Fourth Album Syndrom - Bands that bombed with their fourth album

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This is interesting because people usually talk about the second and third albums being crucial to the act's later career. Astounisingly often, this makes sense, as acts that are still great by the time of their third album tend to survive and have considerably more long lasting careers.

This thread, however, is devoted to the exceptions. Those acts who are still riding high by the time of their third album, while the fourth one bombed so completely it ruined the entire career. I'm not looking for subjective opionions, more like fourth albums that are generally agreed to be more or less the beginning of the end.

The most obvious example I can think of is Suede. "Coming Up" may have been controversial, following lineup changes and a considerably more accesible musical style, but it sold a lot (possibly more than the two before it) and several critics liked it as well. "Head Music", on the other hand, was a major disaster for the band, and they never managed to recover.

Human League may also have a mention here, even though "Hysteria" did in fact sell better than any of their first two.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:10 (twenty years ago)

Scott Walker to thread!

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:15 (twenty years ago)

808 State 'Don Solaris' (taking '90' as their first proper album)

― Sororah T Massacre (blueski), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:18 (twenty years ago)

Discounting early EPs and whatnot, Belle and Sebastian's Fold Your Hands Child...

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:27 (twenty years ago)

Scott Walker to thread!

Well, to be pedantic about it, "Scott 4" was actually Scott's 5th album. Admittedly "Scott Sing Songs From His TV Series" didn't do as well as his first three albums.

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:29 (twenty years ago)

"Scott 4" is generally considered his masterpiece though. So it seems he got his career back on track. :)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:44 (twenty years ago)

Discounting early EPs and whatnot, Belle and Sebastian's Fold Your Hands Child...

But did it really ruin their entire career? I mean permanently?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:45 (twenty years ago)

Hardly Geir, it bombed and then his next one bombed even harder then it was back to the cabaret circuit and the booze for the next ten years (xpost)

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:46 (twenty years ago)

So "Scott 4" fits perfectly - even it isn't his fourth album

― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Dada), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:46 (twenty years ago)

No, it didn't ruin their career. But it's definitely regarded as their worst record.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Friday, 13 January 2006 14:50 (twenty years ago)

"Scott 4" may have ruined his career commercially, but it is critially hailed as his best. So it doesn't quite fit in here.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 13 January 2006 15:37 (twenty years ago)

Weird Al's 'Polka Party' was such a letdown after 'Dare to Be Stupid', a real shame...

― LoneNut, Sunday, 15 January 2006 02:05 (twenty years ago)

Massive Attack and Tricky both compltely blew it on their fourth albums. I tried to delude myself into believing that 100th Window was great back when it came out, but it was just so bland and uninteresting that there really wasn't anything to make an argument in it's favor with. It was just nothing music.

I didnt like Vespertine, and I think it was a bit of a commercial flop wasnt it?

― jason., Sunday, 15 January 2006 05:09 (twenty years ago)

pavement - brighten the corners is widely hailed as a bad album, though i disagree. ooh let's talk about pavement albums and whether they're good or not again.

― Wogan Lenin (dog latin), Sunday, 15 January 2006 05:17 (twenty years ago)

Free- Highway

It isn't a total bomb of a record quality wise, but it was a sales bust and a pretty dissapointing follow up after having such a big hit with All Right Now.

The Faces- Oh La La

It isn't bad, but it is the end of the band.

Queens of the Stone Age- Lullabies to Paralyze

It isn't a total mess, but I think it is their worse album.

June of 44- Anahata

Crash and burn with some of the worse singing in the world, not that singing was ever a strength, but I think some of the vocals on this one are really, really bad. Probably proof that Tortoise is probably an instrumental band for a good reason.

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Sunday, 15 January 2006 05:48 (twenty years ago)

'Meet the Beatles!' just tanked.

― That I Could Clamber to the Frozen Moon and Draw the Ladder (Freud Junior), Sunday, 15 January 2006 06:57 (twenty years ago)

Pumpkins' Adore, sorta. Think it still went platinum, but compared to the gazillions the first three sold combined, not to mention the number of alt-rock standards they spawned, it could certainly qualify as a flop.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Sunday, 15 January 2006 07:11 (twenty years ago)

Pearl Jam - No Code (4th album, right?)

