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

(i've explained both of these on other threads, i think.)

Really? You liked Drop that Bottom better than Grab It?

Does anyone else agree here? The majority of people only know Cars that Go Boom and maybe Grab It, which both are on the first album:

Grab It (1988)

A1 Push It (Grab It) (4:37)
A2 Cuttie Pie (4:19)
A3 He's A Mutt (4:02)
A4 Don't Come To My House (4:26)
B1 Cars With The Boom (3:54)
B2 Better Yet L'Trimm (4:50)
B3 We Can Rock The Beat (3:25)
B4 Sexy

Drop That Bottom (1989)

1 Drop That Bottom (3:15)
2 Low Rider (4:24)
3 Trouble In The House (3:25)
4 It's Working (3:40)
5 Heaven Sent (2:55)
6 My Heart Went Boom (3:20)
7 Why Would I (Go Back To The Burn) (3:28)
8 We Got Our Own Thing (4:16)
9 Double Trouble (3:10)
10 Grab It (Again-The-Remix) (4:28)

almost true: Ramones, Sonic Youth
I said almost.

I think Squeeze might work, too, if you count *U.K. Squeeze* (which isn't as good as *Cool For Cats*) as a different band. That's probably cheating, though. (Boomtown Rats, maybe? Hmmmm.)

As for L'Trimm, I like *Grab It* fine, but as Frank Kogan pointed out recently, it only has one song as good as "Cars With the Boom", whereas the 2nd album has ten songs as good as "Cars With the Boom."

(discounting "The Masterplan")
(admittedly, I haven't heard all of their albums. But I'm sure that a reasonable argument can be made for them here.)

A testament to the marketing genius that was Paul Klein/Henry Stone.

Then again, they gave direction to that mess of a third album, which the girls bailed out on part way through the sessions.

I think loving the 2nd album based on the formula is not universal though.

I suppose Cypress Hill falls into this same description, as their 2nd album is full of 'Insane in the Brains', whereas the first seemed like a genuine hodge-podge of somewhat inspired efforts.

And the third L'Trimm album *Groovy* is actually surprisingly good, but nah, not nearly on a par with their first two.

The Beastie Boys (at least if you discount pre-debut-album hardcore crap)? TLC? Kris Kross? Hansen? The Circle Jerks? Black Flag? Just throwing a few more names out there...

Extreme?
Ratt?
Roxette?
Quarterflash?
Loverboy!!

I kind of agree with the Butthole Surfers, though I think it's very possible they may have improved when they finally sold out in the early '90s (arguments might be made for White Zombie and maybe even Soundgarden along the same lines, though I'm not sure Soundgarden ever actually sold out, come to think of it.)

Not to pick on your selections only, but being you're listing the rap stuff (which I know more about), that's where my opinions may be more relevant.

Beastie Boys - I think Check Your Head is half assed, whereas at least Licensed to Ill feels like a better executed version of Check Your Head, so I have to disagree. And I think it is kinda universally accepted that Paul's Boutique is better than Licensed to Ill. That's my opinion at least, and I love Licensed.

Public Enemy - Same thing. Their 2nd album was better than their first for sure, so nope not them. Sadly, the deabte over whether album 2 or 3 are better rages on. I'm a Nation of Millions fan, and always encounter the notion that Black Planet is better. Ugh.

*Russians/Russophiles will know what I'm talking about.

**No, I did not mean Zamfir, Master of the Pan Flute.

The Pogues?
Fishbone? (Though again, I know zilch about their later stuff.)

Liz Phair is just so wrong.

Yeah, on every level. I wish I'd never heard her.

That logic would only work if every track on their second album was as good as "How I Could Just Kill a Man." When in actuality, no tracks are.

I think Criminal Minded is incredible if taken out of context. It's raw, minimal, and passionate...however, it was so disconnected from the massive blossoming process that Eric B/Marley Marl/Bomb Squad were discoering thanks to the SP1200 and Ultimate Beats & Breks series.

For me and my little rap buddies between 86-88, the growth was THE excitement of Hip-Hop, so Criminal Minded seemed like a step backwards at the time.

Over the years, I've learned to appreciate it on its own.

Then Scott La Rock Died, they changed direction, and they released My Philosophy as a single, which sounded up to date and great...but I got the album and was bored.

I've only revisted it a couple times since then, and I remained bored...so maybe you're right. BDP is not my area of expertise.

And Paul's Boutique is better ;-)

Also, I'll give you this: Boces < SYOTOS

But no way to this: SYOTOS < Deserter's Songs

Eric B and Rakim might hold true. I think the first 3 songs of their second album are their strongest, but then the album sounds rushed. Their first was a collection of a couple of singles, and the album...so it's a bit disjointed - but if you didn't hear those singles prior...

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

Run DMC's debut changed my life. Their 2nd album seemed to me like the first marketed piece of Hip-Hop...like, let's cash in on our image and let's make a song for every situation or whatever. That damned reggae song and such. I think the intro on that album is the best thing on it. Raising Hell was mostly a stronger marketing album, with some superb Rick Rubin driven tracks next to some Rick Rubin driven novelties. Their 4th album is sorely overlooked. Beats to the Rhyme is incredible.

Fat Boys...

I think this back-and-forth can easily stir up more thoughts on Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons marketing and visions than anything else. Rick's use of the 808 is the cornerstone of Bass music. Russell's marketing schemes made Hip-Hop known, but tarnished many of the acts. Beastie Boys, Fat Boys, and Run DMC all fall into this to some degree.

Grandmaster Flash's work is before my time, so I just buy it and lisen and sing along and forge no opinions about its relevancy.

