Posted June 8, 200718 yr Just as a little flip-side to the previous article on cursed second albums, I thought I'd do a little thread on second albums which were hugely successful be it artistically or commercially and elevated bands to greater creative heights.... I'll start us off with these.... Smashing Pumpkins - "Siamese Dream" - A real make-or-break for Corgan and Co.. With band relationships breaking down (noteably the relationship between bassist D'arcy and guitarist James Iha), Corgan actually wrote and performed pretty much the whole damn thing himself.... He was quoted as saying "If this album fails, I'll quit"... It most certainly did NOT fail, going quadruple platinum and spawning several legendary anthemic hits such as "Today", "Disarm", "Cherub Rock" and "Rocket".... This was by far the Pumpkins's best work, they got more musically ambitious with their third album, but "Siamese Dream" has a consistency which is missing in their later albums.... Radiohead - The Bends - "Pablo Honey" was decent, but ultimately rather unremarkable... Two or three truly great songs, but another seven or eight which were kinda filler, and a few others which were pretty okay, but all in all a rather so-so affair.... "The Bends" was just genius from the word go, and just about every song on it could've been a single... Songs like the title track, "High and Dry", "Fake Plastic Trees", "Just", "My Iron Lung" were all bloody marvellous, but "Street Spirit (Fade Out) is the fukkin' masterpiece of this album.... Not a single, solitary filler track on this album, every song, every lyric, every note played was perfect... Radiohead have done more ambitious albums sure, but this is the one I'll always go back to more often than the others... Nirvana - Nevermind - No point in really denying it, and yeah, I do prefer "In Utero" in terms of music and the attitude, but "Nevermind" was an utterly classic album, defining the early 90s.... It was pretty much was the "Revolver" of our age... Nirvana were there at the right place at the right time with the right album...
June 8, 200718 yr Most of the blandies nowadays have a bigger second album though it's always completely undeserving. -_-
June 8, 200718 yr ^very good choices ok plus these: Suede - Dog Man Star Grandaddy - The Software Slump Queens Of THe Stone Age - R Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space The Boo Radleys - Giant Steps Mansun - Six
June 8, 200718 yr Author ^very good choices ok plus these: Suede - Dog Man Star Grandaddy - The Software Slump Queens Of THe Stone Age - R Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space The Boo Radleys - Giant Steps Mansun - Six Very good choices as well, but technically Spiritualized's second album is actually "Pure Phase", because they operated under the name Spiritualized Electric Mainline for some peculiar reason on that album. But it's still Jason and the same band, and it's essentially still Spiritualized in terms of the music.... But really, what this illustrates is the rather pathetic difference between Indie/Alt bands then and now, then there was way more ambition, now too many bands seem to be playing it safe... Could you imagine any of the "indie" bands these days even attempting something like "Six", "Dog Man Star" or "Giant Steps" (or indeed the albums that I mentioned)....? I certainly can't see the likes of The Kooks, Razorlight or Kaiser Chiefs scaling those creative heights. Ever..... Here's another two to throw into the pot by the way... The Prodigy - Music For The Jilted Generation ("Experience" grown up, gotten a LOT more angry and bolshie and with a serious chip on its shoulder, Dance/Techno's version of "Never Mind The Bollocks" if you ask me, and proof to me that Dance/Techno at the time had the same spirit as Punk did in the 70s) Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole - (Just showing the absolute brilliance the Dance/Techno genre was capable of in the mid-90s.. I doubt we'll ever hear the likes "Private Psychadelic Reel" in the Dance genre ever again...)
June 8, 200718 yr ^great comments once again Beck - "Odelay" (i you count it as his 2nd official release) Pavement - "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" Guns N Roses - Use your Illusion i & ii (i dont count "lies") Pearl Jam - VS
June 8, 200718 yr Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole - (Just showing the absolute brilliance the Dance/Techno genre was capable of in the mid-90s.. I doubt we'll ever hear the likes "Private Psychadelic Reel" in the Dance genre ever again...) ^great comments once again Yeah good to see stuff like that in an indie-alternative section (even though they would be normally the headliners at any alt. fest). i had a discussion about Digitalism being in a section like this where someone else wanted it to be moved to dance. I said things like this (and any nu rave/post-punk thing as well) cant be easily pigeonholed and they should be in a place like this as thats the demographic thats being aimed for rather than sticking them in with a lot of cheese and booby videos. Here's another two to throw into the pot by the way... The Prodigy - Music For The Jilted Generation ("Experience" grown up, gotten a LOT more angry and bolshie and with a serious chip on its shoulder, Dance/Techno's version of "Never Mind The Bollocks" if you ask me, and proof to me that Dance/Techno at the time had the same spirit as Punk did in the 70s) well the Prodigy are probably more punk in spirit than any of the fratboy rockers from the USA even though the fratboys have their tats in the right place and dress in the right clothes. Then again looking back on the punk and post-punk era you could agree that the sex pistols were nothing more than a glorified boyband and the most punk thing Lydon ever did was to form P.I.L?? perhaps.
