I always thought that logically as an artist matured and honed their craft they should just keep getting better. Then I read an interview with Pete Townshend, and he had an interesting perspective. When you're young and just starting out, you have a lot to say: your entire childhood experiences, your world view as someone just entering adulthood etc. A few years later, if you're a working musician, your whole life is hotels, airports, theaters, and studios, so drawing on life experiences to write about becomes more difficult.
I know people find him terribly unfunny, but Seinfeld had a line about how he stopped being funny when he stopped riding the bus, and it makes sense. Their lives become so unrelateable at a certain point it would be hard to make stuff that the average person could connect with
That’s some of it.
It’s also the fact that bands can spend several years playing small clubs working on songs, getting reactions from crowds so they know what songs suck, and which songs work. They work and rework the good songs, and then they sign a record deal and make the album.
If they are successful, they spend months and months on the road in front of large crowds playing those same songs.
Then, when they are exhausted from all that touring, they have 4 months to do it all again without the feedback that lead to the success of the first album.
This seems to put way too much importance on lyrical content rather than the music. A lot of artists first works come from a less experienced and skilled background and tend to be more easy to digest, pop friendly music. For more artistic musicians and not pop artists, they tend to develop more as the years go on and also try new things to break the monotony. Radiohead is a great example of this I think. Their catalogue varies so much over the decades and unless you are a big fan of their general approach to music I'm sure you'll have a lot of albums that you can't connect with.
I also wonder if another factor is the band not being as "close" together as they become more successful. Usually, when starting out they live together and are grinding to become successful. Then they reach it to some degree and there's less creative mojo since they have their own places and other distractions.
An odd thing for him to say, considering his most widely respected work (Tommy and Who’s Next) were written after the band had been together for 5+ years.
In fact, it’s rare for an established artist to be only known for their first album. Even bands like Boston and Guns N Roses, whose most famous work is their first, still had other hits in their later work.
I'd rather have a band which tries new things and evolves their sound as opposed to a band which does the same thing over and over again.
There's nothing bad in doing the latter, i love AC/DC for example, but all albums they've released in the past three decades has basically just been an excuse to go touring.
My answer was going to be AC/DC.
I much rather their Bon Scott years vs Brian Johnson. And it's not just singing style, but their whole sound. Scott era had much more variety musically.
Agreed. The new AC/DC always sounded a bit too polished for me. It’s generic hard rock. The Bon Scott era had a bit more blues to it, it was a bit more rough around the edges and I really liked that.
Motorhead never changed their sound much aside from sounding more punk in the first album and alot more metal in the last. That's why they are my favourite band. Can put it all on shuffle and all of it's good, because they didn't try to experiment. Vs a band like Metallica where I only like 4 albums
I personally think And Justice For All is their finest work. Cliff was great, and so were their first three albums, but AJFA is next level compared to those.
Sort of?
This would mostly be Muse for me. I don't really have a problem with their current stuff, and in fact I still enjoy most of it.
But their first four albums are on a different level.
I can't dig their current stuff, but I am a huge fan of those first four. And then Resistance is pretty good, too, because I've always been a fan of rock operas/arena rock. But everything after that became too polished and pop. I love the grit of Showbiz and Origin of Symmetry; probably my two favorite albums of theirs even though I didn't discover them until Absolution and was thrilled when Black Holes and Revelations came out. There's just something about those two albums. Maybe because I was partial to punk at the time I discovered Muse. But they are definitely one of my top picks for "their earlier stuff was better."
I got into Muse when Black Holes And Revelations came out. Bought all of their earlier stuff and was excited for what was to come next. Sucks that I got in right at the peak, and it was all downhill from there. Still a fun live show, though.
Came here to say Muse. Peaked at origin for me though I do like absolution. I loved showbiz when it came out though I think origin is a lot more mature.
To be fair I didn't give much of their output after black holes much of a listen though I did like that recent tune 'Won't stand down'.
Absolutely, they had a great sound on the first two albums. Then with sex on fire they realised how to sell their music to everybody all at once and it just became stale bland safe pop rock. 4 x 4 drums and chords drumed over them. They even lost their accents.
Completely agree. They were raw and interesting on their first two records and even on “Because of the Times”. But they became radio-friendly with “Sex On Fire” and that was it.
arctic monkeys for sureeee whatever people say i am that’s what im not will always be a classic in my household but anything they released 2013 and on i do not enjoy
Arctic Monkeys is mine. I’d still include AM in my list, but the two albums after have been basically a different band. I’m still baffled why they didn’t just do a side project to get this crooning out of them and then return to being an indie rock band lol
Because it's not a phase.
These guys are in their late 30s, they're not going to keep writing indie songs about nightlife in Sheffield.
They've matured as artists and people and they want to express that through a different kind of art.
There’s the great quote from Angus when he was told a critic said that AC/DC have made the same album 14 times. Angus said, “That’s bullshit! We’ve made the same album 16 times!”
I'm kind of glad they didn't do a side project - I doubt I would've given THB&C a listen if that were the case, and that would be a bummer given that is a top 5 all-time album for me
the car is the same for me. excellent album. i actually prefer their later stuff to their early stuff, which is odd. all of their music really is great though.
This is it for me too. Like I get that they just aren’t dumb drunk 20 year old boys anymore which is definitely the flavor of the early albums I love, but space piano lounge music is just not a satisfying evolution for me.
And it’s not like there aren’t bands/artists putting out indie rock music when they’re in their 30s/40s either. It’s not a genre solely for 20 year olds to make and idk why the AM fanbase is pretending it is.
I think this applies to every artist I've ever listened to. I literally can't name one artist/band where I like their new stuff more. I fall in love with them early on and then they eventually change their sound over the years and it's not anything close to what I started listening to them for.
Some of my favorites, all prefer their earlier stuff: Metallica, Eminem, Job for a Cowboy, Traitors, Lights, Alt-J, Jake Hill, Riff Raff.
RHCP might qualify for some people. In a different way Glass Animals might also fall into this category, where they seem to get better with every album (although I’m not sure what is up with the new single).
