500 standout songs from an(y) artist's "late period"

In that case i shall post:

471: Hercules and Love Affair - Omnion [feat. Sharon Van Etten]

mulling over the criteria, this really doesn't apply to artists that died young. also everyone knows "Watching the Wheels."

however, this song remained unreleased for 12 years after his death, so I'm including it, because it's a stunning song & recording and definitely under appreciated/lesser known:

470. Elliott Smith - "True Love"

469. They Might Be Giants, "Can't Keep Johnny Down"

468. Stereolab - "Everybody's Weird Except Me"

477 - vashti bunyan - across the water

― kolakube (Ross), Saturday, January 13, 2018 7:37 PM

Just, the entirety of Lookaftering and Heartleap, really.

467. REM, "Supernatural Superserious"
466. Nilsson, "I'll Take a Tango"

465 linda perhacs - prisms of glass

(yeah austin)

464. Sonic Youth - “Rain on Tin”

463. Prince - “Baltimore”

462 - marianne faithfull - no child of mine

(also riffed on in a pj harvey uh huh her cut)

Technically not a song, but whatever:

461. Franz Liszt, 'Nuages gris'

Always got the sense that pop musicians (in the broadest possible sense) tend to burn out fairly quickly while classical composers' late works are often among their very best (cf. Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Wagner, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, Sibelius, Nielsen, Berg, Webern, Shostakovich, etc.). There are exceptions, of course, but even those are debatable (Chopin, Schumann, Fauré, Schoenberg, Ives, Stravinsky, Messiaen, Takemitsu, etc.).

Similarly in other areas of music: John Coltrane did some of his most significant and influential work in the last 1-2 years of his life. Bill Dixon made an absolute game-changer (Vade Mecum) at 67. Cecil Taylor’s legendary Berlin residency, which included arguably his most towering work (Alms/Tiergarten (Spree)), occurred when he was in his late 50s.

Also, Gyorgy Ligeti's Violin Concerto. Not numbering since it's not a song but it's my go-to answer for this.

Yeah, that’s a good one. Love the Viola Sonata as well.

"Always got the sense that pop musicians (in the broadest possible sense) tend to burn out fairly quickly while classical composers' late works are often among their very best (cf. Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Wagner, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, Sibelius, Nielsen, Berg, Webern, Shostakovich, etc.). There are exceptions, of course, but even those are debatable (Chopin, Schumann, Fauré, Schoenberg, Ives, Stravinsky, Messiaen, Takemitsu, etc.)."

yeah i kind of want to omit classical musicians for that very reason, we could put in everything from Beethoven's Late Period here easy

460. robert wyatt - free will and testament
459. demis roussos - who gives a fuck

458. jimmie rodgers - years ago
457. richard jose - when you and i were young, maggie (1930 electrical recording)

456. Pet Shop Boys - Love is a Bourgeois Construct
455. XTC - Easter Theatre

454. Blue Cheer- 'Gypsy Rider'

453. george harrison - any road
452. charles mingus - cumbia and jazz fusion
451. czeslaw niemien - spodchmurykapelusza
450. sun ra - pleiades
449. the cowsills - under the gun
448. van dyke parks - wall street
447. sly stone - get away
446. silverchair - tuna in the brine
445. ultrasound - sovereign

444. Robert Forster - Demon Days
443. Suede - Snowblind
442. Scritti Politti - The Boom Boom Bap
441. Kate Bush - A Coral Room
440. Prince - A Million Days
439. Brian Wilson - Midnight's Another Day
438. The Cure - Cut Here
437. Soft Cell - Last Chance
436. Paul Buchanan - Cars In The Garden
435. Tindersticks - This Fire Of Autumn
434. Saint Etienne - Over The Border
433. Edwyn Collins - 31 Years
432. Janet Jackson - No Sleeep
431. Tracey Thorn - Oh The Divorces
430. Duran Duran - Runway Runaway

Re: classical musicians, the Ligeti violin concerto is kind of a special case in that his late period found him struggling to find a style or some cohesion, but in terms of "significant late work" for Ligeti I'd put the piano Etudes way higher than the violin concerto (which has some of the most superfluous alternate-string tunings I've ever encountered)

429. Cher - Believe
428. Diamanda Galas - O Death

I'd put the piano Etudes way higher than the violin concerto (which has some of the most superfluous alternate-string tunings I've ever encountered)

― flamboyant goon tie included, Sunday, January 14, 2018

Them's fighting words.

Luther Vandross - "Dance with My Father"

426. Massive attack with hope Sandoval - the spoils

425. Laurent Garnier - "1-4 Doctor C'est Chouette"

Just, the entirety of Lookaftering and Heartleap, really.

― he doesn't need to be racist about it though. (Austin), Saturday, January 13, 2018 11:51 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Came here to post this. Heartleap in particular is astonishing--she made her best album at age 69.

