Biggest drops in quality ever

Gang of Four, fr'instance.

also, for my friend Tom: revolver into sgt. pepper's.

I wanted to cry when I heard Black Cherry. And not in a good way.

Dude upthread, if you think Document beats out Murmur-Pageant we cannot talk about Pavement, me and you.

(how on earth does that get the same star rating as New Gold Dream and Reel To Real Cacophony on allmusic?)

and while document blows lifes rich pagent, fables and dead letter office away it does not blow away murmur or reckoning

Shmool OTM on Wu Tang

some others to consider
doolittle to bossanova
teenager of the year to cult of ray

Also, Lauryn Hill.

zeppelin ii is way overrated. i like three better....and houses, and physical graffiti, and most day, presence.

-- Ben Dot (wearethedot...), November 16th, 2004

frank black might be more concise (at least half as many songs) but I dont think teenager was a drop off

No one gives a fuck about GVSB anymore but man this is the winner of the thread hands down.

I just was selling some records and unloaded my special edition double clear blue vinyl of Freakonica. got like 2 bucks for it.

Right on.

Cool, yeah I love Boatman's Call too - In fact, (don't tell anyone) it's my number one pick in the 90s album poll. Not that it'll get anywhere, mind.

-- Naive Teen Idol (matthewweine...), November 16th, 2004.

Geez, "A Passion Play" is my favourite of theirs. I can't think of a Jethro Tull 1-space-between-LPs chronological quality drop that really works for me. "War Child" > "Minstrel in the Gallery" would be my choice, but I have a feeling I wouldn't get too much backup for that.

But the all-time winner is surely Exile on Main Street to Goat's Head Soup.

Also, you may count me in the "OK Computer" -> "Kid A" Crowd.

Plus:
"The Joshua Tree" to "Rattle And Hum"
"The River" to "Nebraska"
"Time" to "Secret Messages"
"Like a Prayer" to "Erotica"
"Andromeda Heights" to "The Gunman And Other Stories"
"(What's The Story) Morning Glory" to "Be Here Now"

"Reckoning" to "Fables Of Reconstruction" almost rivals my previous R.E.M. choice.

Genesis' late 70/80s decline was more gradual.

Then, there are all those bands where a key member (singer or key songwriter) is leaving and the band members aren't wise enough to call it quits. (No, R.E.M. do not belong in that category, as "Up" was a huge leap forward from the awful "New Adventures In Hi-Fi")

But Goats Head Soup is better than it gets credit for IMO.

Not that Republic is bad. It's just that Technique is so awesome. And there was a long gap between them.

Bloody hell!

Morrissey, Viva Hate > Kill Uncle

Spiderland > Tweez

elsewhere:
Dream Syndicate Days of Wine and Roses> The Medicine Show
Dylan Slow Train Coming > 80's Dylan< World Gone Wrong
Butthole Surfers Locust Abortion Technician>Hairway to Stephen
Miles Pangaea>Man With The Horn
Coltrane The Oltunji Concert>death
Modernism>postmodernism

Where's the apology for us Landed fans?

Here, My Dear > In Our Lifetime (I'm on the fence with this one)

Seal (1994) > Human Being

Sorry Nick.

Ah but "High On You" is good! And more to the point it isn't the album after "Fresh", in fact it's:

Fresh > Small Talk

And while we're at it:

High On You > Heard Ya Missed Me, Well I'm Back

Forever Changes > Four Sail

...and while we're at it:

Out Here > False Start

s/t > odyshape >>>>>>>>>> moving

-they gained a second guitarist, yet at what price?

Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation to Goo
Husker Du, Flip Your Wig to Candy Apple Grey
Replacements, Let It Be to Tim

-Just a coincidence that all three jumped to major labels at this time, right?

Yes, Close To The Edge to Tales From Topographic Oceans
-I suppose the triple-live LP in between was a bad sign.

Stevie Wonder, Songs In The Key Of Life to Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants

Ringo > Goodnight Vienna > Rotogravure > ...

