Follow-ups that could almost be part twos of classic albums

I recently saw someone describe hearing Lick My Decals Off Baby for the first time as "like discovering Trout Mask Replica has sides 5 and 6," which made me think of some other examples where a band's most famous/"classic" album was followed up by a very similar-sounding and similarly good album. In some of these cases the follow-up album feels almost like a more *extreme* version of the classic album, and it seems like a lot of the band's hardcore fans prefer the follow-up.

These are ones I always group together in my head:

GBV: Bee Thousand + Alien Lanes
Sparks: Kimono My House + Propaganda
The dB's: Stands for Decibels + Repercussion
TMBG: Flood + Apollo 18
God Bless Tiny Tim + Tiny Tim's 2nd Album
Blur: Parklife + The Great Escape
Loudon Wainwright's first two albums

I kind of want to say Marquee Moon and Adventure too, but I know a lot of people think Adventure pales in comparison to MM. Don't think I've ever listened to A Day at the Races but I'm assuming it was meant to be kind of a part two to A Night at the Opera. Not sure how successful it was if that's the case.

Any other examples? I feel like there must be a bunch I'm missing.

Tusk feels like a natural extension of Rumors to me.

George Harrison confused Revolver and Rubber Soul and felt like they were two sides of the same coin but I disagree completely.

A number of Roxy Music albums after the first two feel this way to me as well.

Amnesiac is a good example

B-52's and Wild Planet feel like they sprang up together. It helps that the band deliberately held some of their early songs for the second album.

^ Devo's first two are like that, and so are Van Halen's first two

^ Violent Femmes first two albums are p much all songs that Gordon Gano wrote in high school. The other two members made him keep the Jesusy songs off the first one, in favour of horny songs, then had to fall back on 'em when he hadn't written enough new stuff by the second.

X: Los Angeles & Wild Gift (and probably Under The Big Black Sun & More Fun In The New World)

First two Talking Heads albums?

Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is the second album by the band that made The Soft Bulletin, as opposed to earlier Flaming Lips.

Not a strict part two in sound, but Check Your Head -> Ill Communication is the only time in 29 years that the Beastie Boys ever followed up an album or EP with another record in the same style.

Sticky Fingers and Exile maybe?

In the Court of the Crimson King -> In the Wake of Poseidon is sort of an obvious example

Van der Graaf Generator - Godbluff -> Still Life

Cornelius - Point -> Sensuous

First two Talking Heads albums?

Strokes: Is This It + Room on Fire

Okkervil River - The Stage Names -> The Stand-Ins. Will Sheff regards the albums as a pair, almost like a double album in fact.

Wholeheartedly disagree with the VdGG suggestion upthread.

The Cars followed by Candy-O.

(Am I doing this right?)

I think The Cars fall under the B-52s / Van Halen category mentioned upthread.

X fits there too I think

Built to Spill's Perfect From Now On and Keep It Like a Secret? Although I would switch the order of which one was part 1 and 2.

Wholeheartedly disagree with the VdGG suggestion upthread.

― van dyke parks generator (anagram)

idk "la rossa" was literally recorded during the godbluff sessions, right?

not an album but "easy to slip away" is a "part two" to "refugees"

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced? followed by Axis: Bold As Love.

I wouldn't put Television's Adventure in this category - not bc I think it pales in comparison to MM, but it's got a very different sound & feel to my ears

1st 2 B52s albums are pretty perfect for this though - I can never remember which songs are on which record

#1 Record/Radio City. I heard them first on the two-fer CD and it's just one big album to me.

^good one

it was my experience too hearing them first on the CD that combined the two

American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead ftw imo

those do seem like companion classic albums

first three Cheap Trick albums

murmur/reckoning

I don't agree w the Built to Spill ones tbh

I did always feel a strong connection btwn The Boatman's Call and No More Shall We Part, like the latter is a sort of burrowed elaboration of the formee

Alien Lanes is completely different animal than Bee Thousand and to conflate the two is pure laziness

xp think you're right about the Nick Cave albums

murmur/reckoning

My turn to disagree; these are v distinct

X, Hendrix: totally wrong. Huge leaps made in both cases.

