Bands With No Bad Albums

[Trav86]

I don’t mean that you have to love every albums top to bottom. Just that you can throw on any of their records and enjoy it. Maybe skip a track or two, that’s okay. I’m sure I have more than this, but these are the first that come to mind.

Dream Theater
Rush
Alice In Chains
Pantera
Testament
King’s X
Faith No More
James LaBrie/Mullmuzzler

[jammindude]

IQ
Haken
Rush

Dream Theater is close, but I really don’t like Systematic Chaos at all. But I’ve been meaning to revisit it to see if time has been kind.

[Mladen]

There are several bands where their worst album is not even that bad, but rather average (Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Dream Theater etc). I'd go a step further, though, and select bands where their worst album is still pretty good. Radiohead is the first one that comes to mind.

[Adami]

I almost put Metallica, but I just can't get into DM.

Pain of Salvation have the RS albums, which I just can't call good with the amount of songs I don't like on them.

I assume a band has to have at least 4 albums or something to count. Hmmmm.

I don't think Jinjer has a bad album, though I enjoy some less than others.

Sure there's more, but maybe I'm just too harsh a critic.

[Max Kuehnau]

Sade (*the* golden example of an artist where I don't find *any* bad pieces in their discography, even their B-sides are as good)
Genesis
Peter Gabriel
Phil Collins
Bill Withers
Dirty Loops
Michael Jackson (I'm only referring to his solo albums here, 1979-2001)
Van Halen
Sting
Rammstein

these are all that came to mind now

[JediKnight1969]

Garbage
Gov' Mule
Portishead
Morphine
Nightwish
Rage Against the Machine

[HOF]

Big Big Train tops this list for me. 13 albums in (depending on how you count them) and not a bad one among them (even the low budget and somewhat dated sounding debut has great music).

I’m not sure I could define a “bad” album though. I guess to use DT as an example, I thought Systematic Chaos was bad and I never bought another DT album after that (and this was following several albums of declining rewards). But if that’s the standard, lots of bands I like have not turned me off to them that way, even with some albums I don’t think are all that great.

[nattmorker]

Dream Theater
Haken
Mastodon
Rammstein

[SoundscapeMN]

I guess it depends on your definition of "no bad albums" or "all of their albums are good."

if it means every album has at least a couple of songs I enjoy, then the list is almost every band I like with X number of albums.

if it means more than half the album has songs I like if not love/consider favorites among all of their music, the list is pretty short.

-The Dear Hunter is probably the closest band which every record I enjoy more than half of the music on.
-Ours is about at that same level
-Marillion if I'm being 100% honest, probably fall here as well. Albums like Fugazi, Somewhere Else, Sounds That Can't Be Made and This Strange Engine, I can honestly say I enjoy at least half the music on
-dredg.. Chuckles I consider more good than bad
-The Reign of Kindo/Kindo
-Dirt Poor Robins
-Kevin Gilbert ..as much as the Kaviar Sessions are not something I listen to often, there's still enough on it I enjoy, that it wouldn't be his 1 exception.

Close:
-Rush (Snakes and Arrows)
-King's X (Black Like Sunday)
-Fates Warning (Dakrness in a Different Light, Inside Out, Night on Brocken, and Long Day Goodnight all are kind of fringey in that I have issues with those albums, but the truth is I probably could say I consider a decent amount of the music still good on them)
-Pain of Salvation (Road Salt 1 and possibly 2. Panther perhaps as well are fringe).
-Led Zeppelin (take Coda out and they work)
-The Family Crest (The Village is kind of fringe. I like it, but don't consider it in league with their other 3)

[The Letter M]

My favorite bands tend to fall into this category, even if they have some albums I don't enjoy as much as the others, I still find myself revisiting their entire catalogs from time to time:

Rush (My first and foremost favorite band, obviously has to be on here)
Dream Theater (I mean, for the most part, although with what I've said about The Astonishing, you'd think I wouldn't put them here, but it's not AWFUL or BAD, IMO, I just don't spin it as much as the others)
Big Big Train
Transatlantic
Spock's Beard
The Flower Kings
Porcupine Tree
The Tangent
Ayreon
Haken
Frost*
Liquid Tension Experiment (is this cheating since they only have three? I mean, they're three REALLY GOOD albums)
Riverside (I've never disliked anything they've released, although I probably don't listen to them as much as I should)

-Marc.

[jammindude]

Riverside is a really good call. Even though there are some albums I do not enjoy as much as others, there’s not a single one that I don’t enjoy when I play it.

Porcupine Tree is close. But OTSOL is definitely an album that has a few highlights, but is generally not something I enjoy listening to from top to bottom.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Initially it seemed it just might be a list of favorite bands with larger discographies, let's say at least 7.  But as I thought about it, there are some artists I rate extremely highly, but they do have albums I haven't even spent enough time with to say how strong they are.  Amorphis was one such example, I started to put them, but I remembered they have Far From the Sun, which is generally considered weak.  I remember liking it more than critics, but it's been so many years, I can't vouch for it without revisiting it.  I want to put John Coltrane, but I'm not sure I've heard every single album, and the last few are too out there for my tastes, though the consensus is that they are good.  I also thought about Chelsea Wolfe, but her first few are murky as to what actually counts as a proper album, so I'll leave her off for now. 

So here are some of my highest candidates. 

Katatonia - I rarely listen to Dance of December Souls partially because it's quite different, but it's still a good album. 
Opeth
Nevermore - similar with Katatonia for the s/t
Nightingale - The Breathing Shadow has the least play, but I still love it
Aziza Mustafa Zadeh - easily the most consistent, I don't even think she has a single mediocre song
Draconian

-King's X (Black Like Sunday)
-Rush (Snakes and Arrows)

Thought about King's X as well, but I just haven't spent enough time with that one or Manic Moonlight to say, and I haven't even heard either period in probably well over a decade. 

