July 2020 Record Challenge (The Raffle Strikes Back)

JULY 11
TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW
Play a sequel or companion album
OR
Sophomore album after a critically acclaimed/successful debut album

Björk "Post"

Björk's follow up to her amazing first solo record "Debut" is equally wonderful and one of my favorite Björk records. It contains so many great songs. Actually every song is absolutely great. If you don't know this album, make sure to check it out. 💛 Music is amazing and lyrics are incredibly good.

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Day 11 - TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW: Play a sequel or companion album OR Sophomore album after a critically acclaimed/successful debut album

The Notorious B.I.G. - Life After Death

Ready to Die was a monster album and a huge success, but Biggie didn't let that scare him or play it safe. Instead he tried to top it with a double album, which was fantastic and very successful as well. It's a shame he didn't get to see how well received this album was.

 
Day 11 - Tough act to follow

Mount Eerie - Ocean Roar

This is the sequel/companion album to Clear Moon. It’s darker, more intense music, while Clear Moon is lighter, more ethereal (hence the names). The latest pressing actually combines the 2 LPs in a single package/gatefold. There’s also, ridiculously, a 7 inch you can buy that has each entire album’s worth of songs played simultaneously on each side 😂

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Day 11 - Follow-up Act

Criteria was a sophomore effort that beats the debut.

David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World
Ok, so technically his third record, but Bowie fans and Bowie himself have pretty much disavowed the 1967 Deram album. He, and now his estate, never really made much of an effort to get the rights back to that album. We pretty much look at it as a weird anomaly and count his studio albums from the self-titled 1969 record (aka Space Oddity). TMWSTW was released in 1970.

Bowie has a #5 hit in the UK with the Space Oddity single, but the album itself did not do very well chart wise. TMWSTW itself splits many Bowie fans, but either way this album bares little more than passing resemblance to Space Oddity (the album). On TMWSTW you can see many of the elements that Bowie (and Visconti and Ronson) were trying to meld into what would become Ziggy just 2 years later.

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Day 11 - FOLLOW ME!!

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De La Soul is Dead

This record is exceptional! I'm a big De La fan from the start and have always made the argument that those first 4 records are perfect and each one was better than the last

(ok the correct order is Buhloone, Stakes, Dead, 3ft... I'll allow Buhloone and Stakes to be swapped, I'll hear that argument and hold my tongue, and that's only because I absolutely adore Buhloone, it hit on so many levels for me, and I still kick myself for not knowing what VMP was when they reissued it seeing as it may never be reissued again!)

I may be in the minority in thinking that seeing as each album sold less and less and critics always compared any new record to the first one! Look I get it, I love 3ft and it was mind-blowing when it first came out, still can be even now, but this is a group that got BETTER each release and didn't just try to repeat what was successful and that's what I love about them!

/Rant
 
Day 11: TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW
Play a sequel or companion album
Jim O’Rourke - Eureka
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Eureka is the second in a series of “Pop” Albums (only considered Pop in comparison to O’Rourke’s experimental/avant-garde music he typically swims in). His work with others is quite renowned, having worked with both Wilco and Sonic Youth (amongst MANY others) yet I feel that his solo albums are consistently overlooked and/or under appreciated by many. Thus far the series consists of 5 album and an EP, all are amazing. The first 4 in the series share names with Movies by British Film Auteur Nicolas Roeg (well, Technically the first 3; the title of the 4th, The Visitor is a reference to Bowie’s character in Roeg’s The Man Who Fell To Earth). These albums share a feeling but the sound of each varies a great deal; a couple are more straight ahead guitar albums with vocals a couple are instrumental American primitivism finger picked acoustic guitar. So far Eureka is the odd bird out stylistically having a Brian Wilson-esque chamber pop quality. Regardless, all are great and well deserved of an attentive listen.
 
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4080 said:
Day 11 - FOLLOW ME!!

View attachment 56136

De La Soul is Dead

This record is exceptional! I'm a big De La fan from the start and have always made the argument that those first 4 records are perfect and each one was better than the last

(ok the correct order is Buhloone, Stakes, Dead, 3ft... I'll allow Buhloone and Stakes to be swapped, I'll hear that argument and hold my tongue, and that's only because I absolutely adore Buhloone, it hit on so many levels for me, and I still kick myself for not knowing what VMP was when they reissued it seeing as it may never be reissued again!)

I may be in the minority in thinking that seeing as each album sold less and less and critics always compared any new record to the first one! Look I get it, I love 3ft and it was mind-blowing when it first came out, still can be even now, but this is a group that got BETTER each release and didn't just try to repeat what was successful and that's what I love about them!

/Rant
Click to expand...
I was literally about to post this, you beat me to it!!
 
Day 11 - TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW

Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, M.A.A.d City (Top Dawg Entertainment, 2012 First Pressing)

Section .80 was good, but 'Good Kid, M.A.A.d City' completely took off and I think it was this point where Kendrick's career really started to boom.

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Day 11: TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW
Play a sequel or companion album

Counting Crows - Recovering the Satellites

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How did Counting Crows follow up their debut powerhouse August and Everything After? With an album that IMO is every bit as good. Featuring amazing tracks such as Angels of the Silences, A Long December, Daylight Fading and my personal favorite, the title track...this is a fantastic album that’s well worth a listen.
 
day 11 - tough act to follow

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adrian young - twelve reasons to die II starring ghostface killah (instrumental)

having recently spun the full album, i’ll opt for the instrumental record, which itself can be considered a sequel to the first album’s “strumentale” version.
 
Day 11: Sophomore album

Their debut album was in many end of year lists...but this album was much better.

(I also wanted to see how this new cart plays side C)

Gorillaz ‎– Demon Days
Warner Bros. Records/Parlophone ‎– 559329-1, 2005/2017

Cut by Barry Grint at Alchemy
Pressed at GZ

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JULY 11
TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW
Play a sequel or companion album
OR
Sophomore album after a critically acclaimed/successful debut album

Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene

Technically, this is BSS's third album, but in many ways the real sophomore album You Forgot It In People was not only their commercial and critical breakthrough- it was a reboot of the band from a promising noodly post-rock act to a festival-conquering baroque indie rock collective. Their self-titled third album was the follow-up to this "debut" album, and it managed to make their sound both bigger and weirder, while retaining the quality that they have maintained for almost two decades now.

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