Greatest Sophmore Albums in Rock History

[Iron MikeyJ]

To piggyback off the best debut albums thread, I thought it would be fun to do a best sophmore albums thread. Especially since 2nd albums are usually a bands hardest one to make.

(Note: I am counting GNR Lies as a 2nd album, even though it is an EP)

1. Led Zeppelin II (The sound of Hard Rock was born upon release of this album. They took everything that worked on the first album and turned it up a notch. In turn they left the blues behind slightly, but what they found was Hard Rock)

2. Nirvana Nevermind (This album was a game changer; style changed, music changed, pop culture changed, everything changed thanks to Nevermind)

3. Black Sabbath Paranoid (This is the album that really put Sabbath on the map, and also made them the KINGS of Heavy Metal.)

4. Jimi Hendrix Axis Bold as Love (Not quite as good as Are you Experienced or Electric Ladyland, but still it is a quality sophmore release. Jimi never dissapointed)

5. Aerosmith Get Your Wings (Often overlooked in the A'Smith's discography, but it is their 2nd best start to finish album behind Rocks)

6. Metallica Ride the Lightning (My favorite Metallica album, better songs and production than their debut, but yet still rocks)

7. Van Halen II (Not as breathtaking as the debut, but still a stellar release. Any album with Beautiful Girls and Dance the Night Away on it desereves props imo. But also filled with quality album tracks)

8. Guns n' Roses GNR Lies (Even though it is an EP, this album is the diamond in the rough of the gnr discography. Always overlooked by the great Appetite and massive Illusions, but it is 8 great songs from start to finish. The acoustic 2nd half of the album is one of gnr's greatest moments)

9. Ozzy Diary of a Madman (Picks up right where Blizzard left off, which is a good thing. But not quite as good as Blizzard either)

10. AC/DC Let There Be Rock (Any album with Whole Lotta Rosie on it, was born to be great. The biggest problem I have with this album is both AC/DC's first and 3rd albums were better, but still a quality release)

Edited October 13, 2014 by Mike420

[WFA]

The best sophomore album of all time is Shout At The Devil. I'll get back to you on the other 9

[ZoSoRose]

Solid list!

I'd rank Zeppelin II as the best sophomore album

[Iron MikeyJ]

The best sophomore album of all time is Shout At The Devil. I'll get back to you on the other 9

I know you love you Motley Walker, but come on...

Zep II OWNS Shout at the devil.....

[WFA]

1. Shout At The Devil. IMO this is Mötley Crüe at their best. Mad love to Too Fast For Love, but this album is probably the one that gets the most play by me. Shout At The Devil, Red Hot, Helter Skelter, Looks That Kill, Bastard, Too Young To Fall In Love, Ten Seconds To Love, Knock 'Em Dead Kid, etc...even Louder Than Hell from Theatre was from this album (though it was called Hotter Than Hell at the time, and was only demo'd).

2. Hotter Than Hell. One of the best KISS albums of all time, has Got To Choose, Parasite, Hotter Than Hell, Let Me Go Rock N' Roll, Comin' Home, Strange Ways, etc.

3. Paranoid. Like Mike said, this album made Sabbath the kings of heavy metal.

4. Vs. This is the perfect followup to Ten, and is one of Pearl Jam's best.

5. The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. Sting Me, Remedy, Thorn In My Pride, Hotel Illness, Black Moon Creeping, My Morning Song, Time Will Tell, etc.

6. Get Your Wings. Same old song and dance, lord of the thighs, train kept rollin, seasons of wither, pandora's box, etc.

7. Van Halen II. Dance The Night Away, Women In Love and Somebody Get Me A Doctor are 3 of the best 70's songs, imo.

8. This Is Gonna Hurt. Fuck the haters, this is a great album, and I actually like it more than The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack.

9. In Color. Anything with I Want You To Want Me is a great album

10. Disraeli Gears. Sunshine Of Your Love. /argument

[ZoSoRose]

Did you really put a Sixx AM album in there?

Good or bad, it doesn't matter- top 10 of all time?! Oh lord...

[MEXzilla]

The Bends by Radiohead

Dirt by Alice in Chains

GnR lies or Illusions by Guns n Roses

Edited October 13, 2014 by MEXzilla

[Powerage5]

The best sophomore album of all time is Shout At The Devil. I'll get back to you on the other 9

For once, I can't bash your love of Motley. Definitely not the best of all time, but I'd put it in my top 10.

