This thead idea grew out of Googa's topic about artists who came out of creative slumps.

I'm thinking of Paul Weller, who wasted two or three years in the latter Style Council trying to record perfect impersonations of black American soul records, ironically making a few soulless records in the process by avoiding all the distinct qualities that he himself brought to the table. Once he went back to doing what he was good at, as a solo artist, there was no stopping him.

Are there any artists you wish would stop aspiring to something different and just go back to doing what they're really good at?

I wish Pete Townshend would at least attempt to write and record one more solo, studio album of all-new songs, instead of touring with Daltrey, repackaging Who songs for best-of CD's, promoting his girlfriend's career, accidently downloading kiddie porn, and sticking his foot in his mouth in interviews,

Often, it's the other way around - I'd rather artists didn't stick with the safe greatest hits and did stuff that truly made them happy, damn the commercial impact.

Artists who should get back to what they're GOOD at - Sting with the Police is stellar. Sting solo is shite.

Elvis Costello - best doing great rock albums with The Attractions (or Imposters).....country (Almost Blue) country/folk (King of America) included. I'm glad he likes Bacharach showtunes and classical music, but I play those alot less.

Maybe The Smithereens can record another album of new original material
(where have we heard that before?)

Sure would be nice if Chicago gave a damn anymore and did an album of Rock/Jazz/Pop and bring back the horns and crank up Keith Howland's guitar. "Chicago XXX" was an absolute joke.
Stop being a Soft Rock Oldies act and just do one more album true to yourselves!

I thought Momofuku was fucking brilliant. Definitely his best since Brutal Youth; maybe his best since Imperial Bedroom.

Then I got the new one that came out last week, and it sounds like Rhino found another disc worth of bonus tracks from Kojak Variety.

I had a feeling that was going to be the case, but Elvis got my money anyway.

Big chunks of Neil Young's career could be lumped into this category but particularly his 80s experiments in rockabilly and techno and such. I don't think many people would complain if he'd gotten to Harvest Moon ten years earlier.

Prince experimenting with rap was a bad idea.

I know that Martin Mull is a painter and an actor but I wish he would release a new cd.

I was thinking the same, but would also add Country to the list.

No................. it was a godawful, horrible, pathetic, disgusting idea!

Of course, there is always Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music!

David Bowie shouldn't have done Tin Machine.

I disagree, I really like Tin Machine. But I would have preferred that Young Americans (the album) would have never been recorded.

I liked both of those, but Black Tie, White Noise was unnecessary, as it was a detour to a place he'd already been.

BTWN was truly mediocre.

Willie Nelson did that reggae album a couple of years back called Countryman.I think it might have got panned.Smoking a little weed probably doesn't make a country star sound a natural in Jamaica.

One of the hazards of living in Florida is going out to dinner someplace and encountering the inevitable lounge act consisting of some middle-aged white guy in a Hawaiian shirt performing "Jammin'", usually accompanied by a Casio keyboard. The cover versions of "Brown-Eyed Girl" and "Cheeseburger In Paradise" are bad enough, but there isn't enough marajuana on planet Earth to make reggae sung by white people tolerable.

I kinda liked "Oh Jamaica" by Country Joe McDonald. Other then that.................. I don't even like most reggae sung by folks of color!

There's about a good EP's worth of material on Black Tie, and I liked most of the singles off that album.

I didn't get into Young's country albums but some of the country-flavored tunes mixed in with the rest as on early albums were classics.

Tin Machine was a musical abomination. Damn that was some truly terrible music. It wasn't until "Outside" Bowie starting making good music again and every album that followed was either good or great especially "Heathen" and "Reality".

I'd also add these musical errors:
Billy Idol tries Industrial/Techno w/ "Cyberpunk"
Crosby, Stills & Nash flounder w/ Arena Rock on "Live It Up" also sporting the worst album cover in history
Jethro Tull fail miserably w/ Dance/Synth/Pop on "Under Wraps"
Dio goes Nu Metal on "Strange Highways" and "Angry Machines" and sells about 5 copies of the latter