7 Underrated Sophomore Albums

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If you follow pop culture, particularly the music industry, you’ve probably heard of the
“sophomore slump”, which refers to the expectation that if an artist had a phenomenal debut album, more than likely, their follow-up effort will fail. Or at the least, not be as great.

And there have certainly been plenty of examples to suggest there’s merit to the belief. However, one can argue that it’s not so much that these albums were bad, but rather simply failed under the weight of some very lofty expectations.

I believe the following seven albums are a perfect example of this. These were all perfectly fine, in some cases even great albums. Unfortunately, they came on the heels of brilliant debut albums that in many cases, turned the artists into superstars. The following are 7 of the most underrated sophomore albums.

• Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie by Alanis Morissette – Before Adele, there was Alanis Morissette’s ode to pissed off ex-girlfriends everywhere. The year was 1995 and Jagged Little Pill was THE must-have album to own, catapulting Morissette to superstar status. With global sales of over 30 million and a slew of awards, including the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, expectations were sky-high for her follow-up. And much of those expectations involved Morissette delivering much of what she did on Jagged Little Pill – but, she didn’t. While many expected her to go left, she went right on Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. As the title suggests, the album saw a more somber and introspective Morissette. Gone was the raging young woman and in its place was someone more mature and self-aware. Unfortunately, many fans weren’t ready to let go of the former. While the album did okay commercially, it was nothing like the success of Jagged Little Pill and had none of the critical success of the former, earning only two Grammy nominations. And that’s unfortunate because, by every measure, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie is a stellar album.

Standout Tracks – Thank U, Baba, That I Would Be Good, Unsent, Are You Still Mad

• It Won’t Be Soon Before Long by Maroon 5 – In 2002, Maroon 5 released Songs About Jane that quickly catapulted the band into pop superstardom and turned Adam Levine into a sex symbol. Multiple Billboard top ten singles and a Grammy Award for Best New Artist later, the band was riding high. And although there was a five-year wait between Songs About Jane and the release of It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, things started well. Makes Me Wonder, the album’s lead single went on to give the band its first-ever Billboard Number 1, and commercially, the album debuted strong. However, none of the subsequent singles were able to crack the Billboard Top 20 and while the album did manage to go platinum, it was nothing like the sales of its predecessor.

Standout Tracks – Makes Me Wonder, If I Never See Your Face Again, Wake Up Call, Won’t Go Home Without You, Nothing Lasts Forever

• When the Pawn… by Fiona Apple – Bold, brash, and unapologetic, Fiona Apple stormed onto the music scene at a mere 19, with a sound far beyond her years. Tidal, her breakout album spawned six singles, including the most successful Criminal, which earned Apple a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. It took three years before Apple would return, releasing the very wordy When the Pawn… (Full album title is a 90-word poem). Critically, the album was well-received, gaining a Metacritic score of 79. Last year, in honor of her latest album release, Vulture ranked When the Pawn… as her best album. Commercially, however, music fans were not feeling the love. I believe part of the issue was that although Apple’s sound always veered towards the off-the-beaten-path, Tidal managed to successfully bridge the gap between offbeat and still being radio-friendly. In other words, her sound was still accessible and relatable for many. When the Pawn… on the other hand, sonically unleashed full outside the box, non-traditional, oddball Fiona Apple. And many fans weren’t happy about that.

Standout Tracks – Fast As You Can, I Know, Get Gone, Paper Bag, Limp

• Sam’s Town by The Killers – In 2004, a couple of Nevada guys burst onto the music scene looking and sounding like they’d stepped right out of a British new wave, pop/punk scene. Hot Fuss, the debut album from The Killers became one of the most essential albums of that year spawning multiple hit singles, perhaps none bigger than Mr. Brightside (come on, admit it, you’ve joined in on a sing-a-long or two of this one). Naturally, expectations were high for their next album. Sam’s Town arrived more than two years later in late 2006 to a mixed critical reception. Some critics thought the album was some of the band’s best work and represented a positive growth in their musical journey. Others, such as, Sia Michel of The New York Times, went as far as calling the album painful and RollingStone ranked it a disappointing 2 out of 5 stars in a review that became so controversial, it’s since been scrubbed off the internet. Commercially, however, the album fared much better, selling 5 million copies worldwide, admittedly a bit less than the 7 million worldwide sales of Hot Fuss. And latter years have seen a growing newfound admiration for the album, with a 2010 RollingStone reader poll listing it as one of the 10 Most Underrated Albums of the Decade.

Standout Tracks – When You Were Young, Read My Mind, This River is Wild, Sam’s Town, Enterlude/Exitude

• Spirit by Jewel – Here’s an interesting fact that I’m sure may surprise many. Back in 1995, the critics weren’t exactly loving Jewel’s Pieces of You, which ultimately went on to catapult her to stardom. The lukewarm, bordering on dismissive reception is just one reason that it took the album two years to gain an audience. But once it did, the rest as they say is history. So it’s perhaps not so surprising that the critical reception for Spirit was fairly mixed. However, it was the commercial reception to Spirit that truly lands it on this list. While the album did eventually sell a more than respectable 3.7 million copies in the U.S. and the lead single Hands became a Billboard Top 10 single, many of the follow-up singles failed to have a similar impact and achieve the success that the singles from Pieces of You did.

