Entertainment For Lively Minds
Whatever happened to the great album run?
Posted by JudeMaccready on 10 December 2011 - 7:45pm.
More specifically whatever happened to an artist releasing a whole sequence of belters on an annual basis? It used to happen all the time - Beatles, Joni, Tom Waits, Dylan, Elton, Bowie etc - all had a fruitful patch bringing out a classic album every year. Why doesn't that happen with any new artist?
On that note, I'm wondering what your favourite run of great albums is? I'd nominate Elvis Costello's brilliant series from Last Year's Model to Goodbye Cruel World and Joni's impressive strike rate from Ladies of the Canyon to Hejira.
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Big name bands...
now probably work in three or four year cycles for an album release. Record album for a year, promote it for a year, tour it for a year or two. Thus the gaps between releases are enormous and by the time the new one comes out in all probability the public has moved onto the "next big thing".
I could of course be wrong about this. Just throwing stuff out to see if it sticks...
Not sure it's sticking!
To counter your theory I would nominate The Arctic Monkeys.
Also, even Coldplay have averaged around one album every two years. If your theory was correct, we would have had to suffer far less!
There is only one answer to this question*
Music of my Mind
Talking Book
Innervisions
Fulfillingness' First Finale
Songs in the Key of Life
This is the right answer. Every other answer will have merit. But each will still be the wrong answer.
*the second question Jude posed, that is. Patrick's answer to the first question is the right answer to that question.
Bloody hell. I mean her third question.
Ahem,
HIS third question. Easy mistake.
Ooops...
I can't even edit the thing now. For about the fifth time.
(Still the right answer though.)
And it seems Bob Lefsetz agrees with me!
Coincidentally, this was in my inbox this morning...
I've said similar things...
...about Stevie before, although not as eloquently. One thing I'd argue with:
The Beatles never did go on a run like that. They never made a flawless album. Every single one, even "Revolver", has at least two stinkers on it.
Stevie didn't produce a dud until '79, although in fairness, "Secret Life Of Plants" is a bigger dud than any Beatles album. But "Talking Book", "Innervisions" and "SITKOL" are flawless. Perfect. Unimprovable. "FFF" is merely utterly outstanding.
The Beatles actually didn't ever match that, although I don't dispute that their impact was greater.
None of us will ever be that eloquent Bob
"Spotty output" - sounds like an old geezer with a prostate problem taking a piss in the snow
Point of order young man...
A Hard Day's Night is not the Fab's best album - but it manifestly does not have two stinkers on it. Other albums may have bigger highs, but none are as consistent.
Isn't Stevie ace, though?
Let you have that!
Fair point, Paul! I like AHDN a lot. There aren't any stinkers on it, as you say, although I'm not overfond of a couple of songs.
Funny, isn't it, how their very best work isn't their most consistent?
And Christ, yes. Stevland Morris. A force of nature.
Stevie was 24
when he made all of those
I know.
If there was ever a need for a definition of 'genius' - this is it.
The are are great albums but
The are are great albums but I would counter that they are not flawless. I dislike that 'angry' voice he puts on and many of the songs go on for a verse too long. The Beatles are still unmatched in terms of a sequence of albums though. Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt Pepper, White Album. Either side of these they did Hard Days Night, Abbey Road, Help, Magical Mystery Tour all of which are far from shabby.
You could be right, Patrick
but it still begs the question why it takes so long? Couldn't imagine any of the artists I mentioned above holding new stuff back for three years (let alone take three years to write it) nor indeed any record company wanting artists to sit so long on good (therefore lucrative) material.
Because, these days, the money is made from live work
rather than records. 20 years ago, the tour was to promote the album but the cycle was driven by the need to get product into the market.
Now, the cycle is driven by the need to tour so it's in everyone's interests to milk an album as long as possible before taking time out to make another.
