Slippery Slopes
The Onion’s AV Club recently posted a list of “20 respectable rock and rap acts that peaked with their debut albums“. Bands mentioned include Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Rage Against The Machine, The Strokes, Marshall Crenshaw and more. This got me to thinking what other groups either hit the scene with their best material, or left the scene with their best material.
One of the best examples of a group quite literally falling apart after their near-immaculate debut is The Stone Roses. Their self-titled debut album came out in 1989, then the Roses took a break. A long break. For a band that was touted (mostly by themselves) as the greatest band in history, the Manchester quartet disappeared until the 1994 release of the aptly-titled Second Coming. While that album wasn’t met with the ferver as their debut, fans have since come to see it as a great album, just not as great as their debut.
On the other side of the spectrum is Neutral Milk Hotel. Their most beloved album (and one of the most critically acclaimed albums in recent history), In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, featured complex lyrics, passionate vocals and superb arrangements. Later the same year it’s released, however, leader Robert Magnum announced that the band was on an indefinite hiatus.
Are there any more bands that you can think of that peaked after their debuts? What about bands whose magnus opus was also their swan song? And what of bands who have gotten more and more adventurous after their debut (think Hot Chip, The Replacements and The White Stripes)?
E-mail me at eric@yrockonxpn.org, and I might just focus on this phenomenon during an upcoming show.