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The Stone Roses, Badly Drawn Boy and The Killers, everything after the inaugural release, forgettable.
Gomez, subsequent albums weren’t bad just nowhere near as good as the first.
Guns 'n' Roses.
It was all downhill after Appetite for Destruction
Alabama Three. RJD2, DJ Format, DJ Shadow.
As above - their follow-ups weren't bad, just overshadowed by the perfection of their first albums.
Not that I'd often want to quote/paraphrase Adele... but she did make an interesting point that musicians have their whole life (to date) to come up with their first album but only 6 months to come up with the next one.
Writing a properly good song is really difficult. Seems like it should be easy when you see one written down - but you'd be lucky to write more than a handful of good songs in a lifetime even if thats you're only job.
Not that I’d often want to quote/paraphrase Adele… but she did make an interesting point that musicians have their whole life (to date) to come up with their first album but only 6 months to come up with the next one.
And that six months consists of touring!
Really good point, that. I'd give a thumbs up if I knew how to do it in this forum...
Lo fidelity all stars
RATM
Metallica
Pearl jam
Portishead
Van Halen
Arcic Monkey's too.
RATM and Pearl Jam I just can’t see. Pearl Jam got more interesting after Ten and RATM’s two follow ups were great. Opinions and all that though.
I was going to say van Halen too, but thier second was just as good.
Led Zeppelin? They didn’t warm up until Zep3 IMO.
Motorhead?
Jason Mraz ?
I dunno, but there are some artists that just mature better after the first album release..
Suck it and See is my favourite Arctic Monkeys album. Current one is a crock of...
From that era (and off the top of my head):
Jamiroquai
Shootyz Groove
311 peaked with Grassroots
RATM
Metallica
Pearl jam
Yeah, I disagree there too. RATM is the 'cleanest' from a production PoV and also arguably the most accessible, but Evil Empire is awesome. The first four of Metallica's albums are all great in their own particular way. As for Pearl Jam – maybe; Ten is the most accessible, but I have a real soft spot for Vs.
But hey - opinions! 🙂
Kylie Minogue.
I should be so lucky couldn't be beaten.
Jurassic 5
Daughter
Bon Iver (/controversial)
Ben Howard
The Maccabees
Of Monsters And Men
The XX (although the latest is a corker)
Kylie Minogue
Fair one.
I should be so lucky couldn’t be beaten.
Pretty sure it was beaten to.
You’re all right, of course. Most bands have great debut albums then gets dross...shouldn’t the question be which band has produced a sublime subsequent album?
Kylie Minogue
Fair one.
IMPOSSIBLE PRINCESS (Full Album 1997)
Not a chance the above was here finest work :)( apart from those shorts !!
shouldn’t the question be which band has produced a sublime subsequent album?
Paul's Boutique
shouldn’t the question be which band has produced a sublime subsequent album?
Metallica. See above comment.
The Prodigy.
Ben Howard
Whereas I think that his first is his weakest. Just pop music like Sheeran or Ezra. The guitar playing and song structure on his last two puts the first to shame and separates him from the current crop of singer / songwriters Opinions again 😀
…shouldn’t the question be which band has produced a sublime subsequent album?
Radiohead - OK Computer
Black Crowes - The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion
Radiohead – OK Computer
The Bends was their second (and best) album.
Is it the case that the well known saying mostly applies...you have your whole life to come up with the first album but only 12 months approx for the second.
Ben Harper Welcome to The Cruel World
NOW That’s What I Call Music.
I think that it is more than just the *life to come up with the first album, and 12 months for the second" Once a band makes it big, their life experience changes, they frequently lose that connection to reality that drove their creativity.
shouldn’t the question be which band has produced a sublime subsequent album?
There's loads of bands that got better over the first few albums.
Very few didn't eventually get shit though. Unless they're either still going or dead. I can think of a few exceptions, but it's definitely not that common to end it on a high.
The Stone Roses - I preferred Second coming
The Prodigy - I preferred Music for the jilted generation
Portishead - I like Portishead as much as Dummy
Writing a properly good song is really difficult.
I reckon anyone who writes one properly good one is a hero.
Metallica? Kill em all was good but not on the same planet as Master of puppets.
Royal Blood, Alice in chains
Klaxons
CSS
elastica
Agreed, Master of Puppets was peak Metallica, and AIC’s best was also their third (studio) album, self-titled ( or tripod).
