So this isn't meant to be a bashing type thread, just a sharing of opinions on when your favorite band/artist might have lost their way.

What's also kind of fun is sometimes they can lose their way for a while and then come back to make glorious music again. Again, these are only my opinions and are just meant to stir discussion, not hostile arguments.

Not sure if this discussion will lead to much so I'll just start with a small sampling.

James Brown - post 1974

I love brother James. But after The Payback and Hell albums, finding good material was very few and far between. Although he could still bring it live, he just never recaptured the glory.

The Waterboys - post 1990

What a glorious decade the 80's were for Mike Scott and the Waterboys. But holy hell in a handbasket did they hit the creative wall after Room to Roam in 1990. There have been some select great tracks since, but overall their best days appear to be behind them.

Elton John - post 1990

After two decades of mostly brilliant pop music, the 90s were a pretty crappy decade for Elton. Rather amazingly, he made one of his best albums ever in 2001 - Songs From the West Coast. The rest of the 2000s certainly weren't a return to the glory days, but were at the very least highly respectable.

Prince - post 1988

I almost don't even want to go here. But you know what Gandhi used to say... Fuck it.

The decade of releases up to Lovesexy were just incredible. Always new. Always fresh. Brilliant original matieral. Since Batman, it's been a crazy roller coaster ride. I will say there have been a lot more highs than some of his biggest critics give him credit for, and a heck of a lot more lows than the fams will acknowledge. Overall, he has had a few glimpses of the glory days from time to time. But even on a solid album like Lotusflower, most of the material is highly derivative. Prince's creative juices seem to be surviving on autopilot now.

Joni Mitchell - post 1979

After releasing Mingus in 1979, space aliens came down and abducted Joni Mitchell for the entire 80s decade. This is a fact. And I will thumb wrestle anyone who dares challenge this statement.

Seriously, her 80s albums were tragically bad. I thought she was gone forever.

But in 1991, she created her masterpiece - Night Ride Home. (Alright, maybe it's second to Hejira). Either way, what a gorgeous, perfect album. Unfortunately, she got caught up in that sound and made two more albums in the 90s that were in the same vein, but far less strong. Since then, a few covers albums and a disasterously bad album , "Shine" I believe Joni is not well (health-wise) these days and is taking an extended break from recording. I hope she gets well and can come back with another masterpiece again.

Peter Gabriel - post 1992

After the "Us" album in 1992 Peter Gabriel has released a grand total of 2 proper albums and two projects, (and one of the proper albums was cover songs). Apparently PG is notorious for being a perfectionist, and I fear this has cost us far too many a song. For the Up album in 2002, approximately 70 songs were recorded. We got to hear 10.

In my opinion, Peter has become too cute with his adventurous side. Most of his songs are about five and a half to seven minutes long now. Full of squawks and pops and bleeps and bats and rats. Just do what you do well Peter. Write and sing original songs.

When he strips it all away and focuses on the tune, a track like Father and Son comes out. Pure perfection. Clearly he still has the ability to create strong material, he just seems to unwilling to let us hear it.

What say you folks? Any thoughts on the bands I've mentioned or others?

Prince - post Lovesexy

Michael Jackson - post Thriller

Pointer Sisters - post Contact

Bryan Adams - post Into The Fire

Rick James - post Glow

Apollonia 6 - post Apollonia 6

[Edited 1/7/11 13:02pm]

Sade when she/they thought it would be a good idea to use less saxophone.

Santana when he thought it´s cool to use the flavor-of-the-month singer/rapper etc. on his albums.

Prince when he started censoring and taming himself. I can live without the ridiculous cursing of his early to mid 90s work but the beating around the bush and teasing in songs like Incense and Candles or Mellow is laughable. Either sing about sex or don´t, but don´t sing about it in some cryptic ways.Other than that, I still like a lot of his more recent music. And I still think that NPS was a 50% decent album.

Jay-Z after his debut album. I mean, I still like him as a person and as a businessman but his lyrics and his whole shtick are very repetitive. He´s 40 and still rapping about crimes he committed in his teenage years.

Ice-T after 1988. Rhyme Pays from 1987 is still one of my favorites and probably the most underrated rap album in history.

