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

Heavy Nova has "Early in the Morning," another of his credible electro-R&B covers.

happy 35th to the original

Hah just remembered one restless night not too long ago deciding that Red Dwarf's Back in the Red was a UK TV New Jersey.

As you were.

cult acts have a different but similar arc involving albums that seemed like potential breakthroughs that weren't in hindsight, shit like that deserves its own thread

― da croupier, Tuesday, 7 August 2012 19:40 (eleven years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think Bossa gave the perception that they'd only likely be a marginal concern going forward, rather than breaking through into the mainstream.
In the slipstream of Doolittle, it kinda seemed anything was possible.

That WOULD be a nice separate thread.

― mr.raffles, Tuesday, 7 August 2012 19:43 (eleven years ago) bookmarkflaglink

If this never became its own thread it still should.

It also made me think of how Feeder's Pushing the Senses was their biggest album in the UK, or had the best first week sales anyway (made no. 2), and was the moment that they seemed to finally seemed to settle in the UK (Q are quoted on wiki as saying it could finally establish them as "major league players"). Whereas today it's 'the one that everyone bought and cannot remember why'. After their successive hits compilation, also a big hit, they fell off a cliff commercially forever. Only 'Feeling a Moment' survives - although I did hear all but forgotten top 5 lead single Tumble and Fall playing on the radio in a charity shop recently.

Feeder were utter shite

Their britrock brothers in christ Ash have something rarer - a genuine bouncing back album, where after having fell from grace after their moment had seemingly passed they went and made an album that was as big as their breakthrough, if not bigger, and crucially were made to be 'relevant' again, and achieved more one actual hit. Not that Ash ever were mega-MEGA sellers but that's a number one album we're speaking, to go with the one they had back in 1996. Larger-scale versions of this are Californication and American Idiot and maybe not much else. Born in the USA?

Oh and, on a similar level to Ash, Embrace's Out of Nothing

for failed intended breakthroughs, i was reminded of GVSB's freak*on*ica (mentioned upthread), but maybe it was the more common "indie act jumps to major label and faceplants" scenario.

"Indie" bounce backs similar to Embrace and Ash...

Blur Parklife (though this was already in process during the MLIR era)
The Charlatans S/T
Kaiser Chiefs Education
Suede Coming Up (DMS went gold but they were very much on the periphery relatively speaking by the end of that campaign)

Must be more?

Really great examples there. Although I'd argue Education cannot count as it was only as big as, say, Off with Their Heads. Charlatans' Britpop rebirth is a strong yardstick for this, particularly as it lasted a long time.

AM's AM is probably up there. And although it probably cannot count, the first Black Grape was Ryder's own bouncing back. Stanley Road-era Weller - numerous, still-famous hits prepping up his best-seller - is some sort of bouncing back except as only his third solo album there isn't a clear point before that you can point to except the wishy washy generalisation '80s Jam and mid-period Style Council'.

was ash’s bounce back album free all angels? nu-clear sounds completely smokes it, imo, especially the US edition with the shuffled track list and “a life less ordinary”

Yeah FAA abruptly (and probably quite unexpectedly) moved them back to the centre, following Shining Light and Burn Baby Burn (which, along with Girl From Mars, I feel are their three most famous in the UK). I do get the impression that, nicely for them, a lot of it honestly probably was down to just people - radio and the public - taking to those songs so much. Because was their initial profile or promotional gambit of the period necessarily any stronger than that which Nu-Clear Sounds had? I don't get the impression they were. (Nu-Clear Sounds has a distinct lack of obvious single material imo, but I guess for them it's the Dog Man Star to Free All Angels' Coming Up.)

I don't understand how Parklife could be considered a bounceback?

Parklife is really it's own thing where their own 1991 success became wholly overshadowed/steps to the main event.

It was success in 1991 though. A proper hit single

and

(idk how that happened)

Parklife was a bouceback because Blur were in the wilderness starting w "Bang". They basically lost all their casual fans (most of their fans would have been casual at this point)... then slowly gained new "real" fans when ppl twigged how enjoyable MLIR was. But that def took time. 1992 wasn't that fun of a year for them, I'd imagine?

The situation is similar to Radiohead in America (not the UK where the Bends was soon enough a bona fide hit)

(The somewhat odd thing with the Blur story is that Bang actually precedes Leisure by a month. Goodwill from TNOW wasn't enough to sustain another hit single but the album then went on to do fine.)

What's the situation like in the US with Heart? I'm looking at Bad Animals' performance and wondering if that could be one? Sure there's 'Alone' but even New Jersey has 'Bad Medicine' so I don't know if I'd be right to dismiss the notion solely on that.

Brigade would be a better one for Heart because it also had big hits and went 2x platinum but that was it for them - the next album sold far less and I'm not sure if many people remember it

Brigade's a good one.

the next album sold far less and I'm not sure if many people remember it

Has a very "It's 1993 and we're still relevant, damnit!" album cover.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81EgDFlwSbL._UF350,350_QL50_.jpg

After that they spend the next several years releasing live stuff (including a non-MTV 'unplugged' effort), compilations, and a Christmas album before their next proper studio album in 2004.

There's also The Lovemongers' Whirlygig, which is a Heart side-project that became their main band for a bit in 1997

Pink Friday 2

Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

― Mr. Snrub, Friday, 23 May 2014 19:13 (nine years ago) link

i dunno, isn't it at war with the mystics? yoshimi has "do you realize"

― i also enjoy in line skateing (spazzmatazz), Friday, 23 May 2014 19:18 (nine years ago) link

the yeah yeah yeah song from at war with the mystics did fairly well, yeah? no one remembers that one

― i also enjoy in line skateing (spazzmatazz), Friday, 23 May 2014 19:18 (nine years ago) link

glad someone beat me to this

If “Houdini”, “Training Season”, and “Illusion” are any indication, we might be looking at the single biggest New Jersey since New Jersey.

Was going to say "don't the singles have to be relatively successful for it to be an NJ?" then I checked and saw that the first two hit the top 10. Shocking.
This has felt floptastic from word go.

the only thing is the singles from Future Nostalgia did pretty well, so I don't expect this album to outperform (if that is a requirement for an NJ). Otherwise, it does feel like the jig is up. I enjoy "Training Season" but it's not a patch on any of the Future Nostalgia singles. and "Illusion" is a poor excuse for a single

i heard a dua song in public recently and thought "oh this must be one of her not-quite-a-hit songs that didn't really connect from a few years ago" (like "we're good" or "idgaf" or w/e -- yes i know the latter was an actual hit in the uk, but not here). the song turned out to be current (or should i say past) single "training season"

song is bad btw

idgaf is at 1.5 billion Spotify streams