Bands and the law of diminshing returns. Who’s the worst offender?

Agree with comments about Pearl Jam, Stone Roses, RATM. Other bands for nomination include Soul II Soul, Alice in Chains and Curiosity Killed the Cat

Oh aye, the Chilli Peppers, talk about ‘churning out the same old pap’.

Are you lot actually aware of the Chilli Peppers first 5 albums??

And RATM… are you aware of Renegades??

I’d nominate, Foo Fighters, Sex Pistols, Portishead.

Sorry dezB everything after californication sounds exactly the same- (fact) 😉

its true about the chillis umpp and mm were my favourite albums, if a little childish. They hit the money with bssm, and it all went wrong after that

how come no-one has mentioned coldplay???? Their first album was fantastic, latest stuff = pap.

last two kings of leon haven’t been a patch on the earlier stuff

ChristoGinger, guess DezB is getting at the fact that Californication was their 6th (I think) album?

They were never better than Blood Sugar anyway

Absolutely disagree with whoever mentioned the Foo’s – their first three albums were good, with the odd great song on the rest of the output.

Agreed about Coldplay, but I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned Kaiser Chiefs yet.

Editors – unmitigated, derivative sh*te. Any band that has the arrogance to have a front man “playing” a guitar which isn’t plugged in deserves a f***ing good shoe-ing.

AC/DC – anything after Back in Black.

@ourmaininthenorth

Any band that has the arrogance to have a front man “playing” a guitar which isn’t plugged in

I’ve not heard that before – what’s the deal?

Er the Chilis (that’s one l you know?!) have evolved pretty well over the years IMO though the last album ain’t great and they were funkier in the early days – my fave track is probably Scar Tissue. I saw them in 1990 – most fun ever as still playing in smallish venues.

Wah! tried to get around this problem by re-naming themselves many times, but still never got near their 1st album.

Blimey, is that true re Editors? That’s dead funny!

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Totally disagree about the Foos, Their latest album is brilliant!

Bloc Party…

Five Star

Totally disagree about the Foos, Their latest album is brilliant!

Totally disagree about Bloc Party, Their latest album is brilliant!

ChristoGinger, guess DezB is getting at the fact that Californication was their 6th (I think) album?

They were never better than Blood Sugar anyway

Precisely. Last album of theirs I bought was Blood Sugar.

mastiles_fanylion, are you saying Nirvana were never as good as Bleach?
I reckon In Utero is better than Nevermind.

mastiles_fanylion says Nirvana?
Bleach was good but better than Nevermind or In Utero??!! Not in my book. I actually think In Utero stands up (nearly) as well as Nevermind.

Back on topic, Ash must be a contender!

No, Ash is a band whose ‘peak’ was so abysmally bad that it should never have seen the light of day; never mind the repeated, regurgitated dirge that followed.

Saw the Editors supporting Franz Ferdinand* at MEN Arena (Manchester) about 3 years ago.

Apart from the sheer tedium of their music, the front man was giving it full well playing the guitar as if he was a riffing god, but it was clear that no sound was emanating from it. It clearly wasn’t a kit malfunction, as he gave the same strained expression every bl**dy song.

I think it was because Edith Bowman was in the crowd watching them (wasn’t one of them seeing her or something at the time).

Was quite amusing, TBH. About as entertaining as they managed all set.

*FF are another contender for bands who started brightly and faded rapidly. First album, two or three good songs; thereafter, sh*te.

Nirvana? In Utero is a masterpiece – better than Bleach by a long way. Although I love Bleach and it has some amazing tracks. It’s all subjective anyway….

TWP

George Best = Ace

Tommy (Collected early singles) = Ace

Bizarro = Super Ace

Seamonsters = Dark Ace

Ukrainski Vistupi V Johna Peela = er . . . no!

Hit parade = Ace in parts

Watusi = hmmm couple of Ace songs

Saturnalia = poor

Take Fountain = nearly Ace

El Rey = Ace in parts

Oh dear. Epic fail. He’s still getting it on with Bowman, they’ve just had a kid

REM, Coldplay, Eric Clapton too, although not a band … should have given up long ago. 461 Ocean Boulevard …awesome …. August, nononono

They were never better than Blood Sugar anyway

Hmmm…I find that although there are some good tracks – such as I could have lied and give it away – I listen to it less than the others.

Smashing Pumpkins.

If ever there was a band that had one good album in them…

Weezer. Well, kind of. Their debut album every track could have been a single, the follow up was equally fantastic in a different sort of way, and then they made three godawful records.

The new one is a step back up though.

Smashing Pumpkins? Which one then? Gish? Siamese Dream? or Mellon Collie?
All quality albums

Queens of the Stone Age were very very good for 3 albums, seem to be on a slow slide now. Their last two albums would be career peaks for 90% of bands, but they’re not in the same street as their first one, Rated R, or songs for the deaf.

QOTSA seem to have a Bez effect going on – Josh Homme handles all the singing, songwriting, playing the instruments business. Nick covers the getting your johnson out on stage duties plus occasional bass fill in. But when Nick leaves they start going downhill.

not so much dimishing returns.. but what about Metallica, patchy since the black album.

And why do bands when promoting new albums always say it’s a return to form?

Sex Pistols

eh?

they only did one album!

The rest was rehashed rereleased single after single after single. Talk about Flogging A Dead Horse. They weren’t wrong there.

oh & black eyed peas.

Smashing pumpkins? man… their first three albums were gold (gish, siamese dream and pisces iscariot) and they peaked with Melan collie for sure… so that’s four great albums in a row!

How about Sonic Youth perhaps?

U2 – A sin wave that rose sharply, peeked higher than Everest at Joshua Tree and has been falling ever since with only a few brief spikes, latest stuff sounds utter B$%£cks.

Chillis – Flatliners !! end of.

Stones Roses, Editors, Maximo, Killers I agree with most of previous posts, that is an initial peek with first albums but then OH OH !!!

I have hopes for second helpings from Vampire Weekend, The Courteners and even The View…

REM only fit in this category if your knowledge of their releases starts at Automatic for the People. Prior to this there were 6 fantastic albums, and I don’t include Out of Time as this was where the downhill slide started. They managed to pull it back with Automatic but it’s been an inexorable slide album wise ever since.

Stereophonics – there’s a band who have never even come close to matching the songwriting on their first album. Word Gets Around is one of the few albums I still listen from start to finish, anything after that is utter carp.

+1 for U2. The Joshua Tree was stunning, lots of good stuff (and some pap) before, after? Achtung Baby was decent, not many highlights otherwise.

Anyone mentioned Prince yet?

A-ha IMO actually improved the less commercial their work became. Very introspective.

The Dickies never surpassed the Incredible Shrinking Dickies album

+1 for U2. The Joshua Tree was stunning, lots of good stuff (and some pap) before, after? Achtung Baby was decent, not many highlights otherwise.

The OP was asking about bands who never surpassed their DEBUT album.. Joshua Tree was the 5th album!

Stereophonics – good call. I can’t believe I bought Word Gets Around when I hear them now.

Don’t agree with the person who said The Eels, their output since their debut has been quality.
Haven’t heard albums by Kooks/ Razorlight/ Kaiser Chiefs/ Editors etc etc etc but what do you expect?! Landfill indie rubbish. They should release their possibly catchy first single then **** off from whence they came.