worst second song after the best first song

I was listening to Living Colour's "Vivid," and the album inexplicably slots the distant b-lister "I Want to Know" right after "Cult of Personality," which is nuts. What other albums start with such a strong track and immediately follow it with one of the weakest?

Don't mind 'Sexy Boy' really but for a while 20 years ago that felt quite a jarring descent after 'La Femme D'Argent' on Moon Safari.

Cornershop / Woman's Gotta Have It.

No. Title Length
1. "6am Jullandar Shere" 6:22
2. "Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu" 3:23

Wanna Be Starting Something to whatever the hell the second song on Thriller is

I will no longer stand idle against this "Baby Be Mine" slander.

I really like I Want to Know. I think its like a breath of fresh air after Cult of Personality and before they go back in on you with Middle Man > Desperate People > Open Letter.

gimme shelter -> love in vain

Protection –> Karmacoma

I wrote several posts about recent Echo & the Bunnymen albums in a thread about them recently, as much as I love 'em to bits their 2014 album Meteorites is a contender here: it opens with the amazing title track followed by the lesser track 'Holy Moses'. Luckily it picks up again afterwards.

Another obscure example: Roger McGuinn - Back from Rio. Starts very strong with 'Someone To Love', follows it up with the weakest track on the album: 'Car Phone'. One saving grace of the second song is that it features Kimmy Robertson in a voice segment in the end, and while that segment IS embarrassingly stupid, it's still Lucy from Twin Peaks.

xp i love karmacoma!

but do agree protection is a lot better ha

Protection –> Karmacoma

― stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Tuesday, September 11, 2018 6:06 AM (thirty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

pfffft

yeah wtf

I wasn’t expecting or intending for that selection to be controversial, lol

Here’s an alternate:

Tight Connection to My Heart –> Seeing the Real You at Last

I thought maybe Think Tank but alas "Crazy Beat" is track 3.

People often say "Frankly Mr Shankley" after "The Queen Is Dead", but I disagree, but hey.

Was going to say PSB 'Invisible' but listened and it's not terrible at all, just poor sequencing

Ultimate one for me is the instrumental Lola from The Kinks' otherwise brilliant Percy. I think this album's lack of good reputation comes from this pointless 5 minute version killing the momentum stone dead so early on. It's almost like the skip button was developed for this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwXXoz2YqF8

The Mekons - Trouble Down South from Fear & Whiskey, coming off the tremendous opener Chivalry.

"Love is the Drug" -> "End of the Line"

I don't hate "End," but it's so dreary and wheezy after the rush of "Love."

After Love King, Make Up Bag immediately announces that this is going to be a spotty album. FILA almost saves the flow, but then 9 minutes of Sex Intelligent proves the point.

Hmm, "Sweetest Perfection" is pretty weak coming after "World in My Eyes."

Crimson & Clover -> Kathleen McArthur is pretty bad.

since we have a kate bush thread going, The Kick Inside

specifically "Moving" => "The Saxophone Song"

Love Is The Drug is *the* song with the greatest difference in quality between its start and its ending. It's like 10/10 down to 2/10. After that End Of The Line fits in pretty well.

Like JiC, Living Colour was the first thing I thought of upon seeing thread title. But I'm also inclined to mention Blue Oyster Cult following up "This Ain't the Summer of Love" with "True Confessions" - not a bad song, just one that feels out-of-place and anomalous.

shine on you crazy diamond (i-iv) > welcome to the machine

Synchronicity 1 -> Walking In Your Footsteps

xp
Hard to wrap my head around loving just certain parts of that album; it’s such an aesthetic totality

roundabout > cans and brahms

Creedence Clearwater Revival, Cosmo's Factory

The megaclassic Ramble Tamble is followed by Before You Accuse Me, a decent Bo Diddley cover but nothing special.

Moonjock -> Today's Supernatural on AC's Centipede Hz. The former is one of the best songs they've ever recorded, the latter is a joke and the only AC song I actively dislike. Embarrassing self-parody.

