Every huge artist has their "New Jersey" - a huge event album that ultimately feels a bit hollow & signals a career decline

and was Hotter Than July a huge event? he'd sort of let things cool down by putting out Secret Life of Plants. i think he doesn't have one. Key of Life is like Mellon Collie, where there may be some who think it sounds a bit hollow but far more who consider it the crowning glory on a rich and productive period, and then the followup is so obviously NOT "here's more of the same" that by the time they come "back," the stakes are lower. stevie was obv way more successful post-SitKoL than billy pumpkin was post-MCIS but whatever route their career decline took, it wasn't down the New Jersey Turnpike.

Regarding The Wall:

Floyd's The Final Cut went platinum in the USA & was #1 in the UK, I'll put it forward

― Euler, Tuesday, August 7, 2012 7:40 PM (six years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ILM is one of the few places where Key of Life isn't beloved.

re: Prince, I mostly agree with you about a lack of NJ but he kept a good sales level from 1999 to Symbol.
After Symbol he was over as a relevant mainstream star, though.

Painting 'Slave' on one's face has a way of doing that.

(In terms of corporate support behind singles, making albums events, etc.)

third stage is weird because of the time jump but as noted upthread it was a huge event

My enduring memory of this record is of hearing "Amanda" on the radio for the first time. After the song ended, there were several seconds of dead air -- extremely unusual for the biggest FM rock station in Chicago. The DJ finally came on and said, "We waited eight years for that?!"

We waited eight years for that
Like we did for Pat

AMANDA

We waited eight years for that
And the album landed splat
AMANDA

ILM is one of the few places where Key of Life isn't beloved.

― The Silky Veils of Alfred (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, September 4, 2018 8:10 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wait what? people on here don't like Songs in the Key of Life??

i think alfred's projecting on us

I am projecting a photo of the Talking Book sleeve.

Songs... is way too long. Innervisions and Talking Book are much better records.

it's hardly hollow though

SitKoL is too long but with so many great songs that it’s alright.
Talking Book is my favourite albums but Songs is right behind.
Anyway, one of the best albums ever can’t be a NJ, come on now !

SITKOL had massive singles and was his biggest seller, i really maintain a crucial part of NJs is that their initial success is primarily based on residual excitement from the album immediately preceding it, and the wait and buildup carrying over into the album's release and then being deflated. Which is why the perfect New Jersey is actually still probably Adrenalize, i remember the excitement at "Let's Get Rocked" fading very quickly into an empty feeling that it was all over for the Lep.

a crucial part of NJs is that their initial success is primarily based on residual excitement from the album immediately preceding it

yeah i agree w/this

I feel like Songs in the Key of Life was, before I even heard Stevie Wonder (outside of 80s radio songs), the one that I sort of read or heard about as a classic album

me too

yep

it's funny, every time i bring up SitKoL in this thread I'm explicitly stating it fails to be a NJ but it comes out wrong because like eighteen posts go by with people saying no way it's a NJ. to be clear, I like the album a lot and do not think it is a NJ!

New Jerseys i think are never albums that have a lasting legacy despite their massive sales. i think that is the purest distilled essence of a NJ album (though by no means its only definition, tbh.)

related: it was pretty funny when i went into Target a couple years ago and their new "vintage" rock shirts section included an Adrenalize tour shirt. i think the creative team back at HQ was missing a key member or two.

but different people have different ideas, like Doctor Casino constantly going on about SITKOL being a New Jersey

>_<

i am the new jersey to da croupier's slippery

whiney is dom's NJ imo

culture ii does not feel like a nj to me

really ?
To me it's like an obvious NJ case !

To be a New Jersey:
- follow-up to a huge, (possibly) defining record : check
- has less and/or smaller hits than prev album - or - hits based more on momentum than appeal : check
- brings with it the feeling that the NEXT record (if there is one) will see the bottom fall out (relatively speaking): check

But of course, as we've seen many times in this thread, this is not rocket science !

Lovesexy is Prince's surely. The Graffiti Bridge film didn't even get a Uk cinema release that's how bad things had got by then.

Yeah but then Batman, D&P and Love Symbol were big.
Love Symbol has his last mainstream hits.

So regarding the thread title, not EVERY huge artist has a NJ !

Lovesexy definitely his NJ
D&P and Symbol had some hits and sold but none of them really felt like zeitgeisty events (same way Bon Jovi had hits or at least one after NJ)

Yeah but regarding the NJ conditions, after Lovesexy there's Batman which was HUGE and then D&P which was his 2nd biggest album sales
I don't hink a NJ can be followed by some of the most successful albums of an artist...

also, Lovesexy followed Sign which wasn't more successful than the previous albums, so again, not a NJ condition.

@dyl

How do you figure CII isn't a New Jersey?

Batman and other albums may have been hits, but there was definitely the feeling that Prince's imperial period was over after Lovesexy

(same way Bon Jovi had hits or at least one after NJ)

Eight top 40 hits on Billboard post-New Jersey
Ten top 10 albums, not counting compilations, including four at #1

Batman and other albums may have been hits, but there was definitely the feeling that Prince's imperial period was over after Lovesexy

I totally agree but then it's only one of the conditions for a NJ. That's why I don't think it qualifies.

lotta king jersey only going on in this thread

Prince probably doesn't have a New Jersey.

I feel like if he did it would have to be Around the World in a Day

the Batman soundtrack was huge, but honestly I think that was part of the whole crazy pop culture phenomenon around that movie

yeah but tbf prince being selected to be part of that circus suggests he was still a huge event level artist. he doesn't have one imo.

re: CII, trying to evaluate an album just released this year is a fool's game. this thread was prompted by consideration of Born This Way during the leadup to ARTPOP but BTW's NJ-ness wasn't really verifiable until at least the release of Joanne and maybe later.

Wu Tang 'The W' (or maybe already 'Wu Tang Forever'?)

Yeah, Forever imo.
It was their biggest seller following the breakthrough but it all went downward quickly after that.

oooooh, Wu-Tang Forever might just be a candidate. fits at least the general outline - massive massive event that in hindsight feels more like a victory lap as they never really attained anywhere close to those heights again. the most successful later outings had at most one single that really made an impact (e.g. "got your money"). i wasn't listening to rap radio or BET super regularly in the late 90s/early 00s but i have the vague sense that the genre was going through shifts comparable to rock radio in the late 90s/early 00s, that may have left acts like the wu a little out of step? one of those "the genre/audience changed out from under them" scenarios, common to many NJ's. also the numbers are there - iirc, up to that point, killa beez had sold fifty gold, sixty platinum.

I posited shortly after he died that Batman itself was Prince's NJ, because it did "ultimately feel hollow" and the hits from it felt compromised even at the time. Graffiti Bridge confirmed those pessimistic expectations, and his subsequent smattering of '90s hits felt like a different, off-peak phase of his career.

If it's not Batman though, I'm fine with the idea of Prince not having a NJ.

Yeah actually it kinda works with Batman. Except Batman didn't surf on the momentum of the previous album's success...

But I guess the final consensus is that Prince doesn't have one.

Forever always seemed odd, as it was undeniably huge at the time but felt almost anti-commercial

looking at Prince certifications. It's so up and down--surprised that Lovesexy only went Gold and the two preceding albums were 1X Platinum

Batman went 2X Platinum, then Graffitti Bridge Gold, then D&P 2X Platinum

Wu-Tang Forever is actually fucking amazing, so many great songs on that