Hennessy Macklemore III
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Post by Hennessy Macklemore III on Apr 18, 2022 19:51:44 GMT
What are some examples of highly esteemed bands/artists that you like that have large discographies, but a surprising amount of lame/underwhelming albums contributing to that? For instance, they may have a select number of amazing albums that people normally think of when it comes to that artist, but if you listen to their discography in bulk you may be disappointed to find that they really lost their touch after a certain point.
A few examples for me: - Queensrÿche - their first three albums definitely speak for themselves in terms of why they were such a big deal in the '80s, and Empire and Promised Land both are pretty good, though I was surprised to already hear Geoff Tate's voice starting to deteriorate that early. After that though, so much of their discography from 1997-2011 ranged from "meh" to straight up bad, between the songwriting REALLY falling off and Tate's voice continuing to deteriorate. And it's not like they were particularly inactive during that period either - they put out seven albums during that span, and the only ones I remember being somewhat decent were Operation: Mindcrime II and maybe Tribe. I really don't think they bounced back until Todd La Torre joined and they put out their self-titled in 2013, and thankfully they've been pretty solid again and ever since. But hoo boy, I was really not expecting that much of their discography to be that skippable.
- Def Leppard - I would definitely strongly recommend their first four albums, but after that it becomes pretty hit or miss. The only album from after that that I think can really hold up with those first few is 1993's Retro Active, which is technically more of a compilation than an actual studio album, as it contains various B-sides and unreleased tracks from over the years of 1984-1993. Slang is actually a pretty interestingly experimental album as well, but a lot of their stuff after that is just straight up bland pop rock with none of the edge or riffs of their early stuff (the guiltiest offenders of this being Euphoria and X). Yeah! was a pretty decent covers album, and Songs from the Sparkle Lounge and the self-titled have had *some* decent tracks on them, but overall they've only really had select moments here and there that have successfully recaptured the greatness of their 80s albums.
- The Rolling Stones - Admittedly I haven't actually listened to their entire discography from top to bottom (because that's a LOT of albums), but I've heard enough to have to have the general impression that theirs is one that's very spotty overall. They definitely have some great songs that deserve to be hailed as classics, but honestly the number of albums I've heard by them that I can actually say are really great from beginning to end is very low in comparison to the number of albums they have out in total. Lots of very filler tracks throughout the majority of their discography, and honestly some of their albums are just straight up bad. Though I would also say that they're more of a songs band than an albums band in general, so in that sense their output doesn't really hold up the best from this perspective in my opinion.
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Post by Batfleck on Apr 18, 2022 20:19:12 GMT
All That Remains - This Darkened Heart and The Fall of Ideals alone make them one of the best 2nd wave of Metalcore bands period, but they haven't managed to capture that magic since then. Overcome and For We Are Many have its moments, but the next three albums is where it really hits the fan. Their last album was a pretty good return to form though, but even then it's nowhere near their prime ('04 - '06).
Linkin Park - Pretty hit or miss discography. Hybrid Theory and Meteora are some of my favorite early 'aughts albums and I also liked A Thousand Suns contrary to popular belief, but everything else is whatever.
Korn - They also have a pretty spotty discography as well in my opinion. I like their 90s material and a couple of their newer releases (Serenity of Suffering, The Nothing), but other than that, it's been a pretty big meh..
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'S
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Post by 'S on Apr 18, 2022 20:24:57 GMT
Oh fun
For me and a lot of others ig:
Celine Dion: Maybe the best way describe it is she's more a singles and a concert type of artist, not super great at fulfilling the 'album' as an idea. Both the French and English discographies start off with pretty safe and juvenile but unevenly-styled stuff, then we get a run of her most ambitious (still genre-hopping) and nifty albums from '95 thru '02. Which we gotta respect. Then the pattern turns into a nosedive for the English album followed by a nicer sorta serious French concept album, a cycle that she's been repeating pretty much ever since lmao. Althooough, the last album, Courage, is a decently slick set of shtuff so there's hope yet.
Olivia Newton-John: Being as much a fan of her and her vois as anyone else on the forum but really . . . I can barely remember any album before she put out Come on Over in '76 lmao. Even that one has at least one skip depending on the mood. I definitely listened to them, but, decent singles aside, wimpy-filler galore was the way. I think we get a good run of consistently strong material, and a good stamp of cohesion on each album from '78's Grease and Totally Hot through to Soul Kiss in '85 (just about). After then it's middling, still very listenable and well-played, but aside from *soft space-pop Olivia* on those Gaia thingies (and their sometimes frustratingly crunchy-granola essential oil mom vibes) I start to not remember the albums pretty quick again lol.
