Difficult Second Album Syndrome?

I'm very cynical about the idea of DSAS.
I think it's more that people (people here means "music journalists") expect immediacy - the prospect of listening to an album more than once is reprehensible, no?

Anyway, in the interests of knowing what I'm talking about, I'm only going to mention two albums:

I doubt any followers of this blog will be surprised at this one:
Letting Off The Happiness, Bright Eyes. To be brutally honest, it didn't have a lot to live up to - A Collection... wasn't exactly brilliant - but it takes the lo-fi, four-track-in-the-basement approach and runs with it. Everything from the rough panicky chords of If Winter Ends to the off-kilter, out of time harmonies of Contrast And Compare (recorded, according to the intro, at seven p.m. on 31st of December 1997) is charming in its own ramshackle way. And how could anyone forget June On The West Coast, arguably one of the best songs of their career? LOTH isn't the greatest album by any measure, but it takes A Collection...'s best moments and makes a whole album of them.

Recommendations: If Winter Ends (complete with "cumbersome introduction") , June On The West Coast

Recovering The Satellites, Counting Crows.
The "problem" with CC is that Mr Jones eclipsed everything. August And Everything After is widely regarded as their best album - but what of its follow up? More of a rock album than its predecessor, and more consistent to boot, it comes as a bit of a shock after the laid-back melancholia of AAEA, an album based on understated grace. RTS clubs you around the back of the head with its sharpness, its outraged yelping, and your first instinct is to recoil. After a while, though, you find delicacy under the riotous guitars of Have You Seen Me Lately, realise that the lyrics are as stronger than ever, and catch onto the idea that a band can change their sound and still be the same band. There's pretty much no filler - although Miller's Angels does go on a little too long, and yes, a few of the songs do need more than a few minutes spent on them, but by the time you've recovered from the majestic blast of misery that is A Long December, you're already reaching for replay.


Recommendations: A Long December, Recovering The Satellites 

Mollxx