Maxwell after Embrya.......Urban Hang Suite and Embrya were very cohesive albums with a certain feel and sound to them, the rest is just a collection of songs. He should work with Matthewman again.

Hmm interesting thread here lots to explore, alot of my fave artists wandered and then got back on track some right away....

Meshell Ndegeocello - Bitter.

That album as a unit was too melancholy. Individually some of the songs were great, but all together was just depressing. It signaled a new direction in her music. Her first two albums were excellent to me. From Bitter forward, there were just random songs that were great, but most of the albums lacked that fire and cohesiveness of Plantation Lullabies and Peace Beyond Passion, which was a masterpiece to me.

Lauryn Hill - post Miseducation. Her career has been a mess. I cannot take her seriously.

D'Angelo - Voodoo onward. There were are few great songs on Voodoo, but they did not justify the long 5-year wait for it. His disappearing act since then has been a shame.

Jamiroquai - A Funk Odyssey. Until this album, the band could almost do no wrong. I used to listen to their albums from start to finish and back again. This album was the first one where I liked fewer songs than I disliked. The same has been true for subsequent releases.

Prince - The rap on the 1990s albums. T.C. Ellis was horrid. Tony M was terrible and ruined some otherwise great songs. Prince's talking on the songs was fine but adding the rappers was a BAD move. Oh, and from a style sense the starter jackets around the Emancipation era and the fake braid mess around Rave. Other than that, I have enjoyed his musical output. It's been Prince being Prince and I don't think he has to reinvent the wheel every time out.

Omar Lye-Fook - Sing (If You Want It) The first Omar album I didn't really care for. It even features Stevie Wonder, but alas nothing all that interesting comes out of the collaboration.

If his next album is great, then I'll just chalk down Sing as a fluke.

bellanoche said:

Jamiroquai - A Funk Odyssey. Until this album, the band could almost do no wrong. I used to listen to their albums from start to finish and back again. This album was the first one where I liked fewer songs than I disliked. The same has been true for subsequent releases.

I felt like they started slipping when Synkronized was released without the original bassist. It's an excellent album, but I don't think it's quite up to snuff with the previous stuff. AFO was definitely the turning point, though, and Dynamite sealed the deal. RDLS did nothing to redeem the "band".

Los Amigos Invisibles - Commercial; Sounds like plastic disco without the flare of the previous albums. The band gave the album an honest name at least.

[Edited 1/7/11 16:16pm]

rhythmtonic said:

Omar Lye-Fook - Sing (If You Want It) The first Omar album I didn't really care for. It even features Stevie Wonder, but alas nothing all that interesting comes out of the collaboration.

If his next album is great, then I'll just chalk down Sing as a fluke.

bellanoche said:

Jamiroquai - A Funk Odyssey. Until this album, the band could almost do no wrong. I used to listen to their albums from start to finish and back again. This album was the first one where I liked fewer songs than I disliked. The same has been true for subsequent releases.

I felt like they started slipping when Synkronized was released without the original bassist. It's an excellent album, but I don't think it's quite up to snuff with the previous stuff. AFO was definitely the turning point, though, and Dynamite sealed the deal. RDLS did nothing to redeem the "band".

You know, now that I think about it, I agree with you. I enjoyed Synchronized, but there was a little something different and it was the change in bassists. So the crack probably started there then AFO was the jump the shark album because the latter ones couldn't save them. I actually didn't even buy Dynamite. My brother bought it for me because he knew I loved Jamiroquai. He didn't know that AFO had dampened my desire for new stuff from them. I think I liked one song on Dynamite. I didn't even bother with RDLS, which is sad because I used to be crazy about Jay Kay and the boys. To date, their concert in Chicago at the Riviera back in 1999 (I think) was one of the best times I have ever had at a live show.

[Edited 1/7/11 17:18pm]

bellanoche said:

Meshell Ndegeocello - Bitter.

That album as a unit was too melancholy. Individually some of the songs were great, but all together was just depressing. It signaled a new direction in her music. Her first two albums were excellent to me. From Bitter forward, there were just random songs that were great, but most of the albums lacked that fire and cohesiveness of Plantation Lullabies and Peace Beyond Passion, which was a masterpiece to me.

Lauryn Hill - post Miseducation. Her career has been a mess. I cannot take her seriously.

