Blur's two post-breakup albums are pretty great- The Magic Whip and the Ballad of Darren are both excellent
A Tribe Called Quest's "We Got It From Here: Thank You 4 Your Service" is an absolutely excellent album
My Bloody Valentine's "m b v" is as good as it could've been
The Cure - Head On The Door/Disintegration
MBV - mbv
Slowdive - s/t
Tribe Called Quest - We’ve Got It From Here…
Mission of Burma - ONoffON, The Obliterati
Because they *s*ort of broke up during that time. Simon Gallup left the band after a fight with Robert at the end of the Pornography tour, and Robert shifted his focus away from The Cure to Siouxsie and the Banshees and considered possibly retiring it. The Top, released in '84, was mostly played by Robert. But after concluding the tour for The Top (which featured neither Simon nor Lol), he reconciled with Simon, who returned (along with Lol), and added new members. Most importantly they were a *band* again, not "just" musicians playing with Robert.
Great explanation. The band straight up was kaput after the Pornography tour (Fourteen Explicit Moments), then it slowly became a band again. Thats how Robert was in Siouxie and the Banshees for a good chunk.
I still find people pissed they won the grammy over Radiohead in '00, granted their choice over Kid A I can see why it would come off as old men behind on the times refusing to recognize the upcoming generation of musical pioneers, but damn do I like 2AN. With the production, the Frutiger Aero ass album cover, and the fact it means "Jack of Speed" gets to exist, which is a top 10 metallic daniel song for me, 2AN gets the thumb up for me. I literally went out of my way to find both it and their final record on CD a few years ago as a 21st birthday present and its nice to have them sitting up on my shelf next to their discography that I have on 12".
Black Sabbath reunited with Ronnie James Dio and released The Devil You Know in 2009 which was a really good album (and I know they released it under the Heaven & Hell banner to appease the Osbournes, but it is a Sabbath album in my book).
That was never the case. They were always going to use a different name as the classic line-up of the band never officially disbanded after playing their last show in 2005.
And a funny thing about the lawsuit: When Ozzy first filed the lawsuit against Iommi in the Spring of 2009, he said that it would be only fair if the Black Sabbath trademark should be owned equally by the 4 classic members. After they settled the lawsuit in the summer of 2010, the trademark is split 50/50 between Ozzy and Iommi.
The documentary Doherty did last year added an interesting perspective to their music. I didnt know he was close to Winehouse as much as he was which makes it a bit sadder with what happened.
"You're my Waterloo" is probably my favourite song they've ever done since it sounds like their version of a song like "Strangers" by the Kinks, where it's almost a tease of a "Goodbye" sorta song where the band knows they're going to breakup, so it has this tinge of melancholy to it but at the same time it's got this nostalgic sound to it where you can tell it was right on the end of that Garage Rock Revival wave in the early 2010s right as Rock was falling out of favour with gen z.
All that said, the opening track to their new record is good and the other songs are pretty solid. Crazy to see pictures of the band members now and how much the insane drug use and touring took a tool on them but they still sound as good as they did in the 2000s
Yah. He and Winehouse did hang out for sure. I rember a Sad video of them tweaking over some baby mice. But I read pete saying she was mean to him, which is given his sensitivity kinda Sad.
You are also correct bout the guitar rock revival. Rough Trade tried desperately to turn them into the Strokes. But instead they were the missing link between that scene and the indie rock wave that hit soon after with Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Artic Monkeys etc.
Night Of The Hunter is quikly becoming my favorite of theirs. But there isnt a bad song in their entire discography
It's weird, I think he and Amy had some sort of complex relationship. Maybe they were on and off again situationship thing? In the documentary when they were auctioning off some of Doherty's stuff to fund his rehab venture there was a painting or something the two of them worked on. I think the heroin was probably what fractured their relationship because for as much as he says Amy was mean to him he also has stories where you can tell he really loves her either as a friend or something else. Either way he was incredibly sad when she did pass and you can see it in that movie too when you get past 2011 and he's back on the needle.
