Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 66 total)
  • The curse of a sublime first album release..
  • Merak
    Full Member

    The Stone Roses, Badly Drawn Boy and The Killers, everything after the inaugural release, forgettable.

    funkmasterp
    Full Member

    Gomez, subsequent albums weren’t bad just nowhere near as good as the first.

    perchypanther
    Free Member

    Guns ‘n’ Roses.

    It was all downhill after Appetite for Destruction

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
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    nicko74
    Full Member

    Alabama Three. RJD2, DJ Format, DJ Shadow.

    As above – their follow-ups weren’t bad, just overshadowed by the perfection of their first albums.

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    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.

    Nico
    Free Member

    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!

    nicko74
    Full Member

    Really good point, that. I’d give a thumbs up if I knew how to do it in this forum…

    sofaking
    Free Member

    Lo fidelity all stars

    RATM

    Metallica

    Pearl jam

    Portishead

    Van Halen

    lunge
    Full Member

    Arcic Monkey’s too.

    funkmasterp
    Full Member

    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.

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    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..

    the-muffin-man
    Full Member

    Suck it and See is my favourite Arctic Monkeys album. Current one is a crock of…

    PimpmasterJazz
    Free Member

    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! 🙂

    jekkyl
    Full Member

    Kylie Minogue.

    I should be so lucky couldn’t be beaten.

    submarined
    Free Member

    Jurassic 5

    Daughter

    Bon Iver (/controversial)

    Ben Howard

    The Maccabees

    Of Monsters And Men

    The XX (although the latest is a corker)

    PimpmasterJazz
    Free Member

    Kylie Minogue

    Fair one.

    perchypanther
    Free Member

    I should be so lucky couldn’t be beaten.

    Pretty sure it was beaten to.

    eat_more_cheese
    Free Member

    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?

    stevedoc
    Free Member

    Kylie Minogue

    Fair one.
    IMPOSSIBLE PRINCESS (Full Album 1997)

    Not a chance  the above was here finest work :)( apart from those shorts !!

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    shouldn’t the question be which band has produced a sublime subsequent album?

    Paul’s Boutique

    PimpmasterJazz
    Free Member

    shouldn’t the question be which band has produced a sublime subsequent album?

    Metallica. See above comment.

    The Prodigy.

    funkmasterp
    Full Member

    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 😀

    the-muffin-man
    Full Member

    …shouldn’t the question be which band has produced a sublime subsequent album?

    Radiohead – OK Computer

    Black Crowes – The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion

    ransos
    Free Member

    Radiohead – OK Computer

    The Bends was their second (and best) album.

    rOcKeTdOg
    Full Member

    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.

    anagallis_arvensis
    Full Member

    Ben Harper Welcome to The Cruel World

    takisawa2
    Full Member

    NOW That’s What I Call Music.

    MSP
    Full Member

    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.

    kenneththecurtain
    Free Member

    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.

    kerley
    Free Member

    The Stone Roses  –  I preferred Second coming

    The Prodigy – I preferred Music for the jilted generation

    Portishead – I like Portishead as much as Dummy

    slowoldman
    Full Member

    Writing a properly good song is really difficult.

    I reckon anyone who writes one properly good one is a hero.

    supercarp
    Full Member

    Metallica? Kill em all was good but not on the same planet as Master of puppets.

    Royal Blood, Alice in chains

    senorj
    Full Member

    Klaxons

    CSS

    elastica

    angeldust
    Free Member

    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.

    stevious
    Full Member

    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.

    urbanist
    Free Member

    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).

    SaxonRider
    Full Member

    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!

    funkmasterp
    Full Member

    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.

    CountZero
    Full Member

    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.

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    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.

    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.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 66 total)

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