D'Angelo - Voodoo onward. There were are few great songs on Voodoo, but they did not justify the long 5-year wait for it. His disappearing act since then has been a shame.

Jamiroquai - A Funk Odyssey. Until this album, the band could almost do no wrong. I used to listen to their albums from start to finish and back again. This album was the first one where I liked fewer songs than I disliked. The same has been true for subsequent releases.

Prince - The rap on the 1990s albums. T.C. Ellis was horrid. Tony M was terrible and ruined some otherwise great songs. Prince's talking on the songs was fine but adding the rappers was a BAD move. Oh, and from a style sense the starter jackets around the Emancipation era and the fake braid mess around Rave. Other than that, I have enjoyed his musical output. It's been Prince being Prince and I don't think he has to reinvent the wheel every time out.

Agreed with ALL this to a TEE (especially about how bad "Bitter" & "Funk Odyssey" were & how fantastic Plantation & Peace Beyond were). But I love VooDoo...one of the best "vibe" albums of the past couple decades, IMO.

JamFanHot said:

bellanoche said:

Meshell Ndegeocello - Bitter.

That album as a unit was too melancholy. Individually some of the songs were great, but all together was just depressing. It signaled a new direction in her music. Her first two albums were excellent to me. From Bitter forward, there were just random songs that were great, but most of the albums lacked that fire and cohesiveness of Plantation Lullabies and Peace Beyond Passion, which was a masterpiece to me.

Lauryn Hill - post Miseducation. Her career has been a mess. I cannot take her seriously.

D'Angelo - Voodoo onward. There were are few great songs on Voodoo, but they did not justify the long 5-year wait for it. His disappearing act since then has been a shame.

Jamiroquai - A Funk Odyssey. Until this album, the band could almost do no wrong. I used to listen to their albums from start to finish and back again. This album was the first one where I liked fewer songs than I disliked. The same has been true for subsequent releases.

Prince - The rap on the 1990s albums. T.C. Ellis was horrid. Tony M was terrible and ruined some otherwise great songs. Prince's talking on the songs was fine but adding the rappers was a BAD move. Oh, and from a style sense the starter jackets around the Emancipation era and the fake braid mess around Rave. Other than that, I have enjoyed his musical output. It's been Prince being Prince and I don't think he has to reinvent the wheel every time out.

Agreed with ALL this to a TEE (especially about how bad "Bitter" & "Funk Odyssey" were & how fantastic Plantation & Peace Beyond were). But I love VooDoo...one of the best "vibe" albums of the past couple decades, IMO.

You have a point with VooDoo. I did drive to it a lot when it came out. However, I can't remember more than a few songs offhand whenever I think about it. Maybe I was just a bit bitter (Meshell pun intended) about the 5-year wait and subsequently infinite wait for more.

KoolEaze said:

Santana when he thought it´s cool to use the flavor-of-the-month singer/rapper etc. on his albums.

I LOVE Santana, but so agree with this. I know Supernatural spearheaded a resurgence to his career and finances, but I didn't really care for that album or any of the artist-of-the-month follow-ups. My favorites on his recent albums are the instrumentals.

I have been seeing him in concert for years, but since Supernatural, there is now a huge segment of the audience that doesn't know any songs that aren't off that album. It is so annoying. Or maybe I'm just a music snob. I don't know. It just annoys me to see people stand there disinterested when he plays Europa or Incident at Neshabur but go crazy over Smooth and Maria Maria.

lastdecember said:

Hmm interesting thread here lots to explore, alot of my fave artists wandered and then got back on track some right away....

Elton John --- Not that long for a guy who has had a 40 year career, but to me theres this gap where he did "the one" lion king, aida, but then he bounced back better than ever in 2001 and is on a fucking roll ever since.

Prince-----Def for me when he first got "free" from 1998-2001 was a dreadful Prince era, dreadful, albums of nonsense and a cut here and there that was good, but even the un-released stuff should stay in the vault and be torched. Everything from NPS-to-Rave to HIGH the unreleased album, got it back with the Rainbow CHildren and became a musician again

a-ha-----My fave band of all time had a mis-step in 1992 ironically it lead to a four year hiatus, the album "Memorial Beach" to me was a mixed bag from a band that beginning to end has had stellar albums, Memorial ironically was recorded at Paisley Park, surprise! and produced by David Z who was the worst in history, sorry but he was not a good producer and messed up some good songs here, trying to make a-ha a funk/dance/inxs like band

The Rolling Stones----Pretty much the last 25 years have sucked, a few songs here and there, but this band is awful now and has been for a quarter of a century

Paul McCartney--- much like Elton (though much longer) Paul fell in love with re-fucking verb and echoes on his voice for most of the later 80's well into the 90's till he found his soul and voice again on "Flaming Pie".

