We all want Pearl Jam to deliver at their highest peak at least one more time. Which other bands have been made great records, only to go through slower periods, and then make a great comeback album (or several)?

Alice In Chains and Soundgarden made amazing returns.

Green Day - American Idiot
The Cars - Heartbeat City
AC/DC - Back In Black

I've never really liked King Animal, in concert or the studio album.

Alice In Chains doesn't feel like the same band to me. But Black Gives Way To Blue is probably still better than King Animal. Had some good songs.

Greatest album after the death of a singer ever. Still it was released only 13 months after Highway To Hell.

Some Girls 1978 from Rolling Stones, but then it does feel more like a Riot Act album in career retrospective, than it does a Pearl Jam 11 album.

Tom Waits - Mule Variations 1999 was impressive after so many years. Johnny Cash with American Recordings 1994. But still they are not bands, probably easier for a solo artist.

Dinosaur Jr.- Beyond

Death from Above 1979. I like The Physical World a lot more than their old stuff.

A Tribe Called Quest- Thank You For Your Service

Oh, and Steely Dan. Two Against Nature is a great album.

I personally loved everything Sonic Youth did in the 90s, but with the exception of WM and their Simpsons appearance they really seemed to come close to irrelevancy in that stretch between Jet Set and NYC Ghosts. Nurse and Rather Ripped felt like amazing "comebacks" to me in that context.

This is flagrant thread abuse

Pearl Jam - Yield

As much as No Code can be revered by hardcore fans it did not go over well at the time. Yield was a greater hit with the general population.

Grateful Dead - In The Dark

The single Touch of Grey brought them back into the mainstream.

Meatloaf: Bat Out Of Hell II

There is only three years between Vitalogy and Yield, and they also toured and released Mirrorball and Merkinball in that period. No Code peaked at 1, Yield peaked at 2, those are US numbers. I believe No Code has also outsold Yield, and is generally rated as close to, equal or better in quality. I do remember that the spin at the time was that No Code was different from what people expected, while Yield was more pleasing for the fans. But I think that is vastly overstated. And surely it can not be considered a great comeback coming after a longer period of creative drought.

I don't know that either of these could be classified as amazing. Are they considered to be on par (or close to) their classic albums?

Wait. Why?