This list will cover the albums which brought an artist back from the brink of obscurity, ranked of course by how successful the album itself was. To qualify for this list, an artist had to have had a noticeable absence in the Australian mainstream or come back from an album that had threatened to end their career due to either critical reception or audiences not being invested in said album.
While it wasn't a complete failure, P!nk's third album Try was a commercial disappointment to the point where it suggested that she would be a relic of the early 00's by the time that decade came to an end. This album proved otherwise as it not only restored her popularity worldwide, but also outsold everything she made prior combined proving that her career was indeed far from dead.
The last time anyone truly cared about John Farnham even in Australia was the late 60's following the success of his novelty track "Sadie the cleaning lady." Fast forward nearly two decades and he manages to have the bestselling album of the 80's with this album which is as far away from the novelty of his early work as you can get.
Although Elton John saw moderate success with his albums following his temporary split with songwriter Bernie Taupin in 1976, none of those projects could even compare commercially and especially artistically to what he achieved in the first half of the 70's. The two made up and put together this album which seemed to pick up where the two left off from their 1975 effort Captain fantastic.
The last time anyone cared about this guy's solo career prior to this grammy award winning album being one of the biggest of the 80's was with his 1973 effort There goes rhyming Simon. That's a thirteen-year gap between these two projects, which makes this pioneer for African influence rock and roll more than worthy for an appearance on this list.
Most bands and artists will be making this list by releasing an album that expands on their previous sound, these guys however regained their mainstream popularity by returning to the sound that made them big in the first place. Admittedly the less said about their mid 80's material the better other than it being a valiant attempt to change with the times.
OK so this is more of a soundtrack than an album, however Whitney was the executive producer on here and her previous album I'm your baby tonight thought a critical darling, did leave many people wondering if her time in the music scene was up. Fortunately, this album's success restored any doubts people had about her singing career.
We won't be seeing a lot of entries on this list from bands that didn't have much success with their singles throughout their career, however I'd be remise not to include this album from Jamiroquai given how much of a commercial disappointment their previous album was compared to their breakthrough during the 90's. It put the nu disco band back in the spotlight thanks to how inescapable they were on the radio.
Even if you want to consider the Batman soundtrack his own album and not something he was commissioned to make by Tim Burton, the fact that the album he released before this was the ill-fated Graffiti bridge soundtrack was enough to cause alarm for his fans who felt he wouldn't be able to transition from the 80's to the 90's. Fortunately for him, he did just that by forming a new backing band for this album.
It looked like these guys would be forever known as a 90's band given the failure of their 2000 album Warning, this wasn't helped by them having to start from scratch with their follow-up album due to the master tapes of that album being stolen during its production. What they came back with was an album that was highly critical of the American government which of course won over a bunch of new fans.
If I were ranking this list based on how unexpected a comeback was, this would rank near the top of the list because they last time these guys troubled the charts prior to this album was in the late 70's. Some of the people who were charting when this came out weren't even born when they were last popular, that's how unexpected this albums success was for Santana and company.
The second half of the 80's wasn't particularly kind to Elton, more so for his own wellbeing as between his drug addiction and him having to deal with losing his iconic falsetto that made his 70's work so iconic, he simply wasn't doing well in his personal life. He channeled this frustration into this album just as the decade was coming to an end which resulted in people becoming reinvested with his art and wellbeing.
One of the more poignant comebacks to appear on this list, it really did seem like Bryan Adams would forever be a one album wonder with Reckless as it took him six years to find another hit anywhere in the world with this album given how much of a failure Heat of the night was.
Although this album's change in musical direction from Nelly's earlier work did alienate the one or two fans her second album had, it brought in a whole bunch of new fans to compensate for that albums failure which unfortunately didn't stick around for her fourth album later in the 00's.
I seriously cannot overstate how noticeable this guy's absence was throughout the 80's, he released his final album of the 70's and it was a massive success and here's hit first album of the 90's which was also a massive success for him. It was a short-lived comeback, but one he clearly earned from his fans.
MJ had been missing in action on the Australian charts since his 1972 chart topper "Ben" from the film of the same name, to see him back in the spotlight with the first of three albums he made with Quincy Jones must have been a surprise for Australian audience but one they embraced wholeheartedly.
Regardless of how you feel about this album, there's no denying that it reinvigorated the success of the band in question who had been absent from the mainstream since the start of the decade.
This serves as a comeback for both Meat loaf and Jim Steinman as both men hadn't bothered the charts for twelve years before they patched things up and released this album together, you can even consider this a comeback for rock operas in general as there certainly wasn't any indication this was going to succeed going into its release.
If I were purely judging this list based on albums, this wouldn't count as Shaggy didn't have a successful album prior to his magnum opus from the start of the 21st century. It makes the list due to him being one of the more successful artists of the 90's here, which came to an end in 1997 when his fourth album not only failed to chart here, but also failed to produce a hit single like his first three albums did.
