New Wave Outpost Forum

OK, here's something that my friends and I bring up from time to time that I thought I'd pass onto you and see what YOUR picks would be...

Pick a band that has at least five albums in their catalog (not including greatest hits or live albums). Out of that band's catalog, what do you consider THE HOLY TRINITY, as in the best three albums IN SUCCESSION. They can't be random choices....they have to have been released in order (you can exclude a compilation if it came out within the time period you're thinking of).

Here's a few examples:


My personal choices for THE HOLY TRINITY by these bands are:

XTC: Drums & Wires, Black Sea and English Settlement

SQUEEZE: Cool For Cats, Argy Bargy and East Side Story

THE JAM: Setting Sons, Sound Effects and The Gift

SPLIT ENZ: Frenzy, True Colours and Waiatta

THE BEATLES: Help, Rubber Soul and Revolver

THE CLASH: The Clash, Give 'Em Enough Rope and London Calling



This is not to say that you don't like the albums BEFORE and AFTER 'the holy trinity', it just means that you feel that your personal picks are your absolute favorites...


SPAZ
Born of innocence. Free of ignorance.

Bowie- I could go with

The Man Who Sold The World
Hunky Dory
Ziggy Stardust

or

Heroes
Lodger
Scary Monsters

I know "Stage" came out before "Lodger" but it's a live album so doesn't count.

Another few for me:

DEPECHE MODE: A Broken Frame, Construction Time Again and Some Great Reward

ADAM ANT: Kings Of The Wild Frontier, Prince Charming and Friend Or Foe

CHINA CRISIS: Working With Fire..., Flaunt The Imperfection and What Price Paradise

THE CURE: Boys Don't Cry, Seventeen Seconds & Faith

THE MONKEES: More Of..., Headquarters and Pisces Aquarius Capricorn & Jones

DONNIE IRIS: King Cool, High & The Mighty and Fortune 410



SPAZ
Born of innocence. Free of ignorance.

The Church - Seance, Heyday, Starfish

Midnight Oil - 10..1, Red Sails, Diesel And Dust

Wire - 154, The Ideal Copy, A Bell is A Cup

Pixies - Surfer Rosa, Doolittle, Bossanova

New Model Army - No Rest, Ghost Of Cain, Thunder & Consolation

Chameleons - Script Of The Bridge, What Does Anything..., Strange Times

Go-Betweens - Liberty Belle, Tallulah, 16 Lovers Lane

Depeche Mode - Black Celebration, Violator, Music For The Masses

The Cure - The Head On The Door, Kiss Me, Disintegration

I'm sure there are others

The Cure- Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, Disintegration, Wish

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Depeche Mode, although I'm not sure which ...
Some Great Reward - Black Celebration - Music for the Masses
or
Black Celebration - Music for the Masses - Violator

Since I think Black Celebration was their finest hour, it's kind of hard to start off "the big three" at the peak.

'Waiting For A Miracle', 'Sleep No More', 'Fiction'[Comsat Angels]
'Hole', 'Nail', 'Thaw'[Foetus]
'Garlands', 'Head Over Heels', 'Treasure'[Cocteau Twins]
'From Her To Eternity', 'The First Born Is Dead', 'Your Funeral....My Trial'[Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds]
'Wings Of Joy', 'Forever', 'Loved'[Cranes]
'Nina Hagen Band', 'Unbehagen', 'Nunsexmonkrock'[Nina Hagen]
'Songs The Lord Taught Us', 'Psychedelic Jungle', 'A Date With Elvis'[The Cramps]

j0hn.......



"No telling what keeps me awake."

The Cars, Candy-O, Panorama

---------------------------
"Photography with a Vision"
http://www.cooganphoto.com

Personal opinion only,
Blondie - Plastic Letters, Parallel Lines, Eat to the Beat

Siouxsie & the Banshees - Kaleidoscope, JuJu, Kiss in the Dreamhouse. (I would have started with JuJu and ended with Hyena if Nocturne wasn't stuck in there!)

What a cool topic. I'll echo JustJohn first with Comst Angels' Waiting/Sleep/Fiction, then Spaz next with the Jam's Sons/Effects/Gift and the Enz's Frenzy/Colors/Waiatta, and Jason's Chameleons choices, Bridge/Anything/Strange Times.

