the greatest run of albums...
Rishan
454 Posts
what's your favourite sequence of consecutive records? for me it's mid 60's Wayne Shorter. i've not heard Schizoprenia yet, but from NIght Dreamer in 64 right up to Adam's Apple in 66, there are 8 classics in a row.
Comments
As far as a continuous run of great albums, nobody approaches James Brown.
Art of Tea
Sleeping Gypsy
Burchfield Nines
Tiger in the Rain
One Bad Habit
The Kinks' run of Face to Face, Something Else, Village Green, and Arthur is also a favorite, if not numerically as impressive.
Beatles Help - Magical Mistery Tour.
If this was about 45s I could go on and on and on.
Very true. And you could throw in there, at least, The Young Mods Forgotten Story.
And "Let's Do It Again OST".
1971 What's Going On 6 1 56* Tamla
1972 Trouble Man 14 3 ??? Tamla
1973 Let's Get It On 2 1 39 Tamla
1976 I Want You 4 1 22 Tamla
1978 Here, My Dear 26 4 ??? Tamla
1981 In Our Lifetime 32 6 48 Tamla
1982 Midnight Love 7 1 10 Columbia
Bob Marley
Catch a Fire
Released: April 13, 1973
Label: Island/Tuff Gong
Burnin'
Released: October 19, 1973
Label: Island/Tuff Gong
Natty Dread
Released: October 25, 1974
Label: Island/Tuff Gong
Rastaman Vibration
Released: April 30, 1976
Label: Island/Tuff Gong
Exodus
Released: June 3, 1977
Label: Island/Tuff Gong
Kaya
Released: March 23, 1978
Label: Island/Tuff Gong
50 50 ??? 14 16 6
Survival
Released: October 2, 1979
Label: Island/Tuff Gong
Uprising
Released: June 10, 1980
Label: Island/Tuff Gong
Weather Report
1971 Weather Report
1972 I Sing the Body Electric
1973 Sweetnighter
1974 Mysterious Traveller
1975 Tale Spinnin'
1976 Black Market
1977 Heavy Weather
1978 Mr. Gone
these dont include "live" albums
I'd go so far as to say their streak started at the beginning on that first s/t album, but agree that it ends around Exile.
That Nigger's Crazy
...Is It Something I Said?
Bicentennial Nigger
Wanted
Love, 1966-69:
all four of the Elektra albums
Stevie Wonder, 1971-76:
Where I'm Coming From
Music Of My Mind
Talking Book
Innervisions
Fulfillingness' First Finale
Songs In The Key Of Life
Sly & the Family Stone, 1967-74:
A Whole New Thing
Dance To The Music
Life
Stand!
There's A Riot Goin' On
Fresh
Small Talk
In My Lifetime wasnt a fully realized project and cant sit next to those previous albums.
Midnight Love is a three tracker w/ the "comeback" hype intertwined.
I still like In My Lifetime, even though it does have a half-cooked, "contractual obligation" feel to it.
accidental repeat
I enjoy it as well, but in no way does it level up to Lets Get it On. Those first 5 are incredible joints.
I never got around to copping Midnight Love, even though I have a 45 of "Sexual Healing."** I always got the impression that his experimental days were over by then, and he'd settled into a generic Vandross quiet-storm vein (even thoiugh Vandross was just starting to break out and the "quiet-storm" term hadn't been coined yet).
**the one-sided version - CBS briefly stopped making flip sides that year
Led Zeppelin II (1969)
Led Zeppelin III (1970)
Led Zeppelin IV (1971)
Houses of the Holy (1973)
Physical Graffiti (1975)
Presence (1976)
In Through the Out Door (1979)
Coda (1982)
Shoot, that ain't a run, that is - ALMOST - a whole discography.
Minus a soundtrack/live album that everybody hates. Plus an odds-n-ends album that was compiled after the breakup.
Granted, a lot of songs are recycled on more than one release, but still.
Quiet Storm was already a radio format by '83.
Midnight Love is some minimal drum machine stuff like Sexual Healing.
I thought twice about leaving those last two records off the list, but i think they do stand up as great albums both on thier own and on this list.
Midnight Love is slowly becoming the next Here My Dear in terms of people re-discovering it.
I never got to buy Midnight Love but finally did recently, when I was on flea market with close to no records. Took it to not having to go away with empty hands. Although I'm getting warm with a lot of 80s soul (even 1987 Alexander O'Neal stroke a nerve) I just didn't like this album. Gives me the impression they did something fundamentally wrong when producing it. Maybe Harvey Fuqua had already seen his best days in the producers chair. Maybe Gayes voice is to much identified with the warmth of 60s and 70s production and sounds so misplaced between all these synthetic sounds and horrible reverbs. Don't know but that album got instantly classified as a non-keeper.
I cant compare the two.
Here My Dear got no love from the public and critics when it dropped in '78.
Its now arguably "best/favorite" Gaye album and is sonically/lyrically way more sophisticated than Midnight Love.
Plus HMD is another Gaye concept album where MLove is just a regular R&B joint.
Maybe some youngins are starting to re-discover ML which was copped by mad folks when in debuted, but that doesnt mean it will gain the same status as the over-looked classic like HMD.
I have to disagree with those 2 albums as being called GREAT.
also....Midnight Love shouldnt be added to his RUN. He went into exile for a long minute after not being on the radio since Got To Give it up in '77 Live at The London Paladium.
Here My Dear and In My Lifetime? was not bangin on the radio.
CONFUSION IS SEX 1983
SONIC DEATH 1984
BAD MOON RISING 1985
EVOL 1986
SISTER 1987
DAYDREAM NATION 1988
THE WHITEY ALBUM 1989
GOO 1990
DIRTY 1992
Controversy
1999
Purple rain
Around the world in a day
Parade
Sign of the Times
Black Album
Lovesexy
Batman - 1989
Paranoid
Master of Reality
Vol. 4
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Sabotage
ZZ Top's First Album
Rio Grande Mud
Tres Hombres
Fandango!
Tejas
Deg??ello
El Loco
Eliminator
12 Play (1993)
R. Kelly (1995)
R. (1998)
TP-2.com (2000)
Chocolate Factory (2003)
Happy People/U Saved Me (2004)
Bit TP-2.com is suspect as a whole IMO, despite the bangers.
And (Disc 2)U Saved Me is garbage.
joni mitchell: ladies of the canyon (1970) to hejira (1976)
talking heads: talking heads 77 (1977) to speaking in tongues (1983)
i'm sure the likes of roy ayers and gil scott heron have a decent run through most of the 70's. and can you count nick drake's entire discography as a great run?