Which band has the best discography?

Mentioned GangStarr above but they def are another "perfect discography with shitty debut" group. Actually iirc correctly their debut has 1 classic & rest is, er, forgettable.

i kind of love monk's blues lol... but i feel u tho it has some cringey moments for sure. by the way it's not his last studio album, he actually recorded some dope underrated albums in the early seventies, such as 'something in blue' with art blakey

drive like jehu never fucked around

Maybe Boredoms? Although I guess fans of their late-period drum-oriented stuff might not be down with the early noise-dada stuff.

Several of the Super Roots EPs seemed kind of throwaway

considering the astonishing quantity and consistently invigorated records over a long long time - ok sure with the odd less successful patch -overall I would choose The Fall - but as others have said up there Fela Kuti is a good pick

Doo-Bop is a solid EP if you delete all the tracks with vocals (in fact, delete every track Miles ever recorded with a vocalist)

― shared unit of analysis (unperson)

i say thee nay, i dig his bob dorough shit, "blue x-mas" forever

i love bands with perfect discographies other than their shitty debut, cf. sleater-kinney... jimmy eat world... idk there are others

― american bradass (BradNelson),

Japan?

yeah!!!

lol why would I judge a rap album just by the instrumentals

because they better than the album itself

*are

...

https://ulozto.net/file/1miJFChe/a-tribe-called-quest-the-love-movement-1998-hip-hop-instrumental-zip

King Sunny Ade might fit here but I have only heard about 15 of 270 albums so can’t say for sure.

And if they try come stoppin' me
I show them my discography

https://images.genius.com/a7b3e345506d3954231a481447a62d7f.1000x762x1.jpg

who tf is that lolol

Souled American -- six perfect albums -- but nobody cares. Prince Far I never made a bad one while he was alive. Steely Dan's original run is legendary of course but the comeback albums, while quite good, sort of mess with the aura of it, because going out on "Gaucho" was just a God-level move.

But Souled American is 100% perfect from beginning to "end." (They never officially quit, just sort of vanished.)

Danish instrumental psych-rock quartet (now a quintet; they've added a saxophonist) Mythic Sunship haven't made a bad album yet. Four studio releases, one live album, all fantastic.

Souled American was supercool. There was this resurgence in interest here when the albums were reissued in the 90s, then ... they sort of vanished again. (Same with Shrimp Boat.)

I know they're not an ILM fave but Elbow's discography has been incredibly consistent.

Scott Tuma has a pretty perfect discography off the back of Souled American, too.

also has anybody nominated Sun Ra yet
― Οὖτις, Friday, January 31, 2020 9:23 PM

I did, upthread.

xp
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, January 31, 2020 9:26 PM

How many people have heard everything by him?

Also I think there's a promise in the original post that's not been entirely been fulfilled by the thread itself, in that the *best discography* isn't necessarily about having a short-but-consistent or flawless run of albums. Otherwise you might as well go 'Young Marble Giants' and leave it at that.

The bands I really think of as discography bands have catalogues that reward exploration, that are full of twists and turns and little rooms hidden off to the side. EPs, B-Sides, obscure early singles or non-album hits, perhaps remixes or reworks of other artists. There are so many bad or boring Sonic Youth songs even at their peak but there's also the sense that there might be a real treat hidden away in there that you hadn't previously heard. Ditto REM, New Order, Cocteau Twins, Prince and later on Autechre or Aphex Twin or Carl Craig. The demise of physical media kind of flattened this out among newer artists but not entirely.

yuup carl craig's discography is very very good!

the only techno artist as consistent as carl is probably... Gas

Not sure I can name anything by Carl Craig from the last twenty years that isn't a remix

Saint Etienne definitely ticks the deep cuts/buried treasure aspect for me (annoyingly the deluxe versions of their albums, excluding the remixes collection, have been off Spotify a while now)

Here to rep for Japan and the individual band members' post-Japan projects. TONS of signal, very little noise.

Saint Etienne are very consciously that sort of discography band I think because they understand the thrill of that kind of fandom. Does anyone really rate the more recent run of albums up against their 90s output though?

If I were to go for sheer quantity of great releases, I'd say REM and Swans.

Consistency is a terrible metric and is for people who enjoy filling out forms and informing on their neighbours.

