I've been considering this thread for sometime now, and I imagine I'm not the only one who'd be interested. So, there are a lot of artists whos names are thrown around on this message board, many of which sound like they have an extensive catalog of music to choose from. Stuff like David Bowie, Tom Waits, and even R.E.M. I'm not as well aquainted with as I'd like to be. I guess what I'm looking for is suggestions on what albums/recordings to pick up from some of these artists and any other artist that has released a lot of music. It sucks when you accidently buy the one crap album the artist made and wind up writting them off.
OK, so I'm thinking the only criteria is that the artist has to have released at least 5 albums; that does not rule out more recent acts, like Radiohead. Also, I'd say be as obscure as your music collection is...if you have five albums from some backwoods washbin player that you absolutely love and has been out of print for 10 years, please feel free to bring your pretentious music collection to our attention. I appreciate any help and hope this thread can be a reference to others, especially when it comes to checking out this years bands that have a lot to choose from.
I'll start with an obvious one:
Radiohead
I would start with either OK Computer or Hail to the Thief to have a mildly representative (though not holistic) concept of their sound. From there, I would pick up KID A, which is my favorite. If you like those first two, the others will probably suit your fancy.