One is a joke, one is serious

Wheels of Fire (Studio LP) > Wheels of Fire (Live LP)

Colour By Numbers >>>> Waking Up With The House On Fire

raincoats 'odyshape' >> moving

slits 'cut' >> return of the giant slits [although it's an even more precipitious drop from Cut to once upon a time in a living room bootleg of home recordings thing that rough trade refused to put out it was so bad but maybe that doesn't count cos it was possibly recorded before cut]

how's this for a steep arc:
gang of four 'entertainment! >> solid gold >> songs of the free >>>>>>>>>>>>>[falling off the edge of the world] >>> hard

doors -- la woman >> other voices or full cycle which ever came first [bit unfair as jim morrison died in between but still]

fleetwood mac tusk >>> mirage

smiths queen is dead >>>> strangeways here we come

morrissey viva hate >>> kill uncle

associates sulk >>> perhaps

meat puppets up on the sun >>>> the one that came next with a cover of 'good golly miss molly' on it

re these
>Replacements, Let It Be to Tim
> buttholes, locust to hairway
> starsailor to greetings from LA
i beg to disagree

starsailor and greetings are just incommensurate,

i concur VERY heartily on daydream nation > goo and close to the edge > tales from topographic oceans (which is too fucking long.)

But won't you spare a place in your heart for the moment in Tunic (Song For Karen) when Karen gets to Heaven and says hello to Brian and Dennis and Elvis?

And promises to start playing drums again.

Karen Carpenter and Dennis Wilson double drumming in Heaven? Allmans and Gratefus - MOVE over!

Hey wait a minute-Tunic (Song for Karen)? Place picture of lightbulb here

smiths queen is dead >>>> strangeways here we come

(mediocre in places, but hardly that awful? Although you could take it as the beginning of the long slow slide into crapness for Moz solo I guess)

Orbital - Middle Of Nowhere >> The Altogether
Mouse On Mars - Idiology >> Radical Connector
Kristin Hersh - Hips And Makers >> that utterly forgettable second album

You might find some on ILM disagree with the first half of that equation. Such as, say, me.

You might find some on ILM disagree with the first half of that equation. Such as, say, me.

fair enough! :D

Alex in SF OTM in bold type.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine >> Star Trek: Voyager
*cough*

*sorry. kind of.*

It's just far far harder to feel the energy in the songs on 'Cut' if you'd got totally familiar with the songs 'in the raw' long before you heard the studio album. Saying that at one time I owned virtually everything they released. I guess it took me a while to admit how dissapointed I was with 'Cut' to myself.

*sigh*

Life > Death, I think..

kristen hersh should have stopped after 'hips and makers', she's been lousy ever since but of course that one and most everything before is wonderful.

storm in heaven > a northern soul
richard davies 'there's neve rbeen a crowd like this'>'telegraph'>'barbarians'

Wrong. These were arguably slight drops, but in all of these cases the second album listed is still something pretty great.

And Wowee Zowee is better than CR, CR, being, in fact, the best Pavement album. CR, CR still rules tho. In fact, in its place allow me to present:

Wowee Zowee to Brighten the Corners.

Also,
Minutemen - Double Nickels to Project:Mersh
Primal Scream - Screamadelica to Give Out...
Flaming Lips - Clouds Taste Metallic to Soft Bulletin to, way down the line there, Yoshimi (Zaireeka don't count)

Not in the UK nor Europe no.
MMM Was just an EP over here.

Not in the UK nor Europe no.
MMT Was just an EP over here.

well, project: mersh was intended to be a silly, non-representative diversion, so it's a bit silly to criticize it for not matching up to the landmark that came before it.

plus, project: mersh is absolutely brilliant. despite their worst intentions, i rate it pretty high in the minutemen's catalog. i was just humming "tour spiel" to myself yesterday. "i dreamed i was e bloom..."

Er...I don't understand the allusion; but no, I am not!
Why would you suspect that? (Genuinely curious.)

I'm not anti-major label at all - and in retrospect, I guess I was a bit too hard on Tim. (But not Candy Apple Grey.)

Not that Republic is bad. It's just that Technique is so awesome. And there was a long gap between them.

Agreed - Technique is a throw-it-on-and-let-it-play disc, whereas Republic is hit-and-miss.

and

"Doggystyle" to "The Doggfather"
"Fat Of The Land" to "Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned"
"Poney EP" to "Fanfares EP"

Not in the UK nor Europe no.
MMT Was just an EP over here.

The US release was still a compilation album.

-- everything (everything196...), November 17th, 2004.

