Music artists who walked away at the top of their game

Where do you go when you're the biggest band in the world? Out on your own, of course. For The Police, the trio of Sting, Stuart Copeland, and Andy Summers was getting too involved in their solo work to really care about a new album by The Police. After all, 1983's "Synchronicity" was turning them into unquestionable superstars, with singles like "King of Pain" saturating radio all year long and even signature tune "Every Breath You Take" beating out Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" for a Record of The Year Grammy. So where do you go from there? Sting wanted to put out solo albums (and did), Copeland tried his hand at filmmaking, and Summers turned to scoring movies. Thus, when the trio reconvened in the studio, an injured Copeland wasn't able to drum, the vibes were off, and Summers later described the attempted new sessions as "an empty exercise." The band walked away from each other at the unquestioned height of their fame, and while they reunited in 2007 for a lucrative concert tour, the message for decades on end was "don't stand so close to me."

Wally De Backer is a pretty humble dude. He experiments around in the studio with instruments. He sometimes stumbles across an incredible song like "Hearts a Mess" from his 2006 album "Like Drawing Blood" (released under his Gotye moniker as always). But when his third album, "Making Mirrors", was preceded by the Kimbra-featuring single "Somebody I Used to Know", it's fair to say that not even he knew what a monster smash it would become. Moving millions of units, conquering the radio, and elevating him to the league of legends, it's clear that even Gotye was uncomfortable with the level of fame it brought him. When Prince said "I love this song" and handed him the Grammy for "Record of the Year" in 2013, it was obvious that Gotye couldn't fully grasp that his musical hero was handing him an award in front of hundreds of TV cameras, so following that, he just ... disappeared. Oh sure, he could be seen working on small-time compilations for other artists, forming his own tiny record labels, drumming in his old pre-fame band, and occasionally contributing vocals to some of his friends like electronic artist Bibio. Still, Gotye hasn't put out any proper new material in over eight years. There are buzzings that he's working on new songs (and co-writing credit on Justin Bieber's 2021 album "Justice" implies he might be swinging for the big leagues), but at this point, it's all just speculation about somebody we used to know.

R.E.M. truly were victims of their own success. Pulling off the rare feat of making brainy rockers that found real commercial success (especially after albums like "Automatic for the People" and "Monster" became top sellers), Warner Bros. Records re-upped the Athens band's record contract to the tune of $80 million, a then-unheard-of sum. Unfortunately, that is precisely the time when their commercial fortunes started to dim. 1996's "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" still put up good numbers, but at a fraction of the pace of their last few records. Then came the slog: a series of unimaginative and increasingly-bland albums that saw the group shedding their fans at a rapid pace, all coming to a head with 2004's sleepwalk of a record "Around the Sun".

Aware of their fading reputation, a short break and a 2008 comeback in the form of the very amped-up "Accelerate" turned critical favor around for them. Yet a late-career statement wasn't enough to keep the momentum going: in late 2011, the band posted on their website that "All things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way." The group would dissolve less because they didn't have any creative juice inside them and more that they were getting tired of dealing with the record business's ins-and-outs, ultimately dissolving their partnership and making it clear they weren't going to reunite. While they were able to redeem their legacy with their last pair of full-lengths, for a time, it seemed like R.E.M. was just going to fade into obscurity. True to their word, they did it right, and they did it their way.

Fred Neil was the king of the Greenwich Village folk scene before it even became a scene. A folk-pop songwriter with few contemporaries, he gave a young lad named Bob Dylan his first-ever live gig by having him perform backing harmonica for him. While Neil never was a chart success on his own, his two major solo works, 1965's "Bleecker & MacDougal" and 1967's eponymous effort, have gone down in songwriting history. After all, when those records spawned songs like "Everybody's Talkin'" (famously revamped by Harry Nilsson for the "Midnight Cowboy" soundtrack) and the oft-covered "The Dolphins", it was clear that Fred Neil's influence would reign long over pop music history. Fred Neil, however, had other plans. In 1970, he helped create the Dolphin Research Project, an organization dedicated to the preservation of dolphins, his most beloved animal. While Neil maintained friendships with bands like The Lovin' Spoonful and Jefferson Airplane, dolphins increasingly became his passion. Although he recorded some material in the '70s, most of it has yet to see the light of day. He passed in 2001, having long bowed away from the music world after basically handing out the folk-rock template that changed pop music forever.

