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

[Lexi Darling]

I recently marathoned King Crimson's discography, my first time revisiting a large portion of their work in years. So I hereby revive this thread with my rankings of their albums. From favorite to least:

In the Court of the Crimson King
Red
Discipline
Larks' Tongues in Aspic
Three of a Perfect Pair
Starless and Bible Black
The Power to Believe
Islands
In the Wake of Poseidon
Lizard
Beat
Thrak
The Construkction of Light

[Lisnaholic]

^ I don't think I'd ever "marathon" my listening in that way, Lexi: I always hop around according to what I'm in the mood for. Not proud of it but pretty often that means about one side of a cd before I fancy something different.

So, for complete discographies, I'm still cheating my way with the easiest possible options, this time, Nick Drake:-

Five Leaves Left - a melancholy beauty with strings, and a mood set by the singer that makes for a cohesive, quality album.
Bryter Layter - a jazzier development of the previous. The only thing you can say about the weakest imo track (One Of These Things First) is not that it's bad, it's just not quite as good as the others.
Pink Moon - This was the one that took me longest to like, but it's highly regarded, and if you're in the mood is still a good, if fairly stark collection of songs.

Sad that, to my mind, ND's albums can arguably be ranked in the order in which he made them, with the last being the weakest.

In fact, I'm double-cheating because that ranking is just a copy and paste from this slightly overlapping (but obvs not the same) thread :
Perfect Discographies? https://scd.community/index.php?topic=742.0

[Buckeye Randy]

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

I see that 4 of your top 8 albums are ones with Mick Ronson, well done!  Fans of Bowie/Ronson have always loved The Man Who Sold The World but casual fans are often turned off by the bass heavy mix by Tony Visconti and the stark lyrics.

Television (band, not appliance)

Marquee Moon ('77) - Timeless
Television ('92) - This very listenable 1992 release is the most melodic
Adventure ('78) - Fractured sounding

New York Dolls

New York Dolls ('73) - Todd Rundgren's production perfectly captures a moment in time
One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This ('06) - The long awaited follow-up to "Too Much Too Soon" delivers
Too Much Too Soon ('74) - How do you feel about cover versions?
Cause I Sez So ('09) - Solid album
Dancing Backwards In High Heels ('11) - A revamped line-up and this sounds like a mediocre solo album by David Jo

 

[Psy-Fi]

The Clash

Give 'Em Enough Rope - 10/10
London Calling - 9.5/10
The Clash - 9/10
Sandinista! - 6/10
Combat Rock - 5/10
Cut the Crap - 1/10

[Lexi Darling]

I see that 4 of your top 8 albums are ones with Mick Ronson, well done!  Fans of Bowie/Ronson have always loved The Man Who Sold The World but casual fans are often turned off by the bass heavy mix by Tony Visconti and the stark lyrics.

I love how dark and twisted the lyrics on that album are. The sound is a complete 180 from his work in the 60s too, and Bowie hadn't really built up his reputation as a musical shapeshifter quite yet so I'd imagine it was quite a shock for people who discovered him because they really liked Space Oddity to put TMWSTW on and hear an album like that, haha.