Yin and Yang. Jekyll and Hyde. Harrow and Wealdstone, or something. Anyway, in true Afterword tradition, we are bound to answer @Vincent’s Game Over thread with its complement. What about artists who, far from outstaying their welcome, actually went out on a high?
Of course, there are those artists whose early passing left us wondering what riches were denied to us – Hendrix, Nick Drake, Kirsty, to pick a sample. What I would give for Sandy Denny’s 80s and 90s output. But that’s not my enquiry here. What about acts who chose to complete their output when you felt they still had so much more to give?
I know my answer, and it’s a band that appeared in the abovementioned thread, as some felt they had indeed lost it after a certain point. I disagree. For me, XTC were still penning belters even while no-one was listening. Wasp Star still had plenty of hooks to spare after the majesty of Apple Venus. In fact, since he had deferred to Andy the first time round in recognition of how much was spilling out in those sessions, Colin comes out with some of his best songs on Wasp Star. To think that they called it a day after sneaking ‘axis mundi’ into the lyrics of the last song. They seemed to be enjoying themselves and, at the time, I felt sure that there was more.
But alas they left it there with their bounty brimming over with joy. Stupidly happy, in fact.
Game On – Artists Who Left you Gagging for More
by 110 Comments
The Smiths. Difficult to see how they could have continued in such a dysfunctional manner, but if they could have just accommodated Johnny’s need to rest and regroup, rather than throw a hissy fit and leak the ill-feeling to the NME (looking at no-one in particular, Steven) there might have been the potential for them to delve further into the interesting directions suggested by Strangeways.
I would definitely agree with you on XTC – you only have to look at some of the “singles’ that Colin Moulding and Andy Partridge have dribbled out post Wasp Star to see that they still have it. This from a couple of years ago….
The other one that immediately comes to mind is Mark Hollis / Talk Talk. I know that he now sadly falls in the Hendrix / Drake / MacColl category, but prior to that he was very much the definition of go out on a high.
Agree 100% on Mark Hollis/Talk Talk. 7 years of silence after Laughing Stock. 20 years of silence after the solo album and then full stop. I wonder if we’ll ever hear another note? I’d love to. There’s definitely noone else who has got 3 albums in my mental top 10 of all time.
Well, given that they stopped making albums after their third one in 1990, it’s tempting to nominate The Sisters of Mercy, but the new songs that they have played live over the course of the 30 years haven’t really convinced that the best was yet to come. Perhaps @salwarpe feels differently.
Two one album wonders: I would have liked to have had a follow-up to Farewell Aldebaran from Judy Henske & Jerry Yester as well as a second album by Trader Horne.
And then of course, there’s the KLF.
There’s some really strong stuff in the latest round of Sisters newbies (they seem to have had a writing resurgence from 2019 onwards). I don’t think that, properly recorded, it would get anywhere near topping Floodland or the early EPs, but it would certainly better than Vision Thing. I’d nominate But Genevieve, Here, and Eyes Of Caligula as the best if you wanted to go down a YT rabbithole
Thanks for letting me know about But Genevieve in particular – on first listen, I rate it higher than anything on Vision Thing. A real return to their earlier, reverb-heavy moody sound.
C’mon, Mr Eldritch (obviously, you’re reading this), it can’t be that hard to pull together a new album!
Asking for a friend, but is there a particular, ahem, I believe the term is “bootleg” compilation of the post Vision Things songs?
Have messaged you (and will happily message anyone else who is interested)
Oh yes please!
Oh, go on then, you tempter. I know I might regret this, but who knows what might lie beneath the chug of a rawk guitar, a sepulchre choked vocal and the roar of a big machine.
Dum dum bullets ?
Shoo! Tickle…
Thanks Kid! I- er my friend, will have a listen and include the album in his iTunes library next to all the other Sisters albums except for Some Girls Wander By Mistake which of course has been divided up into the different singles with their respective artworks which of course is obligatory.
I have done exactly that with SGWBM as well!
I would have been very disappointed if you hadn’t!
