Name an album from an artist that came right after the success of a monster hit and was much more creative and innovative, but did not sell as much as the previous album.

No Doubt - Return of Saturn
Janet - Velvet Rope
Mariah Carey - Butterfly
Lenny Kravitz - 5
George Michael - Listen Without Prejudice Vol.1
Michael Jackson - Bad (though I think it's FAR from a flop)
Prince - Around the World in a Day
[Edited 8/24/08 9:08am]

Bowie - Aladin Sane
Madonna - Erotica

Terence Trent D'Arby: Neither Fish Nor Flesh

Serious said:

Now that's a great example Serious.

I like it more than Introducing...

Gems like Billy don't fall should be more recognized for the excelence

Maxwell - Embrya
Badu - Mama's Gun
D'Angelo - Voodoo
Adriana Evans - Nomadic
De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead

Matronik said:

People wanted him to release "Introducing...prt2", it's a shame .

Serious said:

Their reaction when they listened to Declaration: Neither Fish nor Flesh must have been of horror!
[Edited 8/24/08 11:13am]

Matronik said:

Serious said:

"I believe in these desolate time....."

alphastreet said:

Don't know about No doubt, but Janet and Mariah especially went downhill. Lenny's 5th didn't follow a monsterhit album and wasn't really creative.
George Michael was his first album, but I get your point.
MJ, well, thriller, bad and dangerous was one big run wasn't it?

Prince, yes, I get your point. Actually, this was probably your starting point, wasn't it? There aren't many artists that 'change a winning team' the way that Prince did.
[Edited 8/24/08 13:36pm]

Hard Candy - Madonna

Sander said:

Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants immediately comes to mind.

graecophilos said:

your joking right?

no idea what the sales comparisons are for the 2 (though I imagine the first outsold the second since it did have a couple of semi-hits), but...


Me'shell Ndegeocello - Peace Beyond Passion

MuthaFunka said:

Those are good choices. All three of them are excellent follow up albums. I even prefer Mama´s Gun over Baduizm.
Urban Hang Suite and Brown Sugar are a tad better than Embrya and Vooodoo but still,Voodoo and Embrya are two seriously underrated albums ( despite Voodoo being number one album people still diss Voodooo and Embrya a lot ).

KoolEaze said:

And I'm just now warming up to Embrya. Didn't like it for a long time because, like most fans, I wanted the "part 2" of their debut, ya know? Same with Mama's Gun. As for Voodoo, it never fully grew on me and I only fet How Does it Feel and Devil's Pie.

.
[Edited 8/24/08 15:51pm]

KoolEaze said:

The other two are also good choices.

MuthaFunka said:

I don't know bout this one, bruh. The album was fair enough, but it didn't approach 3 Feet High... in terms of creativity, innovation or sales.

Tears for Fears - The Seeds of Love
A Tribe Called Quest - Low End Theory (trumped the first album on innovation AND sales [but maybe not creativity])

Lammastide said:

I second Mutha on this one. 3FHAR was going to be hard to match, but DLSID was a little darker because they were being boxed in by their own creation. Arguably, DLSID set the stage for the rest of their career, and (arguably) became the best group in hip-hop, as opposed to just being the most creative one. Plus, "A Roller Skating Jam . . ." rivals anything on 3FHAR, and "Oodles of O's" is still that killer.

Sticking with creative follow ups on the hip-hop tip, I'll take

Digable Planets -- Blowout Comb

Public Enemy -- It Takes A Nation of Millions . . .

Ice Cube -- Death Certificate

KMD -- Bl_ck B_st_rds

Jungle Brothers -- Done By The Forces of Nature

Ice-T -- The Iceberg

Common -- Resurrection

Stevie Wonder - Fulfillingness' First Finale - Songs in the Key of Life

Lammastide said:

Well, I see it as more of "edgier" De La and maybe not so much "more creative". They felt they had to come a bit "rougher" since cats was playin' 'em out to be hippies and shit. So yeah, maybe "creative" doesn't work there.

namepeace said:

Gawddammit! Get outta my head!

namepeace said:

I recall doing a LOT of apologetics -- and only half-convinced myself -- around this CD. There were great moments. "A Roller Skating Jam," and "Oodles of Os" were hot. And having not heard the CD album in years, I think I recall bumping "Afro Connections..." and "Fanatic of the B Word" quite a bit. But I probably only played that CD all the way through maybe twice. Just didn't provide the visionary vibe for me that 3 Feet did.

namepeace said:

Co-sign on these.

Bishop31 said:

Um, SITKOL is his highest-selling album.

BTW, when I mentioned Journey Through..., I didn't realize the original post said "much more creative and innovative." JTTSLOP is certainly creative, but I wouldn't say it's "much more" so than SITKOL.

Sander said:

Huh? His first album of what?

You gotta have faith, man!

AlexdeParis said: