"the greatest four-record run in rock history"

I have a small but persistently nagging suspicion that an infinitessimally small minority of ILM's collective girlfriends / boyfriends / partners / wifes / husbands might just disagree with you ever so slightly on a couple of extremely minor points of detail....

The rest of them would most definitely tell you that you're talking complete arse.

No. (And I like Frenz more anyway, personally!)

Twin Infinitives
Royal Trux
Cats and Dogs
Thank You

You've got a hell of a lot of support for Head through Down, at least

The Genesis run of no less than 9 most excellent albums in a row ended with "Duke".

beat that progression?

transmissions from the satellite heart
clouds taste metallic
zaireeka
the soft bulletin

69 love songs
i

soul rebels
catch a fire
burnin'
natty dread

In a priest driven ambulance
Hit to Death in the Future Head
Transmissions...
Clouds Taste Metallic

Can't say I've cared for much by them after CTM, but what a run...

My vote personally goes to Cheap Trick, though. If only for the fact that they made 4 almost flawless records and then did nothing but dreck from then on.

Outlandos d'Amour
Reggatta de Blanc
Zenyatta Mondatta
Ghost in the Machine
Synchronicity

oh god did i say that

simple minds:
reel to real cacophony => empires & dance => sons & fascination => sister feelings call
(yes i am cheating by counting the last 'double' album as 2 single ones, but i think 'new gold dream' is overrated)

yello:
solid pleasure => claro que si => you gotta say yes => stella
(and 'one second' almost extends it to 5)

comsat angels:
waiting for a miracle => sleep no more => fiction => land
(i believe most other comsat fans think the 4th is naff, but i don't)

magazine:
would have been in here if the last album hadn't been a bit weak (and a live one would have got in the way anyway)

other hon. mentions -
cabs:
crackdown => microphonies => covenant => code

devo:
nearly make it - though with albums 2->5 or even 3->6 for me (i like their synthpop phase)

t.dream:
the phaedra => rubycon => ricochet sequence peters out with 'stratosfear' unfortunately...
(oops - creaky puns purely accidental)

the chameleons:
if they had released a 4th album in the 80's...

& Dr C is OTM ref. kraftwerk

i'd say
after the goldrush
harvest
time fades away
on the beach
is the better run.

And on Tom Waits, no need to count One From the Heart or Night on Earth or Big Time, as they're all movie soundtrack albums rather than studio albums proper, and their faults have very much to do with that. So without them you get Heartattack & Vine > Swordfishtrombones > Raindogs > Frank's Wild Years > Bone Machine. Which is pretty damn amazing. You could go on and say that next came Mule Variations, but the many years' gap disqualifies it as part of any "run," I think.

And just a YES to The Modern Dance to Art of Walking.

Personally, I;d go with either the first four or American Stars n Bars, Comes a Time, Rust Never Sleeps, Hawks & Doves. Freedom, Ragged Glory, Harvest Moon, Sleeps with Angels is pretty groovy, too (doesn;t count the weird live records and comps released between).

But for all-time best four, it just doesn;t get any better than the Stones' run of Banquet, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile. Only thing even close is Beatles (Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Peppers, Magical Mystery).

pretty fair run.

James Brown's

Soul on Top
It's a New Day
Sex Machine
Super Bad

is a good run. and yeah I am leaving out his Christmas album "Hey America." well, who else calls a Christmas album "Hey America" and then includes a rap about how he's pissed off at his wife/girlfriend, and makes not-so-veiled threats toward her during it? if that's not great, then what is? But for my money, start JB almost anywhere around 1969 and you get four really interesting albums--better that than the Talking Heads, for chrissake.

Pere Ubu I would go for as well. possibly CCR. not Sly, though, since "Stand!" isn't totally great, and besides, what came after "Fresh"? Funkadelic is strong: Let's Take It to the Stage/Tales of Kidd/Hardcore Jollies/One Nation. I'm leaving out the best-ofs on Westbound. Prince didn't have four great ones in a row. Costello had one boring one (his first one), one great one, one kinda good one, then that Stax/Motown whisky-and-cocaine one, then the other great one, "Trust." didn't he go Nashville in there somewhere? and then he re-made the Beatles on "Imperial Boudoir." the Beatles, sure, Please/With/Hard Day's/For Sale, that's the run I'd choose, while others would say Rubber/Revolver/Pepper...whoops! Magical Mystery Tour, so that run is screwed. or Help!!...nope, that one I always thought was one of their worst.