No more bait taking for a bit. I need a bite to eat.

They had more than one album?

Liz Phair's most recent album is either her best one or her second best one (after the debut), depending on what my mood is that day.

Totally disagree with Motley Crue.

Surprised no one's said Elvis yet.

Nope.

Rum, Sodomy > If I Should Fall >> Red Roses >> Peace And Love >>> the "rump" Pogues as an album band

(xpost)

"Boys for Pele" better than "From The Choirgirl Hotel" and "To Venus and Back"? Nope.

Oh yeah, also: Whitechocolatespaceegg > Whip-Smart

I retract my enthusiastic endorsement of Douglas' nod to Liz Phair on the basis of fact. In my defense, I can only say that I was beitched by the magnitude of the post-Exile drop-off.

I like Choirgirl OK, but I just don't think it's got the goods to beat, say, "Blood Roses," "Professional Widow" and "Marianne." Although the Choirgirl-era b-sides are my second-favs, so I guess I could give you that.

(xpost)

Dom P OTFM. And I'm sticking to my guns on this one.

Counting Crows

Well the quality difference between the debut and Shout at the Devil is negligible, but beginning with Theater of Pain the downhill slide began gaining speed.

Also, the last Liz Phair is probably my favorite or it's the one I listen to most frequently anyway.

I was going to disclaim that with something, but fuck it, that's a close to an objective statement about music as I'm gonna get.

Nobody would claim "Ummagumma" was better than anything that followed, would they?

Also, I expected to see Oasis here. It is of course way wrong, as their first album is still their worst IMO :-)

doesn't work. One Foot in the Grave is his best album

Singles-wise, sure. But I completely blow my argument because "Wild Side" came out between them and is one of the band's finest moments.

Poison might work, though.

motorhead
pet shop boys

Ridiculous. Very is better than everything before or after.

This is a good thread. I'm w/ pappawheelie re: run dmc's 4th album, "beats to the rhyme" is probably my favorite rdmc track.

not Company B, though - their second album is a true classic!

No wonder. How could they possibly expect to get away with ripping off Nirvana like that?

(or maybe not; freedom of choice > duty now for the future, right?)

and Nico > White Light > s/t > Loaded

I'd probably reverse 2 & 3, though

Drowners Ep > Suded > Dog Man Star > Hell

cyndi lauper?

At one point, I might have been persuaded to agree, but their last album was shockingly good.

Also, "Orbus Terrarum" was a huge letdown. I think they recovered a bit after that.

"Pommes Fritz" is a better album than "Orblivion"?

Tricky - probably, but who's even bothered to track the descent of the last few?

Garbage - surely no one can argue against them. And they've done it to such an extreme (from an awesome debut to really hideously bad stuff within two albums).

no, the first tortoise album is terrible.

Agree completely, on a track-by-track basis. But... I think there was a good track on Heartbeat City, yet I'll still take The Cars...

Exile is so overrated, I've always considered Whipsmart to be the real classic in her catalog.

Contrarian. DeRogatorous. Please expand to 2500 words and submit for "Kill Your Second-Tier Idols."

I also think Sandanista! is the Clash's best album, but I don't expect many people to agree with me on that one.

You know, [i]Beauty Stab[/i] and [i]How to Be a Zillionaire[/i] are really, really good, and to this day I play them way more than I do [i]Lexicon of Love[/i]. But that's me, I guess. And even [i]Alphabet City[/i] has one of their most sublime songs ever, "Rage and then regret."

Btw. I am kind of surprised there is no mention of Massive Attack yet. The only thing that prevents me from listing them is that I like "Protection" better than "Blue Lines", but I think most don't.

Garbage's best album is their second.

hmm, it certainly has a lot of their finest moments but there's also a lot more filler on Version 2.0 compared with Garbage.

and

Stone Roses > Second Coming > Ian Brown solo > John Squire solo

Possibly King Crimson, though i havent heard everythin, In the Court remains my favourite.

Definitely not, I love The Vibrators dearly but the quality of their albums has been up and down all over the place over the years - and even if they'd released an album of Knox humming tunelessly over the sound of Eddie farting in the bath, it would have been hard-pushed not to be an improvment over 1996's execrable and frankly embarassing "unpunked".

"ian dury and the blockheads?"

True up until the release of Mr. Lovepants in 1998, but definitely not thereafter.

"Pere Ubu?"

I can see an argument for this up until they split up in '82; but since they reformed in '88 their albums have been up and down like a whore's drawers in quality terms.

Steadily downhill for the first ten years but 1981's Discipline has to be the second best - if not the best album they've done, and over the last 10 years, even allowing for the difficulty in deciphering which releases are "official" and which aren't, and sometimes even which are "live" and which aren't, the quality control's been up and down like the teeth of a rusty saw.

[New expressions to describe a regularly repeated up-and-then-down-and-then-up-again motion urgently required. See-saws need not apply]

Actually, "First Edition" being the blip that Metal Box was better than. OK, allowing for that one...

Cheap Trick (1977) > In Color > Heaven Tonight > Dream Police > All Shook Up > Next Position Please > Standing On The Edge > The Doctor > Lap Of Luxury > Busted > Woke Up With A Monster

Alas, it is impossible to argue that Cheap Trick (1997) continued the decline, so the chain has to stop. I suspect that the assumptions that most people would dispute are a) that Cheap Trick (1977) is their studio peak (an opinion that I've always had), b) that The Doctor is better than Lap Of Luxury (I'm almost completely unfamiliar with the material on The Doctor, but I think that you would have to dock LOL the max for the invasion of the outside songwriters to support this opinion...), and c) that Busted is better than Woke Up With A Monster (probably unsupportable, although my only exposure to WUWAM was when one of the videos showed up on Beavis & Butthead...).

