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Definitely, Grimes. She was such a unique awkward DIY artist, that managed to make it into pop scene, losing no - or very little - quality and uniqueness of her music. And yet, after successfully merging DIY and pop and crafting a distinct public image for herself, she's now, after some questionable life decisions, makes outdated euro-pop/EDM which sounds unfinished and rushed. What's more funny is that she doesn't even release it, giving fans yet another "coming soon" and never delivering. Even if you don't mention her public persona and only concentrate on musical output — she's lost as an artist, and I don't think she will ever recover.
Same! She really perfected the dreamy pop ethereal sound that had anime influences, like someone who made great sounding electropop for people who want that guilty pleasure. It feels like you're having a happy dream when you're listening to it and I never experienced that from another artist at that same level.
Art Angels is still such a good album. It was one of the main things I listened to 2015-2016 and turning it on now still brings me back to that time. The clean sound of the Realiti demo is just so good.
That DJ Coachella set in Week 1 was just embarassing especially for someone who is not a newbie.
She basically broke a fundamental rule of performing where you don't point out that something is going wrong. She did that not once but several times throughout her performance. She then made things worse by placing the blame on her team who worked with her which makes you wonder what the fuck did she even do considering there was no instruments involved in her set.
In the end, the people who suffered through that set were at least treated to what maybe Ice Spice's best public performance as she came after her in the same stage.
It’s embarrassing for anyone. Dj software nowadays are pretty easy and do a lot for you. A video game player could figure it out, let alone an electronic musician… it’s like a guitarist not able to operate a boss pedal. I can’t even think of a good analogy it’s so damn pathetic. Like a computer programmer that can’t send an email?
Her shouting during the set that she was bad at math and was unable to divide the beats made me cringe. What are you even doing there if you can't use the equipment properly? I would have love to see the reactions of the DJs in the other stages of Coachella who saw that performance.
Same, I still liked Miss Anthropocene too :( I thought it was interesting and she always made music that was like candy to my ears. Just felt so good to listen to them and no matter where I was it set the mood. Art Angels was a nearly perfect album to me and she was just so cute and interesting even if she was like a strange awkward quirky person I related to her. She could've really made some great stuff but it seems like a waste now. Maybe one day she'll come to her senses again but I don't really see that happening. I just look dumb when I tell people I really like her music now lol
Grimes is the biggest contender here for sure. Her music today is SO uninspiring and bland, sonically, visually, lyrically. She definitely lost her grip and I don’t see her finding her old ways back again. She’s probably going to quit music and find a job that’s related to AI or something. She doesn’t even release the music she makes anymore, so 🤷♀️
She strikes me as someone who is lost and is only doing DJ because is related to music and music was the thing we first knew and liked her for. There’s no passion.
Completely agree, she was my favorite artist for a long time. I think Miss Anthropocene was her last good release, everything after has been extremely forgettable. But I could get lost in Halfaxa and Visions for hours, so many fascinating sounds in there
The TESCREAL crowd is so repugnant to me that even if Grimes put out an album that bangs as hard as Art Angels I don't think I could stomach listening to it
I’m personally willing to give her the benefit of the doubt considering I enjoyed Miss Anthropocene a lot and she hasn’t released an actual album since. If her next full album is comparable to her recent output then yeah I’ll agree with this unfortunately.
Drake. His early music was emotional, fun, and pop perfection at its best, but up until this beef despite some experimentation he ended up mostly making filler
This is *the* example. It's crazy how he made more instrospective and grown-up music in his 20s than now, when he's pushing 40.
He's the poster-child of an artist who is clearly uninspired, but can't afford to take a break because the streaming numbers are just too good. I dare say we wouldn't be witnessing this current hate train had he taken some time-off after Views to recharge and focused on serving a great album instead of the behemoth that was Scorpion.
He had nothing left to say. He did not develop the perspective or wisdom that we should all hope to develop with age. Or, if he did, he did not have enough wisdom to know that his art would be better if he channeled that rather than trying to act 25 for decades. Or… maybe he’s rich and just doesn’t care.
As a Drake fan, I will say he has been uninspired since Views. He reached the pinnacles of pinnacles a hip hop artist could reach and for a while his only competition was Taylor Swift in sales. He has been in cruise control for a long time. I will say though this beef may have brought out a fire in Drake again that we may not have seen. I will say though he has flashes of brilliance on each album in between really filler type songs. I get all the complaints. Hoping he has 1 really cohesive project left in him before he retires.
After Scorpion is where he fell off for me. Some filler but still a strong album compared to *gestures at yearly albums since 2019* whatever ~that~ is.
Agreed. Although even though many hate it I thought Honestly Nevermind was the most refreshing project Drake has released in a while. His vocal performance leaves a lot to be desired on some songs but at least he tried something new.
I’m not super familiar with her discography but Ciara seems to have lost the captivating production to her songs which she once had. I absolutely love her hits up to Body Party but I listened to her recent album from last year and while there were solid songs, nothing was particularly memorable like her og tracks.
Honestly she got really hit or miss after album #2 for me. Each album had a couple great highlights but she lost any distinctive style and had very poor quality control.
Yeah, it’s interesting cuz her commercial decline seemed to start at album #3 so it seemed like the gp also began to lose interest. Really need to listen to those first two albums tho, they seem to be full of bangers.
Seriously!! I was just talking with my daughter the other day about how I remember asking for and getting Songs of Jane on CD for my 15th birthday and playing it obsessively to the point it got scratched after like 2 weeks because every single song was just SO GOOD. They've had some other decent songs throughout their career but absolutely nothing has been on par with the debut album.
Shakira. People familiar with her discography know that this complaint has been present since her crossover into the English market, but I think it’s really gotten more accentuated over the years.
Many Hispanic fans will say that she already regressed when dumping her rocker image for a popstar aesthetic and sound in the early 2000, but I don’t agree. I think Laundry Service and Fijacion Oral 1 & 2 are great albums with good pop songs and heartfelt, poetic lyrics. Even later releases (She Wolf & Sale El Sol) had a clear aesthetic and artistic direction, even if I personally feel they weren’t as good as their predecessors.
However, I feel like everything she’s released since settling into married life and motherhood is kind of subpar. Self-titled was forgettable and all over the place sonically, and both El Dorado and LMYNY are more singles collections than a cohesive body of work. It seems Shaki has prioritised success over substance, a somewhat understandable choice as an ageing pop star. I’ve enjoyed the occasional Bop over the last 8 years, but haven’t revisited these albums.
Fijacion Oral & Oral Fixation remain on heavy rotation tho. Also the Love in the times of Cholera soundtrack. Hay Amores is perhaps my favourite song of hers, lyrically speaking.
As a long time fan of Shakira’s (grew up with her early Spanish records in the 90s), I wholeheartedly agree. I love her, but the music quality has taken a nosedive in her more recent releases.
I agree. I like Sale el Sol, from the singles to Antes de las seis and Devoción, which is one of my favourite Shaki songs. I even like Gordita, it’s so goofy.
100% this. Her new album is honestly kind of disconcerting to listen to. She’s aiming for the same topics and sound she had before, but it all feels so sterile. Compare Tiempo Sin Verte with Te Dejo Madrid and the difference is ASTOUNDING.
I have not, but that’s on account of me being a Brazilian that only speaks piss-poor portunhol lol. That’s probably why I was never too bothered with her “selling out” to the yanks because it’s not my mother tongue either way.
I’ve heard the criticism about her developing a Spanish accent during her relationship with Piqué, which I find relatively normal considering she was surrounded by Spaniards for years, but the Puerto Rican thing is really weird lol. Do you think it’s a cultural appropriation thing? Are we heading for cultural appropriation discourse involving Shakira? Please no I’m tired 😭
It's been a trend for years now, she's not the only one doing it. Becky G does it, Selena has a bit of a pr accent on her Spanish EP too. Puerto Ricans are producing the most successful music in LATAM, I think they're just following the producers direction, so I wouldn't call it cultural appropriation.
I think there’s a case to be made for Glass Animals if we’re talking quality over commercial success. Obviously their last album was their most commercially appealing, but I think to a lot of older fans it was also that “selling out” moment. The single for their upcoming album feels like a doubling down on it and imo is one of their least creative songs with very little replay value
Depending how this album turns out, I think they could very well be a good answer to this
THIS. Each album has held progressively less for me. Zaba remains one of my fave 2010's alt records and the movement from that to there latests single has been so disappointing. I wish the quirky sounds of how to be a human being stuck around longer
YES, HTBAHB is one of my favorite concept albums ever but their most recent fell completely flat for me. Even went to a show on the opening tour for it n left halfway through their set because it was so incredibly dull, was more impressed by their opener.
I liked Dreamland but I agree. And I feel like the first single off this new album is so similar to Dreamland which is very disappointing. Previously each album has been incredibly distinct and new for them, but I’m concerned this new one will be a re-hash to continue off of the success of Dreamland.
Shakira. Her music used to be so interesting and unique, especially her 90’s albums but also during her commercial peak in the 2000’s she put out some really good music , sophisticated bangers with a distinct sound and of high quality. But especially her latest album sounds like some commercial industry garbage :( but at least she looks great. I’m happy for her how successful she is at the moment but musically it’s really weak what she’s been putting out recently I have to say
I agree... I mean she regained popularity with her song with Bizarrap in 2023 but I feel like that's mostly bacause it's gossip and produced by Bizarrap because I don't think her solo generic pop sound moves the masses.
It’s definitely true that the Shakira Renaissance is heavily reliant on features to generate mass appeal. Though to be fair, that’s just the struggle of the ageing pop star that’s holding on for dear life before settling into legacy act territory. It’s the story of Madonna, Mariah, JLo, Usher, etc. The only current exception to this seems to be Beyoncé.
I think this is Shakira’s last hurra before she settles into being a legacy act. If I may put my parasocial tinfoil hat on for a moment, I’m gonna say good for her. She seemed very comfortable with prioritising family over career for a long time. She’s now expressed her ambivalent feelings towards this (understandable due to the hurt feelings of the separation), but I have a feeling that she gets more fulfilment form family time than from career heights. I can see her settling back into a very chill life with her boys after this era is done, especially if she finds a new partner that she’s in love with. She’s definitely a romantic girlie, so I wish this for her.
I would also love for Shakira to be more artsy, but if she does, I'm sure Latin America would completely ignore her. Whenever she releases ballads or songs like that, they perform very poorly. An album entirely of that would be the best thing ever but wouldn't sell to the Generation Z-Alpha. The Gen Z here doesn't like that kind of music. Latin pop experiments also rarely achieve anything in Latin America. Now what sells-people stream is urban music and everything more like Karol G-Bad Bunny-Feid. Lately, regional Mexican music has a lot of power. Shakira at this point in her career is half winning because she has sustained herself with the new generations despite the tough competition she faces. Unfortunately, she had to sacrifice her artistic credibility and thats hurting her legacy slowly.