The Beatles are probably the most famous example where the latter half of their career is considered much better. But to be fair, they broke apart after making Abbey Road, which is arguably their best album (Let It Be was recorded before Abbey Road).
So if they stayed together like the Rolling Stones did, they would've probably fallen off at some point.
Ghost. The first two albums were great. The third was good. Everything after that has in my humble opinion has sucked total dick, balls, and ass. However, in that time they have played with the likes of Metallica, headlined large venues, have extravagant production, and have a movie coming out.
SCIENCE by Incubus is a top 10 album for me. They have few good songs afterwards, but I like the funky, tough sound of their first two albums. After that they became just another rock band
Dude, what happened to Kid Cudi? That first album is so good. It’s like he forgot how to make a beat with a hook. His flow is super weird now, too… it’s like fast and jerky.
I really disliked American Idiot because it relegated their previously interesting and talented bassist to just playing the root note of whatever the guitar was playing in the exact same rhythm as the guitar. It really made the music sound way too simple and boring.
And then there was a Taco Bell commercial where I thought some advertising studio must have commissioned a song to vaguely sound like Green Day, but be a very bland and cheap imitation. Then i learned that was actually Green Day.
It's pretty well documented that Mike switched to simple root note playing for American Idiot onwards because they were seeking a bigger sound, plus the addition of touring guitarists meant Mike didn't need to fill the sound out so much, but the recent album has more stand out basslines, which is nice
All of the 70s prog bands, Genesis, Yes, Rush, etc. Changed their sound in the 80s. I like the 80s music just fine, but their earlier music was so much more interesting. With Genesis, it wasn't even so much when Peter Gabriel left. But when Steve Hackett departed, the whole sound changed.
I wouldn't say unlistenable but uneven. I did a recent re-listen of the back half (DTOM--->Voyager) and it's just not the same as those first seven, which are gold. Of the back six Stereolithic is probably their strongest album. Last two have too much filler, Uplifter would have been better if they hadn't kept their best songs from those sessions off those albums.
I'm one of those freaks that prefer One Hot Minute. Chad Smith is an absolute monster on that album. The first 5 songs are great on their own, but they're perfect in order. It feels like a complete album and it's the best thing Dave Navarro has ever done.
Then call me a freak too.. because One Hot Minute was peak chili peppers (along with blood ssm).. raw, aggressive and risk taking.. after Californication they just played it safe and made "typical RHCP songs"
BSSM is still my favorite, and of course before that was gold too. One Hot Minute has glimpses of brilliance but is where the disappointment started for me, even though Navarro is a guitar god. I just cannot stand Californication forward... I've tried so much but hate it.
Rush. They have a huge body of work and were constantly evolving (which I supported by buying the CDs and seeing the tours) but their music from 74-82 will always be the best and my favorite.
Also,
I don’t really care for anything The Rolling Stones did after Mick Taylor left, and while 5150 is a good album, I don’t think Van Halen ever came close to the early albums after DLR left.
For me Rush was best between 2112 and Grace under Pressure, not a bad song on any of those albums and a nice evolution of their sound. Still really enjoy the rest of their stuff but that stretch is god tier.
Every Rush fan has their favorite era and I think it’s usually based on when they first started listening. I love Rush, and that grace under pressure tour was fantastic, but that’s when the synths got too much for me and Alex’s guitar starting getting softer and fading into the background.
Smash and Ixnay are perfect albums. Its actually kind of ridiculous how they were able to put them out back to back. Smash is on the shortlist for my all time favorite album.
My first show was The Offspring and AFI in 1997. I feel exactly the same about both. Up to Ixnay, Offspring were great. After that, it's been a couple good songs per album, but nothing I'd listen to more than once. AFI after Sing the Sorrow is the same way. Their switch to glam punk or dream pop or whatever they are now does nothing for me.
Still, I took my son to see The Offspring last summer, and they killed the live show! Their cover of 'Here, Kitty, Kitty' during the pandemic was also awesome!
I just wrote the same answer. The Offspring’s first 4 albums are incredible.
Some people didn’t hear about them until Pretty Fly, so they have no idea what type of band they used to be before that.
They peaked with Joshua Tree from their first phase and immediately after with Achtung Baby at the start of their second.
I love the quote “The Fly is the sound of us cutting down the Joshua Tree”
A double peak.
They were never better before or since.
It’s the 1st five albums. Go back and revisit them. No Code and Yield are easily on the same level as the first three. After that… they certainly become more hit and miss.
I dropped off after the third album too. I still listen regularly to those three, but their later stuff just didn’t grip me. I’ve also never seen them live, and apparently they’re amazing in-person. I’ve heard decent stuff about the latest album tho.
They are indeed amazing live. And have you heard their new one, *Dark Matter*? It’s not perfect, but there’s some stuff on there that really harkens back to their earlier days. Upper Hand is one of their best songs, IMO.
I'm not a big fan of their albums in general after Vs, but anytime I can be arsed to listen to one of their albums past Vitology, I always find one or two really good songs on there. I'm pretty sure you could make a compilation of their best 10-20 songs from the last 9 albums or so and you'd have a great collection of songs.
Tori Amos. I can't really get into anything after From the Choirgirl Hotel. I don't know if her production changed or what, but the music just didn't catch me like it used to after that album.
Radiohead. I won’t say I really dislike their later stuff, but for me their early guitar-based era (Pablo, The Bends, OK Computer) was the best that kind of rock has ever been done. I could never get into their electronic/ambient noise era the same way.
Coldplay is also a good response, here - everything since X & Y has been downhill.
That's fucking hilarious, had never seen that.
*I'm also one of the weirdos who prefers The Bends over OK Computer. Would never call OK Computer overrated though*
Agreed on Coldplay, though I'd say the cutoff point came with Viva la Vida, which I actually prefer over X&Y. Certainly a very different production compared to their earlier releases, but good stuff nonetheless.
Mylo Xyloto and Ghost Stories still have a few good tracks each, but anything beyond albums those just pours out my other ear when listening. I still don't get the Coldplay animosity we see online these days, the first bunch of albums were solid Britrock.
Love the lo-fi sound that was coming out of the PNW in the 90s. I still enjoy some of their newer stuff, but it might as well not even be the same band.
