The 'return to form'...
We've all heard this term bandied about a lot, I'd imagine. I think once an artist gets over a certain age, every new album they put out is destined to have the claim 'a return to form' or 'their best album since (insert album here)'. David Bowie, Van Morrison, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Neil Young have all been recipients of this claim in recent years- sometimes it's merited, but a lot of times it's not (I can't remember the last time I played Neil Young's 'Living With War', for example).
Which albums would you say genuinely delivered on this? I personally would nominate Paul McCartney's 'Chaos and Creation In The Back Yard' which I find to be one of his most solid, consistent albums ever, and David Bowie's 'Heathen' which I feel has some of the best songs he'd written in years.
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Personally
I reckon that 'Memory Almost Full' is far fabber than 'Chaos' but hey, give the ole guy credit for producing not one, but two, 'returns to form'.
The form book
Interesting one, this. All through the 70s and 80s each new Rolling Stones album was hailed by at least someone as "their best since "Exile On Main Street" until it got to the point that the pretence could no longer be maintained. The whole notion of a "return to form" is inappropriate, really, being drawn from the sporting world where careers last a handful of summers and a player can go back to playing the way they were doing a couple of years earlier. Bob Dylan has made great records throughout his career but he has never gone back and tried to make one like he did before. Paul McCartney, on the other hand, is a bloke in his sixties trying desperately to do what he did naturally as a twenty five year old. He's not the only one.
I remember
You had a great piece on why you didn't review the last Rolling Stones on its release (Bigger Bang) and that summed it up for me. And quite honestly has anyone played that return to form since?
Still a crackin live band. Couldn't stomach another live album though......what's that Mick ? ......You have what ....?
I hate to disagree but ...
I'm no great defender of McCartney but I think you're being a little harsh here. The last CD seemed to me to be a man in his sixties addressing the concerns of a man in his sixties, at least lyrically. And the sound was closer to Wings than to that group he was briefly with in his twenties.
And ... Dylan has 'gone back', or at least tried to, on a couple of occasions. While the end result was different even he described 'Street Legal' as an attempt to recapture that 'Blonde On Blonde' wild mercury sound. ('Street Legal' for the record being one of my top 3 Dylan LPs). And 'Under A Red Sky' was an enjoyable pastiche of his 60's studio sound. We have two consecutive acoustic covers albums in the 80's, and 'Planet Waves'/'Before The Flood' was a very deliberate attempt to recover from a bit of an early 70's slump by reviving the whole 60's Hawks sound. I suspect that Dylan is a little more career conscious when the mood takes him than we often give him credit for.
R.E.M.
I think every release since Monster has been heralded as a return to form.
None of them have been, and the new one won't be either.
I Refer You to
New Adventures in Hi-Fi which has held up over the years better than most, (or so a consensus of myself and my revisionist friends would have it) and is concluded with the beautiful Electrolite. Its probably one of my favourite REM records now.
But after that.....I agree with you.
REM
A singles band masquerading as an album act.
What?
Like the Beatles? And Ray Charles? And Bob Marley? And the Rolling Stones? And most of the worthwhile popular music of the last fifty years?
Up to a point, Lord Copper
REM seem to precede each album with a catchy, memorable single. Further investigation of the album reveals - to an audience that gets more selective each time - a load of obscure flannel set to meandering, hook-free tunes. I know they've made good albums in the dim and distant and that they're interesting, interview-friendly blokes, but I don't buy it that they're in the same league as the acts you mention & maintain it's the singles they'll be remembered for. Big ups to them for making their new album 30 minutes long, though.
I'm with the pundits below:
Their most interesting songs are the weird minor key chappies: Green grow the Rushes, Cuyahoga, World Leader Pretend, Country Feedback, Endgame, (especially) Let me in, Strange Currencies, Beat a Drum to name a few, from thru'out. Soft spot for At my most beautiful, also.
New Test Leper and Be Mine...
...are world class. And there are many millions who left REM at Monster who will never have heard either.
Electrolite
Is one of my favourite REM songs, and possibly my favourite album-closer by anybody - the last line is brilliant. But I still think the album sounds like REM struggling to stay afloat.
Up was also brilliant
Although Monster, Around the Sun and Reveal weren't among their best, each contained 4 or 5 cracking songs.
And as for the comment that they are a singles band! Funnily enough, their choice of singles are often the weakest album tracks.
Bad songs or bad production.
