Which album was a band's creative zenith/magnum opus before falling off?
Which album was a band's creative zenith/magnum opus before falling off?
Demon Days by Gorillaz
Silent Alarm by Bloc Party
Metallica (Black Album)
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Smashing Pumpkins: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
R.E.M. - Automatic for the people
These are great. In this vein I add:
Pearl Jam - Yield
(and forgive me but)
Radiohead - OK Computer
Kid A was class when it came out
I don't know is Mellon collie was a huge drop off, but their direction definitely changed.
I agree with both of you. I'm very fond of everything by them up through the American Gothic EP, but Mellon Collie is still kinda the peak.
Peak, yes. But it's not like their next couple of albums were terrible. They were just a different direction.
Oh absolutely. Adore was actually the album that got me into them.
Gish is a transcendental album that created the genre that dominated the next 20 years: alternative rock.
Everything after Gish might have been more popular or well known, but none of it will ever approach being as influential.
As massive R.E.M. fan, this made me conflicted! Automatic for the People is beautiful, and most days my favourite, but I wouldn't want to miss where the band went after.
Their last album was brilliant, Accelerate was fun... I know AftP was a hell of a peak, but I can't find it in me to write off anything except a chunk of Around the Sun...
Thank you for allowing me to talk about my favourite band. :)
Accelerate was a lot of fun, but for me the last album that was stellar front to back was Life's Rich Pageant. It was joyous, raucous, and they hit their signature sound head on. Every track sparkled (even the Superman cover that Michael hated).
That's a very fair opinion too! I feel they changed about 4 times as a band (understandably I guess as they were about for 3 decades), and damn Life's Rich Pageant was special - it's one I play very often, and it is stacked! :)
It's the best they sounded as a pure rock band, even though I have such a soft spot for Murmur. New Adventures touched on that feeling again, but it wasn't front to back perfect in the same way (partly because of its length!)
The trouble I have is I couldn't imagine life without what came after Life's Rich Pageant, for instance Automatic meant a great deal to me, as it was the first album I remember hearing and loving growing up. :)
For sure! One of the reasons they're such an amazing band is that they were able to innovate and adapt over a long career without losing their core style. They grew with their audience instead of apart from it.
My opinion is based on my own music preference (I'm a sucker for power pop) but there's no denying R.E.M. stayed at the top of their game far longer than most bands even stay together.