Acts whose entire album output has always been on the decline, with no exception

There ain't no good guys, there ain't no bad guys, there only xhuxk and me, and one of us is off the mark again.

Or should at least acknowledge that this is an idiosyncratic nomination, since conventional wisdom establishes Talk Talk Talk as the Furs' highwater mark, and many would rank Book Of Days over Midnight To Midnight and Mirror Moves.

I concede Love Spit Love > Trysome Eatone

I wish Martin Popoff was here so he could nominate Def Leppard (at least that's my recollection; his metal book is not in front of me.)

Pysch Furs' debut is better (funnier, catchier, more energetic, more rocking, more consistent) than *Talk Talk Talk,* which I still like a lot. (And yes, "conventional wisdom" is indeed wrong sometimes.)

Warren Zevon, maybe (though I guess there was an Eminem-style early years album years before his "debut", so I suppose he's disqualified)

upthread: SPOON???!!? what'r you, nuts?

>no way is the first red cross ep better than Born Innocent<

And "I Hate My School" and "Annete's Got the Hits" and "Cover Band" are the best songs Red Cross/Kross ever did. So their debut EP was their best record, in my book. (And their second EP, *Teen Babes From Monsanto,* beats anything they did after it, though *Neurotica* comes close.)

Interpol will probably count for this. I can't imagine them making anything that tops Turn on the Bright Lights.

Also, CeCe Peniston, who I'm listening to right now.

And I gave some thought to Lenny Kravitz, but ... nahh.

Or (re QOTSA): Loose Groove, or whatever the label was. (The split EP was on Man's Ruin, though, I think.)

Screaming Blue Messiahs belong here, too.

Billy Joel?
Rod Stewart! (not that i know the entire recorded output of either, unfortunately)

ODB.

(I wanna disagree about Tiffany tho -- as I recall, "we're both thinking of her tonight" is on her 2nd album, and that's her best track. also her "comeback" album recently kills her 3rd, which isn't hard to do at all tho. probably OTM about debbie gibson however.)

Green Day?
The Offspring!
311!
RATM!

but that album has "detox mansion"! which is on the wagon but off the sappy!

Yeah, that's the brown one I was talking about, on Loose Groove, and it's my favorite, too. (But I wasn't referring to Kyuss, either -- the split with Beaver Man's Ruin EP is QOTSA, not Kyuss--a band who, bizarrely enough, I have never even listened to much. Though probably I should, someday.)

And how can you discuss the great songs off the "Warren Zevon" album without mentioning his Stairway To Heaven, The French Inhaler?

Come off it, no way was Gold Against the Soul better than the Holy Bible.

Muse, who whilst making increasingly poor albums, have become more and more popular

No way, 'Showbiz' is easily their weakest, though I'll give you 'Origin Of Symmetry' > 'Absolution'.

My suggestion: Foo Fighters.

In the case of solo Sting, #2 > #1. Otherwise, OTM about Sting, but certainly not about The Police, who ended their career with their one and only masterpiece.

Their second album did include "Richard III" (which I'll readily admit I thought was pants when I first heard it, but which did eventually grow on me), "In It For The Money" and best of all "Sun Meets The Sky"; their third one at least had "Moving" and "Pumping On Your Stereo" in it's favour; and the fourth one contained absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever at all as far as I can recall.

The more I think about this the more convinced I am that this Supergrass the best example yet.

-- Dadaismus (dadaismu...), May 20th, 2005 8:25 PM.

There must be at least 15 NWW albums that invalidate that, but at the very least: Shipwreck Radio is one of the best releases in years.

I'll submit A Certain Ratio.

I was going to mention this as a possibility, though I see that Xhuxk got there first. I can't say with certainty though, since I haven't heard their later albums.

This morning I am actually thinking they might be one of the best examples of it.

And Prince might work if he started with his third album, as far as I'm concerned.