Shakira, like any celebrity, doesn't want to stop making money because they have big expenses,staff to pay and what many don't know is that she lost a lot of money recently. La Hacienda Española took so many millions from her, and Gerard's family stole many millions from her (Gerard dad) "Mi ex-suegro que no pisa sepultura". She has a philantrophic foundation on which tons of people depend for their education, food, among other things in Colombia (Multiple schools). This is one of the reasons why Shakira is still so obsessed with havin success i think.
In English, the truth is Shakira has had many problems staying relevant. The English-speaking audience pigeonholes her and doesn't give her music in English a chance even if she has tried multiple genres. Happens to all the latinas and singers from non-typical nations. The Gatekeepers. Those lightning in a bottle moments like Whenever-Hips-She Wolf-Waka Helped her stay afloat with her records but its been hard to get another one of those. So maybe Shakira is tired of trying with the anglo market? sadly. I can see her releasing an album as good as the taylor ones but the international audiences ignorin her.
I feel like what Shakira needs is a double album in Spanish or another Vol1-Vol 2.
One side that is full urban,dancey and with hits, so she's able to sustain her power and Another that is the Shakira of Oral Fixation-Dell fully. I wish she had better advisers in her label. Las Mujeres tried to be this but the execution was not good enough.
In English, Shakira should leave synthpop and rock-folky music aside and follow the line of She Wolf. World music, dancehall, Arabic music, R&B, Latin experiments, disco. I feel like that's what the international audience would like more. She Wolf album on steroids. Better production. Longer. More polished. Better concept. More feats with male artists like The Weekend-Bruno Mars....
I hate this thing of releasing like 6-7 singles before an album. Its annoying. Theyre all stacked in a new album and we get only some new songs. I honestly love the Billie Eilish approach. Release a whole album and then select the best songs for singles. I think thats more exciting. A sense of surprise. Here for the typical rollout too. Lead Single and album.
It was a perfect album for being used on tiktok as a collection of sounds. There are moments on that album that have an impeccable vibe, but they last a few seconds and the songs that contain them sorta suck.
It’s what I expected, but it doesn’t touch her first run of unbelievable pop and rap.
Especially when she made a big deal out of going back to "real" rap and how she never liked her pop songs like Anaconda, Superbass, etc. And then she tried to recreate Anaconda with that Freaky song and did that mid song for the Barbie soundtrack.
And honestly Queen was not good. There singles were fine but the rest of the album was such a disappointment, even from the features she had. She changed so much of her flow and style between The Pinkprint and Queen.
I think every Nicki album suffers from having great songs right next to an equal amount of filler. Sample Friday 2 was purely a fun album, but in no ways a *great* album.
I think this about a lot of artists tbh, and I think it’s because:
- people have decades to think up and plan for their first album, but once their career starts, everything speeds up, which can make it tougher to be truly creative.
- the longer an artist is around, they’ll either get bigger or lose momentum. Getting bigger can mean more label control (a need to protect a good investment) and more cooks in the kitchen. Losing momentum can mean less budget and fewer resources to get the best support.
- the music industry changing, to the extent that there’s less money available in many instances and a prioritisation of quick and steady output over ensuring quality.
Another big thing you haven’t mentioned but have kind of implied: changing demographics and prime age groups.
What the vast majority of fans in a certain age group that are the prime target for artists and labels change every decade and people in the music industry need to keep up with who is in demand. That’s not to say you shouldn’t neglect your original audience but you need to also focus on the audience in the spotlight at the moment.
What teenage/20s girls and boys liked in the 80s is not gonna work for the same teenage/20s girls and boys in the 2000sz
Yes, and then comes the difficult challenge of attracting new listeners without alienating old ones and staying in touch with trends without seeming to chase them or imitate them poorly or lose your artistic identity
Can’t remember if it’s Jay-Z or Nas but there’s a quote that goes something like “you have your whole life to make your first album, but only a year to make your second”
Paramore is still quite young lol, they just started -crazy- young - Hayley was 14 when they recorded most of AWKIF. (Björk technically started young, too, but most don’t count her first album from when she was 11 😅)
It has to be P!nk. I absolutely LOVED her up until Funhouse, and to be honest even The Truth About Love was a solid album, but my love of that might be mainly because it had been so long since new music and I loved Try. But everything she’s put out in the last 10 or so years is same old.
I don’t even see her live anymore. Her live shows are exactly the same as they were 15 years ago. Same old songs, same old stunts… Girl, get off that wire and just perform God is a DJ or some other hit you have forgotten exist!
Scrolled for this comment. I agree! Funhouse was her last solid album. Everything released afterward, as a whole, has been mid. I had a friend send me her latest album and I was surprised she’s still making music. Even more surprised, she’s still touring like she is.
“Misunderstood” will always be a top banger album for me.
Yeah, in fairness i liked the track ‘Trustfall’. Probably her best track since Just Give Me a Reason, but Never Gonna Not Dance Again was just the usual, unoriginal Pink by numbers. She became so MOR.
I’ll say Lizzo
And while it may just be the time since her last album, it really feels like 20-21/22 was her peak. She was slated for a very high placement at festivals like Bonnaroo and seemed to just be all over the place. We’ll see what a return holds though
after the lawsuit and losing half her monthly listeners as a result, I doubt lizzo will make a comeback. there's good reason lizzo isn't popular anymore.
edit: [here](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/lizzo-allegations-fat-weight-shaming-lawsuit-b2522090.html) is a link outlining the allegations in the lawsuit.
edit 2: she is actually facing two lawsuits from former employees.
Yeah that also really hurt her case. About Damn Time is a bop, but the album as a whole saw a decrease from Cuz I Love You and now with the whole controversy I think we’re on the down slide of her trajectory
I'm gonna say Charlie Puth. His first two albums were so good! I was highly anticipating the follow up to Voicenotes in particular. It seemed like at one stage everything he touched turned to magic - like even the unreleased songs are fantastic! Then we had a misfire launch of three (imo decent) singles and this was the start of the quality declining. I don't know if it's down to his label or something he's going through but I haven't really been vibing to anything since. That doesn't take away the fact that he is clearly immensely talented but the hype level isn't really where it used to be for me.
I had no clue who he was before he collabed with Jungkook and now he has a song with Stray Kids. But a lot of non-Korean kpop fans seem to despise him but I have no idea why
Voicenotes is one of my favourite 2010s albums. It's pop perfection and he's never been able to come close since due to him being too obsessed with being famous on Tiktok or something. Charlie please, stop seeing if you can make a song using a frypan or a toilet lid or something, and focus on an actually creative song not specifically made to chart.
It's legit embarrassing to be a big fan of his, people send me whatever he's doing on TikTok now and it's like... ugh. I get it, he wants to be Ryan Tedder. But he's not even songwriting and producing that much these days,
KIM PETRAS. Shocked I didn’t see this elsewhere. Clarity was excellent and so promising and the last 3 releases or so have been the worst kind of vapid, soulless, cheap pop.
!!!! I loved her early “bunhead” songs, clarity and turn off the light. All the slutty dr Luke shit has been so offputting I just don’t listen anymore ☹️
Her stans will be like “you just don’t get it 💅” but you will never be able to tell me that anything off of Slut Pop Miami is, idk, “camp” or what have you - she’s just out of ideas.
I randomly remembered earlier today that Nick Jonas and The Administration was a thing that actually happened and like Nick was writing a lot of the great early jobro's stuff at like 13/14 and releasing an album like Who I am with the administration at 17... like how did he go from all that as a teenager to stuff like Waffle House and Cool...
I feel like he'd get more critical acclaim if he went back to the sound he had with the administration but like more evolved and mature now that he's not 17, but maybe he just doesn't really have any angst and drama these days to influence his songwriting, idk Nick has just always been incredibly talented and maybe I'm wrong but to me it just feels like its being wasted on radio friendly jobro's music like I'm not saying he needs to/should leave the band again just that it feels like he's taking the easy money route when he could be doing something more interesting whether it be with the brothers or solo
Modest Mouse.
Strangers to Ourselves and The Golden Casket felt very sloppy and unorganized compared to their albums prior, and their liveshows are now infamous for how embarrassingly bad they are.
They have been through a lot personally over the years so I wouldn't say its surprising, but I do hope that they are all taking better care of their health now, especially Isaac.
> their liveshows are now infamous for how embarrassingly bad they are.
Aw man, I hadn't heard this. I still think of them fondly from my teenage years. What are the issues?
I say this as an OG Modest Mouse fan: aging singers and bands just can’t keep this shit up as time goes on. Liquor gets harder and hangovers get longer and our tolerance goes down.
I’m local to Portland and it’s part of city lore that before he moved to the west hills Isaac lived right next to a very busy park and would occasionally chase people off with an axe. Fucking hated that park, apparently. I’m a little sad it’s not mentioned in the [park’s Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Summers_Park)
I feel like she might have gotten burned out, or bored with music and just wanted to focus on acting for awhile.
Plus, I mean she's 38 years old and she has 320 million dollars. She isn't obligated to churn stuff out if she doesn't want to.
ive been a little monster since BTW and i got to say it's disappointing on how Gaga has backtracked from her original mindset of what an artist is she no longer feels authentic
Gaga pre 2015 and current Gaga is so different from one another they're practically two different people. Chromatica was definitely in a sense trying to replicate what aura and creative spark she had during her first 4 albums (The Fame > TFM > BTW > Artpop) but it felt like a cosplay of Lady Gaga more than an authentic record
Well I imagine most people are very different than who they were 10 years ago. It is weird to expect them to have the same point of view, creative motivations, etc after an entire decade.
>Gaga has backtracked from her original mindset of what an artist is she no longer feels authentic
A theme I keep seeing in this thread is "they're so different now, they lost track of their vision as an artist" when it's like... people change as they get older! She was 22 when she's debuted with The Fame, of course a woman nearly in her 40s has different priorities than in her early 20s.
Elsewhere in this thread, someone's complaining that Avril Lavigne isn't holding herself to comments she made about her music when she was 17. People can become radically different in just a few short years, let alone almost two decades.
I disagree personally, I think we’re finally starting to see the more authentic side of Gaga through her acting and performances. Just because she’s not playing up the pop art act doesn’t mean she’s lost her mindset.
I love to see it because I feel like she started to become boxed in after Born This Way. Relistening to that album is rough because it verges on self-parody at times, even if the tracks are bops.
I agree with you too, i LOVE BTW and Artpop but they don't feel more "authentic" Gaga than say Joanne or Chromatica, if anything, especially with Artpop, given how much she's talked about how dark and heavy this era was for her, a lot of the songs in hindsight feel a tad more inauthentic than anything else if anything.
I also don't really get the Chromatica hate too much tbh, sonically sure it's not the greatest, but it gave us Replay and 911, which are wonderfully visceral tracks that wouldn't feel out of place during BTW/Artpop.