Oh, if we're doing mega-classics into decent covers, I'll nominate London Calling :) But I kinda like that move.

roundabout > cans and brahms

was thinking about this one but I always thought of Fragile as a 4-track album with a bunch of interludes. that is some whiplash-inducing sequencing though

I guess "I Talk to the Wind" is another example of this, not that it's a bad song at all, but the first time I heard it all I could think was "are you kidding me?". I mean that was the first time I'd ever heard "Schizoid Man"...

On Pulp's We Love Life, I always thought Weeds II was such a mood killer after such a great opener. I'd often end up skipping it to get to Minnie Timperley which gets things back on track.

NEW ORDER - POWER, CORRUPTION & LIES

The album is a bit of an incohesive mess but it opens with one of my favorite New Order songs and one of the best opening songs of all time imho and then follows up with We All Stand which is a flop.

Get outta here, We All Stand is great

theres a thread for this

Skronking "Schizoid Man" into pastoral "I Talk..." is clever sequencing though, so clever they did it again on the next album too.

On Pulp's We Love Life, I always thought Weeds II was such a mood killer after such a great opener. I'd often end up skipping it to get to Minnie Timperley which gets things back on track.

― kitchen person, Tuesday, September 11, 2018 1:04 PM (thirty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

was thinking of posting this one too actually

I like Trouble Down South a lot, it's unnerving and I think the experimental elements work, even if it’s less than subtle.

Very subjective, likely depending on your ranking of CSN(Y) members, their first two albums might qualify. Both start with a groovy Stills song followed by a cheesy Nash song.

(For the record, while Nash is clearly my least favourite, I do think his 'Cathedral' is probably their very best song.)

On Pulp's We Love Life, I always thought Weeds II was such a mood killer after such a great opener. I'd often end up skipping it to get to Minnie Timperley which gets things back on track.

― kitchen person, Tuesday, September 11, 2018 1:04 PM (thirty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Think this is the consensus view, however I really like Weeds II, think the spoken word pieces are something you're either into or not, and I love them, think 'Space' is their best opener. Otoh Minnie Timperley is one of my favourite tracks of all time, so yeah.

Geto Boys: Fuck 'Em All -> Size Ain't Shit (any track would look embarrassing after such a huge opener, but Size Ain't Shit is... shit, and the worst song on Geto Boys))

oh, I got a big one. Pink Floyd THE WALL. "In the Flesh?" is one of the best riffs ever, a fantastic theme piece for a double album, followed by the turgid and momentum killing "The Thin Ice." The sequencing on that record makes no fucking sense.

That is so wrong, "The Thin Ice" is great and makes perfect sense where it sits on the record. You can accuse Waters of many things but an instinctive sense of what works as far as dynamics and sequencing is not one of them.

Thought I couldn't stand The Wall any more but heard The Thin Ice recently and was struck by great it was

Very subjective, likely depending on your ranking of CSN(Y) members, their first two albums might qualify. Both start with a groovy Stills song followed by a cheesy Nash song.

― Valentijn, Tuesday, September 11, 2018 2:47 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh this makes me think of Stills Young band which starts with Long May You Run and then goes into the "jazzy" Stills tune Make Love to You.

yeah, if we're going to talk about shit songs on pink floyd's "the wall" the thin ice belongs nowhere near that list

Never sure about how I feel about this track. Musically to me it's quite unpleasant but can't imagine the album without it. Definitely creates a very odd mood so early on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZItWvebsXc

Janie Jones -> Remote Control

Totally down with "Weeds II" and "We All Stand" as examples of this, though the latter is not terrible. This is a phenomenon that forever comes to my attention, but can't think of the really stinky examples right now. Just instances where the second track is probably the least best track on LPs I hold dear, such as Talking Heads' "Mind" and Galaxie 500's "Tell Me".