Artists who last album was their worst.

[Skeever]

Let's get some negativity going.
Which artists went out on a worst notes?

I'll start:

dredg- Chuckles and Mr. Squeezy

[Buddyhunter1]

Agalloch. The Serpent & The Sphere isn't a bad album, but it's a shame they went out on their most lackluster one.

SikTh is on an indefinite hiatus last I checked, and if The Future In Whose Eyes ends up being their last album I think that's definitely their weakest.

I'm expecting someone to say Oceansize, though I haven't listened to Self Preserved in its entirety so I can't really comment.

[Zantera]

Dredg would be an easy pick for me as well. Yeah I know they have been 'working on new music' for like a decade now but I'll believe it when I see it. Chuckles was such a weak album that for me it kinda put a shadow over Dredg as a whole where I've barely revisited El Cielo, Catch Without Arms or TPTPTD despite really liking all of them.

Other ones I would say:

Cardiacs - Guns (I still really like it but it's their weakest album for me)
Oceansize - Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up (I still really like it but it's their weakest album for me)
Talking Heads - Naked (I still enjoy it but it is the weakest one)
Agalloch - The Serpent and the Sphere (Not bad just their least good one)
The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet (but they might have a new album that could fix this situation)
Steven Wilson - The Future Bites (I know he will put out another one that's probably better)
Blackfield - For the Music (For a project that has 3 of my favorite albums SW has been a part of, this one is just lacking imo)
Linkin Park - One More Light (Has 2 songs I like but overall a huge disappointment)
Pink Floyd - The Endless River (such a boring slog)

[soupytwist]

The Clash - Cut The Crap.
Catherine Wheel - Wishville.

[romdrums]

Genesis - Calling All Stations
ELP - In the Hot Seat

Those two are terrible.

Caligula's Horse - Rise Radiant
Haken - Virus
Steven Wilson - The Future Bites

[DragonAttack]

Genesis - Calling All Stations
ELP - In the Hot Seat

Those two are terrible.

I haven’t had time to make a list, but those two jumped out to me right off the bat.

Do I place     or  here?

[Skeever]

ELP - In the Hot Seat is definitely bad, but I wonder if it's their worst? There are things I like about it better than the one before that or Love Beach.

[Skeever]

Oceansize - Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up (I still really like it but it's their weakest album for me)
The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet (but they might have a new album that could fix this situation)
Steven Wilson - The Future Bites (I know he will put out another one that's probably better)
Blackfield - For the Music (For a project that has 3 of my favorite albums SW has been a part of, this one is just lacking imo)
Linkin Park - One More Light (Has 2 songs I like but overall a huge disappointment)
Pink Floyd - The Endless River (such a boring slog)

Agreed with all of this.

[Stadler]

Genesis - Calling All Stations
ELP - In the Hot Seat

Those two are terrible.

Caligula's Horse - Rise Radiant
Haken - Virus
Steven Wilson - The Future Bites

That's a thread-ender right there. And that's for a band that has "Love Beach" in their catalogue.   

[Buddyhunter1]

Forgot one:
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - In Times

If we're including active artists whose most recent album is their worst...

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror
David Maxim Micic - Who Bit The Moon? (we're getting Bilo IV next month though!)
Leprous - Aphelion
Ne Obliviscaris - Urn
Periphery - Periphery IV (technically I like it more than Juggernaut: Alpha but I usually group both Juggernauts together as a single album)
Steven Wilson - The Future Bites
Thank You Scientist - Terraformer
White Ward - False Light (yeah I changed my mind again and Love Exchange Failure is slightly better )

[romdrums]

Genesis - Calling All Stations
ELP - In the Hot Seat

Those two are terrible.

Caligula's Horse - Rise Radiant
Haken - Virus
Steven Wilson - The Future Bites

That's a thread-ender right there. And that's for a band that has "Love Beach" in their catalogue.   

Right?  For all of the greatness in their catalog, they could make some equally bad records.  Love Beach and In the Hot Seat are both atrocious.

[SoundscapeMN]

Enchant - The Great Divide

[Dave_Manchester]

'Worst' is very relative here since I do actually like these albums, but all that came before them is just so much greater:

Dire Straits - On Every Street
Peter Gabriel - Up

[Elite]

Caligula's Horse - Rise Radiant
Steven Wilson - The Future Bites

Definitely these two. Especially Rise Radiant.

