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, 28 January 2020 21:42 (four years ago) link
lol sister ray zzzz
― ymo sumac (NickB), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 21:44 (four years ago) link
Joy Division mostly sucks
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 21:44 (four years ago) link
(I say mostly because they have three songs I like)
Broadcast seconded!
― umsworth (emsworth), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 21:48 (four years ago) link
Also and this is a feeling I’m just starting to feel so bear with me but maybe Jon Hassell?
― umsworth (emsworth), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 21:49 (four years ago) link
portishead
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 21:52 (four years ago) link
Dolly Mixture
― o. nate, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 21:56 (four years ago) link
Considering bands with a big output Stereolab have to be taking into account. The quality of their work is consistently high.
― walking towards the sun since 2007 (alex in mainhattan), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 21:59 (four years ago) link
Gonna go out on a limb here and say Autechre. I mean there's a LOT to sift through, and that's just their last three full length releases, but every album, EP, b-side, one off, most remixes, even collaborations are all very interesting and engaging at a minimum, and intensely beautiful and otherworldly when they hit their peak, which still happens every release. While their albums have a tendency to be somewhat inconsistent at times (there's more than a few songs I tend to skip), I've found bangers and classics on every single record. Often the songs I consider skip-worthy are tracks others here fawn over (I've noticed imago and I have very differing tastes when it comes to specific Ae tracks for instance). This speaks to their appeal and consistency. Considering the amount of time they've been relevant (nearly 30 years? Fuck me) that's impressive as all hell. Now, that said - they have a pretty significant stylistic split between 1990-2000 and 2001-present but if you're into both styles, that's a lot of amazing music to take in.
― octobeard, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:00 (four years ago) link
The Normal
― kitchen person, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:01 (four years ago) link
Gonna go out on a limb here and say Autechre
oh yeah this is the answer
― american bradass (BradNelson), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:02 (four years ago) link
literally everything is worth listening to and figuring out your own relationship with it
I'd go with Goldfrapp. Even their weaker albums (Head First, Silver Eye) are still 8/10.
― kitchen person, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:04 (four years ago) link
you say autechre i say boards of canada.
― walking towards the sun since 2007 (alex in mainhattan), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:04 (four years ago) link
xxp yea the only one of them I think is less than great is Draft which for whatever reason is still somewhat impenetrable to me, outside of 6IE.CR & V-PROC
― frogbs, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:08 (four years ago) link
The Smiths must be a contender for this trophy. There is hardly a crap song in their catalogue and so many jewels. There is def. more consistency than in The Beatles discography. The Smiths did not make an Ob-la-di-ob-la-da.
― walking towards the sun since 2007 (alex in mainhattan), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:09 (four years ago) link
early Autechre has not aged well imo
― The Mandymoorian (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:10 (four years ago) link
CodeineBark PsychosisTalk Talk
― ymo sumac (NickB), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:10 (four years ago) link
Roxy Music
― ymo sumac (NickB), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:12 (four years ago) link
Yeah, Talk Talk and Roxy Music are both to be considered.
― walking towards the sun since 2007 (alex in mainhattan), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:13 (four years ago) link
― The Mandymoorian (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, January 28, 2020 3:10 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
how early we talking? incunabula is their weakest record but "bike" still goes. after that everything is golden
― american bradass (BradNelson), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:14 (four years ago) link
early Ae still sounds pretty good to me, I think the two that sound the most dated are Tri Rep (too crunchy & dry) and LP5, which is a bit over-the-top in that late 90's Aphex way that wasn't really followed up on. but I still think they've held up better than any other 90s IDM records outside of maybe Music Has the Rights to Children
― frogbs, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:15 (four years ago) link
i've been listening to trip rep a lot lately and idk it still sounds like the future to me
― american bradass (BradNelson), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:16 (four years ago) link
I agree to a certain extent. Though their debut remains one of my favs from that era. Amber is actually my least favorite Ae album at this stage, but even that has some outright classics like Glitch, Yulquen and Teartear. However, Tri-Rep and Chiastic still hold up for me. Everything afterwards, once they really got into FM synthesis, has a very modern sound to it that absolutely still holds up to my ears.
Their 90's peak between 95-98 honestly could use some remastering/remixing. A lot of it sounds somewhat flat by today's standards. Would love to hear how it sounds with some restorative polish. Worked well for Kraftwerk
This is why I love these guys. So many differing opinions on their records...
― octobeard, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:17 (four years ago) link
Yes, Broadcast, I was trying to make a sampler of their earlier stuff and gave up after realising I couldn't leave off anything from their compilation of early singles/EPs
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:19 (four years ago) link
i love the place amber takes me to specifically but i can also understand why someone would think that’s their weakest
take out the early stuff and you still have 2.5 decades of quality, and all of the side eps are events unto themselves
― american bradass (BradNelson), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:20 (four years ago) link
The fact that there's no consensus bad record from them says a lot.
― octobeard, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:21 (four years ago) link
Autechre's early stuff is their best, when they were still making techno. It's been downhill ever since.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:21 (four years ago) link
^^^ see they even inspire the wrongest tuomas opinion possible, they win
― american bradass (BradNelson), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:22 (four years ago) link
Fugazi, Drive By Truckers, Smiths... I can get behind Autechre, Roxy, CCR ...
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:22 (four years ago) link
Fela's catalogue is extremely consistent; to a fault, some might say, but there's very few I'd warn people away from
― rob, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:23 (four years ago) link
A related question is the best band with exactly one album (or, for that matter, exactly one single).
