smoe.org mailing lists
ivan@stellysee.de
| From | William Rabeneck <largro13@yahoo.com> |
| Subject | Changing it when they already had it right. Selling out or searching for an audience? |
| Date | Thu, 3 May 2007 17:59:14 -0700 (PDT) |
[Part 1 text/plain iso-8859-1 (3.3 kilobytes)]
(View Text in a separate window)
Hi,
I had the day off today, and the weather was kind of bad, so I started digging through my CDs and tapes. Looking through all of my albums, I was struck by the number of bands who I thought had a good first album or even a good first three albums but didn't become popular, and then all of the sudden, on the next album, they change their sound to something that's not nearly as likeable, to me anyway, as their earlier sound.
I began contemplating the work of several who, to me, were headed down the right track, and then suddenly took a diversion either to seek fame, or reclaim diminishing fame.
1) The Posies. I loved "Dear 23" then "Frosting on the Beater" was a change to a sound that wasn't as brilliant, but still somewhat acceptable. Then on "Amazing Disgrace", for the most part, they seemingly lost it, and just tried to fit in with the Grunge Metal crowd. They did recover somewhat, IMHO, with "Success", and "Nice Cheekbones." The most recent album wasn't bad, but wasn't really great either.
2.) Teenage Fanclub. I liked them through "Songs From Northern Britian". Then on "Howdy", they no longer sounded like Teenage Fanclub. They really lost their hard charging energy as a band.
3.) Balaam and the Angel. "Live Free Or Die" was a brilliant album. Then two years later, they decide that they want to be Bon Jovi, and released the ridiculous sounding, for Balaam, anyway, "Ten Days of Madness".
4.) KISS. I was with them through "Dynasty". Then on "Unmasked", where they weren't actually bare faced yet, they seemingly decided to become a straight out Pop group. Then on "The Elder", they tried to make their own "Tommy" or "Sgt. Pepper"-type album which didn't work either. "Creatures of the Night" was a semi-comeback. Then they went into a series of no-face-paint, big, dumb, macho, locker-room sex talk albums. Then "Psycho Circus", the reunion of the original KISS was a pitiful album, IMHO.
5.) Queen. To me, they were brilliant until "Hot Space". To me, "Hot Space" was their lone horrible album. But then the albums after "Hot Space" were only a half-return to form; good but not great. "The Game" was their last brilliant album.
6.) Pearl Jam. I dare say that their whole career is built around their brilliant debut "Ten". Either the blind man got lucky and struck gold on that one. Or they've been lazy and coasting since then.
7.) Y&T. They had four excellent Hard-Rock/Metal albums to their credit, ending with "In Rock We Trust". Then, starting with "Down For The Count" and afterward, they had one of the most schizophrenic personality crisises in popular music. On one album, they thought they were Motley Crue; the next album, they thought they were Van Halen; and then the next album, they thought they were Whitesnake; then, they thought they were Stevie Ray Vaughn. They never recovered.
8.) Aerosmith. Everything, after "Pump", is worthless.
Does anyone else have any bands that took a disappointing turn for them? And when bands do this: do you think they are selling out to find a larger audience? Or do you think they are just running out of creative steam?
Peace,
W.D.
---------------------------------
Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
Check outnew cars at Yahoo! Autos.
For assistance, please contact
the smoe.org administrators.