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

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

David Johansen (solo career)

Really xhuxk? No love for the Harry Smiths records? I think those're the best things since the solo debut. Though I've listened to both Harry Smiths albums a whole whole lot since they came out, and haven't listened to solo D.J. since...jeez since I left all my vinyl in CA back in '95 I think. Damn things aren't on iTunes either...I need to hear "Frenchette" right about now

ok though I do have my copy of Live It Up, that'll have to do

I haven't listened to the Harry Smiths stuff in a while, but I'm not even sure I liked it better than his Buster Poindexter crap. And I definitely didn't like it better than In Style, which is really good even though nobody else remembers it.) (I wasn't counting Live It Up, though, which is a lot better than Here Comes the Night.)

more:

Dizzee Rascal

And maybe Schoolly D (though, like with the Dolls and Warrant and Poison and X, whether his first album or second one is better is sort of a tossup.)

Ride !!!

Skid Row

man those Harry Smiths records really ruled for me, I was bummed that he did the Dolls reunion because I wanted more of that! they're not the most rockin records in the world tho.

Live It Up rocking the living room!!

dj shadow for sure

Surely not Ride. They never got better than on "Going Blank Again".

Tipustiger was OTM in naming Bad Brains when he posted in 2005...

...but that's been thoroughly dashed by last year's incredibly good "Build A Nation."

Blue Cheer, maybe.

Interesting nomination. I used to think Outsideinside was a lot better than Vincebus Eruptum, though I'm not sure I'd agree with that if I played them back to back now. Also, last year's What Doesn't Kill You... was actually surprisingly good -- probably better than, say, their NWOBHM-era The Beast Is Back or whatever it was called, though I haven't heard the latter in decades. (Never even saw a copy of Dining With the Sharks from '91, though Popoff didn't seem to like it much, so I'm skeptical.)

Ride is indeed one of the most OTM answers in here. Although I cannot compare the last two albums

How could I forget the most perfect example of this: Cyndi Lauper.

She's nominated twice upthread (and only works, of course, if you discount the Blue Angel album.)

The Sugarcubes

Flipper

She's nominated twice upthread (and only works, of course, if you discount the Blue Angel album.)

Weird. A search for "Lauper" but not "Cyndi" turned those nominations up. Anyhoo, the Blue Angel album is discountable here.

The Cult

No way on The Cult. But if we're only counting full-length albums, then David Lee Roth solo for sure.

http://m1.2mdn.net/viewad/1649730/42540/shocked_boy336x280.gif

Yeah, AccuQuote went pretty downhill after their first album. Good call.

The House of Love

was gonna say this, but then remembered that Babe Rainbow is a real honey of an album...

Fat Boys definitely.

Somebody three years ago threw out the Black Flag name, but let's take a closer look. Could it be true that

Early EPS > Damaged > My War > Family Man > Slip It In > Loose Nut > In My Head?

I myself would say no, but--unwilling to let this die--I'm trying to imagine someone who might posit such a thing . . . .

And can't. Let's assume everyone loves the early stuff, and if that means "Jealous Again" over Damaged for the purposes of this thought experiment, then OK.

But HC diehards would hate Family Man more than Slip It In or Loose Nut or In My Head, it seems, while those with bullshit artpunk leanings like myself would dig that crazy Family Man/Process sound more than the stoopid metal vibe of the flipside of My War.

So interesting to think about, but NO.

Kid Creole & the Coconuts?
Off the Coast of Me>Fresh Fruit In Foreign Places > Tropical Gangsters > Wiseguy > Doppelganger
was never able to get into any of the subsequesnt records.

Nah, I like Kid Creole's You Shoulda Told Me You Were a lot, and they were as consistent as Nick Lowe, really, who probably really belongs on this list.

Terence Trent D'Arby? Altho his second album, the one with "She Kissed Me," is kinda cool

Manfred Mann? That first record is so great but then they went space-doodle.

Cyndi Lauper?

A case could be made for Ice Cube, though some days I feel that Lethal Injection is a slight improvement on A.M.W.