More Of The Same
I recall Word's review of Emmylou Harris' album Stumble Into Grace a few years back, basically saying that it was "more of the same" in relation to her previous - and despite what Word says, very different and much better - album Red Dirt Girl; and, prompted by the 'trilogy' thread, I'm thinking rather of pairs of albums, where the artist in question just repeated the formula of two albums in a row, almost thinking "Hmm. That seemed to work. Maybe I'll do it again." If we accept Emmylou Harris, here are a few more:
Bob Dylan - Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong
Slow Train Coming and Saved; to my mind, a more natural pairing than making them two of a trilogy (both recorded by Jerry Wexler at Muscle Shoals, with far more religious content than the next album)
The Everly Brothers - Rock 'n' Soul and Beat & Soul
I'm not including Billy Bragg and Wilco's Mermaid Avenue albums; two volumes compiled from the same sessions is cheating. On similar grounds I'm disregarding Bruce Springsteen's Human Touch and Lucky Town. Not sure if I'm allowing Jackson Browne's two acoustic live albums. Neil Young only does it with 20-30 years between volumes.
Rufus Wainwright - Want One and Want Two
I suppose Johnny Cash did it two and a half times with American Recordings. Ideally I'm looking for pairings.
Despite what George Harrison said about Rubber Soul and Revolver, I don't think The Beatles ever did it.
There must be loads more, but it's Saturday morning and my mind's gone blank. Any suggestions?
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Free
I recall that reviews of Highway said it was pretty much the same as Fire and Water. I'd disagree while accepting when you had such distinctive musicians as Fraser and Kossoff and Rodgers' unique voice there was a Free sound that stretched back to Tons Of Sobs.
King Crimson:
"In The Court ..." was groundbreaking and "In The Wake of Poseidon" virtually a carbon copy, right down to the track sequencing. They did it again with "Beat" and its successor, although they had the honesty to name that one "Three of a Perfect Pair", presumably a reference back to the earlier "Discipline" which had slightly fewer synths involved.
Saturday mornings can be dull, can't they?
They are
when you're sitting waiting for an engineer from Virgin to arrive to sort out a problem with cable TV (arrival slot any time between 8 and 12)
You MUST see Delirious starring John Candy
He knows all about waiting for a cable repair guy.
Terrible film, but I think it will speak to you and your frustrations.
Or...
...the episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry David won't speak to Cheryl because he's got the TiVo guy with him. Plot points after this withheld.
My frustrations
Bastards didn't turn up.
They claim they left a message telling me of the change of appointment time. I claim that's not good enough, not just because their message (if it ever existed) failed to reach me me but because they can't unilaterally change the appointment time without speaking to me and getting my agreement.
Grrr. Rant over.
The '2
Achtung Baby and Zooropa sound like a part one and two to me
The Nighftly
Radiohead's Kid A and Amnesiac sound like brothers to me and all three of Donald Fagen's albums sit well together. Must buy his last solo album Morph The Cat. I had the opportunity yesterday, but went for R.E.M's new album instead.
Blur
Parklife and The Great Escape. Every track on TGE sounds like a reworking of a song from Parklife - the singlong one; the heartbreaky one; the guest-star-talky one. Not a bad album, more like a decent b-side of the other one.
In a way it makes it all the more impressive that their next LP was so different and so damned good.
Harvest
and After The Goldrush.
Must clean my ears out
I've always missed the Southern Man facsimile on Harvest. And the carbon copy of When You Dance.
The Southern Man facsimile
would be Alabama.
I see
Alabama is in the south so it must be a parallel track.
Rocks like a mutha doesn't it?
And Words is just so like Cripple Creek Ferry in execution. Why it's the aural equivalent of the De Vito / Schwarzenegger film Twins.
Let's see
Similar lyrical theme? Check.
Longest track on the album? Check.
Electric track amongst a load of acoustic? Check.
Did every reviewer at the time compare the two tracks? Check.
Perhaps you'd like the same chords?
Concentrate
Similar lyrical theme? Only on the most superficial reading. Southern Man is a song of confrontation and disgust while Alabama is a song of conciliation and hope. SM has its imagined scenario of miscegenation and revenge while Alabama is descriptive.
