"the greatest four-record run in rock history"

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

Black Vinyl Shoes, Present Tense, Tongue Twister, Boomerang. (I didn't check above--if anyone else mentioned them, colour me astounded.)

Tri Repetae, Chiastic Slide, LP5, Confield

lp5, confield, draft 7:30, untilted

Mentioned towards the beginning, but there's a good long stretch of Royal Trux I'd consider. In my personal opinion, I might go with Cats & Dogs, Thank You, Sweet Sixteen, and Accelerator. It kinda kills me to stop short and not include Veterans of Disorder, though.

Maybe I have the order that these were released in wrong but:

A Love Supreme
Ascension
The John Coltrane Quartet Plays
Meditations

Miles Davis:

In A Silent Way
Bitches Brew
A Tribute To Jack Johnson
On The Corner

Oh wait "in rock history" duh. Scratch those.

nakh you have prompted me to give Draft 7.30 yet one more spin.

Station To Station, Low, Heroes, Lodger.

nice...it's awesome, not a glorious spring day sort of record though

<q>Ween - The Mollusk, White Pepper, quebec, Shinola vol. 1</q>

bow to frogbs, stevie wonder

If only Talk Talk had done something as a group after Laughing Stock.

also, Stevie Wonder is not rock n roll, sorry

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, October 26, 2005 3:22 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

smfh

Someone upthread had a problem with Kraftwerk because Radioactivity sits in the middle of Autobahn, Trans Europe Express, The Man Machine and Computer World. I would say this isn't a problem because Radioactivity is a better album than Computer World anyway. Therefore, Kraftwerk is the correct answer.

It's hard to pick a Genesis run. I slightly prefer the run starting from Selling England... maybe second side of Foxtrot to first side of Trick!

Tri Repetae, Chiastic Slide, LP5, Confield

― ledge, Friday, 23 March 2012 14:53 (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Can't really agree with this, and I'm a massive Ae fan. Add EP7 in there and we can talk.

Led Zeppelin IV - Houses - PG - Presence

MLIR, Parklife, The Great Escape, Blur

^ tempted to say this is a strong contender. TGE is the weakest link, but seems to have undergone a bit of a reassessment of late.

Eep, I made a math error.

If you count Band of Gypsys (all-new material, not a posthumous/archival release), Hendrix:

Are You Experienced?
Axis: Bold As Love
Electric Ladyland
Band of Gypsys