The "Difficult" Second Album

Apologies if this has been done (closest I found was some wtf geir poll), but let's talk about the "difficult" second album, in which the artist is seen to be shoring up cred or otherwise proving that The Man/success isn't pulling their strings after a surprisingly big debut. The album that got me thinking about this was MGMT's Congratulations, but others that come to mind are Pinkerton (although not really so difficult upon looking back), Digable Planet's second, that sort of thing. (Not necessarily a sophomore slump, though it can be.) What are some good examples of this?

BEST sophomore outing
best examples of sophomore records blowing
Sophomore Unjinx: Groups Whose Best Album Was Their Second
best examples of sophomore records blowing the debut out of the water

sure, yes, but as far as i can tell those aren't about quite the same thing, despite all being about sophomore albums? (if not, lock thread, suggest ban, whatever.)

hmmm, white light/white heat?

Anthem of the Sun?
It's a lot weirder than the Grateful Dead debut.

chairs missing took me quite a while to begin to appreciate, but i loved pink flag immediately

L@@Ks like you dig it a lot now

The Cure's Seventeen Seconds was a pretty big departure from the upbeat, accessible Three Imaginary Boys.

Alternative TV, 2nd album.

Goldie - Saturnz Return, not that I've ever heard it but I remember the hoo-hah about 'Mother'.

PiL: Metal Box
The Fall: Dragnet

The Use Your Illusions

Neither Fish Nor Flesh

The Lauryn Hill Unplugged album

De La Soul is Dead

Thomas Dolby: The Flat Earth

^^ good one

Trout Mask Replica

tmr is #3

return of the giant slits

Devo - Duty Now For the Future

bad religion - into the unknown

Good one!

Amorphis - Tales from the Thousand Lakes

I thought I read an article about Spandau Ballet or OMD or somebody...?

which reminds me:

The Associates - Sulk

dirty mind?

^also #3

Lene Lovich - 'Flex.' If it were as enjoyable as 'Stateless,' we might still be talking about her.

I find that with modern R&B artists the third album is usually the "experimental" one

I thought I read an article about Spandau Ballet or OMD or somebody...?

OMD - Architecture & Morality!

Metal Box

OMD - Architecture & Morality!

That was their third album.

I think the most oft-cited reason why the second album is a critical and/or commercial flop is because the artist suffers at that point from a dearth of songs. The first album contains their best songs, the ones they'd been working up live for ages before going into the studio. Then they're under pressure to swiftly record a follow-up and deliver a substandard set of songs as a result.

The Klaxons
Liars

OMD - Architecture & Morality!
That was their third album.

― margana (anagram), Thursday, July 15, 2010 3:53 AM (2 hours ago)

Oh, right -- sorry.

Liars is a really good one.

Liars 4 sure

Still my favorite Liars album, too!

me too

Saw them tour it in the Emo's small room in Austin TX back in 2004. Maybe 50 people there, a huuuuuge drop from the crowds they pulled in with their first album tours. Angus wore a white blouse and their drummer wore a gold sequined gown, like the ones you'd see on T.Swift nowadays. Anyway... great show, they tore it up!!

i saw like the first homecoming show, like their first show with the new sound @ the warsaw in brklyn. There was a moshpit in the front for like 20 people and a bunch of others leaving that show like O_O

You know you've made a "difficult" second album when your live audience is all like --

O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O O_O

Paul's Boutique

Second Coming

Second Coming wasn't too difficult, it was just not very interesting...

The Dead Weather

I think the most oft-cited reason why the second album is a critical and/or commercial flop is because the artist suffers at that point from a dearth of songs. The first album contains their best songs, the ones they'd been working up live for ages before going into the studio. Then they're under pressure to swiftly record a follow-up and deliver a substandard set of songs as a result.

Also, a lot of artists are built around a specific sound. Usually the second album is a slightly inferior retread of the first one, then they realise they're repeating themselves and try and mix it up a bit for #3, which usually turns out to be shite.

ABC : Beauty Stab

EMF : Stigma

The Who, A Quick One. Mod was dead/dying by 1966, so what'd they do? "Boris The Spider," "Cobwebs & Strange," and a 10-minute mini-opera!

^ Good example of not having enough songs to fill a second album

also the Who's best album imho

... or something about Kit Lambert wanting everyone in the band to contribute at least one song?

