What's your favourite four consecutive albums by artist?

[Darth Sea Bass]

Faith no More starting from the Real Thing it's actually five consecutive albums if you count live at brixton academy.

Goes like this...

The Real Thing
Live at Brixton
Angel Dust
King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime
Album of the Year

 

[Papadam]

I am surprised no one mentioned Pink Floyd yet since so many great band have been named (Porcupine tree, Opeth, Nevermore, King Crimson, Katatonia)

Hard to match:
Dark side of the moon - Wish you were here - Animals - The Wall

also In flames:
Jesters race - Whoracle - Colony- Clayman (then it went downhill)

 

[lacktheknack]

Aphex Twin: Excluding the "classics" album, it's:

Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Selected Ambient Works Vol. II
The Richard D. James Album
I Care Because You Do

So much awesome.

Also, Regina Spektor gets on this list:

Soviet Kitsch
Begin To Hope
Far
What We Saw From The Cheap Seats

Each one has a "Perfect Song" on it. SK has "Chemo Limo" which managed to make me cry, BtG has "Apres moi" which is just excellent, Far has "Eet" which remains my favourite pick-me-up song, and WWSFtCS has "All The Rowboats", which succeeded in making my feel the great pain of a Stradivarius Violin. Don't ask me how.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Only four? Why not give us a challenge?

Second Stage Turbine Blade
In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth III
Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness
Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Vol. 2: No World For Tomorrow
Year of the Black Rainbow
The Afterman: Ascension
The Afterman: Descension

Coheed and Cambria, if you didn't know.

The only reasoning I have is that I don't dislike any of their tracks. Some I have liked less than other, but I have liked them all the same.

Spoiler: And others, like The Broken, are just fantastic. Especially the guitar riff that rarely fails to make my spine all tingly.

And others, like The Broken, are just fantastic. Especially the guitar riff that rarely fails to make my spine all tingly.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Pink Floyd - Meddle, Dark Side of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals. Not much to say really just one stellar album after another during that period.

Bob Dylan - Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding. Absolute classic songs on all these albums and some of the best lyrics I've have ever heard anywhere.

 

[Jack Joe Tip Toe]

Peter Gabriel - The Car, Scratch, Melt, Security albums. I still don't know a song that can give me goosebumps as much as "Lay Your Hands on Me" or as creepy as "Intruder."

Prince - Dirty Mind. Controversy. 1999. Purple Rain. All of those albums satisfy almost all of my musical tastes. Rock, Pop, Soul, Funk, and more.

 

[Arcade Hero X]

The gaslight anthem.

They only have 4 albums so pretty much all their stuff is awesome my fav band of the moment.

AFI

again it's to hard to pick my favorite 4 so all of them again, I'm bad at this.....

 

[TakerFoxx]

From Nightwish:

Century Child (really good)->Once (Great)->Dark Passion Play (really good)->Imaginaerum (fucking awesome)

 

[AnarchistFish]

Godspeed You! Black Emperor. They only have 4 albums.

The Weeknd's three albums from 2011 are pretty amazing too, but that's all he has so far.

I'd say Slipknot but I don't listen to them anymore really.

 

[Simple Bluff]

Metallica came along, ripped off Megadeth...

Erm... as far as I remember, Metallica came before Megadeth. One of the co-founders was originally in Metallica. I forget which, the REALLY crazy one.

Anyway, I may as well respond to the thread while I'm here. I had to do a lot of cross checking for this because to be honest, I've never really cared about timelines. I mean, I could easily rattle off nearly every single Neil Young album, but I have very little idea which came when.

On that note I suppose I should start with a group who needs no introduction, Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Holy hell that discography is a mess.
(Also, I've decided not to put in actual review of the entire albums because I'd be here forever otherwise.)
Ok here goes: Zuma > American Stars 'n Bars > Comes a Time > Rust Never Sleeps
-----------------------------------

Now onto Grandaddy. They were a (and I quote the YouTube Android app artist bio) "solar powered space pop" band. That is fucking awesome. I don't know if I'd agree, but still.
In truth, they were a fairly basic indie rock band, but had a heavy reliance on melodic (but underplayed) synth. They also sung about robots a lot. I suppose that's where the "space pop" thing comes from, but I personally wouldn't go that far. Regardless, I consider them one of the best modern bands out there.

Although they never gained mainstream popularity during their time (they broke up in '06) they've seemed to garner a bit of a following in recent years. Even if you hadn't heard of them, you're sure to have heard a couple of their songs played during shows or in a movie (28 Days later, for example)

Anyway, the list: Concrete Dunes > Under a Western Freeway > Software Slump > Sumday.
-----------------------------------

Next is my all time faveorite artist, Chris Whitley. He is my goddamned Shakespeare. He was nothing short of a multi - virtuoso. A word I purposely learned because I could find no others to describe him. I've never found another person who was such a master of singing, guitar, AND song writing all at once. He was like the musical equivalent of Da Vinci. Grovel grovel grovel.

