How many times have you heard that phrase?

How do you interpret this?

Bowie's third album.(Another) masterpiece.

The Boomtown Rats 3rd LP was their best.
Radiohead ?

I think a good band can put together 2 excellent albums in a row. Only a great band can do 3. The Arctic Monkeys put out a mediocre third album, in my opinion. However, Franz Ferdinand were able to do 3 great ones in a row.

I thought the saying was difficult second album, anyway, as an example of a poor 3rd album we have:



They were the biggest band by a mile in the UK when this was released. It received almost unanimous good reviews (Q gave it 5 stars) and massive coverage, even on the evening news, but I knew it was a load of overblown pants instantly, took the media a few months to agree.


Blur's 3rd album was Parklife & Suede's was Coming Up, both massive successes. Placebo's 3rd album was a bit of a stinker, Black Market Music.

Hey, just found this:

I think it applies to movies more than albums, the 2nd sequel to great movies is often rubbish. Godfather 3, Return Of The Jedi, Terminator 3.. etc (thanks to Danmeth.com for the graphic).

I'd disagree with the Mad Max ratings. The 2nd was best but the first wasn't far behind it. The third one was absolute shite.

Alien3 the director's vision was also a lot better than the rating it gets there, if not up to the standard set by the first two. The second 'Apes' film wasn't that bad either.

-----------------------------------------------

I agree with pretty much all those movie ratings, with the possible exception of Terminator where I prefer the original.

http://www.scottfullermusic.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/scottfullermusic

That 3rd Oasis album was fucking mega shite.I've not bought one of their albums since.Johnny Depp must be turning in his grave.If he was dead.Which he's not.

It's usually the second album that's s***e.
The third album usually is the one to break an artist.
Plus, it's fun to get into someone on their third album and have the previous two to dig into once you get bitten by a particular bug musically.

Yeah but no but.
If you'd got into Bowie's third album first you might have ended up listening to Black Sabbath or,god forbid,Led Zep.

Didn't think too much with Editors new album
Keane's was rubbish.

I guess they mean difficult in the sense by the time the second album is done they have run out of material they had wrtiten over the years. The third album is the challenge, it's the test of real skill.

Hence the one's we are naming are the success stories. Alot of bands fail after their second or simply implode.

Didn't Terrance trent Darby put out an atrocious 2nd album , blowing a potentially huge career in music ?

>>"Yeah but no but.
If you'd got into Bowie's third album first you might have ended up listening to Black Sabbath or,god forbid,Led Zep"< <br>
Eh, ya ain't gonna be likin' me too much then LOL. How can anyone not dig Sabbath or Zep? OR at least appreciate what they do? I like to rock. Those two are a good way to go in doing just that .

Well alright !

gge



-"Since I'm going to Hell, bet ya $20.00 it looks like a Rob Zombie production ."

I do like Sabbath but hate Led Zeppelin with a passion.The man has the worst voice.And they take themselves oh so seriously.Pomp rock at it's worst.

How was it for you Sos?



rgds

billb

I must say out of the two its Zepplin for me ,I love that bluesy sound ! Funnily though Paranoid was the first single I bought, it was on that spirally black and white Vertigo label , I sold it in the mid seventies for £2.50 ha ha I bet its worth a bit now ? the b side was The Wizard .

I must confess,I only like Sabbath on the strength of Paranoid.
Same goes for Motorhead and Ace of Spades.

I really liked Perfect Symmetry by Keane

I think the 2nd album is more of a hurdle than the 3rd which is possibly why I've genuinely never heard the term difficult third album.

If a band has put together 2 albums worth of songs and B sides with enough success to warrant the release of a 3rd album, they're probably talented enough to be able to put something decent together for the 3rd release. Of course, there are exceptions such as the previously mentioned Oasis.

Difficult 2nd albums (no 2nd album or 2nd album was a massive let down):

The Darkness, Babylon Zoo, Goldie, Adam F, Sex Pistols , Stone Roses, ABC, Suede (great, but challenging and a commercial failure), Clash, Elastica... Jeff Buckley!

The second Pistols album was a soundtrack/compilation of out takes/collection of other bands songs, the band had already imploded by that point...

No wonder it was shit.

-----------------------------------------------

Swindle has a few good live tracks that I havent seen on any other comps.Johnny B Goode and Road Runner spring to mind.Sids My Way aint bad either I suppose.
But yeah,It's mostly shit.

Edit:How could I forget... No Fun.

Its difficult to knock the Pistols really because there aint too many groups that only released 1 album that still rates as high on the important album polls ?

I was just listening to it Andy and it still sounds great.

-----------------------------------------------

I really liked Perfect Symmetry by Keane

It was way better than the second one, which was dire, but neither was a patch on the first.

____________________________________________

Yeah, they've deffo got the Alien 3 wrong.

Its not as good as the first two but its still a very good movie. Better on a big screen.

As for 3rd albums. The Arctic Monkeys 3rd album is nowhere near as good as the first two but its still miles ahead of most albums released this year. I think there problem is, they're trying to be influenced. There first album especially was so original. Not saying they should make a career out of the same format aka Oasis and Coldplay who on the face of it are both shite. But they shoudn't try to mature too quickly!!

For Joy Division.