What Came Next...

Episode 30: Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Works Volume 1

After releasing their best album, 1973's Brain Salad Surgery, Emerson, Lake and Palmer embarked on a world tour, followed by a much-needed break.  When they returned they did so with the double album Works Volume 1, featuring one side each of solo material and one side as a band.  To say it was spotty is an understatement, and more than anything highlighted a group that was becoming tired of working together. 

Episode 29: The B-52’s - Wild Planet

"Rock Lobster" quickly became a song that filled dancefloors in the late 1970s and, though it only sold moderately well at the time, The B-52's has become one of the top new wave albums in everyone's collection.  Pressured to get something out fast, the Athens, Georgia band quickly recorded Wild Planet and released it in 1980.  Similar in sound to the first, it outsold the debut.  Unfortunately, it was more of the same, with a lot of great songs but with many of the album tracks lacking. 

Episode 28: Public Image Ltd - The Flowers of Romance

After Public Image Ltd's second album Metal Box (known as Second Edition in the United States) bass player Jah Wobble left.  John Lydon and Keith Levene continued on, with drummer Martin Atkins, for the extremely experimental The Flowers of Romance.  Despite being as non-commercial as possible it was still a modest hit in the UK and a few other places around the world.  It would also be the last album featuring the original band members. 

Episode 27: Dio - Sacred Heart

Dio's first two albums, Holy Diver and The Last in Line, were hard rock classics.  So, why change things up?  If anything, Sacred Heart was a bit poppier, but largely it sounded like the first two, which was both a blessing and a curse.  It would be the last album with Vivian Campbell on guitar, signaling that the band's sound would change a bit for the following record, but not radically. 

Episode 26: R.E.M. - Reckoning

After a critical success with Murmur, R.E.M. again teamed with producers Mitch Easter and Don Dixon for their sophomore effort, Reckoning.  In some ways it was more of the same, but a slightly rawer, rocking sound became evident as well. 

Episode 25: Devo - New Traditionalists

Devo scored a top-20 hit with the song "Whip It" in 1980, from their third album, Freedom of Choice.  Unfortunately, it meant that even though the band had worked hard on its concept and identity through music, touring and visuals, it was now known as a novelty act by most people.  They followed it up by upping the synthesizers in their sound, as well as the cynicism, for 1981's New Traditionalists, forging ahead rather than consciously trying to repeat the success of "Whip It". 

Episode 24: Def Leppard - Adrenalize

After dominating late '80s pop and hard rock radio with seven singles from their album Hysteria it took a while for Def Leppard to get a new album out.  During that time guitarist Steve Clark passed away and longtime producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange decided to go on to other projects.  Still, the band carried on briefly as a quartet, using what they could of Clark's work on Adrenalize and still scoring a major hit album even though it was clear the formula was wearing thin. 

Episode 23: Genesis - A Trick of the Tail

Peter Gabriel, the unique and flamboyant lead singer of Genesis, decided to part ways with the band in 1975 after the conclusion of their tour supporting their 1974 album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.  That album had been a major hit and, like the one before it, almost broke them on U.S. radio.  With Gabriel gone the search was on for a new singer, and much of the British press thought the band should just call it quits.  Instead, after a fruitless search, they settled on drummer Phil Collins, who had sung the odd song on some of their previous albums.  A Trick of the Tail was a hit in the UK and, surprisingly, did moderately well in the U.S. as well. 

Episode 22: Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding

After the double album Blonde on Blonde became one of the biggest selling and most lauded of his career Bob Dylan decided, either for health or other reasons, to pull back on his exhaustive touring schedule.  After abortive sessions with the Band, he went to Nashville and, with a small group, recorded an album of country and folk inspired songs that almost harkened back to his acoustic roots. 

Episode 21: Pink Floyd - A Saucerful of Secrets

After releasing one of the most influential albums in history Pink Floyd found itself without its guiding light, Syd Barrett.  With new guitarist David Gilmour the band was tasked with recording a follow-up to The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.  In 1968 they released A Saucerful of Secrets which, though it was largely made without Barrett's involvement, so continued in the spirit of what he had started.