-- xhuxk (xedd...), May 19th, 2005.

While they never matched their first album, I don't think it'd be fair to call their output from then on a "steady decline." I thought Truth and Soul, Reality of my Surroundings, and Give a Monkey a Brain all had some good moments on them.

And the Sex Pistols.
Probably Suicide, too.

You've not heard their last one the, presumably? Not their best by any means, but defiitely their best since Trade Test Transmissions imho.

Uh, Animal Rights?? I mean Play and 18 aren't the best, but yeesh.

No way on both of these. (Prodigy's best is their third, and Siegbran and I will never agree on Celtic Frost, as many threads here have demonstrated.)

I was thinking of Cheap Trick myself, but their third blows away their too-much-powerpop-without-enough-power second. The Cars might work, though. And ditto Pere Ubu, starting with the *Datapanik* EP, even. --- and yes, including their later stuff, which I've never understood the appeal of.

I'm an American, so I don't know those early Buzzcocks albums. *Singles Going Steady* will always be their debut to me (well, after *Spiral Scratch* I guess), and that kinda throws everything out of whack. (And also, I will defer to anybody who has actually kept up with the Vibrators. What do I know?)

I kinda wish somebody would disagree with me about Devo or the B-52s (who I'm way less sure belong here than, um, the Clash.)

(with exception for the entertaining singles...)

BEST SHARK JUMPER maybe.

BWAHAHAHA :'D

Gotta love some of those american 'e-lectro-nicka' fans.

actually, *They Said It Couldn't Be Done* (c. 1985). "Girls Love the Way He Spins" was the first track, though.

accept my apologies already.

"The Masterplan" is a b-sides collection & therefore excempt btw.

Oasis own this thread and only politeness in regard of the thread starter is holding back the obvious conclusion imo.

Not very, but it does have more decent songs than anyone was really expecting by then, like 'Excess'.

Oasis's starting point was pretty low already, though. There's a point at which distinguishing between various shades of shit becomes ridiculous.

xp

*Explodes!*

OK.

How about The Undertones?

cyndi lauper? (though not if blue angel counts, i guess.)
go-gos?? (though i think xgau liked one of their later albums.)

a case could be made for blondie, too, though i doubt i'd *quite* agree with it. (their third beats their second, probably.)

their third is at least as good as their second, maybe better.

There's also
Daft Punk

I'd dare to say Pearl Jam. Depending on your taste.
Mull Historical Society.

and i'd say basement jaxx, too, though nobody would agree with me.

pretenders third > second, in my mind.

i'd also love to see somebody make a case for springsteen, since i'm currently in love with his debut (the most hold-steady-like album he ever made, probably.)

I agree about the Pogues, though. RRFM is their best record.

Absolutely not, The W is waaaaaaaay better than Wu-Tang Forever.

and no way on springsteen. #2 and #3 both > #1. #6 > #5. actually, #6 > everything else.

Shellac.

Anybody taking odds on whether or not The Arcade Fire will be on this list in a few years?

Runaways, maybe?

(that is a massive overstatement. it's just not nearly as great as tnt and millions. I can't believe anyone would think it was).
-- kyle (akmonda...), May 20th, 2005 9:37 PM. (akmonday) (link)

Oh, y'know what? I'd actually forgotten there was an album before Millions. Ha!

Meat Puppets?

You've got your arrows back to front.

So you did. OTM, though! As for Meat Puppets, I think II is a little better than I.

I think this is the best suggestion yet!

Third Police album Zenyatta Mondatta is probably their best (hence better than Regatta De Blanc and Vagina Dentata or whatever); otherwise, they would probably totally work.

There ain't no good guys, there ain't no bad guys, there only xhuxk and me, and one of us is off the mark again.

Or should at least acknowledge that this is an idiosyncratic nomination, since conventional wisdom establishes Talk Talk Talk as the Furs' highwater mark, and many would rank Book Of Days over Midnight To Midnight and Mirror Moves.

I concede Love Spit Love > Trysome Eatone

I wish Martin Popoff was here so he could nominate Def Leppard (at least that's my recollection; his metal book is not in front of me.)

Pysch Furs' debut is better (funnier, catchier, more energetic, more rocking, more consistent) than *Talk Talk Talk,* which I still like a lot. (And yes, "conventional wisdom" is indeed wrong sometimes.)

Warren Zevon, maybe (though I guess there was an Eminem-style early years album years before his "debut", so I suppose he's disqualified)

upthread: SPOON???!!? what'r you, nuts?

>no way is the first red cross ep better than Born Innocent<

And "I Hate My School" and "Annete's Got the Hits" and "Cover Band" are the best songs Red Cross/Kross ever did. So their debut EP was their best record, in my book. (And their second EP, *Teen Babes From Monsanto,* beats anything they did after it, though *Neurotica* comes close.)

Interpol will probably count for this. I can't imagine them making anything that tops Turn on the Bright Lights.

Also, CeCe Peniston, who I'm listening to right now.

And I gave some thought to Lenny Kravitz, but ... nahh.

Or (re QOTSA): Loose Groove, or whatever the label was. (The split EP was on Man's Ruin, though, I think.)

Screaming Blue Messiahs belong here, too.

Billy Joel?
Rod Stewart! (not that i know the entire recorded output of either, unfortunately)

ODB.