Standout Tracks – Hands, Down So Long, Life Uncommon, Absence of Fear, Jupiter

• Feels Like Home by Norah Jones – Anyone who knows me well knows of my love for Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me. So much so that I wasn’t even that bitter when she bested Eminem’s brilliant The Eminem Show for Album of the Year (though if it were left up to me, he’d have won). Some found it a bit sleepy but as I’ve noted before, listening to that album is like being wrapped in a warm and cozy blanket that you never want to take off. And the sleepy snark aside, many agreed with me, to the tune of 10 million in album sales. By every metric and standard, Come Away With Me was a commercial and critical smash. And so naturally all eyes were on Jones to prove she could do it again. Feels Like Home was released in 2004 and right off the bat, the general feeling was, “it’s okay but it’s no Come Away With Me”. Critical reviews were mixed and while sales were impressive for the first week (Jones became one of a shortlist of women, which includes Adele, Britney Spears, and Taylor Swift, to sell a million copies in one week), likely owing to residual love from Come Away With Me, things quickly stagnated. And that’s a pity because while I don’t love Feels Like Home as much as Come Away With Me, it’s still a very beautiful album from beginning to end. And more importantly, still delivers that same warm feeling of being wrapped in a soft and cozy blanket.

Standout Tracks – Sunrise, What Am I To You, Those Sweet Words, Creepin’ In, The Long Way Home

• Melodrama by Lorde – Lorde burst onto the music scene in 2013 with a little song titled Royals. The infectious, electropop tune quickly became a critical and commercial smash, catapulting the still then a teenager, to stardom. Three other successful singles would follow, making her debut album Pure Heroine a bonafide commercial hit to the tune of 5 million in worldwide sales. This meant stakes were high for her sophomore effort and the years of little to no information and delays that followed only fueled many fans’ impatience. Finally, in early summer 2017, Melodrama arrived. The critics were happy – very happy actually, to the tune of a Metacritic score of 91 (for comparison, Pure Heroine has a score of 79. Good sure, but shows how much more acclaimed Melodrama was). Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine summed it up as “cathartic, dramatic and everything else you could want an album titled Melodrama to be”. Unfortunately, the music-buying public did not appear to share the same sentiment. The album debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard charts with a respectable 109,000 in sales but quickly tumbled to Number 13 by its second week.  And outside of the lead single Green Light, which peaked at 19, all the album singles failed to even chart. It was a very disappointing response to what is in actuality a stellar album. I do hold onto some hope (perhaps a naïve one) that in time, many will look back and gain a newfound appreciation for the album, and perhaps in 10-20 years, it will find a new audience to help give it a second life.

Standout Tracks – Green Light, Perfect Places, Liability, The Louvre, Hard Feelings/Loveless

10 Biggest Grammy Awards Upsets of the 2000s

While working on my article about the biggest snubs of this year’s Grammy Awards nominations, it got me thinking about the multiple moments of the last two decades in the show’s history that have made me go “WTF”. And trust me, there were quite a few. But for the sake of brevity, I’m limiting this list to only ten.

Like many award shows, there are times The Grammys get it so right – Adele winning Best New Artist (BNA), Outkast winning Album of the Year (AOTY) for Speakerboxx/The Love Below (the last time a rap album won AOTY though certainly not the last time the genre deserved to win…more on that in a second) and other times when they get it so wrong that it just leaves you baffled.

As is always the case, let me be clear that these were moments that stood out for me. Naturally, I’m sure there are those who don’t think some of these moments were upsets or who felt other moments were bigger upsets. Fair enough.

And let me also add that I wasn’t necessarily angry or even disappointed by all of these moments. Some of these were just moments that based on various factors – biggest hit that year, critical acclaim, etc. – the winner was surprising and so yes, would be considered an upset. So without further ado, here are my top 10 Grammy Awards upsets of the last two decades.

1989 Beats To Pimp a Butterfly for Album of the Year – No, just no. And before any of the Swifties come with the argument of, “Taylor had five Billboard Top 10 hits from the album”, I will remind all that one Katy Perry had five Number 1 Billboard hits off her Teenage Dream album. The only artist to do so since Michael Jackson’s Thriller. And by my last count, Katy Perry not only did not win AOTY for Teenage Dream, she still doesn’t have a single Grammy Award. So let’s get that weak argument out of the way. And then the next go-to is of course, “1989 sold a lot…” Yes, yes it did. But if we were basing quality and awards only on what sold a lot, there would be some very questionable winners over the years. Popularity does not always equal good. That said, I want to be very clear that I believed then and still do that 1989 was a good pop album and it deserved to be nominated for Album of the Year. What it didn’t deserve, in my opinion, was to win. 1989 was a good, solid album – To Pimp a Butterfly was a masterpiece. Lyrically, thematically and musically, it was stellar and career-defining from beginning to end. There will never be any argument that will convince me this was the right call.

