Biggest falls from grace
Not in terms of popularity per se, but more a thread for critical mauling.
In light of p4k absolutely eviscerating POP ETC with a 2.5 (The Morning Benders, iirc, got a BNM in 2010), what other examples are there of a band getting absolutely savaged with a follow-up to a well-received record? It has to be at the time, not in retrospect (see: Be Here Now getting 9/10 by NME on release etc)
I guess /\/\/\Y/\ was pretty awful next to Kala and was correctly called out for it.
- Relevant artist taggings:
- Black Kids »[x]
- Razorlight »[x]
- M.I.A. »[x]
- Klaxons »[x]
- Keane »[x]
- Duffy »[x]
- Glasvegas »[x]
- Franz Ferdinand »[x]
- The Killers »[x]
- Kaiser Chiefs »[x]
- Travis »[x]
- The Streets »[x]
- MGMT »[x]
- Jamie T »[x]
- The Zutons »[x]
- Snow Patrol »[x]
- Jeff Buckley »[x]
- The Ting Tings »[x]
- Sam Sparro »[x]
- The Kooks »[x]
- Weezer »[x]
- Hard-Fi »[x]
- The Big Pink »[x]
- Ladyhawke »[x]
- Boards of Canada »[x]
- Sweet Jane Andrews Lane Theatre Saturday October 17th @ 10.30pm »[x]
- CSS »[x]
- Peter Bjorn and John »[x]
- Radiohead »[x]
- In Photos: Kaiser Chiefs, Black Kids and Esser
- The Insider: How To Get Your Band Tipped
- Calm down... Liverpool Music Week kicks off
- Shake, rattle, rock and roll: LA quake could've claimed Black Kids
- Black Kids at The Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Wed 02 Jul
- Black Kids at The Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Wed 02 Jul
- Black Kids to play free London show
- Chart round-up: Elephants, Foxes, Ne-Yo
Black Kids
Razorlight
M.I.A.
Klaxons
Keane
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Obvs, but Black Kids.
Where are they now?
hahaha oh yes Black Kids
for a critical collapse to occur before there's even a follow-up...wow
My sister gave me a Black Kids T-shirt for my Birthday about 4 years ago.
Incidentally, it has lasted longer than the band.
Has anyone else had merch that has lasted longer than the band?
Pretty sure my Kinesis t-shirts did
Razorlight headlined a festival in Pontefract the other week
Pontefract is fucking shit
It's actually quite astonishing now to think how big Razorlight actually were.
Back in 2006/2007, they were genuinely one of the biggest bands in the country. Headlined Leeds/Reading, for fuck's sake.
Way to go with that third record...
you should've seen the rest of the lineup
it was the contents page from the NME in 2007. Pretty sure The Whip and Blood Arm were second headliners
Big enough to play Live 8 and it not feel ridiculous.
Quite a few "where are they now?" names on that lineup, mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_8_concert,_London
like who?!
Lenny Henry?
(I was joking)
I'm not having that
Pontefract is ok. It's got an ace castle and a sweet factory.
It's far too good for Razorlight.
bollocks
it's shit, it's only cause Castleford is next door it looks any good
That could be the town motto
Pontefract: It may be bad, but it's still too good for Razorlight
Chris Cornell
/\/\/\Y/\ is underrated.
It's really really not
Klaxons
nah, Klaxons' follow-up didn't get that bad reviews
they fell from popularity but not out of critical favour as fast
in terms of popularity though
Klaxons have fallen so far down its unreal. They played the Ruby Lounge in Manchester last time they toured whereas they were packing out the NME stage as headliners a few years back
bamnan
Critical garlands thrown his way on his first release, now you never even hear about him
His album of Sonic the Hedgehog themes was massively underrated
Glasvegas
Duffy
Shane from Westlife (bankrupt)
not really to do with critical appraisal when we're talking about Westlife...
I liked that article and read it at the time.
That's what made me think of Glasvegas and Duffy (above).
That Diet Coke ad with Duffy!
