REKINDLING THE CREATIVE CHEMISTRY OF OLD ISN’T EASY, BUT HERE ARE 20 EXAMPLES OF WHEN IT DID WORK. DO CALL IT A COMEBACK…

Reunion albums can, by their nature, be hit and miss. It really all depends on the reasons for the band getting back together. If you’re doing it for the £s and the $s, then kiss goodbye to any critical respect or the paying public falling back in love with you. But reunite for the joy of the music or of each other and, hey, who knows if lightning will strike again? Here then are our Top 20 albums where the reunion did work out…STEVE O’BRIEN

2O MAGAZINE NO THYSELF

Less sugared than his previous band Buzzcocks, Howard Devoto’s artsy post-punk mavericks still had pop hooks to kill for, albeit with crunchier guitars and a less prejudiced attitude to synths. This 2011 comeback album was their first since 1981’s Magic, Murder And The Weather. Blessedly, it’s so much better than that muddled effort, with Devoto on fine songwriting form (“But I’ve made my decision/ To die like a King/ Like Elvis on some godforsaken toilet”). Alas, we’re still waiting on album #6.

19 THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN DAMAGE AND JOY

It seemed inevitable that The Jesus And Mary Chain (80s/90s version, anyway) would at some point implode in dramatic EastEnders cliffhanger-style fashion (nicknaming their recording studio ‘The Drugstore’ was a clue). But who would have thought the Reid brothers would ever return with an album as thrilling as this? Nineteen years after 1998’s Munki, Damage And Joy offered up the familiar mix of feedback-spiked rockers and woozy-eyed ballads, and announced to the world that even the ugliest of breakups can have a happy ending.

18 TLC TLC

How preposterous that a band as colossally famous as TLC had to organise a Kickstarter campaign to fund the recording of their 2017 reunion album. By now slimmed down to just Tionne ‘T-Boz‘ Watkins and Rozonda ‘Chilli‘ Thomas (Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes died shortly after the recording of 2002’s 3D), the self-titled comeback delivered what it promised – nostalgiacharged R&B that was heavy on the girl power. Lead single Way Back (featuring Snoop Dogg) was as funky as anything in their peerless back catalogue.