Off the back of the artists with unwarranted success thread
What bands do you think we're really good, but became pretty crap? Not just faded away a bit towards the end of their aging career, but their music took a big downward turn. In your own personal opinion of course, before the hand wringers start 🤣
Killers are one for me. Hot Fuss was great, then when they became the Brandon Flowers show they lost their appeal massively for me
Loved early Arctic Monkeys, not a fan any more
Who did, then didn't do it for you?
Lostprophets. 😶
Latest Slipknot.
Killswitch Engage.
R.E.M.
Incubus up to A Crow Left and then they went downhill very quickly. Gomez had two great albums and then a slow downwards spiral as they seemed to let go of all the elements that made them so good. Kings of Leon’s first album was great and then just utter shit.
Lostprophets. Loved their music, now feel incredibly bad if I listen to it.
U2 - they were great until '85
Gomez had two great albums and then a slow downwards spiral as they seemed to let go of all the elements that made them so good
Yes 100%
On the other hand, Ride. Carnival of Light notoriously bad (largely as they weren’t talking to each other), Tarantula was an Andy Bell solo effort, but now they’re back together, they’re turning out pretty decent stuff.
mbv was a tad anticlimactic, but I suppose after however many years it was, it was never going to live up to expectations.
Ha ha!! Lost prophets was the 1st band I thought of, 2nd reply had it!
not listened to them since Mr Watkins decided his new hobby was baby raping.
Muse, nothing else comes close imo, because hardly any bands are ever as good as they were and hardly any of those could become as bad- at their heights they were one of the best bands in the world, then they disappeared up their supermassive arseholes. There was a wee spell after they peaked when they were still releasing half decent albums with at least a couple of good songs and where they were still a brilliant live act but now, my god, what a shame. Will Of The People wasn't even a bad Muse album, it was a bad Marilyn Manson album.
I think the best live show I ever saw might have been Muse, at Leeds festival. Definitely the best festival show, it was incredible.
then they disappeared up their supermassive arseholes
That has tickled me. 😂
Oh yes, Smashing Pumpkins were great, then Billy Corgan’s ego collapsed into a black hole.
I personally generally find some of Muse's "refuge in audacity" stuff some of their best work, but they have been patchy for some time. Some of their more recent albums have been quite entertaining but others have not and sometimes they sound more like pastiches of Muse than anything else.
As for U2 I like the bit in the mid-to-late '90s when they got a bit bored of regular rock music, started hanging out with Brian Eno and tried something with a bit of difference to it. Can't say I thought they were great at that point, but definitely more to my tastes than their preceding or following output.
The first couple of albums by Kings of Leon really caught my attention when they came out but after that the rough edges seemed to be increasingly shaved off their output and it seemed to be pushed towards a more stadium rock sound that didn't appeal to me. It also sounds like the band really crumbled after a while in that phase. I stopped paying them any attention after a while so I don't know where they went after that.
Problem with U2 remains Bonio being a monumental arse.
Oasis - one good album, then meh
Stone Roses - Ditto
GnR - Ditto
Verve, right up until they were sued and changed their name to The Verve. Loved a Storm in Heaven, and the USA outakes/b-sides album. Then A Northern Soul came along, which took me a while to come round to, although some songs I'd try to listen but never understood what the fuss was about. Bitter Sweet Symphony for instance, just sounded too much like regular radio/chart music for my taste. Hated the drugs don't work! None of of their albums after that.
Northwind
Muse, nothing else comes close imo, because hardly any bands are ever as good as they were and hardly any of those could become as bad- at their heights they were one of the best bands in the world, then they disappeared up their supermassive arseholes. There was a wee spell after they peaked when they were still releasing half decent albums with at least a couple of good songs and where they were still a brilliant live act but now, my god, what a shame. Will Of The People wasn’t even a bad Muse album, it was a bad Marilyn Manson album.
I think the best live show I ever saw might have been Muse, at Leeds festival. Definitely the best festival show, it was incredible.
I would agree "Absolution" was the last good one. After that it descended into twiddly nonsense for the most part.
Guns n Roses - Appetite was a brilliant album then they went all over produced and believing their own publicity for Illusions and spiralled further & further down from that point onwards.