It has to be done. Also, resetting the tags, so the release years are correct.
A public thank you for the sturm und drang in my inbox.
You rang?
No, I don’t feel differently – what I liked about Eldritch (and the KLF as they are mentioned in the same comment) was the skimming through and elegant selection of disparate cultural, literary and musical elements (in SoM’s case, Eliot and Suicide and Cohen and Stones and Bowie and Iggy and Shelley and Motorhead and ABBA), steeping them all in rock’n’roll imagery – designing a complete package and mythology and selling it as pop.
I don’t care for anything Eldritch has done after (including) Vision Thing – just straight metal in the Motorhead format. Fine – he can make a decent living and doesn’t have to amphetamine sweat out another FALAA. But for someone of his intellect, creativity and ambition, it’s a shame he didn’t tilt somewhat in the gravel-voiced direction of Leonard Cohen, or try out some more versatile and original musical collaborators than just another leather-clad electric guitar hero.
I’m not dependent on him and his music, and there are many other musicians making interesting sounds these days, also in other languages and cultures. It just would have been interesting to see what this decidedly unique quirky individual could have done, if he had wanted to.
My tall chum’s band, The Bible, who split after two albums, but did get back together in the mid-90s and recorded another album… which dribbled out about a decade later. They regularly regrouped over the years for short tours and always wrote and recorded new stuff, but none of it was ever released. I’ve heard the demos for the unreleased third album and they were some of the best tracks they ever did.
The Fat Lady Sings. Two albums and fantastic live, I always felt like it was just a matter of time before the general public caught up. Turns out I was wrong.
I enjoyed UNPOC s one album back I think nearly 20 years ago..
Then nothing, not a thing released since
Never heard of them but that song is quite good. How is the rest of the album @Thegp?
Worth a listen the album is very lo-fi but is very good IMO
Cream. I know they were an implosion waiting to happen, but I feel if they could just have kept it together a few years longer we might have seen something interesting from their combined, disparate talents. I have no idea what form it would take, but I just feel that as a band they never really had the chance to hone a real masterpiece. All their albums have the feel of being cobbled together on the hoof, with tantalising glimpses of a great English pop band.
The Cocteau Twins had a unique sound. I would welcome further music from the trio.
The Jam – surely the biggest band in Britain when they split.
But … Weller wanted to move on, Bruce would’ve/ could’ve moved with him, but there was concern whether Rick’s drumming was flexible enough.
Ooof, “biggest band in Britain”??? Smells a bit like hyperbole to me! (I’m partial to a bit of hyperbole myself at times, so it’s a nice change to pick someone else up on it for once 🙂 )
Jimi Hendrix. I heard his later stuff before the more well known stuff and can’t help thinking he was heading towards funk more – songs like Earth Blues or Room Full of Mirrors. I could easily imagine him hopping onto the Mothership with George Clinton at some stage. Imagine his take on Maggot Brain! Probably AI will be able to produce “exactly” what that would have sounded like any day now but really we’ll never know.
Thanks but no thanks. That was dreadful.
My usual answer to such questions is Prefab Sprout. I sincerely hope that Crimson/Red isn’t the last album, not that it’s bad, but that it showed Paddy hadn’t (hasn’t?) lost his songwriting gift.
Jackie Leven
Tom Petty
Jimmy LaFave
John Lennon
Furniture
Seconded.
Although the final album was very slightly underwhelming, and sales had nosedived. In 2021, Cherry Red repressed The Wrong People CD after 11 years. The deal at the time was “if this sells well, we’ll do the other one”. I’m guessing it didn’t do that well.
I liked the 2nd album a lot, very different to the Wrong People. And the Because album was pretty good too.
Ah, you’re in for a treat. The Wrong People is the second proper album, but the first on a ‘major’ label (which went bust the week it was released).
Debut album When The Boom Was On came out on an indie label three years before TWP, and a compilation of inbetween-albums-indie-singles, The Lovemongers, came out 6 months after TWP.
I can (ahem) ‘help’.
Leaving aside those who died too young, per the OP….