I do agree that "Somewhere in Time" is considerably less of an album than "Powerslave", but, going back to it now, it just sounds like they were trying to do something a bit different that didn't work out quite as well as it might have. They were probably delerious from touring (Bruce certainly sounds like it on lots of recordings around '85 or so, like he's tired and lost about what to do with his voice at a given moment), and probably undecided about what to be doing musically. I don't think it was until "Infinite Dreams" that they had done a new song that was COMPLETELY redundant. While I only like "Alexander the Great" as much as anything on the earlier albums (the lyrics are hilarious and the music is really well-written), it still sounds like a band that could maybe take a break and figure something out for the next album. When I heard "No Prayer for the Dying", though, I couldn't imagine what they might have been thinking putting out something like THAT. I read something about them going "back to basics", but, like, these same guys had heard the other Iron Maiden records, right? Whose "basics" were these?

The US release was still a compilation album.

I agree that side TWO was. Side one was new material.

-- Geir Hongro

Geir a Metal Machine Music fan?!?! Surprised the hell out of me!

Surely you must be joking, Mister Hongo? No, I guess you're not.

The Clash, by the way, were one of those rare and valuable artists whose every album was worse than the one before; i.e. The Clash > Give Em Enough Rope > London Calling > Black Market Clash > Sandinista > Combat Rock > Cut the Crap > Whatever Crap They Did After Cut the Crap Assuming They Did Any. (I believe you can do the same thing with Patti Smith, or at least her first five albums.)

-- chuck

To that you can add Pere Ubu (Terminal Tower > The Modern Dance > New Picnic Time > The Art Of Walking > Song Of The Bailing Man); and post-adolescent (sic) Michael Jackson (Off The Wall > Thriller > Bad > Dangerous > Invincible). And dig how those album titles practically tell a story by themselves!

Myonga Von Bontee, well it was meant as a joke but he wrote a book and

"Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation to Goo
Husker Du, Flip Your Wig to Candy Apple Grey
Replacements, Let It Be to Tim

-Just a coincidence that all three jumped to major labels at this time, right?"

was his thesis.

this is insanity

but this:
The Blue Nile: Hats >>>> Peace at Last

is OTM

Do you really expect us to fall for that old trick?!?

You skipped Dub Housing which is if not their best, at least tied with The Modern Dance.

Björk: Gling-Gló > Debut

I like Gling-Gló but Debut is more listenable.

everything before < I Am Shelby Lynne > everything after

The Blue Nile: A Walk Across the Rooftops >>>>>> Hats

this follows the pattern of many d&b idols too - only Steve Gurley seemed (largely) immune and his recent absence is worrying - come back dude!

More like:

interpol "band that doesn't even exist yet" to "bright lights"

*ducks*

Noooo way.

And even if that's a slight drop-off, it is not even close to the much more important "Pleased to Meet Me" to "Don't Tell a Soul" to "That Piece of Crap with Two Dogs on the Cover" to the individual solo careers.

And I don't suppose anyone has to point out the huge drop between any two Van Halen records where the lead singer was swapped out.

Both of these are fantastic.

I nominate Good Will Hunting -> Elephant. The movies, not the albums.

Ministry "Psalm 69" to "Filth Pig"

Squeezing Out Sparks -> Another Grey Area

Wasn't "The Up Escalator" (which is great IMO) in-between those.

I nominate Good Will Hunting -> Elephant. The movies, not the albums

LOL

This isn't probably the biggest ever, but the first to come to mind:

Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections & Cee-Lo Green Is the Soul Machine (both great albums from the beginning to end) > St. Elsewhere (great lead single, otherwise meh)

Discharge - Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing -> Grave New World

Elvis Costello- Trust ----> Almost Blue

Built To Spill - Keep It Like A Secret ----> Ancient Melodies Of The Future

Anthrax Among the Living way >>> State of Euphoria

Guy above was talking about Powerslave >>> Somewhere in Time so true it's painful.

SIT and Warehouse Songs and Stories have to be the two most disappointing albums I've ever purchased.

"Guy above was talking about Powerslave >>> Somewhere in Time so true it's painful. "

Absolutely correct

For me the biggest drop in Sonic Youth quality was Goo (which sounded like a catching-breath/holding action after Daydream Nation) >>>>>>>> Dirty (which sounded like, "OMG, Nirvana got on the radio, think we can get on the radio? Let's start sucking and find out!"). Sadly, they have yet to recover.