Mariah Carey---- Pretty much after album number 2, she has been a 100% blue print artist, a few ballads a few midtempos, and now of course the guest rapper thing, and we cant forget her dreadful cover versions of Open Arms and the Beautiful Ones.

Can't comment on Mariah as I'm just not a fan, but I agree with Macca and the Stones.

I thought Memory Almost Full was a very solid (and of course overlooked) record.

The Stones are such a joke now. Which doesn't make sense when you consider Keith's solo work from the late 80s and mid 90s was pretty solid.

bellanoche said:

Meshell Ndegeocello - Bitter.

That album as a unit was too melancholy. Individually some of the songs were great, but all together was just depressing. It signaled a new direction in her music. Her first two albums were excellent to me. From Bitter forward, there were just random songs that were great, but most of the albums lacked that fire and cohesiveness of Plantation Lullabies and Peace Beyond Passion, which was a masterpiece to me.

Lauryn Hill - post Miseducation. Her career has been a mess. I cannot take her seriously.

D'Angelo - Voodoo onward. There were are few great songs on Voodoo, but they did not justify the long 5-year wait for it. His disappearing act since then has been a shame.

Jamiroquai - A Funk Odyssey. Until this album, the band could almost do no wrong. I used to listen to their albums from start to finish and back again. This album was the first one where I liked fewer songs than I disliked. The same has been true for subsequent releases.

Prince - The rap on the 1990s albums. T.C. Ellis was horrid. Tony M was terrible and ruined some otherwise great songs. Prince's talking on the songs was fine but adding the rappers was a BAD move. Oh, and from a style sense the starter jackets around the Emancipation era and the fake braid mess around Rave. Other than that, I have enjoyed his musical output. It's been Prince being Prince and I don't think he has to reinvent the wheel every time out.

D'Angelo is a tough one. Brown Sugar was such a fantastic record. And I'm with you that the second album was OK at best. It was too long and had too many songs that were based on the beat/groove and not on the melody.

As much as I like him, I can't consider him a favorite when his lazy ass can only make two albums in about 20 years.

Most all artists lost their way beginning in 1985 including both Prince and Rick James also. A lot of them made good stuff on up until 1990 but not great stuff like before 1985.

Also, beginning in 1985, a lot of new artists came out that weren't shit from day one. The type of artists that would have been booed off the stage a few years earlier.

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[Edited 1/10/11 8:35am]

vainandy said:

Most all artists lost their way beginning in 1985 including both Prince and Rick James also. A lot of them made good stuff on up until 1990 but not great stuff like before 1985.

Also, beginning in 1985, a lot of new artists came out that weren't shit from day one. The type of artists that would have been booed off the stage a few years earlier.

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[Edited 1/10/11 8:35am]

Hey Vainandy

Seeing that I really don't love anything new to emerge from the past 20 years except Jeff Buckley and D'Angelo I can mostly get down with that assessment.

I do think you left off a few brilliant Prince albums if you think Parade/SOTT and Lovesexy weren't still A+ material.

Fenwick said:

vainandy said:

Most all artists lost their way beginning in 1985 including both Prince and Rick James also. A lot of them made good stuff on up until 1990 but not great stuff like before 1985.

Also, beginning in 1985, a lot of new artists came out that weren't shit from day one. The type of artists that would have been booed off the stage a few years earlier.

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.

[Edited 1/10/11 8:35am]

Hey Vainandy

Seeing that I really don't love anything new to emerge from the past 20 years except Jeff Buckley and D'Angelo I can mostly get down with that assessment.

I do think you left off a few brilliant Prince albums if you think Parade/SOTT and Lovesexy weren't still A+ material.

You obviously haven't read one of Vainandy's many rants about the "artsy-fartsy" Parade album.

Honestly when it came out when I was in high school, I couldn't get into it. Now as an adult, I love it. I just listened to my vinyl copy again last night.

