Artists That Keep Putting Out Solid Work?

[Tanis]

Doesn't matter the type of artist, music/writing/video games/film/etc.

Doesn't matter if they aren't ground breaking or even great, just as long as they're putting out stuff that's decent enough for you to want to consume.
==========================

This popped into my head after the last Robbie Williams album dropped a few days ago.
While he doesn't really make 'groundbreaking' or even 'of the decade' stuff anymore, I don't think he's EVER released a 'bad' album.

So...anyone else have any artists that keep putting out good work, even if it's not groundbreaking?
The 'pizza of art', if you will.

 

[Saelune]

The Killers. The only song they ever made that I think is bad is "The Man" and I think they made that song to make up for their otherwise flawlessness, just to be fair to everyone else.

 

[Catfood220]

Devin Townsend, even when he does an album that is not so great, you can guarantee that he has put in more effort than most of his peers and there will be a handful of great songs.

 

[Catfood220]

The Killers. The only song they ever made that I think is bad is "The Man" and I think they made that song to make up for their otherwise flawlessness, just to be fair to everyone else.

Never been a huge Killers fan and to be honest, "Human" was pretty poor compared to "Spaceman" which was a better song and gets nowhere near the amount of airplay. Also, from what I've heard, Brandon Flowers solo stuff is better than anything done with The Killers.

But screw it, opinions are like arsehole, everyone has one.

 

[gigastar]

I was introduced to this last year when someone posted the entire thing so far (at the time) to Imgur.

It is, without any shadow of a doubt in my mind, the best webcomic ive had the pleasure of reading and one of only two i religiously pursue updates for.

 

[Ironman126]

Lagwagon is one of my favorite bands and I consistently enjoy their work. The don't put out albums terribly often, though, which is probably why they remain good.

Amon Amarth puts out good albums pretty much every time. Which they do just about every three years.

Delain also puts out good music. They're actually getting better with each album, in my opinion.

As does Eluveitie. Come to think of it, a lot of my favorite bands are so because they can remember how to make music that doesn't suck.

Nobody in video games put out anything even approaching consistency. Prior to Pillars of Eternity, I'd have said Obsidian, but fuck me, Pillars was a hot mess.

 

[Trunkage]

Nobody in video games put out anything even approaching consistency. Prior to Pillars of Eternity, I'd have said Obsidian, but fuck me, Pillars was a hot mess.

Why did you think PoE was a mess? I actually thought it was too but I haven't met too many people on here with the same opinion.

As to your comment on the original point, compared to Alpha Protocol, New Vegas was dismal in the choice/RPG/writing department. It gets a good wrap becuase it's better than Fallout 3, and nobody compares it to other games. When you do, it doesn't hold up very well. Although, NV gameplay was way better than AP

So I'd have to disagree even before PoE

EDIT: OP maybe Mike Bithel but I haven't played his third game

 

[Dr.Susse]

Spoiler: King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard

[link]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC7ii3Ir-no[/link]

They've released four albums this year, have another on the boil and tour constantly. They don't seem like ever slowing down either.
Even with the high output things are always kept pretty fresh. I really like what they do.

Spoiler: Thee Oh sees

[link]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFZR1W5F8W0[/link]

Much in the same vein as King Gizz musically and really damn good to boot. They've been around with different spellings of the band name and are pretty prolific.

Other bands like The Drones, The Dirty three, LCD Soundsystem, Badbadnotgood, Jose Gonzalez, Laura Marling, Warren Zevon.
I think have all been consistently solid with their materiel.

 

[Saelune]

The Killers. The only song they ever made that I think is bad is "The Man" and I think they made that song to make up for their otherwise flawlessness, just to be fair to everyone else.

Never been a huge Killers fan and to be honest, "Human" was pretty poor compared to "Spaceman" which was a better song and gets nowhere near the amount of airplay. Also, from what I've heard, Brandon Flowers solo stuff is better than anything done with The Killers.

But screw it, opinions are like arsehole, everyone has one.

I find in topics like this, its best to keep them to yourselves, and I say this as a super opinionated "Dont like what I dont like" type, cause nothing anyone else has posted have I liked.

...But I do love Spaceman, and it was my most recent Killers obsession.

But I also am someone who's favorite Killers album is Sawdust, aka the B-Sides "stuff we cut from the real albums" album.

 

[Ironman126]

Nobody in video games put out anything even approaching consistency. Prior to Pillars of Eternity, I'd have said Obsidian, but fuck me, Pillars was a hot mess.