Longest track on the album? You've got a very different copy of Harvest to mine. Words at 6:42 and Out On The Weekend at 4:35 are both longer than Alabama at 4:02.
Electric track? Yes both electric but the grooves are completely different. Alabama matches the laid back pace of the the rest of the album. SM and When you dance stand out by being LOUD.
Did every reviewer at the time compare the two tracks? Probably. Did the more astute reviewers also constrast them? I'd hope they did.
Perhaps I'd like the same chords? Why would I want that when it is so simple to distinguish the two songs. I think the same chords would be what you need to make your case.
The thread is about similarities between albums not individual songs. So: different production credits. Goldrush mostly recorded in Young's minimalist basement studio with a core band of Molina, Reeves and Lofgren. Harvest mostly recorded in Nashville with the Stray Gators and in Barking Town Hall with the LSO. Shall I go on?
Can I just interject here?
I think these two Neil Young albums may sound like companions, on the surface; particularly in the context of his other work. But I personally don't consider them to be that similar. Certainly, Neil Young is the antithesis of the kind of artist that feels complacent enough to do the same thing twice in a row. "Leftin' and then rightin'", etc.
You're right,
but only about the track times (I should have checked). Everything else I stand by.
Lyrical content
So apart from Southern Man and Alabama both being about the South, in what way is the lyrical content similar?
Jackson Browne
Late for the Sky sounds like it was the demo for The Pretender.
Late For The Sky and The Pretender
You're kidding, right? I could just about agree with you if you'd said the first two. But, in my view, The Pretender has a couple of great songs, whereas Late For The Sky is his greatest work.
I just listened to Late for the Sky. . .
for the first time in ages today. I was bored silly. All mid-tempo songs, all with the same arrangement, all with the same annoying electric guitar not conetnt with filling every available space but actually getting in the way of the tune (it's the same tune on all 8 songs, of course). Sorry, Lucas, but unlike The Pretender it really hasn't worn well at all.
Late For The Sky/The Pretender
I'll grant you, The Pretender is a great song. And Your Bright Baby Blues is a good song. That's it though. Whereas even if Late For The Sky contained just the first two tracks - two of the finest songs Browne ever wrote - its reputation would be rock solid. It just happens to contain at least four more of his best as well.
But hey. Takes all sorts...
The Fuse!
The intro is still one of my all-time favourite album beginnings. Don't get me wrong, I used to lap up LFTS - when I was a student I had it on permanent rotation with Blood on the Tracks and Astral Weeks - and I was slightly disappointed when The Pretender came out. I felt it was just more of the same but with lusher arrangements (hence my inclusion of the pairing in this thread). Thirty years down the road, though, my allegiances have switched. I was really quite shocked when I heard LFTS again after a long layoff. I coudn't believe I used to listen to it at least three times a day at one time in my life. I can understand my attachment to BOTT and Astral Weeks, and still listen to both fairly often, but I just can't see now what on earth I saw in LFTS.
Ok
I'll give it another go!
The first 2 Stones albums
The Rolling Stones and The Rolling Stones No. 2. Both contain the same mix of R&B and soul covers plus a couple of early Jagger/Richards songs, both feature B sides of recent hits and neither has the bands name on the front sleeve.
Sam Baker
I think his two albums could've easily been a double album. Mercy and Pretty World. Great stuff, though I think I'd find it difficult to listen to them one after the other.
What about Thriller and Can't Slow Down?
Granted, they were by different artists, but really: every track on the latter seems to shadow one on the former. And Lionel Richie then did the trick on himself and produced a follow-up to Can't Slow Down on which two at least of the songs genuinely sounded identical to their forebears: Love Will Conquer All is a retread of Love Will Find A Way, and Deep River Woman is Stuck On You with different words.
Moby
Play & 18. Almost siamese.
Oasis - Morning Glory & Be Here Now. Make it loud! And long! And all about drugs/being famous/'avin' it!
And love them though I do I can't ignore the fact that Sparks just made Kimono My House mk2 and called it Propaganda.
As for Rufus Wainwright and Radiohead, as mentioned above, weren't they both one huge session's worth of recordings split into two separate albums?
Rufus Wainwright
I wasn't aware of Want One and Want Two being conceived together or from the same sessions. I know nothing about Radiohead.
sure Queen doing
A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races is the clearest example of 'twin' albums...