Fenwick said:

vainandy said:

Most all artists lost their way beginning in 1985 including both Prince and Rick James also. A lot of them made good stuff on up until 1990 but not great stuff like before 1985.

Also, beginning in 1985, a lot of new artists came out that weren't shit from day one. The type of artists that would have been booed off the stage a few years earlier.

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.

[Edited 1/10/11 8:35am]

Hey Vainandy

Seeing that I really don't love anything new to emerge from the past 20 years except Jeff Buckley and D'Angelo I can mostly get down with that assessment.

I do think you left off a few brilliant Prince albums if you think Parade/SOTT and Lovesexy weren't still A+ material.

I talk a lot of shit about late 80s Prince and always have but I have to admit, those albums are great and I love them all including the dorky classical type shit like "Venus De Milo" and "Do U Lie". I still hate that folk sounding shit "Sometimes It Snows In April" though.

The thing is, those damn albums made me go "What in the fuck is this bullshit" from the first few listens until I started to like them, unlike the previous albums where I loved them instantly. And they were also artsy/fartsy and had types of music that the "cool" folks did not listen to so if you did even halfway like them, you had better keep your mouth shut unless you wanted to be talked about. This did not set too well with a guy in his late teens at the time (as well as many other of my friends). Plus, I wanted to slap that little whore for ending a party right when I graduated high school and was old enough to go clubbing and really throwdown. Prince had become the DJ's jokes at that time when they had praised him earlier. Folks were calling him Liberace. Not because of the way he dressed but because of the type of music he had on some of the songs. He was not considered "cool" anymore.

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[Edited 1/10/11 9:16am]

vainandy said:

I talk a lot of shit about late 80s Prince and always have but I have to admit, those albums are great and I love them all including the dorky classical type shit like "Venus De Milo" and "Do U Lie".

sextonseven said:

Fenwick said:

Hey Vainandy

Seeing that I really don't love anything new to emerge from the past 20 years except Jeff Buckley and D'Angelo I can mostly get down with that assessment.

I do think you left off a few brilliant Prince albums if you think Parade/SOTT and Lovesexy weren't still A+ material.

You obviously haven't read one of Vainandy's many rants about the "artsy-fartsy" Parade album.

Honestly when it came out when I was in high school, I couldn't get into it. Now as an adult, I love it. I just listened to my vinyl copy again last night.

I like the album but it's always fun to shit on it every now and then just for old times sake.

sextonseven said:

vainandy said:

I talk a lot of shit about late 80s Prince and always have but I have to admit, those albums are great and I love them all including the dorky classical type shit like "Venus De Milo" and "Do U Lie".

vainandy said:

sextonseven said:

Greatness.

While I doubt you think of it that highly, I actually bounce back and forth between Parade and Lovesexy as my favorite two albums. As much I love the early stuff, I find those two albums just have it all.

Even Sometimes it Snows. Sorry

sextonseven said:

Fenwick said:

Hey Vainandy

Seeing that I really don't love anything new to emerge from the past 20 years except Jeff Buckley and D'Angelo I can mostly get down with that assessment.

I do think you left off a few brilliant Prince albums if you think Parade/SOTT and Lovesexy weren't still A+ material.

You obviously haven't read one of Vainandy's many rants about the "artsy-fartsy" Parade album.

Honestly when it came out when I was in high school, I couldn't get into it. Now as an adult, I love it. I just listened to my vinyl copy again last night.

Whenever I put this album on, I know I have to have absolutely nothing to do for the next 40 some odd minutes as I never take it off and never skip a song.

I know Vainady mentioned he doesn't like Sometimes it Snows. But the only "fault" I can find on the album is the cowbell during Life Can Be So nice. It is just nuclear bomb loud in the mix. It really makes it hard to listen to the track. Other than that , I consider it a desert album island.

Do you actually have any specific bands/artists that you felt lost their way at a certain point?

Fenwick said:

sextonseven said:

You obviously haven't read one of Vainandy's many rants about the "artsy-fartsy" Parade album.

Honestly when it came out when I was in high school, I couldn't get into it. Now as an adult, I love it. I just listened to my vinyl copy again last night.

Whenever I put this album on, I know I have to have absolutely nothing to do for the next 40 some odd minutes as I never take it off and never skip a song.

