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

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.

Whoops - substitute Death Certificate for Lethal Injection

House of Love's Butterfly LP is better than first LP anyway

How many times have the Pistols been mentioned?

Plenty? Sorry

Black Flag - w/o a doubt - eventhough 'My War' was my youth bible - it's served me really well.... Fuck you Greg Ginn/Dale Nixon. All your fault.

RAMONES. they never topped it (Their debut). High bar, but...

dj shadow for sure

yeah, unless you count the albums with Cut Chemist, like xhuck is doing for Johansen

How about Portishead?

They weren't that good to start with but I guess the Mission UK would fit the bill

I think mentioning artists who have released only two albums is kinda pointless, because it's like 50-50 chance they're second album is either better or worse than the first.

Like Kula Shaker, who fell out of this category last year as that album was better than "Pigs, Peasants and Astronauts".

The Walkmen

Ratt?

I retract this now. (New album is really good.)

Hongro

Allan Sherman -- at least judging from the four albums I heard that were reissued this year: My Son the Folksinger (11-'62) >>>> My Son the Celebrity (1-'63) >> My Son The Nut (8-'63) >>>>>>> For Swingin' Livers Only (11-'64). (But I've never heard his two albums that charted between those last two, namely Allan In Wonderland and Peter And The Commissar. Still seems his creativity was on a clear downhill slide since the start, though. But I basically still like the first three albums, at least enough to keep them.)

two posts to get to a major Clash challops.

Rush
Luther Vandross
Goldie
Kanye West
Pram

but 'moving frontier' is much better than 'museum of imaginary animals' and really are you saying that 'gash' is pram's high point then?

buzzcocks

EPMD fucking mumble over Zapp. I like thier first few singles, but lost interest quick.

sbed pappawheelie for this