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Post by Rodney Blazershorts on Apr 19, 2022 23:57:57 GMT
Metallica hasn't put out a good album in 30 years, yet every time they release something they're hailed as gods because of the stuff they did that most people never listened to.
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elizabeth
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Post by elizabeth on Apr 20, 2022 1:40:32 GMT
Metallica hasn't put out a good album in 30 years, yet every time they release something they're hailed as gods because of the stuff they did that most people never listened to. Man honestly I can't name a single metallica album I'd sit and listen the whole way through. I don't think they've ever had an especially strong outing tbh most of their albums have 3-4 good tracks and then just filler shit. Like yeah ajfa is good n all but who likes even have the songs off that album? To contribute to the post, and to the overall discussion of thrash. Megadeth has never had a very consistent album lineup its full of weak links though I'll always love them and Metallica. |
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Post by clem on Apr 20, 2022 10:28:34 GMT
Pink Floyd are probably my favourite band of all-time. But there are quite a few albums in their discog that don't hold up all that well imo. Or I at least don't feel compelled to listen to them very often.
4 of their first 7 albums were pretty laden with filler. "More", "Ummagumma", "Atom Heart Mother" and "Obscured by Clouds" are limited to just a few good moments. I don't mind 80s and onwards Floyd as much as some fans, but I would agree with the popular opinion that "The Final Cut" would have worked better as a Roger Waters solo release.
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Post by IhateMana on Apr 20, 2022 10:44:37 GMT
apart from More those are like, three of my favourite Floyd records lmao. honestly their only truly shit one is The Endless River
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Post by clem on Apr 20, 2022 11:18:40 GMT
honestly their only truly shit one is The Endless RiverEndless River was boring, yeah. I think I've only listened to it once the whole way through. Kinda felt like David was trying to eek some more money out of the Pink Floyd name by finishing some old demos that didn't make the grade for the Division Bell. It would probably make for an ok record to stick on in the background, just because of le Floyd soundscape, but there's not very much to listen to on it. |
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Post by clem on Apr 20, 2022 12:47:26 GMT
Metallica hasn't put out a good album in 30 years, yet every time they release something they're hailed as gods because of the stuff they did that most people never listened to. I don't know why I even get hyped for Metallica releases. I think it's just the amount of coverage they get online, because my reaction to each of the last two albums coming out was listening to it once, thinking "that was ok", and not listening to it again for several years. |
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Post by Batfleck on Apr 20, 2022 16:25:36 GMT
Deep Purple is another name that comes to mind as having an inconsistent discography. I like a good chunk of their 70s material (except Who Do We Think We Are), but afterwards its been hit-or-miss. Perfect Strangers is an excellent reunion album, but it's follow up The House of Blue Light is forgettable and boring. Unpopular opinion, I also liked Slaves and Masters with Joe Lynn Turner on vocals, but the next record The Battle Rages On has like maybe 3 good songs on it. Perpendicular is also a pretty good album, but I don't care too much for the next several records that came afterwards.
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Steingrim
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Post by Steingrim on Apr 20, 2022 16:59:35 GMT
Deep Purple is another name that comes to mind as having an inconsistent discography. I like a good chunk of their 70s material (except Who Do We Think We Are), but afterwards its been hit-or-miss. Perfect Strangers is an excellent reunion album, but it's follow up The House of Blue Light is forgettable and boring. Unpopular opinion, I also liked Slaves and Masters with Joe Lynn Turner on vocals, but the next record The Battle Rages On has like maybe 3 good songs on it. Perpendicular is also a pretty good album, but I don't care too much for the next several records that came afterwards. I think Deep Purple were very much a 70s phenomenon, just like the Beatles were a 60s phenomenon. Those albums are still great, but it's difficult to keep that up through the next decades. One would think that Led Zeppelin were the same but they seem more timeless by now, maybe due to their drawing more on folk and classical inspiration that didn't seem that contemporary at that time. |
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Hennessy Macklemore III
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Post by Hennessy Macklemore III on Apr 21, 2022 4:37:42 GMT
Metallica hasn't put out a good album in 30 years, yet every time they release something they're hailed as gods because of the stuff they did that most people never listened to. Man honestly I can't name a single metallica album I'd sit and listen the whole way through. I don't think they've ever had an especially strong outing tbh most of their albums have 3-4 good tracks and then just filler shit. Like yeah ajfa is good n all but who likes even have the songs off that album? I do? ...And Justice for All is an amazing album in my book, and I'd say the same for most of their first five albums. I don't think they even dropped off that hard after the Black Album either - Load was still quite a good album in my opinion, ReLoad was alright, Garage Inc. was a solid covers album, and Death Magnetic had some decent tracks if you can get past the shitty production. Metallica have had their weak points in their discography no doubt, but I personally wouldn't characterize them as a band that has more bad albums than good. I'd also like to make it clear that this isn't a thread for talking about bands you think are overrated - it's for talking about bands you actually like, that just happen to have more weak albums to their name than you'd expect.
