Comeback Special 2025

 

It’s almost the end of the year, and time for the 2025 Comeback Special.  Artists who haven’t released an album of new music in a decade or more are featured here, just in time for your holiday gift shopping or wish listing.  

These compilations take longer and longer to assemble, as it seems that more and more artists are active again, which can be a good thing.  I listened to over 40 new releases and selected a song from each one.  This year I allowed myself to skip a few: namely, the comeback albums from 38 Special, Doobie Brothers, Spin Doctors, and Counting Crows.  Honestly I don't want to hear a record called Butter Miracle - The Complete Sweets!

The biggest and most anticipated names to stage a comeback in 2025 were Alice Cooper (the band), Chameleons (UK), Pulp, and Stereolab. The ones I was personally looking forward to most were mclusky and Prolapse.   

Several artists didn’t live to see their own comebacks.  Tim Smith (leader of the band Cardiacs) died in 2020, and the album LSD (which he had been planning for years) was completed by Cardiacs bandmates and guests.  Adam Schlesinger died in 2020; his bandmates in the group Ivy completed the album Traces Of You without him.  

The rapper Prodigy (half of the duo Mobb Deep) died in 2017, and the album Infinite was completed this year by surviving member Havoc, their producer The Alchemist, and guests including Ghostface, Raekwon, and The Clipse. 

Speaking of The Clipse, the rapper No Malice returned from his self-imposed retirement to make a new album with his brother Pusha T and the producer Pharrell Williams (who had coproduced the previous Clipse records).  Let God Sort ‘Em Out is also an album affected by death, in this case the loss of the brothers’ parents.  

It has been over 50 years since Alice Cooper (the band) broke up. The new album features the late Glen Buxton on "What Happened To You". 

It's now more than 40 years since the last albums by Atomic Rooster, the Armory Show, and Glaxo Babies.  

At least 30 years have passed since the last albums by the Dogmatics and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry.  

20+ years: 20/20, 38 Special, Black Eyes, the Cardiacs, the Chameleons (UK), the Cruel Sea, Deadguy, Dr. Strangely Strange, Edith Frost, the Mayflies (USA), mclusky, Mobb Deep, Prolapse, Pulp, and Slick Rick. This year's comeback albums by Mobb Deep and Slick Rick are part of the Legend Has It series of new LP's by veteran MC’s.  

Plenty to absorb among these 42 tracks, and hopefully you'll find something to make the yuletide bright.