And I'm sure I'm in the distinct minority on this but, U2's Pop>>>>>>>>>>>>>> All That You Can't Leave Behind.

Screamadelica>>>>>Give Out But Don't Give In, or whatever it was called

Welcome To My Nightmare>>>>>Lace & Whiskey

oops...Alice Cooper Goes To Hell came next, but quality drop-off is identical...

Consecutive singles: Fool's Gold>One Love

Or to pinpoint the moment exactly: One Love intro>One Love

pinkerton -> green album

Be Good Tanyas: Blue Horse >>>>>> Chinatown (and then a return to form, ish, with Hello Love)

Pretenders > Pretenders II >> Learning To Crawl >>>>> Get Close >>>>>>>>> everything else

the first 2 Le Tigre albums are pretty darn snazzy.

the 3rd is a waste of time.

GZA: Liquid Swords (1995) >>> Beneath the Surface (1999)

Elvis Costello- Trust ----> Almost Blue

Noooooooooo!!!!!!

I would say he had a slow and steady decline from "This Year's Model" through "Almost Blue", which is still not at all a bad album. (And then he went and followed it with his definite masterpiece).

People are probably going to harangue me for this, but Bytes by Black Dog productions is infinitesimally better than Spanners, which I don't think is very good at all.

ILX

houses of the holy is zeppelin's best and most interesting album. much better than IV

pinkerton -> green album

Yeah, that was my first thought on seeing this thread. Classic nosedive.

People are probably going to harangue me for this, but Bytes by Black Dog productions is infinitesimally better than Spanners, which I don't think is very good at all.

Wasn't Spanners preceded by Temple of Transparent Balls though? I think Spanners is an improvement compared to that.

Yes, you're right. I wasn't aware of it, and so, I haven't heard it either.

I almost forgot, one of the biggest disappointments: PJ Harvey's Rid Of Me >>>> To Bring You My Love

PJ Harvey's To Bring You My Love >>>> Is This Desire

etc

Bring You My Love >>>> Is This Desire

is a much bigger drop off than

Rid Of Me >>>> To Bring You My Love

Is there a thread for Biggest Gains in Quality?

Woah! Sara is way OTM.

Rank and File's Long Gone Dead >>>>Rank and File
Replacements' Pleased to Meet Me >>>>Don't Tell a Soul
The Band's The Band>>>>Stage Fright
Dylan's Nashville Skyline>>>>Self Portrait
Ramones' Road to Ruin>>>>End of the Century
Nick Lowe's Labour of Lust>>>>Nick the Knife
Black Flag's Damaged>>>>My War
Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street>>>>Goats Head Soup
Public Image Ltd's Metal Box>>>>Flowers of Romance
The Jam's In the City>>>>This is the Modern World
Violent Femmes' Violent Femmes>>>>Hallowed Ground
Waterboys' Fisherman's Blues>>>>Room to Roam
Van Morrison's Into the Music>>>>Common One
Toots and the Maytals' Funky Kingston>>>>everything since

How could I forget:
Elvis Costello's King of America>>>>Spike

Actually, that'd be Blood & Chocolate>>>>Spike

Ah, yes. Even more so, then.

Nah, most of Flowers of Romance is still great.

It's This Is What You Want...that marks the drop.

I nominate Good Will Hunting -> Elephant. The movies, not the albums.
Good Will Hunting sucked! At least Elephant was remotely interesting and not another predictable and bland tugging-at-the-heartstrings Hollywood piece of crap.

And I'm sure I'm in the distinct minority on this but, U2's Pop>>>>>>>>>>>>>> All That You Can't Leave Behind.

Nope, you're right

Bring You My Love >>>> Is This Desire

is a much bigger drop off than

Rid Of Me >>>> To Bring You My Love

I can see that, but hearing TBYML on its release, after months of anticipation -- months spent constantly listening to Rid Of Me and 4-Track Demos -- it was a colossal letdown. By the time I heard the relative suckage of Is This Desire, I wasn't surprised, and I'd pretty much stopped caring.

The Monster Magnet drop-off occurred between Powertrip and God Says No, not between God Says No and Monolithic Baby. Monolithic Baby is way better than GSN.

pavement: wowee zowee to brighten the corners.

