Post the album that marked the beginning of the decline for that artist..

Well, yeah. Many forget that when Brown's King catalog was sold to Polydor in 1971 and he recorded for Polydor, James really went overkill. I guess Hell was the first instance where Brown started to become desperate to fit in. By that point, Brown really didn't know where he fit in the ever-changing currents of popular music.

 

I have to walk that back. He had some spots of brilliance on the 90s. "The Gold Experience" is his last great classic album.

 

Lovesexy was the end of his genius period, IMO. What a brilliant swan song it was. Masterpiece, through and through. His 1993-1996 period was excellent. Many artists would kill for a period of creativity and brilliance like that. The Gold Experience, for better or worse, represented the apex of that period.

 

"Shy Boy" is the song that motivated me to buy the album blind back in 1982. I remember that day at the PX and was in the mood to try something different. In the early 80s, I took a chance on a lot of new music. I'm glad I did. I never would have discovered The Waitresses if I hadn't.

 

eh?

The three albums prior to this pissed over anything they recorded since...

 

But, remember, he started his People label and signed artists to it like the J.B.'s and Lyn Collins.

 

Rush - Hold Your Fire

I feel that this album, while decent, was the start of Rush albums having too much filler and I think that they didn't fully recover from that dry spell until Vapor Trails came out. Although Counterparts is the exception in that era of lesser Rush albums

 

But, it was purchased by Polydor, as part of Brown's contract with the label.

 

John Foxx Island band were better but they broke up & Ure was a different direction & Sleepwalk was a good tune.

 

Bananarama always did better here in the UK than in the States. I like all their albums from Deep Sea Skiving to Wow!. To me, Pop Life was the one where they went off. My favourite is the self-titled one from 1984,

 

One of the great singles of the '80s. I always dismissed them at the time, but picked up their greatest hits CD a few months back and while they were never an immense talent, they certainly found an interesting vein of '60s revisionism to mine and exploited it for all it was worth. Somebody in that group must be a great music lover.

 

I liked Musicology quite a lot - "What Do U Want Me 2 Do" is one of his best melodies in years (bless its Jonified heart), the title track was great and the record as a whole was remarkably dud-free. I had high hopes for 3121 after hearing the incredible "Black Sweat", but the rest of the album was uneven and little of it approached the quality of Musicology. "Lolita" was alright...

 

He started the label as part of his Polydor deal.

 

For me, Prince was always at his best when he was being sexually naughty or had something to prove. He gave that up when he left Warner Brothers Records in the 90s.

 

There are some pretty good tracks on Tanx, but it's not a great album IMO. And most of what followed was utter garbage. There were moments of greatness after Tanx, but they were few and far between. Just my opinion of course. I think "New York City" is one of his greatest tracks ever.

 

New York City is a great song.

 

One of my favorite Post Tanx songs is...

 

Oh no! That's him at his most repetitive crappiest!

 

I love this album!

 

They didn't call him "The Hardest Working Man in Showbusiness" for nothing!

 

Half of this is really very good. Sadly the other half contains the likes of Se La, Don't Stop (27 minutes) and Ballerina Girl. Lionel must have been struggling as he didn't record a new album for years after this. As successful as it was.

 

You could say Bananarama became a nostalgia act the minute the talented one, Siobhan Fahey, left.

 

Pretty much. The band were never the same, that's for sure.

 

Very poor follow-up to Hysteria. They never recovered from it.