The trophy holder for me would be Weezer. Their discography is all over the place.

In chronological order:

Starts strong (Masterpiece to Really Good)
Blue
Pinkerton
Green (Different from the first two, but catchy as hell.)

Slow decline (Decent to Good):
Maladroit
Make Believe

The Valley of Death (Random Good Songs But Overall Stinkers):
Red Album
Raditude
Hurley

Return To Greatness (Both Very Strong Albums)
Everything Will Be Alright In The End
White Album

Another Valley
Pacific Daydream
Teal Album (though this one is actually kind of fun)
Black Album

Another Great Album
OK Human

TBD
Van Weezer (not getting me hopes up)

It's downright maddening. 6 albums of great music, 6 albums of average to bad music. I never know what to expect with these guys.

This is purely personal preference but I love early Tom Waits and hate when he started singing like a pirate.

Probably the Beach Boys. They only made two albums that were great great from beginning to end. The rest had great moments with a lot of crap.

Interesting! I love EJ but I've basically only listened to the albums you listed. I need to go beyond Up Close sometime soon.

G Martin 87 said:

---

I don't expect to get a lot of stars for this, but I would have to go with Eric Johnson. Ah Via Musicom, Venus Isle, and Alien Love Child are perfect from start to finish. I can literally just put all 3 on rotation all day. The rest of his work is still good, but not as consistently listenable or accessible. And his Electromagnets albums require fairly intense concentration to appreciate what's going on. Not stuff one throws on the stereo with an Old Fashioned to kick back with.

---

I like both the Electromagnets and Tones albums. I probably listen to Venus Isle the most though. I remember when he did that tour I saw his last show at Austin City Music Hall, and he did 10 encores. I saw him in College Station once (don't remember the name of the club - was across the street from Campus), and when they started playing an acoustic set the drummer played on a cardboard box.

I'll go w/ Queensryche. The Warning and Rage for Order are good. Operation Mindcrime and Empire are excellent. The Promised Land was very good. Hear in the Now Frontier was meh, and then Chris Degarmo left the band, and I haven't bothered listening to anything after that.

Degarmo started a duo w/ his daughter called The Rue. They have some stuff on youtube. It's not bad.

Woahhhh when I saw the thread title, but before I opened it my first though was Weezer.

good tv series from UK called Rock Legends. They have 30min profile of various bands in rock history. The show mentions how bands change over time - lots of bands. A member or two leaves (on their own or gets fired) and replaced with somebody else, quite often the band sounds different. A new producer does an album & their sound changes. Or the band gains control over the record company and does their own thing for a different sound yet again. It's an interesting show and bands changing over time is always interesting. Fleetwood Mac changed perhaps as much or more than anybody, having started as a pure blues/rock band and changing into the soft pop everybody remembers.

gggmann said:

---

G Martin 87 said:

---

I don't expect to get a lot of stars for this, but I would have to go with Eric Johnson. Ah Via Musicom, Venus Isle, and Alien Love Child are perfect from start to finish. I can literally just put all 3 on rotation all day. The rest of his work is still good, but not as consistently listenable or accessible. And his Electromagnets albums require fairly intense concentration to appreciate what's going on. Not stuff one throws on the stereo with an Old Fashioned to kick back with.

---

I like both the Electromagnets and Tones albums. I probably listen to Venus Isle the most though. I remember when he did that tour I saw his last show at Austin City Music Hall, and he did 10 encores. I saw him in College Station once (don't remember the name of the club - was across the street from Campus), and when they started playing an acoustic set the drummer played on a cardboard box.

---

I quit following EJs music a long time ago but I really enjoyed both Tones and Ah Via Musicom. Saw him twice in College Station back then.

Tanya 93 said:

---

Green Day

---

Yep. It's either turn up loud or jam ice pick in my ear.

Genesis.

Peter Gabriel, then no Peter Gabriel.
Steve Hackett, then no Steve Hackett.
Phil Collins, then no Phil Collins.