If there's no garbage in there what's going on

I love w all my heart FoxBase Alpha and So Tough but rest of SE's catalog varies from meh to ugh

i think "catalogues that reward exploration" really nails it, Matt DC otm (altho i would pick very different artists as examples)

with a select few artists i even sort of dread coming to "the end"

Royal Trux has one of the best ratios I can think of, in terms of quantity:quality... everything they released was outstanding* until around ’99 (and even then they never got “bad,” just took their foot off the gas a lil bit). Even their reunion albums are enjoyable.

*it helps to be a fan to have opinions like this, as someone noted above

I feel like 5-6 releases is the sweet spot where you have a big enough discography to be respectable, but haven't been around long enough to run out of ideas. Works for Sade, Pavement, Erykah Badu.

to me, a discography HAS to be consistent in order to "reward exploration." i mean who really wants to wade through ALL the smashing pumpkins albums. whereas you can't go wrong with gorguts.

If there's no garbage in there what's going on

consistency lol

just to clarify, when i say consistent i mean "unchanging in standard" (not "always the same")

Saint Etienne are very consciously that sort of discography band I think because they understand the thrill of that kind of fandom. Does anyone really rate the more recent run of albums up against their 90s output though?

― Matt DC

I rate Tales From Turnpike House as their third best album and Words & Music isn't far behind. Sound Of Water and Finisterre are pretty solid but easily their weakest eras for me. Turnpike House really took me by surprise at the time and stands up 15 years on. Words & Music felt like a continuation of them sounding inspired again and contains some of my favourite songs of theirs (Tonight, DJ, Over The Border, Popular). I wouldn't say Home Counties is quite on the same level, but I still enjoyed it.

I don't like Led Zeppelin II and I don't like a lot of Sister Lovers, and I'm sure there are Jim O'Rourke or Pauline Oliveros records I haven't heard yet that I wouldn't like so much, so I'll cheat and say The Attractions.

Maybe Minutemen is the right answer.

Phenomenal catalog! Tho 3-Way Tie for Last is kind of not on par with the rest imo

meshuggah's discography is really cool and unique

i sort of feel like there's a balance between consistency and adventurousness. like to me looking at gentle giant's catalogue i value "civilian" more than i do, say, "in a glass house", because "civilian" is gentle giant doing an enjoyable record in a style they hadn't done before (and since it was their last record, wouldn't ever do again), whereas "in a glass house", well, you know, they have around eight pretty good records in that style. what can i get out of "in a glass house" that i couldn't get out of "power and the glory"?

the trade-off is that the two records before "civilian" are shit. what's better, a decent record i never listen to or a shitty record i never listen to? does it matter?

I want to say Rockpile, counting the records also nominally by Lowe and Edmunds, but basically all the same band

I agree In a Glass House & The Power and the Glory are pretty similar but the rest of GG's records seem pretty distinct to me

fwiw I think The Missing Piece is alright, especially the proggier second half. Giant for a Day on the other hand...who knows what they were thinking. has a Love Beach sorta vibe to it. what gets me about these records isn't so much that they suck, it's that the production is so weak and the performances so dispirited...its like the band themselves didn't really buy it either.

What's the New Mary Jane is pretty bad

A Taste of Honey

there's others...

They didn't release What's the New Mary Jane or write A Taste of Honey, so not sure what the point is here...

I know they're not an ILM fave but Elbow's discography has been incredibly consistent.

― akm, Saturday, 1 February 2020 17:06 (three days ago)

Elbow's is the only front-to-back catalog I regularly turn and return to as often as The Beatles and Underworld.

But also, Underworld. Dubno... to the present.

(The false start that is/was Underneath the Radar need not apply.)

What's the New Mary Jane was released on Beatles Anthology 3

the OP makes no mention of authorship

xps

and if we’re being extra pedantic OP says “every single thing a band has recorded” (i.e. whether the band released the recording or not shouldn’t matter, leaks and bootlegs fair game, presumably that’s what “loosies” means)

Loosies are songs on, like, soundtracks and comps.

Leaks and bootlegs are up to your own discretion I guess

not even leaks, everything that was ever put on tape, even if they recorded over it later

adding in things that were deliberately not released at the time, only decades after the band split and a member or two died (as with Beatles and Go-Betweens), means that every other act in the thread also ought to be judged by the material they thought was too bad to release.

― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Saturday, February 1, 2020 9:07 AM (four days ago)

yup

― Οὖτις, Saturday, February 1, 2020 9:10 AM (four days ago)

Beatles Anthology 3 is an officially released comp

this is a stupid argument

which good band / artist has the worst discography?