POLL: Which band has the best discography?

lmao really difficult poll

Horrible poll. Torture is illegal for a reason.

Meant to vote for RTX and accidentally voted for Roxy Music, lol

Still voting Minutemen (in my head). 3-Way Tie not a disqualifier for me.

I nominated Fela and viewing his discography album by album I think it's him. BUT I feel like some weight should be given to artists/bands that have really solid career but also have a broader range of styles/moods/textures than someone like Fela. Call it rockist if you must. Gotta think on this one some more.

who are these people

voted Fugazi but it was tough

YMG disqualified for the Testcard EP

So it's like Fela, Cocteau Twins, Sade on 1 side & Miles, Duke, Zep on the other in my bracket

Zep also a good choice

Creedence disqualified for Mardi Gras

Trux and Zep are two of my favorite bands of all time. Neither of them belong here. Which is also true for a number of these acts that I like v much but aren't among my all-time favorites.

Almost certainly Cocteau Twins for me.

Young Marble Giants feels like a bit of a cheat, tbf. V v good but a bit of a cheat.

the beatles

lol @ Beatles omission

Miles is out due to his 80s stuff. Sade is out due to not loving a good chunk of her stuff. Zep out because some tracks annoy me. Cocteau out cause cause of limited range, and I guess then that would apply to Fela too. But I enjoy listening to Fela more than I do Duke. If Duke had Tony Allen in his band it'd be a wrap.

i think i am voting for sade

though maybe i should guarantee deftones get at least one vote

Giving it to Duke due to wider range of emotions his music engenders. And afaic he wasn't a misogynistic prick.

Trux and Zep are two of my favorite bands of all time. Neither of them belong here. Which is also true for a number of these acts that I like v much but aren't among my all-time favorites.

Indeed. It's all about the ratio, and most of these names lack it.

What I couldn't live with out today: Ae, Fugazi, D'Angelo

not voting

Zep out because some tracks annoy me.

Does this sentiment count? I can say this about every songwriter, poet, novelist, director who ever breathed.

Ooh shit and SotL. Probably them. Not voting.

going with Broadcast in the absence of the Beatles

sade 100%

Huh you can Alfred? There's a bunch of artists etc who don't flat out annoy me ever. Just sticking to this group polled here, I can't think of any Fela or Sade I'm annoyed by. Ho hum is my worst reaction to any song of theirs.

wait I just noticed Wham! was listed

Voted for Nick Drake, 3 perfectish LPs, nothing else whatsoever.

Broadcast is a good choice too, but I may be into their more wilfully obscure stuff more than some people, ymmv, etc.

xpost Yeah, that's pretty lol. Love ol' George and Make It Big is great but c'mon.

WHAM! BAM!
I AM! A MAN!

steely dan has the comeback era, roxy has the relatively lackluster manifesto and flesh + blood, funkadelic is fantastic but the highs aren't quite high enough for this exercise. d'angelo only has 3 albums.

might have to go with coltrane, short time period but massive volume and an almost 100% hit rate.

Wham! is more like a band with one good song

everything she wants?

Careless Whispers

Haha oh wait

Ok, no good songs!

great wham! songs: "everything she wants," "freedom," "careless whisper," "i'm your man," "the edge of heaven," "club tropicana," "heartbeat," "wake me up," "a different corner," "last christmas"

but yeah no idea why wham! is here

oh for fuck's sake

if you're gonna do it do it right

Huh you can Alfred? There's a bunch of artists etc who don't flat out annoy me ever. Just sticking to this group polled here, I can't think of any Fela or Sade I'm annoyed by. Ho hum is my worst reaction to any song of theirs.

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger),

Yeah, see, this is a weird statement with which I've no empathy. I can't think of a single artist who hasn't annoyed me or hasn't released mediocre work, and that's a good thing. One of the nominees here said best: "Looking for love in a looking-glass world/Is pretty hard for you."

George Michael's singing range is right in sync with mine so I love to tear up a karaoke stage with a rousing rendition of 'Oh For Fuck's Sake'.

If we're going to stick to a strict set of criteria, I've never heard anything egregiously bad by:

D'Angelo
Death
Gorguts
John Coltrane
Nina Nastasia
Portishead
Stars of the Lid

may vote Wham! to annoy Shakey tbh

hasn't annoyed me: yes
hasn't released mediocre work: no

deftones have released at least one song that annoys me so i'm sympathetic with alfred here

Cocteau Twins did a Fruitopia commercial, does that count

but yeah no idea why wham! is here

― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, February 13, 2020 2:44 PM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I went through the thread and found the things people were most passionate about.

It's funny when people try to nail down the platonic ideal of perfection

the beatles

― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Thursday, February 13, 2020 2:10 PM (fifty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol @ Beatles omission

― Οὖτις, Thursday, February 13, 2020 2:11 PM (fifty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yep.

Not that it matters since plenty of other bands listed suffer from the same problem but The Beatles were nothing if not inconsistent.

thread is a good reminder of some artists I scarcely know at all whose discographies I really need to dig into: Sade, Royal Trux, Fugazi

have you ever heard of the Beatles

Is that a deliberate misspelling.

It was the '60s, no one was going to sell albums by a band called the Buttholes.

the best place to start with the Buttholes is with their song "She's a Woman" by Scritti Politti, also that's the best place to stop

Then you turned on me for saying the exact same thing itt!

Am I being trolled?

I never troll! I just disagree, vehemently, about the volume of bad songs (30%-40% of the catalog?! That's insane) and the specific songs/albums you cited.

personally I'd put the Beatles hit/success rate at closer to like 90%

I was exaggerating for effect. My actual breakdown would look something like: 25% the pits, 35% eh, good enough, 40% fuck yeah, this is awesome.