A band that released exactly one undeniably perfect song, and then immediately broke up, could potentially win this category.
― Okay, you're an ambulance (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:23 (four years ago) link
A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger) at 3:13 28 Jan 20is there a bad Duke Ellington record?there's probably a ton of old jazz artists who never made an out and out bad record
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:25 (four years ago) link
Uncle Tupelo
― Okay, you're an ambulance (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, January 28, 2020 3:23 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink
surely M|A|R|R|S gets posted by now every time one of these threads is done
― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Tuesday, January 28, 2020 2:23 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
― american bradass (BradNelson), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:26 (four years ago) link
anyway I think my answer for this has to be Susumu Hirasawa, who from 1979 until now has put out about 30 "main" albums (including P-Model obviously), of which only maybe 2 or 3 are less than "very good". on top of that there's a ton of supplemental material worth checking out, not to mention the soundtrack work. of course there are a lot of artists who are very consistently good but Hirasawa is particularly interesting because like Autechre his music is constantly progressing, going from being part of a scene to something that's essentially peerless, and like Ae you're not really sure where the 'peak' is, you could argue for it being pretty much anywhere
― frogbs, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:27 (four years ago) link
if one-off all-star records count I would take "All in the Same Gang" over MARRS any day of the week
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:28 (four years ago) link
The Blue Nile have to be worth mentioning (for a change). Holy Love is probably the only weak song they put out.
― kitchen person, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:28 (four years ago) link
― ymo sumac (NickB)
Slightly let down by Flesh & Blood IMO
― kitchen person, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:29 (four years ago) link
Is there a thread for "only released one single and nothing else"? There would be some good post-punk and dance acts in that thread.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:30 (four years ago) link
surely M|A|R|R|S gets posted by now every time one of these threads is done― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Tuesday, January 28, 2020 2:23 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
Nobody remembers "Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance)"
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:31 (four years ago) link
bands that put out only one great album:
the VaselinesAlthea and Donna
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:31 (four years ago) link
see also: The Normal
― The Squalls Of Hate (sleeve), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:32 (four years ago) link
― Οὖτις
Young Marble Giants
― kitchen person, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:34 (four years ago) link
Also Sky Ferreira.. there's never going to be a second album is there.
― kitchen person, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:35 (four years ago) link
M|A|R|R|S are so perfect for this that they split up before recording, and different people did the A and B sides
― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:37 (four years ago) link
Incunabula, Anti and Amber sound almost like a different group compared to more abstract sound that came later on. Those early Autechre records had bass lines and pads etc like you would think a techno or idm track to have. Later on, it's WTF is that? pretty much became their sound. To be fair, the last one I got was Confield, but I got most of their early cds including eps.
― earlnash, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:38 (four years ago) link
xp Best band that never really existed but seem to have released a brilliant single anyway
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:39 (four years ago) link
The Smiths did not make an Ob-la-di-ob-la-da.
Girlfriend in a Coma, Golden Lights, Meat Is Murder, Never Had No-One Ever, Work Is a Four Letter Word...all less fun than Ob-La-Di, imo.
― fetter, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 22:39 (four years ago) link
imo if members are dead and the band split up decades earlier, then the intent was clearly not to release the abandoned demos as an authoritative contribution to the discography
this is a stupid argument
agreed, especially if we extend this to cover the entire thread
― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Wednesday, 5 February 2020 00:15 (four years ago) link
what is the argument ? i was really only noting that, if you wanted to, you could count bootlegs in a band's discography. or you don't have to. sometimes unofficial shit, particularly concert fan recordings and scrapped studio sessions, are essential to "knowing" a band's discography, at least to some fans. i'm not trying to make "rules" and my post was sort of in jest.
then again other times an artist comes around and says, "yeah those bootlegs, we own that, here they are officially." that was one of the main points of the anthology series ! see also dylan for another obvious example.
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 5 February 2020 02:41 (four years ago) link
which good band / artist has the worst discography?Black Flag
― dad genes (morrisp), Wednesday, 5 February 2020 03:09 (four years ago) link
In a similar vein: Bad Brains
― JRN, Wednesday, 5 February 2020 04:25 (four years ago) link
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, Wednesday, 5 February 2020 04:30 (four years ago) link
Start a new thread!
― The Mandymoorian (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 5 February 2020 04:34 (four years ago) link
Joan Osborn- One Of Us.
― Creames Fartpoop, Wednesday, 5 February 2020 04:43 (four years ago) link
I'm admittedly an album or two behind, but unless she's inexplicably gone into a qualitative freefall: Tara Jane O'Neill. And even if you feel like plugging all of her side work into the equation, it's still a pretty gahdamn unstoppable discography.
― Sammo Hazuki's Tago Mago Cantina (Old Lunch), Thursday, 13 February 2020 18:09 (four years ago) link
Hmm, no mention of Rush or the Ramones in here ...
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 13 February 2020 18:41 (four years ago) link
Catherine Christer Hennix
― Deflatormouse, Wednesday, 22 November 2023 02:27 (four months ago) link
whoa
― ꙮ (map), Wednesday, 22 November 2023 02:38 (four months ago) link
Have The Fall been mentioned yet? Seems an obvious choice to me.
― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Wednesday, 22 November 2023 11:39 (four months ago) link
They have (I re-read this thread last night); but as much as I’m a fan, I would not call their catalogue “flawless”…
― This field is required (morrisp), Wednesday, 22 November 2023 15:28 (four months ago) link
lol definitely not
― out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Wednesday, 22 November 2023 15:28 (four months ago) link