I like the Ligeti piano etudes, yeah. I should listen to them again; not sure I have since I did my comprehensive exams. Would be interested to hear fgti expand on the tunings in the violin concerto. What about Penderecki's third string quartet from 2008?

(I think it's great, although obv not as iconic as Threnody.)

<3 Baby Lee, so good. rest of the album didn't do it for me at all

But.. but.. "Sometimes I Don't Need to Believe in Anything" !!!

I like the Ligeti piano etudes, yeah. I should listen to them again; not sure I have since I did my comprehensive exams. Would be interested to hear fgti expand on the tunings in the violin concerto. What about Penderecki's third string quartet from 2008?

Well I'll pull out my score of the thing and take it to the Ligeti thread lol

424. Portishead - The Rip

Jazz and classical probably has many albums that qualify. In rock/folk Scott Walker, Tom Waits and Nick Cave are the ones that come to my mind and which have aged like fine wine. I could probably add like 40 songs from Tom Waits alone.

423. Slowdive - Sugar for the Pill

does Damon Albarn as Gorillaz count as a late period? Does 13 by Blur count? He was only 30 when the debut by Gorillaz and 13 got out but he had a decade experience with Blur by then.

Is there an age restriction or is it based on the position of the last albums in the overall discography?

so far it mostly feels like "after the world moved on" which i think is fine... thread could theoretically work as a signpost for fans of the more famous stuff to check out this one song and realize hey, they kept on making music, and it was good! though i imagine ilm is the kind of place where most people already know all the 'late work' of artists they like.

422. Nick Lowe - Let's Stay In And Make Love

421. David Axelrod featuring Ras Kass — 'The Little Children' (2001)

421 Bryan Ferry - San Simeon

420. Sparks - Dick Around

If that’s the definition then scratch Portishead and Slowdive as it seems the world was still paying attention 10+ years later and they ended up in several EOY lists

Also they were headliners in several festivals the year those albums came out.

nah i mean do whatever you want, it's not my thread anyway! plus i think comebacks of whatever kind count in the sense that people may not be expecting them to be good, they are "late" in the sense of no longer being in the moment/movement that they once seemed a part of, records that land independently of larger forces and come out of whatever that artist is pursuing in their own path, whatever.

419. Warren Zevon - Keep Me In Your Heart
418. Warren Zevon - Porcelain Monkey
417. Bruce Springsteen - We Take Care of Our Own
416. Bob Dylan - Pay In Blood

But.. but.. "Sometimes I Don't Need to Believe in Anything" !!!

― geoffreyess, Sunday, 14 January 2018 16:30 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

actually yeah I do like that one

415. Paul Simon - Love is Eternal Sacred Light

"late period" is something that's frequently only visible in retrospect. in 2004 would mission of burma's "onoffon" be considered "late period"? is it now? they've made three albums since then. you know what (so) fuck it:

414. mission of burma - ssl 83
413. armand schaubroeck - god made the blues to kill me

419. OutKast - Morris Brown

Sorry - 412. OutKast- Morris Brown

411. Neil Diamond - Hell Yeah

There are two 421s so

409. R.E.M. - Horse to Water

imo short-lived artists can totally have meaningfully "late" periods, but yeah, picking songs out of those isn't necessarily super interesting since with a small discography it's likely most fans know those tracks... just for me personally the fun thing is artists who have standout songs from deep in what most listeners would assume are the weeds, where you could plausibly be a "fan" of that artist and never checked out whole albums of dubious-looking late stuff. ymmv tho!

that's great topic. unfortunately a little difficult to search for beyond trying "deep cuts" or whatever, which still don't really capture what you describe

doesn't

309. Puff Daddy - Come with Me Feat. Jimmy Page
308. The Beach Boys - Kokomo

307. Buddy Holly - Love Is Strange (Apartment Tapes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zb3DrMioVA

(1998 is "late" puffy?)

306. Jackson Browne - You Know the Night (Full 15 minute version is best)

I'm disappointed this thread died in its infancy. Mainly I was just hoping to uncover great post-2000 songs from the corny bands I listened to in the '90s. (I stopped being a regular consumer of music in 2000.)

Sonic Youth, Yo la, BTS, Will Oldham, Blonde Redhead, Wu Tang guys, Robyn, New Pornos, Broadcast, Chan Marshall, Mary Timony, Natalie Merchant, Thalia Zedek, Steve Malkmus, Pixies, etc etc

So many of us are now in our 40s and probably hopped off many bandwagons a long time ago and are missing out on some good stuff.

Leonard fucking Cohen

stones, dylan, fmac, scott walker

305. The Breeders - Dawn: Making an Effort

(actually all of All Nerve)

cool ty

listening now

nice, my work here is done :)

Mary Timony? hope you're not sleeping on Ex Hex:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNe_xrmd28w

Robyn almost won the albums poll last year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IxdQUpQjqc