The 3-song/3-album game

[tjs]

Here's how you play: take any band you like and, looking at each of their albums, pick what you think is the best consecutive 3-song run on each album. Now, looking only at the three songs you've chosen from each album, pick what you think is the best consecutive 3-album run.

Note that by doing things in this order, you might not end up with either your favorite 3-album run or your favorite 3-song run by the band, as your favorite albums might not have the strongest 3 consective song combos on them, and your favorite song combo might be surrounded by albums that don't have strong combos themselves.

So to start, I'm going to pick Wilco.

Being There: Hotel Arizona, Say You Miss Me, Sunken Treasure
Summerteeth: Can't Stand It, She's a Jar, A Shot in the Arm
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: Jesus Etc., Ashes of American Flags, Heavy Metal Drummer

This was a really difficult one for me to pick. First, choosing the best 3-song run on YHF was pretty much a crapshoot - there were several combinations I could have gone with. And I almost went with A Ghost Is Born (Muzzle of Bees, Hummingbird, Handshake Drugs) over the three from Being There. And if I had done so, I then would have had to decide between the three from Summerteeth and the first three from Sky Blue Sky (Either Way, You Are My Face, Impossible Germany). But in the end I decided that the AGIB songs just work better live than they do on the album, so that gave me my final results.

For a better known example, I'll do The Beatles:

Revolver: Good Day Sunshine, And Your Bird Can Sing, For No One
Sgt. Pepper: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, With a Little Help From My Friends, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Magical Mystery Tour: Hello Goodbye, Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane

Pretty easy choices there (unless you want to argue that Magical Mystery Tour doesn't count since it was only a true album release in the US). Surprisingly, for as many amazing songs as The Beatles had, they didn't have as many great 3-song runs as you'd expect because there are too many weaker songs in there to break them up. To be fair, they were releasing several albums a year, and if they had released fewer albums and been stricter about which songs made the cut then they easily could have made this game impossible.

You get the idea. Your turn.

[Dancing Frog]

I choose Rush

Hemispheres: Circumstances, The Trees, La Via Strangiato
Permanent Waves: Spirit of the Radio, Freewill, Jacob's Ladder
Moving Pictures: Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, YYZ

[deeohgee]

AC/DC

Powerage: Gone Shootin, Riff Raff, Sin City
Highway To Hell: If You Want Blood (You've Got It), Love Hungry Man, Night Prowler
Back In Black: Let Me Put My Love Into You, Back In Black, You Shook Me All Night Long

[skillet]

TOOL

Undertow: Intolerance, Prison Sex, Sober (lots of other possibilities on this album, whole thing is good)
Aenima: Jimmy, Die Eir Von Satan, Pushit (tough as there are numerous 'joke/filler' songs, including Die Eir Von Satan, but it is awesome, heh, and is bookended by my two favorite songs from this album, so there!)
Lateralus: (The Holy Trinity) --> Disposition, Reflection, Triad (other possibilities, like "Schism, Parabol, Parabola", or "The Grudge, Eon Blue Apocalypse, The Patient", but The Holy Trinity is my personal favorite and was meant to be listened to as a triad)

The Black Keys (in my opinion, damn near any combination of 3 consecutive songs from these 3 albums could be used)

Thickfreakness: Thickfreakness, Hard Row, Set You Free
Rubber Factory: Aeroplane Blues, Keep Me, Till I Get My Way (if you listen to those 3 and aren't pumped, you have no pulse and should be classified as undead)
Magic Potion: Goodbye Babylon, Black Door, Elevator

[KidArchitect]

I'll play. Damn this is tough.

Radiohead

1. Bends - Just -> My Iron Lung -> Bullet proof (I wish I was)
2. OK Computer - Airbag -> Paranoid Android -> Subterranean Homesick Alien (this is tough! Other choice would be Electioneering/Climbing Up the walls/No Surprises)
3. Kid A - The National Anthem -> How to disappear completely -> treefingers

[suckamc]

Steely Dan: 8 Albums in a row ("Can't Buy a Thrill" through "Two Against Nature"), 75 songs in a row. Oh, 76, counting "FM".

I just can't pick 3 albums or 3 songs from that run. So I guess I'm just trolling...

[StratManKudzu]

Dave Matthews Band
Before These Crowded Streets – The Stone, Crush, The Dreaming Tree
Everyday – Dreams of our Fathers, So Right, If I had It All
Busted Stuff – Captain, Raven, Grace is Gone

[bjjp2]

Rolling Stones:

Beggars Banquet: Sympathy for the Devil, No Expectations, Dear Doctor.
Let It Bleed: Midnight Rambler, You Got the Silver, Monkey Man.
Sticky Fingers: Brown Sugar, Sway, Wild Horses.
Exile: All Down the Line, Stop Breaking Down, Shine A Light.

Yes, I know that's four, but I couldn't bear to exclude either BB or Exile. A lot of great songs excluded because there was almost always a "filler" song on each side smack in the middle.

[small axe]

pearl jam

ten - alive, why go, black
vs - w.m.a, blood, rearviwmirror
vitalogy - not for you, tremor christ, nothingman

[tsar nicholas]

Electric Wizard :

Come My Fanatics - "Return Trip," "Doom Mantia," "Wizard in Black"
Dopethrone - "Vinum Sabbathi / Funeralopolis" (this is really one song, like a suite), "I, The Witchfinder," "Barbarian"
Witchcult Today - "Witchcult Today," "Torquemada '71," "Dunwich"

[spookybonus]

nice electric wizard choices

[StratManKudzu]

Originally Posted by suckamc

Steely Dan: 8 Albums in a row ("Can't Buy a Thrill" through "Two Against Nature"), 75 songs in a row. Oh, 76, counting "FM".

I just can't pick 3 albums or 3 songs from that run. So I guess I'm just trolling...

I'll try:

Steely Dan
Katy Lied – Everyone’s Gone to the Movies, Your Gold Teeth II, Chain Lightning
The Royal Scam – Don’t Take Me Alive, Sign In Stranger, The Fez
Aja – Aja, Deacon Blues, Peg

[tsar nicholas]

Originally Posted by spookybonus

nice electric wizard choices

^ Thanks amigo! Big up the doom from Dorset

[bjjp2]

The Clash:

The Clash: Janie Jones, Remote Control, I'm So Bored With the USA.
Give 'Em Enough Rope: Safe European Home, English Civil War, Tommy Gun.
London Calling: Lost In The Supermarket, Clampdown, Guns of Brixton (or London Calling, Brand New Cadillac, Jimmy Jazz).

[bjjp2]

Originally Posted by StratManKudzu

I'll try:

Steely Dan
Katy Lied – Everyone’s Gone to the Movies, Your Gold Teeth II, Chain Lightning
The Royal Scam – Don’t Take Me Alive, Sign In Stranger, The Fez
Aja – Aja, Deacon Blues, Peg

Would've picked Kid Charlemagne, Caves of Altamira and Don't Take Me Alive from Royal Scam.