So many classic albums listed... Let me throw out one I imagine no-one else here listens to: Sol-fa, by Asian Kung-Fu Generation.
Propelled by big hitting "Rewrite" and "Haruka Kanata" (ok technically that second one isn't strictly an album track, but is regularly a bonus track on later editions) it also boasts "To your town", "loop & loop" and "Re:Re" as certified classics.
This album would go on to define an era in Jrock, anime and Japanese culture in general... By far their most complete album, full of emotion, catchy hooks and original creativity. Often imitated, never bettered. This really is all all-timer of a sophomore release.
Couldn’t be a weirder sophomore album, but it’s super important to their sound/trajectory. To think they toured with Korn makes me laugh now, but happy for it
Muse - origins of symmetry
Their breakthrough album and still some of their best. Saw Muse at Nuemos in 2004 (after Absolution came out) and I couldn’t help but think they needed somewhere bigger.
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
To reiterate, turn it up to 11.
Mutemath - Armistice
Lesser known group. Was super upset when this album came out because they “changed their sound” But listening back now, I wish folks cared about their songs and how they play them live as much as these guys did. Mutemath live videos are a great rabbit hole
Until Dan Campbell came along, Jim Caldwell was arguably the best coach the Detroit Lions had since the early ‘50’s.
After Quandre Diggs joined the Seahawks, he said that he had played for two great coaches and one a******e. At the time, Diggs had played for Caldwell, Matt Patricia, and Pete Carroll. Guess who the two great coaches were.
* Bruce Springsteen: The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle
* Bob Dylan: The Freewheeling Bob Dylan
* The Allman Brothers Band: Idylwild South
* Santana: Abraxas
* Van Morrison: Moondance
* Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds Of Fire
* Jefferson Airplane: Surrealistic Pillow
* Neil Young: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
On the other hand, it took Aretha Franklin nine records and a change in labels from Columbia to Atlantic* to get to I Never Loved A Man The Way InLoved You. The rest is history.
Ænema (Tool) and Around the Fur (Deftones) are perfect 2nd albums. What makes them perfect is how they keep what made the first album kick ass, but still take a bold and decisive step into something new. And that "something new" just so happens to be a dollop of the sauce that will define the band's core sound and drive decades of enviable success.
Vs slaps. I love all of Pearl Jam, but Vs is peak. It's confident, weird, aggressive, and inter-band tensions were still a source of the creative spark instead of something to work through.
The best or the worst second album? Best would have to be The Freewheelin" Bob Dylan. Some of Dylan's best early work, from the greatest songwriter of all time.
But according to the survey, SURVEY SAYS: Pet Sounds by the Beachboys.
Worst second album is Deep Purple or Country Joe and the Fish.
Grant's idea to just eliminate the kickoff and have everyone start at the 25 (or 30?)* and whatever on onside kicks. This thing begins with the idea that if the big guys are closer to the other big guys, fewer players will get hurt. I understand the desire to remove injuries as much as possible through the rules, and ultimately, the entire kickoff could be eliminated.
I don't really want to give up on kickoffs, but it seems like the NFL is grasping for ways to keep them in the game. First they change the rules to make them safer for players, but we get a lot of touchbacks. Touchbacks are about the safest thing that can happen on a football field, but they're super boring for fans to watch. So now we're trying to avoid full-speed contact, but encourage kickoff returns, while every ST coordinator is looking for new ways to take advantage of rule changes, which is sure to prompt more rule changes.
If the result is a safer way to include a fun element of the game that occasionally gives us a big game-altering play, then great. However, if place kickers become exponentially more valuable with each rule change, then that is fundamentally altering the game. It's not bad, necessarily, but change is scary.
I like Sundell at center playing next to Zabel his college mate. I don't think Olu fits the scheme and he hasn't shown much. Get Sherf at RG and the line will better than last vear. ( how can it be much worse?)
I think the kick off rules were changed primarily to avoid injuries .200 LBS plus men going at each other at full speed...what could possibly go wrong?
I like the idea of starting drives at the 25.
I'm still surprised that our ST coach Harbaugh kept his job. NFL nepotism at it's finest.
Should we just eliminate the kickoff altogether? The NFL powers that be seem to be struggling with it. Everyone should just start at the 25. We can roll out the giant wheel of destiny to determine onside kicks.
I know but loved the nickname. Like I rarely said Payton, was Sweetness. Just remember Johnson when I first got into football. I missed Sayers. Came in mid 70s
I don't know how tied the NFL is to fantasy football/gambling profits, but I'd be surprised to see them walk away from all that. Eliminating something so fundamental to the game seems...bloodless, at best. And that's coming from the resident pacifist...
I’m anxious to see the kickoffs with the now 35-yd line rule. Almost guarantees guys are going to be returning every kick-off, or fair-catching. Bc starting at the 35 is a huge gift, especially in the world of 70-yd field goals
What a cruel thing to do to a long-retired (from that gig) music critic. Sophomore slump, all that. Fine. Here's the thing: it's not the sophomore album, it's the album that comes after a wide swath of the public discovers an artist. That's the one that's brutally hard to make.