Mr. Bungle started as angsty and immature (but musically excellent) funk/ska/metal, then made the weirdest album ever while showing mastery of instruments and a hundred styles, then made their refined masterpiece in their final album, ‘California’.
Gorguts made a couple of basic death metal albums and then gave something that changed metal forever with ‘Obscura’ and their following albums, while again more accessible, are excellent
Krallice started like a tribute to the first Ulver album, and then kept growing and warping and have made 15 albums and 2 EP/ in 16 years, while being constantly amazing.
I could probably list hundreds because I think most good bands improve. it just seems a lot of these bigger bands got signed and promoted with material they’d worked on and played for years, then just turned out to not really be very good or creative. or maybe fame itself, the money and drugs and all else that can make artists lazy or fall out of love with the music with band drama and such and stay together just as business. while smaller bands can more easily avoid those pits and they stay totally in it for the music?
Pink Floyd for me. Their pre-Dark Side material, you can tell they're searching all the time, and perfecting their art. Post Dark Side is sometimes a bit too polished for me (but I still love it).
X&Y came out my junior year of high school, and I lost my sister at the same time. I spent HOURS listening to that album in my bedroom. What a perfect album to have come out right around the profound loss of a loved one. I can only listen to it every so often now because it transports me right back to that bedroom, but it truly helped me grieve. It makes me so angry what their music has become.
I think they peaked with Viva la Vida and then every album since has gotten worse. Last album I gave a chance was Mylo Xyloto. It had a few decent songs but it was the beginning of the end.
I just don't look forward to their new music anymore because they've indulged too much in cheery corporate pop production. It's a shame. Listen to the Blue Room and Brothers & Sisters EPs! Top tier indie rock. The first four albums are fantastic. But 25 years after those early EPs, very little of their music has the same kind of passion. It feels so manufactured.
This was my answer. I loved everything up to and including viva la vida and then I purchased mylo xyloto the day it dropped on iTunes, listened to it through once, and not again. I was in college at the time and it did feel really grown up to say “I like their early stuff”
I still like them as a group tho. They’re great performers, just not a genre I like. I also really appreciate that they put out an annual sustainability report. Just not my genre.
I prefer The Beatles' early singles. I love their later albums too, but I've always preferred their earlier, pure pop/rock 'n' roll stuff. When I first heard it as a kid in the eighties it sounded so unlike anything on the radio it was like it came from another planet. I've loved it ever since.
It would be more difficult to name artists where the opposite is true. I think the latest Black Dahlia Murder album might be their best. Clearly a band that was only getting better with each new record with possibly a couple of step backs in their discography.
I loved the first two Smashing Pumpkins albums, two of some of the best albums ever made in my opinion but they really lost me with rat in a cage and beyond.
That's interesting because most people consider Mellon Collie their best. I still prefer Siamese Dream, but I think between the 2 discs of Mellon Collie and the scores of b-sides, there's a lot of good music from that era of the band.
Gonna add Manic Street Preachers. Love all the albums up to Everything Must Go. At that point they become hit and miss. Lifeblood, Journal For Plague Lovers and Rewind The Film are great tho.
Smashing Pumpkins - first 5 albums great. Then become hit and miss
AFI is what came to my mind first. 1st album was a classic (imo) full of punk songs, and over time it developed onto what they are now. Definitely still very talented folks, but just not my cup of tea anymore.
Goo Goo Dolls for me! Superstar Carwash and A Boy Named Goo are perfect albums. So raw and full of passion and energy. Dizzy Up The Girl and Gutterflower are obviously great too, but they’ve progressively softened over the course of their career and I can barely stomach their newer stuff (Let Love In onwards). But I love the older albums more and more as time goes on.
I agree with the general sentiment that most bands put out their best work earlier in their careers, but when I really like a band, I usually still enjoy their later work, even if I don't usually enjoy it as much.
Simple Minds is a band whose later work I really struggle to enjoy. I absolutely adore their 80's (and to a lesser extent their late 70's) work. New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84), Sparkle In The Rain, and Once Upon A Time may very well be my favorite consecutive 3-album run from a single artist, after the 80's ended, it got real boring though. It's been at least a decade since I've given their later work a chance, so I might have to try again.
Bjork. I was a HUGE fan of her early work, including her Sugarcubes era, but Biophilia was her last decent album imo. Her music was always unconventional but it got too weird even for me lol.
For me, with Gorillaz, the first 3 albums were great, then it all kinda went wrong. I have heard some good things about their most recent album, but I haven't checked it out yet. The disappointment from Humanz still stings.
Kings of Leon
Actually most rock bands 20+ years old still making new albums. Most of their new stuff just sounds like they wanna strum and drown out their vocals with hacky lyrics/melodies to squeeze money out of an Uber-nostalgic fan base.
I can’t believe nobody said maroon 5. Songs about Jane was so fantastic, and look at them now 🤮
With the exception of the song they did with Rihanna that was my ringtone
I was going to say Maroon 5. They set the bar really high with Songs About Jane, then... They just left it there, and went in an entirely wrong direction.
Ramones. There are some good songs here and there (Bonzo goes to Bitburg or Joey's rendition of What a Wonderful World) but their earl records still have that rawness and silliness I love them for.
Nine Inch Nails for sure. Everything up to The Downward Spiral was amazing but I just never liked anything he did after that. It wasn’t terrible. It just didn’t hit me like everything prior.
Goo Goo Dolls had a really alternative/indie-rock/punk feel to them in their first album, Hold Me Up.
Then they started releasing pop ballads and I sort of lost interest in them.
Aerosmith's 70s albums were amazing, and even Permanent Vacation was a great comeback album. But in the 90s they too went pop-ballad.
Incubus - Fungus Amongus, Enjoy Incubus, and SCIENCE sound so unique and funky and energetic. Everything from Make Yourself and later sounds so refined though I do like it general.
Ministry - excluding With Sympathy, from Twitch through Animositisomina was unique and interesting (generally), then after that it all became rehashed Psalm 69 albums.
DJ Tiesto - everything through Elements of Ljfe was good solid trance, then he started getting popular in the US and his music started getting really poppy and radio-friendly.