RATM never came close to eclipsing their first album.
imo, of course.
Another factor (for me anyway) is as some artists get more success they can afford more time in the studio and/or more expensive production. AN overworked piece of music can often lose a lot of what makes it good. From the list up there DJ Shadow and RATM spring to mind in that sense.
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, containing:
Blowin' in the Wind;
Girl from the North Country;
Masters of War;
A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall;
Don't Think Twice, It's Alright; etc.
His first album was largely trad folkie covers, so Freewheelin' was the first real album full of his own songs. Any one of those tracks could have been the songwriting highlight of anyone else's career (and are admittedly still among some of Bob's best, although various other sporadic albums throughout his career have also been blinders).
Writing a properly good song is really difficult. Seems like it should be easy when you see one written down – but you’d be lucky to write more than a handful of good songs in a lifetime even if thats you’re only job.
Which is is why I would honestly never criticise a one-hit wonder. I mean, they managed to write a song that resonated so much with people it became a hit. That in itself is pretty special, and not something I’ve ever done!
Clutch always spring to mind when it comes to bands who are good all the time. A consistently brilliant band that continually put out great albums in my opinion. I put it down to the fact they pretty much tour all the time and are so tight as a band. Their latest track, Hot Bottom Feeder, is literally a recipie for crab cakes and is a brilliant blues rock tune.
Regarding RATM, the second album is a huge departure from the first and is more hip-hop than rock. A great thing for me, but those who only listen to (or prefer rock) seem to dismiss it. It’s like an angry The Roots album.
Writing a properly good song is really difficult. Seems like it should be easy when you see one written down – but you’d be lucky to write more than a handful of good songs in a lifetime even if thats you’re only job.
I think it depends to be honest. A lot of Motown and Stax songs were churned out like a musical production line. Kung Fu Fighting was a B side that took five minutes to write.
Writing a properly good song is really difficult. Seems like it should be easy when you see one written down – but you’d be lucky to write more than a handful of good songs in a lifetime even if thats you’re only job.
I think it depends to be honest. A lot of Motown and Stax songs were churned out like a musical production line. Kung Fu Fighting was a B side that took five minutes to write.
Also look at the Brill Building, a songwriting factory, Goffin and King worked there, and the list of songs Carole King wrote for others before she ever recorded any herself is amazing, then there was Baccarat and David, Holland, Dozier Holland...
For some people, writing songs is fairly easy, writing a really successful song is more difficult, and relies almost as much on luck, as anything else, it’s tricky to judge what the public will really go for. Plus a song can work for one artist and not for another, just because a particular arrangement of a song might be more ear-catching. It’s where the term ‘the old grey whistle test’ comes from.
Which is is why I would honestly never criticise a one-hit wonder. I mean, they managed to write a song that resonated so much with people it became a hit. That in itself is pretty special, and not something I’ve ever done!
I think it depends to be honest. A lot of Motown and Stax songs were churned out like a musical production line.
You get into a question of what a good song is. We tend to confuse songs and performances. A good song is a good song no matter who sings it. A good performer can make a good performance out of a pretty mediocre song. This interview with Jon Brion covers it nicely - making interesting comparisons between Zeppelin and Gerswin - if you played Gerswin like Zeppelin would play it - it would still sound great - if you tried to play Zeppelin like Gershwin... theres not really a song there to play. You can't really cover a Zeppelin song, you just have to try and impersonate them instead otherwise its shite.
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-56-frozen-music/
(jump to about 3 mins)
With that in mind... 'Happy Birthday to You' is probably the best song ever written. Anyone, anywhere in the world, can sing it, as well or as badly as they like and it still works - and it hasn't be superseded in that respect for 125 years.
This first album thing, it's just a left-over bit of bollocks from music paper days really. I mean, look at any band/artist with any sort of life-span (even one's you don't particularly like) and say it was all rubbish after the first album:
U2, Blur, The Cure, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Underworld, Iggy Pop, The Jam, Chemical Brothers, Orbital, Radiohead, Queen, Iron Maiden, Kanye West, The Doors.... the list goes on & on.
Only band I can tjink of who actually never bettered their debut is the Sex Pistols. Cos they didn't make any more!
Second album - songs not good enough for the first album plus that one the drummer wrote.
Third album - either genius or tedious shite about how you all hate each other, plus the one the singer's new girlfriend wrote. And pass the coke.
