'I prefer their later stuff'

[turnstyle]

Said nobody, ever. Right?

Any bands/acts whose later stuff you think is better than what is generally considered their 'peak'?

For me Sonic Youth's Murray Street/Sonic Nurse/Rather Ripped trio of albums at the tale end of their career are as good/better than anything else in their library.

I'm also a fan of the free form, scat poetry-jazz approach that S-Club Juniors took with their final album.

[Seedsy]

The Beatles

[purlieu]

No Richey-era Manics album would make it into my Top 5 Manics Albums list.

Chronologically, the first Therapy? album I own is Semi-Detached.

I can't stand pre-Dukes XTC, other than the odd song.

Not quite the same, but I think Underworld's '98-'07 material is as strong as their two 'classic' albums, and Drift is possibly their best work to date.

Definitely looking forward to the replies to this.

[markburgle]

Not later but mid-period Fall is my fave stuff of theirs. The 95-98 period has this whole chaotic, desperate disintegration going on that makes it more compelling to me than when they were firing on all cylinders. The creative successes feel more special.

The first Motorhead album I tried was The World is Yours from 2010. I thought it was great, but when I tried listening to earlier stuff I was hearing a lot of the same ideas only with worse production. Anyone following them from the start probably found that record formulaic but to me it's their best stuff.

[JaDanketies]

Carcass, I think their melo-death stuff is better than their Grind stuff.

There are probably a fair few people out there who think that Opeth's later stuff is better than their earlier stuff. I know there are people who think this about Alcest. (All are wrong). Around the time Opeth released Deliverance and Damnation, I might've said that this was much better than their earlier stuff, but now my favourite album is their first one, with a drop in quality, then a rise, and then a big drop.

Mac Miller, I think was still on an upwards trajectory when he fentanyled out of this world, and his last album and posthumous album are better than his previous work. Perhaps there are a lot of artists who are viewed as having an upwards trajectory? I know when SOPHIE died the papers said her best album hadn't yet been written. Maybe people are kinder to your latter-day music and view your work as continually improving - if you die at a young age.

I don't know Therapy? well enough to tell you when they peaked, but I do know that I've got the Infernal Love album in my car and it's a banger.

[Kankurette]

As much as I love Little Earthquakes, From the Choirgirl Hotel is my favourite Tori Amos album.

[purlieu]

I don't know Therapy? well enough to tell you when they peaked, but I do know that I've got the Infernal Love album in my car and it's a banger.

Troublegum is the peak, commercially, critically and fan-wise, and it's got a few good pop-punk tunes on it but on the whole isn't my thing at all. Infernal Love is slightly more up my street, but it's the oddness of Semi-Detached's heavier stuff, and then later albums Suicide Pact - You First, Never Apologise Never Explain, and especially the one-two of Crooked Timber and A Brief Crack of Light that really appeals to me. They're actually the polar opposite of the other two bands I mentioned, in that I prefer them the less poppy they are. Possibly because I don't really like Andy Cairns's pop songs very much.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

My favourite MBV record is MBV and its not close.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

cocteau twins. sun ra's earliest work is pretty jazz by numbers. captain beefheart? jon hassell? reasonable case to be made about tangerine dream's cheesier shift in direction in the 80s

Not later but mid-period Fall is my fave stuff of theirs. The 95-98 period has this whole chaotic, desperate disintegration going on that makes it more compelling to me than when they were firing on all cylinders. The creative successes feel more special.

fucking levitate is amazing. absolutely broken, loveable piece of wonk

[JaDanketies]

Semi-Detached

Yeah it appears that it was Semi-Detached that I first listened to. I remember having Church of Noise as part of one of those cassette tapes with all my favourite songs on that every kid needed to have in the days of the Walkman. I used to buy pirated CDs from a guy called Mark the Twat in Manchester back then, so it was easy to not know what the title of the album was.

[Dusty Substance]

There's a case to be made that Scott Walker's later stuff (Tilt, The Drift, Bisch Bosh and the Sunn o))) collaboration) is better than his earlier stuff. I love it all equally.

I recall comedian, podcaster and noted Sparks fan Michael Legge saying of Russ and Ron that he prefers their 21st Century stuff over their 20th Century output.

[Brundle-Fly]

Depends on how you define later stuff. The post-Pendleton shirts, T Birds and surfboards era Beach Boys?

[Pauline Walnuts]

Captain Beefheart

[Dusty Substance]

An obvious one - Johnny Cash. His late period stuff from 1994 to his death in 2003, is vastly better than anything else he ever did.

[holyzombiejesus]

Mid period Teenage Fanclub, Thirteen/ Grand Prix up to Howdy, is peak fanny.

Whilst I still really love Up For A Bit, The Pastels have improved on every subsequent album (Sittin' Pretty aside).

Give me the more bucolic, laid back Gorkys stuff from Barafundle onwards over the wackier teenage stuff any day.

[holyzombiejesus]

An obvious one - Johnny Cash. His late period stuff from 1994 to his death in 2003, is vastly better than anything else he ever did.

I think the two prison albums are really great, patchy but so are the American albums.

[gilbertharding]

For me Sonic Youth's Murray Street/Sonic Nurse/Rather Ripped trio of albums at the tale end of their career are as good/better than anything else in their library.

Certainly in 1993 I would have said I thought Sonic Youth's later stuff was superior to the early albums.  I was a big fan. I kind of lost interest after that, although I have some of the *actual* later stuff too...

[non capisco]

I can't stand pre-Dukes XTC, other than the odd song.

They are a classic example of a band whose sound changed beyond recognition over the years and absolutely ripe for this thread's theme. I love most of their albums and eras but I can completely see why someone who's swooned over the bruised, orchestral romance of Apple Venus could then listen to White Music or Go 2 and think "What the fuck is this jerky bollocks and why is he singing like a sea lion?"

[Custard]

Pulp, surely? Half a career of "this is alright", half of "fuck yeah!"

I knew someone once who genuinely considered the post Roger Waters years to be far superior than when he was in Floyd. Still, this was a bloke who put 4 teaspoons of instant coffee in every cup

[Noodle Lizard]

I'd think a great deal of younger Swans fans probably don't have much time for the likes of Filth or Cop. Their 2010s streak is certainly their most critically successful.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

The Ex

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

The Ex

this

[Sebastian Cobb]

Licenced to Ill: dogshit rhymes over dogshit guitar and dogshit 808 beats
Ill Communication: Musical polymaths

[jobotic]

I can't think of anyone at all. I think this reflects badly on me.

[purlieu]

Pulp, surely? Half a career of "this is alright", half of "fuck yeah!"

But the early stuff doesn't fall into the category of "generally considered their peak", surely?

[sevendaughters]

Fugazi got better slower and more melodic
Hood got better when they admitted hip-hop was better than lo-fi noise
Camberwell Now were better than This Heat

[non capisco]

Fugazi got better slower and more melodic

Yeah, now you mention it I think song for song The Argument might well be my favourite Fugazi album. Not a second of filler on the thing.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Camberwell Now were better than This Heat

[sevendaughters]

both were better than Lifetones (who I like!)

[Smeraldina Rima]

My favourite Lagwagon album is Blaze, which at the time - 2003 when I was 17 - seemed a long time after albums I'd listened to as classic older albums: Duh, 1992, Trashed, 1994, Hoss, 1995, Double Plaidinum, 1997, and Let's Talk About Feelings, 1998. It had a song about how old they were called "Falling Apart" but they'd only been away for five years.