[Stadler]

It pains me to say both of these:

Rainbow - The Stranger In Us All (It's not a bad record, but not as good as what came before).
Yes - The Quest (Their other record, "Going For The One" is my favorite record of all time).


Some others:
Zeppelin - Coda
Jane's Addiction - The Great Escape Artist
Fastway - Eat Dog Eat (even the last Dave King record, Trick or Treat blows)

[HOF]

'Worst' is very relative here since I do actually like these albums, but all that came before them is just so much greater:

Dire Straits - On Every Street
Peter Gabriel - Up

PG 1 and 2 exist, so this can’t be right.

[TheCountOfNYC]

Lou Reed-LuLu

EDIT: The above isn’t true as I forgot about the existence of Metal Machine Music.

[Elite]

If we're including active artists whose most recent album is their worst...

Transatlantic - The Absolute Universe
Liquid Tension Experiment III
Mr. Bungle - The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo (this is a weird one, because I still like it a lot)
Caligula’s Horse - Rise Radiant (thanks romdrums!)
Flying Colors - Third Degree
Devin Townsend Project - Transcendence (close call between this one and Sky Blue)

[pg1067]

Hmmm...I'm tempted to trigger some folks by saying Rush, but Clockwork Angels is better than at least Roll the Bones and Hold Your Fire (and maybe also Power Windows).

Sticking with Canadian trios, I'll go with Triumph.  No Rik Emmett is pretty well guaranteed to be bad.

I was about to add The Bangles, but then I learned they put out an album after Doll Revolution.

TBH, for most artists, if they're trending down, I usually cut bait before we get to a last album.

[TAC]

Hmmm...I'm tempted to trigger some folks by saying Rush, but Clockwork Angels is better than at least Roll the Bones and Hold Your Fire (and maybe also Power Windows).

Clockwork Angels was easily the best thing Rush did since Counterparts.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror
David Maxim Micic - Who Bit The Moon? (we're getting Bilo IV next month though!)
White Ward - False Light (yeah I changed my mind again and Love Exchange Failure is slightly better )

I think we've at least obliquely talked about these in other threads.  Leather Terror and False Light are really too new to say for sure yet.  I probably just haven't spent enough time with Futility Report yet, but it stands out the least of their three, so I somewhat disagree on that one.  Probably a similar issue with earlier Carpenter Brut albums, but Leather Terror has been receiving heavy play lately, so at the moment it's actually my preference.  Who Bit the Moon is my favorite of DMM's, but it's definitely the most different from everything else he's done. 

Devin Townsend Project - Transcendence (close call between this one and Sky Blue)

I'm not sure how useful I find it to separate Devin Townsend from Devin Townsend Band from Devin Townsend Project from Ocean Machine, or even from Strapping Young Lad, Punky Bruster, or whatever other aliases he works under.  It's all the product of the same guy composing, arranging, producing, engineering, mixing, singing, playing, etc., with different amounts of collaboration.  But even more strictly, I like Transcendence way more than Z2.  It's probably only under Addicted! from that era for me. 

[LithoJazzoSphere]

A few candidates. 

Deadlock - Hybris - dunno if they're done, it's only been six years, but it's the only album without Sabine at least doing guest vocals, so that automatically knocks it down.  Margie was only supposed to be a temporary replacement, so it'll depend on if they make another album (it was a bit auspicious that Sabine and Sebastian did an acoustic number relatively recently, but who knows). 

Imogen Heap - Sparks - I kind of doubt she's done, but it's been eight years, and she seems to have given up on the album format for the moment.  I want to revisit this one sometime again, since after a few listens when it came out I was massively disappointed.  But as it stands now, it's a whimper compared to her first three. 

Ram-Zet - Freaks in Wonderland - it's been over a decade now.  This album has grown on me in recent years, but it's still probably their weakest, though still quite good. 

Skyharbor - Sunshine Dust - it's only been four years, so I don't know if they're done, but unless something surprising happens and they get Tompkins or someone even better, this is going to remain their weakest for now. 

Vanessa Carlton - Love is an Art - also probably unlikely she's done, but I just haven't been able to connect with this album yet like all the others. 

Vertical Horizon - The Lost Mile - dunno what Matt was thinking, this was not a direction I cared for him taking, but again, hopefully it's not the last. 

