Roger Waters - The Final Cut

Final Cut is a Pink Floyd release
RW jumped on Amused to Death, IMO

Final Cut is a Pink Floyd release

David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Rick Wright would probably disagree with that statement

I'll second The Final Cut as Roger's jump the shark moment... I can definitely live without his solo material.

I'll agree with that I like pros and cons. I don't have radio kaos but have been told it is good. I listened to music from the body and it was pretty bad except for the comic value.

Def Leppard - Slang (although I really liked Euphoria...X is pretty bad)

The Cure - Wish

You should check out "Bloodflowers" if you haven't. It's much more like the Cure again. It's not great, but it's pretty good.

yn0t_I think we really need to clearly define our definition of "jump the shark" here,

wfaulk:Oh. I see. I use the term "jump the shark" to indicate where it obviously became bad, not the step right before

I am no media maven, but I feel that "Jump the Shark" (a metaphor?) has been somewhat abused. My sense (using the original Happy Days cases) was that JTS was significant of the moment when, faced with flagging interest in their product/art, the creators/artists/writers ran out of good ideas and resorted to trying something....anything! .... to revive interest. But perceptive fans/customers could perceive this act of desperation and know for a fact that things were defintely going downhill.

I submit that some artists never jump the shark. They try this, they try that. Some of it works, some doesn't. Some of it we like, some we don't. Do they sit in their producers meetings and say "Hey. how about we have Fonzie water ski over a shark?" I don't think so.

Could an album that contains "What's The Frequency Kenneth?" be fairly compared to Happy Days' shark indiscretion? I don't think so.

JTS was significant of the moment when, faced with flagging interest in their product/art, the creators/artists/writers ran out of good ideas and resorted to trying something....anything! .... to revive interest

Exactly...case in point...several episodes of ER this season...Helicopters crashing, etc...

Nope. REM became lousy and pandering long before that album.

several episodes of ER this season...Helicopters crashing, etc..

_This_ season!?

I've been saying for a few years that I'd never even consider visting a Chicago A&E department. Too many internal incidents. Fires, chemical pollution, doctors randomly being shot or stabbed, etc., seem to happen on a weekly basis. The place is a public safety hazard!

_This_ season!?

I don't watch the show...it was more of an observation from the commercials I've seen this year.

Nope. REM became lousy and pandering long before that album.

Bitt, I thought we had an agreement that you wouldn't try to out-jade me!

(Awww, c'mon, _Monster_ was fun!)

Sure. If you think that an entire album filtered through the vibrato pedal that Angelo Badalamenti got rid of after Twin Peaks was over is "fun".

Heh... I considered going with Green but Automatic had it's moments.

My reply to this entire thread:

Since this "jump the shark" thing doesn't hold true for my examples, the "begining of the end" for artists were:

U2 - Pop
My modern musical tastes were born and raised on U2 (and Sting/Police). Thus, when Aucthung Baby came out, I did not accept it. It Zooropa coming out to make me appreciate Aucthung Baby. And it took Pop coming out to make me accept Zooropa. (and, of course, the latest one rocks, no doubt). U2 WAS the leading edge of the music industry (no pun, the edge). It just took me a while to catch up.

Rush - they've still got it!
I haven't heard Vapor Trails, but the only Rush album I don't like is Power Windows (sorry Tony, it's too theatrically dramatic for me). Like U2, Rush innovates their sound, yes, every 4 albums. Luckily, I like each innovation.

Metallica - as soon as they picked up a guitar.
Never liked 'em. Talk about trying to be dramatic.

Smashing Pumpkins - awesome till the end!
Sure, Adore didn't have a drummer, but it was still as good a listen as any. Honestly, Siamese Dream is at the bottom of my Pumpkins stack. It was "too hard" for me when it came out.

Cranberries - Faithful Departed - agreed with yn0t_

REM - Monster - agreed with Dylan

my contribution:

Green Day - Dookie
Sure, it was decent, and it fit the pattern of them singing songs about their lives, but it was the sell-out; the begining of the end. I've never heard a band conTINUE to drag their feet for SO long after biting the dust. And never have I heard a CONSUMER community so gobble up a band putting out junk just because MTV calls them "punk". Good thing they finally broke up. (but, ya'll are entitled to your own opinions, of course. )

Sting - 10 Sumners Tales
Yeah, it's a good album, but it's the tip of the iceberg for the rest of his overly over produced, "little bit 'a country, little bit 'a pop" albums.

Delerium - Chimera
<to the artists> Ok boys, two albums of candy techno was good enough. What happened to the good old days of their like 10 interestingly ambient techno discs?

Bad Religion - No Substance
My favorite band ever (hey, ONE of them had to be my favorite), but please, "The End of the Millenium Address" was just a bit pompous. They could at least SING the lyrics like they always did. Don't even get me started on "Hopeless Housewife" and "Hippy Killers" etc.

Sting - 10 Sumners Tales
Yeah, it's a good album, but it's the tip of the iceberg for the rest of his overly over produced, "little bit 'a country, little bit 'a pop" albums.

Agreed. That's the one where he lost me, too.

Funny, I seem to not listen to any artists who are around for long enough to have a downhill turnaround album. I suppose that's what you get when you listen to Seattle groups artists. My favorite band of all time, Screaming Trees, released 7 albums in ten years, but they only steadily got better (and Allmusic seems to agree with me).

The only close example I can think of is Pearl Jam. But they rebounded after their descent. Basically, they lost me at "No Code", but got me back at "Binaural."

I would have to add
Motorhead - after another Perfect Day, although Hammered seems to be back on track again.

Rush - they've still got it!

Of course they do, even though I don't quite care for VT. It's just not my cup of tea. However, their last show was one of the best I've and I love the live versions of the songs off VT, even though they were exactly the same. (I still submit that something just wasn't right with the production of that CD).

Sting - 10 Sumners Tales

One of my favorite CDs. If you thought it was a good CD you shouldn't mark it down just because of its sucessors, especially since you're giving Aucthung Baby a pass (which, as I've stated, I also think is a great album). I haven't bought any of Sting's stuff since TST, though, so I'll have to agree with your analysis of his career.

DiGNAN17: Pearl Jam... For some reason, I never *noticed* them after "Vs.". They were a huge influence on the 90's, yet they seemed to vanish early. Or was I just ignoring them? Question is, DID they actually do stuff after "Vs." (which I'll rate as their begining of the end, because I loved Ten).

FerretBoy: Sting's "Ten Sumners Tales" was actually the first CD that I bought and I love it. But, like with U2, I didn't like it *as* much until I heard the successors. That made me appreciate it more. And, strangely, at an after-work disucssion on "favorite album ever" with my co-workers, I picked "Soul Cages" as my top. I didn't have much time to think about the answer (and someone else already took "Joshua Tree") but it's such a great album.