Which band has the best discography?

^^^ see they even inspire the wrongest tuomas opinion possible, they win

Fugazi, Drive By Truckers, Smiths... I can get behind Autechre, Roxy, CCR ...

Fela's catalogue is extremely consistent; to a fault, some might say, but there's very few I'd warn people away from

A related question is the best band with exactly one album (or, for that matter, exactly one single).

A band that released exactly one undeniably perfect song, and then immediately broke up, could potentially win this category.

A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger) at 3:13 28 Jan 20

is there a bad Duke Ellington record?

there's probably a ton of old jazz artists who never made an out and out bad record

Uncle Tupelo

A band that released exactly one undeniably perfect song, and then immediately broke up, could potentially win this category.

― Okay, you're an ambulance (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, January 28, 2020 3:23 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

surely M|A|R|R|S gets posted by now every time one of these threads is done

― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Tuesday, January 28, 2020 2:23 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

anyway I think my answer for this has to be Susumu Hirasawa, who from 1979 until now has put out about 30 "main" albums (including P-Model obviously), of which only maybe 2 or 3 are less than "very good". on top of that there's a ton of supplemental material worth checking out, not to mention the soundtrack work. of course there are a lot of artists who are very consistently good but Hirasawa is particularly interesting because like Autechre his music is constantly progressing, going from being part of a scene to something that's essentially peerless, and like Ae you're not really sure where the 'peak' is, you could argue for it being pretty much anywhere

if one-off all-star records count I would take "All in the Same Gang" over MARRS any day of the week

The Blue Nile have to be worth mentioning (for a change). Holy Love is probably the only weak song they put out.

Roxy Music

― ymo sumac (NickB)

Slightly let down by Flesh & Blood IMO

Is there a thread for "only released one single and nothing else"? There would be some good post-punk and dance acts in that thread.

surely M|A|R|R|S gets posted by now every time one of these threads is done

― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Tuesday, January 28, 2020 2:23 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Nobody remembers "Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance)"

bands that put out only one great album:

the Vaselines
Althea and Donna

A band that released exactly one undeniably perfect song, and then immediately broke up, could potentially win this category.

see also: The Normal

bands that put out only one great album:

the Vaselines
Althea and Donna

― Οὖτις

Young Marble Giants

Also Sky Ferreira.. there's never going to be a second album is there.

Nobody remembers "Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance)"

M|A|R|R|S are so perfect for this that they split up before recording, and different people did the A and B sides

Incunabula, Anti and Amber sound almost like a different group compared to more abstract sound that came later on. Those early Autechre records had bass lines and pads etc like you would think a techno or idm track to have. Later on, it's WTF is that? pretty much became their sound. To be fair, the last one I got was Confield, but I got most of their early cds including eps.

xp Best band that never really existed but seem to have released a brilliant single anyway

The Smiths did not make an Ob-la-di-ob-la-da.

Girlfriend in a Coma, Golden Lights, Meat Is Murder, Never Had No-One Ever, Work Is a Four Letter Word...all less fun than Ob-La-Di, imo.

The Birthday Party's discography is really solid. Only thing that might be considered missing is a top notch sounding live record.

Low

Uh, "Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance)" is amazing.

Came here to post Roxy Music and see it's been done twice. Yeah, their quality control (and progression between albums) still amazes me.

"you know my name, look up the number" isn't that bad, gtfo with that

It's honestly among my favorite Beatles songs.

A band that released exactly one undeniably perfect song, and then immediately broke up, could potentially win this category.

― Okay, you're an ambulance (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, January 28, 2020 3:23 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

surely M|A|R|R|S gets posted by now every time one of these threads is done

― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Tuesday, January 28, 2020 2:23 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ooh, Low ...

xp. there is a doug groover track on here https://www.discogs.com/Various-Best-Of-Home-Tapes/release/4752119

Young Marble Giants is a good call since all their non-album stuff is ace

Tom Waits never really faltered imo (assuming you can get behind the early stuff, which I very much can)

Al Green and Pet Shop Boys, obviously. How is this even a question?

deffo second pet shop boys and third young marble giants

Bardo Pond

Motorpsycho have kicked out something great pretty much every year or two since 1992. only their debut album is 'less than good'.

I def think "reliable" bands in the AC/DC/Motorhead/Ramones tradition are their own separate argument

PSB are always worth checking in on to see where their ideas are at this year, but are hardly consistent across 35+ years (although if you stick to B-sides...)

PSB for sure. I think of anything of theirs that is less than good as kind of bonus music, like side three of Sandinista.

ok, musicians who only put out one song, here we go:

aspidistra - cradle (a single, but same song on both sides)
arthur miles - lonely cowboy (one song split over two sides)
the aforementioned elizabeth city state (track on a compilation album)
sphinx tush - crashville - german '70s band who appeared on a comp; only one song but there are two different recordings of it...

there are others but i tend to forget them or else find out that they did in fact do a _second_ song - like the calico wall would count it seems because their single was one song backed by an electronic beep, but they also did a song called "i'm a living sickness" which was released later so they're out.

tons of great blink-and-you-missed-them reggae one-offs

i would also add neu if we ignore 4 and pour one out for the 'remixes' off 2
writing that sentence probs means its a no go actually haha

The Death discography is wall-to-wall classics

if we're talking metal, Opeth has never really put out a bad album.

Mick Smiley just did Magic on the Ghostbusters soundtrack, not sure if it's the best song tbh, but it's a good story.

Wham!

pet shop boys, steely dan, afghan whigs, bijelo dugme, haustor, vu, joy division

a lot of the big names of the early 80s UK seemed to start out immediately big then end things while they were still on top - wham!, the police, the jam, the specials

i said husker du not haustor vu

Actually Nirvana is a good answer imo

I love the Police but they had some really really bad songs

I don't really like them, just starting an appendix