No particular order:

1. T.N.T. - AC/DC

2. Paranoid - Black Sabbath

3. Spreading The Disease - Anthrax

4. Ride The Lightning - Metallica

5. Purple - Stone Temple Pilots

6. Killers - Iron Maiden

7. Rising - Rainbow

8. Shout At The Devil - Motley Crue

9. Van Halen II - Van Halen

10. Overkill - Motorhead

[MEXzilla]

I would add Rated R by Queens of the Stone Age

[LightningBolt]

Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, the Innocent, & the E Street Shuffle

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Pixies - Doolittle

Edited October 13, 2014 by LightningBolt

[Sixes]

The Stooges -- Fun House

Beastie Boys -- Paul's Boutique

Blondie -- Parallel Lines

Public Enemy -- It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back

PiL -- Metal Box

R.E.M. -- Reckoning

A Tribe Called Quest -- The Low End Theory

Arcade Fire -- Neon Bible

Pavement -- Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Neutral Milk Hotel -- In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

My Bloody Valentine -- Loveless

PJ Harvey -- Rid Of Me

[Iron MikeyJ]

Where's the love for Zep II??? Whole Lotta Love, Ramble on, Heartbreaker, What is and what should never be, THE LEMON SONG!!! The Lemon Song is the shit. I know its an old Robert Johnson rip, but I don't care because they one uped Mr. Johnson!!!

[MEXzilla]

Where's the love for Zep II??? Whole Lotta Love, Ramble on, Heartbreaker, What is and what should never be, THE LEMON SONG!!! The Lemon Song is the shit. I know its an old Robert Johnson rip, but I don't care because they one uped Mr. Johnson!!!

I think the entire album is plagiarized but I agree it's good.

[Sixes]

Where's the love for Zep II??? Whole Lotta Love, Ramble on, Heartbreaker, What is and what should never be, THE LEMON SONG!!! The Lemon Song is the shit. I know its an old Robert Johnson rip, but I don't care because they one uped Mr. Johnson!!!

I prefer Zep 2 over Zep 4, by a wide margin

[Iron MikeyJ]

Where's the love for Zep II??? Whole Lotta Love, Ramble on, Heartbreaker, What is and what should never be, THE LEMON SONG!!! The Lemon Song is the shit. I know its an old Robert Johnson rip, but I don't care because they one uped Mr. Johnson!!!

I think the entire album is plagiarized but I agree it's good.

I've never heard any controversays surronding Ramble On, What is and what should never be, Heartbreaker and living loving maid. So saying "the entire album is plagerized" is a stretch. Besides The Lemon Song was such a deliberate rip that they were pretty much having fun with it. They pushed the envilope on what you could and could not get away with, I applaud them for that myself. Besides it's not like any of their "stolen" material sounds ANYTHING like the originals. They really did make their own songs out of them. Edited October 13, 2014 by Mike420

[Iron MikeyJ]

Where's the love for Zep II??? Whole Lotta Love, Ramble on, Heartbreaker, What is and what should never be, THE LEMON SONG!!! The Lemon Song is the shit. I know its an old Robert Johnson rip, but I don't care because they one uped Mr. Johnson!!!

I prefer Zep 2 over Zep 4, by a wide margin

As do I. Honestly Zep II is what got me into them. But now I consider both to be in my lesser favs catagory as far as their albums go. I'm a pretty big vinyl collector, and as a result has pretty much reminded me what albums I prefer (because buying albums over again helps you dictate what you like better, at least it has for me anyways). But anyways, I always seemed to get Zep albums two or three at a time, and this was my order:

Physical Graffiti and Houses of the Holy

Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin III, and In through the Out Door

Just order the remastered:

Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin IV

Don't Own

Presence and Coda

So yes, thats pretty much my order fav to least fav.

[Len Cnut]

I know its an old Robert Johnson rip, but I don't care because they one uped Mr. Johnson!!!

I ain't fuckin' havin' that, no way man, no way on earth.

[Iron MikeyJ]

I know its an old Robert Johnson rip, but I don't care because they one uped Mr. Johnson!!!

I ain't fuckin' havin' that, no way man, no way on earth.

