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

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No way. Erotica is coherent and fantastic, Bedtime Stories almost as good.

Record buying audiences, particularly here in Europe, disagreed, and that was for a reason. From 1998 onwards, though, everything she has done has been fantastic, other than the somewhat patchy "American Life". She did a correct choice, leaving house and hip-hop/trip-hop behind her forever and making electronica and electro instead.

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 29 May 2006 12:49 (eighteen years ago) link

no, cause at the same time she stopped working with good producers. stuart price is ok, but confessions has only two really good tracks: hung up and get together (the latter being one of the most beautiful tracks she has ever recorded, if you ask me)

record buying audiences in usa certainly don't agree; it's been a steady decline since the amazing take a bow (I think it's her most popular single ever, in terms of record sales?)

and mirwais is obviously a twat, everybody agrees. have you listened to music lately? it's awful

sotough, Monday, 29 May 2006 14:09 (eighteen years ago) link

Notorious B.I.G., for sure.
Arrested Development (duh).
The Streets (so far).

max (maxreax), Monday, 29 May 2006 14:21 (eighteen years ago) link

Annie Lennox, haha

sotough, Monday, 29 May 2006 14:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Daft Punk thirded, and The Prodidy.
While "Music for the Jilted Generation" works great as an album and almost doesn't have any filler, Experience was much more experimental and adventurous.

scnnr drkly (scnnr drkly), Monday, 29 May 2006 14:31 (eighteen years ago) link

King Missile

polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 29 May 2006 16:25 (eighteen years ago) link

The Cars, maybe. And so far the Strokes seem to be following the pattern on a per album basis. 1st = classic, 2nd = 1st album, redux, 3rd = mehly received attempt to break the formula. They certainly have adopted the Cars' "Madame Tussaud's House of Wax" approach to performing.

What this all means is that in 2023 The New Strokes will re-form with Conner Oberst taking over the JC spot.

slugbuggy (slugbuggy), Monday, 29 May 2006 17:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Santa Esmeralda, probably, but I've only heard the first four albums, and the first three are all pretty great (plus I just checked AMG and noticed than, on their fifth, they covered "Hush" and "Street Fighting Man'. Who knew??)

Silver Convention, maybe? (But only if *Love In a Sleeper* came before *Golden Girls,* which I'm not sure it did.)

Billy Squier? (Possibly even including his Piper and Sidewinders albums; I'd have to go back and check.)

The Babys? Point Blank?? You tell me...

xhuxk, Monday, 29 May 2006 17:30 (eighteen years ago) link

and oh yeah:

M.
Au Pairs.
And Flying Lizards?

xhuxk, Monday, 29 May 2006 17:33 (eighteen years ago) link

Santa Esmeralda, probably, but I've only heard the first four albums, and the first three are all pretty great (plus I just checked AMG and noticed than, on their fifth, they covered "Hush" and "Street Fighting Man'. Who knew??)

I only know one song by them but if "Another Cha Cha" isn't the best thing ever, I don't know what is.

Dr. Rodney's Original Savannah Band (R. J. Greene), Monday, 29 May 2006 18:01 (eighteen years ago) link

RENTON: "Right. So we all get old and then we can't hack it any more. Is that it?"

SICK BOY: "Yeah."

RENTON: "That's your theory?"

SICK BOY: "Yeah, Beautifully fucking illustrated."

slugbuggy (slugbuggy), Monday, 29 May 2006 18:09 (eighteen years ago) link

While "Music for the Jilted Generation" works great as an album and almost doesn't have any filler, Experience was much more experimental and adventurous.

Really? Because I see it the exactly the other way around: Experience has a bunch of similar-sounding (but great) hardcore bangers (excluding "Weather Experience", of course) and no filler, whereas Music for the Jilted Generation is more "experimental and adventurous". It ends with three-piece "suit" (which of course could be horrible thing, but fortunately not in this case), for chrissakes, and the sound is much more varied.

Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 29 May 2006 19:04 (eighteen years ago) link

Sorry, But the second Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah band album is just as good as the first, though that third one is too damn weird.

mucho, Monday, 29 May 2006 19:19 (eighteen years ago) link

cool and the gang

Disco Nihilist (mjt), Monday, 29 May 2006 19:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Oingo Boingo?

Patrick South (Patrick South), Monday, 29 May 2006 19:44 (eighteen years ago) link

The Cars, maybe

While I may agree their debut was their best, I would certainly rank "Heartbeat City" ahead of "Panorama".

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 29 May 2006 19:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Tuomas - it's just to me it seems that on "Music for the Jilted Generation" they pretty much knew what sound and what direction they wanted, and in that respect it's a more coherent record compared to Experience, that's why i think that Experience is more experimental. And on some days i would probably agree that "Music" > "Experience".

Ok, so i change my answer to Gus Gus.

scnnr drkly (scnnr drkly), Monday, 29 May 2006 20:02 (eighteen years ago) link

Eno's mathematically perfect descent into soporific noodling seems the obvious answer:

Here Come the Warm Jets > Taking Tiger Mountain > Another Dull World > loads of subsequent records I can't be bothered to remember the names of, and so on

Hot Hot Heat (Hot Hot Heat), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 07:34 (eighteen years ago) link

The Only Ones (the second album is still great, though).