(I wanna disagree about Tiffany tho -- as I recall, "we're both thinking of her tonight" is on her 2nd album, and that's her best track. also her "comeback" album recently kills her 3rd, which isn't hard to do at all tho. probably OTM about debbie gibson however.)

Green Day?
The Offspring!
311!
RATM!

but that album has "detox mansion"! which is on the wagon but off the sappy!

Yeah, that's the brown one I was talking about, on Loose Groove, and it's my favorite, too. (But I wasn't referring to Kyuss, either -- the split with Beaver Man's Ruin EP is QOTSA, not Kyuss--a band who, bizarrely enough, I have never even listened to much. Though probably I should, someday.)

And how can you discuss the great songs off the "Warren Zevon" album without mentioning his Stairway To Heaven, The French Inhaler?

Come off it, no way was Gold Against the Soul better than the Holy Bible.

Muse, who whilst making increasingly poor albums, have become more and more popular

No way, 'Showbiz' is easily their weakest, though I'll give you 'Origin Of Symmetry' > 'Absolution'.

My suggestion: Foo Fighters.

In the case of solo Sting, #2 > #1. Otherwise, OTM about Sting, but certainly not about The Police, who ended their career with their one and only masterpiece.

Their second album did include "Richard III" (which I'll readily admit I thought was pants when I first heard it, but which did eventually grow on me), "In It For The Money" and best of all "Sun Meets The Sky"; their third one at least had "Moving" and "Pumping On Your Stereo" in it's favour; and the fourth one contained absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever at all as far as I can recall.

The more I think about this the more convinced I am that this Supergrass the best example yet.

-- Dadaismus (dadaismu...), May 20th, 2005 8:25 PM.

There must be at least 15 NWW albums that invalidate that, but at the very least: Shipwreck Radio is one of the best releases in years.

I'll submit A Certain Ratio.

I was going to mention this as a possibility, though I see that Xhuxk got there first. I can't say with certainty though, since I haven't heard their later albums.

This morning I am actually thinking they might be one of the best examples of it.

And Prince might work if he started with his third album, as far as I'm concerned.

Echo & the Bunnymen?
Sorry, I prefer Heaven Up Here over Crocodiles.

Well, you sure wouldn't, Geir, but I've got no trouble ranking that higher than Momentary Lapse of Reason, say, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone.

Redd Kross seems wrong to me too, though admittedly I know songs more than albums. But I definitely think the stuff I know from Teen Babes and Neurotica slays what I know from Born Innocent.

Also, Mayhem, if you leave out demos and live albums: De Mysteriis > Wolfs Lair Abyss > Grand Declaration Of War > Chimera
Katatonia can be taken off the list, as they've just released a better album than Viva Emptiness (although it's still not in the league of the first three).

(Watch dudes who have never heard Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik or ATLiens flip out.)

Come off it, no way was Gold Against the Soul better than the Holy Bible.

I dunno. I know conventional knowledge is that Holy Bible is the very best of them, but I find it almost unlistenable. I haven't listened to all of Gold Against The Soul (it may just be THAT bad), so I can't be sure, but I suspect that I at any rate would agree with the Manics.

Don't see what people are getting at with the Pets. Actually is significantly better than Please, Behaviour is significantly better than the terrible Introspective (some great singles, but really uninspired production. except for Left To My Own Devices), and Very is [arguably] better than Behaviour. (I personally am not crazy about either Behaviour or Very; but Actually is amazing.)

You mean, they were at their best when they were just a small, local cellar band in my own native Ski, Norway?

Aquemini is great, but not as good as their first two.

No, because their demos were crap and the live recordings I've heard pre-1990 were absolutely terrible too.

Also, Notorious B.I.G.

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.

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

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

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...

M.
Au Pairs.
And Flying Lizards?

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

SICK BOY: "Yeah."

RENTON: "That's your theory?"

SICK BOY: "Yeah, Beautifully fucking illustrated."

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.

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

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

b-52s?

cosmic thing tears it up, imo

Funplex is the best post-Ricky Wilson album too.

Nona Hendryx, as far as I can tell. (Haven't heard much beyond her first four albums, though; maybe she got her groove back later? Kinda doubt it.)

ashlee simpson

Tindersticks

Rush

This is so so so wrong. I can understand, even if I don't fully agree, that some might say they've been on a gentle downward slope through the 80s and 90s - but to suggest that somehow the ST debut and Caress of Steel are better than 2112 or Permanent Waves or Hemispheres is just plain silly.

Gang of Four

― -stefan, Thursday, May 19, 2005 2:35 PM

Wow, no one refuted this? Absolutely WRONG as "Shrinkwrapped" was INFINITELY better than "Mall". I am cautiously optimistic about the forthcoming "Content" as well.

metric

The Avalanches

xhuckx i'm suprised you picked ratt upthread!

or do you like that first thing with the ratts climbing up the sexy ladies stocking better? (isn't that before out of the cellar)?

Yeah, that EP was before Out of the Cellar.

Metric is actually a pretty good call.

Art of Noise is probably a good answer. (Though IMO their second album is overrated, even if the initial ZTT releases were somewhat better.)

By always on decline, doesn't that mean each album is less good than the previous one? In that case, about 95% of these are dead wrong. Though I think cases can be made for Jimi Hendrix.

If there wasn't so much good stuff cranked out during the Mellon Collie era, I'd say the Smashing Pumpkins would totally fit this.

If it hadn't been that "Honey's Dead" was better than "Automatic", the J&MC would have a slightly declining line, pretty much.

xhuckx i'm suprised you picked ratt upthread!...or do you like that first thing with the ratts climbing up the sexy ladies stocking better? (isn't that before out of the cellar)?

