Bands who just ran out of ideas and at what stage in their careers ?

Telejester

AC/DC were at the peak of their power in 1980 with the release of a flawless album in back in black which went deservedly stratospheric. 1981 brought a stifled belch with for those about to rock and the end of the road came with the thumping fart onto a settee cushion with flick of the switch in 1983. AC/DC never recovered and shitty album after shitty album folliwed. In my opinion there was a wheel wobble in 1981 but four wheels fell off and the car crashed into a brick wall in 1983 never to return.

Dio's holy diver album in 1983 was epic, not a crap track on it.In 1984 they released another stormer with last in line. Those two albums featured the rawness of a young vivian campbell quite unlike the shite he would later record with def leppard.  In 1985 I can imagine the band all looking at each other trying to come up with ideas for sacred heart. The album stank to the heavens, campbell parted ways and the Dio band sucked from 85 onwards never to return.

Tell us about bands were the wheels mightily came off and at what stage in career.

ICBM

The Rolling Stones after Goats Head Soup.

Admittedly that more or less coincided with Mick Taylor leaving (although he’s on It’s Only Rock’n’Roll) and Ronnie Wood joining, but that was probably the exact problem - they lost the internal conflict that made them great and went for a safe choice who fitted into his secondary role too well. They then churned out essentially the same music for the next 45 years.


U2 after All That You Can’t Leave Behind.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb was the start of the rot - there are a few good songs on it, but the arrangements are beginning to sound tired and predictable. No Line On The Horizon has two good songs, Songs Of Innocence has one - the rest is uninspired U2-by-numbers filler. I haven’t been able to bring myself to listen to the new one yet, beyond the two tracks I’ve heard on the radio which were both rubbish.

sweepy

Pink Floyd after The Wall, I was going to say DSOTM but there is at least half an albums worth of decent material on The Wall and don’t get me started on The Final Cut

Samgb

ICBM said:

The Rolling Stones after Goats Head Soup.

Admittedly that more or less coincided with Mick Taylor leaving (although he’s on It’s Only Rock’n’Roll) and Ronnie Wood joining, but that was probably the exact problem - they lost the internal conflict that made them great and went for a safe choice who fitted into his secondary role too well. They then churned out essentially the same music for the next 45 years.


Agree, but Some Girls is a lost pearl.

Samgb

sweepy said:

Pink Floyd after The Wall, I was going to say DSOTM but there is at least half an albums worth of decent material on The Wall and don’t get me started on The Final Cut

The Final Cut is essentially Wall Outtakes isnt it?

From Meddle (apart from Seamus which is fucking stupid frankly) to DSOTM through Wish You Were Here and Animals to The Wall is as good a 4 and 1/2 album run as anyone ever put together. 

Philly_Q

Scorpions after Crazy World.  Actually I think they peaked two albums before that with Love at First Sting, but the next two were still good.

Then suddenly they seemed to lose the knack of writing hooky, melodic songs which still actually rocked.  It happens to a lot of bands, I can't define it but there's a very fine line between being a rock band with catchy songs and being "the Archies with fuzz guitars" (I think that's a Frank Zappa quote).

They've redeemed themselves once or twice since, but they've now fallen into that Aerosmith lost-confidence trap of bringing in outside writers... the last album was just horrific.

SimonC

Van Halen after Fair Warning.

Majorscale

70’s Queen vs 80’s Queen... like two different bands. I blame the arrival of that moustache 

ICBM

sweepy said:

Pink Floyd after The Wall, I was going to say DSOTM but there is at least half an albums worth of decent material on The Wall and don’t get me started on The Final Cut

Funny, I nearly said Pink Floyd after The Final Cut, but that’s really because they broke up, even though some of them continued using the name. Without Waters they weren’t the same band at all.

Samgb said:
The Final Cut is essentially Wall Outtakes isnt it?

No - Gilmour said so, but he’s only partly right. Some songs on it were written for The Wall but didn’t fit (rather than not being good enough) but most of the rest is about the Falklands War, which didn’t happen until after The Wall was released.

If you want to hear what a Pink Floyd out-takes album sounds like, listen to The Endless Drivel .

Fuengi

My yardstick for a truly great band is three really high quality albums.

It seems such a hard thing to do, to keep writing consistently brilliant albums, so few bands have done it. 

EricTheWeary

Every band I’ve been in after about two rehearsals.

Majorscale said:

70’s Queen vs 80’s Queen... like two different bands. I blame the arrival of that moustache 

I like 70s Queen and 80s Queen ( onwards) not so much. Certainly a different set of ideas anyway. 

Teetonetal

Bon Jovi: These days, was for me, a sublime album, darker in tone, some superb guitar playing and sounded like a band growing up musically. Since then they have been awful. Rehashing the same ideas again and again.