The Beatles, more like The Perfects imo

Easy vote for Low - a band whose aesthetic concept should have run into a ditch after three albums, but instead have been endlessly fascinating and wonderful for 25 years and still going—and their most recent album is arguably the best thing they’ve ever done!

Easy vote for Low - a band whose aesthetic concept should have run into a ditch after three albums, but instead have been endlessly fascinating and wonderful for 25 years and still going—and their most recent album is arguably the best thing they’ve ever done!

Voted Sade.

btw this year i’m going to see both deftones and underworld live for the first time :D

I saw Deftones about a decade ago, with Dir En Grey opening. They were really good. (Dir En Grey were amazing.)

this tour poppy and gojira are opening. i expect to die

I have too long an attention span for Poppy, but the prospect of a new Gojira album is extremely exciting. It's been too long.

is there any point scrolling past duke ellington, I don’t think so

is there any point even opening this thread?

depends, do you want to know about the Beatles?

tongue-in-cheek beatles arguments are still a billion miles better than a bunch of dudes masturbating about autechre, so this thread’s been excellent afaic

voted fela kuti btw

We should do a TS, e.g. Abbey Road vs Confield.

another really hard poll

depends, do you want to know about the Beatles?

pretty sure most people who are stanning for the Beatles are wearing depends or will be soon enough

depends with Wings

490

Better yet, only one song

― babby bitter (Noodle Vague), Friday, February 14, 2020 11:59 PM (yesterday)

Which band has the best discography?

Which band has the best discography?

Which band has the best discography?

Which band has the best discography?

Which band has the best discography?

(Madness albums)
One Step Beyond... (1979) (UK No. 2)
Absolutely (1980) (UK No. 2)
7 (1981) (UK No. 5)
The Rise & Fall (1982) (UK No. 10)
Keep Moving (1984) (UK No. 6)
Mad Not Mad (1985) (UK No. 16)
The Madness (1988) (UK No. 66)
Wonderful (1999) (UK No. 17)
The Dangermen Sessions Vol. 1 (2005) (UK No. 11)
The Liberty of Norton Folgate (2009) (UK No. 5)
Oui Oui Si Si Ja Ja Da Da (2012) (UK No. 10)
Can't Touch Us Now (2016) (UK No. 5)

I haven't heard any of these after 'Keep Moving' and I'm in no hurry to return to that.

― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, February 15, 2020 1:09 AM (five hours ago)

The Madness was a self-titled album by a handful of the members after the band split and can be disregarded.
The singles on the 1999 album were decent.
Dangermen was intended to be pseudonymous - they were playing club shows under the name, doing the sort of covers they played when they were starting out - but it got labelled as Madness for sales' sake.
Liberty Of Norton Folgate is the only album they ever wrote as a cohesive album, is very very good, and launched with a Julien Temple film made for it.
No idea about the recent two.

I actually think the !!! discography is really solid

― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Saturday, February 15, 2020 1:46 AM (five hours ago)

yep yep yep

My "one song" was an affectionate Portishead joke, nb I don't think only having one song is a bad thing

felt it would've been too harsh and potentially triggering to have made the joke about "y'all procrastinating yr regularly scheduled prostate cancer screening exams or ..."

It's still Erykah.

My "one song" was an affectionate Portishead joke

oh lol

Kraftwerk. OK Electric Café was a bit of a dud but apart from that they barely put a foot wrong

Talk Talk

A couple of quick thoughts - I was slightly surprised not to see Slint on the list of options. I may have missed some chat about entry criteria based on number of releases, but still...

And, while delving into some chat about Autechre's NTS sessions, and particularly re the chat about whether their track 'all end' was actually the end of them releasing music (spoiler - it wasn't), I did think that if they did end there that their legacy would be, for me anyway, not far off perfect. However, given the number of live shows that they have released, and the number which I haven't listened to (spoiler - nearly all of them) , it's difficult to stand by that. I still voted for them though.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Honestly it's either Talk Talk or Autechre

YELLOW

MAGIC

ORCHESTRA

they bridge a gap between styles and generations in the same way roxy music does

I don’t think I voted. Leaning towards Miles even though I’ve only heard like 1/4 of his catalog. And also leaning towards Funkadelic though I haven’t heard Toys and the two post-Electric Spanking records.

in the absence of YMO, i will choose kraftwerk.

what is the kraftwerk release(s) that do not apply? electric cafe? ok, but even on that there's gonna be a fight

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Nothing against Kraftwerk, I love those guys but can you imagine someone with true jazz chops on Electric Cafe.

Seriously though, I do love them but ~40% of their albums are of questionable flawlessness.

an you imagine someone with true jazz chops on Electric Cafe.

i'm not sure what this means!

Pretty good tie for second. (I voted Sade.)

/an you imagine someone with true jazz chops on Electric Cafe./

i'm not sure what this means!

(Answer to what would be an imagined Kraftwerk with jazz chips I mean)

the answer to most of the important questions in life is YMO

Nina Nastasia--never heard of her. I knew I was out of touch, but--seven votes--didn't realize how much.

(Answer to what would be an imagined Kraftwerk with jazz chips I mean)

Nina Nastasia--never heard of her. I knew I was out of touch, but--seven votes--didn't realize how much.

Nina nastasia is one of the great, overlooked artists of the 2000’s. She was very prolific for awhile but dropped out of sight almost a decade ago (her last album was released in June 2010). She’s still out there playing shows and supposedly had something in the works awhile ago but haven’t heard much since. Really wonderful.

Just a reminder that my Roxy Music vote was intended to be a vote for RTX \m/