Listening to Lucero’s Nobody’s Darlings on the ride into work today and had forgotten how much I enjoy it. I think their latter work has taken some of the sheen off this stretch of theirs.

This is wholly unscientific but it strikes me that this album is part of a small group of stretches of 3-full-length-albums I’d call great or nearly flawless. Many bands have great records, and lots of make two in a row, but a three-peat of great records seems rare. The ones I could think of off the top of my head:

• Hot Water Music – Fuel for the Hate Game / Forever & Counting / No Division / A Flight and A Crash / Caution
• Lucero – Tennesse / That Much Further West / Nobody’s Darlings
• Nirvana – Bleach / Nevermind / In Uetero
• Songs: Ohia – The Lioness / Mi Sei Apparso Come un Fantasma / Didn’t It Rain

Lots of reasons I can think of for not more 3-album stretches: Great records or a pair are preceded or followed by just really good ones (e.g. Neutral Milk Hotel, Public Enemy); a band breaks up after one or two great ones (e.g. Slang, Bridge and Tunnel); I’m not as familiar with a whole catalog enough to identify a 3-peat but there probably is one (Sonic Youth, Unwound, Fugazi); puts out 3 great albums in 4 record stretch (Dikembe).

After quickly scrolling through my collection some obvious ones I missed (though still not comprehensive:

• Constantines – Constatines / Shine a Light / Tournament of Hearts
• Jawbreaker – Bivouac / 24 Hour Revenge Therapy / Dear You
• Richard Buckner – Bloomed / Devotion + Doubt / Since

There’s also probably a stretch of Kiss, Phil Ochs, PJ Harvey, R.E.M (though the song “Stand” alone might knock them out) and the aforementioned Fugazi, Sonic Youth and Unwound, but the point still stands.