Architects - Hollow crown is an amazing album, next couple were pretty good. Unfortunately when Tom Searle passed away they not only lost a great guitarist but an excellent song writer.
for me, since then, everything they have written has been really weak and a bit cheesy.
Also echo those who mentioned Lost Prophets. Anthems of my youth that I haven’t listened to since.
Oh and Queens of the Stone Age. Rated R was good, songs for the deaf is amazing, everything since, bar a couple of songs is just pap.
IMO obvs…
Architects – Hollow crown is an amazing album, next couple were pretty good. Unfortunately when Tom Searle passed away they not only lost a great guitarist but an excellent song writer.
Strong shout. Latest album is meh.
Switched to Landmvrks, how metalcore should be.
Showing my age but...
Pink Floyd
Yes
Jethro Tull
The Who
Genesis
Led Zeppelin
Another vote for Muse. My son missed them at V and we tease him about seeing Muse while they were still good!
Also agree on Muse.
Listened to Origin of Symmetry yesterday for the first time in years and it was brilliant but my memory had been soured by what came after Absolution.
Suede, 3 brilliant and quite different albums followed many so many bland ones.
PJ Harvey.
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Just a fantastic artist and woman (except perhaps a touch foxhunty seemingly). Loved her back in the day. Rawness, angst and energy.
Despite the occasional moment of brilliance, her contemporary stuff is generally all a bit warbly and all about sparrows and woodland fairies and that.
Still love her though.
Massive Attack
One of the best debut albums ever. A great follow up. A good dub album
… then ego takes over, one of the members decides he’d rather be in a dull rock band and they never produce an album worth listening to again.
Muse and Oasis for me. Slipknot too I suppose.
Tom Misch more recently....please stop making dance music!!
Paul Weller has churned out a hugely varied quality of music over the years too imo.
Guns N' Roses for me. Still like them but was always going to be difficult to follow such a stonking initial album.
Weezer. Their first album was brilliant… then Pinkerton was a 6/10… after that, all meh.
Undone (the sweater song), what a record!
Went to see Muse around 20 years ago in Nottingham.
Absolutely fantastic show, but agree, wouldn't listen to them now
Anecdotally, Mrs STR had no interest in the gig and tried to cajole me into the loo's for a shag. I turned her down as I wanted to see the show
Elbow. First few albums were great. Lost their way now.
Arctic Monkeys. Whatever you say… my favourite ever album, after that, meh. Every album since music jounos hail it as a massive return to form and yet, 🥱
Kings of Leon. Also a massive disappointment after Youth and Young Manhood.
Problem with U2 remains Bonio being a monumental arse.
Opinionated, certainly, but opinions about the right things. He’s not Roger Water’s, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison…
Elbow. First few albums were great. Lost their way now.
Latest one is excellent, seeing them next week.
Massive Attack
One of the best debut albums ever. A great follow up. A good dub album
… then ego takes over, one of the members decides he’d rather be in a dull rock band and they never produce an album worth listening to again.
Well, they’ve only released five albums, 100th Window being the last. So unless you’re talking about Mezzanine being rubbish, which is their fourth, that only leaves one sub-par album. Mezzanine is a superb album.
They’ve done a couple of soundtracks, if that’s what you mean, though.
Despite the occasional moment of brilliance, her contemporary stuff is generally all a bit warbly and all about sparrows and woodland fairies and that.
“Let England Shake” is more political and darker - I saw her last performance touring that, at Greenman, outstanding and magnificent.
Got to agree with slipknot. Latest album isn't great. New drummer, however, is absolutely insane. So we have hope.
Avenged sevenfold, once the rev died they lost their best songwriter and now they have gone down a ridiculous rabbit hole of nonsense. Somehow they've still managed to grow.
Wasn't much a fan of the later linkin park stuff either. Drastic change of sound.
Pj Harvey. Possibly the only artist I have all the albums of.
Let England shake, dire
White chalk- the only album I've been unable to listen to in its entirety.
Currently her stuff is just about listenable to. But when I've bought her more recent albums nothing has caught my ear. They've been listened to once or twice, despite high hopes, then gone on the shelf.
DJ shadow.
Entroducing is amazing, private press is great and then less so.
