10 Sophomore Slump Albums By Amazing Bands

As much as we might not like to admit it, not every band is perfect. For every great album that they might put out in their tenure, every musician is going to have some setbacks along the way, whether that means having the group’s lineup change every now and again or their label trying to get them to conform to whatever they want them to do. It’s a hard business to succeed in, and not even some of the best artists of all time were prone to a little bit of problems here and there.

Although each of these bands definitely have their fair share of highlights, their second step up to the plate did leave more than a little to be desired, either not having the same punch as their earlier record or not necessarily capturing the same kind of groove that they had set up the first time around. While some of them may be looked back on fondly these days by the hardcore fans, these albums either got torn to ribbons or were completely forgotten about later on down the line, with the band notching up one classic after another shortly after these records came out.

The benefit of hindsight isn’t exactly doing the album any favors here either, with the band’s legacy for making one amazing album after another just making these records look a little bit dull by comparison. You can’t really blame these guys for striking out this one time though. They were still trying to figure things out, and these records were the building blocks to something much better.

It almost seems like a mistake that we got a band as musically stacked as the Traveling Wilburys. Even though the whole thing started as a goofy track that George Harrison wanted to use for his album, the fact that it was too damn good for a B-side resulted in some of the giants of classic rock coming together, with The Quiet Beatle playing opposite to Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison. No one was expecting Orbison to be taken so soon though, and Vol. 3 is where you really start to feel his absence.

While the idea of naming your second album Vol. 3 is a decent dad rock joke for its time, most of this album feels a bit more underpolished than what we got on the band’s debut, sounding more like an impromptu jam session half the time. Although songs like Inside Out and She’s My Baby are definitely some highlights from the project, the rest of the guys just seem to be hoarding most of their really good songs for themselves, with Cool Dry Place being one of the dozier songs that Petty would contribute to the project.

Also, when you have someone like Petty, Jeff Lynne from ELO, and a damn Beatle in the band, how the hell is Dylan the one that sings most of these songs? While his wordplay might still be up to Dylan standards, songs like 7 Deadly Sins just sounds like your uncle strapping on his guitar for an impromptu singalong in your backyard. There might not have been too many expectations when the Wilburys first got together, but this is where they decided it would be better to stick with their own outfits.