Artists who made some of your favorite music and you thought they'd never reach such heights again but then they went right ahead and did something that's possibly even better

Peter Gabriel - Up.

Jay-Z - 4:44

Also, I'd like to get a mention of Echo & the Bunnymen in, although I'm totally biased when it comes to them as they're my no.1 band of all time. And while I don't expect them to ever release an album anymore that's on the level of their classic first four '80s albums, I certainly love everything they've done since then and I thought their most recent Meteorites (2014) had several songs that actually even surprised me with how good I thought they were (title track, Constantinople, Lovers On The Run, Market Town, New Horizons).

Roisin Murphy - gone fishing

Didn't expect she would top ruby blue or overpowered

Neneh Cherry's Cherry Thing is the best thing she's done by far, and Blank Project is close. Her early career now feels like working hard to fit genres together, but now they just flow.

Somehow I never got into those late Neneh Cherry albums. For me she reached her peak with Homebrew, what a warm album!

Joe Strummer - Global a Go Go

A great, sprawling record. It's not the Clash, it's its own weird thing, capped by an 18 minute instrumental. The lead song, Johnny Appleseed, is one of the very best things he's ever done.

Jayhawks: I find Mockingbird Time (2011) their best album with Mark Olson; Paging Mr. Proust (2016) their best without him.

Valentijn, you're gonna love Away - it's great on first listen and grows from there. Certainly their best sounding album imo and has a cool Van Morrison feel.

A band that surprised me a LOT in this regard was Madness, who released their strongest album by far with The Liberty Of Norton Folgate in 2009.

this, and their latest was pretty bloody good as well.

Underworld - Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future

it wasn't quite on the level of their trio of '90s classics but surprisingly close

Iron Maiden's last one brought me back into the fold for the first time since i was a teenager

Underworld are constantly on this level for me, hearing "Scribble" for the first time immediately came to mind when I saw the thread title

Pet Shop Boys' The Pop Kids is one of their best ever singles, just about in their Top 10 even. No one was more surprised than me.

It must have been a shock for 80s Lou Reed fans when the 1-2 punch of New York and Drella happened.

immediately thought the same about "Love is a Booshwa Contract"

'The Pop Kids' is great, but then Pet Shop Boys have had a shitload of great singles post-Very, even from their lesser albums.

Lots of good suggestions here. Nightbird, Tales Of Us and Oceans Apart are great examples.

Glory by Britney. I never thought she'd get near the quality of Blackout again, especially after Britney Jean was such a disaster. A year on and I think Glory is up there as her second best album.

Saint Etienne's Tales From Turnpike House is another one. Sound Of Water is comfortably my least favourite album of theirs and Finisterre was only a slight improvement. Turnpike House fully got me back on-board when my enthusiasm was really low. Easily their best album since So Tough. Words & Music isn't far off that quality either.

Paul Buchanan - Mid Air