The Verve , Bittersweet symphony was a great album that they never managed to get close to reproducing .
The college dropout is a great shout, how the mighty have fallen. So much promise disappeard up his own arsehole.
Florence and the Machine. Lungs is a mighty, quirky beast of a thing. She's got more polished and has the odd gem of a song (What Kind Of Man springs to mind), but no album since as been so consistently Florenceish for me.
More than that, has she ever bettered Rabbit Heart as a single song? Often think the same thing about The Killers and These Things That I Have Done.
The Verve , Bittersweet symphony was a great album that they never managed to get close to reproducing
Bittersweet symphony was a song not an album. It was on Urban Hymns which was their third album.
I’d disagree with Alice in Chains as Dirt was one of my favourite albums of the early 90s and Jar of flies/Sap (not techincally an album, but 2 EPs packed together) was exceptional.
Bittersweet symphony was a song not an album. It was on Urban Hymns which was their third album.
...and actually A Northern Soul is better - less whiny and more musical...
IGMC
Coheed And Cambria - when it came out, the first album was so awesome (and it still is), but they got progressively more and more epic with each subsequent album, so in places the first now sounds a bit demo-ish. Third album seems to be the most highly regarded but I love them all..
I preferred Music for the jilted generation
Pervert.
As it just came up on my playlist.....Glasvegas. in fact, the second half of the first album doesn't live up to the first half!
The Long Pigs for me. Loved their first album The Sun Is Often Out and couldn't wait for the follow up. It was absolute bilge. Never been so disappointed with an album.
The Killers is correct as they've never come close to Hot Fuse but some of what followed has been decent enough with the odd classic thrown in.
No mention of Alt-J yet?
Or er... Mumford & Sons?
Franz Ferdinand, really great first album
The Fratellis, another great debut and then nothing.
Agree about RATM, Evil Empire was pretty good but its nowhere near the debut
Portishead is a good shout
Leftfield too, they never got near their first album
No mention of Alt-J yet?
An Awesome Wave is sublime, but the second album is also pretty good, I thought?
For those saying Portishead, Third is (different but) very good. And that illustrates a separate point perhaps - what we wanted from Portishead was more of the first album, but they clearly felt that they'd done all they could of that style and needed to evolve a bit. Which could be a fair point: if album 2 is a bunch of tracks that weren't good enough to go on album 1, we're just as annoyed as if it's a completely different style.
That said, I'll also add Archive and Morcheeba as (trip hop) bands whose subsequent albums weren't as good as the first
That said, I’ll also add Archive and Morcheeba as (trip hop) bands whose subsequent albums weren’t as good as the first
I've always preferred Morcheeba's second album... Did the Sneaker Pimps ever release anything else?
Did the Sneaker Pimps ever release anything else?
Yes, but they only had 2 decent songs anyway and they were both on their 2nd album.
I’d disagree with Alice in Chains as Dirt was one of my favourite albums of the early 90s and Jar of flies/Sap (not techincally an album, but 2 EPs packed together) was exceptional.
We may have lost a bit of the original purpose of the thread, but FWIW, Dirt was AIC's second studio album anyway.
For every band of whom I am a big fan where their first album is my favourite I reckon I could find at least one where their best work is later in their career. Some don't really even become the band/artist I really care about until some point after their first releases.
I’ll second badly drawn boy..... loved his eps but the album and subsequent ones were tosh.
Kings of Leon also for me and Paul Weller (solo stuff)
Kings of Leon
Great call! Also Get Cape Wear Cape Fly
I'll go for Costello Music by The Fratellis and Kasabian.
The Streets; original pirate material is great and every subsequent album is worse than the last (and as for that dirge dry your eyes, what total bolleaux)
I disagree on RJD2 - his second album was amazing
"You’re all right, of course. Most bands have great debut albums then gets dross…shouldn’t the question be which band has produced a sublime subsequent album?"
This, of course, should be the question. 95% of bands produce their best work for their debut album...
I’d disagree with Alice in Chains as Dirt was one of my favourite albums of the early 90s and Jar of flies/Sap (not techincally an album, but 2 EPs packed together) was exceptional.
We may have lost a bit of the original purpose of the thread, but FWIW, Dirt was AIC’s second studio album anyway.
I know Dirt was the second album, I'm old enough that I bought it on tape when it came out. I was disagreeing with the point that someone made that everything was downhill after Facelift.