Moments in music when you realized that artist/band still "has it"

Many artists/bands go through artistic/commercial dry spells. Some bounce back and some don't.
Name a song he/she/they released during a down and rough period of time in their career that proved they still had that magic.

By this time (1971) I expected Brian to be too far gone to even come up with anything as beautiful as this.
I'm glad I was wrong.

 

Bob Dylan - Brownsville Girl

 

Rolling Stones - Streets of Love

David Bowie - The Buddha Of Suburbia

Stevie Wonder - With Each Beat of My Heart

The Byrds - Chestnut Mare

 

Simon & Garfunkel - My Little Town

They had been broken up for 5 years when that song was released.

 

Killing Joke - everything they've done since Youth and Paul Ferguson rejoined in '08.

 

For me it was when I heard Mysterious Ways by U2.

 

Joe Cocker: Fire it Up

 

one time i can recall is when i played the queen lp 'innuendo' for the first time. not every song is great, most are average tbh. however there are two tracks which really shocked me at the time.
the tracks are innuendo and i'm going slightly mad. innuendo in particular is as good as any queen song in their history.

 

T. Rex - Electric Slim & The Factory Hen

 

GREAT example.

Another one, for me, was the medley towards the end of McCartney's "Memory Almost Full," particularly "Feet In the Clouds." In that, I saw the guy who broke all of those barriers in the '60s, confidently reasserting his brilliance.

 

Dandy In The Underworld was the best T Rex album since Tanx. It really felt like he was starting to get it back together again...

Mind you, New York City from 1975 is pretty great too.

 

Marc's albums after Tanx are damn near unlistenable. He had a few songs that were decent like The Groover and Light of Love but everything else was painful to my ears.

 

When Mike Love first heard it, he laughed and said, "What a ****ing downer!" I'm glad Brian stuck to his guns this time and put it on the album anyway. A Beautifully spiritual song.

 

McCartney does it again and again, most notably on many of the songs on Flaming Pie and New.

 

Steve Winwood's "About Time" released in the summer of 2003. Seeing him live for that tour made me realize his was still the top of the heap.

 

Agreed. His albums may be inconsistent, but there are often flashes of brilliance.

 

I'm not as crazy about Innuendo as some fans, but you are right, Innuendo and I'm Going Slightly Mad are fantastic, and I would add The Show Must Go On to the list. All three are essential in the Queen catalog.

 

Well, he 'came up with it' in 1966. The recording was finished by Carl Wilson and others in 1971.

 

I'm not saying they didn't 'still have it', but Sade's Lovers Rock from 2000 was one of their best albums and a lovely surprise. They disappear so long between albums I tend to forget about them!

 

"Rockin' in the Free World" was a revelation. Reawakened, Neil went on to a solid decade of great new music.

 

Elton John's Songs From The West Coast in 2001 was a great reminder of his talent too.

 

When I saw Loggins & Messina reunion tour in 2005 and also James Gang reunion tour in 2006.

 

The Damned-So Who's Paranoid (2008). Brings back the combination of the break neck speed fast punk energy of their debut Damned Damned Damned, & the sophisticated psychedelic progressive production of The Black Album & Strawberries. Dave Vanian has not lost his smooth vocal delivery over an almost 35 year period of time.

 

Beat me to it. The SNL appearance was wild.

 

Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind.
Even though the Bob had returned to form with his previous two albums (albeit all covers), Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong, I doubt anyone was quite prepared for what came next. Easily his best work since Blood On The Tracks, some 22 years earlier, it's an incredible piece of work. No dud tracks, plenty of great ones, plus a handful of late-period Dylan classics. Not sure whether it's an actual comeback, because Bob never really went away, but it's definitely the first time in those 22 barren years that he reached his former - impossibly high - standards. That he followed it up with the equally brilliant Love And Theft is even more remarkable.