PJ Harvey pops up in my Instagram feed every once in a while. I love her body of work up until White Chalk. I realised I’ve completely checked out of her subsequent career not because I think it’s bad, it just doesn’t really talk to me. The Cure did that after Wish, Nick Cave after The Boatman's Call… there’s a bunch of bands like this that aren’t really crap past a point but their new work just stopped talking to me.

It could just be that thing where once you’re past a certain age music doesn’t define you as much… did we grow apart or did they actually become crap. A hard one for me to say.

Everything Pixies/Breeders/Frank Black related since roughly The Cult of Ray and that Amps record.

I know there’s some good material there, and I’ve loved the bits and pieces I’ve heard from Kim Deal, but I just haven’t made real investments in them since those particular records.

New Order post Republic.

When Get Ready came out I went into one of those music chains that had listening posts (remember them?) and after going through every track, I just didn't think it was that interesting. Only paid limited attention to their output after that. Still love the earlier stuff though.


Full disclosure: I have 'checked out of' every single band/artist at some point.

There are so many of them! Mostly, I think it's a result of bands mellowing out and/or getting too slick.

Sonic Youth after Dirty. Daydream Nation being the last one I adored from start to finish. Caught them live a couple times after, though.

The Jesus and Mary Chain after Honey's Dead. (Ok, technically, the last one I own is the B sides comp The Sound of Speed.) Kind of a comeback album for them, but I didn't care about the tunes I heard after.

Einstürzende Neubauten after Ende Neu. And even that was a very mixed bag. Saw them live on this tour, and there was more cabaret than sheetmetal. Frankly, I only reach for the '80s material nowadays, the earlier the better.

Flipper after Will Shatter died. American Grafishy was bad. The live shows I saw in the mid-2000s, after the second reunion, were morbidly entertaining, but I wasn't about to buy the records nor did I bother when Yow and Watt and all those other guys began augmenting the band. Someone please release a 2xLP of the 1982 studio stuff I have from a (Japanese I think?) bootleg. That stuff rocks.

Speaking of which, the Jesus Lizard after Down. Liked the early reunion gig I caught (and the live album from around the same time), but haven't bought a studio record of theirs since 1994.

Didn't follow Jon Spencer's career after the first couple Blues Explosion albums, although I was a huge, huge Pussy Galore fan.

Might be a controversial take: I bought all the Big Black and Rapeman stuff, but Shellac lost me after Action Park or maybe Terraform, although I still enjoyed the live shows.

Neil Young?

I’m sure there’s fine stuff on every album but do you really need any of it after the mid 90s or so.

penningtron wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 6:53 am Neil Young?

I’m sure there’s fine stuff on every album but do you really need any of it after the mid 90s or so.

This.

Also Shellac, I'm only a fan of At action park too. Rest is ok but don't care much.

PJ Harvey; To bring you my love already had some meh songs, that's when I lost interest.

Sonic Youth became kinda boring when they released Dirty... but Rather ripped is surprisingly good.

Never cared about Dio era Sabbath.

The "When did Melvins fall off for you" conversation is always a fun one. I probably held on longer than most, but man they had a run of stinkers after a Senile Animal. Freak Puke was nice, then back to bad as far as I'm aware.

OrthodoxEaster wrote: Fri Jan 09, 2026 11:42 pm Sonic Youth after Dirty. Daydream Nation being the last one I adored from start to finish. Caught them live a couple times after, though.

This is pretty much my answer. I do enjoy Goo and Dirty a lot, though not particularly most of the singles from those albums.

Love this song:

https://youtu.be/sUXoomaEP7k

Experimental... didn't grab me, and Washing Machine lost me completely. I gave up on them and go back to a later album every now and then to see if it clicks, hasn't happened so far. What I liked about them was no longer there after a certain point. Sounded VERY complacent.

Mostly agree with Bernardo on Sonic Youth. I hit the off-ramp with them around the same time too.

However, I did check out their later records a year or two ago, and while I didn’t buy any of them, there was a lot to love there. “Unmade Bed” might be an all-time top ten SY song for me.

Pearl Jam. (I know, I know, "I never even checked in" you say)

I haven't liked an album by them since Riot Act. Dark Matter I couldn't make it past 3 songs. Gigaton was at least kind of interesting, like they were trying new things. Also, like a lot of big groups, I've been basically priced out of their live shows. I miss when it was like $35 to see them 20 years ago.

Rancid. The run from Let's Go -> Rancid (2000) rules, but Indestructible was hit-or-miss, and I checked out after that. I'll still see them if they come around though.

U2 and Beck I'm still curious about what they're up to, though they're both on thin ice.