Already mentioned them on another thread today, but At The Drive In. Called it quits after their best album, the absolutely superb Relationship of Command, with half the band going off to become the relatively mundane Sparta, and the other the anything but Mars Volta. Would have loved to see what they’d have done if they’d stuck together and kept going. Think they did get back together and release something a few years ago, but the momentum had been squandered.
A bit of me would have liked more music from Slint, but a larger part feels that they’re sort of perfect as is. Just drop the Rosetta Stone for a whole new genre and then vanish.
The Stone Roses would be the other one. Obviously would have been good to hear more from them in the half decade between One Love and Love Spreads, but even The Second Coming left me wanting more. The rhythm section of that band was crazy strong, and if they could have just kept focus they 100% had another great album in them. They have to be one of the great “What if” stories of bands who turned it in early.
The Clash I could also have done with a bit more from. Classic line up, obvs. Likewise Blondie and Pixies.
I would have liked a few more years of Destiny’s Child – as a rule I find their music more interesting than Beyonce’s. Likewise the Supremes and Diana Ross.
I would very happily have listened to a few more albums from the original Small Faces and The Smiths. The Smiths, in particular, clearly had more to give. Obviously, that would mean losing Morrissey’s solo records, which in some cases would be painful but it’s difficult to believe that the full band wouldn’t have at least matched those particular heights. The opposite is true of Simon & Garfunkel – I’d very happily hear more from them, but not at the expense of Paul Simon’s solo career. The same can be said of The Velvet Underground, and probably The Fugees.
Rage Against The Machine are a weird one. They called it quits between 2000 and 2007, and a bit of me thinks that the period between 9/11 and the dog days of the Bush presidency would have been absolutely perfect to send a rocket up them. But then another bit feels like they were never, ever going to top that first album anyway and maybe they’re a band I don’t need 8 or 9 albums of.
Daft Punk fall somewhere in the middle of all this. Would I like them to still be making new music? Obviously. Would I want to see them play live? Jesus christ yet. Am I 100% confident that their new material would build on their legacy? I’m in two minds. I’m a massive fan, but that last record felt like an end point to me – the first time they ever sounded more like the past than the future. Maybe it’s better that they hung it up and stayed near perfect.
I think most of the first 4 or 5 Morrissey solo albums are almost up there with The Smiths
Viva Hate
Bona Drag (comp)
Your Arsenal
Vauxhall and I
Would probably leave Kill Uncle off this list, but I like quite a bit of it
Television. Two near-perfect albums, then nothing, leaving just an awesome collection of 16 tracks (I’m drawing a veil over the ill-advised self-titled 3rd album after a 10 or so year gap).
I must say: when I actually listened to it, I found the third album to be considerably better than the “received wisdom” suggested at the time – OOAA, of course, but the inkies’ obsession regarding Marquee Moon didn’t help Adventure or the third album.
Me too – and when I saw them play on the supporting tour they were brilliant!
The Unbelievable Truth. Gloomy but wonderful debut (Almost Here, 1998), puzzling follow up in 2000, messy compilation of B-sides, live tracks and unreleased songs a year later, then nothing. If you could wear out a CD, I’d have worn out Almost Here.
Love that record.
Of a similar vintage: Geneva.
Very good shout. Love that debut album
Eat
They emerged with such a wonderful shambolic mix of swamp blues, Stone Roses rhythm and dance attitude from the warehouse scene that spawned Mutoid Waste Corporation with frontman Ange Doolittle as mutated genetic offspring of Jim Morrison and Michael Hutchence. Live, they were amazing – so good, the whole audience was just wild with movement and the songs were amazing. I first got into them with the Mr and Mrs Smack single, but the whole Sell Me A God first album was brilliant from start to end.
Then Ange did get into smack and alcohol, I think. His svelte rock God physique went the blasted way of late period Jim Morrison, his multicolored dreadlock bob grew out into full in long hair, and he started wearing tiedye jumpsuits. The best musicians in the band jumped ship and, almost needless to say, the second album, delayed, was a pile of mainstream cack. I still went to see them live, but it was poor quality methadone after the electric thrill of their early years.
