Which band has the best discography?

From upthread: Nina Nastasia also otm.

Tim Hecker

And I have no way of knowing whether this is entirely true but I suspect that Steve Roach also qualifies.

need collab album w Sade & Portishead

Has anyone mentioned Severed Heads?

The original REM lineup is ten very good-to-great albums in a row, several of which came out annually, that is dotted with terrible songs. All goes to shit after that obviously which probably disqualifies them.

I love Portishead but releasing three albums in 25 years is not really what we're talking about here.

What are the exact criteria?

All this MBV disqualification talk due to the "early EPs" makes me wonder if these people ever heard them (not the first obviously, because that's almost a different band), but the 2nd one and the singles around then are some of my favorite output of theirs:

30 years on: My Bloody Valentine - Ecstasy & Wine POLL

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have a remarkably solid discography for having so many album stretched out over 4 decades

I was thinking of This Is My Bloody Valentine really, which is actually just one mini-LP, yeah

xp

The Field Mice
Solid Doctor
Sabres of Paradise

Geek isn't that great either to be honest haha (xps)

my bloody valentine surely not eligible because m b v the album is bobbins

I choose to believe that regionalism I just had to look up means 'their best by a mile'.

I absolutely adore every single song I've heard from Laura Nyro, which is pretty much all of them.

Same with Harry Nilsson.

m b v the album is bobbins

Dunno about that but Instrumental No. 1 (or is it No.2?) from the EPs compilation really is bobbins.

This is a challops thread. That’s all that’s happening here.

I know we've talked about them a lot but Big Thief have released a lot of amazing material in such a short space of time. I hear their solo stuff is worth having too

if Worldwide Underground is her weakest, then otm

I regard the mixtape below everything else, but it's obv still awfully good. WU still has "I Want You" and "Back in the Day," both of which are all-time.

Big Thief totally belongs -- four incredible albums, all very different, couldn't pick a favorite.

wussy

bands that put out only one great album:

the Vaselines
Althea and Donna

― Οὖτις

Young Marble Giants

― kitchen person

X-Ray Spex

^The Heartbreakers (you just gotta hear the right mix!)

Sonic Youth had an amazing recording history from the mid 80s to the mid 00s

This question of a perfect discography can really only be answered by die-hard fans of whichever artist offered so I doubt we'll reach a consensus, though I'll agree with Sade, D'Angelo, and Death and offer Nirvana and the Dead C.

I've also likely heard every original Sonic Youth song and like to love them all.

cosign that

A worthwhile related question may be which label has a flawless discography.

sometimes i need a stinker in the catalog, because when a band is consistently amazing, I start to take their craftsmanship for granted, like it's automated. I need to see a band hit rock bottom sometimes - helps me appreciates the highs in their catalog.

plus it's always fun to have one album to jokingly shout requests from at shows and have people try to deck you

through 2009? Ghostface.

does E-40 have any stinkers? even the lesser of the "I released six albums" today albums I heard of his in recent years were usually pretty fire. but there's a lot of his 90s catalog I haven't heard.

almost every favorite band I have, or rapper seems to have one that rules them out.

Rudimentary Peni?

Stop suggesting artists who had really long runs of quality and then not, that's not what this thread is about

I've heard most of 40 Water's album output from like 1993 to 2016 and it's all good to great. He's def EASILY in the Top 5 of rappers for this question

He def loses points for not exactly having quality control on his features tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNXb5roCBUY

xxp people disagree abt Rudi Peni's "Pope" album, I am among the detractors

If you take in every single thing a band has recorded from start to finish – albums, B-sides, loosies – which bands have the absolute most flawless record of records.

lol at everyone who's like 'with bill berry' 'before 2009' 'not pablo honey' 'up until rather ripped'

I understand this thread is about 'no mistakes'. I would still put Joanna Newsom in that category, she made four perfect albums. But thinking about artists who were more prolific and had an overwhelming percentage of great works - that widens the scope, and over the last 30+ years Sonic Youth fits that description for me the most

Galaxie 500

not to be a stickler, but it's not about "NO mistakes," but about the smallest possible ratio of mistakes taking every single item of their discography into account.

A "Cut the Crap" or a "Squeeze" are huge marks on an overall record, while, like the few noticeably shitty Nirvana songs are smaller marks.

"Who has a PERFECT discography" would be another thread!

I think "Fewest mistakes relative to solid material" is different from "fewest mistakes relative to epically, transcendently good material."

An act could be mostly great with a few spectacular missteps, or mostly okay with a few minor duds.

Does Quasi or Sleater-Kinney have a pretty good ratio? Perhaps, but fewer mind-blowing out-of-this-world moments than, say, Prince + Revolution.

Co-sign Broadcast, but would add Blonde Redhead. Their discography is nigh-on perfect imo.

Blonde Redhead def one of the most underrated bands of all time

Kazu made an album last year called Adult Baby, pretty cool

I did not know that, thanks for the heads up!

I feel like Sabbath need to be in here somewhere.

I am a firm believer that the cultural attention span is about 2.5 to 3 years. It's very hard for an artist to make five strong releases because they've got to resonate through two cultural moments - say post-punk and early indie for Smiths and Husker Du, or art rock and new wave for Roxy. It's really hard to do it without missteps and failures. Those three acts have enough meh in their second-cycle to disqualify them for me.

There's some ways around this. Like Badu, who only strikes when she's ready.

Hesitantly positing XTC. I haven't heard everything that's out there by a long shot, but for a band with such a large discography I really do love almost all of it. Loads of great B sides and many interesting experiments.

Ok hear me out, it's possible that the rapper Despot has a flawless discography, having never released an album (while having an actual career). You can't lose if you don't play.