best album since the last best album since the really good ones

At least Jools focussed on the important questions in the interview - what he takes with him on a world tour, whether he lies down to relax (obviously a subject much on his mind at present, since he asked Mary J Blige the same thing).

Every album the Stones have released in the past ten years has been accompanied with the hypeline "their best since 'Some Girls'". Sometimes the hype is true - Time Out of Mind was Dylan's best since Blood on the Tracks - but usually (eg - the new Costello) it's a ploy to bring back fans who lost interest long ago.

finally picked up When I Was Cruel today and got a chuckle out of the shrewd eloquence of the sticker on the cover: "First LOUD album since 199?". i get a kind of dread with these things, especially new Sonic Youth albums, where i put it on and usually the first track or two tingles and makes all my anticipation feel somewhat validated, and then as it goes, i drift back to earth and deal with the flawed but not too shabby (well sometimes pretty shabby) product in my hands.

i think what it comes down to is that labels and fans alike need a way to cope with these overlong careers, to make each moment special or otherwise admit to the futility of it all; after a couple dozen albums of widely varying quality, the highest compliment one can pay is "return to form". and it seems the longer these careers go, it gets harder to agree on which is which. my days on the SY and EC newsgroups in particular are peppered with memories of threads wherein every new product was alternately praised the best since _____ or reviled as the last fucking straw in a long line of disappointments. and of course, it's both. so far WIWC sounds roughly on par with Brutal Youth simply because it annoys me for the same reasons, and excites me for the same reasons.

I kept hearing the new Oasis was a return to the first album, like "Cigarettes & Alcohol".... I've heard it a couple times now, and except for one Slade-ish tune, it's more like "Wish You Were Here"... not bad, but a soporific, nighttime record. The fucking liars.

Bryan Ferry, U2 in a way

Most consistently praised for living up to expectations that continue to drop exponentially - Simple Minds, James, Bowie, Oasis

i think "cruel" is way way way way way better than "spike", but ppl saying return to form had little to do with my thinking this (the jools+costello equation does not bring out the best in either, i feel) => the idea that everyone has their time then gone for good is a marketing myth also, and a much bigger and more insidious one

earthling was great

actually cliche aside, "return to form" is an amazingly stupid and destructive way of talking abt how anyone's work works anyway (eg what was exciting abt [xx] is that you didn't know what they were going to do next but you kind of knew you'd love it => now here's their new thing and HOORAH it's quite like something they did a long time ago WTF!)

agitate to get sports-talk out of music!

(sorry al you sort of said some of that already)

(Sorry - in re Bowie I mean OTHER PEOPLE's expectations. Personally I loved 'Hours'. I think what I meant = every time Bowie album released, it's announced as 'best since 'Heroes'', by the same people who proclaim it to be a dud six months later, and it's amusing when reviewer says "Only good LP he's done in 20 years" when same reviewer said exact same about last one, as if they wrote up all the reviews in advance like Steve MArtin's weather forecasts in 'LA Story')

Digging this topic out from its grave just to add McCartney's "Chaos And Creation In The Backyard" and Depeche Mode's "Playing The Angel". Both their best in ages.

If Woody Allen made albums he would be the emporer of this thread.

Same about this year's Prince effort.

X-Post, I mean (obvious, Prince does make records - a good movie by him would have been a first though)

Neil Young.