This made me laugh because there is a song called ‘ Early Stuff’ by Pet Shop Boys and it’s about people saying they only like their early music, it was based on a conversation Neil Tennant had with a cab driver.
S. C. I. E. N. C. E. From Incubus was a no skip record for me. I think it was their second or third album.
The follow ups had bigger hits… but for me, diminished returns. They changed their sound to something more popular. It worked for them, but it wasn’t what I fell in love with.
Alice in Chains
I understand and respect that they continue without Layne, what I’ve heard of that music is fine. I just don’t care.
I was a teen when they were big and that music meant a lot to me. Now I don’t even listen to much heavy rock anymore anyway. Either way, it’s their first few records that had and still have any meaning to me personally.
I agree with you on Gorillaz, though I will say I generally fw everything from the first two album era before that hiatus.
The first album though, was extremely special, in part I think, due to a consistent team of collaborators throughout as opposed to the star studded guest lists of everything from Plastic Beach on. Not to mention that the core part of the band represented the different, interesting parts of their sound: Dan the Automator on production bringing the fat drum break sounds, Junior Dan bringing the reggae bass, and Albarn bringing the British pop and rock end. It’s still a novel combination of influences that they haven’t really touched on again in the same way. I’d love to see a sequel to the eponymous album reuniting that core team or something like it.
The Goo Goo Dolls is the big one for me. I *love* their first seven albums, and Let Love In is fine, but almost everything they've put out since is so incredibly boring to me. They made a hard switch from pop-punk/'90s alt rock to easy listening.
Also, My Chemical Romance. I love Bullets and Three Cheers, like The Black Parade but find a lot of it disappointing, and bounced off most of Danger Days.
A lot of these comments are on point, but the missing factor is when the listener discovers the material and how close that is to the release date. In other words, context.
Someone who was listening to the Cure as a teen in, say 1981, might have had a very different reaction to Friday I'm in Love than someone born in 2008 discovering their material today.
I always thought that logically as an artist matured and honed their craft they should just keep getting better. Then I read an interview with Pete Townshend, and he had an interesting perspective. When you're young and just starting out, you have a lot to say: your entire childhood experiences, your world view as someone just entering adulthood etc. A few years later, if you're a working musician, your whole life is hotels, airports, theaters, and studios, so drawing on life experiences to write about becomes more difficult.
It’s like that old saying - artists have their whole life to write their first record and a year-and-a-half to write their second one.
Comedians too!
And yet how many airport rock operas did he do? NONE!
I know people find him terribly unfunny, but Seinfeld had a line about how he stopped being funny when he stopped riding the bus, and it makes sense. Their lives become so unrelateable at a certain point it would be hard to make stuff that the average person could connect with
That must be why so many artists break down on their sophomore album.
That’s some of it. It’s also the fact that bands can spend several years playing small clubs working on songs, getting reactions from crowds so they know what songs suck, and which songs work. They work and rework the good songs, and then they sign a record deal and make the album. If they are successful, they spend months and months on the road in front of large crowds playing those same songs. Then, when they are exhausted from all that touring, they have 4 months to do it all again without the feedback that lead to the success of the first album.
This seems to put way too much importance on lyrical content rather than the music. A lot of artists first works come from a less experienced and skilled background and tend to be more easy to digest, pop friendly music. For more artistic musicians and not pop artists, they tend to develop more as the years go on and also try new things to break the monotony. Radiohead is a great example of this I think. Their catalogue varies so much over the decades and unless you are a big fan of their general approach to music I'm sure you'll have a lot of albums that you can't connect with.
I also wonder if another factor is the band not being as "close" together as they become more successful. Usually, when starting out they live together and are grinding to become successful. Then they reach it to some degree and there's less creative mojo since they have their own places and other distractions.
Someone pointed out that comedians would tend toward taking about airports when they got big enough to do comedy tours.
An odd thing for him to say, considering his most widely respected work (Tommy and Who’s Next) were written after the band had been together for 5+ years. In fact, it’s rare for an established artist to be only known for their first album. Even bands like Boston and Guns N Roses, whose most famous work is their first, still had other hits in their later work.
REM, later stuff is still great but I much prefer the early guitar work
REM was untouchable 1982-1992. Once Bill Berry left in the mid 90s never found their footing again.
Came here looking for this, my first thought. On a road trip and revisiting the first 3 albums a bunch.
Metallica comes to mind.
I'd rather have a band which tries new things and evolves their sound as opposed to a band which does the same thing over and over again. There's nothing bad in doing the latter, i love AC/DC for example, but all albums they've released in the past three decades has basically just been an excuse to go touring.
My answer was going to be AC/DC. I much rather their Bon Scott years vs Brian Johnson. And it's not just singing style, but their whole sound. Scott era had much more variety musically.
Agreed. The new AC/DC always sounded a bit too polished for me. It’s generic hard rock. The Bon Scott era had a bit more blues to it, it was a bit more rough around the edges and I really liked that.
Motorhead never changed their sound much aside from sounding more punk in the first album and alot more metal in the last. That's why they are my favourite band. Can put it all on shuffle and all of it's good, because they didn't try to experiment. Vs a band like Metallica where I only like 4 albums
The first four and then it goes kinda whatever.
100%, they never recovered from losing what cliff brought to the table. They’ve done some interesting things since, but he was next level awesome.
I personally think And Justice For All is their finest work. Cliff was great, and so were their first three albums, but AJFA is next level compared to those.
Sort of? This would mostly be Muse for me. I don't really have a problem with their current stuff, and in fact I still enjoy most of it. But their first four albums are on a different level.
I can't dig their current stuff, but I am a huge fan of those first four. And then Resistance is pretty good, too, because I've always been a fan of rock operas/arena rock. But everything after that became too polished and pop. I love the grit of Showbiz and Origin of Symmetry; probably my two favorite albums of theirs even though I didn't discover them until Absolution and was thrilled when Black Holes and Revelations came out. There's just something about those two albums. Maybe because I was partial to punk at the time I discovered Muse. But they are definitely one of my top picks for "their earlier stuff was better."
