The other day I was listening to Jesus Christ Superstar (the brown album) for the first time in a long time. At one point while I was really kicking it with that tasty grooves it struck me like a revelation: Damn! Andrew Fucking Lloyd Webber wrote this!?!?!?!?!?
(Yes, I already knew that he wrote it, it’s just that I became suddenly very aware of it.)
Now Evita was cool, but everything since has really just had maybe two or three good songs and everything else has been marshmallowy fluffy crap. In fact, he promptly turned into a big pussy. That’s why it is so strange to me to think that this is the same guy who wrote JCS.
Anyone else want to share some examples of folks who you think went from rocking hard to hardly rocking?
This is my pet misplaced criticism. I mean, sure, I agree that Pop was substandard - not because it was trying to be electronica, but because they weren’t good at electronica. But Achtung Baby is a classic up there with Joshua Tree and Zooropa is a damn fine album, if seen in the light of it being an electro-pop album rather than a classic-rock U2 album. It’s not fair to dismiss U2s '90s work, considering that only one album was substandard.
For some time I have had a theory about this. Rock styles change more rapidly than ballad. A rocker at the end of the popularity of his style of music can extend his career by switching to ballads.
As for U2, Bono’s sound has changed somewhat. He once sounded as if he dropped an anvil on his foot before each song. I think he switched from the anvil to a bag of Cat Chow.
Seriously though, when an artist goes from a starving young howler to a fat & sassy star with a $2 million house, you have to expect some of that ferocious angrytude to soften.
Listen to Immigrant Song and then Sea of Love. Doesn’t sound at all like the same person even, regardless of the change in genre.
I’ve had a theory about this, too. It’s not just the starving artist becoming the rich one, but sometimes it’s a drug user going clean and sober. Bound to have some affects on one’s overall health, maybe affecting the vocal quality as it changes the entire organism to a healthy one. Then, there’s also the growth spurts that some people seem to go through in their early 20s. Changes in the body can affect the voice, even though it doesn’t always happen. But, that’s about the vocals only, not particularly about style changes.
Canadian fans will nod in sad agreement with me when I point out that the ass-kicking rock band the Tragically Hip once were is no more. It’s hard to listen to a growling, angry, powerful song like “Cordelia” and believe the recent crap is from the same band.
Not from Canada, but I agree. I haven’t been impressed since after “Trouble at the Henhouse”. “Phantom Power” was…okay, but that’s when they started their downward spiral. I think it has something to do with Gord Downie’s God complex–he started getting kooky around that same time.
Would that be the list of artists who have gone from good to bad, or the list of artists who have gone from hard to marshmallowy?
If it’s the first, I can’t argue with you since it’s all subjective, although many would say his run of great albums in the '70s would be hard too match. If it’s the second, Bowie has made some very hard-edged musci in the '90s and '00s, although they haven’t gotten nearly the exposure that the '80s stuff did. For someone who cut his first albums in the '60s, I think he’s doing remarkably well.
Totally agree. “A Storm in Heaven” is currently my #3 album of all time and I didn’t even bother to buy his latest solo effort. Having kids, being married, and staying off the drugs has robbed the man of his cajones. Not the kind of music I want from him (or anyone, for that matter).
Matter of fact, I’ll say that this happens to most rock stars given a long enough frame of time, and when it doesn’t, the result is the pathetic, shambling geezerings of bands like the rolling stones and aerosmith.