Not every rock band or artist has the lasting power of The Rolling Stones or AC/DC. In fact, it’s pretty rare. For every act that sells out arenas and releases chart-topping albums decades after they first made it big, there are plenty of others who only got a few years in the limelight. Even artists who have beaten the odds and issued a long run of popular albums eventually fade into relative obscurity.
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Just because a once-popular act becomes less popular doesn’t mean they’re done putting out quality work. Each of the artists featured here turned out at least one album a decade or more past their commercial prime that is worthy of more attention. These albums were the victims of bad timing. Had they been released earlier—prior to when their creators were eclipsed by newer acts—they likely would have been much bigger hits.
These are not highly-vaunted comeback albums that revived an artist’s career, like Steely Dan’s Two Against Nature or George Harrison’s Cloud Nine, but rather ones that failed to resuscitate the artist’s album sales prospects. In another music era, they probably would have succeeded, just based on quality. Each decade, going back to the 1980s, is represented here by a stellar late-career album.
2020s: Liz Phair, Soberish
After Phair hit her commercial apex in 2003 with her self-titled album, she released just three more albums, with only Somebody’s Miracle charting on the Billboard 200 in 2005. Liz Phair was a polarizing album, in part because it is unabashedly a pop album with slick production, which was viewed as the antithesis of what her fans loved about her indie rock classic Exile in Guyville.
[RELATED: The Soberish Reflections Of Liz Phair]
Yet, what Liz Phair proved was that, regardless of the genre or recording technique, she just writes great songs. On Soberish, Phair’s knack for writing frankly about relationships and pairing her incisive lyrics with catchy melodies is fully intact. Phair achieves this again and again on the album, but nowhere more than on “Ba Ba Ba,” which details the end of a once-blissful relationship. She sums up the demise with the following lines: And the only thing that I can recall of that scene / Are the wings on your back and the gravel underneath my feet.
2010s: R.E.M., Collapse into Now
R.E.M. were a different band once drummer Bill Berry left in 1997, and the more experimental approach they took on Up and Reveal didn’t appeal to everyone who became fans during their heyday. They returned to a more guitar-driven sound on their penultimate album, Accelerate, but on Collapse into Now—the band’s final effort—they integrate elements from some of their different eras.
Those who enjoyed the band’s janglier periods should check out “Überlin,” “It Happened Today,” and “Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I,” while those who want to hear R.E.M rock will likely appreciate “All the Best,” “Mine Smell Like Honey,” and “That Someone Is You.” The album’s variety works in its favor and deserves another chance from listeners who dropped out on R.E.M. after New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
2000s: Peter Gabriel, Up
Reaching No. 9 on the Billboard 200, Up could hardly be considered a flop, but its popularity paled in comparison to that of Us (1992) and So (1986). It’s not just the passage of time that rendered Up less of a cultural phenomenon than its immediate predecessors. Many of the album’s lyrics deal with dying, death and grief.
But by and large, the songs aren’t exactly “sad bangers.” They’re merely sad and contemplative. As with Gabriel’s earlier albums, the songs are beautifully crafted and feature exquisite soundscapes. For those looking for something along the lines of “Sledgehammer,” this album will likely miss the mark, but tracks like “Darkness” and “No Way Out” are among the most dynamic and affecting songs Gabriel has ever recorded.
1990s: Toto, Tambu
To say Toto experienced some rough times leading up to this 1995 release is a massive understatement. Between their 1982 smash, Toto IV, and their 1990 compilation, Past to Present, 1977-1990, Toto cycled through four lead vocalists, experienced declining album sales in the U.S., and were dropped by Columbia Records after the release of The Seventh One in 1988. Then, in 1992, drummer extraordinaire and co-founder Jeff Porcaro died just as the band was about to release and tour behind Kingdom of Desire.
The group nearly disbanded, and it would have been more than understandable if Tambu—the follow-up to Kingdom of Desire—never got made. The result was a very different version of Toto, and not just because Simon Phillips joined the band as their new drummer. It sounds far more organic than anything they recorded in the ‘70s or ‘80s, and as on the preceding album, Steve Lukather is the primary lead vocalist. This time, though, he shares the load with Jenny Douglas-McRae and John James. The album lacks an obvious hit because the songs take their time to develop, but tunes like the Badfinger-esque “If You Belong to Me” and “The Road Goes On” are as compelling as anything Toto has ever done.
1980s: Todd Rundgren, Nearly Human
Rundgren did have a minor hit earlier in the ‘80s with The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect and the single, “Bang the Drum All Day,” but he never matched the popularity of his 1972 double album, Something/Anything? Nearly Human, released in 1989, was loaded with the same sort of sweet, melodic pop songs that earned him fans in the early ‘70s, but this disc never cracked the upper half of the Billboard 200.
The album was recorded live at a pair of Bay Area studios, and it shows in the songs’ bright and brassy sound. As soon as you dip your toes into the infectious opener, “The Want of a Nail,” which includes vocals from Bobby Womack, you’ll want to keep listening.
Photo by Frazer Harrison/WireImage
