With 2012 having so many brilliant reunions and The Rolling Stones currently setting the world on fire on tour, it got our little heads thinking over here at FemaleFirst about who we want to see make a return to the charts.
Justin Timberlake
While we still have a little bit of a soft spot in our hearts for N*Sync, we loved what happened when Justin Timberlake went solo. Creating some of the sexiest pop albums we can remember, Justin became the biggest solo singer in the world during the noughties and we want him to come back and claim his rightful place on top of the throne.
It’s been far, far too long since the release of FutureSex/LoveSounds and while we all think that Justin makes for a fine screen presence, we want him to set off the movie set for a little bit and get back in the recording studio one more time.
The news that he may be appearing on Beyoncé’s new album is extremely encouraging, but we can’t wait until the news of a whole new collection from Timberlake himself. Two albums is not enough.
Oasis
As much as we loved the closing ceremony of the Olympics, something felt terribly wrong when we panned over to Liam Gallagher and saw that he was performing Wonderwall with Beady Eye, not Oasis.
Back in the 1990s, Oasis defined a generation of music fans. Their war with Blur is legendary and the Mancunian band left a massive footprint on the plains of British music. Even nearly two decades since their rise to power, they’re still snagging in scores of new fans from around the world, brought in by Liam’s distinctive drawl and their anthemic songs.
We think, for the good of music as a whole, it’s time to bury the hatchet and for Manchester two most famous siblings to make up.
David Bowie
With a whole heap of yesteryear’s stars all making incredibly successful comebacks, we want David Bowie to come out of retirement and teach us all how the heck to use all this new technology.
If he can create something as visionary as Ziggy stardust in 1971 and an album as complete as Scary Monsters, then we shudder as to what he could do now with a few years rest behind him. With synths now an integeral part of pop music, Bowies never sound as salient has does now.
With Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen all dusting off their guitars once again, the precedent is there, we just home that he makes the most of it.
Outkast
It’s been six long years since Outkast last put out an album in the form of Idlewild, but with the hip-hop duo never having officially broken up, we still hold out hope for another full album from group.
While Andre 3000 and Big Boi have gone in separate directions, with Andre set to play Jimmy Hendrix in an upcoming biopic and Big Boi having just released his second solo album, it may not be the most logical or probable reunion we see happening, but with both parties hinting that the Outkast project may return, we’ll keep on hoping.
Frou Frou
While Imogen Heap’s solo projects have been consistently fantastic, her solo collaboration with producer Guy Sigsworth is still one of the finest pop albums of the noughties, sounding utterly contemporary and fresh a full decade after its release.
The pair have even worked together since the pair called time on Frou Frou after only one album, but while it’s all been excellent, nothing has managed to surpass their work on Deatials, a near perfect album in this writer’s opinion. Their brief coming together to provide a version of ‘I Need A Hero’ for the Shrek 2 soundtrack alone proved that the duo could create real magic once again.
With Heap currently putting the finishing touches on her fourth solo album and Sigsworth one of the most wanted producers around, it may be a little while yet until we get a re-union, but with the pair having never ruled out a return and remaining very close since, there may still be a couple of pages left to the Frou Frou story.
The Avalanches
The Australian dance collective may have only released a single album back at the turn of the millennium, but what an album it was.
Deranged, sample intensive and utterly eccentric, Since I Left You is a brilliantly inventive album even to this day. So much so that it was voted inside the top ten greatest Australian albums ever in a 2010 book and called by renowned site Pitchfork as the tenth best album of the decade.
With the band once again beginning to stir, having been supposedly working on a second album since 2005 and having just put out a new demo track, our prayers of an Avalanches return look set to come true.
Do you see a return happening for any of these artists? Or who do you want to see stepping back into the recording studio and make music once again? Let us know in the comments below.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith
Tagged in David Bowie Justin Timberlake Oasis Outkast