I know Vainady mentioned he doesn't like Sometimes it Snows. But the only "fault" I can find on the album is the cowbell during Life Can Be So nice. It is just nuclear bomb loud in the mix. It really makes it hard to listen to the track. Other than that , I consider it a desert album island.

"Life Can Be So Nice" was one of the few songs I did like when I first heard the record back in 1986. It was fast and loud and that repetitive groove during the verses was considered by my teenage mind at the time to be somewhat funky so it got a pass (along with "New Position", "Kiss" and "Mountains"). As for the cowbell, the entire song is such a cacophony of instruments that the cowbell doesn't bother me.

Fenwick said:

So this isn't meant to be a bashing type thread, just a sharing of opinions on when your favorite band/artist might have lost their way.

What's also kind of fun is sometimes they can lose their way for a while and then come back to make glorious music again. Again, these are only my opinions and are just meant to stir discussion, not hostile arguments.

Not sure if this discussion will lead to much so I'll just start with a small sampling.

James Brown - post 1974

I love brother James. But after The Payback and Hell albums, finding good material was very few and far between. Although he could still bring it live, he just never recaptured the glory.

The Waterboys - post 1990

What a glorious decade the 80's were for Mike Scott and the Waterboys. But holy hell in a handbasket did they hit the creative wall after Room to Roam in 1990. There have been some select great tracks since, but overall their best days appear to be behind them.

Elton John - post 1990

After two decades of mostly brilliant pop music, the 90s were a pretty crappy decade for Elton. Rather amazingly, he made one of his best albums ever in 2001 - Songs From the West Coast. The rest of the 2000s certainly weren't a return to the glory days, but were at the very least highly respectable.

Prince - post 1988

I almost don't even want to go here. But you know what Gandhi used to say... Fuck it.

The decade of releases up to Lovesexy were just incredible. Always new. Always fresh. Brilliant original matieral. Since Batman, it's been a crazy roller coaster ride. I will say there have been a lot more highs than some of his biggest critics give him credit for, and a heck of a lot more lows than the fams will acknowledge. Overall, he has had a few glimpses of the glory days from time to time. But even on a solid album like Lotusflower, most of the material is highly derivative. Prince's creative juices seem to be surviving on autopilot now.

Joni Mitchell - post 1979

After releasing Mingus in 1979, space aliens came down and abducted Joni Mitchell for the entire 80s decade. This is a fact. And I will thumb wrestle anyone who dares challenge this statement.

Seriously, her 80s albums were tragically bad. I thought she was gone forever.

But in 1991, she created her masterpiece - Night Ride Home. (Alright, maybe it's second to Hejira). Either way, what a gorgeous, perfect album. Unfortunately, she got caught up in that sound and made two more albums in the 90s that were in the same vein, but far less strong. Since then, a few covers albums and a disasterously bad album , "Shine" I believe Joni is not well (health-wise) these days and is taking an extended break from recording. I hope she gets well and can come back with another masterpiece again.

Peter Gabriel - post 1992

After the "Us" album in 1992 Peter Gabriel has released a grand total of 2 proper albums and two projects, (and one of the proper albums was cover songs). Apparently PG is notorious for being a perfectionist, and I fear this has cost us far too many a song. For the Up album in 2002, approximately 70 songs were recorded. We got to hear 10.

In my opinion, Peter has become too cute with his adventurous side. Most of his songs are about five and a half to seven minutes long now. Full of squawks and pops and bleeps and bats and rats. Just do what you do well Peter. Write and sing original songs.

When he strips it all away and focuses on the tune, a track like Father and Son comes out. Pure perfection. Clearly he still has the ability to create strong material, he just seems to unwilling to let us hear it.

What say you folks? Any thoughts on the bands I've mentioned or others?

I am so so on most of these but i will agree on The Waterboys... man after 91 they where just gone, i can not listen to anything from that decade regarding them

Fenwick said:

Do you actually have any specific bands/artists that you felt lost their way at a certain point?

