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

love e-mc2 except for the six "we belong together" rewrites that sucked, which doesn't sound like a hearty endorsement, but the rest is really fun

Montrose

Good call Bill.

History has some of the best songs ("Stranger in Moscow" is hands down his best song post-Thriller) but as an album it's really, really boring past like track 6. Dangerous spreads it out a bit more and generally has more interesting things going on. But I see where you're coming from.

I would say the tracks on "Dangerous" sounds a bit too much alike, particularly the Terry Riley produced ones. "HIStory" has a better combination of different producers and different styles. And the ballads are also slightly less sappy, say what you like about "You Are Not Alone" and "Earth Song", but they are still considerably better songs than "Heal The World" and "Gone To Soon".

Call me a sap but I really like "Will You Be There?". I think Dangerous is good if you don't try to listen to it all at once. I guess I could go both ways. In the end I think the first 6 songs or so of History are definitely his best post-Bad. Also there were a couple of tracks on Blood on the Dancefloor that were killer...

"Will you be there?" I had to stop when I heard this.

Back in the day, when Scritti had their direction change to pop music, the b-side of "Sweetest Girl" was "Lions after Slumber", and I remember thinking "MJackson should hear this one".

Clearly, he did. Compare the end bit of "Will you be there" to it.

"Will You Be There" is OK, but not really a slow song to the same extent as the ones I mentioned though.

But, sure, of course "HIStory" also contains his version of "Smile", which is the king of sappiness. And "Childhood" as well is rather horrible. "Little Susie", for all its strangeness and weird subject matter, I think is quite nice though, reminding me a bit of "Like An Angel Passing Through My Room" from ABBA's "Visitors" album.

Cut Copy: I Thought Of Numbers > Bright Like Neon Love > In Ghost Colours > the two teaser tracks from the new one

I'd nominate Charlotte Hatherley, all three of her albums are great but they've got slightly weaker.

I'm tempted to say The Hidden Cameras, although the last two albums are about equal.

Peaches.

Firewater applies well here -- i did a best-of mix once that took 6 songs from their 1st album, 5 songs from their 2nd album, and so on, down to 1 song from their 6th album (sequenced so it was a song each from every album, then a song each from the first five albums, etc.). it worked out pretty well, although i ended up preferring their 6th album to their 4th and 5th. i recommend trying out that structure for some of the other bands mentioned itt.

Until recently, Fountains Of Wayne.

clipse

The Vines

Franz Ferdinand

Personally I'd rate them: 36 Chambers = The W > Forever > 8 Diagrams > Iron Flag. Iron Flag has a nice start, 4 of the first 5 tracks (except for "Soul Power") are really good, but the it veers off to autopilot Wu mode with nothing particularly new or interesting.

― Tuomas, Friday, November 19, 2010 2:24 AM (9 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://i.imgur.com/7WOj5.gif

Personally, I think Franz Ferdinand have gotten better with every release. :)

Firewater was true until their last release, "The Golden Hour", which is absolutely fantastic.

I tempted to say Garbage, but while IMHO s/t > Version 2.0, Bleed Like Me is more solid than Beautifulgarbage, it's highs aren't as high and vice versa.

Brendan Benson is 5 albums and running now

Brendan Benson is 6 albums and running now

the strokes

good one. Interpol also. are either of them still putting out records?

yeah i think the strokes put one out rather recently. i liked the 4th better than third though

My Morning Jacket. tho i think the first and second are pretty even

Mogwai

captain beyond

pentagram

the-dream

Guns n roses?

Appetite > use your illusions > spaghetti > Chinese democracy

And definitely Interpol and Strokes

Heheh. Guns N Roses was my initial thought before clicking this thread which I never saw before.

xp: I prefer Antics to Turn on the Bright Lights.

Interpol is a good one. Can't agree with The Strokes as Room on Fire is my favourite and the latest album is way better than Angles.

I'm tempted to say The Field. The last three albums are fairly even but If I had to order them, think that's how I'd put them.

Mogwai

― paolo, Sunday, 19 January 2014 10:57 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nah, mr beast was the nadir

and arguably rock action/happy songs the zenith

mr. beast had glasgow megasnake!

and toss-all else, sadly. every single album they've done has had at least one stormer

Mr Beast is the album that turned me off Mogwai. Agree that Rock Action/Happy Songs are their best.

well, the orchestral bonus track on the previous album is the actual zenith, but it's just a song, not an album

actually the last interpol record was better than the previous one but they were both not very good and utterly forgettable it seems like it doesn't even matter. they should have done the debut and split up.

Antics and Bright Lights are very close for me. The first 4 tracks on Lights are better than any individual moment on Antics, but Antics flows better overall. Slight edge to Lights (for me).

Our Love to Admire was half decent, half a chore to get through. The last one was almost unlistenable.

Brendan Benson is 6 albums and running now

― Algerian Horsebeater (some dude), Saturday, January 18, 2014 7:55 AM

wait wait wait wait ... are you saing One Mississippi > Lapalco?

love disagreeing with almost all of this thread

Psychic TV, probably.

pretty much agree about Suicide even though on some days i prefer the 2nd album.

agree about butthole surfers if we are taking "Psychic... Powerless..." to be the first album.

God, I adore pretty much everything TG and Coil did but I really struggle finding anything interesting about Psychic TV. I've tried, really I have.

Force The Hand Of Chance is so great. Dreams Less Sweet is great. A Pagan Day, Mouth Of The Night, Themes 2 and Album 10 are good. The rest not so much.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Bloc Party