Second Coming: 25 Great Sophomore Records

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Curtis Mayfield’s songwriting came into its own with this remarkable album. The title track, Mayfield’s first foray into political music, captures the pride of the Civil Rights movement in a gospel way. Mayfield could twist a melody like a man wringing out a towel, but he could also keep his lady warm at night. A complicated effort that promised more to come.

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Having already released one groundbreaking album in 1967 with his debut, Are You Experienced, Hendrix wasted no time in unleashing a second slab of effects-laden guitar play, ace songwriting, and stunning musical interplay with Axis: Bold as Love. “Little Wing,” “Castles Made of Sand” and “One Rainy Wish” showed that Hendrix was no one trick pony. He could slay you with fierce guitar freakouts and subtle ballads. It was a very good year indeed.

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Love’s first album was nothing to write home about. So, when Da Capo came out, a shambles of chamber psychedelia and four-on-the-floor garage rock (the sublime “Seven and Seven Is”), it must have changed a lot of minds. At the very least, it gave Arthur Lee & Co. the blank check for writing the beleaguered and sublime Forever Changes. The sophomore gem as a transition moment.

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Easter Everywhere is one of the most enigmatic rock albums ever recorded. It’s not garage, it’s not proto-prog rock, and it sounds like no other psychedelia of its era or since. You can listen to “Slide Machine” and never remember which way the melody is about to lilt. And few of Roky Erikson’s compositions rock harder than “I’ve Got Levitation.” It might be Texas’s greatest contribution to rock.

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The Velvet Underground’s first record with Nico was largely a hazy come down featuring the sonorous stylings of part time lead singer, Nico. There was some fairly aggressive and experimental fare, but nothing that comes close to the abrasive and raw songs that would populate the band’s 1968 follow-up, White Light/White Heat. The record is a loud, messy masterpiece, boasting the free-jazz freakout of “I Heard Her Call My Name,” the sinister “Lady Godiva’s Operation,” and “Sister Ray,” the 17 minute epic avant-rock saga of drug, sex and violence.

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Blowin’ Your Mind, Van Morrison’s solo debut, was clearly a transitional record that bridged the ramshackle R&B stylings of his former group, Them, with the more complex song cycles found on his future output. Although it did contain the beloved pop hit, “Brown Eyed Girl,” it’s the deeper “T.B. Sheets” that points to the greatness that would follow on 1968’s sublime Astral Weeks. A work of epic proportions, Astral Weeks is a dense, emotional collection of songs featuring Van Morrison’s bluesy wail set against a swirling background of strings, horns, and jazzy rhythms.

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The world’s first introduction to the thrilling sounds of Brazilian tropicália came on Caetano Veloso’s brilliant sophomore release in 1968. A heady stew of bossa nova, rock and roll, Bahian folk music, African music, and Portuguese fado, tropicália was also steeped in the political activism stemming from the coup of 1964. The experimental arrangements and driving rhythms made for a Brazilian psychedelic experience on par with some of the era’s greatest records, including Sgt. Pepper’s and Pet Sounds.

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Arguably the best collection of musicians in any one band, The Band were a legitimate quintuple threat. Having honed their chops backing Ronnie Hawkins and most famously, Bob Dylan, it was clear they could play. But could they write? The Band’s debut Music From Big Pink answered that question with an emphatic yes. Their self-titled follow-up added an exclamation point. The Band features wonderful songwriting, amazing harmonies, and endlessly inventive arrangements.

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After leaving Buffalo Springfield in 1968, Neil Young quickly cut and released his solo debut that same year. It’s really a rather uninspired first effort, with even Young lamenting that it was “overdubbed rather than played.” For his follow-up, Young recruited a young band called The Rockets (soon to be re-dubbed Crazy Horse) and recorded the raw and ragged Everybody Knows This is Nowhere in just two weeks. A blueprint for the Young’s electric sound, the album featured two of the songwriter’s most beloved classics, “Cinnamon Girl” and “Cowgirl in the Sand.”

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The Stooges 1969 debut was like a kick to the solar plexes, a ferocious proto punk-fueled Motor City riot featuring Iggy’s howls and grunts, seering guitar and brutal rhythms. The follow-up, 1970’s Fun House kicked things up a notch, finding the band besting their debut with better songs, better production and more accomplished playing.

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The first Marley record to break out of Jamaica was actually his second full-length. With spaced-out production from a thoroughly blunted Lee Perry, a strutting R&B backbeat, and a dark vision of poverty, it’s the gnarly roots that Marley nearly outgrew when he reached pop superstardom.

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Nick Drake sounds like he arrived on the scene fully formed. And while early demos prove that this was not the case, his debut, Five Leaves Left, was a remarkably mature and accomplished artistic statement made by a demure 21 year old kid from rural England. Lush, complex string arrangements (courtesy of Robert Kirby) back Drake’s plaintive voice and intricate guitar picking. His second record, Bryter Layter eschews some of the pastoral vibe for a jazzier pop sound, but the songs are just as compelling and the album is just as timeless.

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In early 1973, Springsteen burst out of the gate with his remarkable debut, Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ. But later that year, with his epic follow-up, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, Springsteen raised the bar considerably. Proving that his initial offering was no fluke, the Boss crafted a song cycle boasting first class arrangements and instrumentation to go along with his more realized poetic vision. As one critic noted, it was a perfectly executed “street-life mosaic of suburban society.”