Bands that were great, then weren’t

Off the back of the artists with unwarranted success thread

What bands do you think we’re really good, but became pretty crap? Not just faded away a bit towards the end of their aging career, but their music took a big downward turn. In your own personal opinion of course, before the hand wringers start 🤣

Killers are one for me. Hot Fuss was great, then when they became the Brandon Flowers show they lost their appeal massively for me

Loved early Arctic Monkeys, not a fan any more

Who did, then didn’t do it for you?

Lostprophets. 😶

Latest Slipknot.

Killswitch Engage.

R.E.M.

Incubus up to A Crow Left and then they went downhill very quickly. Gomez had two great albums and then a slow downwards spiral as they seemed to let go of all the elements that made them so good. Kings of Leon’s first album was great and then just utter shit.

Lostprophets. Loved their music, now feel incredibly bad if I listen to it.

U2 – they were great until ’85

Gomez had two great albums and then a slow downwards spiral as they seemed to let go of all the elements that made them so good

Yes 100%

On the other hand, Ride. Carnival of Light notoriously bad (largely as they weren’t talking to each other), Tarantula was an Andy Bell solo effort, but now they’re back together, they’re turning out pretty decent stuff.

mbv was a tad anticlimactic, but I suppose after however many years it was, it was never going to live up to expectations.

Ha ha!! Lost prophets was the 1st band I thought of, 2nd reply had it!

not listened to them since Mr Watkins decided his new hobby was baby raping.

Muse, nothing else comes close imo, because hardly any bands are ever as good as they were and hardly any of those could become as bad- at their heights they were one of the best bands in the world, then they disappeared up their supermassive arseholes. There was a wee spell after they peaked when they were still releasing half decent albums with at least a couple of good songs and where they were still a brilliant live act but now, my god, what a shame. Will Of The People wasn’t even a bad Muse album, it was a bad Marilyn Manson album.

I think the best live show I ever saw might have been Muse, at Leeds festival. Definitely the best festival show, it was incredible.

then they disappeared up their supermassive arseholes

That has tickled me. 😂

Oh yes, Smashing Pumpkins were great, then Billy Corgan’s ego collapsed into a black hole.

I personally generally find some of Muse’s “refuge in audacity” stuff some of their best work, but they have been patchy for some time. Some of their more recent albums have been quite entertaining but others have not and sometimes they sound more like pastiches of Muse than anything else.

As for U2 I like the bit in the mid-to-late ’90s when they got a bit bored of regular rock music, started hanging out with Brian Eno and tried something with a bit of difference to it. Can’t say I thought they were great at that point, but definitely more to my tastes than their preceding or following output.

The first couple of albums by Kings of Leon really caught my attention when they came out but after that the rough edges seemed to be increasingly shaved off their output and it seemed to be pushed towards a more stadium rock sound that didn’t appeal to me. It also sounds like the band really crumbled after a while in that phase. I stopped paying them any attention after a while so I don’t know where they went after that.

Problem with U2 remains Bonio being a monumental arse.

Oasis – one good album, then meh

Stone Roses – Ditto

GnR – Ditto

Verve, right up until they were sued and changed their name to The Verve. Loved a Storm in Heaven, and the USA outakes/b-sides album. Then A Northern Soul came along, which took me a while to come round to, although some songs I’d try to listen but never understood what the fuss was about. Bitter Sweet Symphony for instance, just sounded too much like regular radio/chart music for my taste. Hated the drugs don’t work! None of of their albums after that.

Northwind

Muse, nothing else comes close imo, because hardly any bands are ever as good as they were and hardly any of those could become as bad- at their heights they were one of the best bands in the world, then they disappeared up their supermassive arseholes. There was a wee spell after they peaked when they were still releasing half decent albums with at least a couple of good songs and where they were still a brilliant live act but now, my god, what a shame. Will Of The People wasn’t even a bad Muse album, it was a bad Marilyn Manson album.

I think the best live show I ever saw might have been Muse, at Leeds festival. Definitely the best festival show, it was incredible.

I would agree “Absolution” was the last good one. After that it descended into twiddly nonsense for the most part.

Guns n Roses – Appetite was a brilliant album then they went all over produced and believing their own publicity for Illusions and spiralled further & further down from that point onwards.

Architects – Hollow crown is an amazing album, next couple were pretty good. Unfortunately when Tom Searle passed away they not only lost a great guitarist but an excellent song writer.

for me, since then, everything they have written has been really weak and a bit cheesy.

Also echo those who mentioned Lost Prophets. Anthems of my youth that I haven’t listened to since.

Oh and Queens of the Stone Age. Rated R was good, songs for the deaf is amazing, everything since, bar a couple of songs is just pap.

IMO obvs…

Architects – Hollow crown is an amazing album, next couple were pretty good. Unfortunately when Tom Searle passed away they not only lost a great guitarist but an excellent song writer.

Strong shout. Latest album is meh.

Switched to Landmvrks, how metalcore should be.

