Sophomore Slump? Or Comeback of the Year?

Okay, so first post of the new year (at the end of January - LAZY) and I'm going to focus on an issue that this past year has given us in multitudes. Following on from the success of a debut album.

As is understood in the "biz", a band/artist's second album is undeniably their hardest. If everyone loves your debut, then they'll be expecting your sophomore attempt to be even better! However, countless bands have fallen short of the mark they set themselves, and in today's world of 15-second popularity, there aren't many producers who are going to forgive a second-rate follow-on from a smash hit debut. And just look at the amount of huge debuts that have come through 2009.

Florence and the Machine, Lady Gaga, La Roux, Mumford and Sons, and the list goes on. People went so nuts for these albums that it's going to be damn near impossible to make any kind of impact with the second offering. Of the 12 nominations for the Mercury music prize 2009, 7 were debuts, and 4 of those were incredibly successful (namely - Florence, La Roux, Glasvegas and Friendly Fires) throughout the year.

So the question remains; How are they going to do better??

Even Florence Welch has come out and admitted she now fears for her career after the success of her debut album Lungs, and with very good reason. The modern music fan is a fickle, unfocused leech, with the attention span of a gnat. One minute they love La Roux, the next it's the XX, and ol' big-quiff is sent a-packin' to the shelves along with Wheatus and the Dandy Warhols!

But. It can be done. Arctic Monkeys gave us Favourite Worst Nightmare and Kasabian gave us Empire. Proof that you can out-do yourself the second time around. And I really do hope that the bands under pressure this year pull it off, because it's never nice to see an artist fade away. Unless it's N-Dubz... In which case... I'd rather they faded away. Painfully.

Na Na Niiiiiiiiiii...

Let's try this again.

Okay. I'm going to try this again, because let's be fair I need the practis.

Get it? I spelt practice wrong. HA...

First new blog tomorrow :)