which good band / artist has the worst discography?

which good band / artist has the worst discography?

― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, February 4, 2020 4:05 PM (four hours ago)

Black Flag

― dad genes (morrisp), Tuesday, February 4, 2020 7:09 PM (one hour ago)

In a similar vein: Bad Brains

― JRN, Tuesday, February 4, 2020 8:25 PM (thirty-five minutes ago)

I'd go with The Kinks there, you remove a 5-year chunk of their 30-year career and pretty much all that's left is garbage with a handful of good singles

― frogbs, Tuesday, February 4, 2020 8:30 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago)

Start a new thread!

― The Mandymoorian (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, February 4, 2020 8:34 PM (twenty-five minutes ago)

Violent Femmes?

Elvis probably?

bob dylan

the beach boys?

The Normal

oh a really obvious one is weezer

Rod Stewart and Hank Williams Jr come to mind

Gary Numan

Muse

Wu-Tang Clan.

Snoop Dogg

The Stones, easily. Almost everything they've done since about 1981 is phoned-in rubbish.

Weezer and Wu-Tang are great shouts, especially as Wu-Tang have actual dozens of great records but still manage to bring the average down with even more bad ones

Violent Femmes?

No album full of great songs after the first two, but not many really terrible ones either. (And at least three really good live albums to ratchet the balance up.)

Rod Stewart and Hank Williams Jr come to mind

― juntos pedemos (Euler), Wednesday, February 5, 202

Good choices.

Nas

REM have an alarming number of very dull albums in their back catalogue, now that I come to think of it.

Johnny Cash

Might not be everyone's idea of a good band, but Status Quo had a defining run of 6 or 7 albums up until about 1976, after which it's been a lengthy career tail of unmitigated shite.

Wiley

absolutely, dizzee too

I considered nominating Diz but didn't because Boy In Da Corner is just so good. Then again, I would have nominated Wu-Tang if they hadn't been already and they've only got one classic album as well

oh a really obvious one is weezer

could also fit into a "shit band that made a few good records" thread

Gary Numan

considered this too but I think it's more a case of him being trash for about a decade (admittedly, a decade in which he released a shitload of records). Everything he's done after Machine + Soul has been at least decent and I think his last two records were on par with the classics

Ministry. More bad albums than good ones, and that's before you get to the dub/remix albums, the unnecessary live albums, the covers compilations...

Weezer are so indisputably a singles band that it's amazing they've never put out any kind of a Greatest Hits.

bunch of wack suggestions itt

ministry otm though

but black flag? come on

The Kinks are a great answer

really stretching the limits of "good band" here but I believe Scooter absolutely rule and yet they really haven't made a single consistent album, in fact most of 'em are downright bad

though they've released like 30 different singles comps so I think they are aware of this fact

Honorable mention for Jefferson Airplane/Starship maybe?

Elvis Costello

there was a time I’d have said the Dead but I’ve really come around on their studio output

Well, a lot of it

didn't intend for this to be a "challops" thread, but guess that's all it is, lol

(I’ve never felt that black flag were well represented on record — in the sense that their records tend to sound shitty to me — but maybe that’s just a “not a fan” thing.)

hahah i really had to think to come up w EC. i think he's supremely talented and his first 3 records are unimpeachable but i personally have very little use for his output after that.

agree that the Kinks are strong contenders but imho they have too many good records in the 60s and up through Muswell Hillbillies.

stones make sense if you you compare the number of years they were great, or at least interesting (damn near 20), vs the 35 years since. but in fairness to them they haven't really put out that many records since they turned boring.

Paul McCartney?

I honestly have no clue about any Elvis Costello record after Spike but the RYM consensus seems to be that those later records are decent if not essential

(I’ve never felt that black flag were well represented on record — in the sense that their records tend to sound shitty to me — but maybe that’s just a “not a fan” thing.)

― dad genes (morrisp), Wednesday, February 5, 2020 9:04 AM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

their records do sound shitty but they're still really good! even family man

this thread is just a random list of bands

^new board description

The Doors

haha they'd be on my short list of worst band w the best discography

I know this one is a touchy subject in general, but Grateful Dead have a pretty terrible studio catalog when viewed as a whole.

Genius/GZA

The Dead never made a bad album (and many of them are fantastic).

Deep Purple

xpost

They had more average-to-weak albums than they had great ones, imo. And even of the great ones, only two (maaaaaybe three) reflected their actual talents.

The Grateful Dead, the band for whom the phrase "no, trust me..." was invented.

Moby Grape, apparently

lots of 90s electronica acts like DJ Shadow, Chemical Brothers etc

oh wait, what about Squarepusher - a frustratingly hit and miss output with most albums containing 1 or 2 keepers surrounded by any old nonsense

to a lesser extent, Plaid, for whom Rest Proof Clockwork is the only album that I can listen to all the way through without skipping lots

Beach Boys have a mostly amazing discography.