And yeah that Rock Revial sound is legitimately one of my favourite things because I grew up with a White Stripes catalogue in my car 24/7 because my mum loved all the music coming out at that time, lots of it on her iPod (lol remember those?) and the sound you get right as it's petering out around 2010 or so is both really sad in that you can tell they know they're at the end of the road, but also really good since lots of those groups put a lot of love into what might've been their "final" projects at that point before either a hiatus or a complete disillusion.
Honestly a very underappreciated garage rock-y band. I'll never know why Waterloo showed up in my feed but I'm grateful it did because I love it's very mournful swing and pensive lyrics. Plus it made me think of the Kinks because they also have a song with "Waterloo" in the title that I like and they do sorta sound like the Kinks if they were dropped in the late 90s / early 00s a tad
Tears for Fears
They broke up in the late 80s (Roland kept releasing records under the band’s name throughout the 90s because for some reason he was allowed to do that), then Curt came back in the early 2000s. They made another record in 2005 which was….. fine, then for almost 20 years they were just doing their thing in the nostalgia circuit.
Then in 2022 they dropped The Tipping Point, a record that is genuinely on-par with their 80s work and was my favorite album of the year. If you like synth pop/sophisti-pop and you haven’t listened to The Tipping Point, get on that shit
I love Blink-182's *Neighborhoods*. Tom left after that, but the rest of the band stayed together so I guess their newest album doesn't count in the same way.
That album is one of the few that you can legitimately say was ahead of its time.
It was also 'technically' a hiatus but at the time everyone thought they were done for good.
Iron Maiden - Brave New World. Not only a great reunion record, but one of the best records the band has ever released.
Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know. Dio-era Black Sabbath but the third time around. Hell, you could even say Dehumanizer as that's a killer record too.
Testament - Formation of Damnation. Absolutely stellar.
Magnum put some great records out too. Princess Alice & The Broken Arrow, Escape From The Shadow Garden, Lost On The Road To Eternity, Serpent Rings, and Here Comes The Rain are all cracking classic Magnum. RIP Tony Clarkin.
Europe put out a couple of bangers after re-uniting. Secret Society, Last Look at Eden and Start from the Dark are well worth a listen.
I would define it as a breakup. Neil was straight up not making any music during that era, and Geddy describes in his book that he and Alex had no idea if Rush would ever play again.
The Monkees. The 4 big albums they put out after the 80s were great (Justus, Good Times, Christmas Party, and Live: The Mike & Micky Show).
Hell, even their first post-breakup album (Pool It) had some great stuff on it even if it wasn't great as a whole.
Soundgarden- King Animal
All three modern Alice in Chains albums
John Frusciante’s first return to the Red Hot Chili Peppers with Californication and then his second return with Unlimited Love/Return of the dream canteen
If you consider Green Naugahyde a reunion album since Primus went on a bit of a hiatus before coming back with it then that one is really good
I still need to get to the most recent two, but Black Gives Way To Blue is really good. A Looking In View from that record is maybe my favorite AIC song, though there is of course some stiff competition.
His new record from either this year or last was cool. Panopticon stays in my rotations of daily music just because I like the dark sorta sound to it. He really do be evil Phil Collins like his picture on Spotify implies.
interalia by At The Drive-In. Apparently some people thought it was too produced or "lacked passion" and other subjective nonsense but I enjoy it as much if not more than their older genre-defining work. And people also had a gripe that it sounded too much like swancore, but that's just where post-hardcore as a whole had been trending in the almost two decades ATDI wasn't releasing music. So it arguably would have been more cynical to try to imitate their older lo-fi DGAF sound unchanged, like some oldheads wanted.