Why did you think PoE was a mess? I actually thought it was too but I haven't met too many people on here with the same opinion.

Firstly, the interface was horrible. Nothing I tried made it any better. Not only was the actual GUI small, but nothing reacted in a manner approaching logical. If you need to select a character, you have to click on their feet, because that's where the hitbox is, within the ring around their feet. Coming off of Dragon Age, KotOR 1&2, loads of RTSs, and Divinity Original Sin, I did not like that decision.

The GUI, aside from being small, was muddled and confused, with lots of drop-down (technically drop-up) boxes and nested options. It was like trying to navigate an old version Microsoft Office.

Finally, it desperately wanted to be Dungeons & Dragons. I think had it been wholly turn-based, it would have been tolerable, but having to pause the combat every time I needed to do something because I couldn't see the fucking buttons and had no quick-select options killed it.

Oh, and the story was uninteresting beyond words. Even Dragon Age: Origins had a more interesting plot and DA:O was basically A Song of Fire and Ice meets Mass Effect.

As to your comment on the original point, compared to Alpha Protocol, New Vegas was dismal in the choice/RPG/writing department. It gets a good wrap becuase it's better than Fallout 3, and nobody compares it to other games. When you do, it doesn't hold up very well. Although, NV gameplay was way better than AP

So I'd have to disagree even before PoE

I feel kind of the opposite regarding New Vegas and Alpha Protocol. I really liked both games, but I found NV to be the more compelling and interesting story. As far as gameplay is concerned, I'm not a huge fan of either. Alpha Protocol does the usual RPG skill-based accuracy/damage thing, which I hate. If you're going to make a shooter, make player skill and good shot placement more important than arbitrary numbers. That said, New Vegas loses a lot of points in my book due to sloppy design. It's kind of a wash, really, both games have pretty bad gameplay, but for vastly different reasons.

As for story and writing, New Vegas's story never felt as rushed. With Alpha Protocol, it was all "go here, do spy stuff, go there, do spy stuff." It got tiring. Being open world, New Vegas gave me time to digest as I wandered the Mojave.

I found every version of Alpha Protocol's player character to be a massive twat. Besides the annoying main character, I found the character interactions in Alpha Protocol to be really bad. I've been meeting new people all my life and none have ever acted as wooden or as unnatural as any of the characters in Alpha Protocol did.

I will happily grant you that choices in Alpha Protocol definitely change the game's outcome in a way that choices in New Vegas do not. Player agency is also not really something that I find matters in a video game. I'm mostly there to have a story told to me.

But, in the end, all of that is moot because of two words: Dead Money. Dead Money is, easily, my favorite part of any game, ever. It's tense and oppressive, you have to manage your resources and your exposure to the Cloud. Inside the casino is little better, with the holograms that you couldn't just kill. I still replay New Vegas occasionally just for Dead Money.

 

[Queen Michael]

Ai Yazawa has never made a manga series that I disliked.

 

[Trunkage]

Finally, it desperately wanted to be Dungeons & Dragons. I think had it been wholly turn-based, it would have been tolerable, but having to pause the combat every time I needed to do something because I couldn't see the fucking buttons and had no quick-select options killed it.

Does that mean Baulder's Gate gets point taken off? I actually like PoE combat more than Baulder's Gate but BG has bad combat so its not saying much.

Oh, and the story was uninteresting beyond words. Even Dragon Age: Origins had a more interesting plot and DA:O was basically A Song of Fire and Ice meets Mass Effect.

Look I'd agree, but then I cannot point out anything that really stands out as a good main quest. Baulder's Gate 1 was just quest you'd see as a side quest in any other RPG. Everyone know the Elder Scrolls main quest problem. Maybe seperate bits like Witcher 3 - some of that main quest was awesome (Botchling) and some was god-aweful (Skelliege... all of it)

But, in the end, all of that is moot because of two words: Dead Money. Dead Money is, easily, my favorite part of any game, ever. It's tense and oppressive, you have to manage your resources and your exposure to the Cloud. Inside the casino is little better, with the holograms that you couldn't just kill. I still replay New Vegas occasionally just for Dead Money.

Old World Blues was it for me. Fun (unlike most of NV) and subvertive.

 

[Saelune]

Finally, it desperately wanted to be Dungeons & Dragons. I think had it been wholly turn-based, it would have been tolerable, but having to pause the combat every time I needed to do something because I couldn't see the fucking buttons and had no quick-select options killed it.

