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What artists do you wish would go back to their roots/an older sound of theirs?
What band that you like/used to like makes you wish they would go back to what they used to do? Personally, I wish Maroon 5 would put out more stuff like Songs About Jane. They had a really chill, jazz-y, very Jamiroquai-esque sound that I dig the hell out of but now Levine's dedicated to pop music full time.
Hardmode: No Weezer
Bioware
bro, it hurts my heart :'(
Kanye
I don't think he can/will ever go back.
Agreed. Fame and money changed him artistically. Also, at times he is completely unhinged and doesn’t know how to live a healthy life with his bipolar disorder.
I don't think he's bipolar
What makes you think he was misdiagnosed?
Because no one who is bipolar who say it's "my superpower"
Convincing.
Shit, if Kanye went back to 2016 I'd be happy. I prefer 808s-and-after Kanye by a small margin, but he really took a downturn with the Wyoming albums and I'm afraid that's gonna continue into the future.
IMO Kid's see ghosts is a masterpiece which will be looked at in a few years as transformative and far before it's time. Just like much of Kanye's past work. The Fantano review accurately describes why.
The Decemberists are probably one for me, but I do like their newest album. I just feel like they're experimenting a lot with their sound and crossing a lot of sub-genres. They even had a song about how they've had to change styles The Singer Addresses His Audience that's kind of tongue in cheek, but at the same time I wasn't feeling that album at all. Can't tell you how many times I've listened to The Hazards of Love, The Crane Wife, or Cast Aways and Cutouts. I want more of that swashbuckling, menacing, Victorian, folk-y vibe.
Common what the fuck happened man? I think it was NaS that said it but something akin to 'I used to like Common back when he had Sense'. Different eras of hop hop, blah blah blah, but Ressurection is one of my favorite albums of all time. I still attest to this day that it's one of the most skillfully rhymed albums of all time (up there with a lot of MF Doom, Asap Rock, & Eminem). Dude just doesn't have that fire anymore.
Honorable mention: Speaking of him, NaS really needs to step up his game and stop being lazy. Don't just put recycled words that you found to a Kanye beat and call it a day. That shit isn't gonna fly.
Muse really went down hill after Black Holes and Revelations, imo.
On the post rock/math rock side, Toe's latest album, Hear You, had a few misses on it for me. Overall, I love their experimentation and respect them a lot as a group, but just want them to kind of go back to their For Long Tomorrow style.
Lastly, for any k-pop/hip hop fans:
Epik High As a huge hip hop fan, their first two albums were fucking on point with their deliveries, raps, samples, and beats. I'll listen to Mapping the Human Soul any day. Tablo used to be a lyrical genius, but then the whole group has gone the way of k-pop idols and their music just isn't that good anymore.
I don't have any experience with the bands you listed other than Muse, so I'll give my two cents lol. Muse's first album is an absolute masterpiece for me. I love everything about that record. Drones was a fun one for me as well, lots of good solos and basslines. Mercy and Psycho are really fun to play. I need to give BHaR another listen. I'm kinda digging Thought Contagion, too. Bass is simple but effective. I need to finish up Origin of Symmetry though
I really like Showbiz, Origin of Symmetry, and Absolution. Parts of BHaR I'd pass on but it was still a good album.
I haven't heard Thought Contagion, but I'll check it out!
Thought Contagion and Something Human are both singles (I'm assuming) from their upcoming album. Two very different vibes, too. TC has a very lively, loud Muse feel, and Something Human is soft and introspective. I'm excited for the new album!
Oh word -- I'll keep an eye out for it them then!
Offtopic, but thanks for this thread. It's a question I think about pretty often but have never put some of them into words
No problem! I have a lot of ideas for threads, so I've just been trickling them in daily. They don't exactly get 40 votes every time, but I love talking music with people and finding new music. I'm probably gonna post a bit more throughout the week
How far out do you extend that? I love him through, like, Finding Forever, but I can't go past that. Good pick with Resurrection being his best, though. I've historically liked Be more, but it doesn't stick with me as much in terms of lyrics and quotable lines.