Showing my age but…

Pink Floyd

Yes

Jethro Tull

The Who

Genesis

Led Zeppelin

Another vote for Muse. My son missed them at V and we tease him about seeing Muse while they were still good!

Also agree on Muse.
Listened to Origin of Symmetry yesterday for the first time in years and it was brilliant but my memory had been soured by what came after Absolution.

Suede, 3 brilliant and quite different albums followed many so many bland ones.

The Streets, Original Pirate Material was a classic and nothing since has come close. Early Kanye West was great and then he started experimenting a bit too much.

PJ Harvey.

Just a fantastic artist and woman (except perhaps a touch foxhunty seemingly). Loved her back in the day. Rawness, angst and energy.

Despite the occasional moment of brilliance, her contemporary stuff is generally all a bit warbly and all about sparrows and woodland fairies and that.

Still love her though.

Massive Attack
One of the best debut albums ever. A great follow up. A good dub album
… then ego takes over, one of the members decides he’d rather be in a dull rock band and they never produce an album worth listening to again.

Muse and Oasis for me.  Slipknot too I suppose.

Tom Misch more recently….please stop making dance music!!

Paul Weller has churned out a hugely varied quality of music over the years too imo.

Guns N’ Roses for me.  Still like them but was always going to be difficult to follow such a stonking initial album.

Weezer. Their first album was brilliant… then Pinkerton was a 6/10… after that, all meh.

Undone (the sweater song), what a record!

Went to see Muse around 20 years ago in Nottingham.

Absolutely fantastic show, but agree, wouldn’t listen to them now

Anecdotally, Mrs STR had no interest in the gig and tried to cajole me into the loo’s for a shag. I turned her down as I wanted to see the show

Elbow. First few albums were great. Lost their way now.

Arctic Monkeys. Whatever you say… my favourite ever album, after that, meh. Every album since music jounos hail it as a massive return to form and yet, 🥱

Kings of Leon. Also a massive disappointment after Youth and Young Manhood.

Problem with U2 remains Bonio being a monumental arse.

Opinionated, certainly, but opinions about the right things. He’s not Roger Water’s, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison…

Elbow. First few albums were great. Lost their way now.

Latest one is excellent, seeing them next week.

Massive Attack
One of the best debut albums ever. A great follow up. A good dub album
… then ego takes over, one of the members decides he’d rather be in a dull rock band and they never produce an album worth listening to again.

Well, they’ve only released five albums, 100th Window being the last. So unless you’re talking about Mezzanine being rubbish, which is their fourth, that only leaves one sub-par album. Mezzanine is a superb album.

They’ve done a couple of soundtracks, if that’s what you mean, though.

Despite the occasional moment of brilliance, her contemporary stuff is generally all a bit warbly and all about sparrows and woodland fairies and that.

“Let England Shake” is more political and darker – I saw her last performance touring that, at Greenman, outstanding and magnificent.

Got to agree with slipknot. Latest album isn’t great. New drummer, however, is absolutely insane. So we have hope.

Avenged sevenfold, once the rev died they lost their best songwriter and now they have gone down a ridiculous rabbit hole of nonsense. Somehow they’ve still managed to grow.

Wasn’t much a fan of the later linkin park stuff either. Drastic change of sound.

Pj Harvey. Possibly the only artist I have all the albums of.

Let England shake, dire
White chalk- the only album I’ve been unable to listen to in its entirety.

Currently her stuff is just about listenable to. But when I’ve bought her more recent albums nothing has caught my ear. They’ve been listened to once or twice, despite high hopes, then gone on the shelf.

DJ shadow.

Entroducing is amazing, private press is great and then less so.

I read an interview with him where he said ” what do you want me to do, make entroducing again?” And yes,yes I would very much love that. But as an artist that would make no sense. It would be like becoming a cover band of yourself.

When I hear his later stuff, it’s not for me but I always have that respect he not churning out something just for the cash. It’s something he wants to make.

The only band I have consistently liked is the red ho mt chill peppers.

It’s not all consistently awesome, but I could cheerfully sing at least one song off every album

Agree with most of these. For me the Stone Roses is the best example mentioned. There were a few clues in the singles released between the two albums, but no one expected that second album

How about Radiohead. In my teenage agnst days, Pablo Honey amazing, The Bends and the OK computer.  After that, for me they…..what was the saying ? ‘Dissappeared up their supermassive arseholes’

More recently Fontaines DC, amazing first album then… not so much

Having said that don’t all bands tail off. There’s not many that get better with time.

Some remain consistent or even improve. To use two examples from the underrated thread Clutch and Skindred. The former seem incapable of making a bad record and the latter released their best album with their eighth last year. Jason Isbell is another consistently great artist and the last Pearl Jam album was a pleasant surprise.

When the front man disappears up the supermassive arsehole and effs off to Hollywood to shag A-list actresses you know its all over…

cf Matt Bellamy,  Chris Martin