Rank Artists' Discographies!

[Lexi Darling]

I recall there was an old MB thread where people would list all the albums by a particular artist in order of favorite to least favorite, so I thought I'd bring back that concept. If someone else has already made this thread and my memory is once again failing me, then we can merge the threads of course. Feel free to start discussion and comment on others' rankings.

I'll start with David Bowie, an artist who has a big catalogue where I'm pretty intimately familiar with every album, so without further ado, in order of favorite to least...

Low
Heroes
Aladdin Sane
Scary Monsters
The Man Who Sold the World
Station to Station
Ziggy Stardust
Hunky Dory
Space Oddity
Diamond Dogs
Outside
Blackstar
Lodger
Earthling
Young Americans
Let's Dance
Heathen
The Buddha of Suburbia
David Bowie
Never Let Me Down
Hours
The Next Day
Pin Ups
Black Tie White Noise
Reality
Tonight

I think I got them all (no Tin Machine sorry ). Looking forward to hearing your lists and insights!

[GD]

Nice idea to revive this concept! I'd like to do a Bowie ranking at some point as well, though there are actually a few albums I've yet to hear! (mostly in his 80's discog) so instead I'll start with Cocteau Twins, another long-term favorite of mine (also in order of most to least liked):

Heaven or Las Vegas
Victorialand
Treasure
The Moon and the Melodies
Blue Bell Knoll
Head Over Heels
Garlands
Four Calendar Café
Milk and Kisses

That was not so easy! It's pretty close between many of the albums, notably between everything going from Victorialand to Blue Bell Knoll. Still, based on how often I revisit them, I feel like this is correct, and the rest of the list was not very difficult to rank. Perhaps a bit interchangeable in terms of my preference between the last two but hey

[Lisnaholic]

I used to consider myself a Bowie fan, but that was based on the albums I knew at the time, i.e. chronologically up to Low. Turns out that he's made way more albums, and I admire your ability to rank so many items in order, Lexi.

TBH, there aren't so many artists whose complete discography I'm familiar with, so I'm going to go with a shortish and obvious one: The Beatles. I'm just doing the original UK releases, with no US compilations or Apple out-take albums released years later. (Final disclaimer: this ranking is from memory because I haven't listened to a Beatles album, start to finish, for about 45 years.)

My ranking starts from the bottom of the deck, as that was the easiest choice to make:-

Yellow Submarine - too few actual Beatles songs, and they're sub-standard too
Please Please Me - dated, plus too many cheesy covers
With The Beatles - also dated, but at least a stronger collection of songs
A Hard Day's Night - too many love songs, not enough rockers
The White Album - lacks cohesion; has a few good songs, but is also the source of the most irritating songs the band ever recorded
Let It Be - a disappointing rag-bag of songs with the band turning their back on the very innovations that had made them so fascinating to follow
Help - some rockers, and this time the love songs have wistful melodies and interesting lyrics
Beatles For Sale –  some genuinely bleak songs from JL are balanced by the band paying their r 'n' r dues with covers of Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and more. Special merit award: their most overlooked album.
Rubber Soul – top quality pop throughout, with some the band gently pushing at the boundaries they'd soon break with completely
Revolver – more stretching of the possibilities of pop, with TNK being the real harbinger of things to come
Abbey Road – the first side is kind of patchy, but the long run-together track is full of great moments
Magical Mystery Tour – bit of a cheat, because I mean the US-packaged album with previously released singles on it. But if it had been a genuine album,  the songs of those double-A-side singles would've made this album a serious rival to:-
Sgt. Pepper's LHCB – rightfully considered one of the GOAT albums, just packed with powerful songs and fascinating details in both music and lyrics