The best comebacks

[The Curmudgeon]

Nostalgia is a tricky beast. One, it allows bands to coast on former glories, touring sell-out shows decades after their last moment in the sun on the basis of performing their most famous album in its entirety. That's a fad that shows no signs of going away. It can also mean that bands who still play the game; write, tour, record..are judged sometimes unfairly against their older material that they just can't get past. "It's alright, I like their old stuff better". How many times have you heard that?

Anyway, we're here today to talk about bands and artists who refuse to live off nostalgia and still want to make new music, but left it a good few years before doing it. Prince once said of "Musicology", his first hit record in some time, that it wasn't a "comeback..I've never been away." And he had a point. Yes, it was his first mainstream success in a while, but he'd still been writing and recording new songs before that album.

So the rules for this game are(ahem): the band or artist in question must have had NO new music recorded in ten years or more. I'll start with a few.

David Bowie - The Next Day

Bowie's first album in 10 years, his first number one in 20 and now widely regarded as one of his best, was surprise released with no hype or fanfare and suddenly everyone was in love with Bowie again. The lead single, Where Are We Now, is just beautiful. A textbook comeback record.

youtu.be/QWtsV50_-p4

Fleetwood Mac - Extended Play

You have to wonder what world we live in when fucktards who finish fourth on the X Factor get record deals and Fleetwood Mac, muthafuckin' Fleetwood Mac, released this EP last year without a label. Just tragic. Again, their first new material in 10 years, and once again great. It's like decades of drug and alcohol abuse and 100 divorces never happened.

youtu.be/xrRhMI22-UI

The Pixies - EP 1 and 2

Even though they remain a weird, unlikeable live act, there is no question the impact the Pixies music had on alternative music, and even though their first comeback was nothing but a nostalgia tour, it was only last year when they finally got their old asses back in the studio for 2 four track EP's. A full album would be nice, but after releasing one song in 20 years, I'll take what I can get.

youtu.be/qWkD_-diYuI


So, what comebacks can you think of that only added, not subtracted, to a bands legacy?

[trashcanman]

Is Christine McVie back in Fleetwood Mac? They were really missing something without her.

The only one I can think of offhand is Bad Brains' Build a Nation, which was the first new Brains material in 12 years and sounded better than they had in 30.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tF6rdcuzQw

[Ben]

One of my favorite thrash bands, Exodus, went on an extended hiatus after getting really experimental in the early 90s. They had a live EP and a DVD release when they reunited for a couple of shows in the late 90s, but they didn't make their official comeback until 2004 when they released an excellent album by the name of Tempo of the Damned. I'm not sure if they count since they were broken up for a handful of years in between releases, but Tempo was the most aggressive, kickass music they had released since the mid-80s when it came out.

Death Angel are another killer thrash band that followed a similar pattern. After their 1990 release they broke up for a bit, did a side project consisting entirely of former Death Angel members, and then reunited to tour in the late 90s. The fan response was so great they started making music again, releasing The Art of Dying in 2004. Like Exodus, they got heavier and more aggressive during their time away and have continued to release excellent thrash albums since their reformation.

And, of course, there's my favorite band of all time, Alice in Chains. Though their 14 year break between albums had more to do with lead singer Layne Staley's drug addiction and eventual death in 2001 than anything else. So I guess none of my picks quite fit your criteria, Curmudgeon, but so goes rock 'n roll.

[trashcanman]

If you're following all of the rules, you ain't really rockin'.