Artists who waited ten years or more to make a follow-up

My Bloody Valentine
Scott Walker

Who else?

Kraftwerk: 17 years.

Grace Jones: 19 years.

If we're talking about albums and not singles, that is.

Kate Bush: 12 years.

Gil Scott-Heron: 16 years.

There must be a lot of bands who broke up, then reunited years later and made a new album. Do those count?

hmm, good question. I dunno really. sometimes hard to tell the difference between "broke up" and "on hiatus" e.g. Godspeed.

Bobby Womack: 12 years.

Angie Stone was originally a rapper in The Sequence, who released three albums on Sugar Hill. The last of those came out in 1983, and her comeback album as a neo-soul singer was in 1999.

I had no idea Roberta Flack released a new album where she sings Beatles songs in 2012, but that's 18 years after her previous studio album.

It's ten years between Jacques Brel 67 and his next album of new songs, Les Marquises in 1977. He sang the album with only one lung, and died of cancer the following year.

Bill Fay

Time of the Last Persecution (1971)
Life is People (2012)

(there were a couple of odds and sods compilations in-between - but even then there's a gap of over thirty years between releases of any kind)

vashti bunyan, if you count that as 'waiting'

Another example I only just found out: apparently Barbara Mason released a new album in 2007, 23 years after the previous one. Considering that "Another Man" was a big underground dance hit in 1983, it's weird that she never did a follow-up to the 1984 album that included it.

"No Thyself is the fifth studio album by the band Magazine, and the first since their 2009 reformation. It was released on the Wire-Sound label on 24 October 2011 about 30 years after the release of their previous studio album, Magic, Murder and the Weather."

John Fogerty had a couple 10 year gaps in his solo career ('75-'85 & '86 (?)-'97)

Bob Seger; '95-'06

This is not a straight example, because he started his career before the album era, but I think Papa John Creach had an interesting (and partially sad) story: he was born in 1917, and began his career as a classical violinist in the 1930s, but due to being black he didn't get classical gigs. So he switched to jazz and dance music, and worked as a live musician throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Apparently he released a few singles as a bandleader in the early 1950s, but they went nowhere, so he continued as a live musician. Then he was "discovered" by the drummer for Jefferson Airplane, and he joined the band in 1970s. This new fame allowed him to release a bunch of solo albums in the 1970s, and his final album came out in 1992, two years before he died.

avalanches times a billion

Portishead.

Bowie and (nearly) Leonard Cohen (9 years between The Future and 10 New Songs)

A more recent-ish example is Bark Psychosis.

I read something about a solo artist who'd just released a first album in 20 years or something recently. Some American alternative folky stuff.

Skip James, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt......30+ years

Steely Dan

1980 Gaucho
2000 Two Against Nature

Has Mary Margaret O'Hara released her follow up yet? It'll be 25 years this year, still waiting.

Atheist was only 7 years I guess, felt like longer
Autopsy broke up in '95, reconvened after Abscess split up and made Macabre Eternal in 2011

The Creation! We Are Paintermen in 1967, Power Surge in 1996.

New York Dolls, sort of (1974 ---> 2006). Things happened between.

Mary Margaret O'Hara is a funny one - the Apartment Hunting soundtrack wasn't quite a proper album, I guess, but for something that came out w/ no fuss (ah, I see, it was 2000, before the full-on internet echo chamber), there was a lot to it. But another real album by her… I don't know… will we ever see it?

Henry Grimes - 40 years (1965-2005).

The Beatles

Abbey Road - 1970
Free As A Bird - 1995

Whole lot of blues artists in the 60s

Big Star? The Stooges?

I think bands who've split up and gone and done different things shouldn't really count

Television: Adventure 1978, Television 1992

um, xp

Peter Gabriel
Guns N Roses

Apparently The La's were playing gigs in 2011? That's a 20 year gap, but as they still haven't released anything I suppose they don't count.