Prog Rock to Prog/Sappy Rock to Sappy/Love/Commercial Rock to Crap.

deadhead aggie said:

---

Genesis.

Peter Gabriel, then no Peter Gabriel.
Steve Hackett, then no Steve Hackett.
Phil Collins, then no Phil Collins.

Prog Rock to Prog/Sappy Rock to Sappy/Love/Commercial Rock to Crap.

---

Don't you mean The Grateful Dead?

Fat Bib Fortuna said:

---

Jim01 said:

---

The trophy holder for me would be Weezer. Their discography is all over the place.

In chronological order:

Starts strong (Masterpiece to Really Good)
Blue
Pinkerton
Green (Different from the first two, but catchy as hell.)

Slow decline (Decent to Good):
Maladroit
Make Believe

The Valley of Death (Random Good Songs But Overall Stinkers):
Red Album
Raditude
Hurley

Return To Greatness (Both Very Strong Albums)
Everything Will Be Alright In The End
White Album

Another Valley
Pacific Daydream
Teal Album (though this one is actually kind of fun)
Black Album

Another Great Album
OK Human

TBD
Van Weezer (not getting me hopes up)

It's downright maddening. 6 albums of great music, 6 albums of average to bad music. I never know what to expect with these guys.

---

---

Was coming to post this. Lol at Matt Damon.

Agree on Wilco.

I would add...

My Morning Jacket

Pretty good.
The Tennessee Fire (1999)

Excellent.
At Dawn (2001)
It Still Moves (2003)
Z (2005)

At this point they are my favorite band by a large margin.
Okonokos - Live (2006)

Ok.
Evil Urges (2008)

Back to pretty good.
Circuital (2011)

Unlistenable.
The Waterfall (2015)
The Waterfall II (2020)

I was really disappointed by the last 2. I just didn't find anything I could remotely latch on to.

I'll add SRV. His covers and instrumentals are great. Most of his other songs are just ok.

EllisCoAg said:

---

i will go old school and say Neil Young. Rust Never Sleeps is a top ten album to me, but then he goes and does some punk or electronic dumb stuff but I buy it anyway because it is Neil Young.

---

What, you didn't love his rockabilly album?

As much as it pains me to say it and they are one of my favorite bands....

Nine Inch Nails

Iconic Start

• Pretty Hate Machine
• Broken
• The Downward Spiral

That Was Weird But I Dig It

• The Fragile

Greatness

• With Teeth

What the Hell is Happening?

• Year Zero
• The Slip

Return to Greatness

• Hesitation Marks

Unlistenable

• Not The Actual Events
• Add Violence
• Bad Witch

I'll second with Madonna. Every new album of hers is either against all odds actually pretty great or unlistenable garbage. The worst part about Madonna is that if you see her on tour it is a always a tour for whatever her new album is so if it winded up being terrible you're about to get 11 songs from it and only 5-6 of her big hits.

EllisCoAg said:

---

i will go old school and say Neil Young. Rust Never Sleeps is a top ten album to me, but then he goes and does some punk or electronic dumb stuff but I buy it anyway because it is Neil Young.

---

I'm pretty sure he had to do some albums from his binding contract with the record company. So he put out some garbage albums just because he had to put out something

Saves The Day

NoahAg said:

---

Don't you mean The Grateful Dead?

---

deadhead aggie said:

---

NoahAg said:

---

Don't you mean The Grateful Dead?

---

---

Nothing but 30 years of pure gold.

I want to say Faith no More but that seems too easy. Epic and Angel Dust are fantastic cover to cover and there are some gems scattered throughout but there's "so bad it's good" or intentionally bad/weird that I absolutely love (RV on Angel Dust) and some that is just...hard to sit through. Album of the Year...I think I sold that CD back the same day I bought it just so I wouldn't accidentally listen to it again.

Here's another (possibly?) controversial pick: Judas Priest. British Steel, Hell Bent for Leather, Point of Entry, and Screaming for Vengeance are all classics. But after that? Meh.

Came here to say Weezer but feel like you guys have it covered.