While OutKast didn't technically walkout at the top of their game, with their last project being the well-intentioned but ill-suited movie musical "Idlewild", they were still revered as game-changing legends in hip-hop history. After all, 2003's "Sperboxxx/The Love Below" was a megaton-selling, Grammy-swallowing behemoth of pop culture. Yet its very construction -- of a Big Boi solo album and an Andre 3000 solo album packaged together -- showed the divide that was already forming between the Atlanta duo. While Big Boi only got better as a rapper over time, Dre was increasingly less interested in making new OutKast music as he focused on his Cartoon Network TV show and burgeoning film acting career. Although they never formally disbanded, it's pretty clear that the ATLiens are doing just fine developing their own careers. In 2014, OutKast reunited for a summer full of festival dates, but the shows proved divisive, as Big Boi worked up the crowd without fail while some nights it was clear that Dre's heart was not in it (which was a hard pill to swallow given some nights he sounded totally invested). "Idlewild" was a rare kind of multi-million dollar project that only got green-lit because of OutKast's incredible reach and influence. Still, it ended up being the very thing that effectively ended their creative partnership.

You may not have heard of Ultimate Painting, and in this specific case, that's the point. Composed of a duo made up of James Hoare and Jack Cooper, these London lads had a real knack for classic guitar-driven jangle-pop and did a dynamite job of reinterpreting it over their three albums, the last of which, the very Kinks-esque "Dusk", came out in 2016. They were booking buoyant live gigs, racking up critical notices for their no-frills songwriting, and by the time 2018 came around, prepping the release of the album that would surely break them through, appropriately titled "Up!". Yet less than two months before the record's release, the album was suddenly canceled, the tour was scrapped, and the band was dismantled. Cooper released a statement indicating that there had been "an irreconcilable breakdown" and they wouldn't work together ever again, eventually saying the album would never come out. In truth, some digital promo copies made their way to journalists so that record never went unheard. For fans of the band, that ultimate masterpiece is something that will never see the light of day, as Ultimate Painting, unfortunately, crashed right as they were about to stick the landing.

When Chris Cagle debuted in the year 2000, the Nashville scene ate him up. His Southern-rock charm mixed well with his more traditional country radio fare, with Cagle even co-writing a majority of the songs himself (something that doesn't always happen in the Nash Vegas scene). Allegedly, his fans were so intense they dubbed themselves "Cagleheads." Yet in 2015, seemingly out of nowhere, Cagle announced that he was leaving the music industry for good to spend time with his family. The day after the announcement, he released an additional statement implying that it was the media who tainted his career with some "BS slants!!!" He goes on to lament that "Nobody in Nashville or media gave a s--- that I toured for the last couple years after I released Back In The Saddle!" He reportedly was making his way for a comeback in late 2018, but there's been no mention of him since. Hmm, wonder why the media isn't keen on reporting his latest news ...

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel scored their first chart-topper as a duo back in 1965 with their haunting signature track "The Sound of Silence". The duo's popularity bloomed in the years that followed, leaving them to work at a rapid clip. By 1968, they dropped both their new studio record "Bookends" and the soundtrack to the generation-defining film "The Graduate", which netted them their second #1 in the form of "Mrs. Robinson". However, an extensive shoot on the 1969 film "Catch-22" (which they were both acting in) lead to the duo having a strained relationship, up to the point where when they entered the recording studio again, they had no songs between them. 

The aptly-named "Bridge Over Troubled Water" served as a definitive end-point for their creative partnership, a more appropriate bookend than the album actually called "Bookends" -- but then it became their biggest hit ever. A global smash, nearly all of the singles (regardless of gravity or brevity) became radio staples for decades down the line, and the duo even winning the Grammy for Album of the Year in the process. All these accolades weren't enough to bring the twosome back together, as Simon's solo career proved immensely lucrative, and Garfunkel wound up getting nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in 1971's "Carnal Knowledge". The boys have reunited at live events over the years to the delight of many, but for those awaiting new Simon & Garfunkel material, it's only been the sound of silence.