I know plenty of people who could argue Neil Young. probably I have been in the same room when "Harvest" was playing, or that one which I do like, the album with "Cinnamon Girl." I do like "Cortez the Killer"--that's on "Zuma"? for that matter, Joni Mitchell if we're talking Neil Young. Melissa Manchester? Phoebe Snow? Dylan? Bringing It/Hwy. 61/Blonde/Nashville, is that how that goes?

anyway, I just wanted to put in my two cents--I honestly can't think of any four great rock albums in a row except for the Stones and maybe CCR and maybe Skynyrd, actually, when I think about them. but wasn't there one kind of dud in there, "Gimme Back My Bullets"? the Kinks? the only really great Kinks records are the Greatest HIts collection on Reprise, Face to Face and Something Else. I recently got as a gift the 3-disc Village Green reissue, and it put me to sleep. when it gets to "Phenomenal Cat," I just zone out. Arthur is lame, too. None of those British beat groups sustained four albums. The Move? the Hollies? Small Faces? Manfred Mann? Beefheart? Strictly Personal is no good, neither is Spotlight Kid except for one or two songs, and Clear Spot is fun but hardly great. except for maybe Doc at Radar Station and Safe as Milk, every single one of his records are deeply flawed, boring, misguided, something wrong with all of them.

so many of the people I really love, like George Jones or Haggard or Ray Charles or Gilberto Gil--they never made "four great albums in a row" that I know of. Chic didn't. and I mean, really, even Brown's Sex Machine has that dumb-ass version of "Spinning Wheel" on it. I guess I'm happy with all the imperfections of less-than-great albums all in a row.

Whoo, Lord.

High Voltage
Dirty Deeds
Let there be rock
Powerage

Corkers the lot of 'em. But if push comes to shove the Stones still take it.

I'm surprised nobody's said anything regarding Parliament. Mothership Connection, Dr. Funkenstein, Funkentelechy... you just have to pick Chocolate City vs. Motor Booty Affair as your bookend...

Sleater-Kinney is an excellent answer just in terms of, maybe none of the albums will ever enter the canon of Great Rock Records, but they all stand as testaments to the miraculous and rare feat of a working band being consistently VERY good and often great or excellent, certainly never bad. I do feel like All Hands isn't quite up there with what precedes it, but I still like it better than One Beat, so, whatever.

As far as Beck goes, my vote's for Odelay > Mutations > Midnite Vultures > Sea Change. Not only four EXCELLENT albums (much as my opinion on MV has waffled over the years), but covering a whole lot of different territory.

I wonder how much it's fair to not count SOME types of compilations. I mean, if a compilation collects a lot of non-album work from the same period as the surrounding albums, surely it fits in with what we're trying to get at here, the idea of bands being on a temporary creative high? If the Beatles had put out something like Past Masters 1.5 after Pepper, would that not have some relevance? For some reason, even though I don't think they qualify for thread anyway, I'm thinking about Modest Mouse's "Building Nothing Out of Something." Non-album stuff more or less contemporary with Lonesome Crowded West....

Oh hell, I'll go ahead and say it for the sake of hyping a contemporary band: Lonesome Crowded West > Building Nothing Out of Something > Moon & Antarctica > Everywhere & His Nasty Parlour Tricks.

How about Pussy Whipped > Reject All American > Julie Ruin > Le Tigre?

My for real, serious answer: The Ramones win Even with the bad slow numbers and the lame cover art on Leave Home. Those first four records manage to show a progression and yet feel like one continuous peak at the same time. Fabulous, and I really need to get my copies back...

"Whoo, Lord."

You were absolutely right to express surpise and alarm Tim; however we must always remember that in the final analysis it all comes down to a matter of personal taste, which of course is all entirely and intrinsically subjective, and we're all entitled to have our opinions.

Even Edd.

Even when he's so obviously and completely wrong.

Haha. No, it was, really. A double seven inch. Capitol made it an album by putting all the recent single sides on the B-sides. It has stayed an album in their catalog only because this has remained an easy way for these single tracks to be available. (They would have overloaded Past Masters Volume 2.)

And again, The White Album came out only a year and a half after Sgt. Pepper. That's hardly a big gulf of time, particularly in terms of how we think of artists working nowadays.

