Bands that recovered after a prolonged dry spell (critical or commercial)

Thats the topic on my mind today. Bands that had a great run, faded into irrelevance, then somehow found the spark again and continued to crank out great stuff as though nothing happened. Bands like Van der Graaf Generator that reformed after several decades and remained great don't really count. There has to be some shit albums in between.

My nominees:

Sparks - Were pretty awesome for a while but started to lose it as soon as they hooked up with Harold Faltermeyer, then blew it big time with Pulling Rabbits From a Hat. Regardless wound up rebounding in a big way with 2002's Li'l Beethoven and the albums they've done since (which, like all the classic Sparks albums, sound way ahead of their time).

Gary Numan - Rather publically went to shit after Dance, discovered Nine Inch Nails and started delivering the goods again

Nick Lowe - He had to abruptly change directions to a folkier or more country-oriented style, but up until that point he seemed to be getting steadily worse.

Scott Walker

Based on what I've heard from the new Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers album, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers might apply here.

Did Petty have a dry spell, though?

(not arguing, just curious; I haven't followed Petty closely)

dylan, for sure. not sure if he continues "as though nothing happened" because it's all part of the dylan story and he changes all the time anyway but he definitely put out a lot of shit but then recovered fairly successfully.

bands that have done this though may be more interesting than individuals since you have a whole group dynamic that needs to recover, which seems like a more unlikely event than an individual's rebirth.

Neil Young in 1989.

continued to crank out great stuff as though nothing happened.

dinosaur jr? the records sure sound like it. the solo mascis stuff masquerading as "dinosaur jr" wasn't shit but it wasn't as good as the original group. kind of impressed with out how smooth that revival went

johnny cash

would like to think prince is in the early-ish stages of this right now.

The Church, Wire

The Who (live, 1999 - early 2002)

ZZ Top: Late WB and all their RCA stuff generally held in low regard. Take ten years off between new albums, filling time with archival releases and reestablishing their brand as a live act with yearly tours while looking up Rick Rubin for studio availability for comeback lp.

Based on what I've heard from the new Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers album, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers might apply here.

― Johnny Fever, T

Ehhh. It's what they call a Sonic Update.

John Fogerty

Dividing line between "prolonged dry spell" and "taking time off for family and record company lawsuits" somewhat blurred)

Tina Turner - divorced ike in '78, released two non-charting solo albums before Private Dancer

Wire is the best answer, for me, but then I don't really like their 80s stuff and think that R&B/Send is one of the greatest musical achievements of this century so fae

r

Aside from one disco hit, Cher was selling shit for about a decade after sonny & cher split

Alice Cooper

Bonnie Raitt owns this thread BTW

Aerosmith

lotta of these popped up at the end of the 80s

I was actually debating Bonnie Raitt. Commercially she was nothing to speak of before Nick of Time, and did critics really give up on her?

The B-52's.

George Harrison

Frank Zappa? (a question for the Zappologists out there)

Natalie Cole's another "can we please pretend the first half of the '80s didn't happen" person

Aretha Franklin in the "can we please pretend disco didn't happen" dept

FZ: I guess the transition from the original Mothers to the Flo & Eddie Mothers could be seen as a decline, with the fusion-oriented 74 Mothers as a resurgence...but pretty much every FZ fan loves and hates different eras with equal measure. I don't think there's anything like consensus.

I suppose there's an implicit Grateful Dead rule in effect depending on which side of the Billboard/Pollstar charts you're on.

Lots of people say this about Piano Magic but I haven't heard their "bad" period albums yet.

The inverse of this thread is Felix Da Housecat/Thee Maddkatt Courtship who made so much essential house music in the 90's. I saw him as a godlike figure who could do no wrong and then he spent the noughties putting out nothing but wretched electroclash shit. Maybe he is due to suddenly rediscover his previous awesomeness.

cab drivers

inverse would surely be a band that sucked, then started doing interesting stuff for a while before going back to sucking? I sort of feel this way about a few 60s/70s acts who 'went new wave' in the early 80s, but this is probably just a personal preference (I love electroclash Felix as well)

I loathe electroclash Felix, musical equivalent of severe toothache. I tried to like it and bought every one of them worthless fuckers, in my defence. But cab drivers is harsh.

Elvis Presley

good one

George Harrison

― da croupier, Thursday, July 24, 2014 12:09 PM (3 hours ago)

You're talking about 33 1/3, I'm certain.

Santana

Tragically cut short, but Joe Strummer fits the bill

Springsteen

was the Lou Reed late 70s/ early 80s stuff considered to be any good? if not then in light of Drella, New York etc, Lou Reed.

i love springsteen but i'd say the records he's made in the last 10 or 15 (or more, sigh) years have been consistently meh. i'm still waiting for the great late-career albums that will make him fit here, and i continue to believe he's got them in him. i also continue to believe he isn't going to make them with brendan o'brien.

