THEY PULL ME BACK IN: Albums by artists you'd previously given up on that re-capture your imagination/fandom.

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Inspired by this thread....

The final straw: albums that put a bullet in your love for an artist.

I'd given up on my beloved Stranglers pretty much long before Hugh Cornwell had left the band (the last album I'd cared about being Aural Sculpture), but when Hugh split, that was it. I'd heard on fleetingly poor single ("In Heaven She Walks") from the new line-up (with Dave Somebodyorother on vocals and an ex-Vibrator on guitar) and it was blander than the bland pop that the `Glers were already making. Ugh. Done. But, they kept pumping out records (as did solo Hugh, to no one's great concern). I lamented each successive release, pining for the days of The Raven and Black & White. Then, quite out of nowhere, I layed my ears on Norfolk Coast, which truly was -- to beat a cliche into submission -- a sonic "return to form" (big badass bass riffing from JJ Burnell and signature Dave Greenfield keyboard filigree all over the map). It was amazing. The lyrics were garbage, but so what. It sounded great, and it sounded like the fucking STRANGLERS, and that was good enough for me.

Any albums by since-abandonded artists pull you back in?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:40 (twenty-one years ago)

the new Nick Cave double CD Lyre of Orpheus/Abbatoir Blues*

*oddly I never disliked a Nick Cave album I bought...I just quit buying them for some reason...this one I heard so much good about that I got back in...

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:53 (twenty-one years ago)

also, the Blueprint got me back into Jay-Z

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Pig Lib got me back into Malkaholics Anonymous after skipping Terror Twilight and the first solo LP*

*although I had about half the songs downloaded that I like, esp. Jenny and the Essdog, but I didn't buy it...

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:55 (twenty-one years ago)

With all honesty? New Order's Get Ready. Sorry. Hopefully if that didn't do it for some people, then the new one will.

Also...Sun Kil Moon, the latest project of Mark Kozelek from Red House Painters. Really just didn't think I cared anymore. Instead, the old magic returned.

There's probably more, but I need to give it some thought. It doesn't help that I'm moving and just packed the bulk of all my CD's into the back of my car.

xpost I knew someone would mention Nick Cave. SIGH. Jury's still out on that one for me.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Monday, 28 March 2005 23:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Wire's Read & Burn / Send were welcome surprises from an old friend.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:01 (twenty-one years ago)

"Waiting For The Moon" restored my faith in Tindersticks. It felt like a career retrospective in that they revisited the styles of many of their previous records, and the "career review" that resulted was better than most of their previous albums.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Wire's Read & Burn / Send were welcome surprises from an old friend.

good answer...I know lots of people that bought that...I wonder how many people that bought that didn't have anything after Pink Flag?

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Wire's Read & Burn / Send were welcome surprises from an old friend.

Eh, not quite.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:16 (twenty-one years ago)

New Strokes album (I hope!)

Air - Talkie Walkie
R.E.M. - Up

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Lots

Human League: "Romantic"
Erasure: "Chorus"
Depeche Mode: "Ultra"
R.E.M: "Up", and even more, "Reveal"
David Bowie: To some extent, "Earthling", a lot more in the case of "Heathen"
Squeeze: "Play"
Marillion: "Brave"

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:43 (twenty-one years ago)

What the hell am I thinking? Of course Morrissey fits this thread!
You Are The Quarry pulled me back from the depths of the ocean with that guy.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, Prince almost lost me with the dreadful "Batman" album, but "Grafitti Bridge" was great and renewed my faith in him. Only for a couple years though...

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 00:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Human After All after they lost me on Discovery.

― Mil (Mil), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 01:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Echo and the Bunnymen's Flowers. The previous two were OK, but they didn't really have that ineffable Bunnymen vibe of yore. Flowers seemed to be an attempt to recapture that vibe, and, in spots, suceeded reasonably well. Bodes well for the new album, especially with Hugh Jones producing!

― D. Bachyrycz, Tuesday, 29 March 2005 01:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I've learned not to give up on Radiohead because they have a tendency to sneak up from behind and slap me across the face when I'm least expecting it.

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 01:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Nas - Stillmatic(kind of obvious)

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 01:56 (twenty-one years ago)

PJ Harvey. Stories from the City... just depressed me, especially as it received so many plaudits while being the most anemic of shadows on the translucent skin of Is This Desire? (I know, it's all subjective, but still...). And along came Uh Huh Her which sounded as lowkey as Desire yet still as raw as Four Track Demos.

― David A. (Davant), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 02:55 (twenty-one years ago)

(Although "giving up on" her is a little strong, now that I think about it. I still had faith!)

― David A. (Davant), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 02:56 (twenty-one years ago)

After "Manifesto"and "Flesh + Blood" I never thought I'd bother with another Roxy Music album again, but then "Avalon" came along and proved me wrong.

― Dr Benway (dr benway), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 03:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Mekons OOOH Out Of Our Heads fits this perfectly.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 04:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Prince, Diamonds & Pearls
Mudhoney, My Brother The Cow

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 06:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I had more or less given up a-ha after "Stay On These Roads", "East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon" and "Memorial Beach", plus Morten Harket also did a rather below-par solo debut in the meantime. Then, along comes reunion album "Minor Earth Major Sky", which is a marvellous album, and easily the best thing they have done since "Scoundrel Days". A bit too long, maybe (2-3 tracks could have been edited away), but still a great comeback that renewed my faith in them. "Lifelines" from 2002 wasn't too bad either.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 19:14 (twenty-one years ago)

This thread should have been called "Every time that I thought that was that/It called me right back".

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Wire's Read & Burn / Send were welcome surprises from an old friend.

Eh, not quite.

-- Bimble... (bimble87...), March 29th, 2005.

um, yes quite.

― latebloomer: AKA Sir Teddy Ruxpin, Former Scientologist (latebloomer), Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:02 (twenty-one years ago)

all the press for "the cure" brought me back..sdaly the album pushed me away.

i'll third rem's "up"

― b b, Tuesday, 29 March 2005 20:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Bob Dylan, over and over again.

― shookout (shookout), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 03:53 (twenty-one years ago)

The Church After Everything Now This

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 04:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Sonic Youth re-captured me with Washing Machine, lost me again with Thousand Leaves, before conquering me yet again with Murray Street.

― Baaderonixxx le Jeune (Fabfunk), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 08:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Wire's Read & Burn / Send were welcome surprises from an old friend.

they were welcome in that i didn't except any new wire albums ever again, but come on ... did anyone actually "give up" on wire? the wir album is astonishing.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 08:43 (twenty-one years ago)

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