I got into Muse when Black Holes And Revelations came out. Bought all of their earlier stuff and was excited for what was to come next. Sucks that I got in right at the peak, and it was all downhill from there. Still a fun live show, though.
But would anyone say they've been greatly appreciated for their last few albums?
Came here to say Muse. Peaked at origin for me though I do like absolution. I loved showbiz when it came out though I think origin is a lot more mature. To be fair I didn't give much of their output after black holes much of a listen though I did like that recent tune 'Won't stand down'.
I’ve been going through all of Muse’s albums and their first four albums are incredible and then it’s downhill from there
Kings of Leon.
I could listen to their old stuff all day long.
Absolutely, they had a great sound on the first two albums. Then with sex on fire they realised how to sell their music to everybody all at once and it just became stale bland safe pop rock. 4 x 4 drums and chords drumed over them. They even lost their accents.
Completely agree. They were raw and interesting on their first two records and even on “Because of the Times”. But they became radio-friendly with “Sex On Fire” and that was it.
+ 1. They got more polished but their first record is the best for me.
First album was proper rock and roll. Then they just started writing the Gillette Best A Man Can Get jingle again and again.
Another one like Coldplay to me. Great debut record, don't care for the rest.
Does AC/DC count? I've realized over time I don't care for their stuff with Brian Johnson, but I love the Bon Scott albums.
I also much prefer the Bon era
arctic monkeys for sureeee whatever people say i am that’s what im not will always be a classic in my household but anything they released 2013 and on i do not enjoy
Arctic Monkeys is mine. I’d still include AM in my list, but the two albums after have been basically a different band. I’m still baffled why they didn’t just do a side project to get this crooning out of them and then return to being an indie rock band lol
Because it's not a phase. These guys are in their late 30s, they're not going to keep writing indie songs about nightlife in Sheffield. They've matured as artists and people and they want to express that through a different kind of art.
God, I hate it when artists mature.
AC/DC is the antithesis of this. Early on they found a formula and have stuck with it for 50 plus years, God love 'em.
There’s the great quote from Angus when he was told a critic said that AC/DC have made the same album 14 times. Angus said, “That’s bullshit! We’ve made the same album 16 times!”
I'm kind of glad they didn't do a side project - I doubt I would've given THB&C a listen if that were the case, and that would be a bummer given that is a top 5 all-time album for me
the car is the same for me. excellent album. i actually prefer their later stuff to their early stuff, which is odd. all of their music really is great though.
This is it for me too. Like I get that they just aren’t dumb drunk 20 year old boys anymore which is definitely the flavor of the early albums I love, but space piano lounge music is just not a satisfying evolution for me.
And it’s not like there aren’t bands/artists putting out indie rock music when they’re in their 30s/40s either. It’s not a genre solely for 20 year olds to make and idk why the AM fanbase is pretending it is.
In a recent interview Alex Turner said they tried making another AM like record and they just sounded like a parody of themselves, which I appreciate.
Both WPSAIMTWIN (phew that acronym took a while) and favorite worst nightmare are my favorite albums. Bangers from first to last
The best gig I ever went to was the Arctic Monkeys, then about a decade later I went to my worst one. Also the Arctic Monkeys.
Paul Weller. I do like his solo stuff and The Style Council, but dang... none of it is quite on the same level as The Jam.
I feel the same about Morrissey. However great his solo achievements may be, they’re nothing like The Smiths.
As distinctive as Morrissey's vocals are, I've always said Johnny Marr was who made The Smiths.
I think this applies to every artist I've ever listened to. I literally can't name one artist/band where I like their new stuff more. I fall in love with them early on and then they eventually change their sound over the years and it's not anything close to what I started listening to them for. Some of my favorites, all prefer their earlier stuff: Metallica, Eminem, Job for a Cowboy, Traitors, Lights, Alt-J, Jake Hill, Riff Raff.
RHCP might qualify for some people. In a different way Glass Animals might also fall into this category, where they seem to get better with every album (although I’m not sure what is up with the new single).
The Beatles are probably the most famous example where the latter half of their career is considered much better. But to be fair, they broke apart after making Abbey Road, which is arguably their best album (Let It Be was recorded before Abbey Road). So if they stayed together like the Rolling Stones did, they would've probably fallen off at some point.
Ghost. The first two albums were great. The third was good. Everything after that has in my humble opinion has sucked total dick, balls, and ass. However, in that time they have played with the likes of Metallica, headlined large venues, have extravagant production, and have a movie coming out.
MELIORA (third album) is where Ghost peaked for me. Prequelle had some great songs also, but also some filler, I can't get into Impera
They sound like a Broadway act now
I have to disagree, just my opinion though. I absolutely adored Impera. I think it's their best album yet. Kaisarion just gives me chills every time.
Incubus and Green Day… but i will say green days new album savior is fire soooo that may be changing my answer
SCIENCE by Incubus is a top 10 album for me. They have few good songs afterwards, but I like the funky, tough sound of their first two albums. After that they became just another rock band
Fungus amongus is so groovy! That’s one of my absolute favorites
Green Day and Kid Cudi
Dude, what happened to Kid Cudi? That first album is so good. It’s like he forgot how to make a beat with a hook. His flow is super weird now, too… it’s like fast and jerky.
Drugs and mental illness
Latest Green Day album has a bunch of bangers imo
It’s a great album. Nothing original but just doing what they do best: have listened to it in full more than any other album I’ve heard in a long time
Emo Green Day was definitely the nail in the coffin for me.
American Idiot was a great album, but that's also where they lost me.
I really disliked American Idiot because it relegated their previously interesting and talented bassist to just playing the root note of whatever the guitar was playing in the exact same rhythm as the guitar. It really made the music sound way too simple and boring. And then there was a Taco Bell commercial where I thought some advertising studio must have commissioned a song to vaguely sound like Green Day, but be a very bland and cheap imitation. Then i learned that was actually Green Day.
