The only way is up – so opined gangly pop bleach-top Yazz back in the day. For her, like so many others, the only way was unfortunately down after a brief sojourn in the sun. Debut albums are your life’s work to date, mining every emotion and experience you’ve been through. The follow-up is often written in the back of the van to an unforgiving deadline, and plenty fail to deliver. Here’s a selection of those who led the field early doors but fell at the second fence.
THE SPECIALS – THE SPECIALS
The Specials’ eponymous debut not only secured their reservation at rock’s top table, it confirmed the 2-Tone label and associated movement as punk’s sharpest successor. A mix of vintage ska covers and band-penned originals under the production wing of Elvis Costello, it’s an absolutely essential, era-defining purchase. They followed it up, however, with More Specials, a largely stinky mix of lounge muzak and samba with sparse attraction for all but the most blindly devoted. (NC)
TRICKY – MAXINEQUAYE
The signs were good when Tricky’s version of Karmacoma – re-titled as Overcome¬- took the stoned, world music low point of Massive Attack’s Protection and turned it into a sultry, slutty piece of low slung neo-hip hop. So zeitgeisty that it shared samples with Portishead’s contemporary Dummy, it was much darker, thus avoiding that album’s over-exposure. One place where it was ubiquitous though was the bedroom, where it disguised the orgasmic groans of 1995’s most sordid sex acts. (JK)
MONKS – BLACK MONK TIME
One of the most strikingly original bands of the mid 60s produced their sole studio album, released only in Germany in March 1966, which has since become something of a legend exerting influence far beyond its modest initial sales. The stomping, repetitive bass and drum groove, the splatter of fuzz guitar, the flailing vocals and loud organ outbursts. Their one album was revolutionary, but sparked no revolution, it appeared out of nowhere then disappeared to nowhere. (AS)
THE FALL – LIVE AT THE WITCH TRIALS
Not actually live (though Mark E Smith now has around 40 live albums he’d like to sell you), The Fall’s debut was nonetheless recorded in a single day, and mixed the next. Surprisingly approachable, LATWT benefits from Bob Sargeant’s clear production, and a reasonably accomplished band (none of whom, bar Smith, would make it to the next LP). Closing epic Music Scene indicates the belligerence to come, as The Fall play determinedly on through the engineer’s overheard admonishments (“OK studio, that’s plenty…”) (SH)
THE SUNDAYS – READING WRITING & ARITHMETIC
Some debuts are great because they are the catalyst for new movements. This gentle piece of jangy indie from 1990 isn’t going to start a revolution, but falls into the category of LPs that are full of great songs. Pretty and fey, it was the early 90s soundtrack to the tears of indie fans who found The Smiths a bit racy. Despite going gold in the UK and US its legacy has been unjustly ruined by Tin Tin Out’s soulless facsimile of Here’s Where The Story Ends. (JK)
GEORGE MICHAEL – FAITH
Don’t snigger, Slash out of Guns’n’Roses is a big fan of this record. And rightly so. George always had a great pop sensibility with Wham! and here he polished it into an eminently sophisticated commercial package. This was the pop-star-grows-up template that all jettisoned boy-banders since have tried to emulate. Faith, I Want Your Sex, Father Figure, what’s not to like? Er, the follow-up. Pompously titled Listen Without Prejudice, Vol 1, it and his subsequent albums should have been called Record Without Decent Songs, Vols 1-4. (NC)
