Best Four Albums in a Row

[pxr5]

Lots of these are great. Totally agree with the Gary Numan/Tubeway Army one. I'll throw this one in as well. This is my favoutite Hawkwind period:

 

Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music

Quark, Strangeness and Charm

25 Years On (Hawlords)

PXR5 <----My Username lol

[Entre_Perpetuo]

Queen:

 

Queen II

Sheer Heart Attack

A Night At The Opera

A Day At The Races (weakest)

 

or

 

Jazz

The Game

Hot Space

The Works (weakest)

 

Yeah about this...

 

first one makes sense. Hard to leave out QII in favor of NOTW, even if it means ending on ADATR, which isn't quite the same level of awesomeness as what surrounds it.

 

Second one... I'm all for loving Hot Space, but it's almost objectively their weakest release. Experimental, sure, but a lot of it just doesn't pan out as well as it could. So putting it in there is already questionable. But saying The Works is the weakest album in the run...when you could also easily make the run from NOTW to Hot Space rather than Jazz to the Works...so your implying that The Works is not only somehow weaker than Hot Space, but also NOTW is weaker than all four of those albums...?

 

I'm sorry, that's just crazy. NOTW is one of their best records. Every song is gold. Two of them are likely two of the biggest hits in recorded music history, so ubiquitous most people have no clue they aren't just sports anthems. I cannot get behind your second choice here.

 

Also just my opinion that Jazz and The Game, while both awesome, are among their weaker releases as well...so The Works is actually my favorite album of the four you listed there.

 

 

 

So let's unpack this massive difference in opinion on Queen that we are having. For me Queen albums from the 70s are heavily dependent on songs written by Freddie. As they go, so goes the album. I personally find Roger's & Brian's songs from the 70s to be weaker than not only Freddie's songs, but their own contributions from the 80s & 90s with a few exceptions. So here is my personal list of Queen albums from favourite to least:

 

01. Jazz

02. Queen II

03. Sheer Heart Attack

04. A Night At The Opera

05. Hot Space

06. The Game

07. A Day At The Races

08. The Works

09. A Kind Of Magic

10. Innuendo

11. The Miracle

12. News Of The World

13. Made In Heaven

14. Queen

15. Flash Gordon*

 

* - I forgot about this damn thing, so my second 4 in a row doesn't actually work!

 

So, you see there is News Of The World sitting at 12 for me. Sure, it has a great double A side single with We Are the Champions / We Will Rock You and a fantastic Freddie song in Get Down Make Love and... hmmm... there is another Freddie song in the form of My Melancholy Blues which I dislike and a shit-ton of mediocre to bad Roger & Brian songs. Oh and then there is Spread Your Wings which is the second single and a sort of run-of-the-mill John Deacon song. It's a very good song, but not his best. That other John song is utterly forgettable. Now Jazz on the other hand is chocked full of some of the best Freddie songs ever written! Bicycle Race is in contention for my favourite ever Queen song, but there is Don't Stop Me Now, Mustapha, Let Me Entertain You, and Jealousy as well. I like every song I have listed so far from Jazz better than ANY song off News Of The World! But wait, there's more!!! On top of that Roger's and Brian's songwriting was improving (It would have to, since Freddie's would drop off in the 80s). Dead On Time & Fat Bottomed Girls both are in my Top 5 Brian songs from the 70s and better than any Brian songs from News Of The World. More Of That Jazz and Fun It! are my two favourite Roger songs from the 70s (The bar was low). In my opinion Roger's songwriting would carry the 80s albums and he was finally becoming a good songwriter on Jazz. I also really like In Only Seven Days and If You Can't Beat Them, so for me John was on point too. Of the songs left, I would consider Leaving Home Ain't Easy the 7th best song if it was on News Of The World and Dreamer's Ball a throwaway. But really, 1 bad song out of 13; who's complaining about that?!?!?!

