Divorcing Yourself From An Artist You Loved

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I was reading tangents and the newest piece had an interesting note about how long you stick with an artist you loved dearly in the past before cutting off all ties completely, i liked this line most--

I think what I'll do is buy the new Autechre record in ten years time from now. I like the idea of looking forward to a new Autechre record for that long. Time may put a whole new slant on things. We could see it through fresh eyes (or hear it with fresh ears perhaps?). Autechre re-evaluated, like the way that Bob Dylan records and the Beach Boys' works are by the serious music mags, so it becomes more acceptable to like later and later LPs of theirs.

What is the most recent example of this in your own music expericnes, how long did you linger by buying the dreadful records in hopes they would return to form, and if it is ten years on do you feel drawn to records you might have skipped at the time?

― keith (keithmcl), Sunday, 23 February 2003 19:10 (twenty-two years ago)

The Wedding Present and the Cardiacs were two bands that I inexplicably continued to buy albums from, despite the fact that my interest in their music was taking an elephantine nose-dive (or should that be "trunk-dive" if it was elephantine?). I can't remember the last time I played either GUNS by Cardiacs and....what was the final Weddoes album? SATURNALIA? I still love earlier albums by both, but really should've weaned myself off of them after those respective discs.

Beyond that, I remember making a conscious decision after graduating from high school which albums were going to come with me to college. Was I really going to need those records by Helix, Grim Reaper, Ratt and Lita Ford? I forsook most of my hair metal/NWOBHM albums (I did take the Crue, Priest and Maiden with me, though), kept all of the hardcore (Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Kraut and the DK's mostly) and didn't really look back until my late 20's, when I started to appreaciate 80's metal in a pre-midlife crisis sorta way. Watch for my inevitable breakdown soon.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 23 February 2003 19:17 (twenty-two years ago)

i was thinking of autechre when i saw the thread title.

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 23 February 2003 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)

New Order. I think I even bought a Revenge record in the late 90's...

― Scott Warner, Sunday, 23 February 2003 21:49 (twenty-two years ago)

but autechre are getting better (each lp has been better than the previous...havent heard new one yet)

my answer: stereolab

― gareth (gareth), Sunday, 23 February 2003 21:50 (twenty-two years ago)

New Order albums' quality declines, but their singles remain GRATE so I feel no need to distance or divorce myself, in fact, I'm kind of more in awe than ever.

Deffo Stereolab for me, too, though. The last time I saw them, about a year ago, I was BORED. I couldn't get over it. I could understand being pissed off or challenged or not understanding it, but being bored? That upset me.

― kate, Sunday, 23 February 2003 21:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I really liked Robert Fripp's unique style of guitar playing when I first heard his work sometime in the early eighties (i.e. 80's Crimson, League of Gentlemen, contributions to Talking Heads, Daryl Hall, Peter Gabriel, Andy Summers, Blondie, Bowie, etc). His work with David Sylvian remains my favorite from him.
But since he reformed Crimson in 1994, I find myself liking very little of what he is releasing. Even his solo soundscapes fail to move me as they did back in the early nineties.
For the past seven years, I have kept telling myself that there is really no need to purchase any more of his recordings cuz I will only be highly disappointed with the results. Yet I will probably buy the new King Crimson regressive wankfest when it comes out next month and will once again tell myself that this is the final straw.....

― bahtology, Sunday, 23 February 2003 22:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Erasure.

Today I see them this way -- a few great tracks (some of which have the status of "gay anthems" to me, which gives them a boost) and a consistency that made it easy to keep on tolerating them. For a while. Gradually that consistency turns into .., eh, they haven't done anything that really excited me in a long time.

I own almost everything through Cowboy, but I'd probably be happy if I just owned the compilation Pop instead. (But since I've got so much source material, I could make my own compilation -- *lightbulb goes on*)

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Sunday, 23 February 2003 22:20 (twenty-two years ago)

i remember a thread where people talked about having 30 or 40 releases from asingle artist. i haven't got that kind of stamina. i still like stereolab(i thought sound dust was beautiful) so i'd say the only real example of this for me is tall dwarfs and chris knox, i still like them/him but they haven't turned the world on since like 1994 and yet i pick up everything they release, i've no idea why. maybe i am hoping one day that a tall dwarfs cd will be comprised entirely of alec bathgate songs.