I read an interview with him where he said " what do you want me to do, make entroducing again?" And yes,yes I would very much love that. But as an artist that would make no sense. It would be like becoming a cover band of yourself.
When I hear his later stuff, it's not for me but I always have that respect he not churning out something just for the cash. It's something he wants to make.
The only band I have consistently liked is the red ho mt chill peppers.
It's not all consistently awesome, but I could cheerfully sing at least one song off every album
Agree with most of these. For me the Stone Roses is the best example mentioned. There were a few clues in the singles released between the two albums, but no one expected that second album
How about Radiohead. In my teenage agnst days, Pablo Honey amazing, The Bends and the OK computer. After that, for me they.....what was the saying ? 'Dissappeared up their supermassive arseholes'
More recently Fontaines DC, amazing first album then… not so much
Having said that don’t all bands tail off. There’s not many that get better with time.
Some remain consistent or even improve. To use two examples from the underrated thread Clutch and Skindred. The former seem incapable of making a bad record and the latter released their best album with their eighth last year. Jason Isbell is another consistently great artist and the last Pearl Jam album was a pleasant surprise.
When the front man disappears up the supermassive arsehole and effs off to Hollywood to shag A-list actresses you know its all over...
cf Matt Bellamy, Chris Martin
Arctic Monkeys..
WPSIATWIN is a corker of an album but each subsequent one has got progressively worse. The critics seem to think they are amazing though. I actually fell asleep watching them at Glastonbury on the telly last year
I actually think the Arctic Monkeys deserve credit for deciding they were bored of their original sound and going for something new. I really like AM. Not going to appeal so much to their original fans but it’s a great album in its’ own right. I can see why they got fed up with being expected to reproduce the sound of their first album, which was one of those that was so good and different that everything afterwards was bound to disappoint.
The Strokes were in a similar situation after This is It which was a piece of genius. They’ve carried on doing the same sort of stuff but not very well since. At least Arctic Monkeys tried something different.
I’ve always thought that most ands/artists are only really good for 2 or 3 really good albums if they are lucky.
tbf even producing that is an achievement, I’d be over the moon if i could write a half decent limerick!
I’ve always thought that most ands/artists are only really good for 2 or 3 really good albums if they are lucky.
I agree. It is only the really good artists that can re-invent themselves or develop to remain interesting over many years: Bowie, The Beatles and Kate Bush come to mind.
Radiohead just changed - early stuff was great, but I also think A Moon Shaped Pool is a superb album too.
And I'll say it - for me, Suck it And See is Arctic Monkeys best album. Love every song on that.
Bowie turned out some dross at the back end of his career. But I've never been a Bowie fan.
And Aerial from Kate Bush was meh! That bloody Bertie! 🙂
Back to the thread though - Manic Street Preachers have settled into mid-range festival headliners with nothing of note in donkeys years.
"Well, they’ve only released five albums, 100th Window being the last. So unless you’re talking about Mezzanine being rubbish, which is their fourth, that only leaves one sub-par album. Mezzanine is a superb album."
Album numbering is always a bit confusing - it depends on wether you count remixes/duybs/compilation, etc.
I'd say Massive Attack have five studio albums"
1- Blue Lines
2- Protection
3- Mezzanine
4- Hundredth window
5- Heligoland
... and yes, I think Mezzanine is where it went wrong. I regularly play the first two albums, but when I occasionally 'give Mezzanine another try' it has a good start but I'm bored by half way through.
Nothing they've done since has interested me at all. It turns out Tricky and Mushroom were more important than believed.
@winston, perfectly describes the Stones also, pretty good to about 1975(ish) and then have ever since just been one of the better Rolling Stones tribute bands.
Velvet Underground. One or two perfect albums, change in line up, dross...
Prince (not a band) Early albums were just amazingly good, the output was so prolific though, most of the later stuff past diamonds and pearls is a bit mleh. Apparently there's still something like 50 albums worth of unreleased original material in the vaults he had installed in his house/studio.
"I’ve always thought that most ands/artists are only really good for 2 or 3 really good albums"
2 or 3? Most bands get 1 if they're good, two if they're great. Hardly anyone gets more than that - and I include Bowie, Bush and the Beatles in that.
"“I’ve always thought that most ands/artists are only really good for 2 or 3 really good albums”
Dylan and the Stones are the only exceptions to that I reckon!
