There are those bands that show flashes of brilliance in their early years, and then flower into true greatness. I'm thinking bands like Supergrass, Blur, XTC, and other bands NOT from the UK, too.

Then, there are other bands who go the opposite way: their first offering or two are intriguing, or even brilliant. Then, usually under the pressure of achieving greater commercial success (which they may or may not achieve), they change their sound or alter it just enough to betray their talents.

Who do you think of when you think of this latter category?

Liz Phair is a prime example.
Also, Rod Stewart (even though he didn't need to).

And, to a lesser extent, The Bangles, who allowed "professional" songwriters to write their songs, when they themselves were more than capable of churning out excellent power pop on their own.

Idlewild. What the fuck happened there? 2 outstanding releases and then down the tubes.

Same goes for the Stereophonics. 2 great albums, and then they lost direction.

In many ways, I'd even say Oasis. While I do enjoy some of their later material, nothing will stand up to Definitely Maybe and [What's the Story] Morning Glory.

I'd say a good 50% of bands fit in this category.

Edit: After saying this, I can't think of a single group who fits.

Tricky owns this thread

a well thought out post folks.

excellent call.

I could definitely see this. I have most of Tricky's albums and they the songs just aren't as good as time goes by. I definitely don't agree with the Liz Phair statement, because It's such an old complaint. "She fucking sold out" and now relegated to some "It's such a shame about her, tsk, tsk, tsk, if only she tried a little harder to not seem like she's trying". I don't think anyone wants her to succeed at what she's doing now, i.e. more direct attempts at pop.

You pick the dumbest ways to try to make me look bad.

If every post on message boards were well thought out, there wouldn't BE such a thing as message boards.

I think XTC falls into the latter category--anything after Black Sea is dodgy at best. They had to masquerade as a psychedelic joke in order to make anything decent.

Going by mainstream and untergrounden retrospection, I would say that Weezer falls into this category. That said, when the band first emerged, with the release of the eponymous debut in March '94 (and rock-radio break for "Buddy Holly" that autumn/winter), I don't think that anyone perceived Weezer as more than a coat-tail-riding joke.... It was three years after the sophomore effort flopped in epic fashion that it became fancy to like Weezer, and two years after that when it had been decided which album spoke to Weezer's wasted potential. (Hint: despite Weezer's proto-nouveau-emo tag, that wasted potential is not Pinkerton.)

Don't really agree with Billz on that XTC one.


Scritti Politti
China Crisis

They both became bland, lightweight nothings after very promising starts.

The Damned and OMD also went this route, but not as severely.


Genesis.

Though it took until Invisible Touch for the process to become complete.

pop dudes:

Chicago
Black Eyed Peas
Sting
Doobie Brothers
James Taylor
Elton John

and of course there's all the six million Le Tigre-type groups.

good call.

oh man, good call on Chicago.
they were so awesome for an album or two, and then became the worst band ever.

Yeah, but it took 'em a long time, and really only one and half record's worth, which coincidentally is the stuff they did w/o The Good Captain.

You can lump The Stranglers in as well, everything after and including Feline was pretty weak, with much of it being downright atrocious.

I have a hard time putting a band in this category that has no less than 5 great albums over an 9 year span

treble charger
you people outside canada probably wont know who they are. basically, they put out some absolutely great stuff in their first album and ep, jumped to a major and became sum 41.
gomez
badly drawn boy

I didn't think Maybe It's Me was that bad. I didn't think they became sum 41 until they released that dumb 'American Psycho' song, which was on Nettwerk. They were awesome live though when I saw them in '97, opening for the Foo Fighters.

The Beta Band. The 2nd album was okay, and the rest was crap.

I just wanted it on the record that the use of the word "fancy" in this context gave me my first real chuckle of the morning. Awesome.

My vote in this thread is Goo Goo Dolls. Once a perfectly decent Mats-flavored pop/rock group...but man, once they realized writing goopy-assed ballads was the key to fame, fortune, & hot 'n' cold runnin' chicks, they went right in the shitter.

The Jayhawks (starting with "Smile")

Ryan Adams (starting with "Gold"...although I haven't heard the new one)

Gang of Four (starting shortly after "Solid Gold")

Neil Young (not a change due to commercial pressures - just a slew of bad releases since 1980, other than three or four decent albums)

yeah, youre right. i gave the abridged, forget about the album in between version.

Actually, you don't need his help. Your post was pretty funny all by itself. I mean, you didn't even need a straight man between two posts asking you to "...name one example".

I lol'd.

I had a teacher once, who was asked a question, and in rapid succession, said the following:

"Not really...well, maybe not...no, maybe...well, of course!"

I got kicked out of the class because I couldn't stop laughing. At least he was not one of those stubborn teachers who will defend a wrong answer just because he made the mistake of blurting it out loud, but it was still funny to witness...

Contenders for "I coulda been a contender"
Badly Drawn Boy
Clinic

Also. much as it pains me to say because I love 'em and everyone knows why the dropoff in quality occured, I've got to say the Pogues. A couple of truly CLASSIC albums cements their rep, but they "coulda" ranked up there as one of the best bands EVER

Steve

Is everyone on this board fucking retarded? I truly mean that.

Just because I can't come up with anything off the top of my head doesn't mean it's not true. It's an obvious fact that many bands put out two great albums before fading off into nothing. Everyone knows that.

Examples:

Pavement
Meat Puppets
X
Pixies
Wu-Tang Clan
Wedding Present

Travis.