OTM about Safe as Milk being the Captain's most consistent record. Trout Mask is really difficult for me to listen to straight-through nowadays, though I used to all the time when I was younger (and partook more of the jazz-cigareet). I actually think that Shiny Beast is pretty consistently listenable all the way through. I used to hate "Candle Mambo" and "Love Lies" too, but now I like them.

Ha ha, that's the song that got me started on Beefheart on the first place (and i ain't finished yet)

I'd love to be able to start with Transmissions and go to Soft Bulletin, but the fact that Zaireeka, while actually a good record, really doesn't make the cut, even if it were a less unweildy format than the crazy 4 simultaneous cd release thing. If Zaireeka wasn't wedged in there, I'd even nominate Priest through Soft Bulletin as a five-record run.

Anyway, it wasn't a case for trying to get the Beatles in on a technicality or anything! Magical Mystery Tour is an awesome EP.

me too, Tim. I love what Lucas and Johnston did with it on the Fast 'n' Bulbous album this year. I love Beef--his albums are a bit like James Brown's, I guess, so strong and yet so flawed. No one could keep up that inhuman pace anyway. and speaking of "Sheriff of Hong Kong," sometimes I get into its flow and it sounds incredible, sometimes I feel like I'm riding go-kart on a muddy dirt track with two fat-bottomed gurls...which might actually be a good thing now that I type that...

xp

[Talking Heads first four albums] stand with any four consecutive albums ever made by anybody. (The Velvet Underground and Public Enemy aside, these are almost certainly the greatest first four albums in all of pop music.)

the smiths > hatful of hollow > meat is murder > the queen is dead

?

i will then.

Even so, More Songs ... and Fear of Music are two of the most colossally great rock records. No false notes on either album, especially the latter.

Timothy's monster > Blissard > Angels and deamons at play > Trust us

All equally great.

# Torch of the Mystics LP (Majora) 1990
# Dawn of the Devi LP (Majora) 1991
# Live from Planet Boomerang 2-LP (Majora) 1992
# Bright Surroundings, Dark Deginnings LP (Majora) 1993
# Valentines from Matahari LP (Majora) 1993
# Kaliflower CD/LP (Abduction) 1994

I'm ultimately down with Trust Us, which is probably my favorite record of all time, with AADAP as a great runner-up.

They've recently finished recording the new one, though their drummer left a few months ago so it's made only by Bent and Snah, and the first rumours about a new tour in the spring of 2006 are to be found on the MP-forum. Release is expected somewhere in feb/mar 2006. I guess.

The last one is a compilation of two EPs, but it's been an "album" as far as I can remember, and rivals any of Nick Cave's best solo work.
Birthday Party 80
Prayers On Fire 81
Junkyard 82
The Bad Seed/Mutiny 83

How Curtis Mayfield was overlooked is beyond me.
Curtis 70
Roots 71
Superfly 72
Back To The World 73

I'd say The Sound has an edge over Comsat Angels in that Heads and Hearts doesn't suck.
Jeopardy 80
From The Lions Mouth 81
All Fall Down 82
Heads And Hearts 85

Though I'm a little tired of her at the moment,
Debut 93
Post 95
Homogenic 97
Vespertine 01

Arto Lindsay may be the most underrated artist of the last decade.
Mundo Civilizado 97
Noon Chill 98
Prize 99
Invoke 02

Am I alone in thinking CCR didn't really make albums? They seemed to me to be just singles collections with filler. For someone like Otis Redding, it works. But when I borrowed the box set of all their albums, I really couldn't get into any of the so-called album tracks.

here we go:

Eno's 4 vocal albums (I know he did Discreet Music in between there, but these kind of form a set)

They Might Be Giants - s/t, Lincoln, Flood, Apollo 18

Van der Graaf Generator - H to He Who Am The Only One, Pawn Hearts, Godbluff, Still Life

Orbital - Orbital 2, Snivilisation, In Sides, Middle of Nowhere

Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty

ELP - s/t, Tarkus, Trilogy, Brain Salad Surgery

The Orb - Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, U.F. Orbus, Orbus Terrarum, Orblivion

Ween - The Mollusk, White Pepper, quebec, Shinola vol. 1 (ok counting Shinola is kinda lame but it's up there with the rest)

Gary Numan - Tubeway Army, Replicas, Pleasure Principle, Telekon

Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall
Genesis – Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Gets Next to You
Let's Stay Together
I'm Still in Love with You
Call Me
pretty fair run.

church