Which band has the best discography?

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

The Police had a few clunkers for sure but I think their non-single tracks are quite underrated as a whole. they even had some really great B-sides, like "how the fuck did this not make it on the album" level quality - "Low Life" & "I Burn For You" come to mind but there are several more

I like Broadcast as an answer. Or my heart does. But then my brain is all "not sure many people have actually made it through the entirety of those Microtronics EPs"

Judee Sill

ooo Death is a good one. Also Talk Talk/Hollis (mentioned early on).

but... now that I think about it, fucking KENDRICK LAMAR is on a path few pop artists have taken in terms of utter perfection on any and every release thus far.

Like his side project for Black Panther was just ridiculously good. And it seems any time he lays down a rap for another artist that track ends up being the best on the record. I mean this dude has some magic fairy dust of talent and taste that's pretty remarkable

Nick Drake

The Cardigans

If ths is limited only to bands, and only ones with sizeable doscographies (which it apparently isn't), I would say Can have the best discography overall.
"Flawless" is another thing. Yummy Fur?

Funkaelic and Can would be my two picks. So much goodness over so many records.

Yeah, if quantity of classic records is the criteria it's probably Can for me.

I actually dumped all my Can CDs post-Landed, did I fuck up?

I have no problems with Can and Funkadelic, even though ymmv will vary on albums in their respective streaks.

I was thinking their studio albums up to 1975 + Soundtracks and Delay 1968 + various odds and ends, side projects is a formidable enough discography that I feel disinclined to name a punk band with one incredible album. The Beatles are also a very good and sensible choice.

Inclusive of non-bands, this gets much harder. I love everything Jorge Ben recorded up to about 1980. Heck, there are dozens (at least) of Morricone scores I can't live without...

Suicide kept it short and sweet

Joanna Newsom is my choice, at least among more recent music

agree about Autechre though

Nick Drake

― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, January 28, 2020 5:49 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

Aphex Twin

Keith Hudson
Jackie Mittoo
King Tubby

Erykah Badu

The answer is so obvious. Joy Division. Two perfect albums, no really bad song in their whole oeuvre including b-sides and stuff.

― walking towards the sun since 2007 (alex in mainhattan), Tuesday, January 28, 2020 4:42 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I actually dumped all my Can CDs post-Landed, did I fuck up?

― The Mandymoorian (Whiney G. Weingarten)

first five tracks of the s/t aka inner space are prime stuff very much of a piece of holger czukay's movies (czukay doesn't play but he does produce and his presence is definitely felt)

last couple tracks are crap but the same is true for scott walker's "till the band comes in" and that's an all-timer imo as well

Erykah Badu
― kitchen person, Tuesday, January 28, 2020 9:18 PM (twenty-five minutes ago)

Four LPs, one EP, one mixtape, one live album, none less than a masterpiece. This is the right answer.

if Worldwide Underground is her weakest, then otm

yep erykah’s a great choice

yes

Which band has the heaviest discography, is what I want to know.

harvey milk

also Fushitsusha, Current 93

if you listen to enough Ween, then Ween

Hermann Nitsch

and not because of the tragic recent thread revive, I hold that Nina Nastasia has a perfect and not-too-brief discography of six albums in ten years, each with a different shade but forming a cohesive whole.

Badu is a great answer too.

I've spent time with about two dozen Ellington albums, from the acknowledged peaks to weird 3 CD sets from Costco and it's all amazingly engaging. I listen to a collection of the 1920s sides and Afro-Eurasian Eclipse the most these days, the beginning and end of a 45 year span.

How about Derrick May? He released a bunch of classic singles in the late '80s and early '90s, and after that he hasn't (AFAIK) released any new material at all. Granted, I haven't heard those System 7 collaborations from the '90s, but his solo material and the other collabs are all great.

My answer was going to be the Breeders/Amps but Badu otm

Ellington's discography is too huge to deal with, pre-LP-era artists have such a scattered discography it's basically impossible to properly define it, and with jazz you have to put live stuff in the mix too.

Yeah, I can't imagine there are that many people, even among Ellington fans, who've actually listened to his entire discography.

Some good suggestions but https://www.discogs.com/artist/3001416-The-Fish-Brothers-And-Eastend is the most consistent

Derrick May is an interesting suggestion. I've always assumed (perhaps erroneously) that he's more of a coordinator/collaborator and with his early productions the collaborators took a backseat? Barnett, Craig, Oldham etc. I guess it's still his discography.

I have been listening to everything Ellington did, have so far got to 1932 and let me tell you, there is a lot. Even deciding which version of The Mooche is the definitive one is very contentious.

But I cannot thing of another artist where you could put together a couple of CDs of their work where every track would be sui generis.