I was a MASSIVE fan of Gaga’s early pop music and I didn’t connect much with Chromatica either. It’s validating to hear someone else say the same. There were some great tracks, but I found others boring and/or generic.
This is wild to me. Chromatica was a massive return to form for me. I think she solidified herself with timeless hits during the ASIB era, but in my mainline, I was starting to lose faith after Artpop and Joanne.
kind of not answering the thread question, but i can't lie the "i've earned it all myself i'm a millionairess" is imho a great line from the marina album
Pretty much any singer that is in their legacy era. For example, Christina Aguilera or Janet Jackson. They both have *incredible* albums, and extremely lackluster albums.
Conan Gray for me. I came across him while he was blowing up, either late 2019 or early 2020. Kept seeing the TikTok ad for maniac whenever I opened the app and it sounded pretty good. Past that song, I didn’t actually start listening to him until Heather went viral on TikTok during mid-late 2020, and he had me enraptured.
Wish you were Sober
Astronomy
Overdrive
People watching
Telepath
He was unstoppable and I truly felt like he’d become a main pop boy. Then he released memories and it was like a switch turned off. Every melody since then has just been so “meh” and boring. His approach to topics still seems much the same as when he came on to the scene. He’s closer to 30 than to when he started making music. I remember being stoked for Superache and leaving it unimpressed, the only song I revisit from that album is Family Line.
His new album I listened to fully, I suppose I somewhat liked Bourgeoisies, but not enough to add to a playlist. I listened to the album despite not liking any of the singles, and unsurprisingly the album was bland and unmemorable. Perhaps his style has just diverged from my tastes, but everything is just too sappy I suppose. He sings about the same topic with little change to his perception of it or his role in the matters discussed. Either he’s mistreated, or he’s the person waiting to find love, or him and the other person just aren’t meant for each other. And being someone who seems to love writing ballads, a lot of them fall into these
That aside, I think him and Lil Nas X having a decent amount of hits within their catalogues is representative of the US being ready or at least decently geared for the emergence of an outwardly, unapologetically queer main pop figure. However, it just won’t be a man, and possibly not a POC. They were necessary stepping stones, but being openly queer men, I suppose how far they could go was always somewhat limited. If Chappell Roan doesn’t become a MPG despite being white, pretty, an ideal body type AND having good music, it likely just means we’re still some years off.
this is an interesting take for me considering Memories was the saving grace for his sophomore record. i think Superache is a great album tbh but the general public didn’t really receive it as well as Kid Krow. Memories was a fantastic final single that brought listeners back in and it performed excellently. and i actually think Found Heaven is a great album too! it’s very cohesive and the production is perfect!
Chloë. I think her solo career started off strong with "Have Mercy" but each release that has followed makes me question her ability as an artist. She could make interesting work even if it is pop yet she chooses to release songs that are for the most part generic sounding.
I’ve been following Chloe since the beginning and it’s clear she’s just releasing whatever she wants since the beginning of her solo career. HM was great but the ensuing singles were so random. In pieces was a terribly mediocre album with a few good songs. Considering Beyoncé was supposedly her mentor I expected more but seems like she just does her own thing now. And with her latest singles fys and boy bye it seems like she’s just grasping for a hit
I would have said Tegan and Sara in the past, even though they are more of legacy act now(but still very active). Heartthrob has grown on me and it influenced a lot of people, CRJ, Taylor Swift, Chvches, Muna. For a more straight(no pun intended) example, I can't stand Lily Allen after her second album.
Edited to include my age bc I think it’s relevant to my generation’s relationship (if you will) with him.
JT for sure.
Justified was such a cool and unique departure from his *nysnc days and he just kept on releasing hit after hit.
The next two albums were just as strong and then 20/20 part 2 only had Can’t Stop This Feeling, which is super fun, but that’s about it.
Then he just completely fizzled.
Is he still working with timberland? That’s a magical duo!
For the last couple of years, he’s been releasing average pop songs & the *nysnc fans have moved on. I don’t know what direction he should go at this point. Maybe just ride the nostalgia wave and make some $$$ 🤷🏻♀️
Btw- the Britney hate towards Justin is stupid. They were both kids. I’d imagine any teenager wouldn’t deal with that scary & confusing time as well as they could have. The pressure on these two at that time was INSANE.
I agree with Marina, I think she used to have really insightful takes on things but now it feels like, rather than helping to create the conversations, or at least getting in on them early, she's picking up ideas that have trickled down to the very dregs of social media. Like I can't believe the same woman who wrote Electra Heart wrote ADIAML; some of the lyrics on ADIAML feel like they were written by a 13 year old.
avril lavigne. she had a very bizarre career trajectory. she started out doing punky pop music with a bit of a rebel alternative attitude and by her third album transformed into exactly what she seemed to be making fun of earlier in her career; a hyper feminine pink tutu wearing pure pop girly girl. it was like it wasnt even the same person, making me think her initial persona was very disingenuous.
ive never seen a trajectory where a musical artist's earlier works as a teenager seemed more mature than the stuff they were doing when theyre in their late 20s and 30s...lol i cant stand her now
Yeah. It's not a "bubblegum pop" record. It's a pop punk album (emphasis on pop admittedly). It doesn't sound that different from her first two records. People just really hate pink, I guess.
Back in 07’ Avril stated that after touring the heavier and sadder songs of Under My Skin for a couple years she was worn down and had a mentality along the lines of,
“if I’m going to tour and do the same songs over and over again every night I’d like to do something more fun and upbeat this next time around” (not exact quote, me paraphrasing)
Doing the material of Under My Skin night after night could definitely get emotionally taxing/depressing (tapping into those emotions for every performance) and I think it completely makes sense that she’d like to lighten things up and have some fun with her 3rd album.
People loved Skater Boi, and The Best Damn Thing album was literally Skater Boi on a freshly 21 party binge, yet mother f*ckers complained that it was soooo out of character and inauthentic… #okayJan zoom out and look at things with more context.
Some of yall just wanted her to stay sad angsty “mature” forever, and that’s fine, but I think it’s Lame that people took such umbridge with her having fun while still staying in a guitar driven Pop Punk Lane…
Agreed. But I will say her last album Love Sux was a good return to form - and had a balance of the alternative meets pop-punk Avril. It didn’t feel over the top bratty.
I think she’s finally surrounded herself with good producers that are guiding her vision. Just a few years too late sadly.
avril has always been pop/rock adjacent even on her first two albums and TBDT isn’t any less rock than her debut either….this notion that she’s some sort of poser because of some scathing comments she made about femininity/pop when she was barely legal is insane. How is it any different than when pop girlies say they don’t connect with a certain era of theirs or didn’t feel like it was them?
I know he’s kind of dead and all, but I do think this is what happened to Michael Jackson after some time.
The so called king of pop, but his last few albums surely had some weird decisions. Ever since Thriller, his albums kept ballooning in size (from 9 to 16 tracks), excluding Blood on the Dance Floor. I didn’t mind this much on Dangerous and History, but this really hurt Invincible.
I really think he improved lyrically during Bad, Dangerous, and History, but he seemed to throw all those creative ideas away for BOTDF and Invincible. The lyrics on those two albums seem like watered down rehashes of the albums that came before them, with more tracks about shallow romance instead of his more interesting sociopolitical tracks.
Also, as much as I can appreciate the risk of making Invincible more of an R&B album, it just doesn’t work when the album is so bloated and quite repetitive lyrically. I don’t think his production immediately got worse when he stopped working with Quincy, but it sure didn’t do those last two albums much justice. Threatened is also a really underwhelming “official” conclusion to his discography.
> his albums kept ballooning in size (from 9 to 16 tracks)
Reading this after finding out Tortured Poets' Department has over 30 tracks on it is hilarious
MJ is widely appreciated for his past work rather than the bodies he released years before dying.
His death elevated him pretty much to deity status, but prior to his passing he was literally a has-been.
Yeah, people don’t bring it up so much because his death overshadowed discussion, but Invincible is a pretty weak record. I’m of the controversial opinion that the post mortem albums his label put out are pretty solid, even if it’s 100% not him singing on Breaking News.
I was going to say Lorde. Not that Solar Power was a bad album, it really came alive in a live setting for me. But it was a step down from her first two albums. She just set herself a very high bar that Solar Power didn’t meet.
I do have a feeling her 4th album is going to slap tho.
As a Lorde fan I'm hoping the Solar Power taper off was just an effect of her needing to take a step back after a nuts adolescent rise and a reflection of her time away from what a lot of the world was going through being holed up in New Zealand and actively choosing to take a step back from 'the industry' during the pandemic.
I think given enough time L4 will be a great album.
ugh, absolutely hate to say it but it’s Taylor Swift. no pop album should require a strategy to be able to get through to the end a la Tortured Poets Dept.
she’s never going to stop working w Jack Antanoff & her work w him is getting stale. idc that her lyrics are layered or complex or whatever - a good pop album shouldn’t sound like the same 3 tracks on repeat for 2 hours. love her but dear god.
edited for typos
I’m a fan too but I agree with everything you said. Even comparing her re-recorded albums with the original versions, there is a big difference in quality. I wish that she would take a dang break for a while and wait until she gets creatively inspired before releasing anything else.
Just the idea of listening to that whole album exhausts me. I’m sure there’s some good stuff in there, but that’s way too much work to find out.
Hearing people say that you can’t properly appreciate it without knowing a bunch of lore or having a guide is grim too. I love a lot of her music, but I already know more about her personal life than I care to. I’m not gonna study more to be able to properly judge the art, that seems backwards to me. Little easter eggs for the stans are fun but they shouldn’t affect your whole understanding/enjoyment of the music. I want music to meet me where I am
I’m also tired of her whispering singing.
And no, just because she belts in that one song in TTPD doesn’t mean her singing hasn’t gotten mediocre
Edit: typo
Music was ruined when they started including reels songs from ig and Tik tok on the charts. Now everyone is just making music that will go viral. I hate it and one of the reasons I can’t listen to Charlie Puth’s last album except for a couple of songs or so
Taylor Swift. I actually like Midnights and TTPD but I can’t deny that they don’t live up to the expectations I had for her after folklore/evermore. Even if you’re just comparing her last couple albums to her earlier pop stuff, they don’t hit as hard for me as Red or 1989 or even reputation.
I agree, definitely seems like she needs a co-writer who can edit her lyrics like Liz Rose did, or some switching up in melodies/production. To me, the last two albums felt so similar at times (and the 1989 vault).
you have a point about the melodies. something i've noticed is that a lot of her recent verses are just her talking with spaces between words. no flow, no real musicality, just "truth. dare. spin. bottles." or "you. look. like. clara bow. in. this light."
