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

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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)

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??)

I only know one song by them but if "Another Cha Cha" isn't the best thing ever, I don't know what is.

Dr. Rodney's Original Savannah Band (R. J. Greene), Monday, 29 May 2006 18:01 (twenty years ago)

RENTON: "Right. So we all get old and then we can't hack it any more. Is that it?"

SICK BOY: "Yeah."

RENTON: "That's your theory?"

SICK BOY: "Yeah, Beautifully fucking illustrated."

slugbuggy (slugbuggy), Monday, 29 May 2006 18:09 (twenty years ago)

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.

Really? Because I see it the exactly the other way around: Experience has a bunch of similar-sounding (but great) hardcore bangers (excluding "Weather Experience", of course) and no filler, whereas Music for the Jilted Generation is more "experimental and adventurous". It ends with three-piece "suit" (which of course could be horrible thing, but fortunately not in this case), for chrissakes, and the sound is much more varied.

Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 29 May 2006 19:04 (twenty years ago)

Sorry, But the second Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah band album is just as good as the first, though that third one is too damn weird.

mucho, Monday, 29 May 2006 19:19 (twenty years ago)

cool and the gang

Disco Nihilist (mjt), Monday, 29 May 2006 19:32 (twenty years ago)

Oingo Boingo?

Patrick South (Patrick South), Monday, 29 May 2006 19:44 (twenty years ago)

The Cars, maybe

While I may agree their debut was their best, I would certainly rank "Heartbeat City" ahead of "Panorama".

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 29 May 2006 19:46 (twenty years ago)

Tuomas - it's just to me it seems that on "Music for the Jilted Generation" they pretty much knew what sound and what direction they wanted, and in that respect it's a more coherent record compared to Experience, that's why i think that Experience is more experimental. And on some days i would probably agree that "Music" > "Experience".

Ok, so i change my answer to Gus Gus.

scnnr drkly (scnnr drkly), Monday, 29 May 2006 20:02 (twenty years ago)

Eno's mathematically perfect descent into soporific noodling seems the obvious answer:

Here Come the Warm Jets > Taking Tiger Mountain > Another Dull World > loads of subsequent records I can't be bothered to remember the names of, and so on

Hot Hot Heat (Hot Hot Heat), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 07:34 (twenty years ago)

The Only Ones (the second album is still great, though).

Mats Blomqvist (Blomqvist), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 09:42 (twenty years ago)

has anyone said DEVO yet ?

grapple (grapple), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 10:08 (twenty years ago)

Re: Boston; Commercially, you can express their decline mathematically (appropriately enough).

Number of Boston songs still on US 'classic rock' radio playlists, by LP:

1st LP: 9 songs (the entire LP!)
2nd LP: 3 songs
3rd LP: 1 song
4th LP: 0 songs
5th LP: 0 songs

I think that works out to 3^(3-n), where n is the LP sequence number. Round results to the nearest whole number.

drench, Tuesday, 30 May 2006 11:38 (twenty years ago)

>has anyone said DEVO yet ? <

yep, see May 19, 2005 above (but also my caveat, since the third album was probably better than the second one. unless it wasn't.)

xhuxk, Tuesday, 30 May 2006 11:50 (twenty years ago)

Kool and The Gang nope. Although Wild and Peaceful, Light of Worlds and Spirit of the Boogie are hardly consistently great they are all better than 'Kool and the Gang'.

Some days I think Led Zeppelin would fit here.

Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 12:46 (twenty years ago)

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

"Music" is great. Reminds me of the good old synthpop that I used to enjoy in the good old early 80s, back when mainstream pop was still good and did not suck like in the 90s.

"Take a Bow" is just a boring mainstream ballad. Reminds me of Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston.

Boston good call btw. (Devo not good call. "Oh No It's Devo" was their best)

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 13:06 (twenty years ago)

no way, the fifth Boston album is WAY better than the fourth!

(OK, I had no idea there was a fifth.)

dave's good arm (facsimile) (dave225.3), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 13:13 (twenty years ago)

Moby Grape - a stonewall one that

would seem that they define this thread...tho i've never neard "the melvilles" reunion record which, by some accounts, comes close to the debut.

Lawrence the Looter (Lawrence the Looter), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 14:41 (twenty years ago)

totally disagree re: Biggie.

deeej, Tuesday, 30 May 2006 15:01 (twenty years ago)

re devo - 'oh no' > 'new traditionalists'

roxy music

dave q (listerine), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 16:27 (twenty years ago)

Modern Talking

scnnr drkly (scnnr drkly), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 19:06 (twenty years ago)

This is way more usual in the movie world btw (Police Academy, anyone?)

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 19:07 (twenty years ago)


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