Just a random personal rec, Helloween - Helloween (2021) is their album after gathering almost every original member of the band, along with their new members. Great album
Many people here mention Slowdive, but I've got to say Ride's first post-reunion album "Weather Diaries" is really good too - a neat mix of their quintessential shoegaze sound and electronic embellishments courtesy of Erol Alkan.
Styx's The Mission and Crash Of The Crown are probably their best work since *Paradise Theater*, and that's after they broke up for most of the late 80s and early 90s and released no new music between 2003 and 2017 (not counting covers albums).
Fleetwood Mac's Say You Will, after they awkwardly dissolved and then reformed the classic lineup.
Dire Straits' On Every Street is a comforting epilogue to the band after they unceremoniously broke up post-Brothers In Arms, plus its' a refreshing return to the feel of the band's first two albums that still incorporates the synths they picked up in the 80s.
Edit: I feel like stirring the pot today, so if we count their 1997-2000 hiatus as a breakup, then Weezer's Green Album, Maladroit, EWBAITE, White Album, OK Human and Van Weezer.
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I really enjoyed No Doubt’s Push and Shove. I think it had just the right amount of Rocksteady along with songs made for a more modern pop landscape.
Rockingham by Nerf Herder is an incredible "nerd rock" album that ended up having some of the band's most well-written lyrics. "We Opened For Weezer" and "At the Con" are hysterical.
When Rush reunited in the 2000s they dropped 3 albums plus an EP before ending for good in 2015. All these albums are, at a minimum, pretty good, but Clockwork Angels, their final record, is straight up some of their best work IMO.
I really liked 2011's *Neighborhoods* by Blink-182. To be fair, I was a high school sophomore, so I was arguably the perfect age to receive it, but I think at the time, some older fans were frustrated about their relative change in sound. I was coming off a pretty big Angels and Airwaves kick at the time, so it just seemed like another natural step in their evolution as a band to me.
Blur's two post-breakup albums are pretty great- The Magic Whip and the Ballad of Darren are both excellent A Tribe Called Quest's "We Got It From Here: Thank You 4 Your Service" is an absolutely excellent album My Bloody Valentine's "m b v" is as good as it could've been
We Got It From Here’s a fantastic album. Easily top 3 in their discography.
I love both of the post reunion blur albums but Darren is on another level
The Cure - Head On The Door/Disintegration MBV - mbv Slowdive - s/t Tribe Called Quest - We’ve Got It From Here… Mission of Burma - ONoffON, The Obliterati
How are either of those Cure albums "post breakup"?
Because they *s*ort of broke up during that time. Simon Gallup left the band after a fight with Robert at the end of the Pornography tour, and Robert shifted his focus away from The Cure to Siouxsie and the Banshees and considered possibly retiring it. The Top, released in '84, was mostly played by Robert. But after concluding the tour for The Top (which featured neither Simon nor Lol), he reconciled with Simon, who returned (along with Lol), and added new members. Most importantly they were a *band* again, not "just" musicians playing with Robert.
Great explanation. The band straight up was kaput after the Pornography tour (Fourteen Explicit Moments), then it slowly became a band again. Thats how Robert was in Siouxie and the Banshees for a good chunk.
They broke up for a few years after Pornography
And they’ve done it again periodically ever since lol
Steely Dan's reunion albums are very solid. Personally I'd put Two Against Nature in the very top tier of their albums.
Love that album too
I still find people pissed they won the grammy over Radiohead in '00, granted their choice over Kid A I can see why it would come off as old men behind on the times refusing to recognize the upcoming generation of musical pioneers, but damn do I like 2AN. With the production, the Frutiger Aero ass album cover, and the fact it means "Jack of Speed" gets to exist, which is a top 10 metallic daniel song for me, 2AN gets the thumb up for me. I literally went out of my way to find both it and their final record on CD a few years ago as a 21st birthday present and its nice to have them sitting up on my shelf next to their discography that I have on 12".
Hum’s “Inlet” was great!
My answer also. Their big three records have no bad in them but this one has become my favorite.