Be is easily top five albums from any artist of all time for me. I play Resurrection to impress people with his lyricism, but I play Be for myself any fucking day of the week.
I did like a few songs off Finding Forever but wasn't really feeling The Dreamer/The Believer.
I love the entire Wyoming Project including Ye, KSG, Daytona and KTSE but Nas was by far the weakest of the five. It really didn't even seem like he was trying. The lyrics were all over the place, especially after listening to Pusha T spitting on Daytona.
That's fair man. I couldn't really get into the Wyoming Project much. Some of Ye's producing skills were great, but I've found it a lot harder and harder to really support his music since him jumping off the deep end.
But like you said, NaS's shit was some of the weakest and I think Kanye actually did him a huge favor. Just felt like NaS just had old shit he wrote and was like 'okay, yeah, I like this beat for this one' rather than like... actually putting in effort.
I disagree with most political views of the musicians I listen to, so I guess i've learned to ignore most of that stuff or i'd just not enjoy music anymore.
I respect that, but find that I can't really do it myself!
Oooh, I totally agree about wanting more epics from the Decemberists. Have you listened to "The Tain"? It's glorious.
I have found that I always pretty much like what Colin Meloy puts out after a few listens. I think I love every album for different reasons, but the most recent album is the one I've listened to the least, by far! I am actually digging the more electronic-y sound, but the poppy, repetitive, lyrically simple style is what's bumming me out.
Ya know, I really do have to listen to The Tain more, I've only given it a listen maybe a handful of times throughout the years. I also thought it was called The Taint for a really long time to which my friends (rightfully) made fun of me a lot for so I think I'm still putting off giving it a real fair chance.
I think what you said about giving Colin Meloy's work a few listens is very true. I hated The King is Dead when it first came out, but now there's a lot of songs from it that I'd rate pretty highly. I love Colin Meloy's voice and I've dug some of his recent side projects, but I just can't get into What A Terrible World, What A Wonderful World for the life of me. I 100% agree with your assessment of the new album, but I'm more willing to give them a pass on the poppy repetitiveness this time round.
I have come to love some of the songs on WTWWBW.
Thanks for indulging me (basically a superfan...)!
No no, thank YOU for writing all that out! I didn't know a lot of the backstories for a few of those, so I'll continue giving it a listen and see if that changes anything for me :)
Metallica.
Their albums Ride the Lighning, Master of Puppets, and ...And Justice for All are what I would call the holy trinity of Metallica. Their so-called "Black album" is fairly popular as well and definitely deserves an honorable mention, though. Really, that entire seven-year period was their apex. Everything else has been kind of lackluster for me.
I thought Death Magnetic delivered the goods. I couldn't believe it was them when I first listened to it.
I blame Bob Rock for ruining their sound. He came on to produce the black album. The last album he produced for them was St. Anger, which he also played bass on. That's why Death Magnetic is such a good album. You are absolutely right about the holy trinity of Metallica.
As someone who's written off post-black-album Metallica (except for S&M), you and @boredop have convinced me that Death Magnetic is worth a listen. Thanks.
I'm a bit of an apologist for some of Metallica's later work (I enjoy parts of St. Anger and Death Magnetic quite a bit), but there's no doubt that the black album and everything that followed it are gigantic steps down. I think this is one of the few instances where I don't think the band could capture their old sound even if they tried.
Puppets was Metallica's absolute pinnacle, but there's no getting that sound back unless you know a good necromancer. Metallica just wasn't the same after Cliff died.
Daft Punk. I really liked their older albums because of how different they were from any other music I knew at the time. I remember my excitement about their new album coming up, followed by disappointment after listening to it because of how pop it turned out to be, with the exception of Instant Regret.
I initially was going to include them on my list, but I also feel like their newer albums are still really good but just require a different mindset going into them than what most had come to expect from Daft Punk. They're not a group I'd put on shuffle with all their albums because of how much they've changed, but I can appreciate them if I go in with a clear head.
no can do. I want my Human After All back.