My two other favorites after Prince:

Siouxsie & The Banshees: 1990 - The beginning of the 90s saw the Banshees hit the American top 40 for the first time supported by an album sporting a cover with Sioux wearing a bright yellow gown standing in front of a pink background. Musically, the album reflected the cover's color palate with shimmery production by Stephen Hague (Erasure, OMD, Pet Shop Boys) which did not suit the Banshees well really. Their subsequent release, The Rapture featured an even more frustrating collaboration with producer John Cale. Thankfully the band called it quits after that.

Tori Amos: 2000 - As much as I've criticized 1998's from the choirgirl hotel album on here, there are still a lot of great Tori songs on that record, which I can't say for any album from 2000 on (American Doll Posse being an exception). Her 2001 covers album was just plain awkward, but 2002's Scarlet's Walk saw the beginning of familiar, and many times annoying, Tori-isms that are on every release of hers to this day--like ending each song on a lingering word. Ugh.

David Bowie - post 1980. A decent mainstream album with 3 hit singles (Let's Dance), a moderately intriguing experimental album (Outside) and a brief resurrection in the early 00s (Heathen, Reality) is not enough. Make no mistake, I dig many of his 84-87 singles, I enjoy Black Tiw White Noise, and Hours was warm and cute but, for all intents and purposes, Bowie the Maverick Genius died in 1981...

The Rolling Stones - post 1983. Undercover was their last cohesive and fascinating work. After that, they have released competent but uneven albums that sold well just because they were released by the Stones. Voodoo Lounge and A Bigger Bang are clearly the best of this "just ok" era. Luckily, they are still an amazing live act...

Madonna - post 2001. American Life was underproduced and misguided, Confessions was very strong, but still a safe dance album, and Hard Candy???? NEXT! please At this point of her career, we can only hope for decently produced albums and new world tours. What a shame. Madonna the Queen of Dance/Pop died after 2001...

Michael Jackson - post 1992. Nuff said

U2- post 1997, after the much maligned Pop they abandoned their remarkable, social lyrics and any trace of experimentation and became just another mainstream rock band. Not enough.

Prince-post 1995. Good ideas but bad songs during the 1996-2003 era, nice albums during the second half of the 00s but 0% ambition, and no promotion, wtf. And it's a shame that he has abandoned real world tours...

Santana, post 1971. The hot band that conquered Woodstock and the whole world during 1969-1971 basically disappeared when Santana embraced jazz. That's when the band Santana died and Carlos Santana appeared...

The Beach Boys, post 1967. They never recovered after the "Smile incident". After that, it was just one good album (Sunflower) and some nice singles during the 68-89 years...

Elvis, post 1970. His only decent record of the 70s was an album of country covers, and some amazing live performances. Not enough. He also became an asshole during this period, and the quality of the singles was questionable, to say the least...

Johnny Cash, post 1971, cruise control during the rest of the 70s and 80s, until his unexpected resurrection with Rick Rubin...

Public Enemy, post 1991, what the hell happened boys???

[Edited 1/10/11 14:55pm]

rhythmtonic said:

bellanoche said:

Jamiroquai - A Funk Odyssey. Until this album, the band could almost do no wrong. I used to listen to their albums from start to finish and back again. This album was the first one where I liked fewer songs than I disliked. The same has been true for subsequent releases.

I felt like they started slipping when Synkronized was released without the original bassist. It's an excellent album, but I don't think it's quite up to snuff with the previous stuff. AFO was definitely the turning point, though, and Dynamite sealed the deal. RDLS did nothing to redeem the "band".

Stylistically it's all over the show, but Synkronized is the only Jamiroquai where all the non-singles are well-crafted, solid efforts. I think it stands as his best by some distance.

elmer said:

rhythmtonic said:

I felt like they started slipping when Synkronized was released without the original bassist. It's an excellent album, but I don't think it's quite up to snuff with the previous stuff. AFO was definitely the turning point, though, and Dynamite sealed the deal. RDLS did nothing to redeem the "band".

Stylistically it's all over the show, but Synkronized is the only Jamiroquai where all the non-singles are well-crafted, solid efforts. I think it stands as his best by some distance.

I agree with you that all the songs on Synkronized are very solid. It's a very solid album, but to my ears it's missing the magic touch. Toby Smith, the keyboardist, mentioned that a whole album worth of material had been finished with Stuart Zender on bass. Here are some clips featuring samples from the unreleased album:

http://www.youtube.com/wa...GSlYsblWXY

http://www.youtube.com/wa...dxtWau-DKU

It makes you wonder what the original album would've sounded like.

