The second album. A difficult proposition for any band, particularly one that has found immediate success with their debut and are under immense pressure to record and release a follow-up before the hype disappears; surpass your debut and keep your fans, disappoint them and you are nothing more than a flash in the pan. With that in mind, this article selects six albums that are generally considered colossal failures and catastrophic missteps from bands or artists that had shown such promise. We've all experienced that feeling where you have found your new favourite band and are highly anticipating their sophomore effort only to rush to the record shop (these were buildings which sold actual hard-copies of music, crazy eh!) race home, play the thing and realise you've been duped. Faced with either a carbon copy of the first album or simply a lack of originality and invention, all the facets that made you love the debut have been removed and replaced with a tired, commercialised sound that sounds like a record company suit with dollar sign for eyes has written the majority of the record himself. A sadly crushing realisation all of us have probably had the misfortune to experience on more than one occasion. At the start of their career, a band can often be given the freedom to hone their craft, forging a set of perfect songs which have been meticulously rehearsed, adapted and primed to hit with maximum impact only to be told they have approximately 2 weeks to write and record the follow up. We envy no band who have found themselves in this ridiculous situation. Many of the artists on this list have come back with a third album which rights the wrongs of the second but this list is concerned with those albums that epitomise the phrase 'difficult second album syndrome'. Let the inevitable backlash commence....