Kind of goes against the romantic view
of the great artist at the top of their game having a steady unstoppable flow of first class material they just have to unleash. What you are implying is (shock) artists only write material when they can sell it as product!?
They probably write it
but managers, A&R, record labels et al slow down the releases.
I question some of the artists mentioned.....
....but 4 singles/downloads permitted from each album has clearly had a 'slight' effect.
Put it another way, have U2 actually recorded more songs in 32 years than the Beatles did in 8 years?
If they have, it's marginal.
Ver Dan
are, of course, the gold standard here. "Can't Buy A Thrill" (1972) through to "Gaucho" (1980) was 7 top notch albums in 8 years. Of course, it rather helped that a) records and not touring were the main money earners at the time; b) Becker & Fagen hated touring and preferred working in the studio; and c) because they didn't sell humongous quantities they had to keep releasing records to make money.
tbh
I don't listen to new artists.
I take it
Beatles are excluded from this question for reasons of being too obvious an answer?
My answer would have to be another which is maybe just as obvious: Bob Dylan from 65-65: Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde in quick succession.
Wow...
... and I didn't realise they were all the same year - and he was probably touring as well in 65 - Bob wins.
Hah!
Droll.
No new artists?
Wilco.
I'd say everything from Summerteeth to The Whole Love is pretty tip-top, and something put out every year and a half, on top of some pretty relentless touring and side projects. There are some esoteric bits and bobs in all that, but not excessively so.
From yesteryear, it's worth highlighting Prince's output from 1984-88:
Purple Rain
Around the World in a Day
Parade
Sign 'O' The Times
Lovesexy
plus the Black Album, if you could get a copy back then.
And that run actually starts with....
...1999 in 1982 & finishes with Diamonds & Pearls in 1991...
Both cracking albums...
but I was going for the 'one every year, unbroken run' element of the OP.
And Graffiti Bridge *shudders* queers that particular pitch.
Because some of us
don't follow popular new we may not realise that off the top of my head for my boys generation, Biffy Clyro, Muse and even Kasabian are on a great album run. They are the ones other forums will be talking about in 20 years.
True
There are still people out there making great records regularly.
If only this wasn't an old fart's board.
Unfortunately
I can't do anything about being 49 but I hope that doesn't mean I have a closed mind or fixed opinions. Certainly there is a great deal of 'when I was a lad...' on these boards (some of it from me) but that's just nostalgia - I'd hate to think I couldn't be challenged or I was incapable of changing my view. I post my opinions but I know I might be wrong, it wouldn't be the first time. I welcome being told. When I'm dead but I won't lie down I hope I'll shut up.
From the OP, I want to hear...
Last Year's Model by Elvis Costello.
Would this be his thirteen years later cash-in album sequel, like Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell 2?
Darn it.
You'll be telling me next you haven't heard Imperialpantry...
David Bowie: 1970-1980
The Man Who Sold the World (1970)
Hunky Dory (1971)
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)
Aladdin Sane (1973)
Pin Ups (1973)
Diamond Dogs (1974)
Young Americans (1975)
Station to Station (1976)
Low (1977)
Heroes (1977)
Lodger (1979)
Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980)
That's 12 absolutely classic albums in a little over ten years (plus a couple of admittedly underwhelming live albums). Although I've got my favourites, I truly can't think of one single track off any of those albums that I don't love, with the possible exception of an indifferent cover of Across the Universe on Young Americans. Not one fast forward in what must be a good 120 tracks. I don't think anyone's ever had a run like that before or since.
THIS is the right answer...
...and I can't believe the thread took so long to arrive at it. It's the greatest album run in rock history, without question. Although I would omit "Pinups" as it was a covers album and his second offering of that year (1973), so I always regard it as a kind of filler, great though it is in its own way. A man at the top of his game (of anyone's game}, reaching heights he would never hit again with the possible exception of 1995's "Outside".
In a slightly lower key, see my thread about Elliott Smith (six 4- or 5-star albums, 1994-2003).
