I had no idea I was in such a majority. 
I agree–there was just something about the way Vince played, and even about the way his keyboards sounded, that was just wrong.
FWIW, I’ve heard Phil Lesh express the same sentiment–not about Vince, but that they never really “caught the fire” after 1990.
Because I’ve been all wrapped up in Rammstein as of late (who claim Depeche Mode as an influence, one of the bands they could hear in East Germany).
My favorites of Depeche Mode are songs that people rarely think of, like Photographic, Halo, Ice Machine, Sea of Sin, Happiest Girl. I saw them live on the Violator tour with Nitzer Ebb (foreshadowing of my German fetish???) and it was such a perfect, beautiful experience that I’ve never seen them again for fear of sullying that day 
I tried to post this before, but it was eaten by hamsters.
Lynnard Skynnard jumped when the three bandmembers died in the plane crash.
Tom Petty jumped after the release of the album with “You Wreck Me” and “You Don’t Know How it Feels.” Good album. He has been no where after this. I can’t remember the name! :mad:
I wasn’t a big fan until I saw them live after the After Dark album came out. Saw them every time they came to Phoenix after that. After Jerry’s death, when the Furthur Fest started forsaking Phoenix, I even made a trip to San Diego to see one there.
I was a Tubes fan though, so I liked the fact that Vince Welnick was playing with them. Never got to see the Tubes live, so I settled on a Tube (I guess The Tubes still tour, but not with the same lineup or their elaborate stages anymore).
::Puddle of Evil who just listened to live U2/REM version of “One” mode on::
Nothing, not even Pop or Up, will ever decrease my love for REM or U2. I wholeheartledly believe that they can top War or Automatic for the People again…
::Puddle of Evil who just listened to live U2/REM version of “One” mode off::
I love that version of One! I never really thought much of it as a song until I heard Michael Stipe sing it.
And I know this really puts me in the minority, but I love the album Out of Time.
Metallica - The Black Album (1991) - Although, I love half of this album (Sad but True, Through the Never, of Wolf and Man, Wherever I may roam…), the moment when I heard the first single, Enter Sandman, on Zrock, it was a huge let down and a harbinger of doom. The over simplistic, uninspired, pop song with absolutely no edge and none of the powerful ambition on the less than perfect, but still passionate Justice album and not to mention awful lyrics, that was the moment. And a completely Black Album cover - tell me that’s not Spinal Tap.
Megadeth - Risk (1999) - BAD
Iron Maiden - Dance of Death (2003) - In retrospect they went downhill WAY earlier, but this is when I first noticed it. No gallop whatsoever… boring, plodding, pseudo-progressive snoozefest, and the albums after this were the same. This is the moment I stopped liking stuff like Dream Theater and started liking extreme metal a lot more.
Black Sabbath - Born Again (1983) - I love this album, I’m even one of the few people who love the artwork. But when they started excepting this amount of lineup changes was when the band no longer had any hope of keeping up with Ozzy in popularity, and more importantly, the music took a HUGE dive right after this. I actually think their first bad album was Technical Ecstasy, and loved the Dio stuff and Born again, but changing lead singers once and surviving is amazing, doing it twice is impossible, after this it was the Iommi solo project with a lot of boring hired guns.
Morbid Angel - illud divinum insanus rar (2011) - You would have to hear this to believe it.
Aerosmith - whenever that first boring ass ballad with the overproduced video with Tyler’s daughter came out. I don’t remember the song’s name, because there were about five of them around that time which all sounded the same.
Judas Priest - Turbo (1986) - Honorable mention for jumping back (one album only) with Painkiller in 1990
Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies (1994) - they went from good to boring so quickly.
Danzig 5 - Blackaciddevil (1996) - Some would say Danzig 4 because they (he) started experimenting with industrial, but I think it mostly worked and still had that bluesy hard rock song still intact. This album, however, was just sad.
Guns n Roses - when Axl became the only original member - don’t remember when it was or who as the last, Slash or Duff, but it just should have been called Axl Rose after that. Waiting about 50 years for Chinese Democracy and changing band members sixty times while recording the album kind of proves my point…also the album itself - BAD.
In Flames - the album after Clayman - I don’t want to look the name up, it makes me sad.
Led Zeppelin - In through the out door (last album of new stuff) - I love Presence - I hate this - very synth pop sounding, no edge, no groove. I don’t understand how everyone in the world doesn’t agree with me on this one.
Manowar - Louder than Hell (1996) - I know I’m an immature dork for liking this band at all. Shut up.
Mastodon - The Hunter (2011) - I hate to be so cliche, but it’s true. It’s not the un-heavy songs on it that I hate, though. I Love me some “Curl” and said “Burl.” I hate the “heavy” songs on this for the midlife crisis value. In the midsts of a very different, mellower album, “Deathbound” sounds so desperate.
The Sword (2010) - Warp Riders - not hating it for trying something new, just a serious decline from its perfect predecessor, “Gods of the Earth.”
Van Halen - Diver Down (1982) - What was supposed to be an EP getting fleshed out to a full length album by stuffing in some jokes, outtakes, and bad remakes, an omen of the fat, irrelevance, and laziness that was to come with 1984, and from which they’ve never returned.