What might have been… but I’m glad if what there was.
A similar story of lost promise hangs around the Moonflowers, albeit with slightly different circumstances…
Crikey, that takes me back! I might pull Sell Me A God off the shelf later, if I get a chance. Second album cost me a quid and remains welded to the ‘played once’ shelf.
Did you yield to the temptation of the God is love tie? Please tell all, @fentonsteve!
Sadly, real life* got in the way again, but it is now at the front of the queue next to the record player.
(*) I’m taking Offspring the Younger for an MRI in a couple of hours.
PS This had reminded me, I own a CD by Big Yoga Muffin.
All the best for your kid. Much more important than old records.
What’s the BYM CD like? I’ve never heard it.
Just a MRI today, but not much fun. Hospitals always put me on edge, and I was only the taxi driver.
Big Yoga Muffin was half Ange and half Pim from Hipsway. I haven’t played it in years, but liked it more than the second Eat album. It was dirt cheap from Berwick Street – a quid, tops.
Well, I finally had an hour to myself last night and gave it a blast. Marvellous. I haven’t played it much over the last 30-odd (!) years but could remember every note, such is the catchiness. I note it was engineered and co-produced by AW fave Phill Brown.
Such is the all-over-the-shop funkiness that it reminds me of (the following year’s) Ritual de lo Habitual by Jane’s Addiction, and not just the sleeve art.
I won’t be leaving it another 30 years.
Fabulous! I hope you did the shimmy.
Did you ever get the ”Trabant Tape’ that was available at some of their gigs? One side of unreleased tracks and experiments, one side live at the Melkweg. As good as the official album in some ways.
Never got into Jane’s Addiction as I thought they were funk metal, but maybe worth a listen.
I listened to a bit of Big Yoga Muffin – quite intriguing, with them all dressed up in black tie, but such a change of direction that it didn’t do much for me.
I didn’t get the Trabant Tape, no. I definitely saw them live at Brixton Academy supporting the Stuffies, enough to buy the LP. Also somewhere near Reading (I was there 1988-91).
Love both albums – if anything, Epicure edges it for me. There’s always one.
Duncan Reid & The Big Heads played their last show this month.
I’m still trying to work out why they’re jacking it in when their live shows are never short of superb, and the last album (And It’s Goodbye From Him) ranks with his best work.
(In fairness I do get why they’re calling it a day – Duncan is now 65, and the costs and returns from smaller shows, European and Scandinavian tours, low bill festival appearances and limited album sales just don’t add up)
More an enforced end than deciding to call it a day, but Joy Division’s Closer must make the list.
Unknown Pleasures vs Closer? Score Draw
My vote goes to Closer. It’s more poetic, lyrically and musically. Especially side two.
I’m with Mr Digit – their strengths are different and I couldn’t choose between the two.
Abbey Road …
Jellyfish made two, perfect albums in the early 90s. Given the quality of the stuff put out by former members, I can only imagine how good a third or fourth album might have been. And I’d have loved to have seen a show.
Possibly a bit niche, but there’s a one album band from Scotland called Campfires In Winter.
Every year I hope for a new album, and every year I am disappointed.
Back in 2003 a guy I was friendly with convinced me that I must join him at The Astoria in London to see Elbow.
He’s already seen them a couple of times on that tour.
In the pub beforehand he hurried me to drink up because we had to see the the support, whom he asserted were really good.
That support band was Longview and he was right. They were brilliant.
After the gig he asked me what I thought of Elbow. I replied I thought they were OK, but nowhere near as good as the support.
They aren’t that good was his retort.
He was wrong. They were.
I bought Longview’s album Mercury as well as Elbow’s album Cast Of Thousands.
I still play Longview, but the Elbow album went to the charity shop.
That was their sole album. Discogs says they split up in 2015, but I think it was more likely in the year or two after that tour.
I never got to see them again.
Oh yes, Longview were great. I’ll dig Mercury out for a spin.
