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

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Liverpool. Or maybe even Welcome To The Pleasuredome, I remember the expectation around the album was huge but it seemed like a Grand Statement that fell pretty flat.

This is a UK thing btw.

it's actually a real accomplishment to get a New Jersey - a lot of bands miss their window and go straight to PROOF THINGS DONE CHANGED

^^^ this

hmm maybe downward spiral is the new jersey? but it's probably too good.

NIN wasn't really huge until that album, though

I feel like some people aren't getting that a New Jersey isn't a flop, and isn't an album that still makes Best of the Decade lists

I guess I could say Songs of Faith and Devotion? DM sales are kind of weirdly constant tho, esp in German-speaking countries

I think this theory explains many of the things I love about Born This Way. Being massively, zeitgeisty huge and still violently underrated and undervalued is tons of fun.

I feel like some people aren't getting that a New Jersey isn't a flop, and isn't an album that still makes Best of the Decade lists

Right, no one will admit to either liking it, even though they own or owned it.

either

Fairweather Motherfucking Johnson

Pearl Jam - Vs.

Afterburner is perfect - it was still a HIT ALBUM, but nobody loves it like Eliminator and by the next one the moment clearly passed. A key symptom of a New Jersey is to look at at the singles and see if you're surprised how high they charted.

Like say Cyndi Lauper's True Colors featuring the #3 hit "Change Of Heart"

Stankonia

Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

A "New Jersey" is a big album (sometimes huge) that is basically only big becuz it is cresting on the interia of the previous record.

If he didn't die..."In Utero" would have been Nirvana's "New Jersey"

excuse me, waiter, i specifically asked for no challops

Manic Street Preachers - This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours

Ha, but still, all my friends were kind of over Nirvana before he died! It's a great record though

xpost

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

Dancing on the Ceiling - Lionel Richie

― mr.raffles, Tuesday, 7 August 2012 1

yes

I'd think there was a Sting album that fit this criteria, but Ten Summoner's Tales is really one of his best and Mercury Falling was a commercial disaster.

Totally "The Final Cut", do people even know that record exists anymore?

A friend with whom I'm IM'ing said "Tunnel of Love" but that's not quite right

PE's Greatest Misses felt this way to me at the time, but I don't know what its sales were like.

Songs of Faith & Devotion is a good one. Not Rattle & Hum though - nobody would ever be under the impression that Joshua Tree had been supplanted. (that's the point, right? It looks for a while like the blockbuster's been beaten, then it ... just hasn't)

I thought of "Tunnel of Love" but yeah it's not quite right, a "New Jersey" isn't a flop exactly, more like no one realizes it is a flop until they've owned it for six months

Cheap Trick- Dream Police

You got killer single and George Martin- should have been their victory lap and it was popular but they had kinda lost something and the slide to the state fair starts.

oh I think R&H is a perfect example!

I gotta say, this is basically the perfect ILM thread

Tribe Called Quest - Beats, Rhymes, and Life

Like say Cyndi Lauper's True Colors featuring the #3 hit "Change Of Heart"

wtf are you talking about, that is not a surprise at all

surprising is seeing that "I Drove All Night" hit #6

Tribe Called Quest - Beats, Rhymes, and Life

omg this is super OTM

Blur - The Great Escape

True Colors also, erm, had a #1 single that unfortunately hasn't disappeared

We have different working definitions of "huge event album."

sorry I was not under the impression people still liked True Colors

cyndi's third album didn't even go gold so if True Colors is just too damn good an album to be a New Jersey she doesn't have one

Tusk was one of these, and then it got released

R.E.M. - Monster

Insanity itself -- it's obviously AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE, which seemed huge at the time, but let's face it, in retrospect, R.E.M. as a hitmaker is "the band who recorded Losing My Religion" not "the band who recorded Drive." It sold a lot of copies at the time, though.

people still rave about Automatic. I love Monster but the "#1 sold-back cd ever" thing is hard to ignore. Wish would qualify if Cure fans had abandoned it but I don't think that's the case.

eephus otm, and I'd never realised before

hit-wise you could talk about "the band who recorded Everybody Hurts"

Wish would qualify if Cure fans had abandoned it but I don't think that's the case.

This is the main reason why I said Wild Mood Swings

actually yeah croup is right about True Colors, insofar as it's a piece of shit that coasted on momentum, and you never hear "What's Going On" and "Change of Heart" anymore.

you do in my house, buddy

I want video of you and the misses slow dancing to "What's Going On"

The Verve - Urban Hymns

britpop rules this thread

It's obviously not Automatic but Monster seems wrong because people immediately hated that album.

Be Hear Now?