Recent comeback album poll (post 2000)

Tribe, fairly easily, as intimated

Aerial, Third and mbv are great too. Third doesn't really belong here though. Too short a gap.

Portishead or D’Angelo, by a country mile.

Oh yeah Black Messiah is really good as well, sure

Of course, perhaps my favourite of all is Wire's whole Read & Burn/Send comeback, but that's a bit less clearly a 'comeback album'

K.A. by Magma is my go-to example for this

D'Angelo has the best album here but it seems unfair to call it a comeback, that's just how long he takes to make an album

Ogilala by Billy Corgan. First solo album in 12 years. Some of the best stuff of his career on that album.

Third doesn't really belong here though. Too short a gap.

11 years between Portishead and Third. My subjective cutoff for this poll was a decade.

I realize that most SP albums could qualify as BC solo albums. Different attitude though, which completely changes the character of the songs.
xp

Ugh, I forgot a record: Sleep - The Sciences

Aerial, still

Fwiw I like ‘em all except for the Kate Bush (I don’t get her music, never will) and the Sleep (ditto), had it been included.

There must be way more of these, I feel like I've heard of so many bands coming back for one more in the last year or two (presumably because it's easier to collaborate & record remotely?)

Telefon Tel Aviv put out an album 10 years after the previous one under that name

Hum, for instance. It’s a good ‘un, too.

Slowdive for me.

Something else: Swervedriver

Of the available options, ATCQ or D'Angelo. Chills comeback also one of the most astounding events of this century.

Almost all of the follow-ups listed here are after 2000.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_gaps_between_studio_albums

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/UnleashTheLove2017.jpg

hah putting Bjork on that list is kind of cheap

Royal Trux

this is a genuinely tough choice. right now, it's a five-way tie between vashti, the valentines, portishead, kate, and slowdive. i would also consider a write-in for the chameleons' why call it anything?.

There must be way more of these, I feel like I've heard of so many bands coming back for one more in the last year or two (presumably because it's easier to collaborate & record remotely?)

Yes there's a lot (see the wiki link posted above) but a select few have not only shown the band in top form, but are arguably among their best works (if not their best). Rare that a comeback can do that, which is why this list is abbreviated.

superchunk - majesty shredding was my first thought but looks like it wasn't quite a decade off

it's either slowdive or it's cynic - traced in air

Shirley Collins is missing from that wiki list - was a 38 year gap before her comeback record

How about Black Sabbath (18 yrs)

Like for example I find Tool's Fear Inoculum and Avalanches' Wildflower would be obvious worthy additions, but are these albums as good as anything they've done prior? Better than? This is the thinking here. Just because a band like Black Sabbath has a comeback album (or other horny old hippies like Roger Waters) doesn't mean they're as good as their peak output (say Iron Man or Animals or something). You can definitely argue that for any of the bands I initially included in the poll.

I like Wildflower more than SILY but I'm probably alone on that

as for the ones on that list - I think the Devo album has held up pretty well. it does something that very few of these albums do, which is sound very much like the year it was released, rather than an "updated" take on what they used to do. the Van Der Graaf Generator one is the opposite, it sounds like it could've come out in 1978.

also I'm very amused by the fact that the 5th spot on the list belongs to....Gryphon

VDGG's Present had an extremely good opening track at least, but their follow-up to the comeback was a much better album

Suede did the same - comeback was so-so, but then they got better

I would nominate Polvo, but it's their second post-comeback LP that I *really* dig

In a similar vein, Swans The Seer is arguably the best thing they ever did.

We Didn't Say That >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Save the World but Daphne and Celeste

Didn't know Linda Perhacs made another record, any good?

black messiah, but all of these are damn good.

Omg! I didn't count Daphne and Celeste (because it's more a Max Tundra record) but of COURSE that one is amazing yeah :D

anyone else itt prefer 50 words for snow to aerial?

Hum, for instance. It’s a good ‘un, too.

Yep, absolutely. I've lived with it long enough now to comfortably consider it one of their best records. (22 years, 4 months, 27 days - for the uninitiated)

Voting Mission of Burma - ONoffON & Oblierati both pretty great.

