Favourite artists who are now shadows of themselves -

[Desire Lines]

Pretty self-explanatory. Mine is Of Montreal: Kevin Barnes started a great album streak in 2004 with Satanic Panic at the Attic and ended it with Paralytic Stalks. I really adored his poppy, enthusiastic music paired with busy, embarassing, self-confessional lyrics and Paralytic Stalks was his peak music and lyrics wise. After that he released a somewhat boring Bob Dylan worship album, a boring messy disco album, drank the Tumblr kool-aid, and released two below average albums (which still have some good songs but they are nowhere as good as before). To give you an idea, here's his music video from 2006:

And here's one from two years ago. I fucking hate the lyrics for this song.

You can even compare the comments. The later is infested with "this is so gay <3" shit and I hate it

 

[Gyps]

The streak didn't start in 2004 man, Cherry Peel came out in '97 and it's still one of the best indie pop albums of all time.

I guess the obvious example of a band like this would be Weezer

Crowds go wild for Axe body spray though

 

[The Fifth Waltz]

Ellie Goulding:

Ellie Goulding is the less horny version of Tove Lo

Halcyon Days was her best album (and my most favourite electronic album) with uniquely sounding EDM tracks as well with slower songs. As time went on and popularity follwed her, she released Delirium that according to her was supposed to be a pop album but was a failure in my books. Ever since then people have been calling Ellie a sell out. Lmao.

From the Halcyon Era

Delirium Era

Panic! At The Disco:
P! Started out as this quirky ass emo pop band that had a certain charm, their first album A Fever You Can't Sweat Out is a classic and a banger. So basically over the years P! Has lost every single original member except Brendan Urie (the singer). Since he's the last remaining member he still goes by the name P! And now they churn out pop songs.

A Fever You Can't Sweat Out

Death of A Bachelor

Fall Out Boy:
They set out to save rock n roll but managed to make every dead rock star roll in their grave
From Under The Cork Tree

Vs
M A N I A

 

[MrTroll]

Literally any band that sticks around longer than a decade.

 

[Star Wormwood]

Pretty self-explanatory. Mine is Of Montreal: Kevin Barnes started a great album streak in 2004 with Satanic Panic at the Attic and ended it with Paralytic Stalks. I really adored his poppy, enthusiastic music paired with busy, embarassing, self-confessional lyrics and Paralytic Stalks was his peak music and lyrics wise. After that he released a somewhat boring Bob Dylan worship album, a boring messy disco album, drank the Tumblr kool-aid, and released two below average albums (which still have some good songs but they are nowhere as good as before). To give you an idea, here's his music video from 2006:

And here's one from two years ago. I fucking hate the lyrics for this song.

You can even compare the comments. The later is infested with "this is so gay <3" shit and I hate it

I kinda like White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood which dropped just a couple of days ago, sounds like being sickly drunk at a discotheque. I can understand not giving a chance if their tumblrina shit turned you off.

The streak didn't start in 2004 man, Cherry Peel came out in '97 and it's still one of the best indie pop albums of all time.

I guess the obvious example of a band like this would be Weezer

Crowds go wild for Axe body spray though

You could've at least posted Pork and Beans, which was embarrassing when it came out in the late 2000s but now serves as a perfect time capsule of 10 year old memes.

Special shout outs to pretty much every prog rock band of the 70s trying to chase the new wave trend in the 80s. Out of all of them only King Crimson came out of the 80s looking good, but that's because they somehow ending up accidentally inventing math rock.

My dad and I have had many a drunk angry conversation about how much we fucking hate Yes' 90125 compared to shit like Close to the Edge

 

[Desire Lines]

I kinda like White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood which dropped just a couple of days ago, sounds like being sickly drunk at a discotheque. I can understand not giving a chance if their tumblrina shit turned you off.

I have mentioned it in the OP post as "below average" actually. It has some neat moments and I really like two songs: Writing The Circles/Orgone Tropics and If You Talk to Symbol/Hostility Voyeur, but as a whole it's kinda weak. And just read this fucking essay Kevin Barnes wrote on the album, especially about the album title:

Two important events occurred during the making of White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood. I became "Simulated Reality" paranoid and I fell in LOVE.

Well a lot more happened during the process of writing and recording, but those are the two big ones. I also reached a healthy point of self-forgiveness for my failed marriage and became deeply educated in the lies of America the Great.

I feel like a switch was recently turned on in my brain and now I'm beginning to see through the lies that have been fed to me my whole life by the masters of media and by those who control and manipulate the narrative of our cultural identity and social order.

My paranoia began during the presidential election cycle and reached a dangerous peak shortly after the inauguration. In the meantime I watched and read countless works of art in a mad effort to be reminded of how many truly brilliant people there are living/struggling among us and to try to maintain a positive outlook. The works of Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, Chris Kraus, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the Autobiographies of Malcolm X and Mark E Smith were all great inspirations, to name a few.

Musically, I was very inspired by the extended dance mixes that people used to make for pop singles back in the ‘80s. It's so cool how a lot of the 80's hits had these really intricate and interesting longer versions that wouldn't get played on the radio and could only be heard in the clubs. I used that template with these tracks, I wanted them all to feel like the extended "club edit" of album tracks.

I also decided to abandon the "live band in a room" approach that I had been using on the recent albums and work more on my own or remotely with collaborators. I used the same drum sample packs throughout because I wanted the album to have a rhythmic continuity to it. I wanted the drums to have a strong and consistent identity, similar to how Prince's Linn Electronics LM-1 drum machine played such an important role on his classic albums. Zac Colwell also played a huge role on this album, adding saxophones and synths to most of the songs. I also got a lot of help from long time collaborators, and "of Montreal" touring members, Clayton Rychlik and JoJo Glidewell.