The second Kvelertak album is literally called Mer (“more” in Norwegian) and it’s pretty much a clone of the debut - same producer and everything. Also, how am I the first person to mention the first three Ramones albums, which might as well have been the product of a single marathon session?

xp chronic town / murmur are more similar imo, but there's even a significant progression between those two

All the Mazzy Star albums (thanks PBKR for the prompt)

Peeps be stretchin itt

challenge: propose album companions that were not made sequentially. example: the Manics' Holy Bible and Journal for Plague Lovers

First Cheap Trick v different from second and third imo

xp Bat Out of Hell I, II, & III(?)

I feel like that's cheating, but then again I kinda did too

see also Harvest and Harvest Moon

idk Parklife is classic, The Great Escape scattered and wholly subpar imo

well yeah, but MLIR->Parklife->TGE are structurally and tonally very connected, I don't think that can be denied

the s/t and 13 feel like a combo as well, the "American" records

Musick to Play in the Dark wasn't presented as a Volume 1 when it was released as far as I know, (although The Wire listed it as such near the top of their year-end poll in 1999). When Volume 2 came out a year later it seemed like an augmentation of its brilliance

Toys > Rocks maybe, maybe

The Boatman's Call and No More Shall We Part

otm

Suffer + No Control

Seventeen Seconds and Faith, in fact they released those in America as a double album called Happily Ever After.

Disagree with 90% of these. Even on Trout Mask/Decals, which I agree with, Decals has one guitar instead of two, has two drummers on some tracks and marimba on others and was 'arranged' by Zoot Horn Rollo instead of Drumbo.

Tom is correct. If these were, in fact, double albums, they wouldn't feel of a piece in most instances.

Tusk feels like a natural extension of Rumors to me.

I'd say the 1975 s/t and Rumours make a better pair but I don't know if I'm just reaching because of the very similar cover art (think that plays a big part in me mentally grouping albums together in general).

17 Seconds and Faith utterly different records to me, in sound, mood and content

Metallica have done this twice - Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets are pretty much mirror images of each other, and then there's Load/ReLoad, in which case a lot of the tracks were literally leftovers from the earlier sessions that they reworked (sometimes a lot, sometimes not very much) after touring the first album.

Also, how am I the first person to mention the first three Ramones albums, which might as well have been the product of a single marathon session?

John Martyn: Sold Air / Inside Out.

Also Ziggy /Aladdin Sane maybe

Scritti Politti: Cupid & Psyche 85 + Provision

I don't agree w the Built to Spill ones tbh

Yeah, you're right.

#1 Record/Radio City. I heard them first on the two-fer CD and it's just one big album to me.

Yes, that's another one I don't agree with.

Black Saint and the Sinner Lady and Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus, but may be cheating as a few of the tracks on the latter album were recorded during the Black Saint sessions.

The second and third This Mortal Coil albums are like this (the first one is more of a stand-alone kind of thing).

Savage Republic Customs to Jamhiriya. Slightly different instrumentation thanks to difference in location.
Has one track that's a bit of a reworking

Disagree with 90% of these. Even on Trout Mask/Decals, which I agree with, Decals has one guitar instead of two, has two drummers on some tracks and marimba on others and was 'arranged' by Zoot Horn Rollo instead of Drumbo.

TV on the Radio -- Dear Science and Nine Types of Light. The latter is not as consistently creative as the former, but they are of a piece in terms of the overall sound, and the high points on NToL are just about as high as those of Science.

I don't see much talk about TVotR on ILM - how do folks around here rate them?

The Who does not have a classic/follow-up in their discography, but if all their planned/cancelled albums were released at the time, they'd have several: Sell Out followed by Who's For Tennis; Who's Next followed by Rock Is Dead -- Long Live Rock (or just any collection of all the '71-'72 singles, b-sides, and Who's Next leftovers); maybe even Tommy followed by the 7ft. Wide Car, 6ft. Wide Garage EP.

i mean if you ignore lifehouse/who's next, tommy to quadrophenia seems to fit

kinda agree w Tom D here tbh most of these nominations make no sense to me

the ones that make the most sense are the irish twin albums that come out within 12 months of each other and had some songs recorded at the same sessions

i mean if you ignore lifehouse/who's next, tommy to quadrophenia seems to fit

― jakey mo collier (voodoo chili), Friday, August 30, 2019 11:04 AM (twenty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I dunno, they sound pretty different -- Tommy is austere compared to Quadrophenia's synth- and horn-heavy arrangements. I actually think Tommy and the cancelled 1970 EP is a stretch, as the EP tracks have more electric guitar than all of Tommy.