To Bring You My Love is way better than Rid of Me IMO, by far her best record ever, before or after. I'm very happy I got to see her on this tour, with Maxinquaye-era Tricky opening (and with my buddy Alex in NYC, a rare intersection of our taste).

Midnight Marauders >> Beats, Rhymes and Life

TBYLM always struck me as flat and half-assed; none of the cliffhanger drama of Rid Of Me or Dry. Plus, her band on those records was astounding, somehow managing to combine the best aspects of Paul Lovens and John Entwistle. After that, it was all studio hacks (even though the drummer was the same, he'd apparently been anesthetized).

the songs on TBYML are much more developed and sophisticated and the atmosphere is incredible, it's not all just primal venting (which is cool too, but it's pretty narrow IMO). I should say that the next record Albini produces that I like will be the first, so that clearly has something to do with it, but to me this is no contest, let alone a dropoff.

also, that Paul Lovens reference is way over the top, IMO, it'd be amusing to see those two (drummers) try a duo. I'm guessing that would show you the (VAST) difference pretty quickly.

Patti Smith for the thread win

Boomania>>>>>Grrr...It's Betty Boo

Apple Venus > Wasp Star
(Dave Gregory is sorely missed)

Doobie Brothers without Michael McDonald > Doobie Brothers with Michael McDonald

Borad ("First 48 hours" to "Ensuing period")

One Nation Under A Groove -> Uncle Jam Wants You

"Like a Prayer" -----> "Erotica"

Turbo > Ram It Down

5 years of this shit and no one has said Pet Sounds > Smiley Smile. Weird.

nas' illmatic ----> it was written (though it has a few tracks i still like)

Chicks On Speed 99 Cents >>> Press the Spacebar
but then I don't really expect them to follow a career track the way "real" bands do, so I wasn't surprised that they're back on track with the new one.

It Was Written isn't any sort of masterpiece but it's a dope album and better than anything Nas has released since.

It's a decent album, but no way is it better than Stillmatic or God's Son. "If I Ruled the World" remains the best single he's ever released though.

""If I Ruled the World" remains the best single he's ever released though."

not nearly.

i like gods son and stillmatic better than it was written (but then i think zone out with the bravehearts is super underrated). live nigga rap was good though.

Bowie - "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)" & "Let's Dance" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "Tonight" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "Never Let Me Down" (waddaya mean, never let you down? ya let us down! /Nathan Adler)

I'm a bit shocked no one's mentioned the following as far as I can tell...

S/T >>>>Second Coming

there's this thing called "crtl+f"

Erotica -----> Bedtime Stories

Silent Alarm ---------> A Weekend In The City

bedtime stories was pretty good.

The Band's The Band>>>>Stage Fright

i guess i could argue that s/t is marginally better, but a big drop in quality? save that for Cahoots (full disclosure: i'm a total Stage Fright stan). anyway Big Pank rules over them all imo.

bedtime stories was pretty good.

I admit when I was first writing it, I had Ray of Light in the second spot because I totally forgot she'd even made Bedtime Stories.

Funhouse > Raw Power >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>The Weirdness

Goldfrapp: "Felt Mountain" to "Black Cherry"

This is so, so rong.

Yeah really. I don't even like Felt Mountain!

The Beatles ("Sgt. Pepper" to "White Album")

No longer interested in this thread.

xpost: I love "Supernature", far more than "Black Cherry", and don't like "Felt Mountain" or "Seventh Tree" much at all. So kill me.

Is This It to Romm on Fire. Make one of the greatest rock albums ever, then make one of the worst rock albums ever.

Or Room on Fire, even.

16 year old me would scream "fucking Pinkerton to the Green Album fuck you, Rivers Cuomo!".

Stillmatic and God's Son both have some dope as fuck songs on them (and are his next best albums after Illmatic and IWW imo) but they also have some unlistenable shit too ("Mastermind"? "My Country"? fuck that!) and that's where It Was Written beats them because it has standouts and front-to-back playability (intro excepted but who cares about that) and feels more of a piece

Straitjacket Fits: Melt to Blow (lol, either an incisive wink or the most unintentionally appropriate title of all time).

The Final Cut > A Momentary Lapse of Reason

I know I'm 9 years late to this but in what universe is Room on Fire a steep drop from Is This It?

No shot, that’s a loopy opinion

xp the universe of The Strokes only having 3 albums

with the third being Comedown Machine?