Best Album Since Blood On The Tracks

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Very few acts are sufficiently talented, tenacious, and fortunate to make it to the stage of a career where every rekkid they release is hailed as their best since the last one that actually mattered.

Dylan establishes the template, of course. The Rolling Stones, natch. U2. REM.

There's probably an argument for guys like Bowie and Waits, but they've been all over the map and much farther from the mainstream for so much of their careers that it doesn't quite scan for me...

Who else qualifies?

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 30 June 2005 06:33 (twenty years ago)

Prince

― Gear! (Ill Cajun Gunsmith) (Gear!), Thursday, 30 June 2005 06:34 (twenty years ago)

RZA

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 30 June 2005 06:35 (twenty years ago)

St Etienne

― Baaderonixx le Belge (Fabfunk), Thursday, 30 June 2005 06:43 (twenty years ago)

PiL

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 30 June 2005 07:25 (twenty years ago)

blink-182

― Andrzej B. (Andrzej B.), Thursday, 30 June 2005 07:39 (twenty years ago)

First serious answer on this thread: John Cale.
Second serious answer on this thread: Fleetwood Mac.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 30 June 2005 07:47 (twenty years ago)

Oasis of course, always erroneously. And Sonic Youth.

― snotty moore, Thursday, 30 June 2005 08:10 (twenty years ago)

Also erroneously.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 30 June 2005 08:11 (twenty years ago)

standard music press meme of about 1990 onwards: every Prince and Bowie album was reviewed as "a spectacular return to form" and then angry punters discovered that it wasn't.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 30 June 2005 08:12 (twenty years ago)

Phew, yeah. It was scary for reviewers in them days. Many walked in fear of their lives, afraid of being accosted by Bowists and Princers who would threaten them with cutting remarks like 'I wasted twelve quid on that'. Strangely, they also risked threats if they pointed out how poor said records were.

― snotty moore, Thursday, 30 June 2005 08:52 (twenty years ago)

Well I think they were more scared of losing the interview...

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 30 June 2005 08:56 (twenty years ago)

Good point. Minneapolis is a lovely spot any time of year.

― snotty moore, Thursday, 30 June 2005 09:31 (twenty years ago)

Elvis Costello

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Thursday, 30 June 2005 13:02 (twenty years ago)

New Kids on the Block

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Thursday, 30 June 2005 14:13 (twenty years ago)

Springsteen the Bruce.

― PB, Thursday, 30 June 2005 14:15 (twenty years ago)

Good point. Minneapolis is a lovely spot any time of year.

YOU GODDAMN RIGHT SON!

Oasis of course, always erroneously. And Sonic Youth.
-- snotty moore (liljelvi...), June 30th, 2005.

Also erroneously.
-- Marcello Carlin (marcellocarli...), June 30th, 2005. (nostudium)

Murray Street is genuinely one of my favorite Sonic Youth records.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 30 June 2005 14:16 (twenty years ago)

Teh Fall

― Another Allnighter (sexyDancer), Thursday, 30 June 2005 14:16 (twenty years ago)

morrissey

― b b, Thursday, 30 June 2005 14:26 (twenty years ago)

>First serious answer on this thread: John Cale

I wasn't born yet, but critics claimed "Guts" to be a better record than "Paris 1919"? The cover art, maybe...

― Jonathan Merritt, Thursday, 30 June 2005 17:40 (twenty years ago)

Lou Reed. The only question is whether "Street Hassle," "The Blue Mask" or "New York" is his "Blood on the Tracks." (It's "Street Hassle," of course. But a lot of people get this wrong.)

― Salmon Pink (Salmon Pink), Thursday, 30 June 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

Neil Young, sorta?

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Thursday, 30 June 2005 18:58 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

I thought every new REM release wz greeted with "they suck, god DAMN they suck, what is this crap, it sucks"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 30 July 2005 22:00 (twenty years ago)

steve rachmad mix cd

― charltonlido (gareth), Sunday, 31 July 2005 02:12 (twenty years ago)

i dont like albums anyway

im too busy

― charltonlido (gareth), Sunday, 31 July 2005 02:14 (twenty years ago)

most of my favorite artists were too busy also, it seems,

― charltonlido (gareth), Sunday, 31 July 2005 02:14 (twenty years ago)

ive never heard blood on the tracks

is it like dvorak? or jeff mills? or mystikal? or anita kerr? be good if it was, wouldn'it?