 

Now for Queen II: Side Black is amazing Freddie song after amazing Freddie song and includes two of my absolute favourite Freddie songs ever, The March Of The Black Queen and The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke. Side White, albeit weaker than Black, contains some of the best Brian songs from the 70s with White Queen (As It Began) (BBC version please), Some Day One Day, and Father To Son. Not quite as good as his later stuff, but still right up there with anything he wrote in the 70s. I also am more fond of Loser In the End than almost anything Roger wrote from Sheer Heart Attack through News Of The World.

 

I think for people who expected Queen to be a straight ahead rock band Hot Space is very challenging. For me it marks the first album that I love both of Roger's songs. Calling All Girls in particular is a very worthy single choice, but I love Action This Day too. Brian was continuing to improve as well as evidenced by another great single in the form of Las Palabras de Amor and the wonderful Put Out the Fire (I'm not American. I hate guns and think they should be illegal to own AND even think police should be disarmed too, so the subject matter is perfect for me). This was also the last album where Freddie was fully engaged before he got sick. After this point his heart wasn't in the band as much and it showed. I really do love the 3 songs he wrote alone for this album; Life Is Real, Staying Power, and Body Language, although none of them as much as anything he wrote for Jazz or Queen II. John got very R&B influenced at the time which wasn't my favourite move, but I still rather liked the Single Remix of Back Chat and everyone loves Under Pressure. I have no use for either Cool Cat or Dancer or that terrible B-side Soul Brother, but the album overall has more songs I love than either The Game or The Works.

 

As for The Works, it is pretty damn short on songs overall and has a few clunkers thrown in. If I never listen to Machines (Or 'Back to Humans') or Man on the Prowl again it will be fine with me. That Christmas song that came out as part of this album cycle was awful too. The Brian songs here are very good. Both Hammer To Fall and Tear It Up are tops. Freddie is great on It's A Hard Life, but just okay on Keep Passing The Open Windows. Then there is the two hit singles by Roger & John which are both great. Radio Ga Ga in particular really foreshadows what is to come as Roger takes the lead as the writer of the hit singles, but I Want To Break Free is equally good and probably the last John song I truly think is awesome. Overall for me though the album is much weaker than either Jazz or Hot Space and a little below The Game (which I have not discussed). The ballad at the end isn't really to my liking and it feels somehow unfinished to me. It's not something I love listening to.

 

I hope this answers your questions and please remember that neither your nor popular opinion actually portends of a greater truth. I believe the reason News Of The World is more highly regarded than Jazz is not because it is a better album (which in my opinion it isn't close), but rather because the double A side single released from it is so incredibly popular that it raises the album's esteem overall in the general public. You are also not going to hear Bicycle Race or Don't Stop Me Now at sporting events like you would We Are the Champions and We Will Rock You. Those two songs have an enduring legacy in the public consciousness that is almost unsurpassed. This raises (unfortunately, in my opinion) the status of News Of The World, but really never addresses the fact that aside from those two songs there is little else that most people would care about from that album. For many Queen fans (especially in the US where those songs were a bigger breakthrough commercially than Bohemian Rhapsody or anything preceding it), the album probably holds a special place in their hearts as the first album they bought. It wasn't my first so I hold no special esteem for it. If you want to know, I took Greatest Hits from my parent's collection as a little kid, but the first album I bought for myself by Queen was A Kind Of Magic. I am a child of the 80s.

 

I'm a little shocked. No, not by your opinion, but by the fact that someone else on here took the time to respond to a lengthy (and admittedly heavily biased) post of mine with rationale and dignity. I don't agree with your ranking, personally, and I do dispute a couple of your minor claims (the reason that News is so often regarded above Jazz has little to do with WWRY/WATC vs. FBG/BR. Most fans regard all of News' deep cuts as some of the bands best songs. My Melancholy Blues is actually my third favorite Queen song of all time, and I'll be darned if Spread Your Wings isn't the quintessential Queen deep cut and one of John's best songs, a real singer's song too). All that said, You saw where I was coming from, respectfully pointed out I had not given enough respect to your own opinion, then proceeded to let me know why you think the things you do without the slightest insult or contempt. I pretty much never see this happen on this board, especially when someone's opinion has been threatened.