Gomez had two great albums and then a slow downwards spiral as they seemed to let go of all the elements that made them so good.
I can't agree. I think they evolved and the music changed as they aged. I can listen to any of their albums happily.
Sadly agree with the comment on Paul Weller. Loved his early solo stuff, but whilst he kept changing things to make it more interesting for him it just got boring for me.
I love Ben’s solo stuff and still listen to the other Gomez albums but they don’t flow as well. Still great compared to a lot of bands but just lacking something for me at least.
Crash Test Dummies.
Their excellent debut album, The Ghosts That Haunt Me and their second, perfect offering, God Shuffled His Feet were followed by a salvo of shit.
It's like they all simultaneously lost all songwriting and musical abilities. Such a shame. One of the best gigs I ever attended was their 1994 performance at Manchester's Apollo.
Me and Mrs. S chose Swimming in Your Ocean for our wedding first dance.
Same for the majority of artists I reckon.
1st album, a lifetime of experiences, bit rough around the edges but promising. 2nd album, ditch the guys who can't play, bit more polished, looking good. 3rd album, sells loads but nobody really wants to hear about your famous girlfriend and nights at the Groucho. 4th album, people have given you the benefit of doubt but your coke dealer got a producing credit. 5th album, hastily written to get you out of your crappy record deal. 6th album, hastily written to pay your tax bill. 7th album, bit of a return to form thanks to a messy break up from the famous wife, lucky because you've got a big divorce. All subsequent albums are just promos for your tours which are just to top up your modest pension.
I really like AM. Not going to appeal so much to their original fans but it’s a great album in its’ own right.
I don't mind AM, in fact I like it
Tranquility Base Hotel and The Car can get in the bin though
Humbug was shite too
Primal Scream. Screamedelica is a stonewall classic (possibly due to Andrew Weatheralls production) and I also bloody love Give Out but Don't Give Up. After that there was a brief upward blip with XTRMNTR (largely due to Mani), but everything that followed that is utter drivel!
I remember s****ing away while reading the crushingly accurate Alexis Petridis in the Guardian of Beautiful Future. Its possibly the best album review you will ever read. Absolutely scathing...
That's great read binners, thanks.
Came here to say Guns 'n' Roses. Was wholly unsurprised to see several people beating me to it.
Appetite For Destruction was an astonishing album. Lies was a decent stocking-filler. Use Your Illusion were impressive follow-ups to Appetite. Then... what? The Spaghetti Incident? Chinese Democracy? Both immediately forgettable, anything else I've already forgotten.
And don't get me started on their live performances.
I actually think the Arctic Monkeys deserve credit for deciding they were bored of their original sound and going for something new.
This blighted Def Leppard. Hysteria was their magnum opus (though some may argue that Pyromania is the better album). They followed it with Adrenalize and everyone went "this is just like Hysteria, it's shit." Then they followed that with Slang and everyone went "this is nothing like Hysteria, it's shit." Sometimes you just can't win.
MUSE.
Primal Scream.
I'm led to believe that Primal Scream lives or dies depending on just how shitfaced Gillespie is at a given moment.
I'm old enough to have seen Primal Scream way before Screamadelica (Sonic Flower Groove anyone? thought not....) and they were rubbish. Then a 2 album brief blip where somebody else did all the work then back to rubbish!
I’ve always thought that most ands/artists are only really good for 2 or 3 really good albums if they are lucky.
tbf even producing that is an achievement, I’d be over the moon if i could write a half decent limerick!
Gotta agree with this. One great album is enough for me. Looking over at my vinyl I can only see multiple albums from The Cure, Depeche Mode, Faithless & The Prodigy. And Kate of course.
Ephel Duath. First couple of records were bonkers, didn't really sell possibly because Italy isn't known for extreme metal. Line up changed and they tried to make it more listenable, lost all that was good about the original records.
Metallica. Yeah-ee-yeeeaaaahhh......
I agree with a lot of this, especially Metallica after AJFA.
But. Let England Shake is the best PJ Harvey album and Radiohead just got better as they drifted further from the bog standard guitar indie of Pablo Honey. I also reckon Kayne peaked around 2010, MBDTF is far more original and creative than the early stuff I reckon. But he went downhill fast after that.