The Pop Group or X.

Mix seems relevant:

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/musicophilia_00_various_late_2005-2019_cover-a.jpg?w=1536

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/musicophilia_00_various_late_2005-2019_cover-b.jpg?w=1536

Various – ‘Late’
(2005-2019)

01 [0:00:00] David Bowie – “Lazarus” (‘Blackstar’ 2016)
02 [0:06:20] My Bloody Valentine – “In Another Way” (‘MBV’ 2013)
03 [0:11:50] Shelleyan Orphan – “Bodysighs” (‘We Have Everything…’ 2008)
04 [0:16:40] D’Angelo & The Vanguard – “The Charade” (‘Black Messiah’ 2014)
05 [0:19:50] Low – “Fly” (‘Double Negative’ 2018)
06 [0:25:35] Kate Bush – “Snowflake” (’50 Words for Snow’ 2011)
07 [0:35:15] Nick Cave – “Jubilee Street” (‘Push The Sky Away’ 2013)
08 [0:41:35] Sam Phillips – “So Close” (‘World On Sticks’ 2018)
09 [0:45:00] Flaming Lips – “Turning VIolent” (‘The Terror’ 2013)
10 [0:49:15] Portishead – “The Rip” (‘Third’ 2008)
11 [0:53:40] Mazzy Star – “Seasons Of Your Day” (‘Seasons Of Your Day’ 2013)

12 [0:57:15] Bjork – “Black Lake” (‘Vulnicura’ 2015)
13 [1:07:25] Daft Punk – “Motherboard” (‘Random Access Memories’ 2013)
14 [1:13:00] A Tribe Called Quest – “Conrad Tokyo” (‘We Got It From Here’ 2016)
15 [1:16:30] Beck – “Defriended” (‘Defriended’ EP 2013)
16 [1:20:25] Cavern of Anti-Matter – “Kool Boy Narcosis” (‘Blood-Drums’ 2013)
17 [1:23:20] Neneh Cherry – “Soldier” (‘Broken Politics’ 2018)
18 [1:27:40] Rustin Man – “Our Tomorrow” (‘Drift Code’ 2019)
19 [1:32:15] Nine Horses – “Wonderful World” (‘Snow Borne Sorrow’ 2005)
20 [1:38:10] Erykah Badu – “Hello” (‘But You Cain’t Use My Phone’ 2015)
21 [1:43:15] Slowdive – “Falling Ashes” (‘Slowdive’ 2017)
22 [1:51:10] Radiohead – “True Love Waits” (‘A Moon Shaped Pool’ 2016)

[Total Time: 1:55:43]

Download/stream here: https://musicophilia.wordpress.com/2020/08/29/late/

aerial is my favourite of those but slowdive, third, black messiah, and we got it from here are all excellent too

from the wiki list i hadn't realised that inlet was a slightly bigger gap than slowdive. that's great too

No Coast by Braid is one of the only comeback albums I like, although Third is really good. But Braid actually announced a breakup/final show before the interim between Frame & Canvas and No Coast.

Definitely voting for D'Angelo, given the options presented. I really find the love for that Tribe album baffling.

Some of these are really good, but it feels like hardly any of them left any cultural footprint. They came out, everyone discussed them online for a day or so, then that was it.

That's how it seemed to me anyway, especially the MBV and Aphex records.

I still listen to m b v regularly and it absolutely bangs

I enjoyed several of these but Black Messiah stands out

anyone else itt prefer 50 words for snow to aerial?

― la table sur la table (voodoo chili), Tuesday, November 17, 2020 6:31 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Has anyone itt mentioned At The Drive-In yet? Because in•ter a•li•a delivered exactly what I wanted from a new ATDI album in 2017

Hey Octo, thanks for doing this poll! I'm still going with Slowdive but Wire is tough competition. And it depends on what we're looking at - just LPs or do EPs count too? Cause they released an amazing 1997 EP, "Vien", which was smack in the middle between the Wir album and "Send".

oh yeah no coast is fucking amazing

i listened to syro today and it's totally my favorite aphex twin record after the first saw. it slaps

often makes me wanna do the robot in public

Portishead

i listened to syro today and it's totally my favorite aphex twin record after the first saw. it slaps

I picked Third. Still listen to it all the time. It was between that, D'Angelo and Tribe for me

No The Drift? I suppose it was more or less on schedule at 11 years rather than being a comeback album in the same sense as some of the others.