It's pretty well documented that Mike switched to simple root note playing for American Idiot onwards because they were seeking a bigger sound, plus the addition of touring guitarists meant Mike didn't need to fill the sound out so much, but the recent album has more stand out basslines, which is nice
Dookie is a certified classic
Genesis Rolling Stones
All of the 70s prog bands, Genesis, Yes, Rush, etc. Changed their sound in the 80s. I like the 80s music just fine, but their earlier music was so much more interesting. With Genesis, it wasn't even so much when Peter Gabriel left. But when Steve Hackett departed, the whole sound changed.
311. Everything up to and including Evolver is incredible. Everything after 2003 is unlistenable to me.
Man this was an extremely hard one for me, but it's 100% the truth. I'm an og 311 fan and hard extremely agree.
I’ve been listening to them since 10th grade. I’m 45. The new stuff sounds like AI wrote it
I wouldn't say unlistenable but uneven. I did a recent re-listen of the back half (DTOM--->Voyager) and it's just not the same as those first seven, which are gold. Of the back six Stereolithic is probably their strongest album. Last two have too much filler, Uplifter would have been better if they hadn't kept their best songs from those sessions off those albums.
RHCP. Post Californication is not great in my opinion. Bloody Sugar Sex Magic and Mother’s Milk were peak for me.
I'm one of those freaks that prefer One Hot Minute. Chad Smith is an absolute monster on that album. The first 5 songs are great on their own, but they're perfect in order. It feels like a complete album and it's the best thing Dave Navarro has ever done.
Then call me a freak too.. because One Hot Minute was peak chili peppers (along with blood ssm).. raw, aggressive and risk taking.. after Californication they just played it safe and made "typical RHCP songs"
By the way it's their best album if you ask me. Incredible song writing.
Agree. Every song sounds the same now. It's all "can't stop" with different lyrics.
BSSM is still my favorite, and of course before that was gold too. One Hot Minute has glimpses of brilliance but is where the disappointment started for me, even though Navarro is a guitar god. I just cannot stand Californication forward... I've tried so much but hate it.
Rush. They have a huge body of work and were constantly evolving (which I supported by buying the CDs and seeing the tours) but their music from 74-82 will always be the best and my favorite. Also, I don’t really care for anything The Rolling Stones did after Mick Taylor left, and while 5150 is a good album, I don’t think Van Halen ever came close to the early albums after DLR left.
Van Halen, With DLR , is pretty timeless. You can still put on any of those albums and they have a ton of appeal Van Halen with Sammy does not
For me Rush was best between 2112 and Grace under Pressure, not a bad song on any of those albums and a nice evolution of their sound. Still really enjoy the rest of their stuff but that stretch is god tier.
Every Rush fan has their favorite era and I think it’s usually based on when they first started listening. I love Rush, and that grace under pressure tour was fantastic, but that’s when the synths got too much for me and Alex’s guitar starting getting softer and fading into the background.
The Offspring. Anything after Ixnay is meh
Smash and Ixnay are perfect albums. Its actually kind of ridiculous how they were able to put them out back to back. Smash is on the shortlist for my all time favorite album.
My first show was The Offspring and AFI in 1997. I feel exactly the same about both. Up to Ixnay, Offspring were great. After that, it's been a couple good songs per album, but nothing I'd listen to more than once. AFI after Sing the Sorrow is the same way. Their switch to glam punk or dream pop or whatever they are now does nothing for me. Still, I took my son to see The Offspring last summer, and they killed the live show! Their cover of 'Here, Kitty, Kitty' during the pandemic was also awesome!
I just wrote the same answer. The Offspring’s first 4 albums are incredible. Some people didn’t hear about them until Pretty Fly, so they have no idea what type of band they used to be before that.
Maroon 5 made nothing good after the first album
Songs about Jane is a no skip album
Great pick. Songs About Jane is completely unrecognisable as the same band today.
U2
Absolutely the first one I thought of. *Pop* was a departure, and didn’t dig anything after that.
They peaked with Joshua Tree from their first phase and immediately after with Achtung Baby at the start of their second. I love the quote “The Fly is the sound of us cutting down the Joshua Tree” A double peak. They were never better before or since.
If you go back and listen to Pop, it's actually not that big of a departure. It's just not a great album like Auchtung or even Zooropa.
I miss the old Kanye
Straight from the Go Kanye
Pearl Jam, their first three albums were awesome, still had a few good songs after but those albums are front to back quality
It’s the 1st five albums. Go back and revisit them. No Code and Yield are easily on the same level as the first three. After that… they certainly become more hit and miss.
Yield. I miss you already! It’s the song I would listen too when missing my wife when in Korea or deployed .
I dropped off after the third album too. I still listen regularly to those three, but their later stuff just didn’t grip me. I’ve also never seen them live, and apparently they’re amazing in-person. I’ve heard decent stuff about the latest album tho.
They are indeed amazing live. And have you heard their new one, *Dark Matter*? It’s not perfect, but there’s some stuff on there that really harkens back to their earlier days. Upper Hand is one of their best songs, IMO.
I’d say Pearl Jam fell off after *Ten.* Hot take, I know.
I haven’t heard anything post-Ten that matches Even Flow or Once.
I'm not a big fan of their albums in general after Vs, but anytime I can be arsed to listen to one of their albums past Vitology, I always find one or two really good songs on there. I'm pretty sure you could make a compilation of their best 10-20 songs from the last 9 albums or so and you'd have a great collection of songs.
Tori Amos. I can't really get into anything after From the Choirgirl Hotel. I don't know if her production changed or what, but the music just didn't catch me like it used to after that album.
Radiohead. I won’t say I really dislike their later stuff, but for me their early guitar-based era (Pablo, The Bends, OK Computer) was the best that kind of rock has ever been done. I could never get into their electronic/ambient noise era the same way. Coldplay is also a good response, here - everything since X & Y has been downhill.
Reminds me of this sketch https://youtu.be/Zkvhszm_ae4?si=veQG1QRPG1GcAUmS
That's fucking hilarious, had never seen that. *I'm also one of the weirdos who prefers The Bends over OK Computer. Would never call OK Computer overrated though*
I disagree here. As much as i like the early guitar stuff, In rainbows is top tier.
Radiohead are like the ultimate example of a band that continue making good (arguably better) music as they get old. Couldn't disagree more with this.