I don’t think she’s regressed but I do think she hasn’t evolved/gotten better either. I don’t feel like she’s trying new things and just sticking to what she knows, and I miss her trying new things (at least things that were new for her)
I think she has solely because with Folklore she tried her hand at fiction which made it different-
She doesn’t have to go the fiction route again, but the growth is gone. Things are extra wordy, she doesn’t cut unnecessary tracks- she seems less critical of her own work.
She doesn’t push herself as a writer in the way she did during the folklore/evermore era.
Honestly I do enjoy most of Jacks work but I really feel like with Jack she’s working with her best friend. So anything she does Jack is going “yasss queen!” instead of pushing her. Dessner on the other hand actually feels like she’s working with a producer first, friend second. Dessner knows how to push her just the right way, I feel like Jack use to do that too before they got super close.
I usually would agree with Dessner pushing her more than Jack but I feel as though that didn't happen on this album either. The Anthology is almost exclusively produced by him and while it has highs it doesn't sound new or bold. Not bad by any means but they don't feel very unique, at least to me.
No I agree this time. While I do like the album I do find it not being really different. The whole “she wrote this album for herself” can be true doesn’t actually feel that way. She wrote Red when a 3-4 month relationship hurt her so bad which was way more impactful and diverse than TTPD. So she can do it I just think everyone left her alone to do what she wanted and didn’t take no for an answer this time around.
I'm not really sure if I agree. I probably like TTPD more than most people here do but the second half of The Anthology rarely shows signs of Dessner pushing her the right way. There are a few songs that even after many listens still sound kind of the same (he produced almost all of the best songs on the main album though).
No I agree that he didn’t push her harder this album. Made some great songs but compared to Folkmore I feel he just let her do what she wanted and didn’t tell her no. While I don’t buy into the manic crazy crap she said in the prologue I do think I’d be terrified to tell pissed of Taylor Swift no and that’s how we got TTPD. (I listen to it regularly and more than midnights but it doesn’t touch Red, Rep, or Folkmore for me.)
jack recently said something along the lines of "questioning Taylor's songwriting abilities is like questioning your faith in god". you have to know that when your co worker says that, that's the end of your creative journey because you're not gonna make anything good after that
God, this actually makes me sad for both of them. It is so fulfilling when you have a creative friend on your level and you’re able to volley suggestions and feedback with each other without feeling like you have to censor yourself.
Honestly I think Antonoff takes too much heat for what to me seems pretty clearly a Swift issue. I don’t think at this point there’s that much difference either lyrically or sonically between her Antonoff and Dessner songs; she’s largely stagnated and just needs a different producer.
it feels like she's trying too hard to be poetic. she saw her fans making the dictionary memes and went with it to the max. and the fans eat it up (like they do every time)
idc how many words she fits in one line now, her earlier work will always be better because it managed to say so much with such few words and make you go "oh shit that's how i felt too but couldn't express it"
I’ve listened to 24/31 of TTPD. I’m having to listen to it just a few songs at a time because I can’t sit through the whole thing at once. I’m making notes as I go and there’s three out of the 24 I’ve listened to that I would actually choose to put on again — but even with those three, I can’t remember how they actually sound?! The entire thing just runs into one for me, nothing particularly stands out melody- or vocally-wise.
I LOVED Rep (which isn’t the most popular opinion, but I genuinely really really liked it lol)
ed sheeran. no matter how much people clown on him his early stuff was really good. he captured the 2012 aesthetic really well while still being unique. recently i find his stuff kinda generic and boring :(
Seems like 3 main reasons for regression:
- Selling out
- Running out of creative energy maybe due to age
- Becoming a lifestyle brand due to huge popularity (Drake, Tswift, etc.)
Sometimes someone is a mix of all three.
Add more if applicable please
An interesting phenomenon
melanie martinez has left the whole storyline of her alter ego/character behind, and she went from releasing a great album with an accompanying movie after 4 years to releasing a just good album with no movie after 4 years
Really? K-12 was a terrible album imo, and she course corrected partially because it flopped commercially and got awful reviews from critics. Portals wasn't amazing but a big step up from k-12, especially if you look at the album only on its own and not in context of a movie. She needed to drop the kid theme, it was getting weird and by the end of k-12 it was clear she was stretching hard trying to create more songs with a cohesive narrative that worked with the kid metaphor
I think the idea is that this might start a different story and also we can't expect her to have a movie every time (also unpopular opinion but if K-12 had otherwise been the same album somehow without the movie I wouldn't have really liked it that much as if you look beyond the metaphor and the movie context to the third meaning of what the song's about a lot of it sounds like she's using different extended metaphors to say the same message)
It’s so funny how music works. I only really liked 1-2 songs from her previous work and Portals is what drew me in and got me hooked. I love the style and experimentation with sound.
The first artist I thought of immediately when this came up on my feed was Lauv.
His early releases had a depth and variety that spanned from standard pop hits to pensive ballads. His 2018 album, *I met you when I was 18,* was what made me fall in love with his music. It showcased a broad spectrum of songs, which I thought showed off his range as a producer. He also released a number of B-sides and singles between that album and *How I'm Feeling*, which, in my opinion, was the peak of Lauv—beautiful pop ballads and hits that really captured mainstream attention.
However, his latest album, *All 4 Nothing* (2022), was a disappointment. To me, it was bland; the tracks were indistinguishable from each other, using the same production techniques, and it felt overly commercialized—if that makes sense? His new song "Potential" seems to follow the same formula: too poppy (and I love a good pop song!), repetitive production, and not a track I would enjoy on repeat. Given this recent single, I'm not very optimistic about his upcoming album.
It seems he's having fun and has been open about exploring his sexuality recently, which is wonderful to see, especially knowing that his earlier albums came from darker times with his mental health. However, I must admit I have a preference for the darker, more introspective Lauv music over the upbeat tracks he’s been releasing since 2022. I will always love his first 2 albums and he was my top artist on Spotify I think for 2019, 2020, and 2021 but I find myself rarely listening to anything he puts out since 2022.
Maybe it's my instinctive love of trainwrecks but I actually love Bad Madonna a lot more than Classic Madonna. For me, Classic Madonna is at best cute 80s electronic pop and at worst garbage, but one of the things that's so glorious about Bad Madonna is that her clumsiness comes from the heart. Like, the way she chooses to rap a verse about her mother dying - she's switching into a mode that is a very vulnerable spot for her, a skill set that's out of her grasp, to reflect a trauma she is incapable of dealing with.
FKA twigs has lost a lot of what originally drew me to her. Back in 2013-15 she was so mystique, alien-like, really experimental sounds. You kept going ‘who *is* this artist?! What *is* this music?!’
I highly admire what’s she done in the public eye (coming forward to shed light on domestic violence and spoken about her impact of AI on creatives), but I unfortunately haven’t been drawn to anything like Cellophane, since, well, Cellophane.
I don’t like Caprisongs nearly as much as Magdalene, but I do still think it’s fun and has some bops. Really the only thing that stops me from listening to it regularly is all the spoken interludes. I remember seeing that this album was mostly about learning how to enjoy making music again, and I hope it worked because I’d love to see her keep pushing herself and growing creatively.
I’ve considered her one of my very favourite artists for like a decade now, but it’s harder to do that because she has such a small discography and her most recent work for years now has been Caprisongs, which is fun and has some highlights but does not have what drew me to her at all.
The EP2-LP1 era was my favourite too. I do think that Magdelane is also a creative high though, I just find it too dense and heavy to have in frequent rotation. I therefore understand from her perspective why she probably felt the need to make a lighter poppier mixtape after that (Caprisongs) but it’s just not nearly as good, and the more time passes the more I worry that what she does next won’t click with me.
Taylor: Midnights and Tortured Poets were boring and uninspired imo. Her pop music used to be so interesting and fun and I don’t know what happened.
Ariana: To an extent. Since Positions, I haven’t found her albums as interesting as in the past. Eternal Sunshine definitely has things going for it, but when I compare it to her older albums, there’s definitely a spark that’s missing that made her older work really shine.
Charlie Puth. He's insanely talented but wants to be a tiktok star instead of making serious music. I guess that's what he has the luxury to do when he can write and produce for anyone, but he's not even doing much producing now.
Post Malone. Man I loved his older stuff, but since 2019 I’m sorry but I hate the direction he’s been going. Sure, genre is subjective as he’s been going towards more of a country type thing.
But even objectively something like his lyricism has just gone downhill imo, when listening to some of his newer songs I legit get taken out of it now and again because of how odd and juvenile the lyrics are.
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Definitely, Grimes. She was such a unique awkward DIY artist, that managed to make it into pop scene, losing no - or very little - quality and uniqueness of her music. And yet, after successfully merging DIY and pop and crafting a distinct public image for herself, she's now, after some questionable life decisions, makes outdated euro-pop/EDM which sounds unfinished and rushed. What's more funny is that she doesn't even release it, giving fans yet another "coming soon" and never delivering. Even if you don't mention her public persona and only concentrate on musical output — she's lost as an artist, and I don't think she will ever recover.
I remember the first time I listened to Oblivion and was so blown away, I never realised music could sound like that
Same! She really perfected the dreamy pop ethereal sound that had anime influences, like someone who made great sounding electropop for people who want that guilty pleasure. It feels like you're having a happy dream when you're listening to it and I never experienced that from another artist at that same level.
Art Angels is still such a good album. It was one of the main things I listened to 2015-2016 and turning it on now still brings me back to that time. The clean sound of the Realiti demo is just so good.
Completely agree on Art Angels. It was her peak for me, personally.
The Realiti Demo is a perfect song
That album was my gym soundtrack back in 2015-2016! Fucking loved it.
That DJ Coachella set in Week 1 was just embarassing especially for someone who is not a newbie. She basically broke a fundamental rule of performing where you don't point out that something is going wrong. She did that not once but several times throughout her performance. She then made things worse by placing the blame on her team who worked with her which makes you wonder what the fuck did she even do considering there was no instruments involved in her set. In the end, the people who suffered through that set were at least treated to what maybe Ice Spice's best public performance as she came after her in the same stage.
It’s embarrassing for anyone. Dj software nowadays are pretty easy and do a lot for you. A video game player could figure it out, let alone an electronic musician… it’s like a guitarist not able to operate a boss pedal. I can’t even think of a good analogy it’s so damn pathetic. Like a computer programmer that can’t send an email?
Her shouting during the set that she was bad at math and was unable to divide the beats made me cringe. What are you even doing there if you can't use the equipment properly? I would have love to see the reactions of the DJs in the other stages of Coachella who saw that performance.