And I disagree about RHCP - Californication is coffee table bilge and everything since then is even worse.
One more for the pot: The Wildhearts, who I was a MASSIVE fan of until 1996, and was so so gutted with Endless Nameless when it came out.
I love Goat's first album but lost interest after that.
And does anyone here ever listen to any Iron Maiden albums since Fear of the Dark? No, me neither.
I would generally agree that there are very very few acts that stay great for more than a few albums. Low spring to mind, Radiohead are close, maybe a few others. But most bands that make it big do so because they nail a zeitgeist, and then times move on. And they either need to reinvent themselves or change it up. A very difficult ask.
The Darkness. After permission to land they just turned into a comedy band
Incubus, have to disagree. Thought 8 was brilliant.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Californication was the last good album.
Foo Fighters....meh rock
The Darkness. After permission to land they just turned into a comedy band
I thought that was their USP from day 1! 🙂
Foo Fighters - yeah, don't do it for me anymore. Shouty rock now.
I got six tickets for their gig in Manchester I was going to go but decided I couldn't do with two hours of them so leaving it for the wife and her friends to go now.
Rolling Stones were stunningly good BUT not nearly so after Exile (1972).
Oh and Queens of the Stone Age. Rated R was good, songs for the deaf is amazing, everything since, bar a couple of songs is just pap.
I remember Zane Lowe payed the entire album on his show a few years back and right at the end and his mic faded up at the end a little earlier than he thought so you got to hear him mumbling "and from there it was downhill..." before dong his prepared monologue 🤣
Oh and yes, Muse win this. Guaranteed to get a good album from them with some stellar tracks on each but then wend downhill rapidly. Glad I saw them just before they started going downhill.
Arcade Fire. Early live shows were amazing.
First album (Funeral) - great. Second album (Neon Bible) - good. Third album (The Suburbs) - great.
4th, 5th, 6th albums dire.
I always thought the ST, Rated R and Like Clockwork were the best QOTSA albums with SFTD coming in after them. The rest are a bit disappointing.
I love Ben’s solo stuff
He used to do some of the small music events locally (he's originally from Matlock Bath)
This was 2015, but seem to remember his stuff just sounding like Gomez after Gomez went rubbish tbh
Would it be too emo of me to say Jimmy Eat World?
I got into them as I was "coming of age" into music when Bleed American came out and I loved it - same energy as pop punk but felt more "adult" somehow and I still listen regularly. After that, Futures was also a fantastic album if not a little on the soft side at times. I got into their previous album Clarity a few years later and it's up there as one of the greats. Some of the live show footage from that era gives me chills, so much energy!
Ever since Futures though, I've tried to like them but they have slowly just turned into a kind of soft-rock indie pop band. They were never super super punk (more punk for the sad middle class in plaid shirts) - but they've lost any kind of big "rocky" sound that they once had.
Ocean Colour Scene.
Blur.
Their last couple of albums, there's only a song or two that I'd actually listen to for a second time.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Californication was the last good album.
What? By The Way is IMO a fantastic album, there's not a bad song on it. The guitar sound is beautiful.
Primal Scream were a bit average*, briefly became awesome, then went downhill. There's a documentary about Screamadelica that's worth seeking out, it was a 'gotta try something' throw of the dice as much as a conscious decision - Weatherall had never worked in a studio setting before but just managed to achieve something that a 'trained' producer would never have tried.
* actually, I REALLY liked their early stuff, being a C86 indie kid but it didn't give a clue of what Screamadelica was about to do.
Pulp buck the trend..... first couple of albums, before the legendary line up formed were a bit meh - then Separations was half decent, and then BANG - His n'Hers, Different Class, This is Hardcore. What a three album run. OK, We Love Life wasn't quite as good and they then ended before they ruined it for themselves.
U2 after Achtung Baby
Kanye after MBBTF
Radiohead after Kid A
The Who after Who's Next
REM after New Adventures In Hifi
So many really, it's a moot point whether it's the band that's gone bad or I'm just not prepared to follow them down the path they've chosen.
“And does anyone here ever listen to any Iron Maiden albums since Fear of the Dark? No, me neither.”
Nothing past 7th son and that’s a push.
