Pick the five best studio albums that appear sequentially for your favorite bands

[exboyfil]

Usually you can group 3 or so together, but working out the edges sometimes gets difficult. Other times it is pretty obvious.

For example for me the first five albums for R.E.M. and Led Zeppelin are their best albums. I hate giving up Automatic for the People but bridging to it goes through some weaker albums.

For other bands like Rush I have to chose between 2112 and Signals to make the five (ultimately 2112 is the classic Rush which I prefer).

For the Beatles you have Yellow Submarine sitting their blocking you from bringing Abbey Road into the top five. You aren't going to give up Revolver for example.

[gohuskies]

1. Steely Dan

Excluding the obvious top of my list, The Beatles, my list goes 7 deep. All the albums by the Band and Fagen/Becker had great music and excellent sound but for the fiasco on Katy Lied that still does not affect the quality of the songwriting and performance. Here's the list:

Can't Buy A Thrill
Countdown to Ecstasy
Pretzel Logic
Katy Lied *
The Royal Scam
Aja
Gaucho

I would probably include Dire Straits in this survey but the Dan is my personal choice after The Fab Four...

[exboyfil]

2. Funny thing about Dire Straits is that they only have six studio albums

and the first, Dire Straits, needs to be on the list (it is my favorite). I won't lose any sleep dropping On Every Street.

[exboyfil]

3. By the rules you have to include Katy Lied

I don't listen to Steely Dan that much, but Aja definitely has to be on the list. You have to give up Can't Buy a Thrill to include Aja or Thrill and Countdown to Ecstasy to include Aja and Gaucho.

[gohuskies]

4. True :)

Katy Lied is definitely in the list. It is great top to bottom IMO

[Montauk6]

5. Whatchoo talkin' bout on the Beatles?

I pretty much stuck with the UK releases

With The Beatles
A Hard Day's Night
Beatles For Sale
Help!
Rubber Soul

Anyway, as far as others

THE POLICE
Outlandos D'Amour
Regatta de Blanc
Zenyatta Mondatta
Ghost In The Machine
Synchronicity
And that is all their stuff

Isaac Hayes
Hot Buttered Soul
The Isaac Hayes Movement
...To Be Continued
Shaft
Black Moses

The Temptations
Puzzle People
Psychedelic Shack
The Sky's The Limit
Solid Rock
All Directions

[Hoyt]

6. Byrds Mr. Tambourine Man, Turn Turn Turn, 5th Dimension, Younger than Yesterday, Notorious Byrd Bros

That's easy.

[msongs]

7. yellow sub is not really a "beatles" album, I would ignore it for this OP purpose nt