I think the last two suffered from bad production rather than having poor songs. The live concert in Cardiff that I saw had a big chunk of tracks from Around The Sun and they sounded superb live. The studio versions have no life at all. Interesting that they have a new producer for the new Cd coming out.....
Return to form overrated?
Would anyone else prefer that people didn't "return to form" but kept on doing whatever they wanted to be doing artistically and musically. If you've already got your preferred albums by Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Van Morrison, etc., do you really want them churning out photocopies?
Okay, I suppose there are commercial reasons: I've come out on here before as being a Mike Oldfield fan and bemoan the fact that he has had several great albums ("Amarok" and "The Songs of Distant Earth" off the top of my head) that never are as commercially successful as the ones with the Tubular Bell on the cover.
This is a good point
"Return to form" usually means "has gone back to making songs like the first album, when they were new and we all liked them".
I thought Fundamental by the Pet Shop Boys was a return to form because it included their best songs in about ten years - but equally it was a return to form in the other sense, because it sounded like a great big galumphing chunk of Wagnerian 80s pop. I'm happy either way.
A Bigger Bang...
I enjoyed it when it came out but now, I'm as indifferent about it as everything else they've done since 'Some Girls'. Point of fact, I actually think 'A Bigger Bang' has even fewer memorable songs on it than 'Steel Wheels' and 'Voodoo Lounge', and it also has the dubious honour of having 'Sweet Neo Con' and 'Infamy' which I rate as two of their poorest songs ever.
I enjoy everything Paul McCartney's done since 'Flaming Pie', really but 'Chaos' is my favourite. They've all been a bit different- 'Memory Almost Full's second half had a suite which I personally enjoyed greatly.
Lou Reed's New York...
...was not only a true return to form after quite a number of duds, but was, in my opinion, an absolute classic by anyone's standards.
Making a good record after years of bad/mediocre ones
That's how I'd define a "return to form" and as such it's fun to examine performers who've been around a while and whose form has gradually dropped away - which obviously applies to the vast majority of them (perhaps discounting some classical musicians).
David Bowie explicitly referred to this phenomenon some time in the late 90s; when an interviewer said his new album was his best since Scary Monsters, he replied "that's what they've said about every record I've made since Black Tie/White Noise!" For what it's worth, I'd regard BT/WN as a return to form, as it is a solid, listenable album with a few inspired moments and some plucky experimentalism: whatever one thinks about Bowie's abilities on saxophone, it took a lot of guts to duet with Lester Bowie (no relation, but felicitously chosen, no?). Also, it followed Let's Dance, Tonight, Never Let Me Down and the two Tin Machine efforts. And Heathen was a higher spike still, a truly excellent collection.
If Joni Mitchell were to make a record I wanted to listen to more than once - and it's been a long time since that happened, yep, I'd call that a return to form.
So, who are the artistes from whom a return to form (yes, it's totally subjective, blah blah blah - but let's imagine someone making a Bloody Good Record) would be most unexpected, and most welcome? I'd suggest:
Rod Stewart
Aretha Franklin
Al Green
John Martyn
The Pogues
Good Call, Azeem!
Yes, who really needs a return to form. And, like, now!
I like your list but I liked Al Green "return to form" of last year or so, Everythings OK, which was.
How about: Fairport Convention (well they're on tour as we speak), Ron Kavana (what happened?), UB 40 (maybe a bit late..), Paul Rodgers (ditch the dead mans shoes)and Ian McNabb.
Al Green is astonishing
Surely there can be no better example of It's Like The Last 35 Years Never Happened than this:
A Return to Form
Can I nominate Robert Plant for Raising Sand ? He sounds so alive and energised on this thing of beauty with Alison Kraus. It´s like he´s come straight off a Led Zep album. He sounds horny.
Nick Lowe´s At My Age brought this old trooper back into focus as well. I loved it.
But the Daddy of them all has to be the American Recordings of Johnny Cash. Now that is a comeback and a half.
A Return to Form
You have nailed it. Johhny Cash was not so much returning to form as ripping the form book in two. Robert Plant/Led Zep are not my bag but his Kraus duets are perfection. Neil Young has had many returns of form but then he had much to return from. Terry Reid is the one I want to hear.
Good call on Plant...
...but his solo career has really been consistently interesting for this fan. I don't think he's repeated himself yet, he's carried on putting out excellent albums. I'd argue though that 'Mighty Rearranger' and 'Raising Sand' are perhaps his best yet; two different albums and they get better and better every time I play them.