Preferring artists' late works to their peak years

Well, I prefer Blind Faith's last album more than any of the others.

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Me too!! I even like 90's/2000's Bowie a good bit better than his 1975-87 output too.

I've grown to like 1975-1983 Bowie over the last 10 years, but here's my personal 'all-time' favorite Bowie, in order of preference...

1. Black Star + No Plan EP
2. The Next Day + Extra
3. Heathen & Reality (tied for 3rd)
4. Earthling
5. Outside (and the best 60% of Outside is nearly as great as almost anything he ever recorded).
6. Toy
7. Black Tie White Noise

Certainly there's a fair bit of 75-83 Bowie I love too, but more individual tracks than entire albums.

 

I can't think of anybody. Almost always I prefer the early work of any artist.

 

The only popular musician I could say for myself is Frank Sinatra but that is a special case where his peak years began after the age of 40. So I like his later work but it is also his commonly defined peak years as well.

Classical composers are much more likely to be appreciated for their later works; that is more the case because they are able to write down their music and revise and analyze it before completion. They are less dependent on pure musical inspiration.

 

Many days I prefer Dinosaur Jr. since their return...

 

My favorite 70s Beach Boys songs > my favorite 60s Beach Boys songs if I had to make a comp cd for each decade.

 

This may not be a popular opinion, but I vastly prefer The Beach Boys' output from the '70s to their work in the previous decade, with the exception of Pet Sounds and the SMiLE material. While they're not perfect, that run from Sunflower all the way through to M.I.U. Album has some of my personal favourites that always seem to nudge off the bigger hits whenever I try putting together a compilation or even just playlists.

Similarly, I've always rated Queen's '80s albums more than what came before, though I can listen to virtually anything from their catalogue (apart from maybe The Cosmos Rocks and Greatest Hits III) without feeling the need to hit the skip button too often.

Finally, I'm probably in the minority when I say that I rate Time and Secret Messages higher than ELO's more well-known earlier albums - these are two slabs of vinyl that I'll never tire of wearing out, and I've been trying now for literally decades!

 

When Johnny Cash’s voice was going. I loved him. The American series? Fantastic.

Mark Knopfler - the older he gets, the deeper the writing.

Dylan, 1997 and onward - Modern Times? Beautiful.

Bee Gees later revisiting of their old stuff especially live...wow.

Great thread for discussion.

 

The heretics are out, and suddenly I feel in good company!

The placid confidence of maturity whether pile-driving electric or sublime acoustic story-telling; my favourites: Freedom, Ragged Glory, Mirror Ball, Broken Arrow, Chrome Dreams II, Greendale (the single greatest dividends from repeat listening), and the towering capstone - Psychedelic Pill. That said, I am really looking forward to Roxy!

We're in lockstep; greater metal-gilded melodies and those epic, transportive story songs.

Your circumspection is fair, as the uniform excellence of Beyond, Farm, and Sky weigh the scales in favour of post-reunion on any given day. Yet, if faced with one of those implausible desert-island-disc hypotheticals, I'd chuck the whole lot for Green Mind!

 

I prefer the reunion Maiden albums to the earlier stuff too. I also prefer later Tom Waits from Bone Machine on to his earlier work.

 

2 fine albums there. One an end and another a beginning.

 

For me it would be Johnny Cash and the Rick Rubin albums

 

Most consider Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation" to be their peak, and that is going quite back, but I think their trio of late albums Murray Street, Sonic Nurse and Rather ripped to be their absolute best

 

I really like many of Robert Plant's most recent albums -- from "Dreamland" (2002) to "Band of Joy" (2010) in particular.

I prefer this over his 80s or 90s solo material and over much of the Zep records, which are generally regarded as his peak years.

I do not claim his late works to be better than what he did with Zeppelin but I find a lot of the latter-day material more intriguing and pleasing to my ears than much of the Zeppelin stuff.

Of course, I wouldn't have thought the same when I was younger.

 

Chet Baker. I do listen to his 1955/56 Paris recordings and his Quartet album with Russ Freeman, but not much else from the 50s. 9 out of 10 times if I put on something by Chet Baker it's from the 1970s or 80s.

 

That's definitely the case with me and Todd Rundgren. Most people are going to be familiar with Something/Anything, A Wizard/A True Star and Todd but I'll almost always prefer his work from the 90s and later, especially Liars from 2004.

OK, I'll bite - Thomas Dolby's Astronauts and Heretics. Although he did release one after that.

 

Richard Thompson - Shoot out the lights and some of the other 80s albums get a spin now and then but it's usually something from Rumour and sigh onwards for me.

 

+1 I liked John through the years, respected his hits and loved his straight forward talk and his philosophy of life. I got the first American cd free and it was like a board hitting me on my head. Holy zhit! This is amazing. Then 'Hurt'. Like a bullet in the heart. Love the box, and I'm not a gospel person.
I just got done laying bros in Arms at work. While tis was a jump lyrically, for MK, his solo work is so much more polished.

 

I don't actually care that much for the Dolls, but I love Johnny Thunders. The Dolls songs are great but the production and David's vocals let them down.
And I did like the 2006 Dolls album, it's like David learned to sing instead of bark, like he used to do.

 

I prefer best of The Beach Boys later material over that at their commercial peak, even though I love that too.

 

Pendragon - Passion and particularly Pure
Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden is an astonishing achievement with Laughing Stock not far behind.
Marillion - F.E.A.R - talk about a slow burner - up there with Marbles
Anathema - Weather Systems and The Optimist - rather than their early doom stuff!

 

I prefer Jerry Jeff Walkers later work.

 

There’s something special about those early to mid 80’s Kinks albums for me.

 

I became a Kinks fan in 1981 so I have a strong attachment to the Arista years and I still really enjoy those albums - especially "Low Budget" through "Word of Mouth".

That said, the 60s stuff is still their peak...