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

looking at their solo careers, John avoided the New Jersey by releasing a flat-out dud (Some Time In New York City) and not quite recovering until death and someone with a better sense of what it was like to live in a world with Wings can figure out when Paul's horseshit stopped being an "event". Based on stats I can see an argument for George's Living In The Material World (esp. since I've never even heard of the #1 hit "Give Me Love".

this would probably be Dead Man's Party for Oingo Boingo

the problem with finding a New Jersey for the Stones is that I don't think they've ever admitted an album wasn't a huge event yet. I can see cases for Goats heads, Undercover and Voodoo Lounge though.

I think everyone is missing the obvious here, Bizaar/Bizzar by ICP

Jewel- Spirit

Re: For Those About To Rock, I worked in a record store when that was released. We pre-ordered a TON of them based on Back In Black's popularity, and still had huge piles of them sale priced for a year afterwards.

lol yes xpost

actually "lol yes" to that anecdote too

it's crazy looking at sales in the '80s-'90s, times really have changed

naw, The Amazing Jeckel Brothers is the pick for ICP

Rock and Roll Jesus for Kid Rock?

actually it seems like he's had TWO (Cocky)

For Elton, does either Caribou or Rock of the Westies qualify?

the problem there is that Rock'n'Roll Jesus was actually a comeback album following what was assumed to be a career decline xpost

naw, The Amazing Jeckel Brothers is the pick for ICP

weren't this and The Great Milenko the big ones? From what I remember Jeckel Bros. was one of the best

oh shit i forgot about his self titled album, Cocky DEFINITELY counts

FOREVER

though actually Cocky got most of its sales late in the game thanks to the belated success of "Picture"...really Kid Rock may be too wily a scamp for this

weren't this and The Great Milenko the big ones? From what I remember Jeckel Bros. was one of the best

Yes it was, which is the point; we're looking for a massive album that clearly telegraphs that the band was on a full tilt slide out of vogue and is retroactively embarrassing/terrible. Bizaar/Bizzar sold less than half of what Jeckel Brothers sold.

It's actually kind of amazing - Cocky is definitely the New Jersey for fans of the "my name is KIIIIIIIIIIIIIID" kid rock but ground zero for the people who love his later bullshit.

actually the Jewel comparison tracks pretty closely:

both Slippery and Pieces of You went 12x platinum in the US

New Jersey went 7x and Spirit went 4x

I can't remember a single song from Spirit

you don't remember "Fat Boy"?

TS: "Pieces Of You" vs "Fat Boy"

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/heQi0AZBH-0/0.jpghttp://i.ytimg.com/vi/heQi0AZBH-0/0.jpg

FAT BOY-EEE

doh

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/heQi0AZBH-0/mqdefault.jpg

The neat thing about Monster being a New Jersey is that it was dramatic style shift that America bought and then quickly regretted. Usually a New Jersey is a MORE OF WHAT YOU LOVE kind of album, but I guess while Monster certainly wasn't a "more nightswimming!" album, it was in touch enough with the post-grunge vibe that people didn't get grossed out until after the fact.

"Hands" was the big hit from Spirit.

Yes it was, which is the point; we're looking for a massive album that clearly telegraphs that the band was on a full tilt slide out of vogue and is retroactively embarrassing/terrible.

Well Jeckel Bros. is probably their least retroactively embarrassing/terrible release, and ICP was never really in vogue

Well Jeckel Bros. is probably their least retroactively embarrassing/terrible release

this does not compute at all

although looking back at the track list it looks like "Piggy Pie" was actually on Milenko so maybe I should be backing that one

its also got "The Neden Game" which is the one track even people who hate ICP tend to like

Rock Of The Westies, mentioned a while back, is a good one I think. Debuted at #1 on the Billboard chart, yet "Island Girl" was the only charting single, and I struggled to remember any song titles without looking it up. Pretty neglected/forgotten about today?

yeah survivors like Elton always muddy the waters a bit - he put out "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" the same year - but Rock definitely seems like a bloom is off the rose moment

Roll With It and Crash, good thoughts.

Tangentially, there were a lot of slumpy followups in those years: Edie Brickell, Ghost of a Dog; Lisa Loeb, Firecracker; Tori Amos, Under the Pink. I don't think the foregoing are "huge artists," though, rite?

Winwood had been huge-ish because of SDG and Blind Faith, but I don't think the audience for "Roll with It" was the same audience as for Blind Faith (or, for that matter, Arc of a Diver).

BTW, "I Go to Extremes" and "Matter of Trust" are still in my head as much as any Joel is (which is not that much, but still) "Remember the Time" was my high school class's prom song.

Aerosmith - Nine Lives

that was a big dropoff from Get A Grip, though -- GAG sold as much as Pump, but maybe it's too well remembered for its videos to be a New Jersey?

btw does anyone else hear Fred Armisen as David Paterson saying "New JERSEY!" in their head a lot while reading this thread?

i do now

George's Living in the Material World is a good one

yeah aerosmith's tough - Nine Lives was definitely a #1 debut BIG EVENT album but tanked fast. Get A Grip's singles were so similar SNL made a joke out of it, so I could see the argument they were already being propped up by Alicia Silverstone, but really their entire Geffen run was so on borrowed time that I don't see anyone begrudging the hits.

i still hear "Livin' On The Edge" on rock stations, i wonder if any '90s hits' stations play any of the Silverstone trilogy anymore

ha -- heard "Crazy" yesterday morning on the eighties/nineties station

that kinda lovin' sends a man right to his grave

I remember being amazed at how long "Cryin'" was played on the radio until I realized I was actually hearing "Crazy"

lol

Debbie Gibson - Electric Youth

i honestly considered that the other day but vetoed myself since I still remembered the hooks to the two biggest hits, plus I don't know if it sounds any less hollow than the debut. Others more invested may feel differently.

like "straight up" and "opposites attract" definitely get more love than "promise of a new day" and "rush rush" but do people really rate "foolish beat" above "lost in your eyes" or whatever?

If so, then Step By Step probably counts

the presence of "Vibeology" drags the whole thing into New Jersey territory imo

there's this blurry zone between a New Jersey and a flop that we hit a lot, the "commercial disappointment" that still does honorable business. Part of what makes New Jersey so interesting is that for anyone else it'd be HUGE. Like Spellbound - anyone would love having five top 20 hits off an album, but it feels like the beginning of the end now.

New Jersey rolled out a lot like Country albums do--two years after its predecessor, just after the singles from the last album had stopped coming out, and is pretty similar to that other album. A lot of other follow-ups to massive hits come after an extended break, and the artist has either "matured" or the music scene has changed.

Part of what makes New Jersey so interesting is that for anyone else it'd be HUGE

I don't think most artists would complain if they had Bon Jovi's post-NJ career either: going by Wiki, five platinum/multi-platinum albums and two gold albums in the US (only considering studio album), 8 Top 40 singles in the US, still touring stadiums 25 years after their biggest album.