In your opinion, what musicians have had a sudden decline in quality?

[BreakfastMan]

Rob Zombie springs immediately to mind. After The Sinister Urge, things weren't so good in the house of Zombie... I mean, he goes from this:

Spoiler

To this?

Spoiler

Just... Errgh. D:

Also Megadeth. Super Collider is looking to be a massive disappointment after their pretty good recent stuff. I mean, WTF is this Mustaine? WTF where you thinking when you recorded this?!?! No, just no. D:

Spoiler

 

[MrTwo]

I would also have to say that the Arctic Monkey's album Suck it and See was pretty mediocre. There are one or two good songs, but for the most part the album is just so bland. Nothing compared to their previous stuff. Though the singles they have released recently are very good, so perhaps they are getting back to what made them great.

Agree with you there. Their first two were brilliant, with Favourite Worst Nightmare not having a bad song on there, in my opinion. Humbug was OK, it took a darker tone which I still liked, although it had a few lemons in there.

Suck It and See, though, just has less good songs and more bad. I realise they were trying to go a different style, but I prefer their previous stuff. "Don't Sit Down Cos I Moved Your Chair" is good, and so is "The Hellcat Spangled Shalalala" (although it is different), but the rest is just kinda meh.

Next album is looking good though, as R U Mine? is one of their best songs.

For more recent examples, I dunno. Phoenix's new single was really really terrible, especially in light of how awesome Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix was, so I'm really nervous for when I actually get around to hearing their new album.

I actually didn't mind Entertainment, it wasn't as good as anything on Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, but it was still good. Phoenix was always going to go in a 'poppier' and 'dancier' direction for this album, I haven't really listened to the rest but I don't think anything they did is going to match up to Wolfgang.

For me personally, I think The Decemberists have gone a bit downhill. Their music is still good, but I like their older stuff infinitely better. The Hazards of Love was more of a concept/story album, so that can be forgiven, but The King Is Dead was a little bit too country for my tastes. Still an awesome band, though.

 

[Eleuthera]

I have to be the first to answer U2? Really?

Great in the 80s, mediocre at best in the 90s, terrible in the 2000s

 

[Sunrider]

In Flames. They went from the pure genius that is Whoracle, The Jester Race and Colony to the abominations called Come Clarity, A Sense of Purpose and Playground Fading. The albums in between are varying in quality, but at least those albums didn't include ripping off themselves on their worst day.

Thank Batman for Dark Tranquillity still going strong. They haven't been as good as they were on Damage Done and especially Character, but still pretty damn good.

 

[GabeZhul]

Nightwish. Well, not really, I love the hell out of their new sound after Tarja left, but it is very, very different from how it used to be, to the point that most people I know still prefer the old operatic albums.
On the other hand, the newest Xandria album (Neverworld's End) sounds exactly like old Nightwish, so there's that.

Poets of the Fall. Their first four albums had roughly the same high quality with some great earworms and no really "bad" songs, and then came their Temple of Thought album, witch was downright painful to listen to save for about two songs...

 

[Daft Time]

The latest Red Hot Chili Peppers album was a big pile of testicles. I guess that's what happens when you lose a musical genius like John Frusciante, but even then, a lot of Stadium Arcadium was a bit boring too.

Yeah, I came here to say the Red Hot Chilli Peppers as well. I recently saw them live as part of a festival and I ended up leaving half way through their act. They just weren't worth staying through the sunburn (two months later and I was still peeling, ugh). Their latest album was pretty disappointing as well, though I loved Stadium Arcardium. >.>

(Heh, spell check wants me to change Stadium Arcadium to Stadium Aquarium)

 

[bug_of_war]

I get what you're saying completely. You're totally right on it sounding rougher and that they are excellent musicians, but to me a lot of the later stuff feels uninspired and just a bore. They had tons of slower riffage on Master of Puppets and the self-titled and it was great.

I don't mean to sound like a Metallica hater, I actually love them. I have tons of respect for those guys and understand their impact, and I understand that change was bound to come after being around as long as they have. Shit, my favorite band has changed genres twice and have released very different albums every time.

Mmmm, I agree with what you're saying, Master of Puppets had plenty of songs with slow sections and what have you, but I wouldn't go as far to say that their music is uninspired. Personally, I think they still have that edge, but their recent album seemed like they weren't so much as uninspired, but more like they were trying to find their way back to albums like Master of Puppets or the Black album. That's just my opinion though...