― gear (gear), Sunday, 15 January 2006 09:04 (twenty years ago)

Ice Cube - Lethal Injection

― gear (gear), Sunday, 15 January 2006 09:06 (twenty years ago)

The Strokes

― mox twelve (Mox twleve), Sunday, 15 January 2006 10:01 (twenty years ago)

Where is Scott 4 critically hailed as his best? I've never read that. I prefer both 2 and 3, even with the abundance of covers.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Sunday, 15 January 2006 10:07 (twenty years ago)

because, meh, I don't think First Impressions is actually too bad.
but, digs aside,
I'll divvy up an unabashed youth interest: No Doubt - Return of Saturn.
Well, if you count Beacon Street.

― mox twelve (Mox twleve), Sunday, 15 January 2006 10:08 (twenty years ago)

Hm, Vespertine is by far Bjork's best album.
And Fold Your Hands, Child is Belle & Sebastian's, so nerrr!

Uh. Massive Attack, yeah, 100th Window is pretty lame.

How about the Pixies? I know a lot of people harbour Bossanova-hate, but I love it. Trompe Le Monde, though?

Fourth album's an interesting choice, anyway. Is n't it usually the "difficult third album"?

― Peter Hollo (raven), Sunday, 15 January 2006 10:34 (twenty years ago)

...And Justice For All might have been Metallica's commercial breakthrough but many of us thought it symbolized the beginning of the end creatively, even when it first came out.

Fair Warning was not a huge commercial success for Van Halen nor does it compare to the first two albums in terms of material (even though "Mean Street" is a personal favorite).

Anyone listen to Controversy by Prince lately? Yeah, I thought not.

[This got me thinking of the many 4th albums that take pride in being a 4th album - Black Sabbath Volume 4, Danzig 4, Led Zep, D.R.I. 4 Of A King...]

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Sunday, 15 January 2006 10:37 (twenty years ago)

Hysteria is really a difficult second album rather than fourth as the League mkII were an entirely different beast to the League mkI. Other than sharing a name and a vocalist and erm, a projectionist they were entirely different bands.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Sunday, 15 January 2006 11:27 (twenty years ago)

OMD own this thread, really. "dazzle ships" was their defining artistic statement, but only about three people bought it.

from an interview with andy mcluskey at http://www.omd.uk.com:

Leaping off in a completely different direction with Dazzle Ships ... I think in terms of commercial decisions that was a disaster because everything we'd spent the previous three or four years building up was just shot to pieces. Even when we had hits, we had three top twenty hits on the Junk Culture album [their fifth] and international No. 1's, but we didn't sell nearly as many and I think the lack of sales from Dazzle Ships onwards always undermined our confidence in ourselves.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Sunday, 15 January 2006 21:19 (twenty years ago)

The Undertones.

― zeus (zeus), Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:37 (twenty years ago)

Undertones OTM, though the slide had started commercially with the third album.

― Michael Lambert (Michael Lambert), Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:46 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, but 'Positive Touch' still had some hits and it was a truly great album as well. 'The Sin Of Pride' was a flop in every sense.

― zeus (zeus), Sunday, 15 January 2006 22:51 (twenty years ago)

That is completely true, "It's Going To Happen" and "Julie Ocean" are both excellent. I'm pretty sure there are a couple of tunes i like on 'The Sin Of Pride' too.

― Michael Lambert (Michael Lambert), Sunday, 15 January 2006 23:05 (twenty years ago)

OMD own this thread, really. "dazzle ships" was their defining artistic statement, but only about three people bought it.

And I would also claim that even though that album was clearly artistically ambitious (and they should certainly be given props for that) it just doesn't work out musically.

The fact that their career was back on track commercially already by the time of their fifth, more standard pop oriented, album makes them not quite right for this thread though.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 16 January 2006 14:35 (twenty years ago)

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