View Full Version : Did your favourite band 'jump the shark'?
douglasb
17-12-2009, 17:52
i.e. did they lose the plot completely?
Adam & The Ants: I may have been 11 or whatever, but I knew straight away that the 'Prince Charming' album was a crock. The passage of time has not improved it at all.
Frankie GTH: Having heard The Power of Love in a shop today, again my pre-teen radar kicked in and I knew then they were finished before they even began.
I know all bands/artists lose the magic eventually, but who broke your heart?
After a run of three fantastic albums (Cuts Like A Knife (83), Reckless (84), Into The Fire (87)), Bryan Adams hasn't done anything worthwhile since. 22 years and counting.
I'm gonna say Queen (for not just becoming May and Taylor) and Billy Joel, for camping it up with Elton (though he bloody well cancelled the time I booked) and for not releasing anything since I was in University (studio albums).
LouBarlow
18-12-2009, 07:00
Nope my favourite band, the mighty Du, just got better and then imploded. The best way to go.
DeadYankee
18-12-2009, 07:11
The Stone Roses went from the sublime to the ridiculous
LouBarlow
18-12-2009, 07:17
Though The Clash totally went crap after London Calling. Sandinista! is horrible and they got progressively worse.
The Stone Roses went from the sublime to the ridiculous
Reading festival with keyboards and dancers:oh-hum:
The Happy Mondays - Yes Please. Are you on crack m8? Yes, as it happens.
DeadYankee
18-12-2009, 08:05
Though The Clash totally went crap after London Calling. Sandinista! is horrible and they got progressively worse.
Sandinista! is a work of genius!
I forgot to mention Metallica - 4 truly great albums and then :gag::oh-hum::(
Johnny Shaker
18-12-2009, 08:10
I wish Oasis had packed it in after WTSMG, so that my memory of them was as my favourite band during my teenage years. The only songs I would've missed would have been the Importance of Being Idle and Meaning of Soul, and they could've both been solo project tracks anyway.
AndyWilson
18-12-2009, 08:59
I like Sandanista but Rock the Casbah, and that whole "stadium" era of the Clash, make me cringe
LeftHandedGuitarist
18-12-2009, 09:58
Queen from the end of the 90's onwards. You could say Hot Space was a massive mis-step, but it did give us Under Pressure and they got right back on track with subsequent albums. The only thing that can really redeem them now is the long-awaited anthology boxsets that we've been waiting 10 years for.
douglasb
18-12-2009, 10:07
I was thinking about how bad many of our most revered artists were during the 1980s. Lots of crimes have been brushed under the carpet and we've taken people like McCartney, Elton John, Springsteen, etc. back into our hearts. Bowie was the biggest tool in music for a while: I've never come so close to kicking the telly than when he did that 'prayer' thing at an AIDS (?) benefit.
Prince, more or less coincided with the AFKAP fiasco.
I was thinking about how bad many of our most revered artists were during the 1980s. Lots of crimes have been brushed under the carpet and we've taken people like McCartney, Elton John, Springsteen, etc. back into our hearts. Bowie was the biggest tool in music for a while: I've never come so close to kicking the telly than when he did that 'prayer' thing at an AIDS (?) benefit.
Struggling to think of a "criminal" Springsteen album to be honest.
A lot of people dislike "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town" but i think that's because of the lack of the E-Street band. The man's been consistent for 36 years now.
I still persevere with Counting Crows. First album is one of my faves of all time. Each Follow-up tends to have some good tracks but alot of filler. Had the albums been released in a different order I wouldnt have bothered
Still love them live though :thumbs:
Not exactly jumped the shark, but I couldnt take the Manics seriously after Richey left. Never seen them as a three piece, but saw them ****loads of times right up until Holy Bible tour. After that, the new 'toned down' manics just didn't do it for me anymore.
I kind of thought Radiohead did with Kid A but I got to like that. Then I thought they did again with Hail To The Thief but In Rainbows has been album I really enjoyed.
Blur certainly did for me with '13' and beyond.