JFC! I never saw it before. :'D
That Pop Etc album is shit though
Nothing like the Morning Benders used to sound. More like Owl City crossed with Beiber.
shudder.....
I haven't heard any of their music and I don't know why...
..but as soon as I read the band name and the email marketing release from Rough Trade, I winced. I will give it a go, though.
....or maybe I won't.
Don't.
Travis?
I mean I still like 'em. But their million selling double of The Man Who - The Invisible Band... to their independtly released Ode to J. Smith.
Travis were a fucking TERRIBLE band.
Dull musically, oh so dull personally. The Man Who's popularity was utterly soul-destroying for anyone who actually liked music.
The Mumfords of their day?
No way.
Travis may have been vanilla, but they didn't come across as such utter bellends in the way Mumford & Sons do.
Jeff Buckley
Released Grace, then had a big fall into a river.
Genius.
cheers.
spectacular
cheers.
:D:
cheers.
Praise be!
You have done it, Jordan! YOU HAVE DONE IT!
cheers.
lol
He didn't fall in though did he?
That's a long list.
Take a mercury or nme nominations list and look where they are now.
The majority are in the bin and we don't even realise.
What happened to Gandhi?
He made one good film, then nothing
In 1992
I saw Carter USM headline Glastonbury. On the Pyramid stage. In 1997 (I think) I saw them play a club in Bournemouth to about 60 people. Seemed like ages apart at the time, but seriously, 5 years from that to that.
yeah but the fact they headlined Glastonbury to begin with was a bit of a weird one
even at the height of their popularity, they were never really at THAT level
and now they sell out Brixton Academy again
swings and roundabouts
I still really, really rate 'A Grand Don't Come For Free'
But aside from that...dear lord, yes.
OPM's first album was awesome
IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE
apparently they had a second..
one of the skinny guys was replaced by a big fat guy..
I have no shame in admitting I loved that first album, its was perfect summery pop with naughty words.
Mumford and Sons
On their second album.
Wasn't Travis Morrison of The Dismemberment Plan the famous P4k one?
To the extent that they even put something in their FAQ about it for a while.
The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
10.0
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14979-emergency-i-vinyl-reissue
Travis Morrison - Travistan
0.0
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5607-travistan/
the final secret track on Travistan ('Represent')
is one of my favourite things he's done
that said, the rest of that album IS a bit of a mess
Smashing Pumpkins
Liz Phair
Weezer
Patrick Wolf
All of them had very promising/exciting early output and then turned shit
Smashing Pumpkins
and Weezer are still huge though
Did you read the first post? Or are you just trolling
Also I liked Patrick Wolfs new output, excluding The Bachelor
And for the most part so do critics
Lupercalia is dross
Bachelor and Magic Position were uneven at most, can't compare them to the first two recods
Magic Position
is Wolf's masterpiece
Hurley was a good album btw
Happy Mondays
1990 - the height of Madchester. Step On & Kinky Afro both top 5 singles. Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches album of the year in both NME & Melody Maker.
Fast forward to 1992 & the recording sessions of the follow-up album in the Barbados turned into a notorious crack-fest frenzy and played a big part in bankrupting Factory later that year. That, along with the fact the resulting album Yes Please! was terrible.
Yes Please!
No thanks!
:)
Radiohead
Had that "I'm a Creep" song, then just seemed to vanish.
I gues people just weren't ready for songs without drums in
the vines
But , they were ever good?
Yes they were.
they were critically adored when they first came out in '02.
this site gave their album a 9/10. rave reviews and front cover appearances in nme, rolling stone, etc.
then franz ferdinand happened and the vines got slapped out.
they got such mental hype when they came out
NME and shit were calling the singer the lovechild of John Lennon and Kurt Cobain
they once did a feature about his watch
memorable times, the noughties.
Hard-fi
Huge top ten band. The third album came out and sunk without a trace. Can't believe you can fall that fast in 3 albums. Also The Big Pink, even though I don't think the new one was that bad it landed with a thud, no one bought it and now it's like they never existed.
