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

someone should have told spin

also u2

a lot of people in 1991 missed that the pixies were in decline

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.

Skimming 180+ posts, has anyone said Autoamerican? And does it qualify? Boatloads of people bought it for "Rapture," but many of my early-adopter Blondie-loving friends couldn't really hang with the lounge jazz or the pretensions of a lot of it.

Tool - Lateralus

any album from this list of albums that sold less than half of their predecessors, including Filth Pig, should probably be out of contention: commercially disappointing major label rock/alternative albums of 1996

Janet Jackson's last blockbuster from her 5 album run of being huge, All For You, probably deserves a mention

I was trying to do Billy Joel, but I'm stymied by the fact that his last two records, which I think of as well past the point where he was at all relevant, were both massive hits and went to #1.

xpost Totally! Can't believe I didn't think of that one.

I'm stymied by the fact that his last two records, which I think of as well past the point where he was at all relevant, were both massive hits and went to #1.

That's part of the definition for being a New Jersey. That they were actually massive in every way but relevance.

Storm Front's singles have too much staying power to count, and River Of Dreams might be disqualified for not having a follow-up

Janet Jackson is a slightly unfair case because IMO what actually torpedoed her career was having Justin Timberlake expose her breast piercing to everyone watching the Superbowl halftime show rather than everyone deciding that everything was over when All For You came out, plus the placement for the singles off of it isn't really surprising/shocking

it also didn't help that large chunks of Damita Jo were terrible

Yeah, sad as it is I think "We Didn't Start The Fire" and "This is the Time" are both part of BJ's permanent record.

Surely Load is the Metallica entry. Loads of hype, huge event, biggest first week seller of the year (and Metallica's career), and then people listened to the thing and went "...eh." It's not a bad album but the magic is gone, and everything since has been awful.

I was trying to do Billy Joel, but I'm stymied by the fact that his last two records, which I think of as well past the point where he was at all relevant, were both massive hits and went to #1.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, August 7, 2012 1:50 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

billy joel is kind of weird because he was very popular in multiple decades and sort of distinctive eras....like the "Uptown Girl: A Tribute to 80's Billy Joel" joke in Step Brothers....

it's like, if Graceland existed in a vacuum in Paul Simon's career, Rhythm of the Saints might be a New Jersey, but obviously you'd have to ignore the rest of his career....

but yeah Use Your Illusion 1 & 2 is sort of so accurate to this thread I'm shocked it took that long to get posted, and why didn't I think of that?

how about "the next Fun. album"

it is an endless source of amusement to me that Billy Joel has an album called Storm Front

I keep wanting to googleproof the name

Janet Jackson is a slightly unfair case because IMO what actually torpedoed her career was having Justin Timberlake expose her breast piercing to everyone watching the Superbowl halftime show rather than everyone deciding that everything was over when All For You came out, plus the placement for the singles off of it isn't really surprising/shocking

it also didn't help that large chunks of Damita Jo were terrible

― keeping things contextual (DJP), Tuesday, August 7, 2012 2:53 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

i think the latter is key here -- the Justin thing didn't help but i don't really envision some scenario where Damito Jo was a success, none of those songs were ever gonna be chart-topping smash hits.

Oh btw I'll defer to a goon expert on this for a ruling but I feel like T.I. probably has a New Jersey but I'm not quite sure which one it is.

wouldn't the Velvet Rope be Janet Jackson's New Jersey?

re: Metallica - Load

I remember people being pretty much immediately disappointed with Load, which doesn't really fit the definition of a New Jersey.

xxxxxpost

T.I. Vs. T.I.P. would be a New Jersey in that it sold well without anyone really liking it or remembering the singles but then Paper Trail came next and was huge

incidentally i have a friend who, anytime Bon Jovi is mentions, says something about how huge New Jersey was and every time i'm like "uh pretty sure you mean Slippery When Wet"

Ha yes, the Use Your Illusions out-New Jersey New Jersey

could the new Rick Ross be his New Jersey or was that the last one?