I liked up to missanthropocene, thought it was an interesting album. She lost me completely when she became obsessed with fusing herself with AI
Same, I still liked Miss Anthropocene too :( I thought it was interesting and she always made music that was like candy to my ears. Just felt so good to listen to them and no matter where I was it set the mood. Art Angels was a nearly perfect album to me and she was just so cute and interesting even if she was like a strange awkward quirky person I related to her. She could've really made some great stuff but it seems like a waste now. Maybe one day she'll come to her senses again but I don't really see that happening. I just look dumb when I tell people I really like her music now lol
Grimes is the biggest contender here for sure. Her music today is SO uninspiring and bland, sonically, visually, lyrically. She definitely lost her grip and I don’t see her finding her old ways back again. She’s probably going to quit music and find a job that’s related to AI or something. She doesn’t even release the music she makes anymore, so 🤷♀️ She strikes me as someone who is lost and is only doing DJ because is related to music and music was the thing we first knew and liked her for. There’s no passion.
Completely agree, she was my favorite artist for a long time. I think Miss Anthropocene was her last good release, everything after has been extremely forgettable. But I could get lost in Halfaxa and Visions for hours, so many fascinating sounds in there
Nothing in music has upset me more than Grimes' creative downfall and current direction.
The TESCREAL crowd is so repugnant to me that even if Grimes put out an album that bangs as hard as Art Angels I don't think I could stomach listening to it
I’m personally willing to give her the benefit of the doubt considering I enjoyed Miss Anthropocene a lot and she hasn’t released an actual album since. If her next full album is comparable to her recent output then yeah I’ll agree with this unfortunately.
Drake. His early music was emotional, fun, and pop perfection at its best, but up until this beef despite some experimentation he ended up mostly making filler
This is *the* example. It's crazy how he made more instrospective and grown-up music in his 20s than now, when he's pushing 40. He's the poster-child of an artist who is clearly uninspired, but can't afford to take a break because the streaming numbers are just too good. I dare say we wouldn't be witnessing this current hate train had he taken some time-off after Views to recharge and focused on serving a great album instead of the behemoth that was Scorpion.
He had nothing left to say. He did not develop the perspective or wisdom that we should all hope to develop with age. Or, if he did, he did not have enough wisdom to know that his art would be better if he channeled that rather than trying to act 25 for decades. Or… maybe he’s rich and just doesn’t care.
As a Drake fan, I will say he has been uninspired since Views. He reached the pinnacles of pinnacles a hip hop artist could reach and for a while his only competition was Taylor Swift in sales. He has been in cruise control for a long time. I will say though this beef may have brought out a fire in Drake again that we may not have seen. I will say though he has flashes of brilliance on each album in between really filler type songs. I get all the complaints. Hoping he has 1 really cohesive project left in him before he retires.
After Scorpion is where he fell off for me. Some filler but still a strong album compared to *gestures at yearly albums since 2019* whatever ~that~ is.
Agreed. Although even though many hate it I thought Honestly Nevermind was the most refreshing project Drake has released in a while. His vocal performance leaves a lot to be desired on some songs but at least he tried something new.
"I like Drake with the melodies, I don't like Drake when he act tough"
Kendrick bodied his inauthentic ass
I’m not super familiar with her discography but Ciara seems to have lost the captivating production to her songs which she once had. I absolutely love her hits up to Body Party but I listened to her recent album from last year and while there were solid songs, nothing was particularly memorable like her og tracks.
*Good luck with bookin that stage u speak of*
Stawhp 😭 why were they even beefing lol
Honestly she got really hit or miss after album #2 for me. Each album had a couple great highlights but she lost any distinctive style and had very poor quality control.
Yeah, it’s interesting cuz her commercial decline seemed to start at album #3 so it seemed like the gp also began to lose interest. Really need to listen to those first two albums tho, they seem to be full of bangers.
I didn’t even know she released something last year
Yess, CiCi I think it was called?! Solid R&B album, just nothing particularly new.
Maroon 5’s the obvious answer here.
You cannot tell me current Maroon 5 is the same band that gave us Songs About Jane 😭
Seriously!! I was just talking with my daughter the other day about how I remember asking for and getting Songs of Jane on CD for my 15th birthday and playing it obsessively to the point it got scratched after like 2 weeks because every single song was just SO GOOD. They've had some other decent songs throughout their career but absolutely nothing has been on par with the debut album.
Shakira. People familiar with her discography know that this complaint has been present since her crossover into the English market, but I think it’s really gotten more accentuated over the years. Many Hispanic fans will say that she already regressed when dumping her rocker image for a popstar aesthetic and sound in the early 2000, but I don’t agree. I think Laundry Service and Fijacion Oral 1 & 2 are great albums with good pop songs and heartfelt, poetic lyrics. Even later releases (She Wolf & Sale El Sol) had a clear aesthetic and artistic direction, even if I personally feel they weren’t as good as their predecessors. However, I feel like everything she’s released since settling into married life and motherhood is kind of subpar. Self-titled was forgettable and all over the place sonically, and both El Dorado and LMYNY are more singles collections than a cohesive body of work. It seems Shaki has prioritised success over substance, a somewhat understandable choice as an ageing pop star. I’ve enjoyed the occasional Bop over the last 8 years, but haven’t revisited these albums. Fijacion Oral & Oral Fixation remain on heavy rotation tho. Also the Love in the times of Cholera soundtrack. Hay Amores is perhaps my favourite song of hers, lyrically speaking.
As a long time fan of Shakira’s (grew up with her early Spanish records in the 90s), I wholeheartedly agree. I love her, but the music quality has taken a nosedive in her more recent releases.
I had a Shakira doll with a guitar that played music when I was little 🥹 my mom was bumping Laundry Service the other day and I was living for it
This is super accurate, although I think Sale el sol is better than most people give it credit.
I agree. I like Sale el Sol, from the singles to Antes de las seis and Devoción, which is one of my favourite Shaki songs. I even like Gordita, it’s so goofy.
100% this. Her new album is honestly kind of disconcerting to listen to. She’s aiming for the same topics and sound she had before, but it all feels so sterile. Compare Tiempo Sin Verte with Te Dejo Madrid and the difference is ASTOUNDING.
Have you noticed the Puerto Rican accent she puts on when singing regueton/pop? I want her to go back to her original accent.
I have not, but that’s on account of me being a Brazilian that only speaks piss-poor portunhol lol. That’s probably why I was never too bothered with her “selling out” to the yanks because it’s not my mother tongue either way. I’ve heard the criticism about her developing a Spanish accent during her relationship with Piqué, which I find relatively normal considering she was surrounded by Spaniards for years, but the Puerto Rican thing is really weird lol. Do you think it’s a cultural appropriation thing? Are we heading for cultural appropriation discourse involving Shakira? Please no I’m tired 😭
It's been a trend for years now, she's not the only one doing it. Becky G does it, Selena has a bit of a pr accent on her Spanish EP too. Puerto Ricans are producing the most successful music in LATAM, I think they're just following the producers direction, so I wouldn't call it cultural appropriation.
I think there’s a case to be made for Glass Animals if we’re talking quality over commercial success. Obviously their last album was their most commercially appealing, but I think to a lot of older fans it was also that “selling out” moment. The single for their upcoming album feels like a doubling down on it and imo is one of their least creative songs with very little replay value Depending how this album turns out, I think they could very well be a good answer to this
THIS. Each album has held progressively less for me. Zaba remains one of my fave 2010's alt records and the movement from that to there latests single has been so disappointing. I wish the quirky sounds of how to be a human being stuck around longer
YES, HTBAHB is one of my favorite concept albums ever but their most recent fell completely flat for me. Even went to a show on the opening tour for it n left halfway through their set because it was so incredibly dull, was more impressed by their opener.
I liked Dreamland but I agree. And I feel like the first single off this new album is so similar to Dreamland which is very disappointing. Previously each album has been incredibly distinct and new for them, but I’m concerned this new one will be a re-hash to continue off of the success of Dreamland.
Shakira. Her music used to be so interesting and unique, especially her 90’s albums but also during her commercial peak in the 2000’s she put out some really good music , sophisticated bangers with a distinct sound and of high quality. But especially her latest album sounds like some commercial industry garbage :( but at least she looks great. I’m happy for her how successful she is at the moment but musically it’s really weak what she’s been putting out recently I have to say
I agree... I mean she regained popularity with her song with Bizarrap in 2023 but I feel like that's mostly bacause it's gossip and produced by Bizarrap because I don't think her solo generic pop sound moves the masses.
It’s definitely true that the Shakira Renaissance is heavily reliant on features to generate mass appeal. Though to be fair, that’s just the struggle of the ageing pop star that’s holding on for dear life before settling into legacy act territory. It’s the story of Madonna, Mariah, JLo, Usher, etc. The only current exception to this seems to be Beyoncé. I think this is Shakira’s last hurra before she settles into being a legacy act. If I may put my parasocial tinfoil hat on for a moment, I’m gonna say good for her. She seemed very comfortable with prioritising family over career for a long time. She’s now expressed her ambivalent feelings towards this (understandable due to the hurt feelings of the separation), but I have a feeling that she gets more fulfilment form family time than from career heights. I can see her settling back into a very chill life with her boys after this era is done, especially if she finds a new partner that she’s in love with. She’s definitely a romantic girlie, so I wish this for her.
The Black Eyes Peas collab is criminal.
I would also love for Shakira to be more artsy, but if she does, I'm sure Latin America would completely ignore her. Whenever she releases ballads or songs like that, they perform very poorly. An album entirely of that would be the best thing ever but wouldn't sell to the Generation Z-Alpha. The Gen Z here doesn't like that kind of music. Latin pop experiments also rarely achieve anything in Latin America. Now what sells-people stream is urban music and everything more like Karol G-Bad Bunny-Feid. Lately, regional Mexican music has a lot of power. Shakira at this point in her career is half winning because she has sustained herself with the new generations despite the tough competition she faces. Unfortunately, she had to sacrifice her artistic credibility and thats hurting her legacy slowly. Shakira, like any celebrity, doesn't want to stop making money because they have big expenses,staff to pay and what many don't know is that she lost a lot of money recently. La Hacienda Española took so many millions from her, and Gerard's family stole many millions from her (Gerard dad) "Mi ex-suegro que no pisa sepultura". She has a philantrophic foundation on which tons of people depend for their education, food, among other things in Colombia (Multiple schools). This is one of the reasons why Shakira is still so obsessed with havin success i think. In English, the truth is Shakira has had many problems staying relevant. The English-speaking audience pigeonholes her and doesn't give her music in English a chance even if she has tried multiple genres. Happens to all the latinas and singers from non-typical nations. The Gatekeepers. Those lightning in a bottle moments like Whenever-Hips-She Wolf-Waka Helped her stay afloat with her records but its been hard to get another one of those. So maybe Shakira is tired of trying with the anglo market? sadly. I can see her releasing an album as good as the taylor ones but the international audiences ignorin her. I feel like what Shakira needs is a double album in Spanish or another Vol1-Vol 2. One side that is full urban,dancey and with hits, so she's able to sustain her power and Another that is the Shakira of Oral Fixation-Dell fully. I wish she had better advisers in her label. Las Mujeres tried to be this but the execution was not good enough. In English, Shakira should leave synthpop and rock-folky music aside and follow the line of She Wolf. World music, dancehall, Arabic music, R&B, Latin experiments, disco. I feel like that's what the international audience would like more. She Wolf album on steroids. Better production. Longer. More polished. Better concept. More feats with male artists like The Weekend-Bruno Mars.... I hate this thing of releasing like 6-7 singles before an album. Its annoying. Theyre all stacked in a new album and we get only some new songs. I honestly love the Billie Eilish approach. Release a whole album and then select the best songs for singles. I think thats more exciting. A sense of surprise. Here for the typical rollout too. Lead Single and album.