― charltonlido (gareth), Sunday, 31 July 2005 02:16 (twenty years ago)

also i think theres a relevant mixtape vs label release trend in rap but im too uninformed to comment

xp i thing blood is like all those things, but its still a 6 or a 7

― 006 (thoia), Sunday, 31 July 2005 02:24 (twenty years ago)

think. also, that wasnt even an xpost

― 006 (thoia), Sunday, 31 July 2005 02:26 (twenty years ago)

xpost

It's kinda like Mystikal, but borrows less from James Brown, for better and for worse.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Sunday, 31 July 2005 05:21 (twenty years ago)

Eminem is headed in this direction. Or would be, if he wasn't retiring. De La Soul and P.E., for sure. PJ Harvey, maybe. Oh, and Sleater-Kinney.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 31 July 2005 05:33 (twenty years ago)

Isn't one of the key things a long, almost consensus run at the top, and then a falling off for no particularly apparent reason? hence Dylan, Hence Stones. Hence I can see Prince and some others mentioned here qualifying, but most weren't dominant or consensus enough.

― plebian plebs (plebian), Sunday, 31 July 2005 09:28 (twenty years ago)

Missy?

― Nick H (Nick H), Sunday, 31 July 2005 09:56 (twenty years ago)

sleater-kinney are a good candidate, and it might be true, too.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 1 August 2005 02:27 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Oh noes! jbr, what have you done?

"Modern Times is a better album than Time Out of Mind and even than the majestic Love and Theft, which by my lights makes it Dylan's finest since Blood on the Tracks (1975)."

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 21:27 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

RS sez: "U2 open up their sound and make their best album since Achtung Baby"

No Line On The Horizon *****

― butt-rock miyagi (rogermexico.), Sunday, 22 February 2009 05:17 (sixteen years ago)

i have a feeling there's a review of the new animal collective album out there that says it's their best since sung tongs.

― paper plans (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 22 February 2009 05:23 (sixteen years ago)

I sincerely doubt that new U2 joint is better than Zooropa.

― Stylez G. White (Stormy Davis), Sunday, 22 February 2009 05:41 (sixteen years ago)

STORMY!!!

― Haikunym Mark II (Dimension 5ive), Sunday, 22 February 2009 06:29 (sixteen years ago)

Magnetic Fields

― the pinefox, Monday, 23 February 2009 14:57 (sixteen years ago)

has anyone ever called their debut album 'Return To Form'?

― O Supermanchiros (blueski), Monday, 23 February 2009 14:59 (sixteen years ago)

http://www.thedurutticolumn.com/discography/images/fact14c_350.jpg

― I want sprinkles (country matters), Monday, 23 February 2009 15:25 (sixteen years ago)

Have The Prodigy got there yet?

― David Bentley: Rhythm Ace (Matt DC), Monday, 23 February 2009 15:27 (sixteen years ago)

i'm sure some wag will be claiming the new one is their best since 'Jilted'

― O Supermanchiros (blueski), Monday, 23 February 2009 15:28 (sixteen years ago)

Depeche definitely reached this stage a while back.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 23 February 2009 15:33 (sixteen years ago)

(And I love their new albums thoroughly but right now they're a band whose success lies in the massive tours rather than the record sales.)

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 23 February 2009 15:34 (sixteen years ago)

would the Go-Betweens qualify, in terms of critical consensus? But I guess they were so modest that to say that Spring Hill Fair is an amazing peak that you couldn't imagine the later Tallulah or even by some lights (not me) 16 Lovers Lane (altho 16 does peak real high with "Streets of Your Town," "Love Is a Sign" and "The Devil's Eye") besting (and their later stuff is great too with their last album one of their best), might not be what this thread wants?

But in terms of sheer quality--I'd rate all of the Go-Betweens really high--their recorded output is up there with anybody's.

― eddhurt, Monday, 23 February 2009 18:14 (sixteen years ago)

McCartney. Not every record, but at least 2005's "Chaos & Creation In The Backyard" was hailed by lots of people as his best since 1975's "Band On The Run".

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 24 February 2009 01:58 (sixteen years ago)

Have The Prodigy got there yet?

They haven't released any "return to form" candidates yet.

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 24 February 2009 01:59 (sixteen years ago)

five years pass...

haha i may have been wrong about Bowie not quite making the cut...

http://imageshack.com/a/img540/6296/y5hzBU.png

― resulting post (rogermexico.), Friday, 7 November 2014 14:16 (eleven years ago)

I'd have said Bowie was the definition, more so than Dylan. (Dylan used to be BonB, then it was BotT..)

― Mark G, Friday, 7 November 2014 14:19 (eleven years ago)

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