I agree the Stevie Wonder streak is magnificent, but obviously it's half the length of the Bowie. Joni Mitchell comes mighty close too.
Jack White
When you add up The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather and numerous production jobs, you get a pretty prolific output.
As producer
The White Stripes (1999) – The White Stripes
De Stijl (2000) – The White Stripes
Soledad Brothers (2000) – Soledad Brothers
White Blood Cells (2001) – The White Stripes
Lack of Communication (2001) – the Von Bondies
Do Rabbits Wonder? (2003) – Whirlwind Heat[74]
Elephant (2003) – The White Stripes
Van Lear Rose (2004) – Loretta Lynn
Get Behind Me Satan (2005) – The White Stripes
Red and Black EP (2005) – the Muldoons
Sewed Soles (2005) – The Greenhornes[74]
Broken Boy Soldiers (2006) – the Raconteurs
Icky Thump (2007) – The White Stripes
Consolers of the Lonely (2008) – the Raconteurs
Horehound (2009) – The Dead Weather
The Wind Did Move/Last Kind Words (2009) – Dexter Romweber Duo
I Like My Mice (Dead)/Spider Bite (2009) – Mildred And The Mice
My House Of Peace (2009) – Rachelle Garniez
Bohemian Grove/Atheist Funeral (2009) – Dan Sartain
C'Mon And Ride/After Party (2009) – Transit
Fly Farm Blues (2009) – Solo
Gastown/River Song (2009) – Smoke Fairies
Fame #9/BP Fallon Interview/I Believe In Elvis Presley (2009) – BP Fallon
You Know I'm No Good/Shakin' All Over (2010) – Wanda Jackson
What Can I Do/Lies (2010) – The Black Belles
Sea of Cowards (2010) – The Dead Weather
The Ghost Who Walks (2010) – Karen Elson
Under Great White Northern Lights (2010) – The White Stripes
Third Man Live: Dex Romweber Duo (2010) – Dex Romweber Duo
Third Man Live: The Raconteurs (2010) – The Raconteurs
Third Man Live: Nobunny (2010) – Nobunny
And They Call Me Mad/Conan O'Brien Interview (2010) – Conan O'Brien
The Party Ain't Over (2011) - Wanda Jackson[75]
"Charlene II(I'm Over You)" (2011) - The Black Belles and Stephen Colbert
“Leck Mich Im Arsch” (2011) Insane Clown Posse, adaptation of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with JEFF the Brotherhood
A better example
of quantity over quality I have yet to see. TBH, I've never understood the fuss over Jack White.
In the space of four years (1961-64), John Coltrane
made nine albums of staggering intensity and creative brilliance:
Africa/Brass
Olé Coltrane
My Favorite Things
Ballads
Coltrane
Live at the Village Vanguard
Live at Birdland
A Love Supreme
Crescent
This was an astonishing run, a gold standard, even by the high standards of early 60s jazz. How on earth did he do it?
Don't much care for..
Ascension, then?
(winky thing)
Talking Heads
"More Songs About Buildings And Food" (78) to "Stop Making Sense" (84)
I'll just add Talking Heads '77
to the front of the list, then it's complete.
The Fall
From Live at the Witch Trials (1979) up to This Nation Saving's Grace (1985) is an amazing run, taking in Dragnet, Grotesque,Totale Turns, Slates, Hex Enduction Hour, Room to Live (it's actually alright!), Perverted by Language and Wonderful and Frightening World of.... Of course, you need to be an initiate, and I am biased enough to like their later albums, but I think that was their golden age.
Bend Sinister
You could add Bend Sinister to that run I think (my joint favourite Fall album along with HEH).
If we're having Bend Sinister
then I think we can also comfortably add The Frenz Experiment, I Am Kurious Oranj, Extricate and Shift-Work.
