Can't speak for Yes or Godflesh but both AC/DC and Ozzy remained popular until the 90's. The Razor's Edge & No More Tears were huge albums. After that they expired.


Yes Tony Bones left to form Broken Bones and Discharge more or less sold out & died under Tezz's leadership. Strange, as he was the socially conscious one of the group.

Discharge: Expiry Date: After Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing

Popular or not, the thrill was gone.

Asia

Had some great albums in the eighties, changed lineup and released some exceptional albums in the nineties, but I believe that Aura (2000) was their last great one. Even though John Payne remained for one more album (2004's Silent Nation) I felt that was a bit of a damp squib and the albums that came later, despite being okay, were not up to scratch for what I had come to expect from this band. They reached their nadir with XXX I believe, and I have yet to hear their most recent, but for me the glory days are well and truly over.

Fun fact: as soon as they stopped releasing albums whose titles began and ended with A (Aria, Astra, Arena etc) the quality of the music just plummeted. Coincidence?

Asia: Expiry date: after Aura

You're right, those are "pretty okay", but I'm not a fan of the four you mentioned, except Tempest. Even that I rarely find myself wanting to hear.

I think I might consider him "expired" because his earlier work is so exceptional, and I hold him to a higher standard.

Underworld

Like Massive Attack Underworld declines after the departure of a key member; Darren Emerson. Emerson joins for the alubm dubnobasswithmyheadman and they begin to take off peaking sometime around the release of Born Slippy on the Trainspotting soundtrack. They continue to have success with the release of Beaucoup Fish in 1999, shortly after that Emerson leaves, the band returns to being a duo, but never achieves the success they had in the 90's.

Underworld Expiry Date: Sometimes after Beaucoup Fish

Another that comes to mind is Bad Religion.

Most in the scene would agree with me when I say that they lost a great deal of steam after Against the Grain, while they did have a few good songs on Empire Strikes Back and various other releases. For the most part, however, it had all been done before, and better, by the band.

Some bands get worse after they get successful.
I think it was Dee Snider that said it's tough to write songs full of angst when you are sitting by the pool at your huge house.

I certainly acknowledge (as any fan will) that Darren Emerson's exit from the group in 2000 marked the end of the Underworld Mk II sound. Dubnobass, Second Toughest, Beaucoup, and the Everything Everything Live albums were a critical period that defined and popularized the band's signature sound with stadium-packing tracks and floor-stomping anthems.

But from A Hundred Days Off onward (the period known as Underworld Mk III), Rick and Karl traded four on the floor anthemic progressive house for more cerebral experimental territory. Meditative pieces like "Ess Gee" and "To Heal" worked quite well in this environment alongside steadier uptempo selections like "Dinosaur Adventure 3D" and "Scribble."

But the duo's most important works are the non-album selections like their art installation work and web releases like I'm A Big Sister, And I'm A Girl, And I'm A Princess And This Is My Horse, Pizza For Eggs, and Lovely Broken Thing give listeners a taste of the more contemplative material that they'll find if they dig deeper than the hits.

Perhaps my favorite track from the nearly 400 Underworld albums, EPs and singles in my catalog is the 2005 "Always Loved a Film" (working title: "Silver Boots") edit broadcast once on 05-19-06 from Lemonworld. The cut is an ambient spoken-word poetry piece combining lyrical fragments from what would become the I'm a Big Sister... web release, the "Silver Boots" demo and musical elements of what would become "Always Loved a Film" on their next record, Barking.

Tracks like these, and Karl's recent collaborations with Brian Eno are far more interesting and artful than the "Lager lager lager..." material from their days with Emerson.

Just my take on it, but the ~300 albums, mixes, singles, and soundtracks that followed Mk II have been arguably their best work to date.

Then just work indoors. Problem solved. :thumb:

I don't really agree with the premise of the thread.

I want all of the bands I'm a fan of to keep regularly releasing new material, even decades after their first album. That doesn't always happen.