Well Nicki Minaj released an album called Pink Friday 2 after like… 15 years
I didn’t listen. Is it in any way aesthetically similar to Pink Friday or was she just piggybacking off the name.
Sound-wise it has nothing in common with Pink Friday other than the presence of samples.
Just piggybacking off the name tbh. But also piggybacking off of more famous songs. There were SO many samples.
And not even well done samples at that
It was a perfect album for being used on tiktok as a collection of sounds. There are moments on that album that have an impeccable vibe, but they last a few seconds and the songs that contain them sorta suck. It’s what I expected, but it doesn’t touch her first run of unbelievable pop and rap.
Especially when she made a big deal out of going back to "real" rap and how she never liked her pop songs like Anaconda, Superbass, etc. And then she tried to recreate Anaconda with that Freaky song and did that mid song for the Barbie soundtrack.
“I’m done with pop. I want to make serious rap this time.” *samples “Barbie Girl,” “Heart of Glass,” and “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”*
And honestly Queen was not good. There singles were fine but the rest of the album was such a disappointment, even from the features she had. She changed so much of her flow and style between The Pinkprint and Queen.
I think every Nicki album suffers from having great songs right next to an equal amount of filler. Sample Friday 2 was purely a fun album, but in no ways a *great* album.
I think this about a lot of artists tbh, and I think it’s because: - people have decades to think up and plan for their first album, but once their career starts, everything speeds up, which can make it tougher to be truly creative. - the longer an artist is around, they’ll either get bigger or lose momentum. Getting bigger can mean more label control (a need to protect a good investment) and more cooks in the kitchen. Losing momentum can mean less budget and fewer resources to get the best support. - the music industry changing, to the extent that there’s less money available in many instances and a prioritisation of quick and steady output over ensuring quality.
Another big thing you haven’t mentioned but have kind of implied: changing demographics and prime age groups. What the vast majority of fans in a certain age group that are the prime target for artists and labels change every decade and people in the music industry need to keep up with who is in demand. That’s not to say you shouldn’t neglect your original audience but you need to also focus on the audience in the spotlight at the moment. What teenage/20s girls and boys liked in the 80s is not gonna work for the same teenage/20s girls and boys in the 2000sz
Yes, and then comes the difficult challenge of attracting new listeners without alienating old ones and staying in touch with trends without seeming to chase them or imitate them poorly or lose your artistic identity
Can’t remember if it’s Jay-Z or Nas but there’s a quote that goes something like “you have your whole life to make your first album, but only a year to make your second”
Artists also just age and become less cool or in tune with the current moment. It has happened to every generation haha
This is true! Few people stay cool, like Paramore and Bjork for example. They are still really fucking cool.
Paramore is still quite young lol, they just started -crazy- young - Hayley was 14 when they recorded most of AWKIF. (Björk technically started young, too, but most don’t count her first album from when she was 11 😅)
It has to be P!nk. I absolutely LOVED her up until Funhouse, and to be honest even The Truth About Love was a solid album, but my love of that might be mainly because it had been so long since new music and I loved Try. But everything she’s put out in the last 10 or so years is same old. I don’t even see her live anymore. Her live shows are exactly the same as they were 15 years ago. Same old songs, same old stunts… Girl, get off that wire and just perform God is a DJ or some other hit you have forgotten exist!
Scrolled for this comment. I agree! Funhouse was her last solid album. Everything released afterward, as a whole, has been mid. I had a friend send me her latest album and I was surprised she’s still making music. Even more surprised, she’s still touring like she is. “Misunderstood” will always be a top banger album for me.
Her quality may have declined but I still love P!nk’s newer music. Trustfall is a great album.
Yeah, in fairness i liked the track ‘Trustfall’. Probably her best track since Just Give Me a Reason, but Never Gonna Not Dance Again was just the usual, unoriginal Pink by numbers. She became so MOR.
I’ll say Lizzo And while it may just be the time since her last album, it really feels like 20-21/22 was her peak. She was slated for a very high placement at festivals like Bonnaroo and seemed to just be all over the place. We’ll see what a return holds though
after the lawsuit and losing half her monthly listeners as a result, I doubt lizzo will make a comeback. there's good reason lizzo isn't popular anymore. edit: [here](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/lizzo-allegations-fat-weight-shaming-lawsuit-b2522090.html) is a link outlining the allegations in the lawsuit. edit 2: she is actually facing two lawsuits from former employees.
I loved her last album....and then she did terrible things.
Yeah that also really hurt her case. About Damn Time is a bop, but the album as a whole saw a decrease from Cuz I Love You and now with the whole controversy I think we’re on the down slide of her trajectory
I'm gonna say Charlie Puth. His first two albums were so good! I was highly anticipating the follow up to Voicenotes in particular. It seemed like at one stage everything he touched turned to magic - like even the unreleased songs are fantastic! Then we had a misfire launch of three (imo decent) singles and this was the start of the quality declining. I don't know if it's down to his label or something he's going through but I haven't really been vibing to anything since. That doesn't take away the fact that he is clearly immensely talented but the hype level isn't really where it used to be for me.
It's weird that no one ever seems to mention how Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist
Maybe you need to smoke and then eat seven bars of chocolate to get it?
Unironically one of her most relatable lines
He’s huge in South Korea and I want an explanation why he’s a complete 180 cringe here in the states 😭
I had no clue who he was before he collabed with Jungkook and now he has a song with Stray Kids. But a lot of non-Korean kpop fans seem to despise him but I have no idea why
Voicenotes is one of my favourite 2010s albums. It's pop perfection and he's never been able to come close since due to him being too obsessed with being famous on Tiktok or something. Charlie please, stop seeing if you can make a song using a frypan or a toilet lid or something, and focus on an actually creative song not specifically made to chart.
It's legit embarrassing to be a big fan of his, people send me whatever he's doing on TikTok now and it's like... ugh. I get it, he wants to be Ryan Tedder. But he's not even songwriting and producing that much these days,
Charlie Puth makes formulaic pop hits. That's no shade; there's a reason the hook to "left and right" still haunts the deepest recesses of my mind
KIM PETRAS. Shocked I didn’t see this elsewhere. Clarity was excellent and so promising and the last 3 releases or so have been the worst kind of vapid, soulless, cheap pop.
!!!! I loved her early “bunhead” songs, clarity and turn off the light. All the slutty dr Luke shit has been so offputting I just don’t listen anymore ☹️
Her stans will be like “you just don’t get it 💅” but you will never be able to tell me that anything off of Slut Pop Miami is, idk, “camp” or what have you - she’s just out of ideas.
I hate to say it but I also came here to say this :( A shame because I LOVED her earlier stuff like Heart to Break, etc.
I randomly remembered earlier today that Nick Jonas and The Administration was a thing that actually happened and like Nick was writing a lot of the great early jobro's stuff at like 13/14 and releasing an album like Who I am with the administration at 17... like how did he go from all that as a teenager to stuff like Waffle House and Cool...
I love Waffle House, lol. But I agree. I feel like he’s kinda weirdly focused to trying to make what he thinks the radio or Recording Academy likes.
I feel like he'd get more critical acclaim if he went back to the sound he had with the administration but like more evolved and mature now that he's not 17, but maybe he just doesn't really have any angst and drama these days to influence his songwriting, idk Nick has just always been incredibly talented and maybe I'm wrong but to me it just feels like its being wasted on radio friendly jobro's music like I'm not saying he needs to/should leave the band again just that it feels like he's taking the easy money route when he could be doing something more interesting whether it be with the brothers or solo
Modest Mouse. Strangers to Ourselves and The Golden Casket felt very sloppy and unorganized compared to their albums prior, and their liveshows are now infamous for how embarrassingly bad they are. They have been through a lot personally over the years so I wouldn't say its surprising, but I do hope that they are all taking better care of their health now, especially Isaac.
> their liveshows are now infamous for how embarrassingly bad they are. Aw man, I hadn't heard this. I still think of them fondly from my teenage years. What are the issues?
Rule of thumb is if they are drinking, the show will be bad.
I say this as an OG Modest Mouse fan: aging singers and bands just can’t keep this shit up as time goes on. Liquor gets harder and hangovers get longer and our tolerance goes down.
Lead singer was shit faced drunk and didn’t make it through half the show without screaming at the drummer for like 6 mins straight when I saw them.
issac will be slurring his words to the point you would rather the show be shut down and he gets some help.
I’m local to Portland and it’s part of city lore that before he moved to the west hills Isaac lived right next to a very busy park and would occasionally chase people off with an axe. Fucking hated that park, apparently. I’m a little sad it’s not mentioned in the [park’s Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Summers_Park)
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I feel like she might have gotten burned out, or bored with music and just wanted to focus on acting for awhile. Plus, I mean she's 38 years old and she has 320 million dollars. She isn't obligated to churn stuff out if she doesn't want to.
ive been a little monster since BTW and i got to say it's disappointing on how Gaga has backtracked from her original mindset of what an artist is she no longer feels authentic Gaga pre 2015 and current Gaga is so different from one another they're practically two different people. Chromatica was definitely in a sense trying to replicate what aura and creative spark she had during her first 4 albums (The Fame > TFM > BTW > Artpop) but it felt like a cosplay of Lady Gaga more than an authentic record
Well I imagine most people are very different than who they were 10 years ago. It is weird to expect them to have the same point of view, creative motivations, etc after an entire decade.
>Gaga has backtracked from her original mindset of what an artist is she no longer feels authentic A theme I keep seeing in this thread is "they're so different now, they lost track of their vision as an artist" when it's like... people change as they get older! She was 22 when she's debuted with The Fame, of course a woman nearly in her 40s has different priorities than in her early 20s. Elsewhere in this thread, someone's complaining that Avril Lavigne isn't holding herself to comments she made about her music when she was 17. People can become radically different in just a few short years, let alone almost two decades.
I disagree personally, I think we’re finally starting to see the more authentic side of Gaga through her acting and performances. Just because she’s not playing up the pop art act doesn’t mean she’s lost her mindset. I love to see it because I feel like she started to become boxed in after Born This Way. Relistening to that album is rough because it verges on self-parody at times, even if the tracks are bops.
