This a thread about perfection in music. In fact, its notes artists who created back to back masterpieces. for instance, the Beatles with Rubber Soul and Revolver (although I'd argue they had several back to back masterpieces).

The pair I select are two albums that are pure bliss and perfection by David Bowie, Hunky Dory and The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.



What can I say? From start to finish each of these albums are perfect. Oh! You Pretty Things is one of the greatest rock songs ever written. Both albums were released a mere 7 months apart. Remember when artists could do that?

Long live Bowie.

Wire "Pink Flag" & "Chairs Missing"

Both perfect recordings that don't actually sound alike. That's impressive.

(and I agree with your Bowie example... I actually even like Huny Dory better).

May as well be the first to check in with the "OK Computer" to "Kid A" connection.

Agreed, although many would argue that The Bends and OK Computer would be the back to back masterpieces.

How about the Pixies with Surfer Rosa and Doolittle.

Or Pavement with Slanted & Enchanted and Crookd Rain, Crooked Rain.

Yes, I will get flamed. But this game is too fun:

I submit to you:


Beck's Odelay followed by Mutations. You could argue that One Foot in the Grave is excellent, thereby extending his streak to three. I don't include it since it is not a major label release.



If you're not familiar with Manu Chao or his earlier group Mano Negra, you should be. Especially if you like music that blends reggae/jazz/folk/rock, etc. Anyways, Clandestino and Proxima Estación: Esperanza are both quite good.



Coldplay's Parachutes followed by A Rush of Blood to the Head



D'Angelo's wildly awaited follow up to Brown Sugar was Voodoo, and was not on a lot of 'Best of 1999' lists simply because it came out in January.


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Who's Miles Davis? He's the guy who put out Kind of Blue and Sketches of Spain after they were recorded less than six months from each other.



Then a couple of years later, he records Filles de Kilimanjaro, In a SIlent Way. and Bitches Brew within a year and a half. The man was an animal.



The Doors had great critical success with Morrison Hotel, then returned with L.A. Woman. Then famous alcoholic Jim Morrison died and they put out a bunch of crap.



The Flaming Lips had great success with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which got them into popular car commercials. But don't forget, they had the (superior) The Soft Bulletin previous to that! Oh and the Vaseline song I guess. I don't include their earlier works here because, well, I don't have them.



Interpol had Turn Out the Bright Lights followed by Antics.


[continued...]

Trent "I think I'm really talented so I only need to put out albums twice a decade" Reznor had Nine Inch Nails release The Downward Spiral after Pretty Hate Machine. Someone please tell this man (and P. Diddy) that remix albums don't count as new work. You can only ride on a couple of masterpieces for so long before someone figures out you just added a drum track and put more reverb on the vocals.



Nirvana's 2nd album, Nevermind was only slightly better than In Utero. Yes, they had Incesticide in between but that was not new material --- althought it was an excellent album.




Perhaps the best candidate in recent memory, Radiohead's perfect OK Computer was followed up by a perfect Kid A. And you know what, let's stick The Bends in there too. That album was good.



After Let's Get Ready to Crumble, The Russian Futurists (actually, only one guy), had The Method of Modern Love. This is one of those artists I wish everyone knew. Check out his song "A Mind's Dying Verse (You and the Wine)".



In perhaps the only genre where two good songs aren't expected to follow each other, A Tribe Called Quest drops The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders one after the other. Mind you, this is during the heyday of Kriss Kross.



Foreign egomaniac Bono and his band U2 somehow managed to follow up a seminal 1980's rock album (Joshua Tree) with a seminal 1990's rock album (Achtung Baby). Then, they made a bunch of crap for a few years and forgot how to count to 4.


The question is, will we see a perfect album from Electrelane, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire, or TV On The Radio?

and

Instantly springing to mind:

Jellyfish's "Bellybutton" and "Spilt Milk"
XTC's "Black Sea" and "English Settlement"

Gish to Siamese Dream to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness- Any Combo-Smashing Pumpkins

ArgyBargy to East Side Story- Squeeze


-Paul Jacobi-

That's what I would have said.

Coldplay's first two albums.

And there are a few combinations of Wilco albums I can think of - recently YHFT and A Ghost is Born.

Weezer - the Blue album and Pinkerton

Aged to Perfection 11
Aged to Perfection 12

First thing to enter my mind:

Metallica with "Ride the Lightning" and "Master of Puppets"...and hell, despite the low mixing on the bass, I'll toss "...And Justice for All" in there. These three albums are enjoyable from start to finish for me, and thankfully since I'm not a huge radio listener, I didn't get many of these tunes overplayed in my brain by the once "mandatory Metallica".

Surely there are others that just don't enter my brain at 1 am.

Dr. Dre - The Chronic
Dr. Dre - 2001

(even though they were 7 years apart)

First that came to my mind:

and

then

and

Van Morrison:

Astral Weeks and Moondance

Gram Parsons:

G.P. and Grevious Angel

Bob Dylan:

Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde

I could almost literally go on forever with this.

Does the U2 example of Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby count since Rattle and Hum was sandwiched by those two albums?

I definitely agree with the Radiohead and Interpol examples. I would also add the Roots "Things Fall Apart" and "Phrenology"

Anytime I ever hear something similar to this discussion I instantly think of:

The Afgahn Whigs

Gentleman (1993)

Black Love (1996)

others will argue that all of their studio albums including their debut 'Congregation' ending with the uproarious '1965' is one helluva string that most bands may never be able to match.

NiN > Pretty Hate Machine > Broken > The Downward Spiral, some would say 'The Fragile' adds to that, but I don't think it lived up to the previous three.

Tool > Anema > Laterlas

A Perfect Circle > Mer De Noms > Thirtheen Step

Tori Amos > Little Earthquakes > Under the Pink > Boys for Pele

Radiohead > Ok Computer > Kid A

then

The Beatles
Rubber Soul > Revolver > Sgt. Pepper's > Magical Mystery Tour > White Album > Abbey Road

I've always been a fan of these Metallica masterpieces:
Ride the Lightning > Master of Puppets