For the definition you seem to mean - an artist with some great music and some terrible music - the Beach Boys and Paul McCartney both come to mind, although with them the great and the terrible is often side by side on the same albums. I can't offhand think of an artist I think of as great who had a long stretch of terrible albums - maybe Bob Dylan, but I haven't spent enough time with his post-70s stuff to feel sure of that assessment.
Kate Nash is a kind of unique artist in that I struggle to decide whether I really like her or whether I hate her. It's partly her voice and her confessional, off-the-cuff-seeming lyrics (which can be off-putting in the same way that Rivers Cuomo circa Pinkerton could be), and it's partly that she can't seem to decide whether she does pretty singer-songwritery stuff or riot grrl-esque punk - sometimes I find the juxtaposition compelling and sometimes I find it annoying.
There's some artists where I objectively recognize their qualities but can't stand listening to them, Tom Waits most obviously.
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