Second Coming (1994)
The Stone Roses
Released five years after the Madchester pioneers’ era-defining debut, Second Coming has become synonymous with difficult second album syndrome. Battling high expectations, crippling self-doubt and, in the end, themselves, it’s an album that mirrors its difficult gestation, with songs often hampered by superfluous noodling. The good still shines through, however, not least in the lovely Ten Storey Love Song and lead single Love Spreads.
The Menace (2000)
Elastica
Elastica’s first attempt at following up their classic 1995 debut resulted in two members leaving and the band’s temporary dissolution. The experimental and fractured The Menace eventually emerged, hastily recorded in six weeks. Disavowed by Justine Frischmann in 2013, it still offers glimpses of the band’s arch indie pop nous, specifically in Mad Dog God Dam and Generator.
Show Your Bones (2006)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Having seen their indie contemporaries repeat the same formula for album No 2, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were keen to reinvent themselves after 2003’s art-rock explosion Fever to Tell. It wasn’t easy – the band almost broke up during early sessions – but the results were sleeker and more melodic, paving the way for 2009’s pop breakthrough, It’s Blitz!.
Congratulations (2010)
MGMT
Following 2007’s Oracular Spectacular, Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser set about dismantling their new pop stardom. This densely packed album eschews short, sharp thrills in favour of Syd Barrett-esque experiments and opaque Eno tributes. Scuffed pop gems such as It’s Working reward the effort, however.
Pinkerton (1996)
Weezer
Riffing on Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, the gloriously emo Pinkerton – the follow-up to Weezer’s 1994 debut – wrong-footed a fanbase still singing along to their hit Buddy Holly. Saturated with the disdain frontman Rivers Cuomo felt towards his success, Pinkerton is now seen as a cult classic.
Room on Fire (2003)
The Strokes
Having unleashed a host of copycats, New York’s garage rock pinups initially wanted something different for album two. Nigel Godrich was hired as producer, before being replaced by Is This It’s Gordon Raphael. The epitome of “if it ain’t broke ...”, the album still delivers a handful of indie classics.
Da Real World (1999)
Missy Elliott
The success of Elliott’s ebullient 1997 classic Supa Dupa Fly set the bar so high it left the rapper creatively paralysed. “I just kept going [to the studio] and nothing was sounding right,” she told MTV. Her producer, Timbaland, demanded that she take a break, with the re-energising holiday not lightening a darker, more paranoid, but no less inventive second album.
Surfing the Void (2010)
Klaxons
Having ridden the nu-rave wave to Mercury prize success with 2007’s Myths of the Near Future, south London haircuts Klaxons quickly crashed down to Earth in a drug-fuelled haze. Three years later, they emerged with a new psych-tinged heaviness – buffeted by Slipknot producer Ross Robinson – and, in songs such as Echoes, gloriously OTT rock operas.
Neither Fish Nor Flesh (1989)
Terence Trent D’Arby
In the late 80s, D’Arby was an undeniable superstar, his debut album, Introducing the Hardline, shifting 1.5m copies in the UK alone. While this hit-free, gloriously pretentious follow-up flopped spectacularly, there are some gorgeous moments, from the soul flex of I’ll Be Alright to the Princely strut of Attracted to You.
Paul’s Boutique (1989)
Beastie Boys
Paul’s Boutique, AKA the “Sgt Pepper of hip-hop”, was a confounding sequel to 1986’s more frat party-adjacent Licensed to Ill. Worried they’d been dismissed as a joke, the New York trio hunkered down with eccentric producers the Dust Brothers to weave together a densely packed, sample-heavy tapestry that would become their defining album.