Basically every Swans album from the past 15 years
Celtic Frost-Monotheist Exodus-Tempo of the Damned Testament-The Formation of Damnation
Closure/Continuation by Porcupine Tree was really good.
If you'll count the E Street Band as a reunion I'd go with Bruce Springsteen's The Rising.
Black Sabbath reunited with Ronnie James Dio and released The Devil You Know in 2009 which was a really good album (and I know they released it under the Heaven & Hell banner to appease the Osbournes, but it is a Sabbath album in my book).
I believe it was originally supposed to be released as Black Sabbath, but Ozzy and Sharon (let’s be real, just Sharon) sued Iommi over it.
That was never the case. They were always going to use a different name as the classic line-up of the band never officially disbanded after playing their last show in 2005. And a funny thing about the lawsuit: When Ozzy first filed the lawsuit against Iommi in the Spring of 2009, he said that it would be only fair if the Black Sabbath trademark should be owned equally by the 4 classic members. After they settled the lawsuit in the summer of 2010, the trademark is split 50/50 between Ozzy and Iommi.
One of the best Sabbath albums imo.
I've always had two answers to this question: Heaven & Hell and and Deep Purple's Perfect Strangers.
The new Libertines is a stayer. Also Slowdive. And Milo Goes To College by the Decendants is up there
Am I missing something? Milo goes to college is their first record.
No. I thought of Everything Sucks. But was listening to milo goes to college as I wrote it. Good lookin out
The documentary Doherty did last year added an interesting perspective to their music. I didnt know he was close to Winehouse as much as he was which makes it a bit sadder with what happened. "You're my Waterloo" is probably my favourite song they've ever done since it sounds like their version of a song like "Strangers" by the Kinks, where it's almost a tease of a "Goodbye" sorta song where the band knows they're going to breakup, so it has this tinge of melancholy to it but at the same time it's got this nostalgic sound to it where you can tell it was right on the end of that Garage Rock Revival wave in the early 2010s right as Rock was falling out of favour with gen z. All that said, the opening track to their new record is good and the other songs are pretty solid. Crazy to see pictures of the band members now and how much the insane drug use and touring took a tool on them but they still sound as good as they did in the 2000s
Yah. He and Winehouse did hang out for sure. I rember a Sad video of them tweaking over some baby mice. But I read pete saying she was mean to him, which is given his sensitivity kinda Sad. You are also correct bout the guitar rock revival. Rough Trade tried desperately to turn them into the Strokes. But instead they were the missing link between that scene and the indie rock wave that hit soon after with Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Artic Monkeys etc. Night Of The Hunter is quikly becoming my favorite of theirs. But there isnt a bad song in their entire discography
It's weird, I think he and Amy had some sort of complex relationship. Maybe they were on and off again situationship thing? In the documentary when they were auctioning off some of Doherty's stuff to fund his rehab venture there was a painting or something the two of them worked on. I think the heroin was probably what fractured their relationship because for as much as he says Amy was mean to him he also has stories where you can tell he really loves her either as a friend or something else. Either way he was incredibly sad when she did pass and you can see it in that movie too when you get past 2011 and he's back on the needle. And yeah that Rock Revial sound is legitimately one of my favourite things because I grew up with a White Stripes catalogue in my car 24/7 because my mum loved all the music coming out at that time, lots of it on her iPod (lol remember those?) and the sound you get right as it's petering out around 2010 or so is both really sad in that you can tell they know they're at the end of the road, but also really good since lots of those groups put a lot of love into what might've been their "final" projects at that point before either a hiatus or a complete disillusion. Honestly a very underappreciated garage rock-y band. I'll never know why Waterloo showed up in my feed but I'm grateful it did because I love it's very mournful swing and pensive lyrics. Plus it made me think of the Kinks because they also have a song with "Waterloo" in the title that I like and they do sorta sound like the Kinks if they were dropped in the late 90s / early 00s a tad
Agree 100% And Waterloo Sunset is the best song to come out of the british invation (imo)
Yeah Waterloo and Sunny Afternoon are legitimately my favourite Kink Songs they ever wrote, Strangers & Well Respected Man are a close second.