New York definitely felt like a comeback for Reed (and was treated as such by critics), but so did New Sensations; there was only one studio record in between, the generally awful Mistrial.

The Blue Mask and Legendary Hearts both got a lot of critical notice at the time of their release

Want to say The Kinks, but I'm surprised at how well those late-70s albums sold.

[band that found success following a specific formula, who then decided to break from that formula, and then returned to that formula]

Metallica

(...if you ignore Lulu)

I dunno, they've never had a commercial dry spell, and critical consensus on Death Magnetic isn't that much better than Load or Reload right?

No way do Prince or Metallica fit the bill

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band sort of qualify here, I think.

In Rainbows following Amneasiac and Hail To The Thief?

oh yeah radiohead couldn't catch a break in the early '00s

Maybe Herbie Hancock? After his electro-funk albums of the 80s, I don't think he had much critical or commercial success until 2005... Though I don't think serious jazz-heads still rate the 00s crossover albums that high, but nevertheless they've certainly given more him more acclaim than what he's had for decades.

Heart

Five years between their biggest chart hit and their comeback, that's not much of a dry spell.

Should we argue about the length of the dry spell? Aerosmith was only 8 years between platinum albums and had two gold ones during that span. Heart split with most of the original band members then finally had big hit singles beginning in 85.

MTV was not checkig for Aerosmith at all until "Walk This Way"

Santana

MTV was not checkig for Aerosmith at all until "Walk This Way"

In their early years, when they'd play anything because there hardly was anything, the video for "Lightning Strikes" got some airtime.

Roy Orbison, although he mostly didn't live to know it.

A few years ago the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame had an Orbison exhibit, and among the pieces displayed was a handwritten note he'd written to himself, like a to-do list for his career. I think it was dated 1985 or 86. First item was "FIRE MANAGER."

Steve Earle?

the flipside to this thread would be "bands who abruptly became shit after a prolonged period of consistent quality"

Yo La Tengo in a walk, there.

he flipside to this thread would be "bands who abruptly became shit after a prolonged period of consistent quality"

― Neanderthal, Saturday, August 2, 2014 5:36 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Metallica would fit in to that one.

the flipside to this thread would be "bands who abruptly became shit after a prolonged period of consistent quality"

― Neanderthal, Saturday, August 2, 2014 12:36 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yo La Tengo in a walk, there.

― rockist papist scissorist (WilliamC),

sadly, irrevocably, true

Yeah, totally. It was a swift and sudden fall, and though I haven't kept up very closely, all accounts are that they have yet to fully recover.

Haven't The Cure been a little meh for a while now?

yes, but not profoundly shit, and they ambled downwards slowly

Daft Punk maybe... I had given up after Human After All.

Autechre? Felt their output in the early-mid 2000s was a bit aimless until they bounced back with Quaristice. Still, in the context of recent output things like Untilted sound pretty great in retrospect.

maybe we should have another thread about bands who haven't recovered yet? (Underworld? Do the Chemical Brothers still exist?)

The Cure pretty much dropped off a cliff IMO; from Disintegration (amazing obvs) to Wish (frequently amazing) to Wild Mood Swings
(an abomination).

Autechre? Felt their output in the early-mid 2000s was a bit aimless until they bounced back with Quaristice. Still, in the context of recent output things like Untilted sound pretty great in retrospect.

I'm not sure if there's a consensus that Autechre were ever that good?

nice one, Tuomas.

"Bloodflowers" and the self titled album were decent tho

Decent is pushing it but I'd give them a grudging "OK". Compared to how much I like pre-1990 Cure that's still dropping off a cliff.

Yo La Tengo I don't really agree with, I'm guessing the drop off is Summer Sun but that's the only one I don't like much, I think they recovered fine.

As a non-Cure fan, I'm curious as to why people hate Wild Mood Swings so much. I've only heard 'Want' and 'Mint Car' off of it but I like those songs well enough.

maybe we should have another thread about bands who haven't recovered yet? (Underworld? Do the Chemical Brothers still exist?)

Isn't this almost all long-running bands? Bands that recover are an exception to the rule

also re: autechre, pretty much every period of autechre has its defenders.

yeah that was my thought exactly. I do think both bands you named still sell out most venues they play. Chems sold a lot of records in the mid-00's and I think Further was reviewed well so I don't think they count. UW's last decade obviously wasn't as good as their first one (can't blame 'em for that) but I wouldn't say they were on a "dry spell".

when do ppl think YLT dropped off

silverfish OTM

Cure are weird for their patchiness from 90s onward.
Despite having 4 dazzling songs I still think Wish is possibly their weakest.
Wild Mood Swings would be a great if you trimmed 5 or so tracks.
I'm still not sure what to make of Bloodflowers, sometimes I think it was the weakest but I consider it quite ambitious and different even though I don't have many favourites on it.
The selftitled album has some great stuff but quite a lot of weak stuff too.
4:13 Dream is the most solid thing since the 80s and a lot of fun. But a lot of fans seem to be less enthusiastic. My only complaint is the b-sides were forgettable.