Some members of The Band considered Big Pink and "the brown album" to be basically the same album.

xp yeah i don't actually think tommy/quad fits, but i was thinking of it asa hollywood-type blockbuster sequel (bigger, longer, etc)

Yeah, I can see it from that perspective. And that was part of the original intention of Lifehouse, to make an exponentially more ambitious and larger-scale Tommy-type project.

Sgt Pepper/Magical Mystery Tour

?

Kimono My House -> Propaganda makes a lot of sense

Yes to the Band and the Beatles.

The almost complete absence of Chris Bell on Radio City kind of makes the first two Big Star records seem quite as much of a unit IMO

"I don't see much talk about TVotR on ILM - how do folks around here rate them?"

I love them, I think there's a fair number of people who feel the same. They only release an album every three years or so though and they're not huge so there isn't tons of active discussion on them.

xp yeah, I kind of ruled out the Big Star albums for that reason, but at the same time I do often forget which album some of the songs are on, so a case could probably be made.

challenge: propose album companions that were not made sequentially. example: the Manics' Holy Bible and Journal for Plague Lovers

This is pretty hard! I guess Guero was kind of thought of as an attempt to get back to the Odelay sound, but they're pretty different. Solo Piano I and II by Chilly Gonzales, but that's cheating. Maybe I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One and I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass?

Another (possibly too easy) challenge: follow-ups to to classics that are of similar quality but don't sound the same at all. Something/Anything -> A Wizard, a True Star might be the best example I can think of. Or OK Computer -> Kid A. The Blue Album and Pinkerton, Definitely Maybe and What's the Story would probably work. The first two (or more) De La Soul albums. Lonesome Crowded West and The Moon and Antarctica.

Weezer's Green album is odd as it sounds like it could have preceeded the blue album due it's relative simplicity/streamlined approach (see also: The Strokes 'Room On Fire')

Bands generally get tighter / more professional over time, rather than sloppier, no? Hard to imagine blue coming after green (Is This It also sounds like a classic debut album to me).

Drive-By Truckers Decoration Day and The Dirty South are very much of a piece.

Fly Like An Eagle and Book of Dreams. I think they were recorded at the same time as well.

Elvis Presley, From Elvis in Memphis (1969) was the classic album, and then his next release was the double lp From Memphis to Vegas, From Vegas to Memphis from which one disc was material taken from the same sessions as From Elvis in Memphis

...and the sameness of the two releases was acknowledged by RCA when they basically reissued all of that material on one CD called The Memphis Record in the '80s

Beach Boys: Smiley Smile & Wild Honey; Sunflower & Surf's Up

Elvis Presley, From Elvis in Memphis (1969) was the classic album, and then his next release was the double lp From Memphis to Vegas, From Vegas to Memphis from which one disc was material taken from the same sessions as From Elvis in Memphis

...and the sameness of the two releases was acknowledged by RCA when they basically reissued all of that material on one CD called The Memphis Record in the '80s

The studio material from From Memphis... was also later re-released as Back in Memphis. (The live stuff was re-released as From the International Hotel.)

What's most amazing to me about that batch of material is that "Suspicious Minds" was a non-LP single.

It's kind of a constant refrain in Elvis's career that his non-movie LPs might have sold more and been more esteemed if RCA would've attached the concurrent singles to them

Apropos of From Elvis In Memphis, I see there is a new release of related outtakes called American Sound 1969, which seems to contain more tracks than even Big Star’s Complete Third.

Yeah, it's on Spotify - I started digging into it. It's a lot like the Stooges Fun House box - take after take after take of the same song, until Elvis starts laughing or loses his place and they count it off again. Not super-edifying.

I think I bought those two Big Star LPs around the same time and didn’t fully absorb either one before listening to the other one. It took me quite a while to enjoy listening to either one from beginning to end as a whole without zoning out and just focusing on individual tracks I liked, so I barely thought This Album and That Album, just This Track and That Track. For years I downplayed Chris Bell’s role and figured he was just the founder and foil for creative genius Alex (who horned in and took over) and his leaving didn’t make much difference anyway. Now that I have, um, refined my opinion and improved my understanding, I feel that on the second album they are still to some extent channeling Chris- not sure Alex ever wrote or made records the same way before or since- so his departure made much less of a difference than might have been expected, despite sonic/production changes mentioned upthread.

