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

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And I am more sure than ever that the Meat Puppets belong here (maybe even starting with their little *In a Car* EP).

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

― xhuxk, Thursday, 25 August 2005 13:01 (twenty years ago)

A friend suggests Godspeed! You Black Emperor

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 25 August 2005 15:25 (twenty years ago)

PSB's output oscillates, although I have to say "Release" was an all time low.

― ryansf (ryansf), Thursday, 25 August 2005 15:31 (twenty years ago)

I can't take the Red Kross comments up above. They had a long slow climb to reach the peaks of "Third Eye" and "Phaseshifter". Am I wrong or do they not urinate on "Teen Babes" and "Neurotica"?

― everything, Thursday, 25 August 2005 16:06 (twenty years ago)

The Raincoats
Xiu Xiu (who probably were never all that good in the first place, but still).

― xhuxk, Saturday, 3 September 2005 17:19 (twenty years ago)

I think Xiu Xiu's kept improving, personally, although I haven't heard their latest yet.

Echo & the Bunnymen?
Sorry, I prefer Heaven Up Here over Crocodiles.

― Ian Riese-Moraine: Let this bastard out, and you'll get whiplash! (Eastern Mantr, Saturday, 3 September 2005 17:41 (twenty years ago)

nah, *Crocodiles* was definitely their peak, no contest. They never came close to "Rescue" or "Villier's Terrace" again. But whether they continued to decline steadily after that is for somebody else besides me to decide. (Actually, I really liked this greatest hits EP that came out in the mid/late '80s called, I think, *Echo and the Bunnymen.* Doubt it came out in the UK,though, and I also doubt it counts.)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 3 September 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

Papas Fritas, though it was a thoroughly enjoyable decline.
Archers of Loaf. Not so enjoyable.
Freedy Johnston, I think.
De Artsen. That's cheating, and stupid, but I just like to mention them whenever I can. Or can't, I guess.

― marc(drums) (marcdrums), Saturday, 3 September 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

Wire might fit here too I just realized (though there are I guess those who'll say that recent stuff might be better than their stuff from the late '80s, and maybe they're right)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 3 September 2005 18:49 (twenty years ago)

Tunak Tunak.

― PB, Saturday, 3 September 2005 18:51 (twenty years ago)

Animal Collective, maybe

― xhuxk, Saturday, 3 September 2005 18:59 (twenty years ago)

Nobody would claim "Ummagumma" was better than anything that followed, would they?

Well, you sure wouldn't, Geir, but I've got no trouble ranking that higher than Momentary Lapse of Reason, say, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone.

Redd Kross seems wrong to me too, though admittedly I know songs more than albums. But I definitely think the stuff I know from Teen Babes and Neurotica slays what I know from Born Innocent.

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 3 September 2005 19:08 (twenty years ago)

(I know that sounds dumb but I do really love what I know of the 70s covers and noise/power pop songs and just kinda like the 13-year-olds-throwing-tantrums stuff.)

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 3 September 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

(I will get the entire albums when I find them or when I find a file-sharing programme that makes it through the resnet firewall.)

― Sundar (sundar), Saturday, 3 September 2005 19:13 (twenty years ago)

Weezer's probably (hopefully) been mentioned a half-dozen times already, but they really own this thread.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Saturday, 3 September 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

Er, only if *Pinkerton* is their debut. Which it isn't.

― xhuxk, Saturday, 3 September 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

eight months pass...

Bongwater!!

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Sunday, 28 May 2006 16:37 (twenty years ago)

Beta Band- I love them, but a clear but gentle descent across their discography from brilliant and idiosyncratic to utterly lost.

― gekoppel (Gekoppel), Sunday, 28 May 2006 17:01 (twenty years ago)

The Prodigy.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Sunday, 28 May 2006 17:25 (twenty years ago)

Nah, Music for the Jilted Generation is better as an album, Experience has great tracks but they're all samey, works better as individual tunes.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 28 May 2006 20:08 (twenty years ago)

progist

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Sunday, 28 May 2006 20:21 (twenty years ago)

Well, the thread was about album output, not single output.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Sunday, 28 May 2006 20:24 (twenty years ago)

Bon Jovi maybe?

Also, Mayhem, if you leave out demos and live albums: De Mysteriis > Wolfs Lair Abyss > Grand Declaration Of War > Chimera
Katatonia can be taken off the list, as they've just released a better album than Viva Emptiness (although it's still not in the league of the first three).

― Siegbran (eofor), Sunday, 28 May 2006 20:35 (twenty years ago)

Outkast

(Watch dudes who have never heard Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik or ATLiens flip out.)

― Dr. Rodney's Original Savannah Band (R. J. Greene), Sunday, 28 May 2006 20:39 (twenty years ago)

Can I just mention how little I like the word "output" used to describe music? It makes albums and singles sound like some kind of extruded waste matter.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Sunday, 28 May 2006 20:49 (twenty years ago)

Have you ever heard Aquemeni????

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Sunday, 28 May 2006 20:49 (twenty years ago)

Dudes! Manic Street Preachers!

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

I dunno. I know conventional knowledge is that Holy Bible is the very best of them, but I find it almost unlistenable. I haven't listened to all of Gold Against The Soul (it may just be THAT bad), so I can't be sure, but I suspect that I at any rate would agree with the Manics.

Don't see what people are getting at with the Pets. Actually is significantly better than Please, Behaviour is significantly better than the terrible Introspective (some great singles, but really uninspired production. except for Left To My Own Devices), and Very is [arguably] better than Behaviour. (I personally am not crazy about either Behaviour or Very; but Actually is amazing.)

