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

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