Bands or Artists that got better as they went on ?

[FussBudget]

It's been a long held contention of mine that a great majority of bands/singers start out good and then fade.

Whether that's just symbolic of my limited attention span, I don't know

Maybe it's just because I hear something I like and then get disappointed when the style changes. It irks me when musicians trot out cliched statements like "we felt our music had to evolve". Pssfftt ! If it ain't broke, don't fix it

I am already known on this board for expressing my disappointment that INXS went from a band that played really enjoyable plain rock (One Thing, Don't Change, etc) to a 'trendy' band. Not that I didn't like their later stuff (albeit it seemed somewhat predictable), I just liked the earlier stuff better.

Anyway, after that long lead in, it made me think about what bands have done the opposite.

One band that strikes me in this regard is Duran Duran. I think that later works like "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone" are far superior to their earlier work.

What do you people think ? (Not necessarily about DD, just about the concept in general ?) Do most bands get better in time, or fade away ?

The first band that comes to mind for me is Radiohead. While "Pablo Honey" was a fine album in its own right, "The Bends" started a trend with them that still maintains. Each album they create is just a sonic wall of surrealism that just blows me away.

I think Stone Temple Pilots are another band that have moved beyond the early comparison to Pearl Jam. OK, sure, they're defunct now but I liked the direction they took until that moment.

Oh, and there's those guys in that Irish band...U2.

[Midas]

Simply Red is one that generally comes to mind. I wasn't too keen on them upon hearing "Holding Back The Years" (although I appreciate it now), but their later works like "Stars", "Fairground", "Sunrise", "Fake" and "Perfect Love" (their latest) are far more pleasing to me.

Originally Posted by Midas

Simply Red is one that generally comes to mind. I wasn't too keen on them upon hearing "Holding Back The Years" (although I appreciate it now), but their later works like "Stars", "Fairground", "Sunrise", "Fake" and "Perfect Love" (their latest) are far more pleasing to me.

I wanted to read your post but I just couldn't stop watching that space.

[Bobby]

Originally Posted by NewRomantic

Oh, and there's those guys in that Irish band...U2.

I feel the same way. I couldn't really get into U2 in the 80s but seemed to move really nice into a mainstream pop thing for a while in the late 90s/early 00s.

[mooster]

What do you people think ? (Not necessarily about DD, just about the concept in general ?) Do most bands get better in time, or fade away ?

Hmmm...that's a tough one as I tend to hold the same view as you

On one hand, maybe they *do* get better and maybe *I* just get bored and go off them..

But then on the other hand, perhaps we just outgrow a particular band's style

But on the other hand...ooops...run out of hands...