# Best Album Streaks
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 18, 2013, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235 "2013-06-18T02:40:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Made_French_Toast_For_You)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/1 "2013-06-18T02:40:33Z")
Which musical artists have the best album streaks? I’ll define an “album streak” as "a series of great albums that occur one after the other after the other, which could include full-length live albums or cover albums (perhaps even EPs or compilation albums, if you have good reason). I ask because I’m always amazed when an artist can continually produce outstanding work over a long period of time. I’m even more amazed at the sheer _density_ of some artists’ output.
**Blondie** , for example, put out _Blondie_, _Plastic Letters_, _Parallel Lines_, and _Eat to the Beat_ in a span of four years. I consider all of them exceptional.
What say you? Who has your favorite streak? Who has the longest streak? Who has the densest?
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### Author:  [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/2 "2013-06-18T02:44:56Z")
Rush:
1976: _2112_
1977: _All The World’s a Stage_ (live)
1978: _A Farewell to Kings_
1979: _Hemispheres_
1980: _Permanent Waves_
1981: _Moving Pictures_
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### Author:  [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/3 "2013-06-18T02:49:16Z")
Pink Floyd
Ummagumma (arguably)
Atom Heart Mother
Meddle
The Dark Side of the Moon
Wish You Were Here
Animals
The Wall
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/4 "2013-06-18T02:56:09Z")
Bruce Springsteen
73 Greetings from Asbury Park NJ
73 The Wild The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
75 Born to Run
78 Darkness on the Edge of Town
80 The River
82 Nebraska
Starts out a little hyper and high-strung and jazzy, gets loud and breakthrough and deep and rich and then stripped down to acoustics recorded in his house. With “Badlands” almost right in the middle. Whoa.
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### Author:  [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/5 "2013-06-18T03:00:12Z")
[David Bowie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bowie_discography)has to be a contender. Aside from a few live albums I don’t think he put out a real clunker from Space Oddity (1969) to Let’s Dance (1983).
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### Author:  [@I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Made_French_Toast_For_You)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/6 "2013-06-18T03:07:52Z")
> [@lisiate](#):
>
> [David Bowie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bowie_discography)has to be a contender. Aside from a few live albums I don’t think he put out a real clunker from Space Oddity (1969) to Let’s Dance (1983).
Bowie was the first artist I thought of, but I’m not familiar with all of his (insanely huge amount of) work. Is _Pin Ups_ considered a great album? _Space Oddity_ and _The Man Who Sold the World_ (aside from their amazing title tracks)?
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/7 "2013-06-18T03:12:38Z")
> [@gigi](#):
>
> Bruce Springsteen
>
> 73 Greetings from Asbury Park NJ
> 73 The Wild The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
> 75 Born to Run
> 78 Darkness on the Edge of Town
> 80 The River
> 82 Nebraska
>
> Starts out a little hyper and high-strung and jazzy, gets loud and breakthrough and deep and rich and then stripped down to acoustics recorded in his house. With “Badlands” almost right in the middle. Whoa.
Heh. I was gonna say Springsteen, from 73 until he started to suck, in early 80. You said it better, and with an orderly list!
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/8 "2013-06-18T04:03:33Z")
Everything that Toad the Wet Sprocket put out is great. imho, ymmv of course
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### Author:  [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/9 "2013-06-18T04:11:24Z")
Joni Mitchell!
Song for a Seagull
Clouds
Ladies of the Canyon
Blue
For the Roses
Court and Spark
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/10 "2013-06-18T04:14:04Z")
Prince
from his 1979 2nd album Prince to the 1991 Diamonds and Pearls, he seemed to do no, or at least very little, wrong.
> **[Prince albums discography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_albums_discography)**
>
> Prince's albums discography consists of forty studio albums (including four soundtrack albums and one posthumous album), five live albums, and numerous compilations. Two albums of demo material have been released posthumously. Prince also released several albums under various group names. See Prince singles discography for his singles and extended plays, and Prince videography for his music videos and video albums.
> Prince has sold over 100 million records worldwide, including 36.5 million cer...
.
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/11 "2013-06-18T04:21:06Z")
Beatles.
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### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/12 "2013-06-18T04:29:35Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#):
>
> Everything that Toad the Wet Sprocket put out is great. imho, ymmv of course
Good choice.
I have yet to hear an album by Counting Crows that I haven’t liked, encompassing:
1. “August & Everything After” in 1993
2. “Recovering the Satellites” in 1996
3. “This Desert Life” in 1999
4. “Hard Candy” in 2002
5. “Saturday Nights & Sunday Morning” in 2008, and
6. “Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation)” in 2012.
There were a few compilations, live CDs, and an appearance on VH1’s _Storytellers_, as well.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/13 "2013-06-18T05:05:48Z")
The Kinks:
66: Face To Face
67: Something Else
68: Village Green Preservation Society
69: Arthur (or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
70: Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround
5 successive brilliant albums, one per year (during which time they also recorded other great songs that didn’t make it onto any of these albums)
Stevie Wonder:
72: Music of My Mind
72: Talking Book
73: Innervisions
74: Fulfillingness’ First Finale
76: Songs in the Key of Life
5 successive brilliant albums within 5 years—one a double album
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### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/14 "2013-06-18T05:29:14Z")
Rolling Stones (studio albums):
1. Beggars Banquet (1968)
2. Let It Bleed (1969)
3. Sticky Fingers (1971)
4. Exile on Main St. (1972)
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/15 "2013-06-18T05:50:53Z")
**Led Zeppelin** ’s first six albums would qualify for me (I-IV, Houses of the Holy, Physical Graffiti.)
I would say all of **the Pixies** albums, including the Come On Pilgrim EP. Some may quibble with Trompe Le Monde being “great”, but I love that album, and it’s what got me into the Pixies originally.
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### Author:  [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/16 "2013-06-18T05:57:27Z")
R.E.M.
Murmur (1983)
Reckoning (1984)
Fables of The Reconstruction (1985)
Life’s Rich Pageant (1986)
Document (1987)
Green (1988)
Out of Time (1991)
Automatic For The People (1992)
Monster (1994)
New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996)
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### Author:  [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/17 "2013-06-18T05:58:57Z")
**Yes:**
_The Yes Album_
_Fragile_
_Close to the Edge_
_Tales from Topographic Oceans_ (debatable–use this as a cutoff if you like)
_Relayer_
_Going for the One_
**Genesis:**
_Nursery Cryme_ (possibly)
_Foxtrot_
_Selling England by the Pound_
_The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway_
_A Trick of the Tail_
_Wind and Wuthering_ (possibly)
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/18 "2013-06-18T06:53:12Z")
> [@White SIFL](#):
>
> Beatles.
Except, maybe, Let it Be. But everything else, definitely.
Dylan
Freewheeling
The Times they Are A’changing
Another Side of Bob Dylan
Bringing it All Back Home
Highway 61
Blonde on Blonde
John Wesley Harding
Some will include Nashville Skyline. I like his first album quite a lot. But I think we’d all agree he ran into a wall with Self Portrait.
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### Author:  [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/19 "2013-06-18T10:57:42Z")
I’m going with the Velvet Underground:
1967: The Velvet Underground & Nico
1968: White Light/White Heat
1969: The Velvet Underground
1970: Loaded
Although none of these barely troubled the album charts, I think a case could be made for these being four of the most important, groundbreaking and influential albums of all time.
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### Author:  [@newcomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcomer)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2013, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-album-streaks/661235/20 "2013-06-18T11:11:10Z")
Led Zeppelin:
69: I
69: II
70: III
71: IV
That’s it.
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