Prefab Sprout
Swoon (1984)
Steve McQueen (1985)
From Langley Park To Memphis (1988)
Jordan The Comeback (1990)
Andromeda Heights (1997)
I don't think Protest Songs (1985/89) is quite in that class, but I can leave it out as it was a side project.
I don't think five albums in thirteen years counts
according to the tenets of the OP.
But, depending on your point of view, Fairport Convention, What We Did On Our Holidays, Unhalfbricking, Liege & Lief, Full House, Angel Delight and Babbacombe Lee isn't bad for three years' work.
Joe Jackson?
Look Sharp (1979)
I'm the Man (1979)
Beat Crazy (1980)
Jumpin' Jive (1981)
Night and Day (1982)
Body and Soul (1984)
Big World (1986)
Blaze of Glory (1989)
Laughter & Lust (1991)
Pretty good IMHO
The Ramones
First 4 albums plus live album.
Roxy and REM
My vote goes to either:
*Roxy Music who had a run of five (or eight if - like me - you like the later stuff) or...
*REM, who had a run of eight to ten crackers.
REM definitely up there.
REM definitely up there. Murmer, Reckoning, Chronic Town, Lifes Rich Pageant, Document, Green, Out of Time & Automatic for the people. I have missed one out which I cannot recall.
Fables.
Thanks, its not that great
Thanks, its not that great though so probably spoils the run and my argument?
I disagree therefore you're right...
Fables is a wonderful record and your argument stands.
Go Betweens
The whole lot really, but specifically -
Spring Hill Fair
Liberty Belle And The Black Diamond Express
Tallulah
16 Lovers Lane
And Husker Du -
Zen Arcade
New Day Rising
Flip Your Wig
Candy Apple Grey
Warehouse : Songs And Stories
And Chic -
Chic
C'est Chic
Risque
Real People
GP
I'd agree with many of the above posts on great runs e.g. Bowie, Dylan, Roxy Music, REM
Graham Parker from Howling Wind to The Up Escalator. A great run of albums.
and the Boss From Born To Run to Tunnel Of Love
Brooooce...
Bit of a (enforced) lay off between BTR and Darkness. I'd also include The Wild, The Innocent in that run. Great album.
Have we forgotten
One Ivan Morrison's output of the 70s?
A good call, but was "Hard Nose the Highway"
truly essential?
Debatable , sure..
But I think snow in San anselmo is one of his finest, most cinematic pieces - and the version of bein green is lovely.
(I also love the cover)
amusingly
you have nominated the 2 songs on that album that I dislike
But
you like the cover, right?
Pixies - 4 years, 4 great albums
Surfer Rosa - 1988
Doolittle - 1989
Bossanova - 1990
Trompe Le Monde - 1991
You have missed out Come On
You have missed out Come On Pilgrim which I think is classed as a mini album with some overlaps. They were truly a great band.
The Hold Steady's first three.
I can't find any fault with "Almost Killed Me", "Separation Sunday" and "Boys and Girls in America". "Stay Positive" nearly gets there, but doesn't quite. "Heaven Is Whenever" is their first record that could only be described as OK.
Of course, they're a bit divisive, THS. But they really are one of those bands about whom I have a complete inability to see other points of view.
(They're mathematically calculated to be loved by me: a bunch of slightly nebbish guys, not as young or as skinny as they were, making very loud rock music that wears its Cheap Trick and Springsteen on its sleeve, fronted by a speccy, talkative arguer who's obsessed with good lyrics. I have absolutely no way of resisting them.)
You *know* how much I love ver Steady...
...but is Almost Killed Me really up there? I'd have gone for the SS/BAGIA/SP axis myself.
This, of course, might be a Franz thing...
Oooh yes.
Much prefer AKM to SP. Not a dud on it, and several of my favourite THS songs: Positive Jam, The Swish, Barfruit, Certain Songs, Knuckles, Killer Parties - amazing stuff.