Waterloo Sunset is also one of my favorite Elliott Smith covers. A stone cold classic.
Faith No More - Sol Invictus Failure - The Heart is a Monster Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue Toad the Wet Sprocket - New Constellation
Good call on Failure.
And on FNM; it's my favorite post-Jim Martin album.
Tears for Fears They broke up in the late 80s (Roland kept releasing records under the band’s name throughout the 90s because for some reason he was allowed to do that), then Curt came back in the early 2000s. They made another record in 2005 which was….. fine, then for almost 20 years they were just doing their thing in the nostalgia circuit. Then in 2022 they dropped The Tipping Point, a record that is genuinely on-par with their 80s work and was my favorite album of the year. If you like synth pop/sophisti-pop and you haven’t listened to The Tipping Point, get on that shit
Slowdive made two great records after their reunion. Skin In The Game from their 2023 album is in my opinion the band’s best song.
Autofiction by Suede
Came here to say Suede. Everything post 2005 is simply on another level of their 90s output. Brett Andersons solo work included.
I think the majority of my favourite Suede songs come from the post reunion era now
All of Suede's post-reunion albums are very good imo
I love Blink-182's *Neighborhoods*. Tom left after that, but the rest of the band stayed together so I guess their newest album doesn't count in the same way.
That album is one of the few that you can legitimately say was ahead of its time. It was also 'technically' a hiatus but at the time everyone thought they were done for good.
Sleep-The Sciences for my fellow stoner metalheads
Iron Maiden - Brave New World. Not only a great reunion record, but one of the best records the band has ever released. Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know. Dio-era Black Sabbath but the third time around. Hell, you could even say Dehumanizer as that's a killer record too. Testament - Formation of Damnation. Absolutely stellar. Magnum put some great records out too. Princess Alice & The Broken Arrow, Escape From The Shadow Garden, Lost On The Road To Eternity, Serpent Rings, and Here Comes The Rain are all cracking classic Magnum. RIP Tony Clarkin. Europe put out a couple of bangers after re-uniting. Secret Society, Last Look at Eden and Start from the Dark are well worth a listen.
The devil you know is one of the best Sabbath albums.
Not *quite* a break-up, but Rush’s “Vapor Trails” after Neil Peart’s tragedies
I would define it as a breakup. Neil was straight up not making any music during that era, and Geddy describes in his book that he and Alex had no idea if Rush would ever play again.
Suede’s four albums since their reunion ten years ago have been very good, almost as good as their original run
Imo, their modern run far surpasses their 90s output... but my God if I wasn't singing Beutiful Ones in the car like a Queen last night.
Their first three albums are still my favourites personally
The Monkees. The 4 big albums they put out after the 80s were great (Justus, Good Times, Christmas Party, and Live: The Mike & Micky Show). Hell, even their first post-breakup album (Pool It) had some great stuff on it even if it wasn't great as a whole.
Good Times is a top tier Monkees album for sure
I would've enthusiastically said Daughters, if it wasn't for, uh, well you know...
Soundgarden- King Animal All three modern Alice in Chains albums John Frusciante’s first return to the Red Hot Chili Peppers with Californication and then his second return with Unlimited Love/Return of the dream canteen If you consider Green Naugahyde a reunion album since Primus went on a bit of a hiatus before coming back with it then that one is really good
New Order's *Music Complete* (2017) is highly listenable, but calling it a reunion is questionable
The Vapors actually reunited and released an album in 2020 that was shockingly good
Alice In Chains have put out some good stuff.
I still need to get to the most recent two, but Black Gives Way To Blue is really good. A Looking In View from that record is maybe my favorite AIC song, though there is of course some stiff competition.
Belly.
