Comeback Special: Nineties Edition

Starting a new series to feature bands that got back together (in whole or in part) and made new music. It happens all the time these days. In the first three months of this year, new releases were announced by Hoodoo Gurus, The Boo Radleys, Urge Overkill, The Rave-Ups, and Tears For Fears. 

But let's go back to the 1990's, when reunions were less frequent and perhaps more remarkable. The self-titled album that Television made in 1992 and Buzzcocks' Trade Test Transmissions (1993) still hold up well. The reunions of The Raincoats, Bush Tetras, and The Clean also produced some great music. Blondie, Madness, Theatre of Hate, and The Knack got in on the comeback act, as did several artists whose heyday was in the 1960's.

The Band made a respectable return, and proved they could write without Robbie. The Creation's Power Surge showed them in fine form (especially guitarist Eddie Phillips), and both Phil May and Dick Taylor sounded as vital as ever on the Pretty Things' Rage Before Beauty. Slapp Happy made a charming new album, and Simeon from Silver Apples recorded with Steve Albini.

There's a lot of power pop here: 20/20, The Plimsouls, The Records (John Wicks without Will Burch), and The Rubinoos (who reunited again in 2019, as featured elsewhere in this blog). Scritti Politti (Green and David Gamson) made a new album that ranged from power pop to hip hop. 

To paraphrase Monsieur Gartside, it's très jolie to see bonhomie replace animosité among formerly estranged band members, and to hear them collaborate on new music.  Not featured in this compilation (but also noteworthy) were the return in the 1990's of Scott Walker, Terry Callier, John Foxx, Faust, The Deviants, and hip hop pioneers Grandmaster Flash and The Treacherous Three. 

The original lineup of Kiss and a couple members of Eddie & The Hot Rods also made new records in the 90's. I don't know how Kiss fans feel about Psycho Circus, but the Hot Rods' album Gasoline Days was savaged by AllMusic.  The Specials and The Box Tops got back together in the 90's, but the albums they made were all cover songs. [Edit: just remembered the Velvet Underground reunion in MCMXCIII.]

The reunion album closest to my heart from this decade is God Help Us by The Embarrassment, so I was excited to see the recent announcement that an Embos documentary called We Were Famous, You Don't Remember will be released this year.  Dan Fetherston of The Oxford Collapse started filming it during The Embarrassment's second reunion in 2006, but it took another 15 years to bring the project to completion (with co-director Danny Szlauderbach). Last year, Last Laugh Records reissued The Embarrassment EP and Death Travels West on vinyl, cassette and digital formats.