They fell like dominos
And by that I do of course mean pizza
A top top story about Hard Fi
Glastonbury 08 I think, they were the secret guest on the Leftfield stage. No one came, so their management had people walking round the crowd going *OH MY GOD THE PRODIGY ARE DOING A SECRET SET AT LEFTFIELD RIGHT NOW!!!!!!*
That is actually 100% true
One of them came up to me by the Bread and Roses bar and said exactly that. I queried it and they admitted "Nah, but it's Hard Fi. And they're bang on form mate"
I ignoreed them. I don't regret it.
no one ever gave a fuck about the big pink really though did they?
the entire thing was made of hype.
their first album was very good
I thought.
I'm also a little amazed at how the new Ladyhawke
has been received. One of the most exciting new voices in music then everyone shrugged when Anxiety came out and she's on her way to oblivion. Strange.
There are few problems:
1. "Anxiety" is less strong than her debut. It's really hard to follow an amazing first album like "Ladyhawke". I give a 7/10 rating.
2. The album was delayed a lot by her label. The album leaked few months ago before official release.
3. "Black White & Blue" is a good first single, but the second one ("Sunday Drive") is her weakest song ever. She should release "Cellophane" or "Anxiety" as second single.
4. There are less synths and more guitars on Anxiety, but the songs are less developed than any song from her debut.
I love Ladyhawke and I hope that she will return with a new album as soon as possible (not another 4 years).
She traded in her glorious pop sound
for a subpar britpop
With the exception of 'Black White & Blue' I found the album to be utter dross! Such a let down :(
Tapes'n'Tapes
Remember how SUDDENLY everyone loved them, in either 2005 or 2006?? Really, really bizzarre, I even remember the BBC showing their set at Reading Festival on the telly, despite the fact that no-one had heard of them a month earlier! And then they disappeared as quickly as they arrived. And no wonder- what an utterly bland band.
The BBC always focus on bizarre bands at Glasto/other festivals though.
Usually because they're on the 'Sound of' polls and they're trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Happened particularly acutely with VV Brown.
nah, The Loon was a good album.
Haven't enjoyed much else they've done, mind you.
Clor
Hotly tipped then tipped off the map (not to mention broke up)
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Were darling with that first album. Had some friends see them headlining in a basketball stadium last fall and only 15 other people were there.
yep, this is a strong example
and: ouch!
Sorry, I loved the first couple of tracks but that first record was rubbish.
A total disappointment and they've done nothing to justify their place in the modern canon. Kinda surprised they're still going if I'm honest.
Nah
it was good
Trail Of Dead
Source Tags regularly gets 'best album of the 90s' type accolades.
Then Worlds Apart came out.
<whispers> I prefer Worlds Apart </whispers>
I didn't mean 90s.
I mean 90s. I meant 00s.
Am I fucking drunk or something?
(I am not drunk)
yeah but again
Trail of Dead are still really popular. They've only had one duff album, So Divided. They were never going to reach the aclaim of Source Tags and Codes with anything they ever did
Umm
From 10/10 to 4/10
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/178-source-tags-and-codes/
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/182-worlds-apart/
last one got 7.2
and Conrad keely said himself Worlds Apart was them believing their own hype
jesus don't get butthurt
from one album to the next, ...Trail Of Dead took a massive plunge in critics' estimations. exactly what the OP said
I have no idea why anyone would put Source Tags & Codes above Madonna.
I mean, it has some great songs on it but it also has Beaudelaire and one other terrible one (which is either Monsoon or Heart in the Hand...).
both of which are fantastic
especially Heart...
Really like Worlds Apart as well
cheers
Yeah
World Apart was great. The next one was not so.
I will stick up for So Divided!