SP, for me, is spoiled by Cutters, Navy Sheets and Sequestered. Sequestered is like the ur-Hurricane J: an obvious single, but really not all that much of a song. And you can feel Tad's influence winning out over Franz's on that record. This isn't a good thing, for me.
Mmmmm...you could be right
*Restocks iPhone with THS back catalogue*
Heaven is Whenever
Am I wrong to think this is THS's best album by a distance? Certainly prefer it to BAGIA. What to everyone's ears lifts that record over Heaven is Whenever (which I love!).
As good as anything ny anybody..
Jackie Leven had a blistering run...prolific, but the quality never dropped....
The Mystery of Love Is Greater Than The Mystery of Death (1994)
Forbidden Songs of the Dying West (1995)
The Argyll Circle (1996)
Fairytales for Hardmen (1997)
Night Lilies (1998)
Defending Ancient Springs (2000)
Creatures of Light and Darkness (2001)
Shining Brother Shining Sister (2003)
For Peace Comes Dropping Slow (2004)
Songs for Lonely Americans - with Jackie as 'Sir Vincent Lone' (2004)
Very good call on Big Jackie, Mr Bogart, sir
1. After his 11-year lay-off in the late 80s/early 90s, he seemed to have hundreds of brilliant songs in his head, just waiting to be written.
2. "For Peace Comes Dropping Slow" was originally relesased in 1997, for Haunted Valley members only. I cherish my signed copy. The Big man from the Kingdom of Fife really was something else.
Crocodiles...
... to Ocean Rain was a good little run - then it went the way of the pear.
Gary Numan/Tubeway Army 1978-82
Tubeway Army - 1978
Replicas - 1979
The Pleasure Principle - 1979
Telekon - 1980
Dance - 1981
I, Assassin - 1982
The Decemberists
Looking at the 2011 Albums thread I may be in a minority but I've liked everything from the start until - and including - The King is Dead. I'd throw in the EPs as well.
The Smiths
The Smiths (84)
Hatful of Hollow (84)*
Meat is Murder (85)
The Queen is Dead (86)
The World Won't Listen (86)*
Strangeways Here We Come (87)
Louder Than Bombs (87)**
Rank (88)
A magnificent run of form. Better to burn out than to fade away and all that shenanigans.
* not sure whether these really count in the album body as technically, I suppose, they are compilations but collate all those brilliant singles, sessions and B-sides and, for me, (especially HoH) represent part of the canon.
** I know - essentially The World Won't Listen reworked for Sire in the States but adds some more tracks.
Hatful = canon, definitely.
It's so much more than a compilation. Great post, 6 D. Couldn't agree more.
The Smiths Complete
Is a "Deal Of The Week" in FOPP just now - a mere £25 for all eight albums.
I'm not usually sold on this remastering carry on, but they do sound rather magnificent.
The Dan steal it (sorry)
Can't Buy a Thrill
Countdown to Ecstasy
Pretzel Logic
Katy Lied
The Royal Scam
Aja
Six straight crackers in six six straight years if I'm not mistaken. Pity about 'Gaucho'...
The last great run for me
was A Tribe Called Quest's unimpeachable trio:
1990: People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm
1991: The Low End Theory
1993: Midnight Marauders
Can: six albums 1969 to 1974
Come on now, Massivers, you've got to admit that Can's great six-album run from 1969 to 1974 could hardly be more Kraut-tastic...
Monster Movie (1969)
Soundtracks (1970)
Tago Mago (1971)
Ege Bamyasi (1972)
Future Days (1973)
Soon Over Babaluma (1974)
Few more...