Ah but they did. You can disagree all you want, but I feel that every Zep rip/cover is FAR better than the originals. They took those songs to unimaginable heights, places the original artist never could have. That's the mark of a great band IMO. Guns had that quality as well. Not to piss my boy Lenny off, but I prefer MOST of TSI over the Punk original counterparts, especially Black Leather Edited October 13, 2014 by Mike420

[Len Cnut]

I know its an old Robert Johnson rip, but I don't care because they one uped Mr. Johnson!!!

I ain't fuckin' havin' that, no way man, no way on earth.

Ah but they did. You can disagree all you want, but I feel that every Zep rip/cover is FAR better than the originals. They took those songs to unimaginable heights, places the original artist never could have. That's the mark of a great band IMO. Guns had that quality as well. Not to piss my boy Lenny off, but I prefer MOST of TSI over the Punk original counterparts, especially Black Leather

Don't make me get you in the sleeper-hold man If you can put your hand on your heart and tell me Attitude, Raw Power sound better than the originals then i dunno what to say to ya man! I never really thought much of Black Leather, original or cover but most of those songs were just plain butchery.

But Robert Johnson, that gorgeous haunting music, the pain of ages in that mans voice, his timing, what he was actually physically doing up and down the fretboard compared to those that came before him (fair enough that ain't about the sound), Zep make the blues sound cluttered...untidy...lacking in rhythm and groove, when the blues is rhythm supreme. To Zeps credit they do it better than a lot of their counterparts but fuckin' comparing em to Robert Johnson?!? Why they'd all have to climb on their mothers shoulders just to get tall enough to kiss Mr Johnsons arse.

Robert Johnsons music is so good it's frightening, like literally frightening, like being face to face with something thats so grand, so profound, so valid...the fact that he was doing something WAY back then that was so important to his craft that no one was doing it at the time and it's musical relevance, the thread it left dangling was picked up on in the fuckin' 1960s?!? Thats really something man.

The guys like a footnote in music history...not just popular music but music on the whole...i don't think you could say the same for Led Zeppelin and if you can it would be relevant to and applicable to a very small off-shoot contingent of the many directions the various mutations of rock music went in.

But just plain to listen to, Robert Johnson all fuckin' day. I've fuckin' convinced myself just typing this, I'm gonna put some Robert Johnson on

[Sixes]

Where's the love for Zep II??? Whole Lotta Love, Ramble on, Heartbreaker, What is and what should never be, THE LEMON SONG!!! The Lemon Song is the shit. I know its an old Robert Johnson rip, but I don't care because they one uped Mr. Johnson!!!

I prefer Zep 2 over Zep 4, by a wide margin

As do I. Honestly Zep II is what got me into them. But now I consider both to be in my lesser favs catagory as far as their albums go. I'm a pretty big vinyl collector, and as a result has pretty much reminded me what albums I prefer (because buying albums over again helps you dictate what you like better, at least it has for me anyways). But anyways, I always seemed to get Zep albums two or three at a time, and this was my order:

Physical Graffiti and Houses of the Holy

Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin III, and In through the Out Door

Just order the remastered:

Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin IV

Don't Own

Presence and Coda

So yes, thats pretty much my order fav to least fav.

I would go from fav to least....

Presence

Physical Graffiti

3

In Through The Out Door

2

Houses Of The Holy

4

1

Coda

[Iron MikeyJ]

Firstly,

I agree with you about Raw Power and Attitude, that's why I said MOST of TSI, not all.

But as for Robert Johnson, I agree with most of what you said. He is a fucking madman. I did my Robert Johnson education years ago, and am a better MUSIC fan and musician for it. How he was able to make SO much music with just his voice, an acoustic guitar, and slide I will never know. I don't even think Hendrix could fuck with that. Which brings a thought to my mind, Robert Johnson is like the Jack Johnson of music, and Hendrix is like the Muhammad Ali. We all pretty much agree that Muhammad is the greatest, but even Ali himself has said he would of had a lot of trouble with Jack Johnson. I think Ali even said that he wasn't sure he could beat him, which is a lot coming from Ali. But the same sort of thing applies to Robert Johnson and Hendrix. I agree that nobody was ever better than Hendrix, but Robert Johnson might have been even too much for Jimi to handle.

But as far as Zep doing Robert Johnson goes, listen to Traveling Riverside Blues, Zep's and Robert's, both of them back to back. If you don't think Zep's has more swing and everything else you just said, I'll be shocked. Because IMO (specifically on that song) they out swung Robert, out rhythmed him, out sang him, out guitar played him, etc...

But to be fair, it's a whole band vs one guy with an acoustic. But my stance still remains....