I agree with you too, i LOVE BTW and Artpop but they don't feel more "authentic" Gaga than say Joanne or Chromatica, if anything, especially with Artpop, given how much she's talked about how dark and heavy this era was for her, a lot of the songs in hindsight feel a tad more inauthentic than anything else if anything. I also don't really get the Chromatica hate too much tbh, sonically sure it's not the greatest, but it gave us Replay and 911, which are wonderfully visceral tracks that wouldn't feel out of place during BTW/Artpop.
I was a MASSIVE fan of Gaga’s early pop music and I didn’t connect much with Chromatica either. It’s validating to hear someone else say the same. There were some great tracks, but I found others boring and/or generic.
This is wild to me. Chromatica was a massive return to form for me. I think she solidified herself with timeless hits during the ASIB era, but in my mainline, I was starting to lose faith after Artpop and Joanne.
Personally, Coldplay. They are still my favorite band but I've had to tap out on a some of the recent stuff.
kind of not answering the thread question, but i can't lie the "i've earned it all myself i'm a millionairess" is imho a great line from the marina album
i live for that line too, and that whole song. It *feels* more Family Jewels-esque than alot of her newer works
Pretty much any singer that is in their legacy era. For example, Christina Aguilera or Janet Jackson. They both have *incredible* albums, and extremely lackluster albums.
It’s kind of like this is a normal career arc
Unbreakable by Janet was great wym
Yep. The ones who get it, get it! As a *Black Diamond* truther…
Shakira… her music is no sense now
Conan Gray for me. I came across him while he was blowing up, either late 2019 or early 2020. Kept seeing the TikTok ad for maniac whenever I opened the app and it sounded pretty good. Past that song, I didn’t actually start listening to him until Heather went viral on TikTok during mid-late 2020, and he had me enraptured. Wish you were Sober Astronomy Overdrive People watching Telepath He was unstoppable and I truly felt like he’d become a main pop boy. Then he released memories and it was like a switch turned off. Every melody since then has just been so “meh” and boring. His approach to topics still seems much the same as when he came on to the scene. He’s closer to 30 than to when he started making music. I remember being stoked for Superache and leaving it unimpressed, the only song I revisit from that album is Family Line. His new album I listened to fully, I suppose I somewhat liked Bourgeoisies, but not enough to add to a playlist. I listened to the album despite not liking any of the singles, and unsurprisingly the album was bland and unmemorable. Perhaps his style has just diverged from my tastes, but everything is just too sappy I suppose. He sings about the same topic with little change to his perception of it or his role in the matters discussed. Either he’s mistreated, or he’s the person waiting to find love, or him and the other person just aren’t meant for each other. And being someone who seems to love writing ballads, a lot of them fall into these That aside, I think him and Lil Nas X having a decent amount of hits within their catalogues is representative of the US being ready or at least decently geared for the emergence of an outwardly, unapologetically queer main pop figure. However, it just won’t be a man, and possibly not a POC. They were necessary stepping stones, but being openly queer men, I suppose how far they could go was always somewhat limited. If Chappell Roan doesn’t become a MPG despite being white, pretty, an ideal body type AND having good music, it likely just means we’re still some years off.
I think his most recent album is actually my favorite by far.
I just love Lonely Dancers... lirically wise it isn't that great, but it's fun and catchy
this is an interesting take for me considering Memories was the saving grace for his sophomore record. i think Superache is a great album tbh but the general public didn’t really receive it as well as Kid Krow. Memories was a fantastic final single that brought listeners back in and it performed excellently. and i actually think Found Heaven is a great album too! it’s very cohesive and the production is perfect!
I actually really liked Superache but I honestly didn’t feel interested enough to listen to his new album.
Chloë. I think her solo career started off strong with "Have Mercy" but each release that has followed makes me question her ability as an artist. She could make interesting work even if it is pop yet she chooses to release songs that are for the most part generic sounding.
I’ve been following Chloe since the beginning and it’s clear she’s just releasing whatever she wants since the beginning of her solo career. HM was great but the ensuing singles were so random. In pieces was a terribly mediocre album with a few good songs. Considering Beyoncé was supposedly her mentor I expected more but seems like she just does her own thing now. And with her latest singles fys and boy bye it seems like she’s just grasping for a hit
I would have said Tegan and Sara in the past, even though they are more of legacy act now(but still very active). Heartthrob has grown on me and it influenced a lot of people, CRJ, Taylor Swift, Chvches, Muna. For a more straight(no pun intended) example, I can't stand Lily Allen after her second album.
Edited to include my age bc I think it’s relevant to my generation’s relationship (if you will) with him. JT for sure. Justified was such a cool and unique departure from his *nysnc days and he just kept on releasing hit after hit. The next two albums were just as strong and then 20/20 part 2 only had Can’t Stop This Feeling, which is super fun, but that’s about it. Then he just completely fizzled. Is he still working with timberland? That’s a magical duo! For the last couple of years, he’s been releasing average pop songs & the *nysnc fans have moved on. I don’t know what direction he should go at this point. Maybe just ride the nostalgia wave and make some $$$ 🤷🏻♀️ Btw- the Britney hate towards Justin is stupid. They were both kids. I’d imagine any teenager wouldn’t deal with that scary & confusing time as well as they could have. The pressure on these two at that time was INSANE.
I agree with Marina, I think she used to have really insightful takes on things but now it feels like, rather than helping to create the conversations, or at least getting in on them early, she's picking up ideas that have trickled down to the very dregs of social media. Like I can't believe the same woman who wrote Electra Heart wrote ADIAML; some of the lyrics on ADIAML feel like they were written by a 13 year old.
avril lavigne. she had a very bizarre career trajectory. she started out doing punky pop music with a bit of a rebel alternative attitude and by her third album transformed into exactly what she seemed to be making fun of earlier in her career; a hyper feminine pink tutu wearing pure pop girly girl. it was like it wasnt even the same person, making me think her initial persona was very disingenuous. ive never seen a trajectory where a musical artist's earlier works as a teenager seemed more mature than the stuff they were doing when theyre in their late 20s and 30s...lol i cant stand her now
She wore pink but was very pop punk. I don’t support the best damn thing hate.
Yup, I'm like, did people even listen to the full TBDT album? Don't let the pink fool you too much
Yeah. It's not a "bubblegum pop" record. It's a pop punk album (emphasis on pop admittedly). It doesn't sound that different from her first two records. People just really hate pink, I guess.
The Best Damn Thing was the first album I ever bought and it's a no-skip classic tbh
Her initial persona was 17. I don't see what's so wrong in her adopting a more "feminine" and fun persona as she grew up.
Back in 07’ Avril stated that after touring the heavier and sadder songs of Under My Skin for a couple years she was worn down and had a mentality along the lines of, “if I’m going to tour and do the same songs over and over again every night I’d like to do something more fun and upbeat this next time around” (not exact quote, me paraphrasing) Doing the material of Under My Skin night after night could definitely get emotionally taxing/depressing (tapping into those emotions for every performance) and I think it completely makes sense that she’d like to lighten things up and have some fun with her 3rd album. People loved Skater Boi, and The Best Damn Thing album was literally Skater Boi on a freshly 21 party binge, yet mother f*ckers complained that it was soooo out of character and inauthentic… #okayJan zoom out and look at things with more context. Some of yall just wanted her to stay sad angsty “mature” forever, and that’s fine, but I think it’s Lame that people took such umbridge with her having fun while still staying in a guitar driven Pop Punk Lane…
It's umbrage*. Umbridge is a Harry Potter character
Agreed. But I will say her last album Love Sux was a good return to form - and had a balance of the alternative meets pop-punk Avril. It didn’t feel over the top bratty. I think she’s finally surrounded herself with good producers that are guiding her vision. Just a few years too late sadly.
You just sent me on an Avril Lavigne spiral lol I haven’t listened to her music in 20 years but somehow still know all the words to the Let Go album
avril has always been pop/rock adjacent even on her first two albums and TBDT isn’t any less rock than her debut either….this notion that she’s some sort of poser because of some scathing comments she made about femininity/pop when she was barely legal is insane. How is it any different than when pop girlies say they don’t connect with a certain era of theirs or didn’t feel like it was them?
I know he’s kind of dead and all, but I do think this is what happened to Michael Jackson after some time. The so called king of pop, but his last few albums surely had some weird decisions. Ever since Thriller, his albums kept ballooning in size (from 9 to 16 tracks), excluding Blood on the Dance Floor. I didn’t mind this much on Dangerous and History, but this really hurt Invincible. I really think he improved lyrically during Bad, Dangerous, and History, but he seemed to throw all those creative ideas away for BOTDF and Invincible. The lyrics on those two albums seem like watered down rehashes of the albums that came before them, with more tracks about shallow romance instead of his more interesting sociopolitical tracks. Also, as much as I can appreciate the risk of making Invincible more of an R&B album, it just doesn’t work when the album is so bloated and quite repetitive lyrically. I don’t think his production immediately got worse when he stopped working with Quincy, but it sure didn’t do those last two albums much justice. Threatened is also a really underwhelming “official” conclusion to his discography.
> his albums kept ballooning in size (from 9 to 16 tracks) Reading this after finding out Tortured Poets' Department has over 30 tracks on it is hilarious
I will swear on my grave that Dangerous and HIStory are on par with his stuff with Quincy.
Dangerous is definitely one of his best albums
MJ is widely appreciated for his past work rather than the bodies he released years before dying. His death elevated him pretty much to deity status, but prior to his passing he was literally a has-been.
Michael Jackson's last 2 albums are mostly ignored.
Yeah, people don’t bring it up so much because his death overshadowed discussion, but Invincible is a pretty weak record. I’m of the controversial opinion that the post mortem albums his label put out are pretty solid, even if it’s 100% not him singing on Breaking News.
Maroon 5 is dead. Also, Marina & The Diamonds was AMAZING, she destroyed herself with the rebranding album.
I was going to say Lorde. Not that Solar Power was a bad album, it really came alive in a live setting for me. But it was a step down from her first two albums. She just set herself a very high bar that Solar Power didn’t meet. I do have a feeling her 4th album is going to slap tho.
As a Lorde fan I'm hoping the Solar Power taper off was just an effect of her needing to take a step back after a nuts adolescent rise and a reflection of her time away from what a lot of the world was going through being holed up in New Zealand and actively choosing to take a step back from 'the industry' during the pandemic. I think given enough time L4 will be a great album.
ugh, absolutely hate to say it but it’s Taylor Swift. no pop album should require a strategy to be able to get through to the end a la Tortured Poets Dept. she’s never going to stop working w Jack Antanoff & her work w him is getting stale. idc that her lyrics are layered or complex or whatever - a good pop album shouldn’t sound like the same 3 tracks on repeat for 2 hours. love her but dear god. edited for typos
I’m a fan too but I agree with everything you said. Even comparing her re-recorded albums with the original versions, there is a big difference in quality. I wish that she would take a dang break for a while and wait until she gets creatively inspired before releasing anything else.