Of those I've heard on the list, m b v. That album has a special power to induce good feelings.

Black Messiah is the only comeback album I like more than the earlier material.

Black Messiah is the only comeback album I like more than the earlier material.

Black Messiah is the only comeback album I like more than the earlier material.

wait....Low??

I like that album but I don't think they've released a bad one

Third long ago cemented itself as one of the albums that defines me as me in some way, so it's an easy vote. But Tribe and D'Angelo are not far behind.

wait....Low??

Low never stopped releasing records... Double Negative just was so good on its own that it made you forget the albums leading up to it, I guess?

An artist who was very close to being in this list, and arguably should be in it if we're shortening the gap from 10 years to 8 is Fiona Apple

Hey Octo, thanks for doing this poll! I'm still going with Slowdive but Wire is tough competition. And it depends on what we're looking at - just LPs or do EPs count too? Cause they released an amazing 1997 EP, "Vien", which was smack in the middle between the Wir album and "Send".

Totally fair - would have thrown in the Read and Burn EPs if they hadn't put out Vien, which is too long ago for this poll (post 2000 comebacks), but definitely worthy of discussion!

This list is absolutely abbreviated and missing a number of worthwhile picks. Mostly happy there's at least a thread to encapsulate this discussion as it has spilled into multiple threads in the past (and the Slowdive one the other day) and there's been quite a few astonishingly good comeback records of late.

Portishead is the only album here where I'd argue it's their best work. Cherry Thing would be my "other" vote, and it's defiantly my favorite thing Neneh has done.

ended up voting slowdive and now i'm having voter's remorse. definitely should have gone with lookaftering or third.

Write-in for Carcass.

Scott Walker for both Tilt and Drift.

Some people might think it an odd or really bad example but I really love the third Comus album even though it's really an EP + one live archive track.

So many I want to hear, including Linda Perhacs.

Huge list
https://rateyourmusic.com/list/lastnightadjsavedmylife/your-ears-have-waited-follow-ups-10-years-later/

I am starting to think that solo artists shouldn't really be considered for this unless they fully withdraw from the biz, retire, etc

Some favourites of mine: Shed Seven - Instant Pleasures; Cast - Troubled Times and Blur - The Magic Whip (yeah, I got the impression that this one isn't very popular around here, but I love it)

But maybe I'll pick a more 'respectable' choice as my write-in: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - History of Modern.

Not sure if Madness counts, as they did some shows (albeit partially under a different name) and released a covers album in 2005, but as for original material, they followed up 1999's Wonderful with The Liberty Of Norton Folgate in 2009 - arguably their best album.

Similar thing with Peter Gabriel: Up was released 10 years after Us, but he did the OVO project a couple of years earlier which resulted in an album as well.

voted for third
i liked the harvey milk return but not sure youd call it a comeback

Good selection. The Tribe album is good but it doesn't measure up to Low End or Midnight Mauraders to my ears. Of this list, Aerial, Third, and Black Messiah are the ones I've listened to the most. I don't know which one is my favorite. Second the recommendation for Suede's followup comeback album(s), they are excellent.

Oh have people stopped voting for Tribe?

It was nearly Portishead..

mbv and syro were both fine too but were more of the same. The above two albums were beyond.

I still love the Who’s Endless Wire, despite the production being so-so. The production is much improved on last year’s WHO, but the record sags a bit in the middle. Just because Townshend can write arena-ready anthems in his sleep doesn’t mean he should. But the beginning (“All This Music Must Fade”) and end (“She Rocked My World”) are stone classics.

Astonishingly, Daltrey sounds better on WHO than on anything — live or on record — since 1978.

Voted Tribe. One of my favorites of the 21st century.

