Don’t Call It a Comeback (But It Is)

LINKIN PARK

Can one of the greatest bands of the 21st century really replace a frontman as iconic as Chester Bennington?Who committed suicide in 2017? Despite some initial objections from fans to the idea, and the somewhat convoluted delivery of Dead Sara singer Emily Armstrong’s introduction, the answer is a resounding yes. Linkin Park regained global fame with the power of its comeback album from scratch and massive stadium concerts are planned throughout 2025. At a time when no rock band, new or old, can compete with their pop contemporaries on the music charts, Linkin Park has had both new and old songs in the Spotify Top 100 for months. Bennington once sang that “it doesn’t matter in the end,” but millions of fans around the world clearly believe otherwise.

Daniel Kohn

More from Spin:

EMINEM

Is this a comeback since you haven’t been around in a while? and then release an excellent, sharp-tongued album with all the vibrancy of your previous work and the usual dynamite debates? Do you have to want to come back, show at least some excitement? But what if, quixotically, your comeback is all about your retirement?

The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) It went to number one on the charts when it was released this summer, becoming his 11th number-one album. So fans liked it and wanted it. But most critics hated it. They may or may not have liked the music, they didn’t actually say it but hated feelings! They were shocked, shockHe said the artist formerly known as Slim Shady is unimpressed with Gen Z and doesn’t believe in designer pronouns.

And these critics just wanted you to know that they were deeply offended by going above and beyond to outmaneuver each other in their righteous anger. But, erm, this is Eminem we’re talking about… who gets millions both furious and excited every time he releases a song, let alone an album full of provocative missiles! He is the extremely politically correct Edward Scissorhands, who shreds valuable things like cabbages.

So it is like that In that case! He’s back to where he always was, making a mess. Wonderful!

Bob Guccione Jr.

TAPES!

I know we declared 2024 the “Year of CD”. – we like a few drinks and after a while we begin to explain things – but the real comeback of the year is the once and still modest tape, as if “most recently dead, buried and completely forgotten.” Released in 1963, it was as much a revelation in playing music as paperbacks were in reading books, and from then on until the mid-80s and the advent of the CD, billions of dollars were made, bought, lent, traded, recorded. , unspooled and pirated. Cassettes were small (but durable) and relatively inexpensive. Like cheaper than vinyl records, which were once cheap, or at least decent. Cassette players were also cheap and you could also record blank cassettes on them, thus giving birth to the phenomenon of specially curated homemade collections of your favorite or mood songs.

At some point these went out of fashion. CDs were in fashion. They were supposedly better sounding (I dispute this) and were literally brighter. The future was digital, analog was doomed to disappear, very few people like me complain about analog. it felt better drowned in digital thunder.

Now – you guessed this part – I never lost my love for cassette tapes, and to the dismay of my significant other of decades, and despite his cold sarcasm, I never lost my cassette collection. Decay has destroyed some of us, like all of us, but I still have thousands. I kept my faith. And now, after the long nuclear winter of aural isolation, the clouds have parted, the sun is shining, and the tape is back, baby. New cassette players are being produced and competition is fierce, musicians are releasing records in more and more formats, and Amazon is selling old cassettes like a crop. Hallelujah!

BGJ

LL COLD J

LL has spent the last 15 years playing a law enforcement officer on grandparents’ favorite third cop show.This is exactly the kind of concert that would soften the image of even the toughest MC (see also: Ice-T). It’s surprising that Ho-hum even bothered to release a new album after 11 years Authentic and embarrassing “Accidental Racist” but STRENGTH really good. Produced by Q-Tip, the beats constantly shape-shift with a funky bluster that recalls the spirit, not the sound, of their debut single. And LL uses them effectively, from the perspective of a middle-aged Black man in post-George Floyd America. The presence of younger (!) artists like Snoop, No-Longer-Fat Joe, Busta Rhymes, and Eminem only reinforces the band’s uniqueness. STRENGTH.

I’m going to go ahead and call it a comeback. It is better to apologize than to ask for permission.

Stephen Deusner

THIS DID NOT TAKE LONG!

JANE’S ADDICTION REUNION TOUR

I’m tired of Lazarus groupsand even more tired of his fans waddling around at overpriced, inadequate, unnecessary, toothless nostalgic events. I respect Jane’s Addiction for making an early and ugly comeback. That was rock. Rock isn’t about health, mental or anything else. Rock is about turmoil. Push hard or go home…or both.

My problem with Jane’s outburst was that it wasn’t outrageous enough. Despite various idiots’ ramblings about Perry Farrell “attacking” Dave Navarro, the Boston scrap doesn’t even count as a proper outpouring — especially between men who have clashed before, as these two did on stage more than once in the early 1990s. At one of the original Lollapaloozas, they rolled down the ramp fighting like cartoon characters.

MT

OASIS — ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE YEAR!

Long before Oasis faded out in 2009 after nearly a decade of lackluster musicA late ’90s critic noted that the noise from the tabloids, physical altercations and competent but predictable live shows, “one day we may probably look back in anger” and wonder why Noel and Liam Gallagher were once among the most popular rock bands. In the world. The answer, of course, is raucous anthems like “Live Forever,” “Wonderwall,” “Don’t Look Back in Anger” and “Champagne Supernova” that have kept Oasis alive in the public consciousness for the past 15 years. years. Despite Noel’s long public statements to the contrary, a reunion was inevitable, even if it was purely for money reasons (in Noel’s case, a costly divorce). After it was announced this summer, the news sparked a Taylor Swift-sized frenzy; Every single ticket to more than 30 stadium shows around the world sold out in seconds; even in the US, where Oasis was barely surviving when it disbanded in 2011. first place.

Jonathan Cohen

Read about the rest of the Year in Music!

2024: overview

musicians of the year

thing of the year

Please go home (we’re tired of these people)

albums of the year

songs of the year

Breakout artists of the year

Year of CD release

Fyre Award: the worst festival of the year

10 albums you should listen to but haven’t

year in EDM

To see a ranked list of the top 100 rock stars of all time, Click here.