With both David Bowie and Bon Jovi returning to the UK album charts next week, we here at FemaleFirst are more than embracing the return of these rock and roll giants to the musical party.
To celebrate their return, we had a rummage through our music anthologies and drummed up a list of our favourite comeback albums.
Green Day – American Idiot
This was an album born out of strife and loss, with American Idiot the result of the band having an entire set of master tapes stolen before they could record their latest album for real. While Warning and Nimrod had kept them public, those records had not had anything like the same impact as 1994’s Dookie.
The result was sensational, with the album rocketing Green Day to the centre of the musical world once again selling millions of copies and making them the vanguards of an entire new generation of emo-punk bands that would see the genre dominate the musical world for the next few years.
You wouldn’t even be too wrong in saying that the band is still living off the success of American Idiot.
Click here to buy Green Day – American Idiot
Johnny Cash – American Recordings
While Johnny Cash hadn’t been away for anywhere near as long as Bowie, his career had flatlined. Dropped from two labels and with albums barely even registering with audiences, it looked like the end of the road for ‘The Man In Black’.
That was until producer Rick Rubin got a hold of him. He got Cash to throw away the trappings that had begun to litter his work and take it back to basics, with American Recordings simply having Johnny’s voice and his guitar.
The move paid off massively, with American Recordings becoming the most popular album of Cash’s for decades, launching him to a new audience and laying the groundwork for a following three similar albums that would see Cash cement his legendary status before his death.
Click here to buy Johnny Cash – American Recordings
U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind
It might only have been three years since their last album Pop, but this was the album that made U2 the biggest band the world once again.
Pop might have sold well, but it was a far cry from the brilliant work the band had done in years past that had seen become a cultural touchstone. All You Can’t Leave Behind revitalised that though, as the album saw them recapture the swagger and drive that had seen the flourish in the first place.
The album went number one in 32 countries and won U2 seven Grammys over the course of two years, producing two Record Of The Year winners (a feat still unmatched by any other album).
Click here to buy U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind
David Bowie – The Next Day
After a decade away from the studio and a discography that took a sharp dive in quality after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it might have been easy to assume that Bowie’s triumphant comeback might be anything but that.
Thankfully we’ve been proved wrong, as The Next Day is fresh, original, intriguing and full of modern greats from Bowie. While it might not be able to topple Ziggy Stardust off the top of the Bowie album pile, it’s easily amongst the best the great man’s released and a welcome return to grace or him.
Click here to buy David Bowie – The Next Day
Bob Dylan – Time Out Of Mind
While Bob Dylan had never completely disappeared, he’d not been the powerhouse he once was for some time. The eighties and nineties had been a rough period with a string of weak selling and sub-par albums and it seemed as if the magic of Dylan might not have stood the test of time.
One winter though, he got snowed into his farm in Minnesota and decided to pick up a pen and write new music for the first time in years. What we got as a result was the brilliant Time Out Of Mind, an album that saw him once again put out songs of real power and emotional resonance.
It became the first platinum selling album he’d made since the seventies and formed the platform for a new career that would see him return to the musical world a hero.
Click here to buy Bob Dylan – Time Out Of Mind
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication
The Red Hot Chilli Peppers were definitely living up to their name in the nineties. But while ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’ was filled with the fire and spice that still makes it their standout record, One Hot Minute just left many of their fans with a nasty burning sensation that had them rushing for refreshment.
Californication though saw the real return of Red Hot Chilli Peppers though with the band abandoning their choice of new direction and the return of guitarist John Frusciante saw the band return to making a fantastic return that would later become inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.
It formed the backbone for a series of albums that would see the Chilli Peppers introduced to and embraced by a whole new audience that would put them right back up to the top of the rock and roll tree.
Click here to buy Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication
What do you think, have we left any pearls off the list? Let us know in the comments section.