Well, I actually disowned my Ratt vote later on in the thread, when their new album (which I liked more than anything they'd done in decades) came out this year. As for that first indie EP with "Walking The Dog" (on Time Coast Records I think? whatever that was), let's just say I really really wish I still owned it, and I'd absolutely trade Out Of The Cellar for a copy anyday, seeing how I've got "Round And Round" on 45. But that doesn't necessarily technically make it better, I guess. (Or maybe EPs don't count? I'd have to check the rules.)

I wish Martin Popoff was here so he could nominate Def Leppard

Actually, these days I'm increasingly considering nominating them myself. (Though I guess their covers album a couple years ago was better than some things they did in the '90s, so maybe not.)

Wu-Tang is the super obvious answer

not otm tho

Black Eyed Peas

Pink Floyd, arguably. (Actually I don't think this but I figure a case could be made).

Definitely.

Wu-Tang is the super obvious answer

Except that The W was better than Forever, and 8 Diagrams was better than Iron Flag.

lol gtfo

The Feelies is the only one I can think of that really works, though all four of their albums are pretty good. But Crazy Rhythms is an all-time classic and The Good Earth is great, the other two decent but kind of unremarkable, and I think Only Life is the better of those too. So there you go..

Devo nearly works (without the new album); but I do also think Freedom of Choice is better than Duty Now by a bit. Also Smooth Noodle Maps > Total Devo but that's like comparing cow turds and horse turds

Deee-lite works but who cares

Junior Boys certainly seem to be heading that way.

p.s. thinking it's Floyd is ridiculous. Do you really think that Ummagumma and Saucerful and Atom Heart Mother >> Dark Side, WYWH, Animals, and the Wall?

Guns n Roses is the obvious answer.

Time For a Witness >>>>>> The Good Earth

as I've recently learned

I went to look at Wiki to see the sequence of Floyd's albums, and it's blocked at work (sex, supposedly.) ???

people go to Wiki for sex? :P

o-oh, me bad. i see, people might go to Floyd albums for sex...

Except that The W was better than Forever, and 8 Diagrams was better than Iron Flag.

every part of this sentence is wrong

(Shakey Mo Collier: stirred, but not shaken:)

I'll make a case for Galaxie 500 here (especially working in Luna and D&N too)

Guns n Roses is the obvious answer.

the obvious answer to being twiddly dogshit from the outset perhaps, yeah

Michael Jackson

You think Ben, Music & Me, and Forever, Michael are all better than Off the Wall??

GnR might work, if Spaghetti Incident had come before the two Illusion CDs, but it didn't.

And if Chinese Democracy wasn't great.

Also, 8 Diagrams is better than Iron Flag, and I could even argue that it's better than Wu-Tang Forever.

Do you really think that Ummagumma and Saucerful and Atom Heart Mother >> Dark Side, WYWH, Animals, and the Wall?

Frankly, I do!

Interpol is the most obvious one for me.

gtfo with idea that 8 diagrams is better than of the four albums before. don't even want to hear that bullcrap.

Great argument, I'm convinved.

Convinced.

Personally I'd rate them: 36 Chambers = The W > Forever > 8 Diagrams > Iron Flag. Iron Flag has a nice start, 4 of the first 5 tracks (except for "Soul Power") are really good, but the it veers off to autopilot Wu mode with nothing particularly new or interesting.

iron flag is my favorite wu album except for the debut. it's their party record. 8 diagrams isn't worth a bowl of warm piss

really one of the most disappointing albums i've ever heard

Yeah Michael Jackson almost works if you disregard the solo albums he recorded from 1972-1974. They really are not that good and MJ himself didn't write anything (as he was like, 13).

still Michael Jackson albums tho innit

My highly subjective opinion vs. common wisdom, but for me, The Replacements. If you disregard "Stink" as an EP vs. LP, my far and away favorites are the debut and "Hootenanny" >>> the highly overrated "Let It Be" and everything that came after.

Yes to the Junior Boys!!

The Smithereens?

xp Yeah, I'm pretty sure I mentioned the Replacements somewhere upthread, too. Wouldn't have thought this in the '80s, but I really do think they peaked with their punk-rock debut, and got progressively worse from there.

>the replacements came dangerously close to fitting this model. and there's probably 1 or 2 days out of any given week when i could convincingly make the argument<

This morning I am actually thinking they might be one of the best examples of it.

― xhuxk, Thursday, 25 August 2005 12:51 (5 years ago)

Slow enough morning for me to research it, glad some others agree!

The Replacements? Not in this reality! Let It Be, Tim, Pleased To Meet Me all way better than Hootenanny alone. At the very least, Tim is better than Let It Be.

hootenanny >>>>>>>>>>>> tim >> pleased to meet me.

hootenanny is funnier, looser, brattier, catchier, pretty much everythingier. on any given day, hootenanny, sorry ma..., or let it be could be my fave of theirs, and all of them blow away anything they recorded for sire, and on those 1 or 2 days per week noted above, i'd definitely support the replacements argument in this thread.

<<Pavement, though mostly by minor degrees.>>

this is true.

Yep, I love the slapdash Hootenanny WAY more than when they seemed to be straining harder to make a polished recording. I've tried for years with Tim, believe me.

Belle and Sebastian. Peaked with Tigermilk and then downhill all the way.

I could understand how someone might make the argument for the replacements EXCEPT for Hootenanny being better than Let It Be. I don't agree that they fit this thread, but I could understand something thinking it, except Let It Be just seems better in almost every way than Hootenanny.

