The “Difficult Second Album” – 12 Artists Who Fell Victim To “The Sophomore Slump”

I’ve spoken about “the sophomore slump” before on the pages of B&V. In that particular post I was thinking about all the bands who managed to overcome the dreaded sophomore jinx by putting out an even better second album than their debut. I recently posted about one such second album in the Cult’s Love. As I was sitting around the B&V labs this week, compiling my Booze/Drinking 2.0 Playlist last week, I listened to “Tequila Sunrise” from the Eagles second album, Desperado. And yes, it got me to thinking about second albums again.

The Sophomore Slump, as the name implies is an academic construct. Basically, per Wikipedia, “A sophomore slump (also known as a sophomore jinx or sophomore jitters) is when a sophomore fails to live up to the relatively high standards that occurred during freshman year.” In other words, the student, as a freshman, comes out going gang busters in terms of getting good grades and dazzling his teachers in that debut year of high school or college but then “comes back to the mean” or “returns to the pack” in his sophomore year. The construct is also heavily used in sports even beyond the academic setting. Perhaps a rookie quarterback in the NFL comes out and lights the league on fire but then plays at a more average pace in his second year. Perhaps opposing defenses figure the kid out, or the adrenaline from finally making the NFL, his lifetime goal, runs out. Next season I’ll be watching D.C.’s Jayden Daniels to see how he responds in his second year, but I digress.

Rock bands/artists are no exception to the sophomore slump. Many a rock band has put out a stunning debut album only to stumble a bit on their second album. It was Bono during his Rock Hall of Fame acceptance speech (our 2025 HoF Ballot, here) who described it as “The difficult second album.” Indeed U2 knows all about that difficult second album. There’s a maxim in the music industry, “You have your whole life to write your first album and only six months to write your second album.” Many rock acts who have had a wildly successful first album often struggle under immense pressure to repeat the success on the second album. As someone who used to manage people, I find that folks are just a lot more creative and successful in an atmosphere with less pressure vs more pressure.

I saw some AI output listing the reasons students suffer in their second year in high school/college and the reasons actually apply pretty well for rock artists as well. Loss of Enuthusiasm (maybe the success and fame they craved wasn’t all they thought it’d be), Increased workload (much more demand to tour), Pressure to Maintain Performance (that Record Company need to exceed the success of the debut… perhaps commerce is the enemy of art), and finally Self Doubt (these are artists we’re talking about here).

While some artists are given the time and the space to come up with an even better second album, many struggle to come up with enough material in a short amount of time to top that wonderful debut album (our favorite debut albums here). Let’s face facts here, you only get one time to make a first impression. There’s only one first meeting, one first conversation, one first “Hello,” or one first time to fall in love, if you will. Some of the albums on this list are actually LPs I like. They all contain some decent songs. For the most part, as business guys do, the sophomore slump is typically based on a heavy reduction in sales and the money that the record drives. But there are also second albums that are greeted with lukewarm responses from the critics (for inexplicable reasons I’m thinking about Boston’s Don’t Look Back). I’m not sure anybody cares what critics say… but I’m sure that hurts the artist who started out as a critical darling.

Here are the albums that spring to mind to me when I think of the sophomore slump. And like my post about “The Dirty Dozen,” twelve records only I like, I do like a lot of these records. But they are considered critical and/or commercial steps backward for the bands. Many, if not all of these bands (with a couple of exceptions) went on to great, long sustained careers. The sophomore slump was a mere “stumble” on the way to rock n roll legend status.