 

I think your ranking is crazy, but your reasoning is not so much. And for the record, I too love Hot Space, but I happen to love all of Queen's other albums at least slightly, if not significantly more. Life Is Real is among the greatest ballads they ever wrote, and the dance experiment sounds remarkably similar to the same sound and style MJ would break with on Thriller later that year, at least for the fact that I rock band is making it.

 

Thanks for your opinion. Here's mine:

 

1. A Night At The Opera

2. Queen II

3. News Of The World

4. Sheer Heart Attack

5. Innuendo

6. The Miracle

7. A Day At The Races

8. Queen

9. A Kind Of Magic

10. The Works

11. Jazz

12. The Game

13. Hot Space

 

I tend not to rank Flash or Made In Heaven, but I enjoy both quite a bit.

 

Oh, and sorry for giving you a harder time than you deserved. I was probably in a sour mood that day.

[NewWorldScott]

I voted Hem thru Signals, but Rush's best four album span is AFTK thru MP, but really 2112-MP is the five album span nobody has topped.

Right on! I feel this is the true Rush prime as well. Most people like to keep it at 4, but It's 2112-MP for me.

[ctbadger]

What about:

 

War, Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby

 

or

 

The Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave, Somewhere in Time

 

For Rush it's hard for me to choose between AFTK and Signals. My first Rush exposure was on the Signals tour so that will always be special to me. AFTK I discovered years later as I started to collect the back catalog.

[Entre_Perpetuo]

Sad Wings Of Destiny

Sin After Sin

Stained Class

Killing Machine

[Segue Myles]

Best four albums in a row?

 

Lacuna Coil- In A Reverie, Unleashed Memories, Comalies, Karmacode

[bluefox4000]

I can think of a ton of artists that have great ones.

 

narrowing it down to best is hard.

 

Wow that is a task.

 

i'll get back to you.

 

Mick

[bluefox4000]

I'm going with......

 

Queen-Queen, Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack, A Night at the Opera

 

just for the fact that their great records and they more or less knew who they were sound wise right from album 1.

 

Mick

[Entre_Perpetuo]

I can think of a ton of artists that have great ones.

 

narrowing it down to best is hard.

 

Wow that is a task.

 

i'll get back to you.

 

Mick

 

Oh lol, I didn't think the idea was to list the best four album run, just one or a few you think are great. If it's best I'd have to go QII through ADATR myself, but QI is on that same level.

[bluefox4000]

I can think of a ton of artists that have great ones.

 

narrowing it down to best is hard.

 

Wow that is a task.

 

i'll get back to you.

 

Mick

 

Oh lol, I didn't think the idea was to list the best four album run, just one or a few you think are great. If it's best I'd have to go QII through ADATR myself, but QI is on that same level.

 

that was my Dilemma.....but ADATR is a cut below those first 4, IMO. don't get me wrong i love it to death. but i think i reach for the first 4 a little more often.

 

Mick

[Entre_Perpetuo]

I can think of a ton of artists that have great ones.

 

narrowing it down to best is hard.

 

Wow that is a task.

 

i'll get back to you.

 

Mick

 

Oh lol, I didn't think the idea was to list the best four album run, just one or a few you think are great. If it's best I'd have to go QII through ADATR myself, but QI is on that same level.

 

that was my Dilemma.....but ADATR is a cut below those first 4, IMO. don't get me wrong i love it to death. but i think i reach for the first 4 a little more often.

 

Mick

 

Yeah, it's one of the least amazing of that initial run from the debut to NOTW, but it just edges out the debut for me. That's really splitting hairs though, and I would take NOTW over both of them.

