100 Sophomore Albums You Should Own (90-81)

Celebrating fantastic second albums throughout modern music history.

The sophomore album tends to be a large hurdle for many bands. Especially if they were fortunate enough to have had a very successful debut album. Expectations following a groundbreaking or commercially successful album can be astronomical- an impossible standard set not only by fans of the group but also the major labels distributing the group’s record.

Many bands have ground to a halt due to the aptly named, “Sophomore Slump”. Labels have shelved band’s effort leaving their groups in limbo, some bands change their sound to disastrous results or simply due to the fact that this new batch of songs are less hashed out because they are generally being written while on the road supporting the artist’s first release.

Whatever the case, many things can and do go wrong when writing and recording their follow up albums but on the flip side of things sometimes it’s the more polished second album that everything falls in place for. This list is celebrating those albums.

This is much less a ranking of albums and more a collection of one hundred bands and albums I enjoyed and I hope you do as well. Even though most of the heavier hitters are later on so I guess maybe they are ranked? I don’t know. Who really cares? So let’s get started.

As always, if you think I’m wrong or I forgot some great records don’t be afraid to email me or message me on my socials and call me dumb.

90.) Fat Boy Slim

“You’ve Come A long Way, Baby”

Peaked at 34 on the Billboard 200

89.) Fastball

“All The Pain Money Can Buy”

Peaked at 29 on the Billboard 200

88.) Norma Jean

“O’ God The Aftermath”

87.) Alexisonfire

“WATCH OUT!”

The album debuted at number 6 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 6,580 copies in its first week of release, and was certified Platinum (indicating sales of over 100,000 copies) by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) in 2007.