― Atnevon (Atnevon), Sunday, 28 May 2006 21:04 (twenty years ago)

Also, Mayhem, if you leave out demos and live albums: De Mysteriis > Wolfs Lair Abyss > Grand Declaration Of War > Chimera

You mean, they were at their best when they were just a small, local cellar band in my own native Ski, Norway?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 28 May 2006 21:08 (twenty years ago)

x-post

Aquemini is great, but not as good as their first two.

― Dr. Rodney's Original Savannah Band (R. J. Greene), Sunday, 28 May 2006 21:10 (twenty years ago)

(I agree about the word output, though.)

― Dr. Rodney's Original Savannah Band (R. J. Greene), Sunday, 28 May 2006 21:10 (twenty years ago)

Well, the last album that Outkast have yet to release is one of the 3-4 best albums ever by a hip-hop act (partly because there isn't a lot of hip-hop in the second half)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 28 May 2006 21:16 (twenty years ago)

Resisting.....impulse.....to.....flame......not...worth..it.......

― Dr. Rodney's Original Savannah Band (R. J. Greene), Sunday, 28 May 2006 22:32 (twenty years ago)

Butthole Surfers is so fucking wrong. Their first was okay kinda weird punk but a few albums later they got REALLY fucked up, and that's when it got good.

― Period period period (Period period period), Sunday, 28 May 2006 22:56 (twenty years ago)

Nah, I think Butthole Surfers pretty much makes sense. When they replaced actual songs with psychedelic jackoff, they got more boring (and sorry, not weirder, not really.)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 28 May 2006 23:16 (twenty years ago)

Asia

― pleased to mitya (mitya), Monday, 29 May 2006 01:29 (twenty years ago)

Madonna from Erotica and onwards

― sotough, Monday, 29 May 2006 11:19 (twenty years ago)

Madonna's worst ever album was "Erotica".

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 29 May 2006 11:22 (twenty years ago)

(Except she was probably even worse by the time she released "Justify My Love" - the worst Madonna "song" ever.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 29 May 2006 11:23 (twenty years ago)

You mean, they were at their best when they were just a small, local cellar band in my own native Ski, Norway?

No, because their demos were crap and the live recordings I've heard pre-1990 were absolutely terrible too.

Also, Notorious B.I.G.

― Siegbran (eofor), Monday, 29 May 2006 11:34 (twenty years ago)

No way. Erotica is coherent and fantastic, Bedtime Stories almost as good. A steady stream downhill since that, except that American Life is probably a bit better than Music

― sotough, Monday, 29 May 2006 11:42 (twenty years ago)

dr buzzards original 'savannah' band
odyssey
patrick hernandez

― dave q (listerine), Monday, 29 May 2006 12:23 (twenty years ago)

No way. Erotica is coherent and fantastic, Bedtime Stories almost as good.

Record buying audiences, particularly here in Europe, disagreed, and that was for a reason. From 1998 onwards, though, everything she has done has been fantastic, other than the somewhat patchy "American Life". She did a correct choice, leaving house and hip-hop/trip-hop behind her forever and making electronica and electro instead.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 29 May 2006 12:49 (twenty years ago)

no, cause at the same time she stopped working with good producers. stuart price is ok, but confessions has only two really good tracks: hung up and get together (the latter being one of the most beautiful tracks she has ever recorded, if you ask me)

record buying audiences in usa certainly don't agree; it's been a steady decline since the amazing take a bow (I think it's her most popular single ever, in terms of record sales?)

and mirwais is obviously a twat, everybody agrees. have you listened to music lately? it's awful

― sotough, Monday, 29 May 2006 14:09 (twenty years ago)

Notorious B.I.G., for sure.
Arrested Development (duh).
The Streets (so far).

― max (maxreax), Monday, 29 May 2006 14:21 (twenty years ago)

Annie Lennox, haha

― sotough, Monday, 29 May 2006 14:28 (twenty years ago)

Daft Punk thirded, and The Prodidy.
While "Music for the Jilted Generation" works great as an album and almost doesn't have any filler, Experience was much more experimental and adventurous.

― scnnr drkly (scnnr drkly), Monday, 29 May 2006 14:31 (twenty years ago)

King Missile

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Monday, 29 May 2006 16:25 (twenty years ago)

The Cars, maybe. And so far the Strokes seem to be following the pattern on a per album basis. 1st = classic, 2nd = 1st album, redux, 3rd = mehly received attempt to break the formula. They certainly have adopted the Cars' "Madame Tussaud's House of Wax" approach to performing.

What this all means is that in 2023 The New Strokes will re-form with Conner Oberst taking over the JC spot.

― slugbuggy (slugbuggy), Monday, 29 May 2006 17:10 (twenty years ago)

Santa Esmeralda, probably, but I've only heard the first four albums, and the first three are all pretty great (plus I just checked AMG and noticed than, on their fifth, they covered "Hush" and "Street Fighting Man'. Who knew??)

Silver Convention, maybe? (But only if *Love In a Sleeper* came before *Golden Girls,* which I'm not sure it did.)

Billy Squier? (Possibly even including his Piper and Sidewinders albums; I'd have to go back and check.)

The Babys? Point Blank?? You tell me...

― xhuxk, Monday, 29 May 2006 17:30 (twenty years ago)

and oh yeah:

M.
Au Pairs.
And Flying Lizards?

― xhuxk, Monday, 29 May 2006 17:33 (twenty years ago)

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