Pavement is one the most influential indie rock bands of the '90s, full stop. From their wild musicality to surrealistic lyrics (which, if you looked, actually had a beating heart underneath) truly broke the mold, and their 1992 debut record "Slanted and Enchanted" can be blamed for the formation of tens of thousands of soundalike bands. As they churned out new albums every two years or so, their fortunes grew with them, and before long, they grew a following, started making inroads at college radio stations, and were touring to bigger and bigger crowds. Yet the creation of 1999's "Terror Twilight" was fraught with tension, as lead singer/songwriter Stephen Malkmus wrote all of the songs and relegated his bandmates' attempted contributions to EPs. The tour for "Terror" only made things worse, and eventually, Malkmus admitted he didn't want to perform with the band anymore, despite their ascension to stardom. The group walked away, almost all of them pursuing solo careers in one form or another in the decade that followed. Pavement reunited in 2010 for (what else) a series of festival appearances and even planned a 2021 get-together as well. They managed to drop a greatest hits album on the masses, but in terms of new Pavement material, "Terror Twilight" was their perhaps unintentional swan song.

In 2018, it was announced that Elton John would go on his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour, a multi-year trek that would have him signing off in style at all of his favorite venues worldwide. Yes, he billed this as a retirement tour, but when it comes to Elton John and retirement, this is something that the colorfully-bespectacled-performer has threatened multiple times. For one, he announced after touring 1977's "Blue Moves" that it would be the last time he goes out on the road. Similarly, in 2002, he swore he would stop making records entirely after what he viewed as the poor promotion of "Songs From the West Coast", one of his most beloved latter-day albums. Now, following delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2019 surge of popularity he received due to the award-season biopic about his life "Rocketman", he may extend his farewell tour just a little bit longer. Still, we're adding him to the list 'cos this time we believe him: the bıtch won't be back after this.

In the late '90s, Mos Def pulled off the near-impossible hat-trick of releasing two back-to-back hip-hop classics in a row: 1998's "Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star" followed by Mos Def's own "Black on Both Sides" in 1999. Conscious, creative, witty, and powerful, Mos Def practically exploded onto the rap scene when he debuted, becoming an unquestioned sensation while also balancing his time with film acting, even netting some choice parts in films like 2003's "The Italian Job" and scoring an Emmy nod for the 2004 made-for-TV-movie "Something the Lord Made". 

Yet the more time that Yasiin Bey spent in the music industry, the sicker of it he became, and in 2006, he handed off a lazy, spaced-out, contact-filling record called "True Magic" that made everyone question what was going in Bey's head. Thankfully, a reinvigorated perspective gave 2009's "The Ecstatic" some real grit and energy, once again hailing the return of one of the most gifted rappers in the world. Unfortunately, despite the praise, Bey had moved on creatively, and in 2016, he formally announced his retirement from both film and music. This retirement is a loose hanger though, as he's still popped up on guest verses as recently as 2019. Yet we're not worried: as semi-retired as he might be, we'd welcome him back whenever he's ready.

Billy Joel has seen it all: the joys of having ubiquitous pop singles, the pains of having all your money stolen from you, the respect of your industry peers, the difficulty of having your first solo album get butchered in production, etc. As such, following 1993's "River of Dreams", his 12th studio effort, there weren't many other mountains left for the world's most famous piano man to climb. Joel continued to tour for years and years, but outside of dropping a record of classical compositions (2001's "Fantasies & Delusions"), Joel never felt the need to release another album or put out another major single. Greatest hits compilations and box sets all dropped for casual and hardcore fans alike, but Billy Joel was happy to walk away from his multi-decade legacy and just play the hits when he felt like it. Pretty big flex if you ask us, honestly.