I absolutely love Guillemots. Their leader Fyfe Dangerfield had an excellent solo album aside from the unnecessary cover of Billy Joel’s Always a woman to me. Their last album came out in I think 2012. Titled Hello Land it was announced by the band as the first of 4 for that year , one for each season. Then they disappeared without a trace and no explanation.
It was their best album and I mourn their disappearance. Fyfe Dangerfield sends out occasional emails that meander but no new music.
I’m going to suggest Van der Graaf, the short-lived version of VdGG which produced The Quiet Zone and the live album, Vital. It really was like a different band, compared to what came before and to what was reassembled in 2005. For a year or two around 1977/78, they sounded like the most aggressive live band on the planet – but they imploded before they could record a second studio album. Based on the live album and the weird tour experiments, I reckon that a second album would have blown the door (sic) off…but we never got to find out.
Would have loved another album from David Sylvian, obvs. I really rate his last two proper albums, Blemish and Manafon. I say “proper albums” because his last official album before retiring, There’s a Light That Enters Houses with No Other House in Sight was a single hour-length composition with no singing, just spoken word by poet Franz Wright. I find it unlistenable.
I’d have loved another album from the Waters/Gilmour partnership. They’re both still alive, so it could happen.
And pigs might fly.
To choose an act that is no more: one absolute classic album from The Redskins was not enough. The “Clash meets Motown” sound of Neither Washington Nor Moscow had so much energy, vitality and punctuation (!), it’s weird they never made another.
Waters/Gilmour? You old romantic!
Random Hold.
I was one of the three people who bought The View from Here – I suspect they had more good stuff in them than the three albums, but the public were indifferent and the record company looked elsewhere…
David Rhodes joined Peter Gabriel’s band; Dave Ferguson played with Peter Hammill and opened a studio; the others pursued careers away from music.
It’s a rough old game, right enough.
Nutz.
Minor league mid 70s rock band. They made a handful of great albums, especially the second one, and had a great guitarist, drummer and singer. They played hard rock but with layered harmonies and would jump into odd time signatures at will. After a clutch of albums they renamed, repositioned and disappeared. I loved them!
You can’t do that @twang.
You can’t say they renamed themselves and not say who they renamed themselves as. You just can’t!
I think it was Rage. Sorry for the suspense!
I think if a band is called Nutz and wants to rename itself, they should be legally obliged to rename themselves as Boltz.
Yes. And also, while we’re on the subject, some people might assume that a doughnut is called a doughnut because it’s shaped like a nut and made of dough. However the ones without a hole and full of jam are still called doughnuts, so that disproves that theory. As does the existence of ginger nuts (which are, incidentally, the most sold biscuit in New Zealand).
I have never seen a nut shaped like a doughnut. One couldn’t turn a doughnut with an adjustable spanner, for example…no hexagonal outer edge, with flat surfaces for torque.
(I may have overthought this…)
Not at all. It pays to be precise about such things and no one values an underthinker when it comes to combining D-I-Y and pastry,
You might be able to rotate a doughnut with a Stilson wrench like that though, ‘cos the jaws are grooved for grippage..
No thread in the centre hole, though…so what would be the point?
True. I found a Stilson at the roadside a few years ago, which appears to be a Canadian Ford tool. I think its Second War vintage. Came up a treat with some wire wool and oil.
*goes and sorts out his Spear and Jacksons*
Oh, Moose, where are you?..
@Gary
𝕴𝖈𝖍 𝖇𝖎𝖓 𝖊𝖎𝖓 𝖓𝖎𝖈𝖍𝖙 𝕭𝖊𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖗
In the absence of Moose… I’ve got Ginger Nuts.
TMI
McVitie’s, obviously. Although the CoOp own brand ones are also nice.
T.Rex – Dandy In The Underworld.
Emerging from a 4 year hangover, Marc Bolan was “getting it back” and had learned a bit of humility.
1976s Futuristic Dragon points the way forward, but Dandy had the enthusiasm of old (and a half decent band in tow).
Would it have lasted? He enjoyed the energy of Punk, and with the TV show was mixing in the teeny market. He admits his TV show wasn’t serious move, just one to get him back in the public eye.
