"Holy Trinities" -- Classic Three-Album Runs | Page 5 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Ooft. I forgot that this thread existed. Some of my favourite three album runs include:

Kero Kero Bonito

Intro Bonito – Bonito Generation – Time ‘N’ Place

Although the first is technically a mixtape, this trilogy is one of my favourites ever, going from three weird introverts making a bizarre fusion of hip hop and children’s music, to a Japanese influenced outfit making super wholesome synth pop music to an experimental indie rock band experimenting with indie pop, noise and shoegaze.

Miles Davis 

Milestones – Kind of Blue – Sketches of Spain

Okay so this one is kind of cheating since Porgy and Bess was released in between the first two, but it’s kind of irrelevant in Miles’ discography and doesn’t continue the progression that the other three do, which goes from cool jazz beginning to experiment with modal playing, to full on modal jazz, to a fusion of Spanish influenced classical music with modal jazz. 

In A Silent Way – Bitches Brew – A Tribute To Jack Johnson – On the Corner

This one is again cheating since there actually four albums (collective gasp) but I couldn’t possibly miss one out as they are basically my children. They are all classics of Miles’ fusion phase that are all brilliant and unique in their own individual ways. In A Silent Way is almost proto-ambient nocturnal jazz perfect for night time listening, Bitches Brew is often out-there and cacophonous jazz rock, Jack Johnson is super groovy and aggressive jazz rock, and On the Corner is a funky kaleidoscope of sound that evokes the streets of NYC where Miles was living at the time. 

Kendrick Lamar

good kid m.A.A.d. city, To Pimp A Butterfly, DAMN. 

Probably the most talented and visionary rapper of the decade, Kendrick dropped a killer succession of albums that delved into both his own life and the concept of being black with an amazing level of nuance and musical creativity. TPAB in particular is absolutely incredible, with music that draws on jazz, funk, blues, soul, hip hop and rock against an amazing narrative storyline with one of the most mind bending-ly creative ends to an album I’ve ever heard. 

I’ll try and post some more of these soon, but for now I need to sleep. 

Von Bontee said
Night night, QuarryMan!

QMan now well rested and ready to continue BBposting

What’s your opinion on the 1965-68 quintet? (Myself, I love that particular band, their truly unique sonic conception of time and lyricism; but I don’t think any three consecutive releases are necessarily the three best.) 

I haven’t heard all of the albums from that period, but Miles In The Sky has some great playing on it. It’s not my favourite part of Miles’ career, though, as it feels like they were somewhere in between the very much acoustic wonders of the late 50s/early 60s and the electric period of a decade later without doing much that hugely stands out to me anywhere in between.

Bitches Brew is always bit of a slog for me, I love the concept and the expanded band can sound pretty hot, but much of it meanders, and Teo’s edits are jarring. (I’d call “JJ/Corner/Get Up With It” the REAL trinity myself! )

  

I’m with you on the first disc of Bitches Brew, which can get pretty tough if I’m not in the right mood, but Miles Runs The Voodoo down and Sanctuary are two of my favourite Miles tracks, so they alone make it worth it. 

Von Bontee said
Couldn’t agree more, 2nd LP is better, and “Voodoo” is the album’s standout.

“…In The Sky” is very cool because the four tracks are so long and dissimilar (plus tentative stabs into electricity!); importantly, also the first of three to be labeled “Directions in music by…” “Stuff” is as successful an initial stab at r&b as imaginable, with that crazy complicated melody. (Stop me if you know all this, please. ) That album and “Filles de Kilimanjaro” are the transitional ones, bittersweet, as Miles abandons acoustic jazz forever. All of his musicians will continue making stellar music, but that rhythm section of Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and especially Tony Williams was truly extraordinary – like, painters and sculptors of time. I enjoy Miles’ various earlier smaller groups (and find the Gil Evans stuff largely a bore, it’s not for me)…but that 2nd Quintet outshines the 1st, for me. (And maybe Trane’s Quartet, too, sometimes.)

  

I haven’t visited Miles In The Sky for several months, so thank you for jogging my memory The Gil Evans stuff did take a while to grow on me. Personally i’m not hugely attached to any individual Miles lineup as I would be for Trane (except for the Kind of Blue sessions lineup, which was a kind of magic that has never been replicated since). The Trane quartet, occasionally with Pharoah and Alice, is one I really love. 

Beatlebug said
I don’t know if this has been posted, but I would nominate Talking Heads’ Fear of Music (1979) – Remain In Light (1980) – Speaking In Tongues (1983)

  

Yes yes yes! I think More Songs from 1978 fits in the trilogy better conceptually, given the Eno collaboration which ended with Remain, but I think Tongues is the better album overall, and contains the wonderful This Must Be The Place, their best song in my opinion.

Ooh an opportunity for me to mention The Hollies!

I’d consider For Certain Because (1966), Evolution (1967) and Butterfly (1967), their final three albums with Graham Nash before he left to be a classic trinity of albums. Excellent mixture of straightforward pop rock, folk rock, psychedelia and baroque pop between them.

Or alternatively, there is also this great trio of albums from them in the early 70s: Confessions of The Mind (1970), Distant Light (1971) and Romany (1972).