'A Funk Odyssey' is my favorite Jamiroquai album.It's a classic from beginning to end.

'Dynamite' has some excellent songs,but I think it falls apart midway through.The songwriting throughout isn't very strong ("Love Blind" features atrocious lyrics).

The latest album 'Rock Dust Light Star' is a return to form.Great songs,lots of rock guitar and horns,and even a few reggae-sounding songs.

JoeTyler said:

David Bowie - post 1980. A decent mainstream album with 3 hit singles (Let's Dance), a moderately intriguing experimental album (Outside) and a brief resurrection in the early 00s (Heathen, Reality) is not enough. Make no mistake, I dig many of his 84-87 singles, I enjoy Black Tiw White Noise, and Hours was warm and cute but, for all intents and purposes, Bowie the Maverick Genius died in 1981...

The Rolling Stones - post 1983. Undercover was their last cohesive and fascinating work. After that, they have released competent but uneven albums that sold well just because they were released by the Stones. Voodoo Lounge and A Bigger Bang are clearly the best of this "just ok" era. Luckily, they are still an amazing live act...

Madonna - post 2001. American Life was underproduced and misguided, Confessions was very strong, but still a safe dance album, and Hard Candy???? NEXT! please At this point of her career, we can only hope for decently produced albums and new world tours. What a shame. Madonna the Queen of Dance/Pop died after 2001...

Michael Jackson - post 1992. Nuff said

U2- post 1997, after the much maligned Pop they abandoned their remarkable, social lyrics and any trace of experimentation and became just another mainstream rock band. Not enough.

Prince-post 1995. Good ideas but bad songs during the 1996-2003 era, nice albums during the second half of the 00s but 0% ambition, and no promotion, wtf. And it's a shame that he has abandoned real world tours...

Santana, post 1971. The hot band that conquered Woodstock and the whole world during 1969-1971 basically disappeared when Santana embraced jazz. That's when the band Santana died and Carlos Santana appeared...

The Beach Boys, post 1967. They never recovered after the "Smile incident". After that, it was just one good album (Sunflower) and some nice singles during the 68-89 years...

Elvis, post 1970. His only decent record of the 70s was an album of country covers, and some amazing live performances. Not enough. He also became an asshole during this period, and the quality of the singles was questionable, to say the least...

Johnny Cash, post 1971, cruise control during the rest of the 70s and 80s, until his unexpected resurrection with Rick Rubin...

Public Enemy, post 1991, what the hell happened boys???

[Edited 1/10/11 14:55pm]

I agree with you 98.42% on Bowie. I do think Heathen is brilliant and is leaps and bounds above everything else since Scary Monsters. But Scary Monsters is definitely the last album of the genius string. Like you said, since then, there have been some decent/solid and bad albums.

MIchael Jackson - It suprised me that another person said post Thirller. How can you like Michael and not dig Bad or Dangerous? Strange. Not sure if you are forgetting about the History album or if you think it's drivel, but I think there is one full half of History that is pure genius. The other half is a mess.

The Stones - Already commented on them from Lastdecember's post. I don't understand how the trajectory of the past 25 years. I just don't....

sextonseven said:

Fenwick said:

Whenever I put this album on, I know I have to have absolutely nothing to do for the next 40 some odd minutes as I never take it off and never skip a song.

I know Vainady mentioned he doesn't like Sometimes it Snows. But the only "fault" I can find on the album is the cowbell during Life Can Be So nice. It is just nuclear bomb loud in the mix. It really makes it hard to listen to the track. Other than that , I consider it a desert album island.

"Life Can Be So Nice" was one of the few songs I did like when I first heard the record back in 1986. It was fast and loud and that repetitive groove during the verses was considered by my teenage mind at the time to be somewhat funky so it got a pass (along with "New Position", "Kiss" and "Mountains"). As for the cowbell, the entire song is such a cacophony of instruments that the cowbell doesn't bother me.

Hey my friend - I absolutely love the song. Love the madness and bedlam. Adore the bridge with the gals singing that descending line. Love how it stops on a dime and gets followed up by the somber mood of Venus de Milo.

It's just that the cowbell is toooooo damn loud.......

[Edited 1/11/11 6:18am]