To contribute to the post, and to the overall discussion of thrash. Megadeth has never had a very consistent album lineup its full of weak links though I'll always love them and Metallica. I can't really get on board with this one either. I know a lot of Megadeth fans like to hate on Risk (though I personally quite like that album), and the Chris Broderick era albums are generally considered kinda forgettable (especially Super Collider), but there's still a lot of great stuff to counterbalance that. I would go as far as to say that they don't have any actual bad albums in my opinion; just a few more forgettable/underwhelming ones. Pink Floyd are probably my favourite band of all-time. But there are quite a few albums in their discog that don't hold up all that well imo. Or I at least don't feel compelled to listen to them very often. 4 of their first 7 albums were pretty laden with filler. "More", "Ummagumma", "Atom Heart Mother" and "Obscured by Clouds" are limited to just a few good moments. I don't mind 80s and onwards Floyd as much as some fans, but I would agree with the popular opinion that "The Final Cut" would have worked better as a Roger Waters solo release. I would agree that most of those early albums are weaker than their later output, but I still like some of them for what they are. Their early psychedelic sound was definitely its own unique thing, and their discography is one of my favorites to study in chronological order to see just how the evolution of their sound happened along the way. So I would say those albums still have their place, even if they're not as much of standouts as the band's classic era stuff. I do agree that The Final Cut would've made more sense as a Roger Waters solo release though, even if it's very good album otherwise. Deep Purple is another name that comes to mind as having an inconsistent discography. I like a good chunk of their 70s material (except Who Do We Think We Are), but afterwards its been hit-or-miss. Perfect Strangers is an excellent reunion album, but it's follow up The House of Blue Light is forgettable and boring. Unpopular opinion, I also liked Slaves and Masters with Joe Lynn Turner on vocals, but the next record The Battle Rages On has like maybe 3 good songs on it. Perpendicular is also a pretty good album, but I don't care too much for the next several records that came afterwards. This one, however, I do agree with! I love Deep Purple's '70s albums, and they were truly a force to be reckoned with back then. However, you're right that their post-reunion albums since 1984 have been pretty spotty. I think the first few were alright ( Perfect Strangers was a solid comeback, I don't mind The House of Blue Light, need to relisten to Slaves & Masters to properly reevaluate that one, but I actually quite like some of the tracks off The Battle Rages On). However, since Ritchie Blackmore left the band, I have to admit their songwriting really started to decline. Steve Morse is actually one of my top guitar players of all time, and there are some songs of his with the band that I really adore (particularly certain ones off Purpendicular), but overall his era of Deep Purple just hasn't felt as inspired as the rest, or like it's lacking in the kind of identity that Blackmore era stuff really had in spades. I think a lot of that may also have to do with how badly Ian Gillan's voice started to decline in the '90s, cause let's be real - his tone has been majorly lacking for quite a while now. The last few Deep Purple albums in particular were honestly kinda sad to listen to...  |
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Post by Rodney Blazershorts on Apr 23, 2022 16:18:12 GMT
Man honestly I can't name a single metallica album I'd sit and listen the whole way through. I don't think they've ever had an especially strong outing tbh most of their albums have 3-4 good tracks and then just filler shit. Like yeah ajfa is good n all but who likes even have the songs off that album? I do? ...And Justice for All is an amazing album in my book, and I'd say the same for most of their first five albums. I don't think they even dropped off that hard after the Black Album either - Load was still quite a good album in my opinion, ReLoad was alright, Garage Inc. was a solid covers album, and Death Magnetic had some decent tracks if you can get past the shitty production. Metallica have had their weak points in their discography no doubt, but I personally wouldn't characterize them as a band that has more bad albums than good. It actually like Garage Inc if we're counting that, but if you only included the first disc with new material, it's a very forgettable, pointless record. We had our discussion about Load/ReLoad already, but I couldn't go as far as calling either one an overall remarkable record, and the ones since then have been not-good. S&M is incredible, for what that/s worth. As for Megadeth, they had a much stronger discography, really having good records up until Risk, and great ones up to and including Youthanasia, plus The System Has Failed which is actually a personal favorite of mine. Nothing past that has even piqued my interest. |
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Post by Batfleck on Apr 23, 2022 16:54:14 GMT