― keith (keithmcl), Sunday, 23 February 2003 22:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I've never married any musical acts, so it's never been an issue. I mean I loved Pulp and got everything by them, incloading lots of bootleg live recordings and stuff, and I don't like the recent stuff anything like as much, but no action, emotional or whatever, is needed. I loved Bowie all through the '70s, and he's been appalling for twenty years, but I just stop buying.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 23 February 2003 22:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Kate Bush. Love all of her stuff (though only about half of _The Sensual World_) but when she got to _Eat the Music_, i lost all patience with her. Though she doesn't seem to have put all that much out since then, either, so i'm not sure i'm really in the spirit of the thread.

― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Sunday, 23 February 2003 22:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I keep hoping the Cure will pull something interesting off. I bought Bloodflowers... *sigh* I don't think I'll bother again. If you got Bill & Ted to make a Fat Bob robot, those are the Cure songs it would write.

― Zora (Zora), Sunday, 23 February 2003 22:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Pavement. Simply the definition of college music.

― Tim D (Tim D), Sunday, 23 February 2003 22:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I bought Bloodflowers... *sigh* I don't think I'll bother again.

Dan and I both protest against this judgment with due force. I was humming "The Last Day of Summer" to myself just the other day...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 23 February 2003 22:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm trying to recall the tune to ANY song on Bloodflowers and I can't. I listened to it 4 times straight and NOTHING stuck. I wanted to like it I really did, honest. Well... perhaps I'll give it another go at some point... *shuffles off dejectedly*

― Zora (Zora), Sunday, 23 February 2003 22:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Though "Isolation Drills" was pleasant, I think me and Rob Pollard need some time off to think about what we both really want in a listener-performer relationship.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 23 February 2003 22:56 (twenty-two years ago)

the only real example of this for me is tall dwarfs and chris knox, i still like them/him but they haven't turned the world on since like 1994 and yet i pick up everything they release, i've no idea why. maybe i am hoping one day that a tall dwarfs cd will be comprised entirely of alec bathgate songs.

Their new album is grate!! I'll admit that they have gotten a little more traditional pop structure and that Stumpy is a little too wierdo, but wouldn't your day be brighter if you heard them at the supermarket over loudspeaker...

― brg30 (brg30), Sunday, 23 February 2003 22:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Sonic Youth, for some reason I just keep on buying and buying all things SY related in the past years, but can't fess up to the fact I've hated anything Washing Machine forward. I feel a lot of it has to do with some sick nostalgia I have.

― mallory bourgeois (painter man), Monday, 24 February 2003 06:53 (twenty-two years ago)

first: stereolab - but not in the context presented here. first exposure circa 98 to transient ambient... instant realization of genius. one weak later borrowed emperor tamato ketchup, similar reaction, slightly dulled by clue that this was no longer music designed specifically for \emph{my} brain. two weeks later grabbed dots and loops from cut-out bin - enjoyed it more then most listeners, but it served notice.

then: despite awareness of pre transient material (not to mention NEU) and supposedly stunning singles collections, extended completest tendicies toward the fall, ignoring everything stereolab.

now: bought abc music bbc comp. i am a fool (i.e. positive conclusion).

― pb, Monday, 24 February 2003 07:05 (twenty-two years ago)

completist == completest etc etc.

― pb, Monday, 24 February 2003 07:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Tricky. It took me until to realise that Maxinquaye was a moment in time, and I shall not look upon its like again.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 24 February 2003 07:11 (twenty-two years ago)

until Angels with Dirty Faces, I meant. Some HTML fuckup.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 24 February 2003 07:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, Stereolab and Sonic Youth are still great (ABC Music/Sound Dust and Murray Street are fantastic), but I had a teenage Elvis Costello fixation, but I still keep buying his records even though he's released maybe one good album since 1986 (this includes the worst album in my collection, Kojak Variety. Why?!). Maybe in another seventeen years time he'll release another good one, who knows? Until then, I still keep buying and hoping that he'll stop experimenting. If I want experimental I listen to Fushitsusha, okay? So no more drum loops, Elvis! Goddammit!