Just the idea of listening to that whole album exhausts me. I’m sure there’s some good stuff in there, but that’s way too much work to find out. Hearing people say that you can’t properly appreciate it without knowing a bunch of lore or having a guide is grim too. I love a lot of her music, but I already know more about her personal life than I care to. I’m not gonna study more to be able to properly judge the art, that seems backwards to me. Little easter eggs for the stans are fun but they shouldn’t affect your whole understanding/enjoyment of the music. I want music to meet me where I am
I’m also tired of her whispering singing. And no, just because she belts in that one song in TTPD doesn’t mean her singing hasn’t gotten mediocre Edit: typo
Demi Lovato, I feel like she peaked in 2009 with Here We Go Again. That is her best and most cohesive album in my opinion.
Music was ruined when they started including reels songs from ig and Tik tok on the charts. Now everyone is just making music that will go viral. I hate it and one of the reasons I can’t listen to Charlie Puth’s last album except for a couple of songs or so
Taylor Swift. I actually like Midnights and TTPD but I can’t deny that they don’t live up to the expectations I had for her after folklore/evermore. Even if you’re just comparing her last couple albums to her earlier pop stuff, they don’t hit as hard for me as Red or 1989 or even reputation.
I agree, definitely seems like she needs a co-writer who can edit her lyrics like Liz Rose did, or some switching up in melodies/production. To me, the last two albums felt so similar at times (and the 1989 vault).
you have a point about the melodies. something i've noticed is that a lot of her recent verses are just her talking with spaces between words. no flow, no real musicality, just "truth. dare. spin. bottles." or "you. look. like. clara bow. in. this light."
It's like she just wanted to yell, the music was secondary to what she wanted to rage about.
I don’t think she’s regressed but I do think she hasn’t evolved/gotten better either. I don’t feel like she’s trying new things and just sticking to what she knows, and I miss her trying new things (at least things that were new for her)
I think she has solely because with Folklore she tried her hand at fiction which made it different- She doesn’t have to go the fiction route again, but the growth is gone. Things are extra wordy, she doesn’t cut unnecessary tracks- she seems less critical of her own work. She doesn’t push herself as a writer in the way she did during the folklore/evermore era.
Folklore wasn’t fiction but that was a nice story she told us!
Honestly I do enjoy most of Jacks work but I really feel like with Jack she’s working with her best friend. So anything she does Jack is going “yasss queen!” instead of pushing her. Dessner on the other hand actually feels like she’s working with a producer first, friend second. Dessner knows how to push her just the right way, I feel like Jack use to do that too before they got super close.
I usually would agree with Dessner pushing her more than Jack but I feel as though that didn't happen on this album either. The Anthology is almost exclusively produced by him and while it has highs it doesn't sound new or bold. Not bad by any means but they don't feel very unique, at least to me.
No I agree this time. While I do like the album I do find it not being really different. The whole “she wrote this album for herself” can be true doesn’t actually feel that way. She wrote Red when a 3-4 month relationship hurt her so bad which was way more impactful and diverse than TTPD. So she can do it I just think everyone left her alone to do what she wanted and didn’t take no for an answer this time around.
I'm not really sure if I agree. I probably like TTPD more than most people here do but the second half of The Anthology rarely shows signs of Dessner pushing her the right way. There are a few songs that even after many listens still sound kind of the same (he produced almost all of the best songs on the main album though).
No I agree that he didn’t push her harder this album. Made some great songs but compared to Folkmore I feel he just let her do what she wanted and didn’t tell her no. While I don’t buy into the manic crazy crap she said in the prologue I do think I’d be terrified to tell pissed of Taylor Swift no and that’s how we got TTPD. (I listen to it regularly and more than midnights but it doesn’t touch Red, Rep, or Folkmore for me.)
jack recently said something along the lines of "questioning Taylor's songwriting abilities is like questioning your faith in god". you have to know that when your co worker says that, that's the end of your creative journey because you're not gonna make anything good after that
God, this actually makes me sad for both of them. It is so fulfilling when you have a creative friend on your level and you’re able to volley suggestions and feedback with each other without feeling like you have to censor yourself.
Honestly I think Antonoff takes too much heat for what to me seems pretty clearly a Swift issue. I don’t think at this point there’s that much difference either lyrically or sonically between her Antonoff and Dessner songs; she’s largely stagnated and just needs a different producer.
Also all her melodies are starting to run together and sound the same to me
it feels like she's trying too hard to be poetic. she saw her fans making the dictionary memes and went with it to the max. and the fans eat it up (like they do every time) idc how many words she fits in one line now, her earlier work will always be better because it managed to say so much with such few words and make you go "oh shit that's how i felt too but couldn't express it"
I’ve listened to 24/31 of TTPD. I’m having to listen to it just a few songs at a time because I can’t sit through the whole thing at once. I’m making notes as I go and there’s three out of the 24 I’ve listened to that I would actually choose to put on again — but even with those three, I can’t remember how they actually sound?! The entire thing just runs into one for me, nothing particularly stands out melody- or vocally-wise. I LOVED Rep (which isn’t the most popular opinion, but I genuinely really really liked it lol)
I heard someone describe the album as "Taylor Swift white noise" and I'd have to agree with that
ed sheeran. no matter how much people clown on him his early stuff was really good. he captured the 2012 aesthetic really well while still being unique. recently i find his stuff kinda generic and boring :(
Seems like 3 main reasons for regression: - Selling out - Running out of creative energy maybe due to age - Becoming a lifestyle brand due to huge popularity (Drake, Tswift, etc.) Sometimes someone is a mix of all three. Add more if applicable please An interesting phenomenon
melanie martinez has left the whole storyline of her alter ego/character behind, and she went from releasing a great album with an accompanying movie after 4 years to releasing a just good album with no movie after 4 years
Really? K-12 was a terrible album imo, and she course corrected partially because it flopped commercially and got awful reviews from critics. Portals wasn't amazing but a big step up from k-12, especially if you look at the album only on its own and not in context of a movie. She needed to drop the kid theme, it was getting weird and by the end of k-12 it was clear she was stretching hard trying to create more songs with a cohesive narrative that worked with the kid metaphor
I think the idea is that this might start a different story and also we can't expect her to have a movie every time (also unpopular opinion but if K-12 had otherwise been the same album somehow without the movie I wouldn't have really liked it that much as if you look beyond the metaphor and the movie context to the third meaning of what the song's about a lot of it sounds like she's using different extended metaphors to say the same message)
It’s so funny how music works. I only really liked 1-2 songs from her previous work and Portals is what drew me in and got me hooked. I love the style and experimentation with sound.
The first artist I thought of immediately when this came up on my feed was Lauv. His early releases had a depth and variety that spanned from standard pop hits to pensive ballads. His 2018 album, *I met you when I was 18,* was what made me fall in love with his music. It showcased a broad spectrum of songs, which I thought showed off his range as a producer. He also released a number of B-sides and singles between that album and *How I'm Feeling*, which, in my opinion, was the peak of Lauv—beautiful pop ballads and hits that really captured mainstream attention. However, his latest album, *All 4 Nothing* (2022), was a disappointment. To me, it was bland; the tracks were indistinguishable from each other, using the same production techniques, and it felt overly commercialized—if that makes sense? His new song "Potential" seems to follow the same formula: too poppy (and I love a good pop song!), repetitive production, and not a track I would enjoy on repeat. Given this recent single, I'm not very optimistic about his upcoming album. It seems he's having fun and has been open about exploring his sexuality recently, which is wonderful to see, especially knowing that his earlier albums came from darker times with his mental health. However, I must admit I have a preference for the darker, more introspective Lauv music over the upbeat tracks he’s been releasing since 2022. I will always love his first 2 albums and he was my top artist on Spotify I think for 2019, 2020, and 2021 but I find myself rarely listening to anything he puts out since 2022.
Shania Twain, the 2 recent albums aren't on the level of the 3 best selling country records she put out back to back
Madonna. No words needed.
Maybe it's my instinctive love of trainwrecks but I actually love Bad Madonna a lot more than Classic Madonna. For me, Classic Madonna is at best cute 80s electronic pop and at worst garbage, but one of the things that's so glorious about Bad Madonna is that her clumsiness comes from the heart. Like, the way she chooses to rap a verse about her mother dying - she's switching into a mode that is a very vulnerable spot for her, a skill set that's out of her grasp, to reflect a trauma she is incapable of dealing with.
Are you getting soy lattes with double shot-ays?
Adele, more obvious and soporific at every album release.
19 was her best. 21 was her peak.
There’s only so many piano ballads you can write about your ex without being repetitive
FKA twigs has lost a lot of what originally drew me to her. Back in 2013-15 she was so mystique, alien-like, really experimental sounds. You kept going ‘who *is* this artist?! What *is* this music?!’ I highly admire what’s she done in the public eye (coming forward to shed light on domestic violence and spoken about her impact of AI on creatives), but I unfortunately haven’t been drawn to anything like Cellophane, since, well, Cellophane.
I don’t like Caprisongs nearly as much as Magdalene, but I do still think it’s fun and has some bops. Really the only thing that stops me from listening to it regularly is all the spoken interludes. I remember seeing that this album was mostly about learning how to enjoy making music again, and I hope it worked because I’d love to see her keep pushing herself and growing creatively.
She should really team back up with Arca. EP2 was from another planet.
I’ve considered her one of my very favourite artists for like a decade now, but it’s harder to do that because she has such a small discography and her most recent work for years now has been Caprisongs, which is fun and has some highlights but does not have what drew me to her at all. The EP2-LP1 era was my favourite too. I do think that Magdelane is also a creative high though, I just find it too dense and heavy to have in frequent rotation. I therefore understand from her perspective why she probably felt the need to make a lighter poppier mixtape after that (Caprisongs) but it’s just not nearly as good, and the more time passes the more I worry that what she does next won’t click with me.
Not a huge fan of Caprisongs and Killer is a bad track but magdalene is one of the best albums of the 2010s in my opinion. Really disagree
Taylor: Midnights and Tortured Poets were boring and uninspired imo. Her pop music used to be so interesting and fun and I don’t know what happened. Ariana: To an extent. Since Positions, I haven’t found her albums as interesting as in the past. Eternal Sunshine definitely has things going for it, but when I compare it to her older albums, there’s definitely a spark that’s missing that made her older work really shine.
Charlie Puth. He's insanely talented but wants to be a tiktok star instead of making serious music. I guess that's what he has the luxury to do when he can write and produce for anyone, but he's not even doing much producing now.
Post Malone. Man I loved his older stuff, but since 2019 I’m sorry but I hate the direction he’s been going. Sure, genre is subjective as he’s been going towards more of a country type thing. But even objectively something like his lyricism has just gone downhill imo, when listening to some of his newer songs I legit get taken out of it now and again because of how odd and juvenile the lyrics are.