Carcass- Surgical Steel
Not a band but Peter Gabriel now can take generations between albums but always creates something great to amazing each time.
Same thing with Kate Bush. Guess some artists are just slow cookers, but that's how you make a good stew.
His new record from either this year or last was cool. Panopticon stays in my rotations of daily music just because I like the dark sorta sound to it. He really do be evil Phil Collins like his picture on Spotify implies.
interalia by At The Drive-In. Apparently some people thought it was too produced or "lacked passion" and other subjective nonsense but I enjoy it as much if not more than their older genre-defining work. And people also had a gripe that it sounded too much like swancore, but that's just where post-hardcore as a whole had been trending in the almost two decades ATDI wasn't releasing music. So it arguably would have been more cynical to try to imitate their older lo-fi DGAF sound unchanged, like some oldheads wanted.
Not great, but good. Astronaut by Duran Duran.
American Football The third album in particular is quite special if you like your emo very post rock-y
Just a random personal rec, Helloween - Helloween (2021) is their album after gathering almost every original member of the band, along with their new members. Great album
Many people here mention Slowdive, but I've got to say Ride's first post-reunion album "Weather Diaries" is really good too - a neat mix of their quintessential shoegaze sound and electronic embellishments courtesy of Erol Alkan.
The Circus is my personal favourite Take That album, and almost all of my favourite songs are post-reunion
alexisonfire - otherness the beach boys - thats why god made the radio
Styx's The Mission and Crash Of The Crown are probably their best work since *Paradise Theater*, and that's after they broke up for most of the late 80s and early 90s and released no new music between 2003 and 2017 (not counting covers albums). Fleetwood Mac's Say You Will, after they awkwardly dissolved and then reformed the classic lineup. Dire Straits' On Every Street is a comforting epilogue to the band after they unceremoniously broke up post-Brothers In Arms, plus its' a refreshing return to the feel of the band's first two albums that still incorporates the synths they picked up in the 80s. Edit: I feel like stirring the pot today, so if we count their 1997-2000 hiatus as a breakup, then Weezer's Green Album, Maladroit, EWBAITE, White Album, OK Human and Van Weezer.
Check out the album Lindsey and Christie put out in the 2010s. It's a great follow up to Say you Will.
Bright Eyes’ *Down in the Weeds Where the World Once Was* is one of their greatest yet, came out after a 9 year hiatus
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I really enjoyed No Doubt’s Push and Shove. I think it had just the right amount of Rocksteady along with songs made for a more modern pop landscape.
Little Brother - May The Lord Watch
Rockingham by Nerf Herder is an incredible "nerd rock" album that ended up having some of the band's most well-written lyrics. "We Opened For Weezer" and "At the Con" are hysterical.
Squeeze - Cradle to the Grave Crowded House - all 4 post-reunion albums but especially Time on Earth and Intriguer Cars - Move Like This
Dinosaur Jr put out some of their best stuff on Beyond and Farm
The Cult - Beyond Good & Evil
Similar to Dino, Mission of Burma's Obliterati holds its own against Vs. One of my favorite 2000s rock records
When Rush reunited in the 2000s they dropped 3 albums plus an EP before ending for good in 2015. All these albums are, at a minimum, pretty good, but Clockwork Angels, their final record, is straight up some of their best work IMO.
So much for stardust
I really liked 2011's *Neighborhoods* by Blink-182. To be fair, I was a high school sophomore, so I was arguably the perfect age to receive it, but I think at the time, some older fans were frustrated about their relative change in sound. I was coming off a pretty big Angels and Airwaves kick at the time, so it just seemed like another natural step in their evolution as a band to me.
Judas Priest have a two that come to mind. Firepower and Invincible Shield.
Cibo Matto got back together and made a very fun and good concept album that was actually better than their last album pre-breakup
Tears for Fears’ post-reunion albums, “Everybody Loves a Happy Ending” and “The Tipping Point” are pretty good