Try the "3 Consecutive Albums" Challenge

Albums are the "written in stone" technique to express musical ideas. There probably isn't a better idea than an album, yet there certainly have been times where albums are irrelevant in music culture (currently).

Here is a standard I use whenever discussing musicians with a great catalog of albums. Sometimes it's hard to find 3 albums in general from a musician that you would consider well-made (Not counting bands like The Zombies  or Fleet Foxes who only have 2 albums in their history). It's a good sniff test to see how legendary your favorite artist is, by picking a time in their career where they released three GREAT albums in a row.

Now where it becomes fun is when you reach musicians that have reached legendary status by making it difficult to pick three in a row at a certain time period. "Do I pick the first three, or do I pick 2 through 4? They're all so good!"

So here's the challenge: Find 5 musicians you love and then you have to pick 3 albums that were made chronologically in a row. Even if they were made several years apart. Pretend those three consecutive albums will be the only albums you get from that musician. All the rest will be deleted from memory forever. Sorry if that seems dismal but it gets the situation across.

Here are some of mine that were tough:

PINK FLOYD:

So the trademark era for Floyd was their Roger Waters years. Starting with the concept album behemoth Dark Side of the Moon and ending with The Wall. (Waters' last album with Pink was technically Final Cut, but many fans pretend that didn't happen)

The problem pertaining to the challenge is that: how can you imagine Pink Floyd without Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall? But guess what? They were separated by the legendary Wish You Were Here and the legendary Animals. All albums in which I love and could see on my 3 consecutive albums list. But do I go Dark Side through Animals (skipping the Wall), or do I go Wish You Were Here through The Wall (skipping Dark Side)?

THE PRETTY THINGS: 

 So I have to include S.F Sorrow, since that still might go down as one of the more underrated albums (I know that's the annoying hipster thing to say that I know of an album that's underrated, but if you listen to that album and look at where it was recorded, how it was made, who it inspired, and the fact that it's the first concept album ever made, then it will seem less annoying of me)

But then I have another lesser Pink Floyd fiasco here where I'm caught between 4 albums bookended by great albums. Get the Picture has all their early 60's classics, but Parachute is the ideal Pretty Things album for most people.

THE BEATLES: 

They're all good.

Well, I could see myself without having With the Beatles so I'm probably going in the later years. Perhaps mine would be: Sgt. Pepper - Magical Mystery Tour - White Album


Anyways,  start to fester on this. It's more fun than you'd think. You can even write your opinions in the comments to make me feel better! I'll tell you why you're wrong. (Just kidding)