Morrissey after 1995 is really weak. Probably the worst shark jumping of any band I love.

I mentioned them on the last thread but Jacula/Antonius Rex have an unknown/debatable line-up and history. Possibly two completely different bands. Most of the albums under those names are not at all worthwhile.

Frank Black's discography is really frustratingly patchy for most of the time but I didn't dislike much of it.

That's the thing about the Beach Boys, they're like the Dead -- a fan is likely to find something to enjoy on any random album, and many of them are fantastic (admittedly, I haven't heard some of the dregs of the Beach Boys' catalog, but no way do they below on a "worst discography" list!).

who said the Beach Boys I will fight you

I agree Squarepusher & Plaid both have that thing where the good tracks tend to be really good and the rest is basically all forgettable but I don't think they have too many outright duds in their catalogue

I still think Elvis is the answer to beat.

i really had to think to come up w EC. i think he's supremely talented and his first 3 records are unimpeachable but i personally have very little use for his output after that.

I initially parsed that as Eric Clapton, and completely agreed

Snoop Dogg

― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, February 5, 2020 5:05 AM bookmarkflaglink

wtf. like, he only has one bonafide classic, and there are a few embarrassing efforts but...most of his shit is listenable, and he has several good-to-great albums.

I am a fan too, but really, how many of his 17 studio albums would you honestly rate?

And every lp seems to be 70-80 minutes long

Classic - Doggystyle

Very good - Paid the Cost to Pay the Boss
Blue Carpet Treatment

Good - R&G
Ego Trippin'
Neva Left
I Wanna Thank Me

Meh - Doggfather
Malice 'n Wonderland
Doggumentary
No Limit Top Dogg

Bad - Tha Last Meal

haven't heard the rest

And every lp seems to be 70-80 minutes long

― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, May 1, 2020 2:18 PM bookmarkflaglink

so it's a hip-hop album?

*be the boss

I have the same problem with many other hip-hop albums, yes. Only most other artists I like will wait a few years between releases.

buddy bolden

liszt and farinelli also pretty poorly represented as performers on record

that is spot on, worst discographies of all

Worst discography actually having recorded something - Brahms, who made this

https://youtu.be/BZXL3I7GPCY

Kind of surprised The Yardbirds had not been mentioned.

Linda Ronstadt

i was thinking about the brahms recording (and also the famed operatic tenor jean de reszke, whose singing voice survives only on the infamously poor-quality mapleson cylinders)... but camaraderie, i think i got you beat on that one... do piano rolls count? here is a june 1916 piano roll made by joplin for the aeolian company of him playing his famous composition "the maple leaf rag":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIDAA7zjrSs

While Joplin never made an audio recording, his playing is preserved on seven piano rolls for use in mechanical player pianos. All seven were made in 1916. Berlin theorizes that by the time Joplin made these recordings he may have been experiencing discoordination of the fingers, tremors and an inability to speak clearly, symptoms of syphilis, the disease that took his life in 1917.[19] The recording of "Maple Leaf Rag", on the Aeolian Uni-Record label from June 1916 was described by biographer Blesh as "shocking ... disorganized and completely distressing to hear".[20] Berlin notes that the "Maple Leaf Rag" roll was "painfully bad" and likely to be the truest record of Joplin's playing at the time

sad lol

I was thinking about Joplin too! ftr, the other rolls are not as bad as maple leaf rag, one or two are actually not bad, and there is some debate about the reason it's so bad (syphilis is the most commonly cited explanation, but there are others, including poor recording technology)

do rappers who release a ton of good mixtapes and shitty studio albums count, or are we counting mixtapes in the discog?

I reckon mixtapes count now

wonder if anyone actually knows whether buckethead has a good or bad discography

it's good if more than 57.3% of his 47,000 releases are good

Also thanks Kate for reminding me of the Mapleson cylinders, think it was about a year I was trying to get hold of them, and not one usable bit on the whole thing. Julius Block was making much better recordings, and even earlier.

Tricky? He really seems to have struggled to hit the mark since PMT. It's been yonks since I've listened to any of it, though.

Guided By Voices. At least thirty full lengths, with three worth listening to start to finish (and only two of those are actually great).

elvis is probably the definitive answer here

What is the best non-compilation Elvis LP?

From Elvis in Memphis

elvis is probably the definitive answer here

Elvis is a weird one because his first four albums were basically singles compilations, then it was all movie soundtracks from 1956 to 1968 except for Elvis Is Back! in 1960. But when he actually became an "album artist" starting with From Elvis In Memphis, his albums from 1969 to his death are all solid to great. But even most of those soundtracks have one or two good songs on them, and you could probably say the same thing about the Fall. (I haven't listened to all 4000 of their albums, so I can't say for sure.)

Most Fall LPs up to the early 90s are good to perfect, also they had plenty of brilliant singles and EPs at the same time. Even after that there are a few truly great albums, it's just difficult to agree on which ones they are.

^OTM