Best records made by artists when they were the age you are now.

Maybe you 40-somethings would cheer up if you consider Frank Sinatra recorded his masterful September of My Years album at 49 and Peggy Lee recorded her classic "Is That All There Is?" at 49 also.

Oh wait, those titles though. Sorry.

Kate Bush "Aerial"
Louis Prima "The Wildest!"
whatever John Lee Hooker was doing in 1963 (his discography is a mess)
Muddy Waters "...Sings 'Big Bill'"
Howlin' Wolf "Moanin' in the Moonlight"

I'm just content with the fact that being in your forties today doesn't necessarily mean that you look like you're in your sixties like it did back in the day.

Doc Watson "On Stage"
Ernest Tubb "Ernest Tubb Record Shop"

albums made by people in their 30s-60s

this should be great!

let's see...did Aretha Franklin record an album in her 30s, or any time up through her 60s? seems like she must have

Loretta Lynn (w/Conway Twitty) "Honky Tonk Heroes" (features both of my favorite duets of theirs, "I've Already Loved You In My Mind" and "You're the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly")

This thread makes far less sense when viewed through the lens of classical music.

Teenage Fanclub "Shadows"

Apparently Van Morrison released Back On Top when he was 54. I've never heard it but hey, he actually made an album when he was 54.

tbf his follow up was "Back at the Bottom"

sad lol @ Back on Top as the title of a late-period album that no one has heard of

Tom Waits - Bone Machine
Tom Petty - Into the Great Wide Open
Tom Verlaine - Warm and Cool

and those are just the ones named Tom!

Scott Walker was 53 when he did Tilt and 63 when he The Drift was released. There is indeed hope for us late bloomers.

This thread makes far less sense when viewed through the lens of classical music.

I thought about searching for classical examples, then realized I would have to think in terms of recordings, and quickly abandoned the idea.

Scott Walker was 53 when he did Tilt and 63 when he The Drift was released. There is indeed hope for us late bloomers.

I'm consistently impressed by how much younger the Oh Sees seem than me despite mostly being a couple years older so my rolling answer to the thread question will be 'whatever album those dudes released a couple years back'.

Side point, but Sebald was mid-40s before he started writing and Penelope Fitzgerald was in her mid-50s. There are numerous other examples. So there's always hope!

For the record, Sebald would have made washed-out drone albums; Fitzgerald something arch - maybe the kind of records Trish Keenan is making, wherever she may be.

Leonard Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man, maybe.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/11/Mary_Chapin_Carpenter-The_Age_of_Miracles.jpg

How would I even find out what records were made by 43-year-olds?

I’m the same age. I just checked a few obvious candidates, like Dylan and Lou Reed — but even their “great” early-’80s albums were already behind them at this point.

Eno's "My Squelchy Life" was when he was 43, that's a pretty good one...

Going by date of composition (idk recording), Stockhausen's Stimmung is a strong candidate. Also the recording of Glenn Branca's Symphony no. 6 was released when he was my age.

Never heard of it, but I’ll take your word. Looks like Bonnie Raitt was still a bit shy of 43 when Luck of the Draw came out, but that may be as close a match as I’ll find....

(xp to rush)

Leonard Cohen - Various Positions. Just getting started!

thom yorke was 33 when amnesiac came out, thats p good

morris - how about syro? people seem to like that one ok. really i could find a lot of great records made by 43-year-olds, i just don't want to put in the effort to research what year 15,000 of the musicians i like where 43 and what records they did that year.

I used to love RDJ, but don’t care for Syro :(

how about coffin for head of state? i'm just throwing stuff out here at random here...

Shostakovich was apparently only up to his 4th String Quartet (which is rather good) by my age. More crucially, there were eleven more still to come. Hehe.