His primary genre was Blues, but he always blended it with other styles. Grunge, bluegrass, techno, even rap (although, admittedly, I've never heard that one. He himself claimed it was terrible). I think he only ever made one pure blues album. And even then it had some weird crap thrown in.

Although Chris never hit mainstream (his first album was actually pretty popular, but his label dropped him after it), he was well known and respected among other musicians. In fact, when he died in '05, the New York frikken' Times wrote a tribute piece for him. Grovel grovel grovel.

Anyway, enough grovelling. List time: Din of Ecstasy > Terra Incognita > Dirt Floor > Rocket House.

Actually I planned on posting more but I've already wasted enough time. And I'm getting kind of bored of ruffling through wikipedia to find what albums are consecutive to what. So I'll guess I'll just stop here.

 

[Chromatic Aberration]

Large post incoming! Couldn't stick to my own resolution to write less....>_>

Blind Guardian: The Epic Period
Somewhere Far Beyond, Imaginations From The Other Side , Nightfall in Middle-Earth, A Night At The Opera

Blind Guardian actually started off as a speed metal band whose lyrics were seemingly just incidentally based on Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Stephen King. However, they developed more into a more powery and melodic direction with Tales From The Twillight World and the subsequent records Somewhere Far Beyond and Imaginations From The Other Side which gave the stories they wanted to tell the right amount of depth in the music to go with it and spawning for instance The Bard's Song as a recurring classic. Still, to me, BG reached their peak with the albums Nightfall in Middle Earth and A Night At The Opera which successfully refined their sound even more and added a lot of progressive touch to it. Nightfall in Middle Earth is a concept album about Tolkiens Silmarillion and A Night At The Opera tackles classical topics from Greek Mythology or tales like Tristan & Isolde. Both are in their right masterpieces and especially A Night at the Opera is one of my all-time favourites and very definition of what "epic" - in the classical sense - should sound like.

Spoiler: Listening Examples From Each Album

Secret Chiefs 3: The Mature Period
Book M, Book Of Horizons, Xaphan: Book Of Angels, Le Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomini

From what I know, The Secret Chiefs were first designed as an offshoot of Mr. Bungle, releasing rejected songs from their albums under guidance of Mr. Bungles Trey Spruance - in this sense the first two releases are, except for some notable exclusions, largely a directionless noisy mess. However, the dissolution of Mr. Bungle lead to Spruance focusing all his energy to develop the Secret Chiefs into one of the most distinct avantgarde bands today: coupling surf, persian, black metal, hard rock, kletzmer and many other styles in entirely instrumental songs where one could sound entirely different from the next one. Book M started with much more focus and coupled electronic sounds with persian inspired folk or noisy interludes making it very much the definition of an exciting listen. Still that was only a few facettes of the variation these guys (presumably only Spruance himself) could and wanted to deliver. So, to kind of give each style their wanted to do a voice by itself they introduced the notion of satellite bands with their next release: each style was represented by a specific "satellite-band" who subsequently also got their entirely own releases. Book of Horizons is sort of a compilation representing the style of each band by two songs and so either feels disjointed to the core or entirely ingenious. Whatever the case it is one hell of an example of their musicianship. Xaphan is an interpretation of an album from John Zorns Masada cycle and is largely kletzmer based, not nearly as varied as the previous results but very addicting nonetheless. Le Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomini is an album by the Traditionalists subgroup and actually the soundtrack to a fictious 70s Italian horror movie - complete with both the down- and upsides of any movie score meaning memorable tunes amidst a backdrop of insubstantialness. Still doing the soundtrack to a non-existing movie is a feat by its own....

Spoiler: Listening Examples From Each Album

The Offspring: The Hit Period
Smash, Ixnay On The Hombre, Americana, Conspiracy Of One

Hit certified Pop-Punk being a mean social criticism, fast-paced fun-punk as well as unconditionally addicting was always the hallmark of The Offspring. The album Smash marked their breakthrough with the song that everybody knows and I until now hate "Self Esteem", they grew big but never forgot to vary what they do to such a degree that it stayed fresh. Ixnay on the Hombre had a much cleaner and more fast paced sound and I consider to be their most underrated album. But they stuck to making something kinda new and develop their style with their next release which subsequently became their greatest hit: Americana. An album upon which I can't shower enough praise - from their perhaps their best song "The Kids Aren't Alright" over the brutally fast yet undeniably cool "Staring At The Sun" to the almost progressive "Pay the Man" this album is simply amazing - pretty much their best record so far. As such, their next release was bound to not live up to the hype and, well, Conspiracy of One is perhaps the weakest one on this list for me. It has some pretty strong songs too but simply never developed the kind of traction of their previous releases.

Spoiler: Listening Examples From Each Album

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Radiohead:
This is kinda hard, actually, because I think they've been great starting from The Bends and it leads me to the awkward place due to the fact that The Bends and In Rainbows are tied for best in my mind. I think I'll go with OK Computer - In Rainbows. I'd replace Amnesiac with The Bends if it wasn't consecutive albums.