I’ve said this before and got flack for it but m b v is their best album. Still not voting for it tho, given the competition.

Does that just mean you were never smitten with Loveless?

Celtic Frost - Monotheist

Are you loveless when it comes to the classic MBV?xp

Indeed I am. Or rather I only love about half of it.

Good shout.

2xp

Two more I liked a lot at least initially

Grace Jones - Hurricane (2008, 19 years on from Bulletproof Heart)
Gil Scott-Heron - I'm Not Here (2010, 16 years on from Spirits)

Was the De La Soul comeback album (12 yrs) bad btw? I can't remember hearing it.

Not bad and I think some people argued it was better than Tribe's but the latter really seemed to eclipse it dropping at pretty much the exact same time.

Bill Fay was another comeback from a long long absence that's missing from the wiki list, but I can't say I listened to that album as much as his early works

One I just remembered: trumpeter-composer Jacques Coursil’s Minimal Brass, coming 34 years after his previous record (Black Suite). It’s a pretty amazing record; my first impression was that it sounded like a Miles/Gil collaboration where the only instrument is (overdubbed) trumpet.

Gil Scott-Heron - I'm Not Here (2010, 16 years on from Spirits)

Good call, this was a really good record.

the true winner of this is Scott Walker and Tilt though

Chuck Berry, Chuck - released in 2017, his first album since 1979.

listened to Syro this morning and it ruled, but I like Aerial even more

50 Words For Snow isn't a comeback so it doesn't count aiui

Possessed's reunion album even if it was really just Jeff Becerra "and friends"

Stephen Fellows' album from this year should be on this list (last album is 1997)

hah putting Bjork on that list is kind of cheap

yeah, it was only 13 years between the self-titled and Gling-Gló

Not sure if Madness counts, as they did some shows (albeit partially under a different name) and released a covers album in 2005, but as for original material, they followed up 1999's Wonderful with The Liberty Of Norton Folgate in 2009 - arguably their best album.

imo The Dangermen Sessions album shouldn't count because it was intended to be released as The Dangermen, not Madness... but they never split up (again) in the '00s so probably not quite the same thing as is going on with most of these. Liberty Folgate is their best though.

Grace Jones - Hurricane (2008, 19 years on from Bulletproof Heart)

Great one.

Was the De La Soul comeback album (12 yrs) bad btw? I can't remember hearing it.

Only seven years between Are You In? and And The Anonymous Nobody. The former was better.

wild how I voted Black Messiah and it's my least favourite of his three albums

could os mutantes count too, that was a good record

Gil Scott-Heron - I'm Not Here (2010, 16 years on from Spirits)

You mean "I'm New Here" .. yeah this was a blatant omission on my part along with the Sleep record.

Didn't Aphex Twin continue to release new music throughout the '00s and '10s under different aliases? Does it really count as a comeback, if he only didn't use that name for 10+ year s?

Grace Jones - Hurricane (2008, 19 years on from Bulletproof Heart)

Great one.

please add to thread the new charles webster https://charleswebster.bandcamp.com/album/decision-time

None of the albums in this poll supersede the artist's previous work except Third

Would have voted The Drift or I'm New Here-- the latter isn't superior but is such a wonderful departure/final statement

re Aphex - nearly all of the other musicians here also released music under other names in between too; Slowdive, MBV, ATCQ, Swans, Portishead for sure.

Third is going to walk this. #1 in our noughties poll.

and it wasn't really a comeback, they never officially split?

it is v good but def overrated here. we really, really love misery

‘Comeback’ is used veeeeeery loosely itt anyway so let’s just disregard that detail.

Not enough imo.

xp

i wonder what the most truly miserable album i love is

oh lol, 'through silver in blood'

i mean do you need to split to have a comeback or isn't it possible to come back from dormancy

weird hangups itt

re Aphex - nearly all of the other musicians here also released music under other names in between too; Slowdive, MBV, ATCQ, Swans, Portishead for sure.