I reckon he would’ve “built” something from here … if it weren’t for a tree
Ron Kavana. Nearly huge in the 80s, then, 3 albums and silence. After a gap, a couple of trad Irish dirge collections, a brief canter with Terry Woods and nothing since. I gather he got burnt by the music biz and retreated, hurt
Picking up from Kid Dynamite’s thread, Screaming Trees. Dust never felt like it should be their final album, and I don’t really count Last Words, as it wasn’t released until well after they had ceased to be.
I’d love a fourth Animals That Swim album. Workshy was reissued a fear years ago and there was a download single with 2 new songs that I hoped would kickstart something new
Like the politician’s (neck)tie, the apostrophe in Halloween (it were all Hallowe’en when I were a lad) has gone from being a requirement to something we regard as quite unnecessary and, frankly, overfussy. (See also ‘phone – although a case might be made that – in a Frank Lampard and Frank Lampard junior over time becoming Frank Lampard and Frank Lampard senior kind of way – the thing in our pocket has become a thing other than its ancestor and deserves a – sort of – new name, which nonetheless retains a reminder of its root function)…
I am confused as to “thread context” – are you gagging for more apostrophes? Or fewer?
No judgement, fitter. Just observing how we, as a society, have loosened our own ties when it comes to a lot of this stuff. Halloween happens to be one of those words that prompts such thoughts. Right now I’m picturing a teacher I liked a lot, at the blackboard, explaining why the apostrophe was there. I hadn’t thought about him for many years, so that’s a good thing in itself..
Fair enough – but, nevertheless, is your comment in the wrong thread?
I like to think there’s no such thing as a “wrong thread”. Any comment can go anywhere. Otherwise we become just like Glen Matlock complaining about rhyming antichrist with anarchist. Communication should flow freely and unhindered through every available orifice in order that it may also reach the eyes of a more clinically insane audience.
It’s a point of view…
Soz! I see you were just trying to guide my contribution elsewhere, like a drunk being gently ushered away from Christmas Eve midnight mass. I will feel such a fool when I wake up in the morning!
Very kind of you to propel me towards hamper delivery, but I am now concerned as to it’s contents. Trick or treat? And I always thought toffee apples were overrated.
Aaaaargh! Grocer’s apo’strophe!
What a c’a’t’a’s’t’r’o’p’h’e
Ha! In one of PTerry Pratchett’s books, he had a greengrocer speaking in random quote marks and apostrophes.
Is the P silent as Pterodactyl?
Yes, the P is silent. One of the characters in his book ‘Pyramids’ was called Ptraci; took me half the book to say her name properly. A lot of fans therefore renamed him Pterry.
PThanks Seegeeyou
This is a bit of an obvious one but would have loved more Syd Barrett releases, either with Floyd or without
Yes, indeed!
Regardless that he could do almost everything himself, and that his subsequent bands had arguably better musicians, I would have liked Prince to continue and explore further with The Revolution. I still think they were his best band and enabled him to produce his greatest work. Wendy and Lisa in particular were the Yang to his Yin, and we’re instrumental (ha!) in facilitating and encouraging his more esoteric and interesting musical directions.
That’s a really good shout BT. If Prince hadn’t decided to bring in more and more people onstage to make the gigs more of a James Brown-style revue, Wendy and Lisa wouldn’t have felt so sidelined. Can’t wait for a box set of Around the World… and/or Parade.
Well, Peter Green of course. Full power Greeny rather than the faded comeback guy.
Oh absolutely.
Also (and thanks to your avatar for inspiration) – Lowell George
Good point. Yes!! Also, unlike Peter, Lowell still had all his powers and in a solo situation who knows what would have emerged.
Did he, though? Might have needed to clean up and get a bit healthier to really get all his powers at his disposal…
Oh very good shout. I’m not even a great fan of all the deeper blues stuff, but for things like Man of the World, Albatross and Oh Well alone, I wish we had more in that style. He never really got a chance to have an imperial period.