So I don't think it's anything like the terrible downhill slide most old bands have. Erratic and patchy is how I'd describe post80s Cure

when do ppl think YLT dropped off

― socki (s1ocki), Monday, August 4, 2014 10:09 AM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Summer Sun was YLT's dropoff point for me, though there were worrying signs on the two preceding records ("Green Arrow" on I Can Hear the Heart, "Tired Hippo" on And then Nothing...).

Now that I think about it, there really aren't many bands I love that simply turned to crap.

The declines of Morrissey (Boxers single was his last satisfying disc for me) and Jacula/Antonius Rex (after the first 3 albums there is almost nothing really good) really hurt but Frank Black, Talking Heads, Beach Boys are more difficult to sum up because so many great things are peppered along the decline.

In an odd way it would be easier if some bands turned to total shit because it would be easier to stop with them and be sure where the cut off point was.

Devo most definitely turned to shit for a while

did they recover? what's a good later album?

Sparks wins so far

Morrissey's decline definitely traced around the mid 90s, certainly at least Maladjusted era

Lot of "will he retire" talk around then of course

I agree with Tarfumes -- Summer Sun is the big dropoff for me too.

did they recover? what's a good later album?

not really - their 2010 'comeback' was kinda decent though, just naming a band I love that turned to crap.

still great live though.

maybe we should have another thread about bands who haven't recovered yet? (Underworld? Do the Chemical Brothers still exist?)

― StanM, Monday, August 4, 2014 8:34 PM (Yesterday)

as others said, Underworld have never really fallen off, their interests just keep changing, as they have since 1982. Chems last album was one of their best ever and their last two tours were spectacular. (Live tours - I saw a bit of a DJ set early last year and it was pretty dire.)

The Cure pretty much dropped off a cliff IMO; from Disintegration (amazing obvs) to Wish (frequently amazing) to Wild Mood Swings (an abomination).

― piscesx, Monday, August 4, 2014 9:53 PM (Yesterday)

Disintegration (amazing obvs)
Never Enough (one of their best singles ever)
Hello I Love You (better than The Doors)
the re-recording of Primary for Mixed Up (fantastic)
Wish (frequently amazing)
b-sides from Wish singles (maybe their most solid batch of b-sides ever)
Lost Wishes (good enough that they should have done one of these every few years)
Burn (magnificent)
Young Americans (pretty inessential)
Dredd Song (quite bad)
The 13th (fantastic, if only it had been successful enough to encourage further genre faffery like this in future, and all the best b-sides of the WMS era)
Wild Mood Swings (at least 1/3 good, but 1/3 the opposite)
Wrong Number (really mighty, a far better use of Gabrels than anything he's done with them since)
A Sign From God (barely remember this but IIRC it was right not to release it under the band's name)
World In My Eyes (doesn't do much, especially against some really interesting or well-done covers on the same album)
More Than This (total snoozefest)
Bloodflowers (consistent but to no effective end)
Coming Up (idrc, mildly poppier than the album maybe but so what)
Cut Here (gorgeous, one of their most affecting songs, shimmeringly pretty for all its sadness and beautifully sung)

and then a decade where every guest vocal Smith has done for an electronic act is an incredible jam but the band haven't recorded a note I give one eighth of a fuck about. (tbh I've not listened to the full albums, but Simon hates one and Robert feels the other one is tragically compromised so it's hard to imagine I missed out.)

Holy fuck! I've never even heard of that Lost Wishes stuff! I guess youtube is the only option I've got for that. I still need some odds and ends and a few singles (I wish Join The Dots collected all the non-album singles as well as Lost Wishes).

Sometimes I get the false impression that I've been there and done it with my favourite bands but there are usually a few more loose ends I need to get.

Sic, I'd highly recommend you get 4:13 Dream. It isn't meaty as you might want but it is fun, very accessible and doesn't have the fatigue/overfamiliar quality I hear from the previous two albums. It sounds quite like Wish to me (probably the presence of Porl). I think this album deserved a better reception than it got but I think a lot of people were reluctant from the previous two albums.

Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra. Couldn't get arrested in the early 50s, and were reduced to accompanying an ice show in 1955; in 1956, their Newport performance killed, and resulted in their best-selling album.

dinosaur jr? the records sure sound like it. the solo mascis stuff masquerading as "dinosaur jr" wasn't shit but it wasn't as good as the original group. kind of impressed with out how smooth that revival went

― marcos, Thursday, July 24, 2014 11:23 AM (1 week ago)

mission of burma another ex of same, 80s indie rockers rebooting to wide acclaim, if not massive pop success

t warrior w/ triptykon, one among many (many) metal bands & figures w/ recently celebrated "comeback" periods

ps: will happily pay upwards of $5 for decent eparistera daimones vinyl, pm me

^ triptykon & last cf album, should say