For me, my favorite is almost always the album in which the artist does the thing I most value, and I won't bore you with trying to explain what that is because it's a bloody essay I've never actually written, and I change my mind.
But if we're going to stick to the terms of the discussion, The Second Album, I'll take "Bleach" over "Nevermind," but "Nevermind" is the one people heard first, and probably most folks would say "In Utero" wasn't as good but "MTV Unplugged" was righteous. Soundgarden's "Louder Than Love" worked for me while their first formal album, "Ultra Mega Ok" was less successful, but some of the two SST EPs they released is also delightful. I suppose most folks would say "Superunknown" was better than "Louder Than Love," but I'd say they were wrong. But most artists are closer to OL than WRs (to mess with metaphor in a dangerous way). So Patty Griffin's didn't really hit her stride, for me, until "Children Running Through," which is her fifth long-player.
Wind me up! Two of those are in the rock 'n' roll hall of fame. Ms. Griffin is, at least, a lifetime achievement winner from the Americana Music Association.
Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R
Quasi R&B Transmogrification
Heatmiser - Cop and Speeder
Mark Lanegan - Whiskey for the Holy Ghost
So many classic albums listed... Let me throw out one I imagine no-one else here listens to: Sol-fa, by Asian Kung-Fu Generation.
Propelled by big hitting "Rewrite" and "Haruka Kanata" (ok technically that second one isn't strictly an album track, but is regularly a bonus track on later editions) it also boasts "To your town", "loop & loop" and "Re:Re" as certified classics.
This album would go on to define an era in Jrock, anime and Japanese culture in general... By far their most complete album, full of emotion, catchy hooks and original creativity. Often imitated, never bettered. This really is all all-timer of a sophomore release.
And lest I forget, the music video for "Kimi no machi made" is a true all-time great video!
Gotta throw The Marshall Mathers LP out there as one of the greatest second albums of all time.
Incubus - SCIENCE
Couldn’t be a weirder sophomore album, but it’s super important to their sound/trajectory. To think they toured with Korn makes me laugh now, but happy for it
Muse - origins of symmetry
Their breakthrough album and still some of their best. Saw Muse at Nuemos in 2004 (after Absolution came out) and I couldn’t help but think they needed somewhere bigger.
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
To reiterate, turn it up to 11.
Mutemath - Armistice
Lesser known group. Was super upset when this album came out because they “changed their sound” But listening back now, I wish folks cared about their songs and how they play them live as much as these guys did. Mutemath live videos are a great rabbit hole
The scene in Dazed and Confused with Paranoid on the soundtrack is hilarious.
Until Dan Campbell came along, Jim Caldwell was arguably the best coach the Detroit Lions had since the early ‘50’s.
After Quandre Diggs joined the Seahawks, he said that he had played for two great coaches and one a******e. At the time, Diggs had played for Caldwell, Matt Patricia, and Pete Carroll. Guess who the two great coaches were.
There was a time when giants walked the earth:
*The Beatles Second Album, accidental as it was.
* Bruce Springsteen: The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle
* Bob Dylan: The Freewheeling Bob Dylan
* The Allman Brothers Band: Idylwild South
* Santana: Abraxas
* Van Morrison: Moondance
* Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds Of Fire
* Jefferson Airplane: Surrealistic Pillow
* Neil Young: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
On the other hand, it took Aretha Franklin nine records and a change in labels from Columbia to Atlantic* to get to I Never Loved A Man The Way InLoved You. The rest is history.
* Sort of like Brady and Belichek.
Black women kinda got hosed. Seriously. Sister Rosetta Thorp. Willie May "Big Mama" Thornton.
Surprised I didn’t see any rap come up, either. I should at least have shouted out Public Enemy. Or Sir Mix-a-Lot, to stay local…
Singles era for both of them. Hoses early country, too. But you’re right, of course.
My taste runs more to soul/R&B. So much of that back then was singles; the albums were—especially Motown—were often an afterthought.
Still prefer Visions of an Emerald Beyond, for all its overblown grandeur. But that was my entry point.
That’s a great record, too. I was limiting myself to second albums.
Ænema (Tool) and Around the Fur (Deftones) are perfect 2nd albums. What makes them perfect is how they keep what made the first album kick ass, but still take a bold and decisive step into something new. And that "something new" just so happens to be a dollop of the sauce that will define the band's core sound and drive decades of enviable success.
I would be ecstatic if 2025 is Coach Mac's Ænema.
Vs by Pearl Jam or Nevermind by Nirvana, or Led Zeppelin II....can Josh Jones play RG?
Vs slaps. I love all of Pearl Jam, but Vs is peak. It's confident, weird, aggressive, and inter-band tensions were still a source of the creative spark instead of something to work through.
Love the "below the radar" Weezer lyrics in the piece.
You've got your problems. I've got my eyes wide.