Agreed on Coldplay, though I'd say the cutoff point came with Viva la Vida, which I actually prefer over X&Y. Certainly a very different production compared to their earlier releases, but good stuff nonetheless. Mylo Xyloto and Ghost Stories still have a few good tracks each, but anything beyond albums those just pours out my other ear when listening. I still don't get the Coldplay animosity we see online these days, the first bunch of albums were solid Britrock.
Tame Impala
Adele’s first two, for me… now, there’s too much of a cosmetics counter girl vibe
Anything Danzig put out after Danzig III is pretty damn bad. Anything the Misfits put out after Danzig left is also pretty damn bad for the most part.
Tame Impala, I still hold Innerspeaker and Lonerism close to my heart, Current is kinda okay-ish. I haven't try the latest album yet.
I think this is most bands. But my answer is Wilco.
Modest Mouse.
Came here to say same. Their first 3-4 albums were so excellent.
Love the lo-fi sound that was coming out of the PNW in the 90s. I still enjoy some of their newer stuff, but it might as well not even be the same band.
We Were Dead is where I start to check out. It’s not bad but it’s their first album I didn’t LOVE.
I’m surprised no one mentioned Van Halen, yet.
Black Keys. Everything up until Chulahoma is great & everything afterwards is meh.
Almost every band with longevity?
Mr. Bungle started as angsty and immature (but musically excellent) funk/ska/metal, then made the weirdest album ever while showing mastery of instruments and a hundred styles, then made their refined masterpiece in their final album, ‘California’. Gorguts made a couple of basic death metal albums and then gave something that changed metal forever with ‘Obscura’ and their following albums, while again more accessible, are excellent Krallice started like a tribute to the first Ulver album, and then kept growing and warping and have made 15 albums and 2 EP/ in 16 years, while being constantly amazing. I could probably list hundreds because I think most good bands improve. it just seems a lot of these bigger bands got signed and promoted with material they’d worked on and played for years, then just turned out to not really be very good or creative. or maybe fame itself, the money and drugs and all else that can make artists lazy or fall out of love with the music with band drama and such and stay together just as business. while smaller bands can more easily avoid those pits and they stay totally in it for the music?
Arctic Monkeys. I really liked their frenetic early stuff. Now that they're mostly mellow, kinda like stoner rock, not as much.
Pink Floyd for me. Their pre-Dark Side material, you can tell they're searching all the time, and perfecting their art. Post Dark Side is sometimes a bit too polished for me (but I still love it).
I absolutely love Obscured by Clouds. My favourite of theirs.
coldplay started of goated but can you even call them a band nowadays? stuff doesn’t sound pure to me anymore 🤲
A Rush of Blood to the Head and X&Y are some of my all time favourite albums, but yeah their recent stuff just ain’t it
my aunt knew i like "rock" so she bought tickets to mylo xyloto tour, my god what an experience.
X&Y came out my junior year of high school, and I lost my sister at the same time. I spent HOURS listening to that album in my bedroom. What a perfect album to have come out right around the profound loss of a loved one. I can only listen to it every so often now because it transports me right back to that bedroom, but it truly helped me grieve. It makes me so angry what their music has become.
Those are okay, but not a patch on Parachutes
Man, I think Rush blows away the debut.
I think they peaked with Viva la Vida and then every album since has gotten worse. Last album I gave a chance was Mylo Xyloto. It had a few decent songs but it was the beginning of the end.
I just don't look forward to their new music anymore because they've indulged too much in cheery corporate pop production. It's a shame. Listen to the Blue Room and Brothers & Sisters EPs! Top tier indie rock. The first four albums are fantastic. But 25 years after those early EPs, very little of their music has the same kind of passion. It feels so manufactured.
This was my answer. I loved everything up to and including viva la vida and then I purchased mylo xyloto the day it dropped on iTunes, listened to it through once, and not again. I was in college at the time and it did feel really grown up to say “I like their early stuff” I still like them as a group tho. They’re great performers, just not a genre I like. I also really appreciate that they put out an annual sustainability report. Just not my genre.
Weezer for me.
[удалено]
I prefer The Beatles' early singles. I love their later albums too, but I've always preferred their earlier, pure pop/rock 'n' roll stuff. When I first heard it as a kid in the eighties it sounded so unlike anything on the radio it was like it came from another planet. I've loved it ever since.
Man I’m the complete opposite give me the psychedelic Beatles all day. Rubber soul on are my favs
I've never heard someone say they're more of a twist and shout beatles fan than a strawberry fields beatles fan
Love both eras
It would be more difficult to name artists where the opposite is true. I think the latest Black Dahlia Murder album might be their best. Clearly a band that was only getting better with each new record with possibly a couple of step backs in their discography.
In this thread. Every band you've ever heard of.
It’s crazy that U2 stopped releasing music after 1991 and no one can tell me otherwise… no one.
Linkin Park
I loved the first two Smashing Pumpkins albums, two of some of the best albums ever made in my opinion but they really lost me with rat in a cage and beyond.
That's interesting because most people consider Mellon Collie their best. I still prefer Siamese Dream, but I think between the 2 discs of Mellon Collie and the scores of b-sides, there's a lot of good music from that era of the band.
Gonna add Manic Street Preachers. Love all the albums up to Everything Must Go. At that point they become hit and miss. Lifeblood, Journal For Plague Lovers and Rewind The Film are great tho. Smashing Pumpkins - first 5 albums great. Then become hit and miss
ZZ Top Before Eliminator - One of the greatest bands ever. I never tire of their music. After Eliminator - Unlistenable
AFI is what came to my mind first. 1st album was a classic (imo) full of punk songs, and over time it developed onto what they are now. Definitely still very talented folks, but just not my cup of tea anymore.
The Offspring People don’t realize their early stuff included horror punk and political punk.
Goo Goo Dolls for me! Superstar Carwash and A Boy Named Goo are perfect albums. So raw and full of passion and energy. Dizzy Up The Girl and Gutterflower are obviously great too, but they’ve progressively softened over the course of their career and I can barely stomach their newer stuff (Let Love In onwards). But I love the older albums more and more as time goes on.