And now for the opposite approach to what qualifies for this list, despite failing to spawn a hit single upon its release, this album from AC/DC makes the cut due to it being a surprise success for them after almost a decade of obscurity from the mainstream.
This is one of the more heartwarming comebacks on this list, mainly because Daryl Braithwaite really did seem like he was yesterday's news for the longest time, heck he found himself becoming a tradie once the hits with Sherbet dried up and yet here he is with arguably his most successful album.
I know that this is a stretch since the obvious reason why Bette Midler was MIA on the charts was due to her focusing on her acting career, however there's no denying that save for a cover of a Rolling stones track from five years prior, there wasn't much love for her music career throughout the world that this soundtrack managed to correct just as the 80's was coming to an end.
Well, here's the album that many consider to be the quintessential comeback of all time, although technically I'm cheating by having this on here as the only previous success Tina had in Australia was with "Nutbush city limits" with her ex-husband Ike Turner. Even then that was due to us showing our support for her leaving her abusive partner more than anything. Still, there's no denying that she rose from the ashes with this album.
This was a comeback that was inevitable for this list, Alice Cooper hadn't troubled the charts since the late 70's and with adult contemporary ballads to boot. This wasn't just a comeback for him, it was a return to form hence why he was able to make a huge impact with this album during the height of hair metal.
This was an album whose success came out of nowhere when it first came out, Tracy's first two albums were huge, but her third album was a commercial failure which was a good indication that her time in the spotlight was up which that album proved otherwise.
Here we have another heartwarming success story as these guys saw tragedy to their band in the mid 80's when one of their members passed away, however the LGBT band were able to pull themselves together just as the decade was coming to an end and released this fun album which continued their career where it left off a decade prior.
This was the second comeback album that the Bee gees had in Australia given how ESP from a decade prior spawned their only 80's hit "You win again." Here the Brothers Gibb have long since moved on from their disco days and are making adult contemporary that won the hearts of arguably the same fanbase they had back in the 70's.
I know that saying David Bowie had a comeback in his career is sacrilegious, however aside from "Heroes" nearly cracking the top ten, he hadn't had a hit in Australia since "Sorrow" from his album Pin ups and his albums weren't selling very well here either.
I know this is kind of cheating as it's not like these guys went away throughout the 80's, however this was their first album since Face to face to be a massive success for them as well as their first since Dark room to spawn a hit single for them. I feel like those qualifications make it a worthy entry on this list.
Technically his contributions to the Traveling wilburys was his comeback in Australia, however this had his name on the cover which means that this was the album to bring Roy's career back into the spotlight albeit months after his tragic passing. The last time anyone had cared about his music was when the 60's had ended and he scored his biggest hit with "Penny arcade."
While it didn't spawn any hit singles for him, the fact that Neil Diamond was able to score a huge comeback with this album more than qualifies it for this list. He was having hits before many of the people this was charting with were even born, that's how impressive this albums success was.
Most people who make a blunder like American life would be permanently blacklisted from the music industry altogether, Madonna was super lucky that she A: was the queen of pop and B: came back with something as fun and A-political as this disco album that she was able to recover from such a blunder.
This is on here more for the fact that Daniel Johns saw massive failure with his side project the Dissosiactives between this and their previous album Dioarama, I'm technically cheating as that album was the band's most successful in their catalogue and there was only a five-year gap between these two albums, however I'm counting it for Daniel's side project.
Did you even know that these guys released two albums in between their debut album and this Grammy winner? Naturally this would've been a flop for them also were it not for two factors, their Grammy win and "Africa" becoming a huge worldwide success for them.
This is kind of cheating as technically Joe Cocker had a massive hit with the An officer and a gentleman soundtrack, however the last time he made a splash in the mainstream on his own merit was way back in the early 70's. He had certainly won over a new fanbase with this album given how long it had been since he had an adorning fanbase.
It may have been a short-lived comeback, however Bonnie's time in the spotlight seemed to be up when she failed to score another hit following the success of "It's a heartache." A change in management led to her going in a new direction with this album which suffice to say proved to be a wise decision for her.
This is another short-lived comeback given how Bon Jovi didn't exactly stick around in the 00's at least as far as their popularity was concerned, however there was doubt they would ever reform given how they were on an extended hiatus from the midpoint of the 90's to the start of the 00's.
While he did see success with his previous album from 1994, the fact this covers album was a huge success as the 90's was coming to an end was a massive achievement for Tom Jones and set him up for success in the new millennium that he never ended up achieving.
I normally wouldn't include an alternative album on this list as alternative bands usually don't do well enough to warrant a comeback in the first place, however Grinspoon was a rare exception as their first album was a massive success for them as was this third album of theirs despite the failure of their second album.