When The White Stripes debuted, there was some mystery and gimmickry to how this garage-rock two-piece presented itself: Were they brother and sister? Husband and wife? Such curious needling gave the group a strange mythos, and once they started making actual chart hits and "reviving" rock music for a new generation (along with a wave of countless other bands around at the time), they had the perfect recipe for becoming genuine superstars. However, following their heralded sixth album "Icky Thump" and its subsequent tour, the band announced in 2011 that they were breaking up. The reasons remained specifically unclear, but interviews that Jack White gave since then painted drummer Meg White as a shy girl who just wasn't happy with the non-stop pace of rock superstardom. Even with Jack's numerous other bands and side-projects, it feels like The White Stripes were going to last forever. It wasn't meant to be, but at least we got some dynamite albums to remember them with.

In a very short amount of time, Tom Lehrer developed a remarkably unique lane for himself. Although he was a mathematician and former military specialist, he developed a specific brand of piano-based Tin Pan Alley songs that were filled with witty, grim humor that pushed the envelope in the '50s and '60s. Tracks like "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" and the chemistry-nerd delight that was "The Elements" have retained their popularity decades down the line, painting Lehrer as a satirist with few peers (especially in the era). He only released two studio full-lengths (in 1953 and 1959) and a couple of rowdy live albums, but following his 1965 compilation of songs he wrote for the satirical current events show "That Was The Week That Was", Lehrer quit showbusiness almost entirely, going back to teaching mathematics and musical theater while only making the occasional live appearance. As of this writing, he's still kicking, stunned that 2 Chainz wanted to sample one of his songs in 2012 and then going as far as to donate all his music and lyrics to the public domain as of 2020. In making his career so short, almost every scrap of music has been analyzed repeatedly, but the way he sees it, he said what he needed to say and then got disinterested. Can't blame the guy: for a mathematician, this all adds up.

Fans of dance music's long history and innovators in the eyes of many, the French duo known as Daft Punk quickly went from early Big Beat headliners to an act whose sound completely altered the trajectory of pop music. Their guest-filled 2013 full-length "Random Access Memories" not only spawned their biggest hit to date ("Get Lucky") but also won them the Grammy for Album of the Year, serving as both a culmination and validation of their decades-long career. Yet how do you follow up a monumental achievement such as that? Well, you don't, if you're Daft Punk. 

The robot boys ended up aiding The Weeknd on two very big hits for him in 2016, but after that, we heard next to nothing from them. At least until February 2021, when the group uploaded a video to their YouTube account wherein an old clip plays of member Thomas Bangalter's robot persona exploding, culminating with an official announcement that Daft Punk, as we know it, was done. No farewell tour, no final album or single, just a quick note that the journey is done. Like any robot struggling to comprehend human emotion, they thought it was better to self-destruct than outstay their usefulness. More acts could learn from such cybernetic courage.

Without mincing words, The Tragically Hip may very well be the official band of Canada. Giving us pointed lyrical tales and coupling them with a knack for smart and snappy folk-rock, "The Hip" is nothing short of an institution, dropping over a dozen albums through their multi-decade career, including classics like 1991's "Road Apples" and 1992's "Fully Completely". In 2016, it was announced that frontman Gord Downie had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, sending shockwaves around the music world. Downie fully knew he didn't have all the time in the world, but the band wasn't going to stop. Far from it, in fact. That summer, they released a new album and even toured it, signifying a final farewell for the group. Their final stop on the tour was such a monumental event that even Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended. Simultaneously, the CBC broadcast the entire concert without commercials, with nearly one-third of the entire country tuning in. It was a triumphant moment, and one made all the more poignant when it was announced that Downie passed on October 17, 2017. Some viewed The Hip as smart rockers with genuine throwback appeal, while others thought of them as being ahead by a century.

Slayer frequently gets mentioned in discussions about the greatest thrash metal bands of all time, as while they were never bigger than Metallica, some argue they were better. While no one disputes the legendary status of albums like 1986's "Reign in Blood", one can be forgiven for not keeping up with the latest goings-on with the group, as drummer Dave Lombardo has left the band no less than three separate times and the group's output can sometimes be seen as "sporadic." Yet following the passing of guitarist Jeff Hanneman in 2013, the band was unsure about continuing. They ultimately decided to press on, and 2015's "Repentless" would become their highest-charting album globally. Spurred on by its chart success and accompanying tour, Slayer started working on a new studio album, but partway through, they scrapped the sessions and went out on a gigantic farewell tour instead. While the group technically isn't broken up, several key players have already moved on. As guitarist Gary Holt so succinctly put it in 2020: "The band went out f---ing on a bang, went out on Slayer's terms, and how many people get to say they did that?"

