bands that improved significantly between their first and second albums

Another solo artist rather than band: Lou Reed

Oh!

At the Drive-In

Sarah McLachlan.

Feel like an argument could be made to include Husker Du and The Replacements here.

the replacements' first two albums are both fantastic, just in different ways. everything that was ever great about them is evident on that debut. and is evident again on album #2, with a twist or two here and there.

Agreed

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