― Simon Huxtable (Simon Huxtable), Monday, 24 February 2003 12:05 (twenty-two years ago)

abc music is great of course, but only because 90% of it is from when they were good

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 24 February 2003 12:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh my god, Tricky is a perfect answer for this question. Talk about diminishing returns!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 24 February 2003 12:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Paul Westerberg

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Mojave 3 / Neil Halstead

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Tuesday, 25 February 2003 23:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I also spent a year as a King Crimson fetishist. I still like certain albums and think they had moments of brilliance (Red/The Night Watch, Discipline/Absent Lovers, parts of Thrak). I sold some of the albums at one point intending to purchase the remasters, but interest waned and I never did (and prog rock begat jazz, etc.).

I was just thinking of this the other day when I heard that the new album was coming out, realized that I had almost no interest but still felt that nagging loyalist temptation.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 06:19 (twenty-two years ago)

the number of acts whose music i've become virtually "obsessed" with does seem to amount to 'bout half a dozen -- and in *most* cases this sort of high-strung relationshit has gradually petered out over the years, i've to admit
since the teens, in more or less chronological order: deep purple >> queen >> jethro tull >> focus >> r.e.m. >> miles davis >> my bloody valentine...
never ever, tho', has the once-scorchin' love turned into projectile loathin'
...and i'm pretty positive i'll buy r.e.m.'s next rekkid, let alone mbv's (should (t)he(y) ever make one, ha!) ...and miles is an altogether differrent matter, by a davis mile ...then again, i cannot quite imagine wastin' my precious hard-earned cash on a queen or a focus cd

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 26 February 2003 07:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't believe that I'm the first person to answer Morrissey.

I also can't believe that I will buy the new album as and when it comes out, EVEN AFTER "Malajusted", no, EVEN AFTER HEARING the version of "Malajusted" with the spoken-word thing about the trial.

Other than that I am incredibly harsh with even my favourite acts. Take XTC for instance - loved "Apple Venus 1" to bits; never even bought "AV2" after hearing a few of the tracks on MP3.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 27 February 2003 09:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Ice Cube:While it's pretty well-documented that he's gone from rapper to actor, street to bling/gang, etc, no one has yet explained to me why he just stopped picking good backing tracks. The music changed around the 4th album in and has never recovered, I just totally give up on the guy! I went as far as the 1st WAR/PEACE thingy hoping he'd revert, but to Hell with the big poo-boy.

― matt riedl (veal), Thursday, 27 February 2003 17:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I also can't believe that I will buy the new album as and when it comes out

I can! Based on the new songs, it'll be quite good. :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 February 2003 17:17 (twenty-two years ago)

never ever, tho', has the once-scorchin' love turned into projectile loathin'

I'm with you there. If I was once really into an artist/album/etc., then even if I don't listen to them anymore or can see their/its limitations more objectively, nostalgia still tends to win out, and I am reminded of the good times I had when I was into them/it, so can't view them as completely worthy of detesting. I generally can't identify when I see things like "I used to LOVE XXX [when I was young/stupid/naive/etc.] but now see them truly for the absolute shit they are." Something more measured, perhaps, like: I don't listen to them anymore, don't get anything more out of them, 'retired' them, can see why people don't like them, etc.