Muse: Stopped being good once absolution was released. Straining too hard to be original and bombastic. 

Garbage. Slowly declined with each release after an epic debut

Fleetwood Mac after Tusk.

Clapton since being a solo artist.

Guns n roses - UYI 1&2 would have made 1 cracking record. none of the members output since then has been that good. A few songs here and there (slither being the best)

Metallica, Black Album. I loved that album, but it wasn't a Metallica album. since then turgid.

Fuengi said:

My yardstick for a truly great band is three really high quality albums.

It seems such a hard thing to do, to keep writing consistently brilliant albums, so few bands have done it. 

I agree. I can't think of many bands where I own more than 3 albums that are high class. Probably deserves a thread in it's own right.

I also struggle to think of many artists who left the band that made them and became better

Telejester

Metallica after the justice album........ugh

ICBM

Teetonetal said:

Garbage. Slowly declined with each release after an epic debut

I don't agree at all. They've been extremely consistent right up to the latest one - I don't even think the first album is the best. (Version 2.0 probably is - but Bleed Like Me is fantastic too.)

Teetonetal said:

I also struggle to think of many artists who left the band that made them and became better

Peter Gabriel.

The really odd thing is that Genesis got better too - although I know this won't go down well with early-Genesis fans .

But for the subject of this thread... Genesis after Duke. I like Abacab and the 'shapes' album, but I would concede that the quality of the material wasn't really in the same league.

Philly_Q

Def Leppard after High 'N' Dry. 

OK, let's say Def Leppard after Adrenalize.  I think it's too easy to say it was all down to Mutt Lange, the loss of Steve Clark also played a big part, probably other factors too... but the last few albums have been consistent only in how mediocre they are.

Grumpyrocker

Philly_Q said:

Def Leppard after High 'N' Dry. 

OK, let's say Def Leppard after Adrenalize.  I think it's too easy to say it was all down to Mutt Lange, the loss of Steve Clark also played a big part, probably other factors too... but the last few albums have been consistent only in how mediocre they are.

There was plenty of stuff I liked on Slang. But after that it's all pretty meh. 

fields5069

Oasis. Ran out of ideas around 1990.

munckee

fields5069 said:

Oasis. Ran out of ideas around 1990.

Not a fan then, first album was brilliant, second good, third meh.

I'd say REM half way through Monster.  RHCP half way through Stadium Arcadium.  Foo fighters after colour and the shape.  Pixies after Bossa Nova.

I really like a lot of Clapton solo stuff, some is a mixed bag but that's most artists.

Philly_Q

Telejester said:

Dio's holy diver album in 1983 was epic, not a crap track on it.In 1984 they released another stormer with last in line. Those two albums featured the rawness of a young vivian campbell quite unlike the shite he would later record with def leppard.  In 1985 I can imagine the band all looking at each other trying to come up with ideas for sacred heart. The album stank to the heavens, campbell parted ways and the Dio band sucked from 85 onwards never to return.

I pretty much agree, although I must admit I haven't listened to all the albums post Dream Evil, so I can't say they're all duds.  I've always intended to investigate the one with Rowan Robertson (Lock Up The Wolves?) but never have.

Campbell's done a few good things post Dio, but he always seems strangely subdued in (them again!) Def Leppard.

Telejester

Philly_Q said: look

Def Leppard after High 'N' Dry. 

OK, let's say Def Leppard after Adrenalize.  I think it's too easy to say it was all down to Mutt Lange, the loss of Steve Clark also played a big part, probably other factors too... but the last few albums have been consistent only in how mediocre they are.

No , the arse fell outta leppards trousers after pyromania, everything since has been total and utter shite.

EricTheWeary

Philly_Q said:

Telejester said:

Dio's holy diver album in 1983 was epic, not a crap track on it.In 1984 they released another stormer with last in line. Those two albums featured the rawness of a young vivian campbell quite unlike the shite he would later record with def leppard.  In 1985 I can imagine the band all looking at each other trying to come up with ideas for sacred heart. The album stank to the heavens, campbell parted ways and the Dio band sucked from 85 onwards never to return.

I pretty much agree, although I must admit I haven't listened to all the albums post Dream Evil, so I can't say they're all duds.  I've always intended to investigate the one with Rowan Robertson (Lock Up The Wolves?) but never have.

Campbell's done a few good things post Dio, but he always seems strangely subdued in (them again!) Def Leppard.

I don't know it in detail but to some extent every band Ronnie was in was a version of Dio. I think we could give him some return to form in Heaven and Hell at least.
Vivian Campbell never seems to have fulfilled his early promise. No doubt he cries himself to sleep every night over this on top of his mattress stuffed with the money Def Leppard gave him.