June 9, 200718 yr Author well the Prodigy are probably more punk in spirit than any of the fratboy rockers from the USA even though the fratboys have their tats in the right place and dress in the right clothes. Then again looking back on the punk and post-punk era you could agree that the sex pistols were nothing more than a glorified boyband and the most punk thing Lydon ever did was to form P.I.L?? perhaps. "Music For The Jilted Generation" is one of the most 'punk-in-spirit' albums that I've ever heard tbh... If someone wanted to start a Prodigy thread over in Punk/Metal, then I'd have no issues with it to be honest, they're a hell of a lot more Punk than the likes of Good Charlotte, MCR or Fall Out Boy anyday.... I wouldn't go so far as to say the Pistols were a "boy band" Alex.... But yeah, musically PIL was streets ahead.... "Flowers of Romance" is one of the greatest records of all time as far as I'm concerned and should grace the record collections of just about every real music fan.... The Prodigy gets a heads up here in Indie simply because of the amount of Indie kids who got into The Prod.... And I vividly remember that night at Glasto when The Prodigy royally shat all over The Gallaghers.... :lol: :lol: :lol: People were coming over to see the Prod in fukkin' droves, totally turned-off by Liam's out of tune droning.... :P The Chems of course have links to all sorts of Indie bods - Mercury Rev, Noel Gallagher, Bernard Sumner to name a few....
June 9, 200718 yr Placebo's Without You I'm Nothing immediately springs to mind, they peaked with this album commercially I think but it really deviates from their debut, both in sound and with Brian's voice. A totally inspirational album IMO that deserves to be heard by everyone. ^_^
June 9, 200718 yr "Music For The Jilted Generation" is one of the most 'punk-in-spirit' albums that I've ever heard tbh... If someone wanted to start a Prodigy thread over in Punk/Metal, then I'd have no issues with it to be honest, they're a hell of a lot more Punk than the likes of Good Charlotte, MCR or Fall Out Boy anyday.... I wouldn't go so far as to say the Pistols were a "boy band" Alex.... But yeah, musically PIL was streets ahead.... "Flowers of Romance" is one of the greatest records of all time as far as I'm concerned and should grace the record collections of just about every real music fan.... cool will have to see about getting that. does that have this is not a love song on it??? think thats a v cool post-punk/dance track. btw cant remember who said that the pistols were nothing more than a boyband might have actually been from a Malcolm McLaren int???
June 9, 200718 yr Author Placebo's Without You I'm Nothing immediately springs to mind, they peaked with this album commercially I think but it really deviates from their debut, both in sound and with Brian's voice. A totally inspirational album IMO that deserves to be heard by everyone. ^_^ It's actually my favourite Placebo record that one...
June 9, 200718 yr Author btw cant remember who said that the pistols were nothing more than a boyband might have actually been from a Malcolm McLaren int??? McLaren claims to have 'invented' them... But The Pistols were already a going concern, and they wrote all their own songs, so he was certainly no Simon Cowell or Louis Walsh.... If anything it was probably Vivienne Westwood who had more to do with the image side of the Sex Pistols... McClaren just got them gigs really and managed them.... He's a self-important little tw@t....
June 9, 200718 yr McLaren claims to have 'invented' them... But The Pistols were already a going concern, and they wrote all their own songs, so he was certainly no Simon Cowell or Louis Walsh.... If anything it was probably Vivienne Westwood who had more to do with the image side of the Sex Pistols... McClaren just got them gigs really and managed them.... He's a self-important little tw@t.... i think he claimed he invented hiphop as well or something like that :lol:
June 10, 200718 yr It's actually my favourite Placebo record that one... I'd probably say I prefer their self-titled debut over it, but yeah, I totally love it.
June 10, 200718 yr I'd probably say I prefer their self-titled debut over it, but yeah, I totally love it. whats the big single from it?
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