greenday

  assegai said:

I choose to believe Green Day (like Weezer) broke up after their second album. Works better that way.

hear hear! pinkerton is one of the greatest albums ever made. green was pop meh. maladroit was fucking awful.

  patternoverlap said:

I feel that way when I read interviews or articles about a lot of mainstream acts. They start talking about pushing their limits and experimenting a lot and so forth, and it just never shows in the final product.

Depending on where the band is in their career, they say one of two things:

1. If they are either new and about to release their sophomore album, or they've been around for awhile and have been putting out the same thing over and over again, yes, they'll say they're "really taking on a new direction" and that they and the producer have been "trying some crazy things in the studio" and that they've "really been influenced lately by [insert not-so-obscure book title or director's name]."

2. If they have been around for awhile and have been putting out crap, underselling, or in a creative slump, they will describe their new album as "getting back to their creative roots" or "continuing themes they explored on [insert name of their best-selling album]" or "returning to the sound they had going on [same album]" or that they're writing a "sequel" to [same album].

It's always the same two selling strategies. And Rolling Stone's descriptions of bands' new albums always says the same things, too: "[band Name] Return to Their Roots" or "[band Name] Craft the [Name of Band's Most Successful Album] for the Obama Era" or some bullshit.