Most consistent discographies?

Brian Eno, for the most part. But the problem I have with "consistent" artists is that they're rarely pushing themselves, and after a while it becomes, like, well, I could get the new Neil Young, but why?

napalm death is an interesting choice

motorhead perhaps even more interesting

See jazz polls.

OTM

guess someone has to put Bowie on this list, and that someone is me.
from The Man Who Sold The World > Lets Dance is one cracking run in my book without a single dud amongst them.

Yo La Tengo

I might say Michael Gira - he consistently puts out incredibly varied and compelling work, all of it interesting and of high quality, after about 25 years, without sticking to just one or two ideas. He's even putting out IMO some of the best work of his career with Angels of Light. Consistently good, and his musical transformation is pretty fascinating.

kornrulez beat me by a stretch. yo la tengo. they warmed up on the first (which is by no means bad) but after that every album is gold. the last one maybe only 585 but things like electro-pura around 999.

Can owns this.

Spacemen 3
Funkadelic
Sparks
Sun Ra
Creedence Clearwater Revival
the Beatles obviously
Velvets
Ghostface
Prince Paul

there's lots, actually

xpost

Consistent not equivalent to "every record is fantastic" (as with CAN), right?

Roxy Music OTM. Consistency sums up in that you really only need one album by the artist. Sun Ra does not fit that bill.

I took it to mean that a high level of quality was maintained throughout the entire discography.

I have yet to hear a Sun Ra album I didn't like (tho some are better than others)

(and granted there are like, 500 or whatever but so far I have no been disappointed)

i think this was my first thread on ILM

UGK

De La Soul!

Sleater-Kinney had a nice little 10 year run of consistently great records.

Low was thrown around at the start of the thread, but the thing I love about them is that the quality stays high while the records themselves are generally quite distinct from one another - not just in sound, but in structure, a factor that most artists rarely alter in any significant way. At this point they're just as apt to release an eclectic 65-minute album (Trust) as a sparse, strictly focused 40-minute album (Drums and Guns).

I'd like to echo every word of this. And Mark, if you've only got one Low album (which?), then you're in trouble. All of their albums from Secret Name onward are utterly distinct in structure, mood and sound while managing to be of the utmost quality. The first three records are the most similar three records in their catalog, but are also essential.

the Smiths
Nomeansno
Sabbath with Ozzy

De La Soul!

no. massive drop-off with the post-Prince Paul stuff

Yeah, Low were a good call. Also, Nina Nastasia, New Order, Nick Cave (hmmm, not sure about this), Cat Power.

UNWOUND

I can't think of anyone with a better track record.

well then, i'll seek to expand my low catalog. all i got is 'curtain hits the cast'. any recommendations on where to go next?

All of it.

(Try I Could Live in Hope or Things We Lost in the Fire.)

Until the last record, would have said Mogwai. Now, I'll say Blur. :D

See also: Elbow, Half Man Half Biscuit, Six By Seven

(Think Tank doesn't count, obviously.)

Chic.

Mark, I'll echo Ned's suggestions plus Trust.

This being ILM, someone already said Talk Talk, right?

Nah, Talk Talk started good-ish and then became incredible. That's hardly consistent! I know there are those who disagree (happy burfday Curt1s) but festivities aside, they're WRONG. :D

Yeah, I suppose. There's a definite arc, but their older stuff, as you say, is good. I guess no one's said Radiohead for similar reasons (Pablo Honey)?

This isn't a thread for your favourite/best artists (I'd have been all Cardiacs had that been the case), it's about good artists whose albums you genuinely can't choose between, or at least single out an obvious straggler. Blur are a good example. Yes, I like Leisure.

Radiohead got better with every album, until the latest one.

Actually, I think Elbow, pre-MB Mogwai and HMHB are by far the best examples of this that I've so far suggested. Scratch my Blur claim. Their records are all good but there IS a clear hierarchy IMO.

I know that. I'm not a massive Radiohead fan, but I can't really choose between The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac and HttT (plus, I'm still not sure about the latest one).

xpost

I mean, I know it's not a thread for your favourite artists, etc.

Radiohead got better with every album, until the latest one.

Radiohead have gotten better with every album except "Kid A", which was an extreme drop in quality - so extreme they aren't even close to the greatness of "OK Computer" in spite of having been better each time around after it.

Repetitive minimalist melodies is ALWAYS a terribly bad idea!

Oh is they?!?!

(Try I Could Live in Hope or Things We Lost in the Fire.)

Ned OTM as always. Both great starting points, and since you have Curtain already I'd go for the latter here. The debut is fantastic though, and as someone else mentioned, Trust is excellent - a perfect gateway into Low altogether abandoning the sound they'd defined and refined over their first five records.

Ween

I know lots of people on ILM hate them, but for those of us who like them, The Police quit while on top, without ever releasing a bad album.

Sting's solo albums in the 90s, now there's a different story.

I would also like to add Peter Gabriel. "(2)" may be slightly weaker than the rest, but it isn't bad by any means.

Fugazi

strokes

Wilco is consistently excellent.

Not a bad record yet.

jeez, mogwai are pretty average - all the records except 'young team', and then i loved that one a lot more when i was 18

X had a spectacular run from Los Angeles to See How We Are

That Jimi Hendrix guy was pretty consistently great before he died.

hendrix - you think so? i feel there's a decent amount of garbage for all the great stuff he did too.

"Cry Of Love" wasn't particularly good. But then, few posthumous "leftovers" albums are.

Hendrix - I'd say the whole run while he was alive, Are you experienced?, Axis: bold as love, Electric ladyland, and Band of gypses is fantastic. It lasted all of 3 years, 1967 to 1970, which is very useful if you want to be consistently great. I'm partial to Cry of Love as well, the first of his endless post-humous releases. The enless product that's come out later, lots of which is scrapings from the the studio floor, shouldn't detract from the consistent greatness back when he was in the land of the living.

sure, those main albums he released when he was alive are pretty consistently great.

Nomeansno

Good answer!

Dexys managed to release three excellent albums in spite of some dubious lineup changes and stylistic experiments on Kevin's part. Hopefully they won't sully their track record with the project they apparently have in the works...

Wilco is allll bad records

wolf eyes are pretty consistent. boredoms too. double leopards. les rallizes denudes

The three Specials albums were all pretty good in some way or other. "In The Studio" may have been slightly patchier than the first two, but not at all bad by any means.

Vibracathedral Orchestra
The Ex
Dirtbombs
Xasthur
Cody ChesnuTT

basic channel + offshoots

Until the last record, would have said Mogwai.
I think of Mogwai as consistent. As in consistently getting worse.

personally, i can't really decide between their first four albums, but if anything I prefer rock action and HSFHP. mr. beast is so far below the level of all the others that it horrifies me.

I think of Mogwai as consistent. As in consistently getting worse better.

fixxxed ^

double leopards is... consistent. i guess. more like indistinguishable.

derrick may

Based solely on the implications of the thread title (as in: not factoring quality into the equation), the correct answer is undoubtedly Wesley Willis.

There is a long LONG thread somewhere called something like "Never made a bad record". Not a qn that interests me particularly but it's out there if anyone fancies a search!

-- Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 17:17 (7 months ago) Link
yea, i remember that. i think James Brown and XTC were champions..

-- poortheatre, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 18:27 (7 months ago)

hahaha my god I hope this isn't true--James Brown made a lot of terrible records!

How about Thee Headcoats, or have I just not delved far enough in yet? (And not counting all the variant spellings/bands).

JJ Cale

No Unwound back-up here? Seriously... where is the chink in their armor?