Speaking of...what about R.E.M.?

10,000 Maniacs is a good example I think.

Lots of people here would agree re R.E.M.

Re: Belle & Seb - wouldn't agree w/ Tigermilk being their best, but could see the argument. No way Fold Yr Hands & Storytelling are better than DCW & TLP tho.

Ah right, forgot to show all before searching for R.E.M.

dEUS, probably.

dEUS

does not exist afaik

What?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU3JrXt_cPk

Aha, I see.

Worst Case Scenario > In a Bar, Under the Sea > The Ideal Crash > The other two

(ignoring My Sister = My Clock on the basis that it's not really an album)

10,000 Maniacs def does not fit, their debut was kind of ropey and their last was one of their best

Yeah Michael Jackson almost works if you disregard the solo albums he recorded from 1972-1974. They really are not that good and MJ himself didn't write anything (as he was like, 13).

I like his 80s albums better than "Off The Wall" but know there are lots of "Off The Wall" fans here. Seriously I think the new tracks on "HIStory" were considerably better than the ones on "Dangerous" though.

I agree with Geir, History was a better album than Dangerous.

I've been mentioning her a lot lately because I'm a rehabbing Lamb: Mariah Carey. WHAT HAPPENED AFTER EMANCIPATION OF MIMI!?! E=MC2 and Memoirs sounded like the cast-off crap that ends up on a typical DJ Finesse or DJ Ant-Lo baby makin' mixtape. Merry Christmas II You was what finally made me snap and give up on her completely.

I also absolutely loathe the Butterfly album but I think that has to do with both Mariah and her Lambs still being a creepy level of obsessive over the CD nearly 14 years later. I'm of the rare mindset that it's no longer 1997 and Butterfly hasn't aged very well.

love e-mc2 except for the six "we belong together" rewrites that sucked, which doesn't sound like a hearty endorsement, but the rest is really fun

Montrose

Good call Bill.

History has some of the best songs ("Stranger in Moscow" is hands down his best song post-Thriller) but as an album it's really, really boring past like track 6. Dangerous spreads it out a bit more and generally has more interesting things going on. But I see where you're coming from.

I would say the tracks on "Dangerous" sounds a bit too much alike, particularly the Terry Riley produced ones. "HIStory" has a better combination of different producers and different styles. And the ballads are also slightly less sappy, say what you like about "You Are Not Alone" and "Earth Song", but they are still considerably better songs than "Heal The World" and "Gone To Soon".

Call me a sap but I really like "Will You Be There?". I think Dangerous is good if you don't try to listen to it all at once. I guess I could go both ways. In the end I think the first 6 songs or so of History are definitely his best post-Bad. Also there were a couple of tracks on Blood on the Dancefloor that were killer...

"Will you be there?" I had to stop when I heard this.

Back in the day, when Scritti had their direction change to pop music, the b-side of "Sweetest Girl" was "Lions after Slumber", and I remember thinking "MJackson should hear this one".

Clearly, he did. Compare the end bit of "Will you be there" to it.

"Will You Be There" is OK, but not really a slow song to the same extent as the ones I mentioned though.

But, sure, of course "HIStory" also contains his version of "Smile", which is the king of sappiness. And "Childhood" as well is rather horrible. "Little Susie", for all its strangeness and weird subject matter, I think is quite nice though, reminding me a bit of "Like An Angel Passing Through My Room" from ABBA's "Visitors" album.

Cut Copy: I Thought Of Numbers > Bright Like Neon Love > In Ghost Colours > the two teaser tracks from the new one

I'd nominate Charlotte Hatherley, all three of her albums are great but they've got slightly weaker.

I'm tempted to say The Hidden Cameras, although the last two albums are about equal.

Peaches.

Firewater applies well here -- i did a best-of mix once that took 6 songs from their 1st album, 5 songs from their 2nd album, and so on, down to 1 song from their 6th album (sequenced so it was a song each from every album, then a song each from the first five albums, etc.). it worked out pretty well, although i ended up preferring their 6th album to their 4th and 5th. i recommend trying out that structure for some of the other bands mentioned itt.

Until recently, Fountains Of Wayne.

clipse

The Vines

Franz Ferdinand

Personally I'd rate them: 36 Chambers = The W > Forever > 8 Diagrams > Iron Flag. Iron Flag has a nice start, 4 of the first 5 tracks (except for "Soul Power") are really good, but the it veers off to autopilot Wu mode with nothing particularly new or interesting.

― Tuomas, Friday, November 19, 2010 2:24 AM (9 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://i.imgur.com/7WOj5.gif

Personally, I think Franz Ferdinand have gotten better with every release. :)

Firewater was true until their last release, "The Golden Hour", which is absolutely fantastic.

I tempted to say Garbage, but while IMHO s/t > Version 2.0, Bleed Like Me is more solid than Beautifulgarbage, it's highs aren't as high and vice versa.

Brendan Benson is 5 albums and running now

Brendan Benson is 6 albums and running now

the strokes

good one. Interpol also. are either of them still putting out records?

yeah i think the strokes put one out rather recently. i liked the 4th better than third though

My Morning Jacket. tho i think the first and second are pretty even

Mogwai

captain beyond

pentagram

the-dream

Guns n roses?

Appetite > use your illusions > spaghetti > Chinese democracy

And definitely Interpol and Strokes

Heheh. Guns N Roses was my initial thought before clicking this thread which I never saw before.

xp: I prefer Antics to Turn on the Bright Lights.