Pondered Rush too, but the standards for being a fan of theirs are just too high for me.  I'm pretty sure I've heard every album, but there are definitely some I just don't know very well.  Same with King Crimson, who I'm almost surprised hasn't been mentioned yet. 

[twosuitsluke]

Coheed and Cambria, but that is a no brainer.

[Dream Team]

Symphony X doesn’t have any “bad” albums but the debut is pretty unremarkable due to the original singer not being very good.

[Trav86]

I guess it depends on your definition of "no bad albums" or "all of their albums are good."

if it means every album has at least a couple of songs I enjoy, then the list is almost every band I like with X number of albums.

if it means more than half the album has songs I like if not love

The latter. That’s kinda what I said in the original post.

[krands85]

Limiting it to bands who have at least 4 albums, I'd say:

Haken
Tesseract
System of a Down
Tool

I could name quite a few others who have 1 album that I maybe wouldn't call 'bad', but are just a bit meh.

[Kram]

BBT
NMB

[WilliamMunny]

‘Bad’ is an incredibly subjective qualifier.

That said, in the spirit of the exercise, I humbly nominate KISS!!!

Go ahead and laugh, but to my ears, the band has about two-dozen good-to-all-time-great albums.

Even releases like ‘Animalize’ and ‘Hot in the Shade’ continue to surprise me.

[pg1067]

I don’t mean that you have to love every albums top to bottom. Just that you can throw on any of their records and enjoy it. Maybe skip a track or two, that’s okay.

Damn...this is tough.

Rush?  Nope.  Roll the Bones and Hold Your Fire exist, and there's too much to skip on POW and CW.

Dream Theater?  Nope.  TA exists, and I really only like a couple songs on SC.

Fates Warning?  Nope.  Disconnected and FWX exist.

Maiden?  Yeah, probably.

YYNOT for sure, but they've only got three albums.

[King Postwhore]

No bands.

[JediKnight1969]

Coverdale Page
Ultraphonix
Them Crooked Vultures
John Macaluso & Union Radio
Mammoth WVH
Paice, Ashton, Lord
The Snakes

OK, seriously?

ABBA
The Beatles

[wolfking]

I'd happily say Iron Maiden.

[Adami]

No bands.

Yea. I think it really depends on what you consider a bad album, but I mostly agree.

[King Postwhore]

No bands.

Yea. I think it really depends on what you consider a bad album, but I mostly agree.

I think most bands have a song on an album that's not up to snuff.   Still can be an amazing album but to put a perfect album out for your whole career is not possible.

[TAC]

Power Windows has 8 songs not up to snuff.

[Cool Chris]

Power Windows has 8 songs not up to snuff.

 

[King Postwhore]

Power Windows has 8 songs not up to snuff.

7 were. I think one is not but the guitar solo is amazing 

[jammindude]

Actually Pink Floyd just sprung to mind. Even my two least favorites (More and Ummagumma) get the occasional spin that I find myself enjoying more than I thought I would.

The Beatles is another extremely good (if not obvious) suggestion.

[jingle.boy]

Zeppelin is the only one that comes to mind for me. There’s more than a few bands with 3-5 albums I could include, but for bands with 5+ albums, only Zep.  Maybe Evergrey. Maybe Threshold.

[Zantera]

I think it really depends where you set the bar. There's bands where the weakest album might be okay/fine and I don't mind listening to it once a year or every other year, but that also doesn't make me say "All their albums are good". I think also if a band's highest bar is putting out 10/10 albums - then having one album that's like a 6/10 still feels like a stain on the discography even if a 6/10 is not a bad rating at all. I think also the band's the best positioned to qualify for this thread are the ones that maybe have 4-6 albums or something like that, because bands like Iron Maiden or Dream Theater most definitely have duds in their 30-40 year long career.

These are the ones I would say personally for me, don't have a single bad studio album:

Oceansize
Cardiacs
Boards of Canada

[soupytwist]

The New Pornographers - 8 studio albums all with 75 or higher on metacritic.

[Volante99]

I’ll throw a few into the ring:

Katatonia - can’t think of another band that’s changed it sound so many times yet retained such a high level of quality. The Great Cold Distance, Night is the New Day, and Dead End Kings are all masterpieces.

Agalloch - The Serpent and the Sphere isn’t quite up to snuff (I suspect the band was having internal issues during

Insomnium- ridiculously consistent

Literally anything Bob Mould has done (Hüsker Dü, Sugar, Solo projects)

[chknptpie]

Coheed and Cambria, but that is a no brainer.

x2

[TAC]

Where do you guys draw the line at “bad”?
What makes an album bad for you? No good songs? What if you really love 3 or 4 tunes but the rest is quite iffy?

[KevShmev]

Where do you guys draw the line at “bad”?
What makes an album bad for you? No good songs? What if you really love 3 or 4 tunes but the rest is quite iffy?

Using the 5-point rating system, for me, anything below average (a rating of lower than 2.5) seems fair to call "bad," for the purposes of this thread. 

For me, even the least beast Rush albums are a solid 2.5. Same for Dream Theater.  Radiohead and Porcupine Tree are definitely bands for me where my least favorite album is a solid 2.5 at worst.

With Neal Morse and all of his projects, I rate the worship albums (I have heard) pretty low, but those are almost all online unofficial releases, so it then becomes a matter of do we count unofficial albums or just official ones?