I think special credit goes to acts like Gabriel and GNR, who spent their gaps actively working on music rather than just, I dunno, sitting around or breaking up.

the go-betweens
1988-2000

Jacques Coursil

1969 - Way Ahead
2005 - Minimal Brass

Black Devil released an album called 28 After, 28 years after his last one

Devo - Something for Everyone was 20 years after Smooth Noodle Maps. Casale did Jihad Jerry in 2007 and Mothersbaugh of course was fairly active doing TV music

Faust - about a 20 year gap between Faust IV and Rien. Dont think they were really doing anything in the meantime.

Aqua - 10 years between Aquarius and Megalomania. I think some of them did singles in the meantime?

Kraftwerk (as mentioned)

Comus will be 28 years

Colonial Cousins, 11 years

Dschingis Khan - 7 Leben was 24 years after Corrida

The Feelies

Magma had a 20 year wait between Merci and K.A. - Vander was definitely busy though

Telex had a 20 year gap too. I don't know if they were doing much music in the late 80's and 90's

anyway, that's all I can think of

Van der Graaf Generator – 27 years, or 29 with the classic line-up

I think bands who've split up and gone and done different things shouldn't really count

The Who
1982 - It's Hard
2006 - Endless Wire

And yeah, they broke up, but their longest period of not performing or recording as the Who was 2 1/2 years: 1985 (Live Aid) to 1988 (Brit awards).

yeah I dont know about VdGG, they just became Hammill's solo career

Scritti politti I think?

Solo artists can't break up.

Saint Vitus - 19 years.

Black Flag supposedly have an album coming this year.

yeah scritti had an 11 year gap.

Has Mary Margaret O'Hara released her follow up yet? It'll be 25 years this year, still waiting.

― Le petit chat est mort (Tom D.), Tuesday, February 5, 2013 7:41 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You and me both

Libby Cotten wrote the songs "Freight Train" and "Ain't Got No Honey Baby Now" at age 11 in 1904.
Her first record was released in 1960 (after she had completely stopped playing the guitar for 40 years).

I know this may not qualify as a follow-up, but her music certainly underwent a revival after 50+ years, and also, music formats in the early 1900s certainly weren't as we are accustomed to these days.

Mudcrutch Tom Petty's first band released a single in 1975 and then put out their first album in 2008.
the Beach Boys waited 16 years between Stars and Stripes Vol 1 and That's Why God Made the Radio
Cinderella 1995 -> Tom Keifer solo album (2013)

zak drug (1993 - 2008)

Stevie Wonder

1995-2005

you should know
xpost

The Pastels have an album coming out this year, their last proper one was 1997. Though the Last Great Wilderness soundtrack was 2003, and there was the Tenniscoats collaboration album a few years ago.

Did Silver Apples do anything between Contact and their late 90s return?

van dyke parks

Cody Chestnutt

The Shoes took 18 years between Propeller (1994) and last year's Ignition. (There was one Jeff Murphy album somewhere between, but I'm pretty sure they never disbanded, and I'm guessing they continued to play live the whole time.) They're still basically the same band that made Black Vinyl Shoes in 1977. Their obscure doggedness fascinates me--they're like the Jandek of power-pop.

The Undertones, reunion in 2003 with a Feargal sound-a-like, so 20 years after the previous album. Both of their reunion records were pretty good too.

the apartments are releasing an album later this year, their last was 13 years ago

To knock out a couple of the punk reunions-

Mission of Burma (22 years)
The Effigies (21 years)
Rocket from the Tombs (debut 'album' 28 years after they broke up)

? and the Mysterians got to play on here some place, as they got it working after a long hiatus, but I don't know their records.

weirdly the blue nile is famous for taking forever to release albums but all of theirs are less than 10 years apart from each other.

David Byrne & Brian Eno. 27 years.

Kevin Ayers: 15 years between Still Life With Guitar (1992) and The Unfairground (2007).

The Effigies released a new album?