Reproduction and Travelogue by The Human League feel this way to me. It definitely helps that I bought them on the same day.

Same goes for The Divine Comedy's Liberation and Promenade which I got around the same time. They were recorded and released very close together with extremely similar artwork. Promenade might be a bit more developed (the production is better for a start), but I always put them together. Especially as Neil never topped those albums.

XP John Fry claimed about a third of Radio City was Chris co-writes that he declined to take credit for.

Thanks. Was just about to make another pass through the Bruce Eaton 33 1/3 book on Radio City to refresh my memory about things like that.

Chris co-wrote “O My Soul” and “Back Of A Car” but, in what John Fry describes as “horsetrading,” Chris gave full credit to Alex in return for keeping full credit on two other songs, “There’s A Light” and “Got Kind Of Lost.” Chris later sent a letter to John Fry asking for credit on “those two songs” but didn’t say which, although Andy and Alex knew. All four songs were recorded on an early Radio City demo that went missing.

Both of those last two, all four songs actually, can be heard on the Live At Lafayette’s Music Room album which came out last year.

I think some of those demos popped up on the box set (alongside that concert).

Oh yeah. Wonder if those are the same initial demos that were supposed to have been erased or later ones.

Stevie Wonder - Talking Book / Innervisions.

The first two Magnetic Fields albums feel like this though the later album is perhaps a bit more jaunty. They obviously encouraged this impression by making the CD edition a twofer almost immediately. (And then by having Merritt finally singing his own songs by the third album.)

What about the first two Stooges LPs? genuine q, I don't really know them that well but as a teen I had this compilation that conflated them into one LP which felt pretty consistent.

The second Tindersticks album seems to fit into that scheme. More of the same but not quite as good, one obvious reason being that the sound wasn't new anymore.

Kraftwerk 1 / Kraftwerk 2

The first two Stooges albums feel fairly distinct to me in terms of rhythmic feel, production quality, and even instrumentation (sax on the latter album, some piano and viola on the earlier one).

Achtung Baby/Zooropa

Stevie Wonder - Talking Book / Innervisions.

I always mentally group Innervisions with Fulfillingness' First Finale because the cover art styles are similar.

Another version of this would be "albums you got used to listening to on a single CD but which wouldn't otherwise sound like they should fit together" - for me The Soft Machine / Volume Two

Spirit of Eden -> Laughing Stock

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Damn the Torpedoes/Hard Promises

ZZ Top - Eliminator and Afterburner

The first two Magnetic Fields albums feel like this though the later album is perhaps a bit more jaunty. They obviously encouraged this impression by making the CD edition a twofer almost immediately. (And then by having Merritt finally singing his own songs by the third album.)

Also the artwork is super similar!

Fleetwood Mac: Future Games -> Bare Trees

the first two david axelrod albums —song of innocence + songs of experience— fit here pretty well.

bill evans has a couple, but i'm not sure if it's cheating to include them, as they were recorded at the same time and then split up into single lps later. the ones i'm thinking of are:
sunday at the village vanguard + waltz for debby
moonbeams + how my heart sings

would also like to mention some curtis mayfield in the form of:
back to the world + sweet exorcist (+ arguably even got to find a way)
and obviously curtis + roots

and finally, adrian borland and the sound:
shock of daylight + heads and hearts

Swordfishtrombones...Rain Dogs

This came to mind last night, though it doesn't fit squarely within the parameters of this discussion: The Cult's Electric and the first Danzig album sound and feel like two chapters of the same story.

Cultosaurus Erectus and Fire Of Unknown Origin

The Cult's Electric and the first Danzig album sound and feel like two chapters of the same story.

I've always felt similarly about Primal Scream's XTRMNTR and David Holmes' Bow Down to the Exit Sign.

How about the One Dove album as a sequel to Screamadelica?

surely the sequel to XTRMNTR is Evil Heat?

XTRMNTR was already kind of a sequel to Vanishing Point.

Dan Lissvik’s 7Trx & Taken By Trees - East of Eden

why are you all so bad at this?

Talk Talk "Spirit of Eden" and "Laughingstock"

see Duke's post a week ago!

ah sorry I was control+f'ing Talk Talk

Boston --> Don't Look Back