What is a band/artist that you used to love when you were younger, but stopped listening to them for whatever reason, only to rediscover them years later with a deeper appreciation for their work?

My pick is XTC/Andy Partridge. I don't know exactly what happened...I used to have all their albums (including singles that you can't find anywhere now!) but one period in my life I went through like this purge...I sold off a ton of stuff. I'd say the majority of the CDs I sold off I never really missed. I kept a list of what I used to have and can honestly say I don't miss about 90% of what I got rid of.

But Andy Partridge is re-releasing the Dukes of Stratosphear albums in a limited edition format, and I understand more albums from the XTC catalog will be due after that.

I have the Coat of Many Cupboards box set and listened to the first three CDs last night and loved every minute.

With the limited edition releases coming out, I plan on getting the back catalog from them again. It's nice coming back to this music...very good stuff that holds up well over all these years.

So what is your band/artist?

The Police. Sting branched off to do his solo career (and those horrible dance music singles) and I hated Copeland and blamed him for the breakup of the band. At the time, I felt a drummer is not a true musician, is barely a step above the lighting technicians, and he didn't know his place. Sure he started the band, but Sting & Summers were the talent & he should just keep his big mouth shut. On the live album you can hear him saying innappropriate things, no wonder the band folded... They soon faded into the background & were replaced by Springsteen as my favorite...

With the reunion tour, I started listening to the albums again, Reggatta and Zenyatta are fantastic, and I now have more of an appreciation of Copelands idiosyncratic drumming... And I think Sting owes Summers a bigger chunk of change for the riff on Every Breath You Take, had it not been for that riff, it would have been one big cliche instead of the classic it has become...

Iron Maiden.

After college, I drifted away from maiden and metal in general. It was the age of the power ballad, so there was little reason to stick around. I started going to some alternative record stores, so I was dabbling in all kinds of stuff I might be using to answer this question in another 10 years or so

Now it's a combination of nostalgia and the realization that it was simply a lot better stuff than a lot of people (including me) gave it credit for.

For me, the best example would be Kiss. Loved them as a kid (in the classic 70s era), when I was a teen in the 80s I pretty much tuned them out entirely. Rediscovered them with the 1996 original lineup reunion. Still love 'em, warts and all.

The Beatles for me.I liked them as a kid in the 70s(along with Kiss and Abba lol) but as i got older i got more into the 70's rock,then 80's metal in high school then 90's i was big into the "alternative" scene and back full circle to loving and rediscovering The Beatles and really appreciating them more than ever.Without a doubt they are my favorite band.

Yes.

I can't think of a single band that I have loved for an extended period of time that I didn't take a break from, only to eventually go back to and 'rediscover' my love for their music. I would list them, but it would be all of my favorite bands.

Honestly, I can't think of one band that I liked that I consciously got away from but got back into later.

There aren't that many bands that I've lost enjoyment in listening to them. Just a couple thrash metal bands and maybe Cinderella and Kix (I still like a couple songs each, but neither one of those bands has aged all that well for me - in Cinderella's case it's the horrible production on their first album and Tom Keifer's vocals, in Kix' case it's just bad songwriting that was partially hidden by attitude and energy).

Black Sabbath for me....after the Dio years I stopped listening. Only to start back up when I discovered Dehumanizer two years ago (I was on a country and then grunge kick for a lot of years and Metal was definitely off my radar.)

Man, you missed out on the great Tony Martin years. If you haven't already done so pick up The Eternal Idol and Cross Purposes. Great stuff if you like the Dio era.

I agree with The Beatles. I got into them as a teen when they were having the Anthology renaissance, but got bored after awhile, but in the past year or two have really rediscovered how brilliant the catalog is in a way that I couldn't yet appreciate at 15

Danzig.

I was a fanatic for his music (Misfits, Samhain, Danzig) from when I was in 5th grade until about my freshman or year in HS, but once the classic lineup broke up I kind of got out of them; I wasn't too big on the electronica turn he was taking. A couple years ago I began to listen to his catalog again and found that only one album (Danzig 5) was a miss and most of his later material was surprisingly solid. Now I'm back to being the hardcore Danzig uber-fan I was all those years ago.

Belle & Sebastian & Ac/dc come to mind.

No, I tried already, his voice doesn't work for me. Too generic-rock.

Danzig did electronic? Interesting. Which album is this?

It's never been on purpose for me either, but I always seem to naturally move away from a certain band for a while, almost always because of a new fascination with another band.

<img src=http://www.re-played.com/images/tn_Danzig_-_Blackacidevil.jpg alt=5

I wouldn't call it electronica necessarily, maybe more like industrial. Either way, it's definitely not the rock and blues sound he had honed to perfection on the previous 4 albums.

Same for me. I still pretty much actively listen to every band that I ever really liked. Granted, not every day, week or month - but I cycle around to all of them at some time or another. It'd be rather impossible for me to do all of them, all the time - as I'm sure it would with most folks who post here - with rather sizable music collections.

I do, however, tend to get on what I like to refer to as "random re-discovery kicks" - where all of a sudden I'll develop an interest in a certain band/artist, and they will be all I really want to listen to. These can last a couple of days or a couple of months, depending on the depth of their catalog.

I'm the same way. I never lose interest in any band as much as I get on a kick about another band and they're all I listen to for a while. I go through a lot of KISS, Iron Maiden, and Dio marathons.

No samples on Amazon, oh well.

R.E.M., right after Bill Berry left. "Up" didn't do anything for me (especially after the excellent "New Adventures in Hi-Fi"), so I avoided "Reveal" and "Around the Sun", but l loved "Accelerate" and look forward to their next album.

Alice Cooper lost me with Brutal Planet and Dragontown, but his albums since have had some good tracks.

Stacey Q?