[Segue Myles]

Nightwish- Once, Dark Passion Play, Imaginaerum, Endless Forms Most Beautiful

 

Paradise Lost- In Requiem, Faith Divides Us- Death Unites Us, Tragic Idol, The Plague Within

 

HIM- Razorblade Romance, Deep Shadows And Brilliant Highlights, Love Metal, Dark Light

 

Thrice- The Artist In The Ambulance, Vheissu, The Alchemy Index vol.I-IV, Beggars

 

Bruce Springsteen- The Wild (etc), Born To Run, Darkness, The River

 

Fleetwood Mac- Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, Tusk, Mirage

 

Mastodon- Remission, Leviathan, Blood Mountain, Crack The Skye

Edited June 10, 2018 by Segue Myles

[Entre_Perpetuo]

Nightwish- Once, Dark Passion Play, Imaginaerum, Endless Forms Most Beautiful

 

Paradise Lost- In Requiem, Faith Divides Us- Death Unites Us, Tragic Idol, The Plague Within

 

HIM- Razorblade Romance, Deep Shadows And Brilliant Highlights, Love Metal, Dark Light

 

Thrice- The Artist In The Ambulance, Vheissu, The Alchemy Index vol.I-IV, Beggars

 

Bruce Springsteen- The Wild (etc), Born To Run, Darkness, The River

 

Fleetwood Mac- Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, Tusk, Mirage

 

Mastodon- Remission, Leviathan, Blood Mountain, Crack The Skye

 

Bruce's run there is unbelievable. I still haven't heard Nebraska or the debut though.

[bluefox4000]

On just for what it's worth my fav 2 runs of all time is by a solo act

 

Elton John

 

1. Elton John, Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across the Water, Honky Chateau

 

2. Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Caribou, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.

 

Mick

[bluefox4000]

On just for what it's worth my fav 2 runs of all time is by a solo act

 

Elton John

 

1. Elton John, Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across the Water, Honky Chateau

 

2. Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Caribou, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.

 

Mick

 

oh so technically that was cheating but......i don't care. no one's matched this for me. ever in music.

 

bold.....but i believe it.

 

Mick

[Entre_Perpetuo]

On just for what it's worth my fav 2 runs of all time is by a solo act

 

Elton John

 

1. Elton John, Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across the Water, Honky Chateau

 

2. Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Caribou, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.

 

Mick

 

oh so technically that was cheating but......i don't care. no one's matched this for me. ever in music.

 

bold.....but i believe it.

 

Mick

 

Elton couldn't be stopped back then. He had everything, the piano chops, the gorgeous lyrics from Bernie, the beautiful songs, well sequenced and conceived records, outstanding backing musicians, fame, glamour, acclaim, millions of fans, and of course that voice!

[bluefox4000]

On just for what it's worth my fav 2 runs of all time is by a solo act

 

Elton John

 

1. Elton John, Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across the Water, Honky Chateau

 

2. Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Caribou, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.

 

Mick

 

oh so technically that was cheating but......i don't care. no one's matched this for me. ever in music.

 

bold.....but i believe it.

 

Mick

 

Elton couldn't be stopped back then. He had everything, the piano chops, the gorgeous lyrics from Bernie, the beautiful songs, well sequenced and conceived records, outstanding backing musicians, fame, glamour, acclaim, millions of fans, and of course that voice!

 

oh i adore Prime era Elton.

 

Captain Fantastic being my fav.

 

the melodies the vocals.....i mean just shit.....why did anyone else try, lol

 

Mick

[Digital Dad]

Its far too late to turn back now but if I only had Hems>Signals I would probably be happy forever.

 

Agree about 2112>Signals being pretty Amazing still so that. I guess I would have 2112>Power Windows.

 

 

Oh who the feck am I kiddin I need it all.

[Digital Dad]

Yes Album

Fragile

Close to the Edge

Relayer

[Segue Myles]

Yes Album

Fragile

Close to the Edge

Relayer

 

Not valid you skipped Tales.

[HemiBeers]

Jimi Hendrix

 

all four albums he released while alive.

 

* mic drop *

 

Hello? Calling Mr. Obvious?

Edited June 10, 2018 by HemiBeers

[Digital Dad]

Yes Album

Fragile

Close to the Edge

Relayer

 

Not valid you skipped Tales.

 

Is that a Yes album? Funny never heard of it.

[grasbo]

Still to this day i have not been able to play Tales all the way through.I can't even bring myself to print out the full album title here.

[The Cat 3]

Ramones - Ramones / Leave Home / Rocket to Russia / Road to Ruin

[The Cat 3]

Alice Cooper - Love it to Death / Killer / School's Out / Billion Dollar Babies