― huge rant (sic), Sunday, November 22, 2020 8:32 AM (fifty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lmao at this post

but also it's nine years between the last analord-related release and syro, and seven years between the tuss and syro, idk feels like a long break for a dude that prolific

I would've included The Go-Betweens.

i guess that's at odds with the OP lol xp

hopefully everybody who votes for the rapist will tag themselves so we can get the FPs sorted

still think 'spoon and rafter' is a much better album than the latest slowdive

mind you there was 11 years between the last mojave 3 and the comeback so it's still valid

and seeing as i just listened to the just-released piano version of The Sophtware Slump, Grandaddy did an 11-year comeback album in 2017 that was pretty good actually

I also think the Black Hearted Brother album is better than Slowdive s/t. Though "Sugar for the Pill" comes closer to an "Alison" type moment.

Would like to amend my "Something else" vote to Belly / Neneh Cherry / Chameleons / Go-Betweens (tie)

and it wasn't really a comeback, they never officially split?

yeah comeback /= reunion

there are lots of things to come back from. the store, a walk... an appointment

being here for years

not mentioned yet: Bark Psychosis with Codename: Dustsucker and Brendan Perry, who did it twice! Ark was 10 years after Eye of the Hunter, and his new one is ten years after Ark.

(answer is still Aerial though)

Psychedelic Furs!

The new Furs album is very good but I'd still pick Slowdive over it.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted Portishead, but just wanted to highlight the following comeback albums from 2015 (in Veruca Salt's case, a comeback of the original lineup as the previous decade's output had pretty much been Louise Post solo):

Veruca Salt - Ghost Notes
Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to Love
Failure - The Heart is a Monster

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Excellent results - sticking by my 'other' Mission Of Burma vote though, even though it's 'Obliterati' where they hit stride.

i want to live in the alternate reality that you guys live in where black messiah wasn't terrible to the brink of embarrassment.

Austin i like you lots but get the fuck out with that

the fuck

Didn't see this in time and have not heard all listed or later mentioned but would have voted either A Tribe or write-in for xpost Sleater-Kinney.

Went back and re-listened to all known-by-Spotify D'Angelo-inclusive tracks in the lead-up to release of Black Messiah, but something a little too hermity about his approach to win over A Tribe or Sleater-Kinney. Not that I had any prob listening to any of his.

And not that I'm not hermity, but doesn't mean I want (all *that* much) sonic mirroring.

I say, as I sit here w headphones on, typing again.

You should be embarrassed of that take Austin lol wtf

third still absolutely stuns me every time, sometimes I think it's the best album ever

i want to live in the alternate reality that you guys live in where black messiah wasn't terrible to the brink of embarrassment.

Love you Austin but on this score you're RONG.

not sure I think of all of these as comebacks, but Third, m b v, Black Messiah, Aerial and Syro are all great albums, and maybe the others are too

Not loving it I might be able to see, but "terrible to the brink of embarrassment" no less lol

The first three songs on Black Messiah attempt this Prince-with-Bowie-production thing that I'm not into at all tbh, but I love the rest of the album iirc

the second track is heavy as hell!

like, heavier than I've ever heard from Bowie, but maybe I've not heard the heavy Bowie

It's more "Bowie production", the drums sound completely distinct from the D'Angelo universe otherwise, none of the tensile qualities. I'm not into those three tracks at all. Album obv gets amazing tho

Thanks everyone, I love you all too.

Black Messiah was very disappointing at the time. We listened to it twice and both times it very much felt like a chore to get through. Never revisited it since. Junior was a lot more harsh on it than Andy was; I just thought it was kind of plodding and tuneless, he said it sounded "like shitty Frank Zappa outtakes." Nobody is wrong or right, as I would be the first to say that we probably did not give the album a fair chance. Maybe we will again in the future, maybe we won't.

Am very happy Portishead won though, even if we did not vote for it.

it sounded "like shitty Frank Zappa outtakes." Nobody is wrong or right

um yeah i would say this opinion is wrong as fuck

please point me to the zappa song that sounds like "another life" or "the charade"

I can't believe I overlooked the nonstop tinkling marimbas when I was listening to Black Messiah. Truly, this thread has opened my eyes (and ears!).

Proof that opinions can be counterfactual.