Villier's Terrace" again. But whether they continued to decline steadily after that is for somebody else besides me to decide. (Actually, I really liked this greatest hits EP that came out in the mid/late '80s called, I think, *Echo and the Bunnymen.* Doubt it came out in the UK,though, and I also doubt it counts.)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 3 September 2005 17:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Papas Fritas, though it was a thoroughly enjoyable decline.
Archers of Loaf. Not so enjoyable.
Freedy Johnston, I think.
De Artsen. That's cheating, and stupid, but I just like to mention them whenever I can. Or can't, I guess.

― marc(drums) (marcdrums), Saturday, 3 September 2005 18:36 (eighteen years ago) link

Wire might fit here too I just realized (though there are I guess those who'll say that recent stuff might be better than their stuff from the late '80s, and maybe they're right)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 3 September 2005 18:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Tunak Tunak.

― PB, Saturday, 3 September 2005 18:51 (eighteen years ago) link

Animal Collective, maybe

― xhuxk, Saturday, 3 September 2005 18:59 (eighteen years ago) link

Nobody would claim "Ummagumma" was better than anything that followed, would they?

Well, you sure wouldn't, Geir, but I've got no trouble ranking that higher than Momentary Lapse of Reason, say, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone.

Redd Kross seems wrong to me too, though admittedly I know songs more than albums. But I definitely think the stuff I know from Teen Babes and Neurotica slays what I know from Born Innocent.

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 3 September 2005 19:08 (eighteen years ago) link

(I know that sounds dumb but I do really love what I know of the 70s covers and noise/power pop songs and just kinda like the 13-year-olds-throwing-tantrums stuff.)

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 3 September 2005 19:12 (eighteen years ago) link

(I will get the entire albums when I find them or when I find a file-sharing programme that makes it through the resnet firewall.)

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 3 September 2005 19:13 (eighteen years ago) link

Weezer's probably (hopefully) been mentioned a half-dozen times already, but they really own this thread.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Saturday, 3 September 2005 19:14 (eighteen years ago) link

Er, only if *Pinkerton* is their debut. Which it isn't.

― xhuxk, Saturday, 3 September 2005 19:18 (eighteen years ago) link

eight months pass...

Bongwater!!

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Sunday, 28 May 2006 16:37 (eighteen years ago) link

Beta Band- I love them, but a clear but gentle descent across their discography from brilliant and idiosyncratic to utterly lost.

― gekoppel (Gekoppel), Sunday, 28 May 2006 17:01 (eighteen years ago) link

The Prodigy.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Sunday, 28 May 2006 17:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Nah, Music for the Jilted Generation is better as an album, Experience has great tracks but they're all samey, works better as individual tunes.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 28 May 2006 20:08 (eighteen years ago) link

progist

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Sunday, 28 May 2006 20:21 (eighteen years ago) link

Well, the thread was about album output, not single output.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 28 May 2006 20:24 (eighteen years ago) link

Bon Jovi maybe?

Also, Mayhem, if you leave out demos and live albums: De Mysteriis > Wolfs Lair Abyss > Grand Declaration Of War > Chimera
Katatonia can be taken off the list, as they've just released a better album than Viva Emptiness (although it's still not in the league of the first three).

― Siegbran (eofor), Sunday, 28 May 2006 20:35 (eighteen years ago) link

Outkast

(Watch dudes who have never heard Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik or ATLiens flip out.)

― Dr. Rodney's Original Savannah Band (R. J. Greene), Sunday, 28 May 2006 20:39 (eighteen years ago) link

Can I just mention how little I like the word "output" used to describe music? It makes albums and singles sound like some kind of extruded waste matter.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Sunday, 28 May 2006 20:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Have you ever heard Aquemeni????

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Sunday, 28 May 2006 20:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Dudes! Manic Street Preachers!

Come off it, no way was Gold Against the Soul better than the Holy Bible.

I dunno. I know conventional knowledge is that Holy Bible is the very best of them, but I find it almost unlistenable. I haven't listened to all of Gold Against The Soul (it may just be THAT bad), so I can't be sure, but I suspect that I at any rate would agree with the Manics.

Don't see what people are getting at with the Pets. Actually is significantly better than Please, Behaviour is significantly better than the terrible Introspective (some great singles, but really uninspired production. except for Left To My Own Devices), and Very is [arguably] better than Behaviour. (I personally am not crazy about either Behaviour or Very; but Actually is amazing.)

― Atnevon (Atnevon), Sunday, 28 May 2006 21:04 (eighteen years ago) link

Also, Mayhem, if you leave out demos and live albums: De Mysteriis > Wolfs Lair Abyss > Grand Declaration Of War > Chimera

You mean, they were at their best when they were just a small, local cellar band in my own native Ski, Norway?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 28 May 2006 21:08 (eighteen years ago) link

x-post

Aquemini is great, but not as good as their first two.

― Dr. Rodney's Original Savannah Band (R. J. Greene), Sunday, 28 May 2006 21:10 (eighteen years ago) link

(I agree about the word output, though.)

― Dr. Rodney's Original Savannah Band (R. J. Greene), Sunday, 28 May 2006 21:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Well, the last album that Outkast have yet to release is one of the 3-4 best albums ever by a hip-hop act (partly because there isn't a lot of hip-hop in the second half)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 28 May 2006 21:16 (eighteen years ago) link

Resisting.....impulse.....to.....flame......not...worth..it.......

― Dr. Rodney's Original Savannah Band (R. J. Greene), Sunday, 28 May 2006 22:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Butthole Surfers is so fucking wrong. Their first was okay kinda weird punk but a few albums later they got REALLY fucked up, and that's when it got good.

― Period period period (Period period period), Sunday, 28 May 2006 22:56 (eighteen years ago) link

Nah, I think Butthole Surfers pretty much makes sense. When they replaced actual songs with psychedelic jackoff, they got more boring (and sorry, not weirder, not really.)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 28 May 2006 23:16 (eighteen years ago) link

Asia

― pleased to mitya (mitya), Monday, 29 May 2006 01:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Madonna from Erotica and onwards

― sotough, Monday, 29 May 2006 11:19 (eighteen years ago) link

Madonna's worst ever album was "Erotica".

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 29 May 2006 11:22 (eighteen years ago) link

(Except she was probably even worse by the time she released "Justify My Love" - the worst Madonna "song" ever.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 29 May 2006 11:23 (eighteen years ago) link

You mean, they were at their best when they were just a small, local cellar band in my own native Ski, Norway?

No, because their demos were crap and the live recordings I've heard pre-1990 were absolutely terrible too.

Also, Notorious B.I.G.

― Siegbran (eofor), Monday, 29 May 2006 11:34 (eighteen years ago) link

No way. Erotica is coherent and fantastic, Bedtime Stories almost as good. A steady stream downhill since that, except that American Life is probably a bit better than Music

― sotough, Monday, 29 May 2006 11:42 (eighteen years ago) link

dr buzzards original 'savannah' band
odyssey
patrick hernandez

― dave q (listerine), Monday, 29 May 2006 12:23 (eighteen years ago) link

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