[Len Cnut]

Firstly,

I agree with you about Raw Power and Attitude, that's why I said MOST of TSI, not all.

See i know you got good taste, it's just you yanks got too in love with the hippie thing

But as for Robert Johnson, I agree with most of what you said. He is a fucking madman. I did my Robert Johnson education years ago, and am a better MUSIC fan and musician for it. How he was able to make SO much music with just his voice, an acoustic guitar, and slide I will never know. I don't even think Hendrix could fuck with that. Which brings a thought to my mind, Robert Johnson is like the Jack Johnson of music, and Hendrix is like the Muhammad Ali. We all pretty much agree that Muhammad is the greatest, but even Ali himself has said he would of had a lot of trouble with Jack Johnson. I think Ali even said that he wasn't sure he could beat him, which is a lot coming from Ali. But the same sort of thing applies to Robert Johnson and Hendrix. I agree that nobody was ever better than Hendrix, but Robert Johnson might have been even too much for Jimi to handle.

I don't think I can argue with a lot of that actually. But just the fact that Johnson was doing things THAT many years ahead of time and making that beautiful music, a great deal of things that Jimi went on to take other places means something. A lot of something.

But as far as Zep doing Robert Johnson goes, listen to Traveling Riverside Blues, Zep's and Robert's, both of them back to back. If you don't think Zep's has more swing and everything else you just said, I'll be shocked. Because IMO (specifically on that song) they out swung Robert, out rhythmed him, out sang him, out guitar played him, etc...

They did more than him with the piece but i don't think thats enough to say they did better.

But to be fair, it's a whole band vs one guy with an acoustic. But my stance still remains....

Much like the song, hardy har Agree to disagree I suppose...even though I'm right, as always j/k, horses for courses i guess.

[Coma16]

Is Lies considered an EP? I see it more like 2 EPs or a short album if combined.

[Iron MikeyJ]

Where's the love for Zep II??? Whole Lotta Love, Ramble on, Heartbreaker, What is and what should never be, THE LEMON SONG!!! The Lemon Song is the shit. I know its an old Robert Johnson rip, but I don't care because they one uped Mr. Johnson!!!

I prefer Zep 2 over Zep 4, by a wide margin

As do I. Honestly Zep II is what got me into them. But now I consider both to be in my lesser favs catagory as far as their albums go. I'm a pretty big vinyl collector, and as a result has pretty much reminded me what albums I prefer (because buying albums over again helps you dictate what you like better, at least it has for me anyways). But anyways, I always seemed to get Zep albums two or three at a time, and this was my order:

Physical Graffiti and Houses of the Holy

Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin III, and In through the Out Door

Just order the remastered:

Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin IV

Don't Own

Presence and Coda

So yes, thats pretty much my order fav to least fav.

I would go from fav to least....

Presence

Physical Graffiti

3

In Through The Out Door

2

Houses Of The Holy

4

1

Coda

Presence is your fav huh? It seems like its a lot foks around here's hidden fav. I like it as well, but it's a flawed album imo. Honestly I feel like it's Zeppelin's most flawed album (cause I don't really consider Coda to be a real zep album, its a posthumus release). Page was pretty strung out by that point, he had some amazing songs like Achillies, but it just doesn't have the diversity that I prefer in a Zep album. Also I myself prefer the Nobody's fault but mine from the Unledded album, so that also takes some of the gusto away. That's one of the "big guns" on that album, so having a different version that I prefer makes that album less appealing for me. Honestly if they would have done the acoustic version of Nobody's falut, I'd probably rank that album higher. I do like the electric version, but I don't find it to be quite as exciting as In My Time Of Dying, which I would much rather listen to. But that's just me....

[Iron MikeyJ]

Is Lies considered an EP? I see it more like 2 EPs or a short album if combined.

Yes, Lies is considered an EP, (but I think it is only two minutes in length shorter than Van Halen's Diver Down, which is consodered a LP). But as far as I'm (ME) is concerened, it's gnr's 2nd album. I also consider the Illusions as seperate albums, not a double album (because by 70's standards they would be 2 double albums). So as of now Axl/Gnr have released 6 albums. Which is a "decent" amount of music IMO. No it's not GREAT, but it's not Sex Pistols, one and done, bad either. I'm not as negative about Axl's output as most. Yes it should be better, but 6 albums is nothing to sneeze at.

Edited October 13, 2014 by Mike420