When great artists do bad records

I’ve become convinced that American bands are only good for about 2 great albums. I don’t know why that is – are bands incapable of doing great things once they have been told by the masses that they are geniuses? Are American rock critics killing innovative bands such that we can never have another R.E.M – i.e., an American band that creates consistently great music for more than a decade running?

Instead of writing about the masterpiece albums these bands have made, I’m going to mention a few disappointments. Here are a few recent letdown records from artists who were following up great records:

Flaming Lips – At War With The Mystics: The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi And The Pink Robots are still talked about years later – but does anybody remember this one? The pop songs drag on until catchy becomes irritating and the spaced-out jams are only there to entertain those who either do drugs or listen to Phish. They spent four years after Yoshimi making this?

Wilco – Sky Blue Sky: Wilco says goodbye to edginess, experimentalism, and being the thinking man’s alt-country band – it’s time for an album of background music for the dentist’s office! Some of the songs on this album sound like rejects from the last Eagles album. Ouch.

The Strokes – First Impressions of Earth: Their debut record was a classic. Their second album was a fast-driving fun follow-up with some great moments. This album ran about as long as those two combined, contained more “serious” and “personal” songs, and proved that more is less when you are a catchy garage punk band. Then they broke up, which was good news after this one.

Bright Eyes – Cassadaga: Please, let me know if there are people out there who can stomach “Make a Plan to Love Me”. Returning to the dense instrumentation of Lifted wasn’t a bad idea, but the songwriting on this album is just plain embarrassing.

My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges: I think I already said enough about this one in the past few weeks. Let’s move on.

Next week, the new Hold Steady album comes out. Right now, they are one of my favorite American rock bands. They’ve already given me two great albums (Almost Killed Me and Separation Sunday) and one classic (Boys and Girls in America). They are good for another one, right? They aren’t out of ideas like these other bands, right?

I'm going to Vegas for a few days; I'll be back next week and review the new Hold Steady album. I've also got albums by John Cale and Primal Scream coming in the mail. Have a good weekend.