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

Real Madrid 2018 Champions League?

Neymar is PSG’s New Jersey

Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride

Can't believe I didn't think of this earlier, it's a classic New Jersey

Time will tell but good call

hmm. They've never had a million selling record right?

And the 6 year gap between records is a complicating factor

We almost have to retire this phrase because "hits" in the traditional sense don't exist anymore

I mean sales are just different but they are a popular band, they just sold out the same arena as Billy Eilish and 1975 in my town

Speaking of which: A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships.

no

fwiw I looked on Wiki and every VW album is platinum or gold, three albums in a row debuted at no. 1 which is pretty impressive for a rock band now

Ok but it was called a “classic New Jersey” and clearly it isn’t

modern vampires of the city is a better fit

I still think we must retire the term unless it's for pop superstars like Drake.

objection overruled

bastinato for you

you guys are basically arguing with L Ron Hubbard about Scientology

Battlefield Earth was Hubbard’s NJ

By the time MISSION earth came out everyone knew the game was up

Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride

Can't believe I didn't think of this earlier, it's a classic New Jersey

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

I agree that nothing should be labelled a New Jersey until its follow-up is out.

Yeah without a follow-up, it's hard to tell if an album is a NJ or not.
As for FOTB, it's far from being ma favourite of theirs (VW/MVOTC first, depending on the mood, then FOTB then Contra) but it's very good and it seems it's quite popular and most of the VW fans love it so it doesn't feel like a NJ to me.

yeah, i think for many people this is their favorite release of theirs. On top of that, they're trying a bunch of new things on it, so I don't really see it as the creative stagnation coasting on momentum that for me NJs have been about.

y'all watch

Might be too early to say, but I feel like reputation will ultimately be a New Jersey.

― triggercut, Wednesday, August 29, 2018 6:39 AM (nine months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hmm

not a bad prediction

Tonight when my daughter wasn't coming up from the basement to get ready for bed, I blasted "Bad Medicine" to flush her out.

You = cool dad

I 100% stand by my Culture II vote for New Jersey status. Follow-up or no.

Yeah Culture II might be a good one. But was it big enough, though ?
Or just the second album of a band/artist that had a big first album and then (more or less) vanished ?
Maybe a NJ requires a more established act than one like Migos.

it didn't have anything as big as "bad and boujee" but it felt just as big as its forerunner if not bigger? like if you tallied up streams and spins and all that shit i wouldn't be surprised if it actually outdid culture

even suggesting that migos 'vanished' after culture is absolutely preposterous

like, are you all misremembering culture as being significantly bigger than it actually was? i just am not understanding the disconnect here

if you tallied up streams and spins and all that shit i wouldn't be surprised if it actually outdid culture

Cause it has twice as many tracks.

if we're setting arbitrary rules for what is and is not a new jersey then "all/most of the members immediately pursued solo projects in lieu of making the next album" would seem to be a good disqualifier

didn't Jon Bon Jovi release a solo album after New Jersey?

(with that "wanted dead or alive" song)

it’s extremely balsy to break from the band NAMED AFTER YOURSELF for a solo project

Silverfish gets it. The same swaggering hubris that creates a NJ also enables substandard solo lps.

dyl - I'm agreeing with you that Culture II was just as big or bigger than Culture (just like a New Jersey!), but, their solo records that followed flopped (worse than Jon Bon Jovi's that followed NJ) and there's zero sense of event about a Migos release or solo feature at this point. If their next album does HALF the numbers that Culture II did, it'll be a real surprise and victory for them.

"Position to Win" didn't even hit 5 mill plays on Spotify! An act on top of their game does that in their sleep.

none of the solo migos records have ever done particularly well

Cause it has twice as many tracks.

the relationship between the number of tracks and the amount of streams a project gets over the course of its commercial life has been vastly exaggerated by 'death of the album'-type coverage. the effect, when it does exist, is concentrated on the first week the record comes out, when more die-hards are listening. even if you restrict your focus to the biggest 3 or 4 tracks from each, culture ii is easily on the same level as culture

there's zero sense of event about a Migos release

i will concede that this is somewhat true, altho i wouldn't go as far as to say 'zero'

idk for me a new jersey is an album that lands with a big splash but does well but ultimately fails to have the kind of legs the predecessor(s) did and gives one the sense that the act will never quite reach those heights again. even if the artist's cultural footprint seems to have weakened somewhat, an album that does basically the same numbers as the predecessor doesn't really fit the bill imo! tswift's reputation and paula abdul's spellbound are new jerseys -- culture ii is not.

This thread is so mammoth, it’s interesting to pick a search term like “Monster” or “Eminem,” and track it all the way thru.

I think the truer definition of NJ is that the New Jersey 100% does the business (or very close to it) that its predecessor did. Like... New Jersey! haha The come down is when the NEXT album is released.

I'll concede that there isn't ZERO sense of event. Truth. Let's just say that Culture II was eagerly awaited, and the next one is something ppl aren't really thirsty like that for.

I think Bob Dylan’s “Desire” album fits the bill. It came out near the peak of his sales, right after an iconic album, sold well but presaged a big drop on the next album, and has since fallen considerably in critical estimation.

actually, Desire sold even better than BOTT.

So that’s a point in its favor, no?

The problem with Desire as an NJ is that you still hear its singles out & about. Once I heard «  One more cup of coffee » at a Burger King in Shinjuku.

Sorry to derail but:

didn't Jon Bon Jovi release a solo album after New Jersey?

(with that "wanted dead or alive" song)

"Wanted Dead Or Alive" was the third single from Slippery When Wet

(You're thinking of "Blaze of Glory", which was also on the Young Guns II soundtrack)

bob dylan's career is too long and winding for any one album to be considered a NJ

Street-Legal is the only Dylan studio album to go platinum in the UK. Now that would be a Dylan NJ...

Been thinking that, despite "Work It", 'Under Construction' could be Missy's NJ.

I like The Cookbook too much to get on board with that.