Lambert negotiated an advance from the record company that stipulated each member had to contribute 2 songs to the next record. They didn't put "Substitute," "I'm A Boy," or (except in the US) "Happy Jack" on the record because they'd already come out as singles (ditto the "Ready Steady Who" EP)...so technically, there were enough songs.

That was their third album.

However, "Organisation" was their best album ever IMO, and that one was their second.

Second Coming

― sofatruck, Thursday, July 15, 2010 9:56 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
Second Coming wasn't too difficult, it was just not very interesting...

― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Thursday, July 15, 2010 10:22 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^difficult to like, amirite?

(sorry, been waiting to use that joke since the thread started...)

Sophomore albums better than the debut has already been covered, so it's unclear what the point of this is. Second albums that aren't as good? That would be a long, boring list.

Sophomore albums that, regardless of being "good" or not, presented a band's audience with an unexpectedly difficult change in style, tone, voice, etc. instead of simply repeating the first album's template and being therefore easier to swallow.

if we are talking successful albums where they weren't expecting the first to be so successful so they let them go wild with the second on for it to turn out p weird and cool then look no further than

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xj8KQeX0Se8/R1HaNSQdYAI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/6iuGXAPvo2Y/s1600-R/Outkast+-+Atliens+-+Front.jpg

the "difficult" second album, in which the artist is seen to be shoring up cred or otherwise proving that The Man/success isn't pulling their strings after a surprisingly big debut

Was gonna say Stereopathetic Soulmanure, but wikip says it came out a week before Mellow Gold? Definitely sticking it to The Man after Loser, though.

beck's stuff doesn't really count to me since he put his 'weird' stuff out on other labels and they got way less attention.

...an unexpectedly difficult change in style, tone, voice, etc. instead of simply repeating the first album's template and being therefore easier to swallow.

Okay I can work with that.

VU - White Light/White Heat
Captain Beefheart - Strictly Personal
Can - Tago Mago (not counting Soundtracks)
Bowie - Man Of Words, Man Of Music/Space Oddity
Pere Ubu - Dub Housing
Patti Smith - Radio Ethiopia
Lou Reed - Transformer
Feelies - The Good Earth
R.E.M. - Reckoning

Sophomore albums that, regardless of being "good" or not, presented a band's audience with an unexpectedly difficult change in style, tone, voice, etc. instead of simply repeating the first album's template and being therefore easier to swallow.

in this spirit, i remember once in select reading pulp's this is hardcore described as their "difficult 17th album" or something like that.

I think the most oft-cited reason why the second album is a critical and/or commercial flop is because the artist suffers at that point from a dearth of songs. The first album contains their best songs, the ones they'd been working up live for ages before going into the studio.

the new pipettes.

I was thinking about 2nd albums where the band or artist decides to just totally go for it, and make something wild, experimental, excessive, etc.:

Royal Trux – Twin Infinitives: an obvious example of this

Red Crayola – Coconut Hotel: this was so “out there” that the label refused to release it; it didn’t see light until Drag City put it out decades later

Aphex Twin – SAWII: this was obviously a big success, but it fits here for me, bc James could’ve put out something more “accessible” but instead swung for the fences (and it worked)

etc…

"White Light/White Heat".

Another great example (like, “now that we have your attention…”)

Guns 'n' Roses definitely went for "excessive" with their second album - both discs were 75+ minutes

Not sure exactly what this thread is going for but Tha Doggfather was pretty WTF as a followup to Doggystyle.

Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814

whoops, that's not even her third

George Harrison Electronic Sound

Blueberry Boat - Fiery Furnaces
Fungo Bat - the Nazz (so excessive it's never really been released in what would have been its original form)
provisionally entitled the singing fish - Colin Newman (not especially outrageous but a big swerve from what would have been expected of his solo career)

Neither Fish nor Flesh
Saturnz Return
Six
Embrya
Anthem of the Sun
The Beat Goes On
They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
Into the Unknown

Trout Mask Replica instantly comes to mind, dunno if you can 'go for it' more than that

Strictly Personal already mentioned above.

Another long-unreleased second album - Strangelands by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown.

oh wait. I forgot there was one between Safe as Milk and TMR

Can't believe I didn't think of Blueberry Boat!