I want another Tron
I thought of another one this morning:
Fun. I first heard Aim and Ignite a few months after it came out and it was one of those life-defining albums for me for a year and a half or so afterwards. It was something that helped me a lot in times where I was down or was thinking about the world too negatively. It also helped me to go back even further in Nate Russ's career to find The Format, whom I love! I went around showing everyone I know how great Fun. was! But once Some Nights came out and they just went full blown pop, I fucking hated it. People were coming up to me, telling me to listen to this cool new band named Fun. (some of them, I'd fucking shown them the same band the year prior!).
I'm glad they finally hit some big success and more power to them, but fuck it, their music blows now.
Oooh, good call. I thought Aim and Ignite was a fantastic album and I've played it a lot myself... but I guess they figured they'd have more success if they went straight pop. Sad.
I mean, I'd call most of his stuff from The Format straight pop as well, but I agree, much better than everything after Aim and Ignite. I will give him a lot of credit for Interventions and Lullabies not sounding terribly dated fifteen years on though.
That's pretty fair. I guess some of the content of The Format songs have more weight to them, to me, and the autotuning on Some Nights just made me feel like they were dumbing their sound down for radio plays.
Wow, I can't believe that came out 15 years ago!
Foster the People. I listened to Torches so many times from start to finish. Every song on that record was great. It was fun, upbeat, catchy and bright even though it tackled sensitive subjects. I felt like Supermodel was the exact opposite, it was moody and slow, it had more strange instrumental choices and was just less fun overall to listen to. I think the success was just too quick and too big for them.
Huh, I had actually forgotten about FtP. I've been thinking about getting into them for a while. What would you recommend I listen to first?
The big popular songs would be Pumped up Kicks, Helena Beat and Houdini. I personally liked Waste and Miss you, which were less popular on the radio. The CD isn't that long though and it's worth giving the entire thing a listen. Then you can switch right over to Supermodel and see the difference. Theres also an album from last year which had a much better reception and has some good songs like "Sit Next to Me" but still comes no where near Torches imo.
I love Torches. Everything they put out afterwards was simply shit.
In the jazz world it's George Benson. He has coasted for decades playing adult contemporary smooth jazz weak sauce. But he first hit the scene in the '60s he was one of the baddest motherfuckers around.
I'm gonna have to check out this album. Thanks.
First one I thought of was the Black Keys. I know they want to branch out a bit, but save that for side projects. Go back to dirty blues rock and stay there.
Or how about Incubus? I'd really love it if they went back to A Crow Left of the Murder.
Rapidfire I've got The Kooks, Klaxons, Gwen Stephani/No Doubt, OKGO, Mos Def (just make another album!), Tegan and Sara, and Maroon 5.
A longer one back is Billy Joel, he really needs to get back to The Stranger. But I doubt that will ever happen.
As a palate cleanser, here's two that will never let you down if you dig their brand of music: Bayside and Spoon. Always amazing, great live shows. They're the epitome of snowmen.
100% agreed on Mos Def, although I really liked The Ecstatic. Everything he did with Slick Rick and Madlib on that album was great. He absolutely just needs to go back to making more music -- anything. I've heard rumblings of a BlackStar reunion with Talib Kweli, but I don't know how true that is.
I've only ever heard ever heard Myths of the Near Future by Klaxons, any other recs?
That's basically it for the Klaxons. Go me, that album is so well done, I wish they could get back to it. But maybe they only have one in them.
Nine Inch Nails - I still love what Trent and co. release today, but it just can't match the masterpieces that are The Downward Spiral and The Fragile. Granted Trent spent his time after The Fragile to get clean. I would rather a drug-free Trent who continues to make great music vs another dead musician who didn't realize their full potential (Ian Curtis, Kurt Cobain).
Spiritualized. I have a tremendous respect for J. Spaceman and pretty much everything he's made, but I would love for him to go back to making space-y shoegaze again, even if it's more like Spacemen 3 stuff that I don't like as much. It breaks my heart that almost all of his successes he's pulled off he's never been able to really reap the rewards of because of some other circumstance.
