How important is order of listening?

I don't think there is a right answer here, but ultimately it depends on what your purpose is.  if it's finding music you enjoy listening to, I would start with either the most current or the most acclaimed (by fans or critics - your choice)

micky wrote: Interesting topic/notion. Yeah I guess.. it is important but I suppose often it is just shear luck or timing. Case in point.. The Decemberists. For years I had heard of this great band coming out of Portland (my home town) but never got around to checking them out. Finally when Crane Wife came out I took the plunge and adored that album.  then I went back and checked out their earlier albums. Loved those, even if different. Then of course HoL came out and smoked anything they had done previously and again different from any of their previous albums. I don't know if I would have enjoyed the band, become such a fan, if I had started right in with the first. It is good but not the zap to the noggin that some of the later albums were. As far as following their progression, and this band is a good example of that as their albums (until very recently) were definite progressions from album to album. Doesn't really matter where one starts. You can follow it by starting the end, the middle or of course the beginning. The important point is getting hooked on a band, by the band, and that is often the luck of the draw on which album you choose (or fate has chosen) to start with.

I've tried to get into bands by entering in their discography release after release, 1970 after 1969, the first before the second, etc... But I'm not sure it's always the best way to discover a band: as an example, I still think that Iron Maiden's Powerslave (1984) is better than their very first LP (1980), the music of Yes in '71-'72 was superior to their '69-'70 first LPs, and Tangerine Dream's Phaedra is more fascinating than the harsh (and somewhat recorded in a hurry) Electronic Meditation.
Of course, there are also some bands which made a better music at their beginnings: I first discovered Cabaret Voltaire with Groovy, Laidback and Nasty (1990) and... Well, it really took me some courage to try their earlier material!

Furthermore, not being from a filthy rich family, I couldn't go and buy records every month and I had to rent them at my local library: so, there are a lot of bands/musicians whose discographies I've explored in a... less than straightforward way, due to the fact that I had to wait days or weeks before the records that I was looking for were returned!

In regards to Mastodon I got on board with their Leviathan album which was amazing ... and then I was blown away with their Crack the Skye album (still by far my favourite album by them).

For me, it depends on whether I think I'll like the band based on others' reviews. If I think the music will be right up my alley, I will buy the albums in order of release, so as to appreciate the band's musical development.

Edited by Replayer - May 31 2016 at 11:53

Hey Osh - there's lots of discussion of how people end up getting into bands here, but if I understand you were also specifically asking for people to list good listening order of albums, right?  So that you can find new music you like?

I don't think I'd go as far as to order an entire discography, but this might be a good place for people to pick out what they think is either a band's finest album or most accessible one.  For example, for me I'd say Opeth's finest is Deliverance, so I'd say start there with them.  But if someone were to list the most accessible, they'd say Damnation.  (Nowhere near as good in my opinion and not at all representative of everything else they've done, but definitely accessible).

Are there some bands you are thinking about trying and want some recommendations?

Well, when you were a kid in the 70's and discovering bands as you went along, you obviously didn't follow their albums chronologically, unless you could afford buying a few albums of the same band at once.