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

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

Ok, so i change my answer to Gus Gus.

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

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.

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.)

Some days I think Led Zeppelin would fit here.

"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)

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

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.

roxy music

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

My nomination: The Pursuit Of Happiness.

Big & Rich

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

New York Dolls
David Johansen (solo career)

Hootie & the Blowfish?

Blue Cheer, maybe.

Montrose.

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.

Meat Loaf

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

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

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

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).

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

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.

Did you like her first record?

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

Unquestionably.

You outcho damn mind

OK what's your choice, kemosabe?

The House of Love

eno is an interesting option here, because i do kind of agree with that, but I would say that the actual slope of his decline is very, very gradual, and the degrees of 'worseness' between each record are very slight.

flying burito bros

Feel free to shoot me down: Bjork.

The Dolls' debut and their second album are really really really close, and both really great. I'd give the first one the edge myself, but I can definitely see how the second one adds more roll to the rock, and they're both among the best albums of the '70s. So I'm not gonna fight Kevin on that one.

By the same token, there are days I think Warrant's followup was better than their debut, too, and Dog Eat Dog and Ultraphobic are both way better than most people give them credit for, but Warrant might well belong on this thread anyway, for slight incremental dropoffs (sort of like Eno!)

Rednex? Aqua? (They both eventually made third albums, right? Never heard them, but I doubt they'd be as good as the first two, and in both cases the second one was a major dip from the first.) The Briefs? Black Lips? (The latter still making good albums, but seems there's a gradual steady decline there.) How good is the third Electric Six album?

I hate to say this, but sometimes I feel this way about Curtis Mayfield, especially if you only count his studio albums. There's still lots of good songs on his latter albums, but none of them reach the same glorious levels as Curtis. He made so many records that there's bound to be some ebb and flow though, some of his disco material is probably better than his mid-to-late nineties soul records.

Feel free to shoot me down: Bjork

Oi! Michael! No!

The Velvet Underground

KELIS.

Generation X
Billy Idol (solo career)

The Living End

X, maybe. (I know the consensus has always been than Wild Gift was better than their debut, but I've never been totally convinced of that.)

David Banner -- at least if you don't count Screwed and Chopped albums (the S&C Mississippi is better than the non-S&C one), and don't count whatever he did for tiny labels pre-Mississippi (I've never heard that Firewater Boyz or Crooked Lettaz stuff, but that's a group, right?)

DJ Shadow, maybe?

Static X