Atmosphere is another one. I love Slug and Ant's work a lot, but I think they were at their best when doing things like When Life Gives You Lemons.... and God Loves Ugly. Everything past Lemons has just kind of been really forgettable to me.
Mumford & Sons
Sigh No More is a fantastic album. I can listen to it over and over again, front to back, and enjoy every song. Babel was good, but not as good. I like most of the songs on Babel, with Hopeless Wanderer being one of my favorites... sure it helps that the music video is hilarious!
Then we have Wilder Mind. I do not like the album at all. In fact, I've listened to it once and haven't touched it since. They lost the sound that made me like them in the first place. I know it's been said and is cliche at this point, but the album is easily mistaken as a generic Coldplay album.
The Fray, but I'm not too invested in them so I don't care that much. They used to be a guilty pleasure and now I avoid them like the plague.
Also, while it has grown on me considerably, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino by Arctic Monkeys was very disappointing to me the first time I listened. It's not like it's fundamentally different from their older music, I just hope I get some more rock from them in the future, with a healthy mix of the chill/groove we got from their most recent album.
Their album “The Fray” is so damn good. Never got into the ones that followed that one.
The Fray's vocalist unfortunately always annoyed the hell out of me. He has a weird lisp going on. As for Arctic Monkeys, that's a band I've ve always wanted to listen to, but have never been able to like it
Dai Nagao should go back to writing music for and producing Do As Infinity. I honestly don't know why the band got back together because they are pretty terrible without him. In fact, the band appears to be so lost they have resorted to having their fans write the music for them.
I think Therion peaked around 2000 with Deggial and Secret of the Runes, and they managed to keep that vibe through Lemuria/Sirius B and Gothic Kabbalah, but not only was Sitra Ahra their last metal album, but "Kings of Edom" was the only good track.
Blink 182
I would love if they were still the same sophomoric band from around Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.
Kid Cudi
I absolutely loved Man on The Moon. While his new stuff isn't the worst, it's different from what I liked about his early stuff.
Sobriety is a hell of a drug
Is that what it is? Good for him then.
Yeah he was on the Joe Rogan Podcast a while back and was talking about how he used to wake up drink a beer, smoke a joint, and take a bump. That was his start to every day just to get in the zone of not feeling life.
If you want to here what his music was like right after check out the WZRD album he did. Interesting but very different.
I thought Passion, Pain, and Demon Slayin' was a decent return to form for him. Not as deep as the MOTM albums or A Kid Named Cudi, but certainly redeemed him in my ears for Speedin' Bullet 2
The Trash CanHeaven.Plus Kids See Ghosts is absolutely amazing too, makes me hope Cudi and Ye keep doing more collaborative work, they seem to bring out the best in each other artistically.
Serj Tankian. His first solo stuff (Elect The Dead) just after System of a Down went on hiatus was decent, but from there it went really pretentiously political, and also had some terrible lyrics.
(Wings Of Summer, 2010)
I'd like to see him revisit the grungier / harder sound he had in System Of A Down's early days. I realize that a lot of that was informed by the nu-metal movement that no longer exists in a significant capacity, but it definitely was the most interesting part of their music.
Iron & Wine.
Gotye. Like Drawing Blood has such an awesome psychedelic-esque sound, I'm still disappointed that Somebody That I Used to Know had to be their breakout hit. There's still hints of that sound on Making Mirrors (State of the Art, specifically, plus it has an absolutely fantastic music video), but I'd love a return to that earlier sound if he releases another album anytime soon.
Portugal. The Man -- I know Evil Friends pretty much marked the shift into a more mainstream pop sensibility for them, and while I did enjoy some tracks on it, Woodstock, much like its album art, is a trash fire in comparison to In the Mountain, In the Cloud, American Ghetto, or The Satanic Satanist.
I miss the old PtM, but I also like their new direction. :/
Eminem, some of his early stuff was amazing.
What's your opinion on the new album which dropped today?
Just saw this, sorry.
Love it, best album in years. Reminds me a lot of his earlier albums.
Mad Eminem is best Eminem.