Acts whose entire album output has always been on the incline, with no exception

I guess Nick Drake works, though.

Belle and Sebastian sounds fair enough to me.

My Bloody Valentine seems fairly obvious.

Spoon (although there may be a debate between Gimme Fiction & Kill The Moonlight)

unless of course you think they peaked with "sunny sundae smile," which they damn well might have.

More impressive, Stars of the Lid have got better with each of their six albums.

Devendra Banhart? Oh me oh my... < Black Babies < Rejoicing in the hands < Nino Rojo

The National? Sad songs for dirty lovers < Cherry Tree < Alligator

Antony and the Johnsons
Devendra Banhart

And add:

Avil Lavigne!
Grandaddy
The Unicorns

This is a tough thread for career artists to 'make'.

Also, Camper Van Beethoven seems way, way off to me.

(And maybe Justin Timberlake, including *NSync if that counts?)

Simon & Garfunkel is a good one

Many xps

Paramore

Glass Hammer are a good example of a prog band who did this for like, 10 straight albums or so

Lemon Demon/Neil Cicierega is another good one

The Sound

Chastity Belt

the Beatles

I agree their early albums are borderline unlistenable, but no.

maybe portishead

maybe not, lol

there are very few "good" answers to this, probably

you could say the 1975

i'd disagree with you, but you could say it

the Smiths

A case could also maybe be made for the MC5 (or even the Stooges?), and I think I know people who could make the case. But not me.
― xhuxk, Friday, May 20, 2005 4:28 PM (thirteen years ago)

I would have agreed with the Stooges thirteen years ago (when Chuck posted that), but then other albums came along...

Daphne & Celeste

> the Smiths

No way. High point is either "Hatful of Hollow" or "Meat Is Murder".

you could say the 1975

i'd disagree with you, but you could say it

― austinb, Tuesday, December 4, 2018 11:34 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

too early imo

fugazi

Meat is Murder has the title track on it, so no

xp

Hatful Of Hollow isn't an album! basically an early Greatest Hits

Fugazi are contenders for sure but The Smiths S/T 1st one is way better than MIM for me.

maybe portishead

― mookieproof, Tuesday, December 4, 2018 1:23 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ding ding ding

this might be a minority opinion but Amon Tobin!

Could make solid arguments for Slowdive, Rival Consoles, Angel Olsen, and Jon Hopkins

british sea power are a good answer to this imho

Aesop Rock, IMO. His older stuff doesn't hold a candle to his newer stuff, and he seems to get better constantly.

can't really get behind Bazooka Tooth as better than Labor Days

oh wait I'm on the wrong thread. BSP offtm

xp yeah I realized that immediately after posting. I tend to forget about that album.

The Sound
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, December 4, 2018 9:19 AM (three hours ago)

Gerald, you're my favorite poster here for a reason.

I'm gonna venture outside of the popular music area for a bit and say Gustav Mahler and Franz Schubert.

Trying to think of a jazz person that this could apply to, but those folks all have huge catalogues, so it's hard.

really the only candidates for this thread are ones with pretty limited/proscribed discographies. Anyone who's been recording for more than a decade is going to have some clearly identifiable peaks and valleys.

trust fund is a great answer because they split up this year having released an album about splitting up that also happens to be an indiepop monument - i.e. there's an actual arc to their whole recording career

their four albums basically went: decent juvenilia -> again, with stronger tunes and more of a sense of self -> super little weird record -> masterpiece

i basically just wanted to talk about them, but there have been some cool wrong suggestions itt since

Steely Dan

nah

I mean Gaucho is great but my favorite album is actually the first one lol

yeah my favorite atm iis Aja but it's often Gaucho and The Royal Scam is a solid 3rd behind them.

Steely Dan made more than one album?

(FP ME, IDGAF)

but which one did they make, Austin?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0e/The_Best_of_Steely_Dan_-_Then_and_Now.jpg

Haha, that's what will actually get me FP'd.

jesus, is that a Stonehenge made of cars?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carhenge

Yep!

Anyway, to answer your question:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A1JOM-koWOL._SX466_.jpg

Buncha things to respond to itt:

> Meat is Murder has the title track on it, so no

I heard "Meat Is Murder" when I was 17 so I'll admit to some temporal bias but I still love every heart-on-his-sleeve bit of it more than the rest of their catalog. It's full of amazing sounds (especially given that my copy included "How Soon Is Now").

> British Sea Power

Their catalog has been inconsistent for me, and I'll rep for most of it. The debut is great, then a couple of good but lesser albums until "Valhalla Dancehall" which I adore, then lesser returns on the next couple of albums (not counting the soundtrack work, which is fine but not my thing).

> Gerald, you're my favorite poster here for a reason.

Cheers, Austin! The Sound is one of those amazing bands where each album feels like a triumph for very different reasons. "Jeopardy" is a punch in the face, "From The Lions Mouth" tones it down but adds wonderful texture, "All Fall Down" is a left-turn full-on post-punk masterpiece, "Shock Of Daylight" is a perfect pop EP, "Heads And Hearts" takes that pop and inverts it and "Thunder Up" crystallizes everything Borland was trying to accomplish. And then his solo albums almost continue that upward climb but "Brittle Heaven" and "Cinematic" are a bit weak.

I think 3 albums is the sweet spot:
Vampire Weekend
Janelle Monae
Solange

potential challop: Jawbreaker

post flagged

xposts more bands should nick Manic Street Preacher albums for their own.

Beat happening lol

Hum

Radiation City (3 albums)
Scrawl (6 albums!!)
Secret Cities (3 albums)

Someone mentioned Joanna Newsom - only up to "Have One On Me" though ("Divers" < "Ys" in my opinion).

clipping