1999 (1982)
Purple Rain (1984)
Around the World in a Day (1985)
Parade (1986)
Sign o' the Times (1987)

I like that one better than the first Prince run mentioned.

If You're Feeling Sinister
The Boy with the Arab Strap
Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant
Dear Catastrophe Waitress
The Life Pursuit

For me, their last 2 are maybe the best 2 of their career. And I've been listening to them since they started out. Great, underappreciated band whichever era you like.

I don't have MMXII, but I do have Absolute Dissent and it is awesome.

Holy shite. What the fuck is that?

Some fey little pussy band called Belle & Sebastian. They're not bad, just sissies. I actually like their album "Life Pursuit", but I'd never put them or their work up as the best or greatest of anything.

War
The Unforgettable Fire
The Joshua Tree
Achtung Baby
Zooropa

(Skipping the live/studio releases of UABRS & R&H)

So this thread is just a list of good consecutive albums now?

Here's a good thread on that, that The Bus started five years ago: Four (or more) classic albums in a row

Yah, Don't Shoot Me is certainly the odd man out in that grouping. Still, it's a pretty crazy run when you consider that all five were released in a span of less than three years. Throw in an all-time great live album (11-17-70) and the self titled album which was released 6 months before Tumbleweed and it becomes even more astonishing.

Bold statement:

The greatest American rock band of the past 25 years is The Black Crowes (or maybe Wilco)*.


*This has more to do with the abysmal state of American rock music than it does with the Crowes or Wilco, though they are great.

Start with Boy and shitcan Zooropa and that is a great run.

If you consider Tool a rock band, the answer is a clear fuck no. If you don't, Queens of the Stone Age still make the answer: fuck no.

I guess that's pretty bold, but that's really pure opinion. There are plenty of decent American rock bands since 1989.

Sure, but "decent" doesn't quite cut it - they also happen to be a couple of the best live acts around as well.

I like both those bands, and have seen both live a few times, but they're just not as good (live or on record), and they don't have the depth and breadth of material the other bands have. Their songwriting isn't as strong either.

They are statistically the official whitest band on the internet.

I get where you're coming from, they are not "man's men", but have a hard time calling them "fey" or "sissies". That implies that they're wimpy and/or romantic. They produce some seriously sarcastic and downright nasty music.

fixed

Their music doesn't have the weight of their lyrics - they don't fit together.

A band I love (Manic Street Preachers), writes music to their lyrics, so each song has music that fits the words like a glove.

And I may as well put in the bold statement that MSP is the greatest rock band of the last 25 years.

Just off the top of my head Milk Carton Kids, Bon Iver,The Mars Volta,Built To Spill,Lake Street Dive,The Last Bison,N*E*R*D,Outkast,The Lone Bellow and The Appleseed Collective have in the last 10-15 years put out some pretty impressive stuff that would hold up in any era.

If you add Boy, you need October in there between Boy and War. Then that leaves out AB.

All fine bands (well, most of them), but they still pale next to the best stuff from the '60s and '70s.

What is this, the Steve Hoffman Forum??

Boys Don't Cry
Seventeen Seconds
Faith
Pornography
The Top

Absolute Dissent is really good--I haven't heard the most recent one. But yeah, I generally like it when I can hear the tone of Geordie's guitar instead of a wall of distortion, and I like Jaz's voice and think he's a good singer---I prefer him singing to growling. That being said, I really liked the self-titled one from 2003. It was heavy, but the songwriting was really strong, IMO. I saw them on that tour, too---Jaz is fairly frightening live.

The best U2 song in the past 15 years was neither written nor performed by U2

<iframe width="853" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Ek0SgwWmF9w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>