...TOD are a band I'll never really bang on about, because I don't think they've ever released a 10/10 album, but pretty much every single record they've ever done has been 8/10, with individual tracks pushing 9 - a pretty noble career
My favourite song of theirs is Luna Park, which is a really bizarre choice I know but fuck me that song hits the spot
Their latest album 'Tao of the Dead'
Is the best mix of psych/prog-rock and indie since Mansun's 'Six'. Make of that opinion what you will.
critical appraisal, not commercial performance
though I guess the former is true to a lesser extent than the latter
I'd say the former is true far more so than the latter,
as most small critically acclaimed flavour of the month bands don't shift many records in the first of place...
fair in a sense
I suppose the difference between, say, Memory Tapes and Klaxons from 1st to 2nd album critically is roughly similar whereas commercially Klaxons (as verified by that Guardian article) took a 90% dip in sales. Even though the second Memory Tapes album got pretty average reviews I can't see it divebombing like that!
But yeah, Klaxons went platinum in the first place
ah I see what you mean with 'small'
I guess The Pigeon Detectives are the Cast of the 00s etc
I still like 'K'
It's got some jams on it.
Analogies with the mid-90s and Britpop don't work as well for me.
I think music criticism/journalism has improved a lot over the last 15 years. Remember when Blur played Mile End and were the first band of their generation to play a venue of that size?
In the 90s there was this BIG push to make British Music massive. Everyone was obsessed with 'break the US' like the Beatles had, but obviously it had to be on our terms, so Bush or Seal weren't really cared about (in the case of Bush they were shit so fair enough).
But I think this drove a ridiculous false wave of everyone promoting bands that were fairly rubbish to make this whole Brit Pop thing happen. People actually gave a shit about the Brit Awards, I mean really REALLY thought they had some importance. I don't think that in that atmosphere a lot of reviews should be seen as honest critical opinion that looked at what the music was really about.
Obviously people will always be swayed by what's current but I think at least bands like the Klaxons were doing stuff that was great in a 'scene' that happened to get popular. Whereas Cast, Kula Shaker, etc. were doing pretty average stuff in a genre that never really went away.
tl;dr. Sorry.
Placebo aren't Britpop though
And their first few albums were/are great
...
I'd say they were arguably in the group of bands that were made big by Britpop and were played alongside those bands more than alongside US bands in terms of radio stuff.
Radiohead didn't really do well out of it at all.
I think one of the reasons they ended up 'on top' was that they were largely ignored. Yeah, you got some Bends tracks played in clubs occasionally but actually they are all fairly slow and odd so they weren't great for dancing too, and the whole feel of their songs was very different to the upbeat, immediate, 'being a student'/'British teenager'/etc. ethic that really marked out all the Britpop bands in one way or another.
Until OKC you could still buy tickets to see Radiohead playing somewhere tiny in Manchester pretty much on the night of the gig. Other Britpoppers played bigger venues and sold much quicker.
15 minutes, remember?. And P4k isn't the standard bearer for cool shit
Pompous indie fucks.
Anyway, most of today's acts have no sustaining value. That's why they do all these half-assed collabs with other here-today-gone-tomorrows.
Who has lasting power: Gaga? Rhianna? That lot? See - who cares! It's all different nowadays! Quit putting pitchfork on a pedestal.
have a cup of tea and a sit down
The Kooks
Yes I know, arguably they were never good in the first place. I will probably get ripped apart for saying this but I actually really liked the first album. There were some great pop songs on it. The second one was terrible though. I've never before or since come across a record so bad it could cancel out everything I liked about a band.
Their debut was quite good.
she moves in her own way is still a really cute song.
i'm sorry but it really, really isn't
Don't particularly like the first record, but it's a great shout.
They were BIG in 2006/2007. And then Konk utterly flopped.
Probably because it was called KONK
who the fuck calls an album KONK?
....should've called it "KRAP"
CSS
Talked about loads, big slots at festivals... the last album was more or less completely ignored. Erm, I don't own it either.
You should.
And one of the best gigs I've been to in recent tunes, too.
Cooper Temple Clause
might fit this bill....their first album was huge....their last album abysmal
The Darkness
Fell pretty damn hard.
Lead singer failing to win votes on Song for Europe was one of the saddest things I've ever seen.
Unfairly hyped and unfairly derided.
They were never a big band and to be fair, they never asked to be.
They were a great novelty band for whom it just got out of hand. The backlash was bound to come.