As a moniker/band/outfit, Neutral Milk Hotel didn't release a lot of music in their time active: only two full-length albums and two EPs. Yet one of those albums, 1998's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea", slowly became a modern indie-rock touchstone, with its hypnotic production and layered imagery setting on fire the imaginations of numerous college radio DJs and up-and-coming music bloggers. Jeff Mangum, the central figure behind Neutral Milk Hotel, started to see the mythos of "Aeroplane" grow in stature, up to the point where fans began asking him to decipher his lyrics and get intensely personal in their encounters with him. So in response, Mangum simply ... walked away. 

He stopped touring, stopped recording, and was dismissive of oh-so-many journalists' attempts to reach out to him to get the "last word" on Neutral Milk Hotel's career. Surprisingly, Mangum returned to the stage for some solo tours in 2011 and 2012 before bringing back the full NMH four-piece for a tour from 2013 to 2015. After that, Mangum disappeared yet again, with only the occasional song scrap appearing on tribute compilations and the like. Otherwise, Jeff Mangum is simply leaving the world with more questions than answers, but truth be told, it sounds like that's the way he prefers it.

On June 24, 2012, the trio of EDM DJs known as Swedish House Mafia (Axwell, Steve Angello, and Sebastian Ingrosso) announced that they would end their successful partnership by going out on one final tour that would eat up the end of the year. It's clear that while they achieved a lot of success in the dance music world, they were ready to pursue solo projects -- except for one small problem. You see, in September of 2012, they unleashed their final single, "Don't You Worry Child" with singer John Martin, and it crossed over in a way that none of their other songs did. Emotional and propulsive at the same time, the song absolutely exploded, even getting listed on Top 40 rotations. Swedish House Mafia was suddenly more popular than ever, forcing them to extend their farewell tour longer than they thought. It worked out well (their final set was fittingly at the Ultra Music Festival in 2013), and the group only reunited for a smattering of live dates in 2019. With that said, it's still unclear whether or not they'll make music again as Swedish House Mafia, so for now, don't you worry (child).

Some may argue that after their 1995 Britpop-defining peak that was the album "What's The Story (Morning Glory)?", the band Oasis never quite hit the same peaks again. Forever buoyed by ever-feuding brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, the group's artistic tension is what lead to so many great songs. Lads the world over-connected to their relatable sentiments, and Oasis fans still bought their new albums no matter how incoherent they sometimes were (we're lookin' at you, 1997's "Be Here Now"!). As the band's non-Gallagher members started blossoming as songwriters, the group's latter-day albums tried on new genre clothing. They took some risks, even as, despite their continued ability to move units, Liam and Noel fought and fought and fought. While their 2008 album "Dig Out Your Soul" melded their arena-sized choruses with more psychedelic flourishes, sickness, false statements, thrown fruit, and tour date cancellations lead the brothers to split up, with Noel declaring on Oasis' website that the group was no more. While they each had varying degrees of solo success, Oasis could very well have still been touring to this day. Even now, so many bands owe them a debt of gratitude, as they truly are standing on the shoulders of giants.

If you don't remember the short-lived reign of the London post-punk outfit The Rakes, that's OK: it was a very brief one. Yet when they dropped that first slice-of-office-life single, "22 Grand Job" in 2004, the U.K. music press went into overdrive. With songs sharply dissecting the endlessly mundane nature of life (see: "Work, Work, Work (Pub, Club, Sleep)" and "Retreat"), the group's 2005 debut effort "Capture/Release" spawned no less than six singles and nearly all of them were UK Indie hits. Yet as fellow hyped-to-the-stars U.K. act The Arctic Monkeys know, you got to learn to pivot if you want to survive in this industry. The Rakes, unfortunately, didn't do that, and the week before their third album "Klang" came out in the U.S., they announced they were no longer a functioning musical unit. The irony in it all? Singer Alan Donohoe later went on to become a software developer, likely working in ... an office.