Not the sophomore slump, but third album woes...

I'm a huge Am Kooper fan, so I never even bothered with this until friend lent me an SACD last week....

Anyways, my son plays trumpet in his school jazz band. I've been playing him Chicago Transit Authority, Super Sessions, Chicago 2 a lot recently, to show him how a rock band with horns sounds. So I put this in the disc draw. My boy plays jazz but he also likes the Stones so I queue up Sympathy for the Devil. WTF!! This is awful. And I hate David Clayton Thomas's voice. Whose dumb idea was it to put him in a band? IMHO.

 

I would like him more if he just sang instead of the vocal equivalent of mugging for the camera. I actually like the second album.

 

Dead Letter Office and Chronic Town are basically the same, on cd at least.
Aesthetically speaking it shouldn't count, but Chronic Town is so undeniably important I would count it as #1.

 

Exactly!

 

Not sure if this counts, but it should:

 

To be fair the Stones cover is the worst song on the album. The previous album (self titled) is multitudes better and is as good as anything Chicago put out.

 

The Stooges - Raw Power

 

Kurt didn't write anything on Live Through This.

 

Technically that's a different band - Iggy & The Stooges. Iggy had a solo deal, it was only later that he brought the Asheton brothers to London to play bass and drums.

 

Coming after TH77 and More Songs... this one really underwhelmed me. Kind of a transitional record from the quirky, tunesy hyper Byrne stuff to the techno Afro Eno stuff that would emerge fully formed with Remain in Light.

 

America - Hat Trick
You know you're in for a tough listen when "Muskrat Love" is the only (minor) hit on the LP.

 

Couldn't care less about critics or sales. Caress of Steel is a brilliant record.

I like Mötley Crüe Theater of Pain but it is a step below the first two.

The only one I can think of where I really didn't like their 3rd record was Pearl Jam Vitalogy.

 

Stop me if you've heard this before but.... My favourite Heads album. And I love 'em all.

 

Culture Club - Waking Up With the House on Fire
Bette Midler - Songs for the New Depression
Prince - Dirty Mind

Just kidding about that last one! (But if Fear of Music could be considered a step down, anything is up for grabs!)

-George

 

That's very much up for debate. I don't care either way, but supposedly there are bootleg recordings of Kurt playing songs that later wound up on Live Through This. He's not listed in the credits, although...

Check out the early Time or Sheila E albums, which are Prince solo recordings in every way except the lead vocals. Again, no mention in the credits to this day, but it's long been confirmed.

 

Barry White wouldn't count in this case, as his third studio album, Can't Get Enough, was his crowning achievement - two Top 5 pop hits, his only album to top the pop charts. His next LP, Just Another Way To Say I Love You, was another story - many steps down, just as the third albums mentioned here. However, his Love Unlimited Orchestra's third LP, Music Maestro Please, I guess would qualify in the context of this subject.

 

Paul Young.
His first two albums (1983's No Parlez and 1985's The Secret Of Association) were both No. 1 UK albums, certified multiplatinum. Both also charted well globally (the latter hit the US top 20) and contained six UK Top 10 hits (and the US No. 1 "Everytime You Go Away"). Then, 1986's Between Two Fires didn't do remotely as well as expected. In the US, it peaked at No. 77 and the song "Some People" topped out at No. 65. In the UK, the album debuted at No. 4, then slumped to No. 13 in its second week and was out of the top 40 entirely by its fifth week. It had one Top 40 hit ("Wonderland", which peaked at No. 24). In short, it was a (very unexpected) flop.

 

Yes, I've heard it before, and I dug "Life During Wartime" the first couple dozen times I heard it. But god it's a monotonous tune after a while, and that sacrifice of melody for rhythm made the Heads a tedious band.

 

No. It's only up for debate among conspiracy theorists and CL haters. There are NO any bootleg recordings of Kurt playing the songs. Kurt wrote the music for LTT b-side Old Age (a Nevermind outtake), that's it.

 

you cannot be serious - one of the ten best albums of all time

 

Yeah, you are right, they were heading down the rhythm road but they hadn't mastered that polyrhythmic thing yet except on I Zimbra, and yes, it's a bit melody light, but I suppose it's the atmosphere I love, almost Joy Division like...dark! Completely understand where you're coming from, though.....

 

America's 3rd one was far weaker.

 

Really? After two third rate albums full of stolen riffs that would barely rate as B-sides from any other band, they finally produce one good song (Seventeen), and surround it with the same old tired pub rock. This album was the pick of the litter believe it or not! Strike 3 guys, and they knew it, pulling the pin not long after it's release!

 

Eight pages in and no one has mentioned Zenyatta Mondatta yet!
After a ground breaking debut, followed by a classic killer album everybody should own, they release this turkey!
A poor, watered down, by the numbers, follow up to Reggatta.
Canary In A Coalmine, De Do Do Do, (do-do indeed), cringe-worthy and embarrassing.

 

Well everything has been 'stolen' from someone else for over 50 years now.
That doesn't stop me from enjoying the second album quite a bit at all.
Of course,I also disagree that 'Zenyatta Mondatta' is bulls***.To each his own.