Some bands tour relentlessly right up until they can be classified as veterans.
With many of these bands, there is a point at which no-one gives a shit about their new stuff and just wants them to play their hits. With many bands, there’s a distinct marker as to where the classic give-a-shit era ends, and where the subsequent albums only get their songs played live on the tour they are literally on.
I think I at least like everything that Pearl Jam has done (with the exception of “Let the Records Play”, ugh), but I think a case could be made for the classic era ending sometime between 1998 and 2006.
Yield is undeniably fantastic and creative.
Binaural was secretly very good.
Riot Act I need to revisit - I remember parts being kind of clunky but there was also a creativity and strangeness to it.
S/T - I haven’t listened in awhile but I loved it when it came out. It was pretty much as good as a “late period band drops any pretense of artistic evolution and just delivers something they’re good at” album can be.
Everything after has pretty much felt like S/T but not as good.
I don’t think I can assess Metallica fairly - I was starting to discover indie rock around the time St. Anger came out, and I admittedly let the backlash to it dissuade me from buying it and going further with them.
I will say that Reload has some great songs. “Fixxxer” in particular is fantastic.
The Rolling Stones should be top of this list, surely? Tattoo You, if you’re being generous; Exile (a few later tracks aside), if you’re not.
I guess this is actually quite a tricky topic, given that most bands establish a ‘standard setlist’ by the third album. The favourites are known and new tracks are rotated in.
At the other end of the spectrum, you have Elbow who I paid £40 to see because I liked their first two albums. They played one track from their third album, then nothing from before Seldom Seen Kid.
Sonic Nurse was the last Sonic Youth album that I really cared about. Rather Ripped was ok. Can’t really say much about The Eternal. Probably only listened to it twice.