I think it's important to include Yes' peak output, especially for the classic prog fans

The Yes Album (1971)
Fragile (1971)
Close to the Edge (1972)

Tales from Topographic Oceans was actually '73, but that album is too over indulgent for me, and I don't consider it essential. I probably need to revisit it though. Was never exposed to it nearly as much as the more 'classic' Yes albums. Same with Relayer('74). Still def. a fan of "Going For The One" ('77) though.

And Mr Red, I used to think the same about that Steely Dan stretch. I always considered Aja, Gaucho, and Royal Scam about flawless. Frankly, Aja is as nearly perfect as an album can be. However....as years have gone by, and I revisit the earlier output, I'm realizing how consistently their songwriting was improving. They went from an offbeat pop band to jazz fusion rock...but the song writing was always there. Pretzel Logic, Can't Buy a Thrill, and Countdown to Ecstacy are all excellent albums on their own. Very, very few clunker songs on the early stuff

Iron Maiden first 5 in 5 years
Fu Manchu first 4
Orange Goblin's first 4

Pretty much any band in the 60's 70's that put out 4 albums did so in at least 4 years
Bowie(and throw in Mick Ronson's solo albums)
Mott
Traffic
Jethro Tull
BOC
Alice Cooper
Motorhead
Ramones
I like Styx
etc.

It's all tasty.

Good try with the Bible of the Devil

BUDGIE


S/T (1971)

Squawk (1972)

Never Turn Your Back on a Friend (1973)

In for the Kill (1974)

It all depends on your personal taste, really. I like Van Halen way more than the Beatles, so I'd put any of those first four Van Halen albums up against anything the Beatles ever did. Same with Zeppelin. Zeppelin is the best band ever, as far as I'm concerned.

Colour Haze (2003-2006): Los Sounds De Krauts, Persicope, Colour Haze, Tempel

The Clash: (1977-1980): The Clash, Give 'Em Enough Rope, London Calling, Sandinista!

Ice Dragon (2010-2012): The Burl The Earth The Aether, The Sorrowful Sun, Tome of the Future Ancients, Dream Dragon

This got me thinking about Elton John back in the 70's.
Had to listen to him dominate the radio... along with disco!
I guess if he wasn't doing blow and eating cock, he was making albums.

10 albums in his first 6 years - 21 albums in 20 years.

Empty Sky (1969)
Elton John (1970)
Tumbleweed Connection (1970)
Madman Across the Water (1971)
Honky Château (1972)
Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player (1973)
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
Caribou (1974)
Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975)
Rock of the Westies (1975)
Blue Moves (1976)
A Single Man (1978)
Victim of Love (1979)
21 at 33 (1980)
The Fox (1981)
Jump Up! (1982)
Too Low for Zero (1983)
Breaking Hearts (1984)
Ice on Fire (1985)
Leather Jackets (1986)
Reg Strikes Back (1988)
Sleeping with the Past (1989)
The One (1992)
Duets (1993)
Made in England (1995)
The Big Picture (1997)
Songs from the West Coast (2001)
Peachtree Road (2004)
The Captain & the Kid (2006)
The Union (with Leon Russell) (2010)
Good Morning To The Night (with Pnau) (2012)
The Diving Board (2013)

Didn't hurt that he had another dude cranking out the songwriting for him. I don't disrespect Elton John for that, he's a phenomenol talent....the music just felt slightly less genuine when I learned about the songwriting relationship. The coke and cock blowing was never an issue.

Not my car, not my basement.

Well, he didn't say he was WITH you, Arz.

MELVINS:

'91 Bullhead
'92 Lysol
'93 Houdini
'94 Stoner Witch

Also in that time span the released Eggnogg, Prick, the three solo EPs, and the Your Choice Live album.

then:
'96 Stag
'97 Honky
'99 The Maggot
'99 The Bootlicker

then:
'00 Colossus of Destiny
'01 Electroretard
'02 Hostile Ambient Takeover
'04 Pigs of the Roman Empire
(well I like that run anyway...)

Okay, the basement was embellishment, but it WAS your car. On the way to O'Briens for Slough Feg and Bible of the Devil. Kokodave was there too.

I'm very down with the Dan, but there are always a song or two on all of their albums that I have to skip. So tough for me to rank such an album as "flawless". Aja is probably the closest thing they have that strikes me in that manner.

"Countdown to Ecstasy" would be my submission of flawless. Great from start to finish.

Humble Pie

70' s/t
71' Rock On, Performance (Fillmore)
72' Smokin'
73' Eat It
74' Thunderbox

Great topic. I used to think about this stuff all the time, considering some of the biggest bands recently have such sparse recorded output. Tool being the worst offender with four and a half albums in 18 years. Musically also very little has changed in the past ten years, and it blows my mind to think that rock went from "I Want To Hold Your Hand" to "Close To The Edge" in like eight years back in the 60s and 70s. Or "Nights In White Satin" to "God Save The Queen" in ten. Now we go from "Nookie" to "Porn Star Dancing" or Jay Zs "Big Pimpin'" to whatever Drake track in ten years. Not a big jump. I think we hit a brick wall back in 2002. Is musical evolution over? Good thing that in 50 years of rock, funk, metal and rap there's more out there than I could possibly ever listen to.

Ah, no shit. I completely forgot about that show. Which is odd, because I totally heart Bible of the Devil (Slough Feg at the time I was ambivalent about). Then again, in those days I was incredibly drunk most of the time. Sigh.

The problem is analyzing the mainstream for any sort of product.
What sells will be repeated or copied. Be it a car, a hamburger, or a song. True "progression" has mostly been eliminated, or when some is made it becomes assimilated and then the norm.

Some folks want Big Macs, Auto Tune & Lite Beer. Some will find different flavors more appealing.
Neither way is better. Unless you like Nickelback, or that Red Solo Cup song...then you are a fuckwit ;)

That's the winner for me.

But for the shit of it.

KRS-One and Boogie Down Productions:
Criminal Minded (1987)
By All Means Necessary (1988)
Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop (1989)
Edutainment (1990)

Even though Edutainment is pretty weak, imo.

Great topic. Although we made need to raise the bar because there seems to be a lot of bands able to crank out 4 in 4. At least, a lot of bands that charge out of the gate with that kind of a run. Whats intriguing are the bands that do it mid career or long after they have been established like the Melvins did.

Lots of bands HAD to create that output because of the contract they signed (Van Halen), and lots of bands weren't capable of having that run because of disputes with their record company over the contract they signed (The Cramps), or they were simply stuck waiting for paperwork to clear after signing to a new label (Slayer).

Sure. You say that after I post something. Ya jerk!

What the fuck! No mentions of Tool?!


I guess the whole album-a-decade thing DQ's 'em.

I guess Om was on a handy three year run:

'05: Variations on a Theme
'06: Conference of the Birds
'07: Pilgrimage

Then skip a year with the Gebel Barkel single in '08, to land right back in '09 with God is Good.

Didn't stop being busy and being great.

Ditto on Neurosis.

I do think of Boston sometimes...the band. They had two massive albums in three years, then they had some beef with Epic or somebody that held them up for six or seven. By then it was too late to have the kind of relentless output Foreigner or Journey had. Imagine if Boston had put out two more albums in that time. They'd be way past Journey as far as the gold standard for late 70s/early 80s Knickerbocker beer Trans Am mullet rock. What could have been!