But for me, nothing comes close to X's three amazing scorchers in a row: Los Angeles, Wild Gift, & Under the Big Black Sun. Maybe it's a time and place thing.

Others:

Echo & the Bunnymen, either 3 - Crocodiles, Heaven Up There, Procupine, Ocean Rain

The Smiths - Smiths, Meat is Murder, Queen is Dead

The Police - Outlandos d'Amour, Regatta de Blanc, Zenyatta Mondatta

New Order - Republic, Get Ready, Siren's Call (call me crazy! [:0])

There's so many more album streaks disrupted by one relatively weaker work too though, like the Jam's Setting Sons, OMD's Dazzle Ships, The Clash's Give 'Em Enough Rope, and Simple Minds' 1981 combo of Sister/Sons, which would have been a great single album.

Oh, and post-wave...Smashing Pumpkins' Gish, Siamese Dream and Melon Collie. AND whatever the third British Sea Power alblum will be. [;)]

Great topic.

Kraftwerk:
Trans Europe Express, Man Machine, Computer World
Prince:
For You, Prince, Dirty Mind
Genesis/Phil Collins:
Duke, Abacab, Face Value
Level 42:
Level 42, Strategy, The Pursuit of Accidents
ZZ Top:
Tejas, El Loco, Deguello
Devo:
Freedom Of Choice, New Traditionalists, Oh No! It's Devo
Led Zeppelin:
Led Zeppelin IV, Houses of the Holy, Physical Grafitti
Thin Lizzy:
Fighting, Jailbreak, Live And Dangerous
Zapp/Roger:
Zapp, The Many Facets Of Roger, Zapp II
Brand New Heavies:
Brand New Heavies, Brother Sister, Original Flava

[quote]New Order - Republic, Get Ready, Siren's Call (call me crazy! )[/quote] Your crazy [:p]

Radiohead - The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A
The Smashing Pumpkins - Gish, Siamese Dream, Mellon Coliie...
The Fall - Wonderful and Frightning, Nations Saving Grace, Bend Sinsiter
U2 - War, the Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree
REM - Fables of the Recosntruction, Lifes Rich Pageant, Document
Iron Maiden - Killers ,The Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted, Crooked Rain, Wowee Zowee

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[quote][i]Originally posted by hutter[/i]
<br>
Led Zeppelin:
Led Zeppelin IV, Houses of the Holy, Physical Grafitti
[/quote]
Almost forgot about that little band. I'll go with Zeppelin 1 thru 4, either three of 'em.

ELO too - Face the Music, A New World Record, and Out of the Blue [:I]

To me, to group three consecutive albums together they sort of have to have the same kind of feel to them.

Depeche Mode: Music for the Masses, Violator, Songs of Faith & Devotion. (I almost wish we could list a quadrilogy so I could get Black Celebration in there. This was truly their Golden Age.)

New Order: Hard to say. To be perfectly honest, I always saw them as making duo albums.
Movement and Power Corruption & Lies, Low-Life and Brotherhood, Technique and Republic and of course Get Ready and Sirens Call.

Big Audio Dynamite: Same thing. This Is... and No. 10 Upping Street; Tighten Up Vol. '88 and Megatop Phoenix.

Pet Shop Boys: Another band that did duo albums IMHO...Please and Actually, Introspective and Behavior...that is until the Very, Bilingual and Nightlife trilogy.

Erasure: Erasure, Cowboy, Loveboat

Talking Heads: (This may be controversial, I know) Little Creatures, True Stories, Naked

Cure: (This may ignite a flame war but, oh well) Kiss Me, Disintegration, Wish.

I wish I could say there was a Smiths threesome that I could hold in high regard but I view their earlier and later works as distinctly different bodies of work; both most excellent mind you. If they had more albums, there would most likely have been a straight trilogy to hail. Am I the only one who views discographies like this? I really do see stages in an artist's work, each incomparable to the other.

<a href="http://www.worldwildlife.org/cetaceans/index.cfm">I dig whales.</a>

Lots of good ones listed. I'll add

R.E.M.: Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning

The English Beat: I Just Can't Stop It, Wha'appen?, Special Beat Service.

U2: War, Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree

Talking Heads: I'm going to disagree slightly with Marv and go with Speaking in Tounges, Little Creatures, and True Stories, although you could make a very good trilogy of their earlier albums too.

Oingo Boingo: Their 1st 4 albums make a good quadrology.