Leonard Cohen:
Songs of Leonard Cohen 68
Songs From A Room 69
Songs of Love And Hate 71
and again:
Various Positions 84
I'm Your Man 88
The Future 92
Ver Mac:
Ver Mac 75
Rumours 77
Tusk 80
The Byrds:
5th Dimension 66
Younger Than Yesterday 67
Notorious Byrd Brothers 68
Sweetheart Of The Rodeo 68
The Clash - 5 in 5
The Clash 1977
Give Em Enough Rope 1978
London Calling 1979
Sandinista 1980
Combat Rock 1982
Manic Street Preachers
Generation Terrorists (make a single album rather than the double) 1992
Gold Against The Soul 1993
The Holy Bible 1994
Everything Must Go 1996
Pretty good runs before the vim, vigour and youthful naivety are overtaken by slumber, familiarity and "will this do>?"
William Shakespeare: works 1604-1606
You've got to admit, this is pretty useful for a three-year run:
Othello (1604)
King Lear (1605)
Timon of Athens (1605)
Macbeth (1606)
Antony and Cleopatra (1606)
It's rather reminiscent of the HJH's "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver" coming out within 10 months of each other, really.
Timon?
Nah. Load of cack, and not finished. Shame. Good run of form from yer Bard there uvverwise.
He was great in The Lion King
;)
Pseud alert
Pseud alert
Beggers Banquet to Exiles on Main Street
Goats Head Soup is optional
The first three
Pogues albums.
- Red Roses for Me.
- Rum, sodomy and the lash.
- If I should fall from grace with god.
(1984 - 1988).
Will Holland of Quantic
churns out a huge amount of wide-ranging music under various guises: Quantic Soul Orchestra, The Limp Twins; Flowering Inferno; etc.
The 5th Exotic, 2001
Apricot Morning, 2002
Stampede, 2003
Tales from Beyond the Groove, 2004
Mishaps Happening, 2004
Pushin' On, 2005
One Offs...Remixes And B-Sides, 2006
An Announcement to Answer, 2006
Tropidelico, 2007
... and that's where I stopped being able to keep up with merely listening, though last year's Dog with a Rope by Flowering Inferno is lovely.
I'm sure there are more atists like this around, just under my radar. And that may go some way to answering question 1.
Nick Cave
(1986 - 1997)
Your Funeral... My Trial
Tender Prey
The Good Son
Henry's Dream
Let Love In
Murder Ballads
The Boatman's Call
7 strong albums in 11 years, plus he wrote "And the Ass Saw The Angel" and was "not very well" for most of this period..
Neil Young
from 'Everybody knows this is Nowhere' up to and including 'Rust never sleeps'
Jam
All Mod Cons
Setting Sons
Sound Affects
The Gift
and add the singles Strange Town & When You're Young (1979), Going Underground (1980), Absolute Beginners & Funeral Pyre (1981) - thats a pretty impressive 4 year output.
Iron Maiden from 1980 to 1988:
Iron Maiden
Killers
Number Of The Beast
Piece Of Mind
Powerslave
Live After Death
Somewhere In Time
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
An album a year apart from 1987 which was better than anything else in their particular genre.
Went off the boil somewhat with No Prayer For The Dying.
Great Album Run? Probably won't see that sort of "quality" output again. The un-bundling of Albums in iTunes and Amazon (other MP3 Sores are available) means that single tracks can be put out without the need to create a cohesive album anymore
Sonic Youth
Bad Moon Rising
EVOL
Sister
Daydream Nation
(will exclude Ciccone Youth - The Whitey Album)
Goo
Dirty
Curtis
Curtis
Curtis Live
Roots
Superfly
Elton was also extraordinarily consistent in the early 70s:
Elton John
Tumbleweed Connection
Madman Across the Water
Honky Chateau
Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Caribou
Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
A good call on old Reg,
but was "Caribou" truly essential?
Nah...
just copy and pasting.
Ah but...
...there was 'Ticking' on it which more than makes up for the rest.
Sir Ron Sexsmith
Five bona fide classics in eight years. Oh yes!
1995: "Ron Sexsmith"
1997: Other Songs
1999: Whereabouts
2001: Blue Boy
2002: Cobblestone Runway