 

[Olas]

While I've never really been a fan of his music, Trent Reznor / NIN pretty much blew his creative load by the Fragile. Everything subsequently has been... glehhh... His original soundtrack work is top notch, though.

Ironically that's probably my favorite of his albums, and I like his later music more than the early stuff, to each their own I guess.

I was gonna mention Muse but this thread seems to have that covered pretty well already.

 

[Caostotale]

For me, pretty much all radio-level rock music has plummeted since the 1990s, when that music's industry had its last big burst of experimentalism (i.e. bands like Rocket from the Crypt getting signed to Interscope, bands like Smashing Pumpkins getting funded to write double-albums). While that whole territory was bound to be homogenized and brought under tight control (i.e. all of the Nickelback and 3 Doors Down-ish groups that took over in the 2000s, the quick and efficient destruction of punk rock into a snarlier form of teeny-bopper music), I wouldn't say that any alternative scenes really came along and took the torch. What was 'indie' in the 1990s mutated into the wretched hipster scene of rudderless skinny white kids reading Pitchfork, following bands more for their fashion than their art, and ironically being more interested in the drama of the mainstream hip-hop and pop scenes than anything that happens with their own music. The metal scene is still chugging along and holding fast to the (largely) reactionary set of artistic values that will guarantee it never attracts a larger fan base. There's occasionally a gleam of light...and probably more awesome rock bands playing than ever existed before, but it's buried within a mountain of mediocrity, most of which is represented by all levels of the industry.

I myself have given up the fight to find good bands and have instead dug myself deeper into less-brutally-commercialized territories of music, including modern classical, game soundtracks, net-label electronica, folk and world music... In the good parts of those genres, the focus is almost always put on the music itself and not the extrovert-pleasing appearance of the act or its marketing.

 

[MetalDooley]

Well, not really sudden but the quality of Metallica's music has changed over the course of their long career. You can notice a slip with 'Load' and then two albums later 'St Anger' is stinking up the music store. After that is 'Death Magnetic' which isn't too bad but it still has nothing on their first few.

Sometimes it's just better to stop then to ram the quality into the ground.

I don't think it's a coincidence that's Metallicas decline in quality coincided with the hiring of Bob Rock as producer.Death Magnetic is the probably the best album they've done in years and it's also the first one they've made in years without him

 

[Yopaz]

Rise Against with Appeal To Reason. It's still a fair album, it's not terrible, but they really lost their spark with that one. I think they got a little better with Endgame, but it was an abrupt fall from The Sufferer and the Witness to Appeal To Reason. It's sad.

 

[In Search of Username]

Amplifier. Their first album was excellent heavy new prog, their second was more of the same done a bit worse, their third was an improvement but very different, kind of a weird doomy psychedelic thing. And their newest album is just some of the most boring old-fashioned prog rock you've ever heard. I couldn't even get through the whole thing. Shame.

No mentions of MUSE? They've been a bit shit on the last two or three albums, depending who you ask. Everything is still composed well, but the overall albums are tonally and musically all over the place, and the lyrics are getting worse, and there's no heavier edge at all.

I'd have to disagree, the appeal of Muse has always been the fact that they incorporate pretty much anything they can come up with into their music. They're ridiculous, over-the-top, and just plain silly, and as long as that doesn't change I'll keep enjoying them, whatever genres they're experimenting with.

While I've never really been a fan of his music, Trent Reznor / NIN pretty much blew his creative load by the Fragile. Everything subsequently has been... glehhh... His original soundtrack work is top notch, though.

I'd say NIN's best albums are, weirdly, their first two and their most recent two. They kind of went through a phase in the middle where nothing interesting was released, but then from Ghosts onwards got really good again, just in a different way.

 

[ksn0va]

... to summarize everybody's posts, all musicians had a decline.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Both Eminem and Canibus has become significantly worse rappers very quickly. Eminem's Recovery was so poppy for a hip hop album that I can no longer hate on Drake for the music he does.

And Canibus used to be the battle rap world's worst nightmare. Then last year he got owned by some random and pulled the notepad out during a pay per view rap battle.

I'm disgusted by both of them.

Also, Megadeath's music has become garbage was well.

 

[DanielBrown]

Suidicidal Tendencies were a big let down to me. They went from punk to crossover thrash(their best period) then... funk metal. All thanks to Robert Trujillo joining the band iirc.
It's not too displeasing on the ears, since they kept some of their style, but I fucking love their crossover albums and wish they'd stuck with their style in Lights... Camera... Revolution!

