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For every great album, there's a disappointing follow-up. Join Mikaela Scholl and guests as they re-evaluate music's most notorious sophomore slumps.
Sophomore Slumps
Sophomore Slumps
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11 JUN 2021 · It's difficult for a band to recover after losing their primary songwriter, especially when no one else in the band is yet ready to take up the mantle. Such is the story of Pink Floyd and the mental breakdown of their original frontman, Syd Barrett; after the madcap, space age fairy tale of their 1967 debut, 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn', their second album, 'A Saucerful of Secrets', suffered as the band struggled to figure out their identity without Syd. They would go on to be superstars in the 70s under the leadership of bassist Roger Waters, but their sophomore effort stands in hindsight as the first step in a long, mixed bag of a transitional period.
Mikaela is joined by returning guests Christopher and Patrick plus their 'Old Men Yell at Cloud' cohost Jim Schultz to see if this assessment is fair. Perhaps hindsight will turn out to be this album's best advocate.
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23 APR 2021 · Arthur Brown and his crazy world shocked many a people across multiple continents in 1967 with his scream "I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE!" and topped the charts across those continents as a result. It was supremely unlikely the band would repeat that trick twice, but what wasn't expected was that the label would shelve their second album, 'Strangelands', entirely. The album remained unreleased until 1988, by which time Arthur had fallen into Psychedelic Prog obscurity. Fans who finally heard 'Strangelands' did not get 'Crazy World Part 2', but rather an unhinged, freeform jam session free of any potential hits like "Fire".
Musician, DJ, and fellow Zero Sciencer Lilz Martin joins Mikaela to stretch this podcast's brief even further; is it a sophomore slump if the album wasn't even released? Well... let's just say 'Strangelands' would have qualified for this show regardless.
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9 APR 2021 · A good half hour of nonsense had to be cut out of the 'Phantom Hourglass' episode to keep it focused, but it was too good to completely delete. Thus, enjoy some extra rambling from Radhames about Sonic and Zelda, plus Mikaela outing him as a Sonic fancomic visionary.
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3 APR 2021 · Video games have their disappointing sequels too. While 'The Legend of Zelda' is a franchise that typically avoids this, the acclaimed entry 'The Wind Waker' ended up with its own in the underwhelming DS sequel 'Phantom Hourglass'. Mikaela is joined by her long-time friend and Let's Play colleague Radhames Contreras to delve into what 'Phantom Hourglass' was missing.
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29 JAN 2021 · British hard rock revivalists The Darkness brought crunchy, glammy, falsetto-loaded rock back to the charts with their acclaimed 2003 debut, 'Permission to Land', and their signature hit "I Believe in a Thing Called Love". Its 2005 sequel, 'One Way Ticket to Hell...And Back' took things in a different direction, being poppier and far more lavishly produced by Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker. While reasonably successful in their native UK, it still disappointed and was less warmly received, marking a downturn in their fortunes that culminated in their breakup in 2007. However, they reformed in 2011, picked up right where they left off, and have maintained an impressively consistent output since. Thus we ask: is 'One Way Ticket' such a disappointment? Boston musician and radio DJ Phil Fleming joins Mikaela to give the album another chance.
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18 DEC 2020 · To the average listener, Devo are likely only known for their breakthrough 1980 hit, "Whip It", and for its seminal music video with them wearing weird red domes on their heads. However their influence within the music world stretches across several decades and genres, all the way back to their debut 1978 LP, 'Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!'. It and the "Whip It" parent album, 'Freedom of Choice', have survived the test of time as pillars of Geek Rock, Post-Punk, New Wave, and more. However, placed between those key moments is the less-celebrated and often ignored 'Duty Now for the Future' - at best considered a comparatively weak transitional album between their Post-Punk and New Wave/Synth Pop periods. This month, Austin is joined by Adam Schneider of Boston's own hyperactive synth rockers Big Time Kill to see whether 'Duty Now' deserves the same re-evaluation and appreciation as the albums that surround it.
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20 NOV 2020 · It's easy to gauge a sophomore slump when people liked your first album. Less so when you're divisive Progressive Rock supergroup Asia, who left behind much of the intricacies and complexities of their previous bands (Yes, King Crimson, Emerson Lake & Palmer) and took a more radio-friendly Pop Rock approach. But despite the mixed reviews, their 1982 self-titled debut managed to be a big hit, and history has been relatively kind to it in hindsight. The even-poppier 1983 follow-up 'Alpha' is not remembered so fondly, and their momentum was halted as quickly as it began.
This month, Austin is joined by Progressive Rock fan Patrick S Barry of Jukebox Zeroes, Old Men Yell at Cloud, and music projects Smell and Bears for Years, to reassess and depress over one of Prog's most infamous sellouts.
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16 OCT 2020 · Rock's definitive party animal Andrew W.K. exploded onto a world that may not have been fully ready for him with 2001's 'I Get Wet'. While divisive at the time, history has fondly remembered it as one of the best, most deceptively smart yet gloriously stupid rock albums of the 2000s. Less celebrated in hindsight is his follow-up, 2003's more emotionally sincere and musically grand 'The Wolf'. While positively received at the time and charting higher than 'I Get Wet', it did not translate to a lasting presence in mainstream rock. Austin is joined by Let's Play partner and Andrew W.K. fan Jacob Russell to give 'The Wolf' a second chance, and maybe even reach conflicting conclusions about its place in Andrew's legacy.
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18 SEP 2020 · The Stone Roses' self-titled debut is one of the most celebrated albums in British indie music. Its delayed, bluesier and messier follow-up, 'Second Coming', is not. Zero Science regular Christopher G Brown joins Austin to re-examine the muddled swerve that broke up the legends.
For every great album, there's a disappointing follow-up. Join Mikaela Scholl and guests as they re-evaluate music's most notorious sophomore slumps.
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| Author | Zero Science |
| Organization | Zero Science |
| Categories | Music |
| Website | - |
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