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Hmm. I was just thinking about this earlier today actually. Probably because I've been thinking about Prince so much, and he's a great example of an artist in constant motion, even if the quality of his recorded music kinda stopped evolving at a certain point.
it's hard to say. It's hard to define -- for me anyway -- what it means to for an artist to "mature" ... Does that mean the artist creates higher quality music over time, or does it just mean the artist changed a great deal? People may say that Beck has matured, but I still think Odelay is his best record.
I want to say Aphex Twin, Sonic Youth and Flaming Lips, duh! But as far as those artists go, I don't necessarily prefer their most recent music to their older music, nor do I think it's necessarily more "mature." Is The Eternal more mature than Bad Moon Rising? Probably not, as it's decidedly more simplistic and less challenging both musically and lyrically. Is SYRO more mature than SAW? Who can say?
So, you're gonna hate this, but the first artist that satisfies the criteria that really jumps to the front of my mind is Kanye. In the 2010's, his music is both more mature and in most cases better than it was in the '00s. Every album has been a leap in a new and different direction and all of them have been fucking awesome.
Also, yeah, D'angelo. Definitely. As much as I love Voodoo, Black Messiah was on a whole new level. But it's easier to track maturity when an artist only releases one album per decade.
PJ Harvey has successfully matured and made her music more thoughtful and intricate and broad over the last 20 years, but I'm not sure I like Hope Six Demolition Project more than Rid of Me.
Deerhunter did a great job of "maturing" until their last album bored my socks off. Fuck, I don't know.
Fugazi and Unwound, both made constant sonic leaps forward peaking in their best album.
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