After a run of three fantastic albums (Cuts Like A Knife (83), Reckless (84), Into The Fire (87)), Bryan Adams hasn't done anything worthwhile since. 22 years and counting.
A great album. He was actually becoming a serious artist with that, but then went all 'successful' :(
A great album. He was actually becoming a serious artist with that, but then went all 'successful' :(The Mutt Lange effect.
Is it Bryan Adams?, is it Def Leppard? - who can tell? :shrug:
Queen, once they discovered the synthesiser. They are like two bands, one that is a gloriously cheeky rock band with their tongue in their cheek, the other which is a naff Eighties pop band writing Anthems-by-numbers. Not that their 80's stuff is awfu - there are some gems - but it is totally outshone by almost everything from the 70's.
Innuendo was a return to something like the old days, and then it was over. Since then it has got increasingly more painful to watch. Whatever credibility they had has now since evaporated and they are the dancing dads at the worlds worst wedding. I wish Roger Taylor would get out and do something form the heart. And I don't mean that awful protest song!
AndyWilson
18-12-2009, 22:04
Which Queen album was it that proudly proclaimed "no synthesisers" on the sleeve?
I used to see it nestling alongside various friend's older brothers copies of Wakeman's Six Wives in my sneery pre-punk days
Queen. You googled it in English no doubt ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_(album))
They had it on all of their early stuff IIRC. I think the game was the first to use one.
Buck Rogers
19-12-2009, 09:50
Smashing Pumpkins- Adore is brilliant IMO but after that, and with all that has happened with the band line up and comments by Billy,its hard to take them seriously anymore.
Radiohead- I'd say they've peaked (over the three albums Bends to Kid A) but wouldn't say they've jumped the shark as all there albums have been consistenly good at least since.
LeftHandedGuitarist
19-12-2009, 10:05
Which Queen album was it that proudly proclaimed "no synthesisers" on the sleeve?
I used to see it nestling alongside various friend's older brothers copies of Wakeman's Six Wives in my sneery pre-punk days
Their first 7 albums all had it.
Radiohead- I'd say they've peaked (over the three albums Bends to Kid A) but wouldn't say they've jumped the shark as all there albums have been consistenly good at least since.
After playing In Rainbows for solidly when it came out I decided it was my favourite album of theirs. Wonder what they're planning next :thumbs:
LooNaTiK
19-12-2009, 14:50
Led Zeppelin peaked, imo with Physical Graffiti. Presence had a few decent tracks, but i very rarely listen to either In Through the Out Door or CODA.
LooN
eye__writ
19-12-2009, 17:01
Ash. :(
They made one of the greatest debut albums ever, and I loved Nu-Clear Sounds too, but since then it's been ho-hum pop-rock chart fodder, and now with this A-Z Singles project they've well and truly jumped the shark! :gag:
LeftHandedGuitarist
19-12-2009, 17:09
Radiohead- I'd say they've peaked (over the three albums Bends to Kid A) but wouldn't say they've jumped the shark as all there albums have been consistenly good at least since.
Also can't agree with Radiohead ever shark jumping. Their first album is the weakest thing they've done, and everything since has been better. I don't particularly like Kid A or Amnesiac apart from a few excellent tracks, but I can admire it for being a very brave step. I quite like most of Hail To The Thief, and In Rainbows is an absolute masterpiece.
I have mixed feelings about The Smashing Pumpkins. Adore probably was their last really great work (and certainly my favourite album of theirs), but there have been bits and pieces of things which since which I've really liked. The American Gothic EP from last year was gorgeous, and I haven't completely written off this new free album project of Billy's.
Although, the attitude with which Billy played the anniversary shows was horrid.
Queen, once they discovered the synthesiser. They are like two bands, one that is a gloriously cheeky rock band with their tongue in their cheek, the other which is a naff Eighties pop band writing Anthems-by-numbers. Not that their 80's stuff is awfu - there are some gems - but it is totally outshone by almost everything from the 70's.
To be fair, their first album using a synth was The Game and that isn't a weak album by any standards. The use of the synthesiser was actually very restrained. It became a bit more overblown with Flash Gordon (still a guilty pleasure though) and then really in your face with Hot Space. After acknowledging they went down the wrong route with that album, The Works was a quite finely crafted balance.
