Some bands take so long in between albums they make Guns N’ Roses (six albums in 40 years) look like Buckethead (693 in 15). What we’re concerned with here is the polar opposite, the kind of bands that release another record in the time it took you to buy the last one.
With a new record on the shelves from one such outfit – Ohio indie royalty Guided By Voices with their 41st in total – it seems a prime time to look at some of the most dauntingly prolific artists and offer a route in for the uninitiated.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
You could probably keep King Gizzard tied to chairs under constant supervision for a week (absolutely not condoning that), and they’d still somehow manage to record and release a new album. Since September 2012, the mind-melting Australian psych rockers have released 26 studio albums, 56 live albums, three EPs and four compilations.
Back in March 2022, they announced one album (Omnium Gatherum) three days after releasing its predecessor (Made In Timeland) only to release a further three albums six months later. The last year has seen a slight slowing down but single ‘Phantom Island’ suggests that’s only because album 27 might be their most ambitious yet.
Where to start: Where indeed. The journey into Gizzland is so overwhelming and sprawling that one wise soul has created a map for new travellers at www.getintogizz.com. Their recommended entry point is I’m In Your Mind Fuzz, which offers a decent cross-section of their eclecticism.
For a band that veers from chirpy folk to psych metal to jazz prog (to name just a few), it’s likely that the best album will be whichever strand calls to you most. Find the stuff you like and stick with it until it sinks in. After all, however fast they release records, they can’t do it as fast as you can listen to them so you’ll catch up eventually.
Guided By Voices
Of all the lo-fi indie outfits to spring up in the late 80s/early 90s, none have remained quite as prolific as Guided By Voices. The ridiculous thing is that quality has mostly equalled quantity. Robert Pollard and co. released 11 albums between 1992 and 1997, five of which are either masterpieces or close to it.
Now in their fifth decade as a band, they’re not exactly slowing down. February 2025 saw the release of Universal Pool, their 12th album in five years and their 41st in total (not even counting Pollard’s many extracurricular activities).
Where to start: GBV albums can often feel like scanning rapidly through a series of distant radio stations. That’s all part of their charm, but it’s probably better to start with one of the turn-of-the-millennium records where they briefly courted the idea of crossover success.
Do The Collapse is maybe a touch too slick (although ‘Teenage FBI’ is one of their best songs) so start instead with Isolation Drills. It’s got a bit more muscle and two genuinely gigantic bangers in ‘Glad Girls’ and ‘Chasing Heather Crazy’. If that floats your boat, then Alien Lanes and Bee Thousand should be next on your list.
Johnny Cash
The man in black released a grand total of 68 studio albums across his lifetime and a staggering 105 compilation albums. There’s an awful lot of overlap in terms of track listing and some stark fallow periods in terms of quality, but Cash’s popularity has endured, even when time and tastes seemed to have left him behind.
It’s testament to his timelessness that he was close to peak popularity by the time of his death in 2003.
Where to start: It’s best to approach Cash as a singles artist than to go too deep into his studio albums from the start – few new fans are going to be won by his 1975 children’s album.
It feels odd to suggest starting off with a live album for any artist but Johnny Cash’s prison albums (At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin) are the stuff of legend. From there, there are two essential routes: his first two albums With His Hot And Blue Guitar and The Fabulous Johnny Cash and his final run of American albums, produced by Rick Rubin and featuring covers of Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden and Depeche Mode.
The Fall
Mark E Smith (pictured) never had any interest in making anything easy for anyone. One Fall song supposedly made John Peel faint, although we can’t confirm the rumour that a Faint song made him fall.
The Fall were not to be approached lightly, especially when Smith was openly disdainful of artists who had the temerity to even consider melody. What makes things even trickier for anyone seeking an induction is the 31 studio albums, 12 EPs and some 59 live albums they left behind.
Where to start: Opinions vary on this. Many fans will point you towards Hex Induction Hour, the band’s 1982 post punk masterpiece, but even that is an undertaking. Instead, the closest The Fall ever got to accessibility is probably the mid-80s stellar one-two of The Wonderful & Terrifying World of The Fall and This Nation’s Saving Grace.
Neither are akin to Smith welcoming you in with a cuppa and some cosy slippers, but if you’re not on board after these, you probably never will be.
Sun Ra
Some artists defy categorisation. Sun Ra defies even quantification.
It’s impossible to say just how many albums the cosmic jazz maverick released during the 79 years that he visited this planet, but the generally accepted answer is over 100. Some were recorded by Sun Ra at home and decorated by members of his Arkestra, with only 75 copies pressed to be sold at shows.
Where to start: Weirdly, for an artist with so many albums, there’s a pretty straightforward answer for this. Sun Ra’s 1959 album Jazz in Silhouette is widely considered an overlooked jazz masterpiece. But if you’re here for the mad stuff, Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy is where Ra starts to go avant garde. From that point on, you’re headed straight out into the cosmos.
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats started life in 1991 when John Darnielle began turning out cassette-only albums recorded at home on an old boombox. As audiences grew, The Mountain Goats eventually expanded into a full band and experimented with novel techniques such as recording studios, only slightly slowing productivity in the process.
To date, they’ve amassed 22 albums and 24 EPs, but when I spoke to Darnielle in the late 00s about his prolific output, he reasoned that, “If a songwriter manages to write only one song a month, doesn’t he kind of suck at songwriting?”
Where to start: Most Mountain Goats fans will tell you that Tallahassee is their best album, and if you’re up for an entire album about an unhappy, childless couple resolving to drink themselves to death, then go for it.
An easier entry point – and I use “easier” with a touch of irony – is the majestic The Sunset Tree. Inspired by Darnielle’s hellish childhood with an abusive stepfather, it offers transcendental moments of escapism, not least on ‘This Year’ with its defiant refrain of “I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me.” From there, All Hail West Texas is the standout of the boombox era.
A few more with more than a few more:
Frank Zappa
Approximately 129 official albums since 1966, 67 of which have been posthumous.
Buckethead
A staggering 693 in 15 years, which works out at 3.85 albums a month.
Nana Mouskouri
The biggest selling female artist of all time has released over 200 albums in 13 different languages. When it comes to losing Eurovision finalists, Gina G has a bit of catching up to do.
James Brown
The Godfather of Soul released 59 studio albums between 1958 and 2002.
Willie Nelson
Including his collaborations with the likes of Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Leon Russell, the country music superstar has released 102 albums since 1962, proof that the ol’ wacky tobaccy doesn’t necessarily kill your productivity.
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