― Joe (Joe), Thursday, 27 February 2003 17:50 (twenty-two years ago)

we all have to remember and smile on our younger innocent days. there's something to be said of the distinction in not grooving on a group anymore cos of popular consensus versus personal discomfort. some crap we ALL outgrow, like the doors, while others find varying limits on their expiration dates. like Tim D above said about pavement --> college music, i'd say the same of sebadoh --> when i played in my first band (sheeeit i can produce heartfelt sludge too!) - and haven't cared for a lick of their stuff since bakesale. plus there's a world of difference in being up to date with a current artist, like autechre, and figuring out when their individual sell date is up, versus having the benefit of history on your side in order to avoid potential crap (pink floyd, i'm lookin at you). imagine being around (unless you actually WERE, old fart that you are) when miles davis went electric and the shitstorm of controversy surrounding it forced you to cautiously reconsider his value to yr hipster cred, without the security and comfort in the present day where we can easily say, "he influenced so much modern electric funk, Classic."

i always liked weirdness and humor, as a kid especially, so it's with no shame that i say i loved weird al yankovic, and even though i've not bought anything of his since "even worse", with my own money, on cassette, in sixth grade, and really never revisit his music at all, he instilled a sense of rebellious insanity and appreciation for off-the-wall approaches to music in me that rubs off nearly every time i weigh the worth of acts i like, from free jazz to melt banana to sparks (plus weird al was the gateway to spike jones, so he can't ever be dissed roundly no matter ho bad that last record was, whatever it was). yo heart run-on sentences.

― Dr. Annabel Lies (Michael Kelly), Friday, 28 February 2003 03:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Elvis Costello. I've had no problem selling back some of it, though.

― Colin Beckett (Colin Beckett), Friday, 28 February 2003 03:21 (twenty-two years ago)

c'mon, 'When I Was Cruel' is grebt!! but stay the hell away from 'Cruel Smile'.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Friday, 28 February 2003 05:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Definitely Sonic Youth. They have been on the downslide after Dirty which was my introduction to them. I bought more or less everything except NYC Ghosts ... and they never returned to form. The last one was probably their best one after Dirty which says a lot as it is nice and pleasant but by no means groundbreaking.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Friday, 28 February 2003 09:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Really, anyone who makes more than a couple of albums is rubbish.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 28 February 2003 12:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Yup, that New Order sure does stink.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 28 February 2003 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

R.E.M. -- Document seemed obvious; It seemed obvious that that they were mainstreaming their sound -- it seemed obvious that they were actively seeking fame. I enjoy the album more now than i did upon its release, but i recognized immediately that that the classic days were over. Green, Out of Time, and Automatic for the People were purchased immediately upon release, but only out of allegiance. "Nightswimming", however, was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back (a blatant rip-off of their own material) and i haven't even looked their way since, critical deference notwithstanding.

― christoff (christoff), Friday, 28 February 2003 13:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I never understood this REM thing. Murmur is a great album for sure. But all albums after before Automatic were nothing special. Reckoning is so generic and bland. I really don't understand what's it all about the 80s REM. Maybe it's because I didn't listen to them in the 80s. Maybe their stuff didn't age well. I still think they are a band which gets better in time. Their last album was definitely one of their three best albums together with Adventures and Automatic. As an 80s band with a similar guitar approach I by far prefer Steve Wynn's Dream Syndicate. I miss the psychedelic touch in REM. They are too down to earth, too folk rock. Green On Red (in small doses) and the Feelies are two other bands which I like more in the 80s.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Friday, 28 February 2003 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

**Yup, that New Order sure does stink**

Well there are a very, very few exceptions to this rule, but I reckon there's hardly anyone whose best work can't be boiled down to a couple of essential albums and a single or two.(Although not always the obvious ones, and I would always keep changing my mind anyway). Maybe I'm overstating it, but it's kind of a reaction to the *fan* mentality which I strongly oppose. It's good to be critical.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 28 February 2003 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)

The post-Murmur albums at least fit into the dynamic established right from the get go. Most of Reckoning and a fair portion of Fables were written around the same time as Murmur so i can understand how one might have want for more from that portion of the catalog. I just find their I.R.S. material superior.

The Feelies didn't have a history of great records to fall-off from -- Green on Red were never consistent (but i agree with their "small-dose appeal") -- Dream Syndicate; at least Wynn pretty much stuck to his guns (and Ghost Stories mines the well of folk music a bit, too, eh?).

― christoff (christoff), Friday, 28 February 2003 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

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