First ones...

Deep Purple's Burn was a massive amount of suck compared to Machine Head.

T.Rex put out the piece of dung that was Zinc Alloy right after the excellent Tanx.

And the Rolling Stones followed Exile on Main Street with the 70% crapfest of Goat's Head Soup.

they're not terrible but when stacked up against the debuts, they're disappointing.

Radcliffe, I never figgered you for someone who follows the conventional widsom...though I did not like Dancing with Mr. D when I first heard the album, it has grown on me. Hide Your Love and Can You Hear the Music are my other least faves, so that leaves 7-10 or 70% good, with 100 Years Ago, and Winter being fine examples of slowcore mongerdom, Heartbreaker and Starfucker being almost perfect examples of JAIL4LIFE, Silver Train a fine mid tempu number and Angie, a song so bad it remains beyond awesome, I just don't know how you could be dissapointed in this:

Dancing with Mr. D.
100 Years Ago
Coming Down Again
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
Angie
Silver Train
Hide Your Love
Winter
Can You Hear the Music
Star Star
That said, I guess if I were alive and a fan at the time of Exile, it may have been dissapointing, but in retrospect it's not bad at all.

Everything that Pink Floyd did after Syd Barret left

Yeah, Mellon Collie probably does the trick, although a few months later, the Wrens came out with Secaucus and I never thought it was in any way as good as its precursor, Silver. But I still like it, whereas I really never came around to all of MCAIS.

Wheat - Hope and Adams after Medeiros. There are some tremendous pop/Fridmann moments on H&A, but I thought (and still think) Medeiros was a near perfect album.

Depeche Mode - Songs of Faith & Devotion, while containing some highpoints, was a sizable letdown after the 1-2-3 of Masses, 101, and Violator.

"Heartbreaker" and "Winter" deserve to be Stones songs. "100 Years Ago" and "Coming Down Again" come close. But even "Star Star" is only okay - it sounds to me like the Stones imitating the Stones. And the rest is pretty dismal no matter how you cut it, especially coming on the heels of Exile. Goat's Head Soup inarguably heralded the end of the band's golden age - you've gotta admit that much.

The Cult of Ray after Teenager of the Year

I'm sure this happened at least once before Monster, but darned if I can recall.

Morphine - Yes def. a step down for me.

File Under Easy Listening, a bit.

Kid A for me, too.

Doesn't "follow-up" mean "second album" as in follow-up to the debut? Or is this just "A band's first crappy album"?

If it's the latter, I'd say "Electric" for The Cult, "Midnight To Midnight" for the Psychedelic Furs, and "Bouncing Off The Satellites" for the B-52's.

Jayhawks - "Smile"

I actually like "Sound of Lies," although it wasn't quite as strong as "Hollywood Town Hall" or even "Tomorrow the Green Grass." This, however, was an absolute stinker - every single song was just awful, from the lyrics to the production and performances. Even the artwork was crappy.

i was wondering the same thing...but alot of people started listing a band's GREAT album followed up by a shitty next release. also, i guess not so much their "crappiest" album although...

Gang of Four - "Songs of the Free" (but things got even worse a short time later)

Yo La Tengo - "Summer Sun"

Jenny Toomey - "Tempting"

Oh yeah. Definitely.

Wow. I like most of the earlier DP discs, each having their own merits (with all the lineup changes, it's a different band each release ). To me, Burn is a classic disc too, and is most rock-able.

True, Machine Head is great, but Burn is classic in its own way. Ian Paice always delivers.

To clarify:

I meant to ask the question, "What was your first disappointment with a band after they released an album you really loved." It could have been their second album, but not necessarily. What I was going for was your first experience with disillusionment.

Maybe I'm in the minority about this but I think that The Cult's Sonic Temple, R.E.M.'s Monster, and SP's Melincolie are good albums. All of these went in different musical directions than the artists previous stuff but they still deliver the goods IMO.

Good calls: Radiohead, Def Lep, Stone Roses, Peter Murphy

someones avatar is gumming up this and a few other threads.
took forever to load with av's turned on, took two seoncds without.

...ohhh Yeah. Although after about 50 forced listens, I saw what he was aiming for and can now tolerate it. But to be fair, I wouldn't want the task of following up Teenager, thank you very much. God what an album. 2 minutes at a time of pure goodness, hitting you from one side and then another, 22 tracks long.

how is teenager of the year STILL growing on me?
god that album is amazing. i'll take it over any pixies album, and i adore the pixies.

The Clash
- Give'em Enough Rope blew after the S/T reckid

XTC - Mummer
- a huge letdown after the masterwork that is 'English Settlement'
'Love on a Farmboy's Wages' just couldn't save it.

Teenage Fanclub - Thirteen
while over the years I've come to like it more & more, at the time it felt like a siginificant drop off from 'Bandwagonesque'

Wilco - "Some are teeth, Some aren't "
After 'Being There'......weak. Yes, I know I'm in the minority.

Guided by Voices - what can I say?.....Do the Collapse.

Cat Power - 'The Greatest' - (I dunno what happened here)

Miles Davis -
'Bitches Brew' is unlistenable after the beautiful 'In A Silent Way'.

...

...

Never once in my nearly 40 years of life have I heard Bitches Brew called unlistenable, until now.

totally serious

INXS - Full Moon, Dirty Hearts after Welcome to Wherever You Are

I'm gonna get a lot of eye-rolls for this one, but:

Goo Goo Dolls followed up the excellent (and quite hard-rocking) Hold Me Up with the completely flaccid Superstar Car Wash and then went completely neuter after that.

Most Goo Goo Dolls albums would be great if they kicked that Robby Takac guy out of the band.