Mats Blomqvist (Blomqvist), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:42 (eighteen years ago) link

has anyone said DEVO yet ?

grapple (grapple), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 10:08 (eighteen years ago) link

Re: Boston; Commercially, you can express their decline mathematically (appropriately enough).

Number of Boston songs still on US 'classic rock' radio playlists, by LP:

1st LP: 9 songs (the entire LP!)
2nd LP: 3 songs
3rd LP: 1 song
4th LP: 0 songs
5th LP: 0 songs

I think that works out to 3^(3-n), where n is the LP sequence number. Round results to the nearest whole number.

drench, Tuesday, 30 May 2006 11:38 (eighteen years ago) link

>has anyone said DEVO yet ? <

yep, see May 19, 2005 above (but also my caveat, since the third album was probably better than the second one. unless it wasn't.)

xhuxk, Tuesday, 30 May 2006 11:50 (eighteen years ago) link

Kool and The Gang nope. Although Wild and Peaceful, Light of Worlds and Spirit of the Boogie are hardly consistently great they are all better than 'Kool and the Gang'.

Some days I think Led Zeppelin would fit here.

Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 12:46 (eighteen years ago) link

and mirwais is obviously a twat, everybody agrees. have you listened to music lately? it's awful

"Music" is great. Reminds me of the good old synthpop that I used to enjoy in the good old early 80s, back when mainstream pop was still good and did not suck like in the 90s.

"Take a Bow" is just a boring mainstream ballad. Reminds me of Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston.

Boston good call btw. (Devo not good call. "Oh No It's Devo" was their best)

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 13:06 (eighteen years ago) link

no way, the fifth Boston album is WAY better than the fourth!

(OK, I had no idea there was a fifth.)

dave's good arm (facsimile) (dave225.3), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 13:13 (eighteen years ago) link

Moby Grape - a stonewall one that

would seem that they define this thread...tho i've never neard "the melvilles" reunion record which, by some accounts, comes close to the debut.

Lawrence the Looter (Lawrence the Looter), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 14:41 (eighteen years ago) link

totally disagree re: Biggie.

deeej, Tuesday, 30 May 2006 15:01 (eighteen years ago) link

re devo - 'oh no' > 'new traditionalists'

roxy music

dave q (listerine), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 16:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Modern Talking

scnnr drkly (scnnr drkly), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 19:06 (eighteen years ago) link

This is way more usual in the movie world btw (Police Academy, anyone?)

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 19:07 (eighteen years ago) link

Son Volt, but I then there isn't place to go after "Trace" but down.

Faithful Shooter (faithfulshooter), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 20:18 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm going to stick in a bid for "Famous Last Words" as being M's best album, actually.

And I'm going to be alone in that opinion, but what the hell.

My nomination: The Pursuit Of Happiness.

Myke. (Myke Weiskopf), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 04:26 (eighteen years ago) link

one year passes...

Big & Rich

xhuxk, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 02:29 (sixteen years ago) link

Pantera, if you don't count the pre-major-label stuff.

Jeff Treppel, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 02:41 (sixteen years ago) link

New York Dolls
David Johansen (solo career)

xhuxk, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 02:55 (sixteen years ago) link

Hootie & the Blowfish?

Jeff Treppel, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 02:57 (sixteen years ago) link

Blue Cheer, maybe.

Jeff Treppel, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 02:58 (sixteen years ago) link

Montrose.

Jeff Treppel, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 03:00 (sixteen years ago) link

I'm tempted to say Plaid, although they're very first stuff (i.e. the first half of the 1st disc of trainer) doesn't touch their 94'ish stuff.

mehlt, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 03:01 (sixteen years ago) link

Meat Loaf

Mark Rich@rdson, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 03:02 (sixteen years ago) link

No way, Bat Out Of Hell II totally smokes his 80s stuff.

Jeff Treppel, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 03:03 (sixteen years ago) link

Oh yeah, duh, I was only thinking of the Steinman records.

Mark Rich@rdson, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 03:07 (sixteen years ago) link

xhuxk, I haven't read the other thread, but would you really rank Dream of Life over Gone Again? (Maybe you would, just curious.)

Sundar, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 03:12 (sixteen years ago) link

New York Dolls

Hells no. The debut rocks like everybody's business. But In Too Much Too Soon is even more inclusive than that, popping and rocking with equal amounts of glee. It's the greatest album of the 1970s.

So definitely not the Dolls (although I usually go the Xgau cheat route and choose that 1978 Brit comp that includes both albums).

Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 03:53 (sixteen years ago) link

greatest album of the 70s??? really???

ian, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 03:57 (sixteen years ago) link

Is it really possible that Liz Phair's newer albums are worse than Whip-Smart? I somehow manage to own a copy of that album...I've listened to it once and it was one of the worst things I've ever heard.

Reatards Unite, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 03:58 (sixteen years ago) link

Did you like her first record?

Mark Rich@rdson, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 04:09 (sixteen years ago) link

greatest album of the 70s??? really???

Unquestionably.

Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 04:09 (sixteen years ago) link

You outcho damn mind

If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 04:23 (sixteen years ago) link

OK what's your choice, kemosabe?

Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, 16 April 2008 04:45 (sixteen years ago) link


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