You’ve got the timeline wrong and the person wrong: The Clash died when they gave Topper the heave-ho, BUT they had to give him the heave-ho: his heroin habit was out of control. If you think I’m wrong, go watch Westway to the World and then we’ll talk.
But Kneepants, don’t worry, no one listens to that album. Somewhere around my house I know I have a print media story with Joe himself saying it was an awful experience to make that record and that even he can’t stand to listen to it. ETA: Well, he couldn’t stand to listen to it. When he was alive. Still. Just wanted to be clear about that.
Agree completely.
For me, Pink Floyd jumped the shark with Dark Side.
They started out with brilliant psychedelic whimsy, developed (post-Syd) into cool spack-rock, and then devolved into self-obsessed self-indulgent twaddle.
Well, clearly the Zombies took a dive about April first, 2004.
I have to take exception with the claims that the Dead jumped after losing Brent. Cite: So Many Roads. Along with Days Betweenand others, it made a call to classic Jerry tunes, emotional whirlwinds that eased your soul. The couple Bruce years were a lot of fun, but I’ve been a solo Bruce fan for a while. Not that losing Brent wasn’t a huge loss, just that there were gems among the final years and a huge amount of promise. And Vince wasn’t all bad; Samba in the Rainhits some good notes, and Tomorrow Never Knows were pretty good.
Hey, '77 was one of their peak years–but Keith on keys the 'boards didn’t overly shine (and as much as I love her on PitB and Music Never Stopped, well, Donna).
(Note that Corrina could probably be a counter-cite, and though I’d give my right arm for just one more, I thought the Liberty closer was overdone).
Fairport Convention - When Sandy Dennis left
Beach Boys - After “Pet Sounds”. Brian Wilson put the kibosh on the guys performing at Monterey 67 (he wasn’t touring with them anyway, why did he care?). After that they were mostly just a nostalgia act, even though they did have the occasional hit.
:dubious: Seems to me that they came into their stride with their new (and almost universally acknowledged) classic lineup. I mean, “Mother Russia”, “Can You Hear Me?”, “Song of Scheherazade”, “Carpet of the Sun” (which just shuffled on my computer’s player)…?
[Only posted because RC is still an active member.]
[This Doper was last on on Jan 8 of this year, so he gets some too…]
Fully agreed on the latter, but I still don’t get the hate for Joshua Tree that I’ve seen here and elsewhere; seems like that album represents a group at their absolute peak. I’d definitely peg U2 as having lost It on Zooropa-that album is just so durned boring and lifeless.
Other people have pegged REM as having lost in sometime in their IRS years, which, given the existence of both Out of Time and Automatic For the People, is also incomprehensible to me (even if you hate “Shiny Happy People” as much as Michael Stipe does)… I do think Reveal was a nice return to form, even if I am a minority of one.
As for me, I have to comment on my favorite band, Australia’s The Church, when they penned Magician Among the Spirits, almost wholly abandoning their core strengths (melodic guitar counterpoint, hooks, powerful propulsive rhythm section) for ambient noodling. With a few exceptions here and there, they subsequently left that sound at the curb, drifting into fuzzed-out psychedelia. I honestly don’t get it when a band deliberately goes out of their way to eschew their core strengths-I really don’t.
Echo and the Bunnymen-definitely after Ocean Rain (tho that album despite its quality indicated the death knell for classic post-punk, both in their specific case as well as in general), tho “Lips Like Sugar” is probably my favorite cut from them, ever.
WordMan, is that still your opinion? I love Tattoo You. “Start Me Up,” “Slave,” “Hang Fire,” “Little T&A,” “Neighbors,” “Waiting on a Friend”…seems like a really strong album to me, one that still holds up…that’s the album I would pick for the Stones as the end of their greatness, the last point in their relevance as a cultural force (outside of being iconic for their catalog and history)…
I can’t argue the point - I enjoy that album. I don’t put it up at the same level as their Big 4+Some Girls, but totally get why others would…
Well, in Jay Kay’s defense, if I were shagging Denise Van Outen, I’d probably be distracted from writing great music, and would want to brag about her to the world, too.
The Joshua Tree received almost unanimous critical acclaim, as well as huge sales. About the only place I’ve seen hate for it is on here, for some reason. I was already a big U2 fan, and I still remember the day I went to the music store and bought it. IMO, it’s a nearly flawless album but sometimes I enjoy Achtung Baby more.
As for R.E.M., Automatic For The People is probably their best work. Personally, I don’t like Out of Time. To me, Monster and New Adventures in Hi-Fi
are both better than Out of Time. I was a huge R.E.M. fan since 1983 but didn’t really follow them much after New Adventures.
Biggest sharkjump nosedive in my book:
ELP never could have topped Brain Salad Surgery. When Works finally came out it was obvious they’d never again come anywhere close to it.
This is a totally valid POV, IMO, but since I’d still say that DSoTM and WYWH were good albums, you could also say that some of their self-obsessed self-indulgent twaddle was of a higher quality.
Specifically, the change occurred with Animals, when Roger Waters began to marginalize David Gilmour’s contribution. The results stink for themselves.
When this thread was fresh, I would have agreed with you. It took a few years, but Bob’s back. I think “Silver Age” is his best solo work, rivaling his work with Sugar or even Husker Du.