Amazing "return to form" albums

So when you heard Let It Be you thought "these guys are spent" only to be blown away by Abbey Road which was released some 8 months earlier?

 

David Bowie - The Next Day
KT Tunstall - Invisible Empire/Crescent Moon
Roy Orbison - Mystery Girl
Toto - Fahrenheit

 

Squeeze-- Some Fantastic Place

 

Swans My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope Ladder To The Sky and all subsequent ones.

 

I'm still waiting for the next Blind Faith LP....

 

The Rolling Stones - Some Girls (after Black & Blue which, while I know has its fans, ranks near the bottom of Stones albums in my book)

 

I remember thinking Elton's "The One" was a return to form, but today I hear it as a missed opportunity to return to form. So yeah, nevermind.

 

you really must have some "blind faith", then

 

Pere Ubu's The Tenement Year
Deep Purple In Rock

Return to a different form of course but terrific albums.

 

My first thought. Didn't he also say "Hmmm.. More than three chords and you're gettin' into jazz" around the time of this album? Easily amongst his best.

 

Not sure I would agree on 'The Tenement Year' as it was less a return to form than it was a band that had broken up getting back together. Some small number of us really do love 'Bailing Man' also, despite all the crap it gets around here.

My choice would probably be 'Abattoir Blues' by Nick and the Seeds. Not that the 'Morose Trilogy' isn't good, but I recall Nick saying somewhere at the time that he was thinking of abandoning the Seeds and just doing Piano ballads from that point forward. 'Abbatoir/Lyre' was not only a terrific album but a welcome sign that the Seeds were alive and well...

 

The White Album by Weezer. Finally, a return to the classic Weezer sound of the 90's.

 

I agree with you, although Some Girls is not in my top Stones album list, either. But yeah, it was a return to form.

 

Imo the best example answering the OP I can think of is this:

 

Having not liked Amused to Death (much less KAOS) very at all, I'll say the new one from Roger Waters.

 

Van Halen - A Different Kind Of Truth
Killing Joke - Self Titled 2003 album
The Exploited - F**k The System
Roy Orbison - Mystery Girl
Neil Young - Ragged Glory

 

Kansas' 2016 release "The Prelude Implicit"



And second Styx's - The Mission

Styx - The Red Storm - Red Storm

 

You are mistaken about That's Why God Made the Radio - songs written or co written by Brian, co produced by Brian, sung by the Beach Boys still standing (five of them). I guess you can say that with Carl and Dennis gone they aren't the original Beach Boys - if that's what you were driving at, I understand but still think this was an amazing comeback album.

 

I need to go back and listen to Abattoir Blues, I've been focused more lately on The Birthday Party phase.

 

Came here to list this one, but you beat me too it.

 

While no doubt there will be a number of examples offered here, it really does not happen too much that a group can in effect lose it and then return to form. It happens, but not that often.

 

Depeche Mode - Playing the Angel

A big one for me. Not that the albums between Violator and PTA are bad, just missing something for me.

 

Easily deserves another mention, as it is great album.

Warren and Woody were inspiring additions.

 

Cheap Trick '97
McCartney - Chaos and Creation In the Back Yard

 

Yep