• U2, October – After coming out of nowhere with their fresh and wonderful debut Boy, U2 clearly had nothing left in the tank in terms of songs for this record. I like the title track and “Gloria” but the rest is a mess. Thank our lucky stars the record company stuck with these guys.
• Dire Straits, Comminque – This one is all the record companies’ fault. After their debut was a surprise hit, they rushed the band to get a second album out. This one came out only 9 months after the debut. It was like a carbon copy of a photo…still a cool a photo but less focused and clear.
• Mick Jagger, Primitive Cool – It can certainly be argued that Mick’s solo debut She’s The Boss was not a great album. I did include a track from that record on my Playlist: Songs of 1985. People forget that album went platinum, probably merely on Mick’s reputation at the time. Primitive Cool was an embarrassing stumble. The first single “Let’s Work” was the worst thing Mick’s done this side of that Bowie duet on “Dancing In The Streets.” It sank the album. There were a couple of good songs though, like “Throwaway” with Jeff Beck on lead guitar and country rock song “Party Doll.” This failure led Mick back to the Stones so it’s not all bad news.
• The Police, Regatta De Blanc – The Police may have been pretending to be punk rockers on their debut but it was a spectacular record. This follow up featured way too many songs written by the drummer, Stewart Copeland. Say what you want about Sting, but I’m not interested in anybody else in the Police. Although this album does boast “Walking On the Moon” and “Message In A Bottle” signaling there were bright things in their future.
• Meatloaf, Dead Ringer – No one likes to admit how much we all loved Bat Out Of Hell, but we did. Every dude I know would drift off when “Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad,” thinking about a lost or unrequited love. Don’t deny it… They waited four years to follow that up and forgot to invite producer Todd Rungren to the party… no wonder this failed.
• Montrose, Paper Money – I actually really like both the Montrose albums with Sammy Hagar on lead vocals. But the debut was a hard rock milestone, inspiring many other bands much in the same way that say, the original Jeff Beck Group did. This album was just a victim of not enough time to write new material. And there was already friction in the band. I included the title track on my Playlist: For the Love Of Money and I love the Stones cover of “Connection” they do… There are always gems hiding on these albums.
• The Firm, Mean Business – This is another album I liked. “All The Kings Horses” and “Live In Peace” were great tracks to my ears. Although the latter was a Paul Rodgers track the re-did for the album. Critics and fans all soured on this one when compared to the debut.
• The Stone Roses, Second Coming – The Stone Roses are a case study in a band imploding under the self doubt brought on by a monster hit debut album. They waited five and 1/2 years to put out this second album, and hadn’t played a concert in 4 and 1/2 years. I think it was a hit in England but didn’t and couldn’t match the debut. Although John Squire did record a great album with Liam Gallagher last year…
• The Who, A Quick One – I love the Who and like this record, but it’s probably my least favorite of their records. The title track was Pete’s first foray into the idea of a “concept,” this time for a song instead of an album, but the seeds of Tommy were sown. For reasons unclear the record company urged the band to include songs written by each band member. I love Keith Moon (drums), Roger Daltrey (vocals) and John Entwistle (bass) but they don’t hold a candle as songwriters to Pete Townshend.
• Tracy Chapman, Crossroads – My hard rock friends were baffled when I showed up one weekend with Tracy Chapman’s spectacular debut on the cassette player in my car (I’d recorded my vinyl copy of the album), but I loved that album. It’s a landmark debut album. The follow up, while nice, just couldn’t match the breathtaking heights of that debut.
• Eagles, Desperado – I love the Eagles, although I haven’t really posted about them yet, and I like this album, but it’s a bit of a mess. I dig the whole, “we’re all over the place stylistically” vibe, like it’s a country rock Exile On Main Street, but any album with more than one Bernie Leadon composition is suspect in my mind.
• Guns N’ Roses, Lies – Appetite For Destruction was such a monster album. It was generation defining. We were all craving a great follow up. I think GnR were feeling a lot of pressure after that debut and so cobbled together four new acoustic tracks, (including the great “Patience”) and four tracks from their 1986 debut EP and put it out as Lies. Despite some extraordinarily questionable lyrical choices there were a few good tracks here. I liked the cover of Aerosmith’s “Mama Kin” and “Move To The City” but this was not the second GnR album we all wanted or deserved.

These are the immediate sophomore slump albums that popped into my head this week. I’m sure there are countless other examples. If you’ve got a sophomore slump record that you think should be on this list, please pop it into the comments. I’m always looking for a good rock n roll discussion. And by all means, most of these albums deserve a spin on your metaphorical turntable. Just because they didn’t sell well or some critic didn’t like it doesn’t mean it’s devoid of value or of good songs. And as I said, most of these artists went on to long and storied careers… call me a catalog kind of fan but I have to own even these rough second albums by any band I love, but maybe that’s just me.

Cheers!