The best or the worst second album? Best would have to be The Freewheelin" Bob Dylan. Some of Dylan's best early work, from the greatest songwriter of all time.
But according to the survey, SURVEY SAYS: Pet Sounds by the Beachboys.
Worst second album is Deep Purple or Country Joe and the Fish.
Freewheeling is stupendous—impossible to overrate. Try as I might, though, I’ve never warmed up to Pet Sounds. And I’ve tried.
Worst second? Hootie or The Knack?
Don’t forget how Philly dominated in the Super Bowl with OL and DL play… All about blocking ..
Grant's idea to just eliminate the kickoff and have everyone start at the 25 (or 30?)* and whatever on onside kicks. This thing begins with the idea that if the big guys are closer to the other big guys, fewer players will get hurt. I understand the desire to remove injuries as much as possible through the rules, and ultimately, the entire kickoff could be eliminated.
* : My personal idea.
I hate to give up on kickoffs/punts. I like what I saw in the Carolina special teams video SSJ offered up to begin this discussion.
I don't really want to give up on kickoffs, but it seems like the NFL is grasping for ways to keep them in the game. First they change the rules to make them safer for players, but we get a lot of touchbacks. Touchbacks are about the safest thing that can happen on a football field, but they're super boring for fans to watch. So now we're trying to avoid full-speed contact, but encourage kickoff returns, while every ST coordinator is looking for new ways to take advantage of rule changes, which is sure to prompt more rule changes.
If the result is a safer way to include a fun element of the game that occasionally gives us a big game-altering play, then great. However, if place kickers become exponentially more valuable with each rule change, then that is fundamentally altering the game. It's not bad, necessarily, but change is scary.
Black Sabbath "Paranoid" is hard to beat, but I love some of the others mentioned, too
I like Sundell at center playing next to Zabel his college mate. I don't think Olu fits the scheme and he hasn't shown much. Get Sherf at RG and the line will better than last vear. ( how can it be much worse?)
I think the kick off rules were changed primarily to avoid injuries .200 LBS plus men going at each other at full speed...what could possibly go wrong?
I like the idea of starting drives at the 25.
I'm still surprised that our ST coach Harbaugh kept his job. NFL nepotism at it's finest.
Sundell got beat up after that game for his miscues.
Should we just eliminate the kickoff altogether? The NFL powers that be seem to be struggling with it. Everyone should just start at the 25. We can roll out the giant wheel of destiny to determine onside kicks.
Doubtful due to the “joy” fans and NFL gets from those “100-yard returns”. Big plays and a Leon Washington or Devin Hester or Billy “white shoes”!!!
Johnson
I know but loved the nickname. Like I rarely said Payton, was Sweetness. Just remember Johnson when I first got into football. I missed Sayers. Came in mid 70s
I don't know how tied the NFL is to fantasy football/gambling profits, but I'd be surprised to see them walk away from all that. Eliminating something so fundamental to the game seems...bloodless, at best. And that's coming from the resident pacifist...
I’m anxious to see the kickoffs with the now 35-yd line rule. Almost guarantees guys are going to be returning every kick-off, or fair-catching. Bc starting at the 35 is a huge gift, especially in the world of 70-yd field goals
Sooner or later, the NFL will put distance limits on when a team can attempt a field goal.
What if they started also taking points off for a miss? Maybe you get 3 if you make one but you lose 3 if you miss one (or lose 2, or even 1)
What a cruel thing to do to a long-retired (from that gig) music critic. Sophomore slump, all that. Fine. Here's the thing: it's not the sophomore album, it's the album that comes after a wide swath of the public discovers an artist. That's the one that's brutally hard to make.
For me, my favorite is almost always the album in which the artist does the thing I most value, and I won't bore you with trying to explain what that is because it's a bloody essay I've never actually written, and I change my mind.
But if we're going to stick to the terms of the discussion, The Second Album, I'll take "Bleach" over "Nevermind," but "Nevermind" is the one people heard first, and probably most folks would say "In Utero" wasn't as good but "MTV Unplugged" was righteous. Soundgarden's "Louder Than Love" worked for me while their first formal album, "Ultra Mega Ok" was less successful, but some of the two SST EPs they released is also delightful. I suppose most folks would say "Superunknown" was better than "Louder Than Love," but I'd say they were wrong. But most artists are closer to OL than WRs (to mess with metaphor in a dangerous way). So Patty Griffin's didn't really hit her stride, for me, until "Children Running Through," which is her fifth long-player.
I'm going to stop now.
See what you made me do?
“You have your whole life to write your first album. Then you have four months to write your second album.”
Who????
Wind me up! Two of those are in the rock 'n' roll hall of fame. Ms. Griffin is, at least, a lifetime achievement winner from the Americana Music Association.
lol. :-)) yeah heard of Zeppelin. Beatles. They were a one hit wonder as I recall.
I’d go with Led Zeppelin II, and with Nevermind and With The Beatles in hot pursuit