The two title concept came to me when I was thinking about how difficult it is to frame the message of a song with just one title, because so often the songs are about so many different subjects. ‘White Is Relic’ was inspired by James Baldwin’s writings regarding the creation and propagation of a toxic American White identity. I've come to learn how it's just a tool wielded by the 1% to give poor white people a false sense of superiority in an effort to keep the masses placated and numb to how deeply we're all getting fucked by our capitalist rulers. An ‘Irrealis Mood’ is a linguistic indicator that something isn't yet reality but does have the potential to become so.

I'm always searching for new identities so this concept of the death of "Whiteness" appeals to me greatly. Might be the only way to save the world.

-Kevin Barnes, January 2018

 

[Star Wormwood]

I have mentioned it in the OP post as "below average" actually. It has some neat moments and I really like two songs: Writing The Circles/Orgone Tropics and If You Talk to Symbol/Hostility Voyeur, but as a whole it's kinda weak. And just read this fucking essay Kevin Barnes wrote on the album, especially about the album title:

I'd say that I'm surprised that Barnes is this much of a cunt, but I fell in love with the dude's music as he was singing about discussing avant-garde playwrights at a Swedish music festival, so if anything I'm surprised he hasn't sunk to screeching on twitter.

 

[Gyps]

Now that I think of it, a lot of great songwriters who do the confessional lyrics schtick tend to burn out. Sean Bonnette has been going the same route, sadly

You could've at least posted Pork and Beans, which was embarrassing when it came out in the late 2000s but now serves as a perfect time capsule of 10 year old memes

Well I kind of chose it because it was an example of Rivers destroying his old, good material. Totally agree about Yes, though.

 

[Star Wormwood]

Now that I think of it, a lot of great songwriters who do the confessional lyrics schtick tend to burn out. Sean Bonnette has been going the same route, sadly

It's pretty hard to battle your personal demons when you don't have any left to fight. It makes me worried about what dudes like Jeff Rosenstock are gonna sound like in ten years, I'll be heartbroken if he starts writing boring shit just about Barron's racist campaign or some shit.

 

[fortunecookie]

Uncle Murda, eminem, snoop dogg

Theyre not really shadows but just lost their edge. Especially Uncle Murda and thats a real pity cause he was the most hardened gangster to ever be in the rap scene.

Also not an artist but hiphop or whatevers left of it is a total shitstain now. Fortunately I now listen to witch house.

 

[Somsnosa]

Diablo Swing Orchestra changing their main singer was a kick in the teeth. They're an orchestra/metal band and the lead singer added an heavy opera element

last year or so she left and they got one of these 'alternative chick' singers. I swear they make them in a factory

I got this video in my youtube notifs when it came out, and I've never heard of them since.

 

[TheMaxHeadroomIncident]

If you ask me? Dead Kennedys. Their heyday in the 1980s were filled with consistently great albums, but then they sued Jello Biafra and Alternative Tentacles for bullshit reasons (which I will not go into here), basically destroying their own label and getting a new lead singer, along with changing their stances on topics such as piracy ("MP3 Get Off the Web"?! Really?!) and, for lack of a better word (and boy, oh boy, do I fucking hate this word) selling out.

 

[Dirt McGirt]

I honestly feel like Damon Albarn completely shit the bed with Humanz and there wasn't a single track I cared too much for.

 

[UselessRubberKeyboard]

Diablo Swing Orchestra changing their main singer was a kick in the teeth. They're an orchestra/metal band and the lead singer added an heavy opera element

last year or so she left and they got one of these 'alternative chick' singers. I swear they make them in a factory

I got this video in my youtube notifs when it came out, and I've never heard of them since.

Holy fuck, did they change for the worst! That second song is pure cringe pop and absolute trash. What a waste of a good start.

 

[Nien Nunb]

Kind of a blanket, but rock bands who try to make the next "anti-Trump" anthem. They're all so shallow and boring.

I honestly feel like Damon Albarn completely shit the bed with Humanz and there wasn't a single track I cared too much for.

I honestly feel bad for Damon. I can 100% see why people dislike Humanz and some of The Fall, but everything he's done after Demon Days has been shit on because it's not "real Gorillaz".

 

[Desire Lines]

Kind of a blanket, but rock bands who try to make the next "anti-Trump" anthem. They're all so shallow and boring.

Oh yeah, election bullshit. Remember Le Tigre? Some pretty fun girl-action dance-punk, right? Nope, they decided to completely shit on their legacy two years ago with a comeback track that supports Hillary. The lyrics, the instrumental, the singing - it's all fucking terrible and this is probably the last song they'll ever release.

 

[Autopsy]

Literally any band that sticks around longer than a decade.

Honestly, this is what makes the exceptions so interesting. Depending on what part of their music you like, ELO breaks this rule by a small margin (~15 years) or way longer (~30 years). There's well over a decade between Prog-Styx and Synth-Styx, and Fly by Night was released over a decade before Hold Your Fire.

 

[timecop]

I honestly feel like Damon Albarn completely shit the bed with Humanz and there wasn't a single track I cared too much for.

i was going to say something along the lines of this. it feels as though somebody that's only heard feel good inc took over the band, throwing black people at the wall until something stuck. i don't care about any of their future work, and i listened to their music since when the OG gorillaz album was new.

 

[Dolphin Lundgren]

The Get Up Kids. They were great in their 20's. Their albums now, not so much.

 

[Darwin Watterson]

No mention of Eminem, who went from being badass with good songs to obsessively trying to get Trump-senpai to notice him?