At least I got their first few albums to listen to.

 

[SonicKoala]

Weezer. That's not to say that their music was all that good until they went to complete crap [small](Make Believe, anybody?)[/small], but they still were able to crank out a few good songs now and then. Then Raditude happened. Just... the hell, guys... The hell...

According to Rivers Cuomo, the idea completely was to sell out. He lost all of the angst and...je ne sais quoi that started with Pinkerton and decided to make the band a money making venture. If I find the interview I'll post it. Definitely a good example here, though.

I knew something felt off after the Pinkerton! No, Rivers! Noooooo! D:

From my understanding, it has to do with the critical and commercial reception of "Pinkerton". When Pinkerton came out, critics absolutely hated it, and its commercial performance was highly disappointing, especially considering Weezer's success with their first album. "Pinkerton" was a highly personal album for Cuomo, and to have people react so negatively to what was essentially Cuomo pouring his heart out left a lasting impression on the music he chose to write. There's an interview out there where Cuomo likened his experience with "Pinkerton" as him getting really drunk, pouring his heart out to a bunch of strangers, and then realising what a terrible mistake he'd made the next day.

I'm sure if he made an effort, Cuomo could churn out another "Pinkerton", or at least a solid album of comparable quality. Pinkerton is brilliant, and you can't replicate that kind of thing. But because of that overall experience, Cuomo opted to play it safe from then onwards. Mind you, some of Weezer's stuff post-Pinkerton is still pretty solid, but you can still see that musical devolution going on.

 

[ninjaRiv]

The latest Red Hot Chili Peppers album was a big pile of testicles. I guess that's what happens when you lose a musical genius like John Frusciante, but even then, a lot of Stadium Arcadium was a bit boring too.

I actually quite liked that album, I think Klinghoffer did real well, despite seeming too subtle. His backing vocals were great. I agree that Frusciante was a key member but at least Klignhoffer didn't try to rip him off at all. That would have been worse. The way I feel about this album is the same way I feel about Hitman Absolution; far from the best but enjoyable all the same.

OT: I'd have to go for David Bowie. His latest stuff is kind of sad, in my opinion. And not in a good "Space Oddity" kind of way.

 

[gorfias]

REO Speed Wagon. They were terrific, then, released some new songs I got to hear on tour, and we were covering our ears pleading, "just cover your old stuff!"

 

[rasputin0009]

Well, not really sudden but the quality of Metallica's music has changed over the course of their long career. You can notice a slip with 'Load' and then two albums later 'St Anger' is stinking up the music store. After that is 'Death Magnetic' which isn't too bad but it still has nothing on their first few.

Sometimes it's just better to stop then to ram the quality into the ground.

I don't think it's a coincidence that's Metallicas decline in quality coincided with the hiring of Bob Rock as producer.Death Magnetic is the probably the best album they've done in years and it's also the first one they've made in years without him

I dunno. I think it's the egos of James and Lars (which Bob might actually be feeding). Did you check out that collaboration between Lou Reed? That's some fucking terrible music. They got a couple good riffs in that, but it's really hard to listen to James shout "I am the table!" and Lou's incessant rambling. Poor Kirk.

 

[Phuctifyno]

While I've got no problem with the question being asked, it really is the majority of musicians who undergo a decline over the years. It's simple mathematics. You have your whole life to write your first album and just a couple of years to write the next. Generally, the material that makes up a band's or artist's first (or first few) albums has literally had more time to ferment and be perfected than the later stuff.

The only exception I can think of is Limp Bizkit, who wrote their first album in two weeks and it was the best thing they ever did (though that isn't saying much).

The more interesting question, and tougher to answer, would be if you can name any musicians out there who get better over time.
I could name a few, but that's not the drive of this thread, so for the sake of this post, I submit:

Arctic Monkeys (I saw someone post it up the page a little, but really, Favorite Worst Nightmare was one of my favorite albums of the decade, then they got boring), Rise Against (also previously mentioned), and The Offspring. I mentioned these bands specifically because I think they all suffer the same problem: that they've simply slowed down. Sure, you can make arguments for all different facets of songwriting in which they've begun to lack, but the high energy is what made these bands special in the first place. It was the speed and enthusiasm they displayed in the early years that drew fans, and for whatever reason (most likely age), their tempos have been dropping, and along with that, my interest.