Does that mean Baulder's Gate gets point taken off? I actually like PoE combat more than Baulder's Gate but BG has bad combat so its not saying much.

Yes, yes it does. I am actually surprised most DnD games that try to be real DnD rarely do turn-based, atleast for combat, especially ones like Baldur's Gate that give you a whole party to control. NWN atleast has bigger models and smaller parties, so its not as bad, but as someone who has been playing alot of Baldur's Gate lately, wish it was turn based so I can manage everyone.

 

[SKBPinkie]

For me, it's Christopher Nolan.

While I haven't seen every single movie he's done, I've loved all the ones I've seen.

 

[Ironman126]

Finally, it desperately wanted to be Dungeons & Dragons. I think had it been wholly turn-based, it would have been tolerable, but having to pause the combat every time I needed to do something because I couldn't see the fucking buttons and had no quick-select options killed it.

Does that mean Baulder's Gate gets point taken off? I actually like PoE combat more than Baulder's Gate but BG has bad combat so its not saying much.

I've never actually played Balder's Gate. If it's anything like Pillars of Eternity, it's probably for the best I haven't played it. That said, it's also like 15 years old, so I'm willing to forgive bad UI design in old games, but Obsidian had no excuse with Pillars. They needed to look no further than Dragon Age for their UI design.

Oh, and the story was uninteresting beyond words. Even Dragon Age: Origins had a more interesting plot and DA:O was basically A Song of Fire and Ice meets Mass Effect.

Look I'd agree, but then I cannot point out anything that really stands out as a good main quest. Baulder's Gate 1 was just quest you'd see as a side quest in any other RPG. Everyone know the Elder Scrolls main quest problem. Maybe seperate bits like Witcher 3 - some of that main quest was awesome (Botchling) and some was god-aweful (Skelliege... all of it)

To be totally fair to Pillars of Eternity, I've yet to find a fantasy plot that wasn't some variation on The Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire. Some do it better than others. Writing convincing stories is hard, especially when there is an expectation that magic be involved.

What's saddest is that if the plot or the gameplay had been good, I'd have happily put up with the other. Sadly, the middling gameplay was further marred by the savagely bad UI and the plot was completely forgettable.

But, in the end, all of that is moot because of two words: Dead Money. Dead Money is, easily, my favorite part of any game, ever. It's tense and oppressive, you have to manage your resources and your exposure to the Cloud. Inside the casino is little better, with the holograms that you couldn't just kill. I still replay New Vegas occasionally just for Dead Money.

Old World Blues was it for me. Fun (unlike most of NV) and subvertive.

I liked Old World Blues, it was extremely Fallout. A little campy, a little wacky, a little dark. Definitely a quality DLC. I still prefer Dead Money, but I tend to go in for the survival aspects of New Vegas, so much so that I will impose artificial limits on the number of weapons and health items that I will carry. Really, the only thing that actively disappointed me about New Vegas was The Lonesome Road.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

James Cameron. No other director has made such a string of highly watchable movies. Yes, even Titanic is very watchable.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Shiina Ringo easily, it's really so amazing that she writes and composes her music using basically every instrument and dipping into every genre.

 

[sXeth]

The late Tom Petty (and the Heartbreakers) sort of sum up that idea for me.

Never really groundbreaking or experimental, but damn near every album is a solid one that I'll listen to through. One of few artists where I've picked up the box set collection too.

 

[Trunkage]

Finally, it desperately wanted to be Dungeons & Dragons. I think had it been wholly turn-based, it would have been tolerable, but having to pause the combat every time I needed to do something because I couldn't see the fucking buttons and had no quick-select options killed it.

Does that mean Baulder's Gate gets point taken off? I actually like PoE combat more than Baulder's Gate but BG has bad combat so its not saying much.

I've never actually played Balder's Gate. If it's anything like Pillars of Eternity, it's probably for the best I haven't played it. That said, it's also like 15 years old, so I'm willing to forgive bad UI design in old games, but Obsidian had no excuse with Pillars. They needed to look no further than Dragon Age for their UI design.

Yeah, its worse. The graze system was added so you didn't spend a lot of time missing each other. Like, in BG, you could go a minute without anyone hitting each other. They added a repeatable mage skills in PoE so you could use low level spells every battle. Its not great.

EDIT: They added that multiple range thing with the spells, that was cool. If you aim right you can fit your opponents and not yourself in the midst of melee. Spells are useless in most RPG, but this made them useful

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Spells are useless in most RPG, but this made them useful

Bro, do you even Neverwinter Nights?