The curse of the 'popular' album(s)
I was out with a mate last night and we were discussing the relative merits of various artists, when we stumbled over the subject of the album(s) that 'broke' an act.
Now clearly this isn't always the case, but quite often, we realised, a group or artist will put out a record whose content differs slightly from what came before.
Then, when it suddenly becomes popular, said artists will revert back to their original style in a kind of backlash against their own popularity.
Examples:
- REM: Out Of Time and Automatic For The People took them from being a fairly well-known rock group to global superstars. They immediately reacted by producing things such as Monster, New Adventures In Hi-Fi and Up.
- Primal Scream: Screamdelica wasn't really representative of their Stones-influenced rock and was, let's face it, Andy Weatherall's triumph. However, it took them mainstream, something they reacted to by going back to a much heavier sound with Give Out... and Vanishing Point.
I'm sure there are other examples, but it made us chuckle that some musicians are so afraid of being popular for the wrong reasons!
An update - 7th March:
Although very slightly different to my question, it seems that The Guardian are also on the same page with following up 'popular' albums. In today's Friday review, there's an interesting piece on 'How to lose 3m fans in one easy step'
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/Music/pop/story/0,,2262624,00.html
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I think
My favorite REM album is New Adventures In Hi-Fi. I bought it on the strength of the single (E Bow The Letter) and the review in Mojo, and then proceeded to listen to it frequently while travelling around the world for the next six months. I think it's wonderful.
But...
I'm sure REM and Primal Scream would have loved to follow the albums you mention with others at least as successful. I think it's less a desire to maintain some kind of credibility, more a) an inability to repeat what made them popular, and b) a misplaced belief that their newfound popularity won't ever wain, no matter what they do.
The only example I can think of where an artist willfully set out to make an album that would sell less than its predecessor was Nirvana's In Utero, but I'm sure there must be others.
Surely, though
If artists wanted to repeat what made them popular, they would produce an album of similar-style tracks.
What we realised was that the REMs and Primal Screams of this world seemed to deliberately put out albums that were totally at odds from the previous successes.
All true
I'm just questioning the reasoning behind their decision to release something likely to alienate people. I don't believe it was some kind of willful career sabotage for a moment - they simply believed they could do something completely different and that all the new fans will tag along for the ride. They were wrong.
As Neil Young so memorably said
Heart Of Gold/Harvest put him squarely in the middle of the road. So he headed for the ditch.
Terence Trent D’Arby’s
Terence Trent D’Arby’s Neither Fish Nor Flesh must surely be a contender for taking the biscuit in this excellent category.
Poor Terence
He really suffered from the curse of the popular debut album, didn't he?
Mind you, anyone who subsequently changes his name to Sananda Maitreya deserves all the opprobrium that you can heap on him.
I must admit, I do still listen to Introducing The Hardline... quite a lot. Cracking record
Nothing wrong with Terence
There's no doubt - 'Introducing the Hardline' was very good, but all the follow ups have been excellent, including 'Neither Fish nor Flesh'. 'Symphony or Damn', the third album even got a 5 star review in Q.
I think he lets himself down with the silly names; there's nothing wrong with the music. And check out the cool one-shot video.
Sananda Maitreya - O DivinaAdd to My Profile | More Videos
Clever video...
and not a bad song, either. I do love his voice, though.
And not quite one shot, but still impressive. Uses some of the tricks that Alfred Hitchcock used in the 'one-shot' film Rope.
He'll never top his first album, though
Thanks for posting that.
Thanks for posting that. Never seen nor heard it before. And it’s very nice.
I say 3 shots
Mrs Elliott says at least 4 or 5, but it's still impressive. Cracking song as well, from 'Wildcard'. I saw TTD/SM at the Forum some years ago, but the place was half empty. It was a real shame because he really is astonishingly good. In fact, he was the first musical artist i thought of as 'mine'. I sold cigarettes amongst my fellow smokers at school to buy 'Introducing the Hardline...'
Happy days
Name calling...
So, Cat Stevens becoming Yusuf Islam was a bad choice, then?
I'll accept the 'Neither Fish...' was a bonkers album, definitely one to file under 'WTF?', but surely the music industry has plebty of easier targets for ridiculing names than TTD? How about Prefab Sprout?
Or as I believe the NME re-christened it...
...'Neither Talented Nor Interesting'.
Actually, now I think about it...
...Kevin Rowland decided that million selling records were unnecessary following the hefty unit shifter that was Come On Eileen and its parent LP Too-Rye-Ay and embarked on the tortuous sessions for Don't Stand Me Down. In addition to replacing the jaunty sound of fiddles with some splendidly stilted conversation with Billy Adams, he decided not to bother with releasing the traditional leader single. Result=magnificent stiff of an album. Still bloody good though. Could only have been bettered by returning in a dress. If only he thought of it sooner.
It is indeed a wonderful
It is indeed a wonderful album (as, incidentally, is the one on which he wears a dress). And this sounds like a hit single to me (doesn’t really look like one though).
Blimey!
Thanks for posting that. I've never seen that before. That is a damn fine album.