Maroon 5 Bests Kanye West for Best New Artist – This is one of the moments on this list that I wasn’t necessarily outraged about but would still categorize as an upset. To be clear, I was a fan of both Maroon 5 and Kanye West during their debut years. Songs About Jane still gets heavy rotation on my playlist. And in the interest of fairness, the album had significant commercial success, spawning multiple Billboard Top 20 hits. However, the critical and commercial response to The College Dropout was something significantly greater. That album positioned Kanye West as one of the most prolific and powerful voices in music.

Herbie Hancock Wins Album of the Year – This win would have been surprising if only because Jazz often gets slept on in the major categories. But what made it particularly shocking is that Hancock defeated both Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black and Kanye West’s Graduation. To say this one came out of left-field for many would be an understatement.

Steely Dan Upsets Eminem and Radiohead for Album of the Year – Much like Herbie Hancock’s win, this would have been a surprising win for many regardless. But what made it particularly shocking is that it came at the expense of some of the most critically acclaimed albums and artists of the year. Unlike some, despite being a fan of Eminem’s, I never thought he would win. There was too much controversy around him and the album at the time. Not to mention he was still a relatively new artist and award shows sometimes like for artists to “pay their dues.” But with Beck, Radiohead, and hell Paul Simon in the mix, Steely Dan is not the name I expected to be called that night.

Esperanza Spaulding Wins Best New Artist – I feel like no one was more surprised when Esperanza Spaulding’s name was called that night, than Esperanza herself. As previously noted, Jazz isn’t often shown much love in the major categories (unless you are a phenomenon called Norah Jones) and that fact in itself made Esperanza seemingly a longshot. But then you considered who she was up against that year, and it seemed all but impossible that she’d have any chance of winning – i.e. Justin Bieber, Drake, Florence and The Machine and Mumford & Sons (they would win Album of the Year just two years later). But win she did.

Eminem’s Recovery Loses Album of the Year – So remember that thing I said about artists paying their due? Well, Eminem’s comeback year with Recovery was supposed to be that. After a few years of personal and emotional upheavals owing to his addiction, Eminem got things back on track, channeling all he’d been through into his best album since The Eminem Show. Recovery was a commercial and critical smash. The media and industry were no longer screaming about boycotting his music and how evil and dangerous he was to impressionable youths. In short, Eminem had earned the respect of many and solidified his legacy. All that was missing was a win for Album of the Year – and, it didn’t happen.

John Mayer’s Daughters Wins Song of the Year – There is nothing inherently wrong with John’s Mayer’s Daughters. Albeit it’s a bit maudlin and sleepy. However, it’s not an all-around awful song. It just wasn’t in my opinion, the song of the year. Especially not when it was competing against Kanye West’s Jesus Walks and even Alicia Keys’ If I Ain’t Got You.

Kendrick Lamar is 0-7 at 2014 Grammy Awards – Yes, you read that correctly. For the 2014 Grammy Awards, Kendrick Lamar had seven nominations for his breakout debut album, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, including Album of the Year and Best New Artist. He lost in every category. And the losses might not have been so disappointing, were it not for who he lost to, particularly in the Rap categories. Yes, I am, of course, referring to the saga of Macklemore & Lewis sweeping the Rap categories. Here’s the thing – much like Maroon 5 versus Kanye West, I’m not going to argue that Macklemore & Lewis had a stellar year and The Heist was a good album. Kendrick’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City however, was better, which was a sentiment seemingly shared across the industry. And yet come Grammy night the votes went Macklemore & Lewis’ way.

Lose Yourself Loses Record & Song of the Year – Considered by many to be the best song of Eminem’s career, Lose Yourself was commercially and critically, an unquestionable smash. The song spent a whopping 12 weeks at the top of the Billboard charts and was certified diamond in sales (that’s 10 million records sold, for those who don’t know). Oh, and there was also that whole Academy Award for Best Original Song. And yet, come Grammy Awards 2004, it lost ROTY and SOTY to Clocks by Coldplay and Dance with My Father by Luther Vandross, respectively. And it’s no shade to either of these songs that are both perfectly fine. And of course, Dance with My Father had, at the time, the additional emotional punch of Luther Vandross’ having passed away prior to the song’s release. But the plain truth is neither of these songs was in any way as exceptional and well-crafted as Lose Yourself, and time and distance have only furthered this belief. Lose Yourself has aged like fine wine and still holds up almost twenty years later. Case in point, even former President Barack Obama is talking about how Lose Yourself was one of the songs that inspired him during his 2008 presidential run.

O Brother Where Art Thou Wins Album of the Year – A certain person is going to agree with this one. At the 2002 Grammy Awards, a quirky, bluegrass-inspired soundtrack, perfect for the Coen Brothers film of the same name, O Brother, Where Art Thou? won the award for Album of the Year. There was one major problem with this – many assumed and deservedly so, that U2’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind was the forgone winner. All That You Can’t Leave Behind was unquestionably U2’s best album since 1991’s Achtung Baby. Just the previous year, on the strength of the lead single, Beautiful Day, the band won both Song and Record of the Year. So it just seemed inevitable that the album was going to win Album of the Year. Alas, it was not to be.