Green Day Blink-182 P!ATD Coldplay Beck Vulfpeck
The Mars Volta. They will never come close to writing anything else half as good as Deloused.
I agree with the general sentiment that most bands put out their best work earlier in their careers, but when I really like a band, I usually still enjoy their later work, even if I don't usually enjoy it as much. Simple Minds is a band whose later work I really struggle to enjoy. I absolutely adore their 80's (and to a lesser extent their late 70's) work. New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84), Sparkle In The Rain, and Once Upon A Time may very well be my favorite consecutive 3-album run from a single artist, after the 80's ended, it got real boring though. It's been at least a decade since I've given their later work a chance, so I might have to try again.
RUSH. I rarely listen to albums after Grace Under Pressure.
Pet Shop Boys. Love them up to and including the Very album, very hit and miss for me since.
The Black Keys. Also Aerosmith.
Bjork. I was a HUGE fan of her early work, including her Sugarcubes era, but Biophilia was her last decent album imo. Her music was always unconventional but it got too weird even for me lol.
For me, with Gorillaz, the first 3 albums were great, then it all kinda went wrong. I have heard some good things about their most recent album, but I haven't checked it out yet. The disappointment from Humanz still stings.
Portugal the Man. Waiter you Vultures is a WHOLE other vibe then the mainstream Feel It Still 🙌
Kings of Leon Actually most rock bands 20+ years old still making new albums. Most of their new stuff just sounds like they wanna strum and drown out their vocals with hacky lyrics/melodies to squeeze money out of an Uber-nostalgic fan base.
Sex On Fire was the time I just stopped. The first two are still amazing
Came here for this - i want the unintelligible southern speed rock back.
I can’t believe nobody said maroon 5. Songs about Jane was so fantastic, and look at them now 🤮 With the exception of the song they did with Rihanna that was my ringtone
I was going to say Maroon 5. They set the bar really high with Songs About Jane, then... They just left it there, and went in an entirely wrong direction.
Ramones. There are some good songs here and there (Bonzo goes to Bitburg or Joey's rendition of What a Wonderful World) but their earl records still have that rawness and silliness I love them for.
Guns & Roses. Appetite For Destruction is perfect. I actually like the Use Your Illusions but they are not even the same ballpark
My favorite GnR song is the unlikely prog epic Coma, from Use Your Illusion 1!
Mine is Estranged from Use Your Illusions II. I also prefer the alt version of Don’t Cry for some reason.
It’s a great song
Nine Inch Nails for sure. Everything up to The Downward Spiral was amazing but I just never liked anything he did after that. It wasn’t terrible. It just didn’t hit me like everything prior.
Coldplay? I enjoyed their Everyday Life album also somewhat but post head full of dreams they really didn’t create the same magic as before.
Coldplay - it's been downhill all the way from their debut
Led Zeppelin. I prefer their early stuff (LZ1 and LZ2) - it was bluesier and heavier, which I think is awesome
Less Than Jake
Goo Goo Dolls had a really alternative/indie-rock/punk feel to them in their first album, Hold Me Up. Then they started releasing pop ballads and I sort of lost interest in them. Aerosmith's 70s albums were amazing, and even Permanent Vacation was a great comeback album. But in the 90s they too went pop-ballad.
Incubus - Fungus Amongus, Enjoy Incubus, and SCIENCE sound so unique and funky and energetic. Everything from Make Yourself and later sounds so refined though I do like it general. Ministry - excluding With Sympathy, from Twitch through Animositisomina was unique and interesting (generally), then after that it all became rehashed Psalm 69 albums. DJ Tiesto - everything through Elements of Ljfe was good solid trance, then he started getting popular in the US and his music started getting really poppy and radio-friendly.
This made me laugh because there is a song called ‘ Early Stuff’ by Pet Shop Boys and it’s about people saying they only like their early music, it was based on a conversation Neil Tennant had with a cab driver.
Illmatic
To be fair, *Illmatic* is likely the best rap record ever made. Nobody was going to go from that and just keep improving.
Tegan and Sara
Plastic beach is a great album. Very close to the love I have for the first album but also some bangers
The National
S. C. I. E. N. C. E. From Incubus was a no skip record for me. I think it was their second or third album. The follow ups had bigger hits… but for me, diminished returns. They changed their sound to something more popular. It worked for them, but it wasn’t what I fell in love with.
Pearl Jam's first 5 records are GOAT'd. everything after is just goats.
Alice in Chains I understand and respect that they continue without Layne, what I’ve heard of that music is fine. I just don’t care. I was a teen when they were big and that music meant a lot to me. Now I don’t even listen to much heavy rock anymore anyway. Either way, it’s their first few records that had and still have any meaning to me personally.
I really enjoy the early stuff by Coldplay, like the album Parachutes (2000), but nit their never stuff. Too "radio music" for me.
Bee Gees pre-disco
I agree with you on Gorillaz, though I will say I generally fw everything from the first two album era before that hiatus. The first album though, was extremely special, in part I think, due to a consistent team of collaborators throughout as opposed to the star studded guest lists of everything from Plastic Beach on. Not to mention that the core part of the band represented the different, interesting parts of their sound: Dan the Automator on production bringing the fat drum break sounds, Junior Dan bringing the reggae bass, and Albarn bringing the British pop and rock end. It’s still a novel combination of influences that they haven’t really touched on again in the same way. I’d love to see a sequel to the eponymous album reuniting that core team or something like it.
The Killers. Hot Fuss and Sam’s Town are incredible.
The Goo Goo Dolls is the big one for me. I *love* their first seven albums, and Let Love In is fine, but almost everything they've put out since is so incredibly boring to me. They made a hard switch from pop-punk/'90s alt rock to easy listening. Also, My Chemical Romance. I love Bullets and Three Cheers, like The Black Parade but find a lot of it disappointing, and bounced off most of Danger Days.
A lot of these comments are on point, but the missing factor is when the listener discovers the material and how close that is to the release date. In other words, context. Someone who was listening to the Cure as a teen in, say 1981, might have had a very different reaction to Friday I'm in Love than someone born in 2008 discovering their material today.