Interpol is a good one. Can't agree with The Strokes as Room on Fire is my favourite and the latest album is way better than Angles.

I'm tempted to say The Field. The last three albums are fairly even but If I had to order them, think that's how I'd put them.

Mogwai

― paolo, Sunday, 19 January 2014 10:57 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nah, mr beast was the nadir

and arguably rock action/happy songs the zenith

mr. beast had glasgow megasnake!

and toss-all else, sadly. every single album they've done has had at least one stormer

Mr Beast is the album that turned me off Mogwai. Agree that Rock Action/Happy Songs are their best.

well, the orchestral bonus track on the previous album is the actual zenith, but it's just a song, not an album

actually the last interpol record was better than the previous one but they were both not very good and utterly forgettable it seems like it doesn't even matter. they should have done the debut and split up.

Antics and Bright Lights are very close for me. The first 4 tracks on Lights are better than any individual moment on Antics, but Antics flows better overall. Slight edge to Lights (for me).

Our Love to Admire was half decent, half a chore to get through. The last one was almost unlistenable.

Brendan Benson is 6 albums and running now

― Algerian Horsebeater (some dude), Saturday, January 18, 2014 7:55 AM

wait wait wait wait ... are you saing One Mississippi > Lapalco?

love disagreeing with almost all of this thread

Psychic TV, probably.

pretty much agree about Suicide even though on some days i prefer the 2nd album.

agree about butthole surfers if we are taking "Psychic... Powerless..." to be the first album.

God, I adore pretty much everything TG and Coil did but I really struggle finding anything interesting about Psychic TV. I've tried, really I have.

Force The Hand Of Chance is so great. Dreams Less Sweet is great. A Pagan Day, Mouth Of The Night, Themes 2 and Album 10 are good. The rest not so much.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Bloc Party

There's a case for Velvet Underground, if we're just talking about the 4 (or 5 if you include Squeeze) albums released during the band's existence

A pretty bad case, lol

I mean I love all those albums (Squeeze excepted) but in my mind the first remains the best, Loaded is the least good even if it's still very good, and the two in the middle are more or less the equal of each other...

Love you all but 2 terrible post revives. Wow.

YYY - I can't ever decide if the 2nd or 3rd album is the best.

VU???? I really really think this is a case of not actually possibly being able to rank the albums. It'd changed every day. I guess today I'd go best - 2, 1, 4, 3. Maybe?

best YYYs is pretty easily It's Blitz! yeah

luv u 2

amazed that YYYs is a controversial answer to this q

have not listened to their final album yet but something tells me these dudes count

https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/the-futureheads

Looks like I argued this on another thread, but not here: Replacements. This is a completely subjective and certainly minority opinion, but it is mine and I hold it.

I love all 4 (not 5) VU albums pretty much equally for differing reasons. I don't hear a drop in quality at all.

Anybody taking odds on whether or not The Arcade Fire will be on this list in a few years?

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Friday, May 20, 2005 3:37 PM (thirteen years ago)

This turned out to be a good prediction.

I'd also nominate Wild Beasts. I know I'm on my own thinking Limbo Panto is their best. I do think Two Dancers is almost as strong and I have a lot of time for Smother too. They seemed to get slightly more boring with each album though. I can barely remember anything about Present Tense and Boy King was a total misfire.

There's a case for Velvet Underground, if we're just talking about the 4 (or 5 if you include Squeeze) albums released during the band's existence

Six out of 109 voters agreed in this poll:

Ranking the Velvet Underground studio albums

This is a completely subjective and certainly minority opinion, but it is mine and I hold it.

new board descrip

YYY's 3rd album is the best

xp

madness.

fever to tell vs it's blitz is at least an argument (i prefer it's blitz), but show your bones?

Yeah, It's Blitz. is the best Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, so they do not count. Bloc Party don't count either, as Four is quite possibly their second or third best album. The Futureheads don't count either, as their worst album is their second one.

I like a bunch of Show Your Bones. the real drop off isn't until Mosquito imo

already mentioned upthread but the two bands that are hard-red matches for this are the Pretenders and Interpol.

tryin to think of the most challop thing I could post in here and the best answer I could come up with is Autechre

Moby Grape?

tryin to think of the most challop thing I could post in here

I like a bunch of Show Your Bones. the real drop off isn't until Mosquito imo

― Οὖτις, Monday, December 3, 2018 6:16 PM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yup. I actually listened to Mosquito a few months back after not listening to it since it came out and yeah, that was a real disappointing record.

Buhloone Mindstate is my favorite De La album.

Buhloone Mindstate is my favorite De La album.

Moby Grape is tough but fair, IMO

LCD

de la soul

Are You In? is possibly better than The Grind Date, which is definitely better than Bionix

good chall though

Ultravox, if you only count the Midge Ure-era albums starting with Vienna.

LCD I could see if you consider the debut album to just be the bonus disc

Ultravox, if you only count the Midge Ure-era albums starting with Vienna.

― the word dog doesn't bark (anagram), Monday, December 3, 2018 7:23 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, I definitely agree with this.

Gang of Four.

...except "Shrinkwrapped" is way better than "Hard" and "Mall".

Oasis

Oasis is a bad example, because Don't Believe the Truth and Dig Out Your Soul are stronger/better records than Standing on the Shoulder of Giants and Heathen Chemistry.

Not to mention the equally obvious that What's the Story Morning Glory is far better than Definitely Maybe.

mmmmmnnnnnnn...

Ride is a good example imo

The Field, Vitalic, and Disclosure come to mind.

maybe Sun Kil Moon depending on how well you like the first 3 or 4 releases. IMO they're all very close neck and neck and then some cracks start around Among the Leaves and then it's been a steep decline since.

