Bands that got better after they “peaked”

[Shadoweclipse13]

Portishead!

Third was way better than their 90s stuff

Is it? It's their only album I don't have, mostly because I've been wanting to find a used copy pretty cheap, and my local stores are always out.

[higgsblossom]

I dare say Sonic Youth.

I like Daydream Nation a lot but whenever I want to listen to Sonic Youth, the record of choice is Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star.

[DarnWeight]

I know it was their last album, and they were essentially breaking up whilst recording it, but Archers Of Loaf White Trash Heroes is my go-to record by them nowadays. They were mixing it up a lot more, and for me, it's really matured well. The E-bowed Eno-ish guitars on the title-track are pretty much the last thing I expected from them at the time, but as an album closer, it works wonderfully.

[shadowplay]

Roisin Murphy. Her recent music is way better than Moloko, from her slaphappy Gwen Guthrie/Larry Levan reminiscent work with Maurice Fulton, to hypnotic club bangers, quirky pop songs and onto wonderful covers of Italian pop, solo Roisin carries far more interest for me than anything she did as Moloko. Sadly most of her music comes out in pretty limited and kinda expensive formats that sell in a flash and seem to be achieving very little man on the street penetration.

One from each category;

Róisín Murphy - House Of Glass (Maurice Fulton Remix) Levan. She's just come out of a great triple series of 12" singles with Maurice Fulton.

She's a good night out too' Róisín Murphy - House Of Glass (Mercury Prize Performance)

Róisín Murphy - Simulation Banger

Róisín Murphy - Hairless Toys (Gotta Hurt) Quirky

Roisin Murphy - Ancora Tu Italian

and bonus party starter italian banger Róisín Murphy - In Sintesi (Psychemagik Remix)

shoulda been a hit; Roisin Murphy - Overpowered

D

[mezcalhead]

I was never a Moloko fan but I bought the Hairless Toys album after you put some of Murphy's stuff up here a few years ago, and it's been a mainstay of my listening ever since. I can hear jazz, funk and deep house squidged up together in there but it's very much its own thing.

When I've heard her interviewed she comes over casually like "oh, I was drunk the night before we went into the studio and then we just made it up as we went along" but to me it all sounds precisely machined to fit exactly as intended. She has a very calculated aesthetic plus the observational instincts of a top-rank novelist.

[shadowplay]

When I've heard her interviewed she comes over casually like "oh, I was drunk the night before we went into the studio and then we just made it up as we went along" but to me it all sounds precisely machined to fit exactly as intended. She has a very calculated aesthetic plus the observational instincts of a top-rank novelist.

Totally agree, she also likeable, there's not many pop stars with her level of twinkle.

D

[beauzooka]

Failure!

The two newer albums are both really excellent. Fantastic Planet is a great album but suffers a bit from some 90’s datedness. The first two more so.

[jam007]

Converge.

After the infamous Jane Doe album they never let up....

[bubba899]

It's difficult to say when they peaked and when the hype around them drew in the most numbers but The Horrors have grown & grown in maturity &, dare I say it, originality as a band who started out in life as a great but pretty simplistic garage/psych band.

Excellent shout

I'd say Gaz Coombes. Supergrass are probably only remembered for one song, but I think they were a much better band than they got credit for at the time and his subsequent solo stuff has been excellent.