bands that improved significantly between their first and second albums

I reject the notion that From Genesis to Revelation is terrible.

Alice in Chains.

Nirvana

― flappy bird

They certianly got slicker and poppier, but I prefer Bleach to Nevermind.

I'm not saying the Red Hot Chili Peppers are a good band, but I think Freaky Styley was a significant improvement.

Til Tuesday
Miguel

the gossip

second to third:

http://cdn.albumoftheyear.org/album/12837-change-the-weather.jpg

http://hellbound.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/619XoeOU9hL.jpg

Spacemen 3
Aerosmith
Meat Puppets
The Church
The Triffids
Kinski
Ivy

joni

I only just heard some of that early Underworld stuff recently and was surprised how much I liked it. I mean, I liked it in a completely different way than I like their more well-known stuff but it was pretty decent pop music for that era.

electrelane

Germany

with the addition of Hitler to the German line-up, their 2nd album (literally) blew millions away for several years straight!!!

an Imperial Phase like none other!

Birthday Party if you count Door, Dor as the first. Though that one is even better RSH side over preRSH side innit?

Grateful Dead? Though s/t may be the 1lp the more garage focused can palate. I think Anthem heads off in a load of new directions.

Trying to think how far into the lp sequence Magma become themselves.

Fairport Convention? Though I do love s/t. But Sandy Denny don't arrive before Holidays.

Surrealistic Pillow is an album that ought to belong--quantum leap in visibility, two signature hits, new singer--but I love the first Airplane LP.

Dinosaur You're Living All Over Me

^ only because it's true

don't know much about bands that improved significantly between their first and second albums, but if you're talking people who improved significantly between their first and second sexual encounters with me, i know the answer, which is your mom.

Tortoise

Definitely Fairport Convention.

Talk Talk is another one I don't think has been mentioned yet.

but if you're talking people who improved significantly between their first and second sexual encounters with me

tough call between your mom and hitler. perhaps we should poll it

oh I've polled both of them already, plenty of times

lana del rey

Steely Dan

Rainbow

Duncan Browne

second to third:

the first Underworld album was great though

(obv no dub nob ass, but I caned that cassette)

Lady Gaga, assuming The Fame Monster counts as her second album.

funny that nobody has mentioned PRINCE here

(a one-man band)

The Genius/GZA
The Coup

Blur for sure: reports of how bad they were on their first US tour are not exaggerated.

tim buckley

Orbital

Cocteau Twins

(though I like both debuts)

Mobb Deep and Gang Starr are supposed to be examples of this but in both cases I've never even heard the first album.

warren zevon had an abortive, not-very-good debut album years before he released the self-titled one everyone likes

xxp yeah Blur are the classic example imo; they were just-about-bearable when i saw them summer 1991, 2 *years* later they were pretty much one of the best live bands in the world and everyone said as much. like a lot of people i've warmed to much of the stuff they made around the debut album, but MLIR it isn't.

Mr Bungle.

No way, Disco Volante is an unlistenable mess.

Beyonce

New Order

Surprised that Tuomas knows who Mr Bungle are! I disagree.

Disco Volante is a nightmarish near-masterpiece, the S/T has aged horribly

Yeah, they were already accomplished musicians but a lot of it sounds cheesy as fuck these days.

California is their actual masterpiece, but that's a different thread.

funny that nobody has mentioned PRINCE here

I considered it, but I think that the jump in quality between Prince and Dirty Mind is much more significant than the one between For You and Prince.

Dirty Mind isn't an improvement so much as a new room in the mansion. From the not good For You to the outstanding Prince is more impressive imo.

Anyone for Squeeze?

And yeah, Alfred and amateurist otm.

Randy Newman

Indigo Girls
Neutral Milk Hotel

Built To Spill

Humble Pie

^ good one!

Actually, Small Faces count in a way don't they? I mean, their Decca singles still hold up fairly well, but the leap from the debut LP on Decca to their first LP for Immediate is quite something.

Yeah, I wasn't sure about Small Faces since (iirc) the Decca record was compiled/released without their input/permission.

I wasn't completely sure about Humble Pie either, but I just gave the first two a spin, and as admirably heavy as the first one is, Town & Country is so impossibly gorgeous. It's my favorite UK response to the Band's Music From Big Pink (and it's a crowded field).

I like that Immediate years 2cd Humble Pie set. But thought I listened to the 1st disc a lot.

Isn't the cobbled together Small Faces Decca set the From The Beginning one? I thought the Decca s/t was recorded as an lp.

Yes, you are correct! I had been mixing those two (From the Beginning and the Decca thing) up in my head.

The Time
D'angelo
Hot Chip
LCD Soundsystem
Girls Aloud
Spoon
St. Vincent
Cut Copy
The Juan Maclean
The Divine Comedy
Outkast
Slowdive
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Big Star

GVSB

OutKast is another, like Prince, where I think of the jump between albums #1 and #2 as being less dramatic as those between #2 and #3.

I'd put ATLiens ahead of Aquemini these days.

ATLiens is and always has been their best work.

Hot Chip

I like most of Hot Chip, but as a whole album, I like the first one best.

Girls Aloud

Undoubtedly, but the stuff on the first album by the lineup that did the second album pointed clearly that way.

Cut Copy

If you mean from I Thought Of Numbers to Bright Like Neon Love, sure. If you mean from Bright Like to Ghost Colours, nah. They just learnt how to sound a bit more like '90s New Order.

Outkast

The first four Outkast albums feel more like a group wanting to do different things each time out, and getting more skilled as they leave their teens, than any significant leap in quality overall from any one album to another. (Underscored by the shift from the first album being all Organized Noize, and the second one being nearly half-and-half.)

Neutral Milk Hotel

― nicky lo-fi, Friday, June 3, 2016 4:28 PM (6 hours ago)

horse hockey