Moby Grape is tough but fair, IMO

whoa The Field is sadly otm, his a rather gradual decline, his albums are still good but they are slightly less good each time, 11 years after Here We Go Sublime

Nothing they did was as good as the debut, but Moby Grape ‘69 is better than Wow.

Yes, it's why I added the question mark, I think you could be right.

Yeah, Ride is a pretty good one.
I agree with the VU too although I could see why one would disagree.
Also, Guns n Roses surely (I suppose they've been mentioned already) .

Metric. they went from apathetic, melancholy electro-pop w/ witty lyrics - to stadium rock, to dollar store yeah yeah yeahs... emily haines' solo stuff means the world to me, though.

i wish those first two self-released albums didn't exist so i could say mitski

What exactly does everyone dislike about Moby Grape's Wow? Moby Grape '69 was more straightforward and conventional, but also not very memorable IMO. Wow could have benefited from fewer sound effects and gimmicks, but the underlying songs are mostly solid.

Disclosure's stuff from this year has been way better than anything from the second album BTW.

I like "Wow", better than the debut even.

I don’t dislike Wow at all, but too much of it feels/sounds like not particularly clever goofy filler, like the song that can only be played at 78rpm, or “Funky Tunk.” And yes, I think “The Baby Song” on Flip Your Wig is fun and hilarious, but the difference is that the non-goofy songs on Wow are nowhere near solid enough to justify the goofiness.

Moby Grape ‘69, on the other hand, is all killer/no filler (goofy or otherwise), and has “Seeing,” which is probably the best thing they ever did.

(xp) Yes, but you are literally the only person who has ever existed who thinks that.

Underworld, mk. 2 mostly works.

^ Nah, it doesn't.

Their last album was easily their best since Beaucoup Fish

Hence the 'mostly'. I can't say I liked it better than Beaucoup Fish, but Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future was definitely a step up from Barking. Still, I wrote them off a long time ago, alas.

Yes but Barking was better than the one before it

Eh, it's been a while, but I don't recall that being the case. I'll have to give them both another shot.

Boards of Canada

Katy B.

Yes but Barking was better than the one before it

― groovypanda, Thursday, December 6, 2018 4:46 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

actually untrue imo

None of this matters seeing as there's no way in hell that Second Toughest is better than Beaucoup Fish.

Neu!

- debut > Neu! 2 >> Neu! '75 >>>>> Neu! 4 > Neu! '86

Nein.

4 certainly isn't better than 86 for a start.

4 and 86 are kind of the same album though

and 75 is definitely better than 2, and actually better than the debut and almost every other Krautrock LP in my opinion

also strongly disagree with Underworld mk2 - Oblivion With Bells is so much better than A Hundred Days Off, for one

4 and 86 are kind of the same album though

Yes but without a lot of the pointless and annoying dreck Dinger insisted on saddling 4 with.

> and 75 is definitely better than 2, and actually better than the debut and almost every other Krautrock LP in my opinion

Ditto. Except maybe Cluster's "Sowiesoso".

May I suggest Magazine? At least the first 4, I never heard the reunion album.

its frustrating because '86 removes "Schonelle Welle" and "Bush Drum" which were two of my favorite tracks, though overall it's a better and more coherent album

does MIA count or was Kala better than Arular?

Oh damn I had a great example of this today that I can't remember

xp re Magazine I think I like The Correct Use of Soap more than Secondhand Daylight but it's close

Stevie: Arular beats Kala, but then Matangi beats MAYA!

strongly disagree with the inclusion of M.I.A. I still think MAYA is her best album and Kala and Matangi are also both better than Arular.

a friend suggested Laurie Anderson - thoughts? I’ve only heard the first two records so I can’t speak

Secondhand Daylight is the one Magazine record that I would rescue from the fire/take to the desert island etc.

I also think Second Toughest... is Underworld's best album.

It is. Also, Beaucoup Fish is better dubno.

a friend suggested Laurie Anderson - thoughts? I’ve only heard the first two records so I can’t speak

― flappy bird,

Strange Angels is her best.

Oblivion With Bells is also much better than A Hundred Days off and I'd wager Barbara Barbara is a better album than Barking

I'd put Underworld Dubo thru Fish, this list. Hundred Days thru Barbara, the incline list. Crazy body of work!

Rocket From The Crypt

Mudhoney?

Ride is a good example imo

― nostormo, Monday, 3 December 2018 20:55 (two weeks ago)

Are you including last year’s comeback album in that?

The newish Ride album has one peak era tune on it and a couple of other 3rd album quality tunes and then loads of nonsense iirc

My answer which I believe to be true (and not to everyone's taste maybe) is Mercury Rev.

If Suede hadn’t reformed, they would have worked (I’m not fond of their 3 latest albums but at least one is better than their 5th... and apparently many people consider them great).

Strongly co-signing on Mercury Rev.

Beat Happening

otm

Oh it's decline right..sorry

Quite the opposite for Beat Happening.

I still have time for Revolution Come and Gone more than anything else in their back catalog so yeah, quite the opposite

Pink Floyd

flatline is no decline

I like Animals more than WYWH or DSotM. And even though I love Syd, I think Echoes is my favorite.

Pink Floyd only works if you start counting at Meddle for me. And then yes.

And when I wrote Echoes, I obv meant including the other half of Meddle haha.

This is more or less true for most bands. Only a few reach a peak at the end. Immediately springing to mind: Talk Talk.

The 3rd and the Mortal