But yeah, give me 1970's hard-rock/progressive metal Queen any day.
JCTurner
19-12-2009, 17:54
For me its the old Marillion /Fish split. Loved all of the original bands albums and even fish had a couple of goodies on his own (Vigil and Raingods) but neither really work for me any more (though I can still go back to Script, Misplaced, Fugazi, Clutching and Reel and truly love them again).
Also can't agree with Radiohead ever shark jumping. Their first album is the weakest thing they've done, and everything since has been better. I don't particularly like Kid A or Amnesiac apart from a few excellent tracks, but I can admire it for being a very brave step. I quite like most of Hail To The Thief, and In Rainbows is an absolute masterpiece.
I agree with all of that.
cliff homewood
19-12-2009, 18:20
Queen never jumped the shark, if like me you don't think of the current group without Freddie Mercury as true Queen otherwise yeah they jumped the shark with the death of Freddie.
Frankie GTH: Having heard The Power of Love in a shop today, again my pre-teen radar kicked in
Thats a strange quote I'm assuming you mean a reminisence of when you were pre-teen and you could tell then at that tender age the band had jumped? For your info as far as I'm concerned that was a band that never jumped, again if you count the end as when Holly Johnson split, and not the hundreds of remixes done in their name since. The first album was great pop (gave us the famous songs) and the second was a good progression to rock (I still love Warriors of the Wastelands from that album).
Tom Whitaker
19-12-2009, 19:03
Ash. :(
They made one of the greatest debut albums ever, and I loved Nu-Clear Sounds too, but since then it's been ho-hum pop-rock chart fodder, and now with this A-Z Singles project they've well and truly jumped the shark! :gag:Entitled to your own opinion of course, but I've been a fan from the start and even I admit they're a singles band. Trailer and 1977 have some killer tracks but also some utter tripe - I'd Give You Anything is the most plodding, overlong indie rocker I can think of that's not Hey Now :)
My favourite band are Pearl Jam and whilst I've no expectation that they'll ever match their 90s output ever again, I still like what they're doing.
I still persevere with Counting Crows. First album is one of my faves of all time. Each Follow-up tends to have some good tracks but alot of filler. Had the albums been released in a different order I wouldnt have bothered
Aye, the first album is their best, but Recovering the Satellites is the best song they've done IMO. This Desert Life was completely throwaway, but quite liked Hard Candy as an album. The album after that (which name escapes me as I stopped buying then) also quite good IIRC.
LeftHandedGuitarist
19-12-2009, 21:48
My favourite band are Pearl Jam and whilst I've no expectation that they'll ever match their 90s output ever again, I still like what they're doing.
Pearl Jam show no signs of even going within biking distance of an aquarium, let alone anywhere near a shark :thumbs:
Aye, the first album is their best, but Recovering the Satellites is the best song they've done IMO. This Desert Life was completely throwaway, but quite liked Hard Candy as an album. The album after that (which name escapes me as I stopped buying then) also quite good IIRC.
So technically, you haven't stop buying yet because they haven't released anything since "Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings" (which was the follow-up to "Hard Candy").
Agree that "August & Everything After" is their best so far but "Recovering The Satellites" is not too far behind. There aren't many fillers on there.
Metallica after 'Justice for All', they've been scrabbling around ever since and become a parody.
drush9999
21-12-2009, 09:41
I actually think Metallica jumped the shark with Justice For All, they were never the same without Cliff.
Reckon Aerosmith did it about three times during their career. Everything up to Rocks was good, then there was the Geffen years, etc
I would have thought the same for the Rolling Stones but think Goat's Head Soup was their last great album. Only the odd good single after that.
Led Zeppelin did jump the shark in the middle of their career, but I like it all :)
douglasb
21-12-2009, 09:42
What about an act like Genesis? Their 80s pop stuff might as well have been a different band entirely.
Anyone who thought I said Radiohead have jumped the shark didn't understand my post. :)
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