Having said that, their T in the Park 2004 headliner was awesome. Sheer good fun and I loved it. Regardless of being overblown, I loved them then. No shame, just a good fun band.
Iirc
The Darkness had slogged at it and built up a decent fanbase before they became flavour of the month. Then things just blew up for them when the media latched on. After which, they seemed to just implode under the weight of expectation.
Dunno. I never really liked 'em (apart from their Xmas single).
Peter, Bjorn and John
I know they'd done two other albums before Writers Block, but they had a proper mainstream hit with Young Folks, and then the album was pretty good and definitely set them up for a more defined sound and possible career than the sound of Young Folks suggested. But then what happened to them? Not much.
Gimme Some was one of my fave albums of last year.
As Paul Draper would probably tell you himself
the answer is Mansun, and for reasons pretty much entirely beyond his control
When your main songwriter cuts his fingers to shreds and can't play guitar anymore. You're boned.
Is it too early to say this about Florence
...'+' her 'Machine?'
sadly not
she's just as popular as ever :((((
i think it's just that, with her second album, she fully moved away from NME indie etc and into MOR coffee table stuff, so we kinda hear less of her in a way.
Not while she's still making waves in America and getting on soundtracks...
I actually have no problem with the first record apart from the hamfisted addition of that "You've Got The Love" cover at the end of a mostly melancholic record.
But the second record is dull and fundamentally, she will struggle to maintain a career when she simply cannot sing in tune live. Live performances are arguably more important than ever and she can't do it. If record sales equated to festival bills she'd be doing a hell of a lot more than she is. Second album or poor live; it doesn't bode well.
Summed up...
She'll make plenty now and in the next two years, but there's no longevity now, unless she can pull a brilliant third record out.
she's from old money
she'll probably retire in a couple of years and forge some sort of hobby "career" writing children's books or something, and just appear as an occasional tv personality or something.
Martin Grech
Open Heart Zoo was universally loved (wasn't it?), then Unholy bombed critically and commercially, and I've never heard of the pretty little self-harmer ever since.
Shame, he was ever so pretty.
Kind of liked his third album
It was nice.
if people had heard anything but the title track his debut wouldn't have done well anyway
still reckon it's a great album mind.
Here's a something saucy
Texas's 1999 album The Hush
Sexualized bubblegum pop influences doesn't do them justice.
The Farm
Huge top 10 hits in 1990 & 1991 to being bottled off stage at Reading in 1992.
Gary Glitter
I suppose in critical terms The Stone Roses
the drop-off from the debut to Second Coming was pretty enormous. That said, it did take forever and their legacy remains.
The House of Love
which albums
they all had pretty good reviews didnt they?
Simple Minds
Andy Bell
Peter Hook
Michael Barrymore.
Samantha Mumba
I used to fancy her. I miss her.
Give me a break with this Pitchfork! Very overrated site. I don't trust their bloated crappy reviews.
Also they don't have the influence they used to be.
I admit sometimes they're fun.
PS: the latest No Doubt album is actually good.
But what's the point in
Pitchfork reviewing these...? They will be pandering to their demographic and assessing them along the lines of what they THINK their readership wants to read, i.e. scathing diatribes to make Pitch4kers feel like they're truly "against ver system, man".
People that actually want to know what these albums are like will go to The Guardian, Q, Rolling Stone, Spin, etc.
These kind of sites like to destroy popular albums
They feel superior because they don't listen the same music as the masses... Hipsters.
PS I mean sites like Pitchfork
NOT The Guardian, Q, Rolling Stone, Spin, etc.
When Will pushed her down the stairs
?
Get nominated for a Mercury and weeks later are butchered by the London Metropolitan Elite on Pitchfork.
No-one will even admit to having heard of them by the time the Mercurys come around, "Yeah, I think they might be the token jazz entry or something?"
so that was meant to be Alt-J
serves me right for trying to be a proper triangle wanker.
Cooper Temple Clause
They might fit this category- huge hits then ended w/ a huge shit :(
Warren G.