I know that technically MJ's earlier appearance on this list was the comeback he needed in Australia, however this album was the first anyone cared about his family act in a decade as they did have a huge hit in 1970 with "ABC." Like MJ, their success was more permanent this time around as it lasted well into the mid 80's.
It's a bit of a stretch to say this was a comeback for Chris Rea considering he was only a one hit wonder prior to this album's release, however there's no denying that this was a comeback as "Diamonds" was a modest success back in 1979 and this album did spawn a second hit for him here.
No list of comebacks would be complete without this entry from Mariah Carey, it looked like there was no coming back from the failure of Glitter from 2001 given how much of a failure Charmbracelet was for the pop diva just a year after the film's release. She obviously had other plans as she managed to earn her redemption ark by releasing this album under an alter ego who had emancipated herself from her creative bankruptcy from earlier in the decade.
The last time these guys had any impact on our charts was with their 1985 effort Head on the door, although neither of the singles on here were as big as "Close to me," they remain fan favourites in their discography to this day due to them being much happier songs in their catalogue. This change in direction set them up for success in the 90's that didn't happen after the album had peaked.
Well, I and many others might not be a fan of their post breakup period, however there's no denying that this was a huge success for a band who had been inactive for fourteen years. Heck it even served as a comeback for Jimmy Barnes who really struggled to retain his popularity during the second half of the 90's.
I still don't know why Alicia's second album flopped here in Australia considering that her third album was a success as if it were the follow up to her debut album from six years prior, I guess having a popular bootleg on your album is a recipe for its failure given how often I heard "Karmastition" on the radio during what was meant to be the height of that album's popularity.
Another band who was able to successfully come back after time apart as if nothing happened between their hiatus, here we have Dragon who picked up where they left off six years prior and well into the MTV era. This proves that they were able to captivate audiences with their music so long as each member was still a part of the band and not striving for solo success.
While she did have success with her standards album in 1983 in Australia, that's still a six-year gap between when that became a success and when she scored her final hit with this album with the assistance of Aaron Neville who appears on several tracks on the album. The fact that her last hit was back in 1977 should be an even bigger incentive for this to appear on this list.
It does pain me to put this on the list as Temperamental is a great album from the Divinyls, however it not only failed to spawn a hit for them but also suggested that their time was coming to an end just like the 80's were. Fortunately, they had other ideas as Chrissie Amphlett doubled down on her sexual appeal on this album which helped it become a massive success both here and internationally.
They were never among the biggest artists in the music scene in Australia, however this 1993 effort from the Pet shop boys did come out of nowhere when it spawned two hits for them that year. I feel this was more due to the EDM scene catching on and that these guys were shoe ins for lighting up our dance floors more than anything.
While it didn't spawn a hit single for her, there's no denying that Tina was able to recapture the success she had from the 90's with this album after exactly a decade of having little to no success throughout the 00's.
Hoodoo gurus is another band that looked like they would be trapped in the 80's as their final album of the decade Magnum cum louder was a huge flop for them, fortunately they bounced back with this album proving that albums failure was more of a fluke than anything as they did see success going into the 90's after all.
The last time George Harrison had proper success in the mainstream was with his album Living in the material world from 1973, basically fourteen years had passed since he last troubled the charts worldwide save for that touching tribute he made for John Lennon earlier in the decade. This was an album custom made for lists like this as seeing him back in the spotlight after all those years was a touching surprise for his fans.
While they weren't exactly failures here in Australia, the second and third albums from these guys didn't bring in the numbers of their first album from the start of the decade. Here Chrissie goes in a more mature direction by ditching her "one of the boys" attitude which clearly wasn't serving her anymore which resulted in this technically being their most successful album.
Well, this list would be incomplete without one of the most heartwarming comebacks of the 90's, indeed Cher hadn't had a hit in Australia since her theme to her film Mermaids which was a good seven years before she released this album which introduced the world to autotune with its title track.
They may not have necessarily wanted to make this album; however, the careers of Cheap trick were on the line whether or not this album succeeds and so they played it safe with this album which of course became their biggest album due to it being an adult contemporary album rather than their most traditional arena rock.
Well, he certainly took a while to transition from disco to RNB, however once he did Billy Ocean found little trouble in finding success on the charts worldwide like he did during the height of disco's popularity. He would have three highly successful albums in the 80's beginning with this comeback of his.
It may have been a brief comeback for them, however the years with John Farnham as their lead vocalist weren't kind to Little river band which is perhaps why it was for the best that John left the group and Glenn returned as both parties seemed to be better off with this arrangement.
Well, this came out of nowhere for Sade, I doubt they minded that they were back in the 90's given how they seemed out of place in the 80's with their unique brand of jazz RNB rock. Like I said, they seemed like a warmup for M People who would take over the rest of the decade with a similar formula these guys had.