Opeth:
Similar problem. My favourite albums here are My Arms, Your Hearse and Damnation. However Deliverance gets in the way. The problem with bumping it to Damnation - Heritage is Heritage, which I didn't like anywhere near as much as the others. I guess I'll have to second the OP's choice for Opeth. Their early albums are some of the best. Morningrise gets massive points for The Night and the Silent Water because dat riff.

Megadeth:
Killing Is My Business - Rust in Peace. Favourite album in there is Peace Sells, But Who's Buying?

Metallica:
Kill Em All - ..And Justice For All. Best Metallica by far. A lot of people really like the Black Album, and while its good, its never been as good as Ride the Lightning or Master of Puppets to me.

Interpol:
Turn on the Bright Lights - Interpol. They only have four albums, but man oh man are they great. Our Love to Admire is one of my favourite albums of all time.

Tool:
Same situation as Interpol. Favourite of the set: Lateralus.

Iron Maiden:
The Number of the Beast - Somewhere in Time. The three albums everyone's heard. All of them worthy of the praise, in my opinion. Somewhere in Time is also a great album.

Mastodon:
Remission - Crack the Skye. The Hunter is a great album, but it has nothing on their previous albums. The fast and heavy Remission, the raw and rough Leviathan and Blood Mountain, and the ethereal sounding Crack the Skye. I didn't like Crack the Skye at first, but after giving a proper listen to I found that I liked it the most.

Pelican:
Australasia - What We All Come to Need. Don't like Australasia so much, but I love the rest of their albums, especially City of Echoes and What We All Come to Need

Special mention to Alice in Chains, Baroness, and Toe. Alice in Chains has more than 3 albums, but I didn't enjoy their first post-Staley album. It just doesn't feel like Alice. Its not bad, but its not the greatness you expect from Alice. Toe is a great (mostly) instrumental band from Japan. Only three albums. I've never listened to the first and fourth Baroness album, but love the Red and Blue albums.

 

[Sehnsucht Engel]

Rammstein: Herzeleid - Sehnsucht - Mutter - Reise, Reise - Rosenrot - Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da.

They've not created an album yet that I didn't love. Probably one of the few artists that has managed to do that of those that I listen too.

Flogging Molly: Swagger - Speed of Darkness.

Same thing as with Rammstein, not created one album that I didn't enjoy.

This is pretty hard. I can't think of anyone else right now. Some artists don't have four albums yet, and others have a bad album or less good in between their great ones.

 

[San Martin]

Prince - Dirty Mind. Controversy. 1999. Purple Rain. All of those albums satisfy almost all of my musical tastes. Rock, Pop, Soul, Funk, and more.

I'm torn between that and the sequence: Around the World in a Day, Parade, Sign 'o' the Times and The Black Album/Lovesexy (whichever you prefer of the last two). I can't decide though, because whilst Sign 'o' the Times is definitely my favourite Prince album, Dirty Mind and 1999 and my second and third favourite respectively. This is a profound and difficult decision for one to have to make.

 

[Breaker deGodot]

David Bowie: Station to Station, Low, "Heroes", and Lodger
Opeth: Still Life, Blackwater Park, Deliverance, and Damnation
Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall (obvious choice, I know)
Radiohead: The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A, and Amnesiac (though I'm not a big fan of the last one...)
Scott Walker: Scott, Scott 2, Scott 3, and (you guessed it) Scott 4

EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot:
Charles Mingus: The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus, The Great Concert of Charles Mingus, and Let My Children Hear Music
King Crimson: Lark's Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black, Red, and Discipline

 

[Beautiful Tragedy]

Iron Maiden: Number of the Beast- Piece of Mind- Powerslave- Somewhere in Time

Judas Priest: British Steel- Point of Entry- Screaming for Vengeance (first metal album I ever heard)- Defenders of the Faith

Savatage- Hall of the Mountain King- Gutter Ballet- Streets: a Rock Opera- Edge of Thorns (actually I would extend this to Handful of Rain, Dead Winter Dead, and The Wake of Magellan

 

[Teoes]

Metallica came along, ripped off Megadeth...

Erm... as far as I remember, Metallica came before Megadeth. One of the co-founders was originally in Metallica. I forget which, the REALLY crazy one.

In that I was referring to Dave Mustaine, original lead guitarist for Metallica and eventual founder of Megadeth. Mustaine was turfed out of Metallica (more than once) but while there, wrote some material for Kill 'Em All, Ride The Lightning and (allegedly) some material for Master Of Puppets. When he formed Megadeth he used some of his ideas, essentially leading to some work by both bands sounding almost identical. I was being somewhat facetious with that strike-through.

Edit:
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Freaky Styley, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, Mother's Milk, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Again there it's the latter three that are the core of the selection but Freaky Styley >> One Hot Minute.

 

[DugMachine]

In order

Counting Crows: This Desert Life, Recovering The Satellites, August & Everything After, Hard Candy

Arctic Monkeys: Humbug, Suck it and See, Whatever people say I am, that's is what I am not, and Favorite Worst Nightmare

Only bands I can think of. Especially with Arctic Monkey's that's pretty much all their albums so from favorite to least favorite.