Artists whose first album was pretty good, but then the second one was awesome, and then the third was just OK but really more of the same, and by the fourth one you weren't even paying attention

?

TAD

the "42" of internet music boards

radiohead

PIL

Clinic (counting the EP collection as the first album).

Talking Heads

Oasis, Lemonheads, Ash, Chicago, AC, Mia, Elastica, Blur, Can, Principal Edwards Magic Threatre, I ludicrous, Eric Burdon, Shriekback, goose.

my description of the full career arc out to albums 5 and 6 got cut off

R.E.M.

THE STOOGES

girls aloud!!

The Band

Merzbow

Garbage

Prince, once he dismissed the Revolution

The thread title is eerily close to my exact opinion of the New Pornographers.

Dandy Warhols for me.. I could also put Super Furry Animals here, umm.. Travis?

You are describing Suede's career

radiohead was the first band that popped into my mind as well.

jay z?

it's possible i'm getting the timeline of his discography slightly jumbled...

oooh, it is Suede's career!

smh @ people dignifying this thread with serious responses

>>dignifying this thread with serious responses

Time-honored comic technique: treat the utterly ridiculous as serious. Explains Bush getting re-elected, for example.

Pixies

and you will know us by the trail of dead

Chemical Brothers

The thread title is eerily close to my exact opinion of the New Pornographers.

OTM

for me (and probably massively unpopular answer) also add Bjork.

predicting this sort of arc for The Electric Soft Parade

11th Dream Day

TV On The Radio will be

Pablo Honey - The Bends - OK Computer - Kid A

...I'm sorry, are people thinking of a different Radiohead?

yeah wtf "radiohead" on this thread

Dandy Warhols is A+ answer

Trail of Dead is madness though. don't know how you could come to the conclusion that Source Tags is "OK but really more of the same" after the first two.

Is the second DW album even better than the first?! I must get hold...

Quite tempted to suggest The Mars Volta, actually, or Muse (srsly)

The Smashing Pumpkins.

Talking Heads

Also super-WTF.

Actually not Muse because Showbiz was a lot worse than "pretty good" and Absolution was a lot better than "just OK but more of the same", altho 4th-album drop-off present and correct

wtf radiohead

i'm waiting for the first moron to mention pavement

Ride, if the Smile comp can count as their first album. I would consider GBA to be several steps above "OK," but everything else fits the formula.

Ooh, I'd say Ride as long as Smile DOESN'T count! :-P

(Actually I haven't heard Carnival Of Light at all so I might be wrong)

here we are again gabbing about Ride lolz

ya true! it's all this andy bell back in the charts malarkey, makin' me pine for the good old days

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i'm waiting for the first moron to mention pavement

― Kevin Keller, Friday, 17 October 2008 21:39 (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol irony ;-)

If Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets could be counted as one album (they are basically flipsides of the same coin), then Metallica OWNS this thread.

Three Mile Pilot

NIN?

As long as it is more of the same, I will always continue liking it. If I like something, I will never get enough and I am more likely to leave the act behind once the act changers and does something different.

timeless geir

OK, OK, I got it: Grandaddy. They fit all criteria perfectly.

New Order for me, although I don't suppose anyone here would agree with me.

Pulp (on Island)

Eminem's a perfect answer, actually.

Local H also fits this to a T (though their fifth album, weirdly, was pretty good.)

Also maybe Poison, though I might rank their debut over their second by now. Definitely didn't at the time though.

Also maybe Shania Twain (though her third and fourth might both be a little too good for the formula.)

(And her first probably wasn't good enough, too.)

Naked Raygun (if you count Basement Screams as their debut).

Maldita Vecindad y los Hijos del Quinto Patio (not counting the live album, which I never heard)

Shinehead

So "Tusk" OK but really more of the same? Are you sure you're on the right message board?

I'm not a Tusk fan, but you're right, it's clearly not "more of the same." Yet another in my long list of regrets...

Local H is OTM.

Nine Inch Nails

ABC

Public Enemy (same caveat as Poison, oddly enough. And fourth album maybe less ignorable than I figured at the time, who knows.)

liars

The only act I can think of which fits this exactly for me is The Hold Steady.

^ Was gonna say them (and also Schoolly-D), except I actually did briefly pay attention to both of their fourth albums at the time, and didn't want to lie.

The Mars Volta is pretty much the perfect answer to this, for me

Tindersticks

actually no because I did listen to the fourth MV album a coupla times

Teenage Fanclub

In a lot of these examples (including the ones I agree with), I think the third album is still better than "just OK" although it may not be a huge leap from the 2nd album.

Big seconds for Tortoise, who seem to fit this category very well.

Teenage Fanclub

catholic education < bandwagonesque < thirteen < grand prix ... all a bit samey after that tho.

Yeah, the TFC are the opposite of this.

The Dickies fit this exactly though.

Half Man Half Biscuit

Radiohead

I haven't quite given up on Ocean Colour Scene (in fact their new album is quite good as long as you like what they are doing and can tolerate another dose of the same thing once more), but the header still somewhat describes what I feel about them. Except "Marchin Already" was just as good as the debut.

But, I mean, in terms of being "more of the same", they are pretty much OTM. Not that I mind that much about that. The songs have never again been as good as on that second album though - they will never ever top "The Day They Caught The Train" or "You've Got It Bad" in terms of greatness.

this thread pretty much describes pearl jam to me

Belle & Sebastian

^^^correct answer

also TFC

The Pogues (best answer yet, maybe, though like Poison and Public Enemy and Psych Furs -- all "P" bands -- the argument could still conceivably be made that the raw debut was better than the more refined followup.)

Bad Religion (if you ignore the 7-inch and count the Back To The Known EP as their third album).

Also surprised nobody has nominated Jane's Addiction. (But I won't, since I don't think any of their albums quite = "awesome".)

this thread is my object lesson in how not to parody inane list threads: if you don't tip your hand enough, people just take it seriously and before you know it you're contributing to the problem

Maybe make the question less interesting next time.

what a disaster for inane list thread parodies

New thread topic: Artist whose first album was just okay, but then the second one was a little better, then the third one sucked, but the fourth one was surprisingly pretty good, and then the fifth one, etc. etc.

O. Nate: I was completely sucked in--brilliant! The fact is, though, you inadvertently described the arc of many careers.

^ I first read that as "you inadvertently described the arc of my career."

Mine too!

Half Man Half Biscuit

― Mark G, Thursday, 18 March 2010 16:54 (Yesterday) Bookmark

O_O

Mine too! (Minus the brilliant second act.)

Hot chip

dEUS

Also surprised nobody has nominated Jane's Addiction. (But I won't, since I don't think any of their albums quite = "awesome".)

Ritual de lo Habitual is a really special record for me, don't think it fits the rubric... they were on a pretty ascendant arc up through the first three albums. I don't care about any of the post-reunion stuff

gang of 4

For me, Galaxie 500 fits this rule and at least they had the courtesy to break up before the fourth album. On Fire was the first album of theirs I heard all the way through and it's still the consistent standout for me now.

Talk Talk fits better with this title (well, other than the "more of the same" part) than anyone else.

Sigur Ros.

Duran Duran and Culture Club.

The Streets

xpost Geir Are you counting them as one "artist"? Because that would be kind of awesome.

No no. But both fit with the description here to some extent (apart from the "more of the same" thing, which I don't buy anyway because I don't see that as a negative thing)