Yngwie Malmsteen has a lot of weak albums as well. Everything up to and including Fire and Ice is excellent. I also like Facing the Animal and Perpetual Flame, and Magnum Opus has its moments, but everything else is subpar, especially the "Singwie" albums
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Hennessy Macklemore III
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Post by Hennessy Macklemore III on Apr 23, 2022 19:20:58 GMT
I do? ...And Justice for All is an amazing album in my book, and I'd say the same for most of their first five albums. I don't think they even dropped off that hard after the Black Album either - Load was still quite a good album in my opinion, ReLoad was alright, Garage Inc. was a solid covers album, and Death Magnetic had some decent tracks if you can get past the shitty production. Metallica have had their weak points in their discography no doubt, but I personally wouldn't characterize them as a band that has more bad albums than good. It actually like Garage Inc if we're counting that, but if you only included the first disc with new material, it's a very forgettable, pointless record. We had our discussion about Load/ReLoad already, but I couldn't go as far as calling either one an overall remarkable record, and the ones since then have been not-good. S&M is incredible, for what that/s worth. As for Megadeth, they had a much stronger discography, really having good records up until Risk, and great ones up to and including Youthanasia, plus The System Has Failed which is actually a personal favorite of mine. Nothing past that has even piqued my interest. Yeah, my opinion is that the only actual disappointing Metallica albums are St. Anger and LuLu. Death Magnetic is alright in my book aside from the production, and Hardwired...to Self Destruct was kinda forgettable, but not quite to the point that I think less of them for it. They definitely haven't lived up to the bar that they set with their first five albums for the rest of their career, but I generally think people are too hard on them when it comes to talking about how much they dropped off. The worst take that I've heard was that they had barely put out anything good since 1984 lol
As for Megadeth, I will admit that some of their albums after United Abominations don't stand out to me as much, though Dystopia was a pretty strong comeback, and I dug a few tracks off of Th1rt3en. Overall their discography still holds up pretty well to me all things considered.
Yngwie Malmsteen has a lot of weak albums as well. Everything up to and including Fire and Ice is excellent. I also like Facing the Animal and Perpetual Flame, and Magnum Opus has its moments, but everything else is subpar, especially the "Singwie" albums This is another good one though! His first two albums are absolutely killer, and I will admit that I enjoyed his phase in the later '80s where he tried combining neo-classical metal and glam metal, but after a certain point in the '90s, he basically just started rewriting different versions of the same album over and over again. The only real stylistic variation that I can think of is that around the late '90s/early 2000s he started using lower tunings and writing some heavier riffs that way, which was cool for a bit, but soon after that it seemed to become pretty formulaic again. I haven't listened to anything of his since Perpetual Flame just because I've felt no interest in it from that point on. |
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Post by clem on Apr 27, 2022 14:50:43 GMT
I don't know why I even get hyped for Metallica releases. I think it's just the amount of coverage they get online, because my reaction to each of the last two albums coming out was listening to it once, thinking "that was ok", and not listening to it again for several years. A little off-topic, but Kirk Hammett's debut EP as a solo artist is surprisingly well-composed and arranged. Considering how stale I've come to found his guitar-playing with Metallica, along with how he has always been fairly well behind James as a songwriter, I wasn't expecting him to drop a pretty solid solo record. Hopefully this is the start of the members of the band getting to do some solo projects. I am still waiting for my James Hetfield country album to finally make proper use of the low end of his voice. |
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Post by CT on Aug 29, 2022 15:18:43 GMT
I would say Slayer for everything being pretty meh after Seasons in the Abyss but that could be my personal opinion on a stylistic change not necessarily a quality drop off
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Post by Bink on Aug 30, 2022 8:33:35 GMT
Van Morrison and Curtis Mayfield to a lesser extent
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Post by Osmosis on Sept 8, 2022 8:57:23 GMT
I suppose even if The Beatles actually had 10 masterpiece albums, that still would not be enough to justify their noteriety. If you measured The Beatles as for any other normal band however, I would not say that they belong on this thread. Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Abbey Road etc. are all great. |
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