Favourite late period release by a "legacy" artist/ band

Deep Purple's Purpendicular (1996)
Black Sabbath's 13 (2013)
Whitesnake's Forevermore (2011)
Dio's Killing The Dragon (2002)
Judas Priest's Angel of Retribution (2005)
Halford's Resurrection (2000)

 

A few off the top of my head (but only on vinyl):

David Bowie - ★
Patti Smith - Trampin' & Banga
Rolling Stones - Bridges To Babylon
U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind

 

McCartney "Memory Almost Full" & "New".

 

Division Bell - Pink Floyd

 

I like all the McCartney mentions, but to me FLAMING PIE is the best of his post 70's work by far.

TUG OF WAR and MEMORY ALMOST FULL would be my next two picks.

 

AC/DC: Black Ice (2008). It was good to have them back after so long...and it was before the Axl Rose/RIP Malcolm Young era.

 

Another vote for Blackstar, which has become one of my favorite records of all time. Bowie's The Next Day is great, too.

I like late-period REM a lot. Common wisdom has it that they weren't any good after Bill Berry retired, but all of those records have some strong songs (Around The Sun, less so) and the last two records (Accelerate and Collapse Into Now) are really strong.

 

Asia reunion (Phoenix, Omega & XXX).
The comeback of the original lineup (though not a big media event) did produce a musical hat-trick.

 

It always saddens me when people say that, and I love Bill Berry. Sure, his drumming was never matched. But there's great material. "Up" is a fantastic album ( I thought 1998 was quite a bleak year in mainstream music so it was more than welcome), and each subsequent album is good. I agree, the band ended on a high with "Collapse Into Now" - sadly, somewhat unnoticed (I love how they ended the album with Patti Smith, both Peter Buck and Michael Stipe's heroine when they were teenagers. She started it all, for them, in a way). I listened to "Around The Sun" again recently and it's better than I remembered, I actually played it for a few days. The only album I have an issue with is the much celebrated "Accelerate" - for some reason, it didn't click and seemed a bit contrived to me. But hey, I will go back and enjoy it more probably...

 

GEORGE HARRISON's Golden Era as a solo artist was 1970-1974.

My favourite late era albums by him are:
George Harrison (1979)
Cloud Nine (1987)

 

I agree that REM finished on a very high note and to me--and many others--only Around the Sun is their only mediocre album.
It was kind of sad how when they called it quits, few seemed to care. Or even knew they were still around. I just think that the musical landscape had just changed so much since their heyday. They had steadily built their audience until they hit peak popularity around the time of Out of Time/Automatic and then....they just lost momentum. Citing Berry's departure just became a lazy, short hand way to explain that loss of momentum.

 

Stones' Blues lp
Dylan's Together Through Life
Neil's Psychedelic Pill
Plant's Raising Sand

 

Especially as the loss of momentum was gradual."Monster" - which i LOVE, wasn't liked as much and especially "New Adventures in Hi-Fi", another great album after REM renegociated their contract with Warner and which ended up selling less than any album since "Green" and didn't have any big single...

 

I've said on similar threads that Monster was a let down to most of the fans who had recently jumped on the REM bandwagon.
Those of us who had been with them for a long time just looked on that album as the latest step in REM's evolution. But it wasn't what the masses either wanted or expected--and thus it piled up (in true '90's fashion) in the used CD bins and was considered a failure, the first real chink in their armor...

 

Agree with you regarding "Up". That record is really under-appreciated.

 

The late Bobby Vee's first album was in 1960 and his final album, The Adobe Sessions, was released in 2014. He had 5 original late-career albums, mostly recorded with his sons and friends who were his touring band until his retirement. The sound and style is completely different from his teen idol material, more roots and country rock or Americana. Many of his recordings were self-penned, or written with family and friends, while his covers always showed his own unique touch.

As a fan, I am hard pressed to pick just one song or album. His final album is wonderful, recorded mostly in 2011 in his garage with family and friends after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. But this video is a sample of his later work, from his 2003 Christmas CD, Up North December. There are 2 original songs here, part of the title track which is followed by a sweet ballad called Small Town America, and then part of a jazzy version of White Christmas. This video shows him and 2 of his sons entering his recording studio from the street in his home area of St. Joseph, MN. I have visited the studio, which is in an old bank. The vocal booth is in the vault, and the back door of the vault still has gunpowder inside. Beautiful space!

I play this very rare album all through the winter season!

 

Have the Beach Boys been mentioned yet? That's Why God Made The Radio
Styx - The Mission also

 

Of course Good Times by The Monkees

 

Paul McCartney’s NEW

 

Modern Blues by the Waterboys

 

And Paul Simon’s Stranger To Stranger

 

Do you really consider this album their late period? Pop was a let down, going too far in the direction Zooropa went. But a single album is hardly a lapse.

 

Tom Petty's Hypnotic Eye is top notch late period material, as are the two Mudcrutch albums. It doesn't get much later period than that.

 

Mine too.