I really doubt the Kossoy Sisters hold the all-time record, but 46 years is impressive nonetheless.

actually I did some more research/googling, and the longest gap I could find was 48 years between Will Crummer's Lovesongs of Polynesia (1963) and Shoebox Lovesongs (2011).

after that, there's a gap of 47 years between Harry Taussig's Fate Is Only Once (1965) and Fate Is Only Twice (2012).

A few others not already named:

Eagles
The Long Run (1979)
Hell Freezes Over (1994)* (*mostly live)
Long Road Out of Eden (2007)

Levon Helm
Levon Helm (1982)
Dirt Farmer (2007)

Slits
Return of the Giant Slits (1981)
Trapped Animal (2009)

Vaselines
Dum-Dum (1989)
Sex with an X (2010)

Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam
Back to Earth (1978)
The Life of the Last Prophet (1995)

a few more:

Patty Waters
College Tour (1966)
Love Songs (1996)

Margo Guryan
Take a Picture (1968)
The Chopsticks Variations (2009)

Gary Wilson
You Think You Really Know Me (1977)
Mary Had Brown Hair (2004)

Tom Verlaine
Warm and Cool (1992)
Songs and Other Things (2006)

Annette Peacock
Abstract-Contact (1988)
An Acrobat's Heart (2000)

Dexys

^ 27 years

and an awesome comeback album it was too

^ true

do mainstream artists running out of contracts and having huuuuge gaps between records count? this could be a sub-thread i guess, the list must be endless

Teena Marie
Passion Play (1994)
La Doña (2004)

Kim Wilde
Now & Forever (1995)
Never Say Never (2006)

Julian Lennon
Photograph Smile (1998)
Everything Changes (2011)

Melbourne’s Underground Lovers will release their first album in 14 years on April 5 – but you’ll be able to get a sneak peak before its general release through crowdfunding website Pledge Music.

haw was just seconds away from posting that

I figured it would be a race

race war

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/images/pottery.jpg

wow i didn't know patty waters had a third alb

Sharon Forrester
Sharon (1974)
This Time (1995)

Cannibal Ox

Solo artists can't break up.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, February 5, 2013 10:36 AM (2 weeks ago)

Nine Inch Nails?

longest gap between NIN albums was 6 years iirc

Dinosaur Jr
Stereo MC's

just kidding, Stereo MC's was a 9-year gap. i blew it.

Suede
Bowie
D'angelo (if this ever happens)

Wire

Dexys Midnight Runners and Kevin Rowland solo.

Ultrasound

Artists who waited ten years or more to make a follow-up

Artists who waited ten years or more to make a follow-up

Artists Who Waited Over 35 Years To Record a Follow-Up

Dean Gitter seems to be the record-holder here. he released his debut album Ghost Ballads in 1957 and waited 57 years to release a follow-up (2014's Old Folkies Never Die). he's probably best known for producing Odetta's first album.

(er, link should be Longest Gaps Between Albums: Artists Who Waited Over 35 Years To Release a Follow-Up)

I was trying to figure out how long the gap was before the Sonics album that came last year — hadn't realized they recorded an album in 1980 (and a studio/live release in 2010).

yeah, I forgot about the Sonics. Gerry Roslie is the only original member on the 1980 album (Cinderella), so if you leave that out you get a 49-year gap between 1966's Boom and 2015's This Is the Sonics.

Already noted in the Chuck thread, but might as well note it here as well: new Chuck Berry next year, his first in 38 years. Could be the longest gap noted in this thread.

the rolling stones with their coming blues album this year (latest album was 2005).

Silver Apples, twice now

Could be the longest gap noted in this thread.

It's not, there are a couple of mentions (Bill Fay, Henry Grimes) upthread of 40+ years between albums.

44 years between Linda Perhacs' debut and her 2014 follow-up

A million times I've asked you,
And then I ask you over again
You only answer
Perhacs, perhacs, perhacs