I'm probably SO wrong, but for Janet, I'd probably go with "janet."

Looking at the list of singles on wiki, there's a lot of "eh?" there (for me)... and, in the US at least, her follow-up albums/singles didn't feel as effortlessly culturally relevant.

I feel like I believe this, but also feel like I'm grasping a bit. hahaha

People were really into Use Your Illusion 1 & 2. Everybody was listening to it and it was all over the radio. But these days when people think about 1991-1992 they just remember Nirvana/Pearl Jam/etc.

They released 10 singles from the Use Your Illusions.

listening to Damita Jo right now, I'm kind of getting the sense that aside from "All Nite (Don't Stop)" they actively chose some of the worst songs on the album to release as singles

I say "some of" because at least they had the sense to not try to release "Strawberry Bounce" as a single

also it's pretty well documented from Janet's/Jermaine's side that the label basically treated them like pariahs and didn't support the album at all after the Superbowl incident, which was only two months before the album was released (and it didn't help that, in the wake of a national nudity scandal, Janet released an album full of "oh hey guess what, everything is dirty dirty sex!" songs)

re: Metallica - Load

I remember people being pretty much immediately disappointed with Load, which doesn't really fit the definition of a New Jersey.

xxxxxpost

― aspiring barkitect (silverfish), Tuesday, 7 August 2012 20:03 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ah, but they still bought it! Singles performed well too.

also maybe this is an R&B radio vs pop radio thing but Janet was basically omnipresent and inescapable right up until the Superbowl, after which she basically disappeared without a trace until "All Nite (Don't Stop)" got some grudging video play because it's so awesome; she didn't reappear as an artist anyone cared about until "Feedback" and that only lasted for about three weeks

Did you know SUPPOSED FORMER INFATUATION JUNKIE went triple platinum?

Although thinking about it I guess Load never did have that THIS IS GREAT! IT REALLY IS! thing going for it before everyone collectively forgot about it.

i would definitely include River Of Dreams. All For You is Janet's if she has one - I like the hits but they do seem slight compared to previous albums.

Argument against River of Dreams: would anyone at the time have thought it likely that it was Joel's last record?

I would agree All For One would be Janet's, I just don't know if the situation actually works given the whole Superbowl fiasco

Had that not happened, we could be saying that Damita Jo is her New Jersey

xpost doesn't matter - River was a big hit album with practically no songs anyone gives a shit about and the follow-up was a huuge bomb. admittedly it was a classical album but hey i didn't put a gun to his head

ooh wait, would Sting's Brand New Day count?

or actually Sacred Love, which I forgot existed and has a song on it that won a Grammy?

I'm torn on The Eminem Show....it *should* be but I don't know, might just be a crappy followup record to a hit.

btw guys i'm listening to New Jersey on Spotify right now

yeah eminem show was followed by "lose yourself" so no career decline there

Hard-pressed to say that janet. was coasting on anything.

ooh wait, would Sting's Brand New Day count?

maybe that's the one I'm thinking of. the problem is that Mercury Calling went in between that and Ten Summoner's Tales and his commercial career definitely took a hit there. for a lot of his audience it maybe was The Dream of the Blue Turtles. I think Brand New Day had those moments that were good and the singles off it did well, but there was a feeling of "this is almost certainly going to be his last big single" there

I could buy Velvet Rope being her NJ, tho, in that it did seem to announce that her era was ending (despite the album being as interesting as anything before it).

I don't think Joel's classical album counts as a "followup" and I think the title song from River of Dreams remains pretty inescapable twenty years later.

yeah eminem show was followed by "lose yourself" so no career decline there

― da croupier, Tuesday, August 7, 2012 2:23 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oops yeah forgot about 8 Mile....which is weird because in a way that movie and single is *actually* his high watermark in terms of dominating the culture, even moreso than albums that sold more...

i dunno if sting ever had a "everybody bought that and no one knows why" moment on his way to the "nobody cares but your mom" zone.