[SoundscapeMN]

Imogen Heap - Sparks - I kind of doubt she's done, but it's been eight years, and she seems to have given up on the album format for the moment.  I want to revisit this one sometime again, since after a few listens when it came out I was massively disappointed.  But as it stands now, it's a whimper compared to her first three. 

Sparks I like a lot more than Ellipse and I Megaphone.

[Cool Chris]

Hmmm...I'm tempted to trigger some folks by saying Rush, but Clockwork Angels is better than at least Roll the Bones and Hold Your Fire (and maybe also Power Windows).

Clockwork Angels was easily the best thing Rush did since Counterparts Moving Pictures.

[Deadeye21]

Asymmetry by Karnivool, still holding strong as their most recent album 9 goddamn years later and still less strong than Themata and Sound Awake. Until they release something else, I’m going with that.

[jammindude]

Boston

[KevShmev]

Haken, dredg and ELP all seem like good, easy calls here.

I would also throw Noise Floor by Spock's Beard into the pile.  Not a bad album, but not particularly memorable.

[soupytwist]

The Doors - Full Circle.

[Deadeye21]

Alter Bridge - Walk The Sky

[jammindude]

The votes for Haken are a bit shocking. The V/V albums may have been a bit of a step down from the two previous ones. But at the very least, Virus was a HUGE improvement over Vector.

[HOF]

Phil Collins - Going Back I don’t think I’ve been able to make it all the way through this one. Even Testify and Dance Into The Light had their moments I really liked. Really didn’t get anything out of Going Back.

The Blue Nile - High. This is their worst but only by comparison to the three (almost) flawless albums before that. It's still a good album, just not quite on the same level as the others. In fact I should mention them in the no bad albums thread.

[Mladen]

Virus is in fact my least favorite Haken album, but it's not a bad record. There are other examples where I really dislike a band's final release. Boston might be a fine pick. Pink Floyd as well.

[Stadler]

If we're including active artists whose most recent album is their worst...

Transatlantic - The Absolute Universe
Liquid Tension Experiment III
Mr. Bungle - The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo (this is a weird one, because I still like it a lot)
Caligula’s Horse - Rise Radiant (thanks romdrums!)
Flying Colors - Third Degree
Devin Townsend Project - Transcendence (close call between this one and Sky Blue)

You know, I was going to say something smart or sarcastic, but other than Caligula's Horse, which I'm not familiar with, I can't exactly argue with those either.  Doesn't mean they SUCK, necessarily, because I do like most of those albums, but for example, I like the first two Flying Colors better.

[cfmoran13]

Linkin Park - One More Light (Has 2 songs I like but overall a huge disappointment)

It's a shame they ended the way they did.  They took a huge risk making the album Chester wanted to make and the fans trashed them because of it.  I doubt they would've continued down the Pop road.  Personally, I enjoy the album for what it is. 

[Elite]

If we're including active artists whose most recent album is their worst...

Transatlantic - The Absolute Universe
Liquid Tension Experiment III
Mr. Bungle - The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo (this is a weird one, because I still like it a lot)
Caligula’s Horse - Rise Radiant (thanks romdrums!)
Flying Colors - Third Degree
Devin Townsend Project - Transcendence (close call between this one and Sky Blue)

You know, I was going to say something smart or sarcastic, but other than Caligula's Horse, which I'm not familiar with, I can't exactly argue with those either.  Doesn't mean they SUCK, necessarily, because I do like most of those albums, but for example, I like the first two Flying Colors better.

The LTE, Transatlantic and Flying Colors were all disappointments for me, which is a shame because I really like Flying Colors’ first record (they’ve been progressively worse if you ask me) and I think Bridge Across Forever is in my top 25 albums ever. The LTE I was a little excited for, mainly for the nostalgia/uniqueness factor, but the music on it really doesn’t do anything for me.

The Caligula’s Horse album was easily their worst. Uninspired and boring. The Devin Townsend Project one might not be a fair mention.. I think I like it more than Sky Blue actually and I agree with LithoJazzoSphere that it doesn’t really make sense to distinguish between Devin’s different projects. The Mr. Bungle is a funny one; it was one of my favourite albums released that year, in part due to being hugely unexpected, but their other three albums are all so damn good and personal favourites, that I do think it’s their ‘worst’.