3 of the Best Alternative Rock Sophomore Albums From the 1990s

Want to know how hard it is to record a great sophomore album? Just ask Guns N’ Roses, Weezer, or Sex Pistols. The Sex Pistols broke up only months after releasing Never Mind The Bollocks, while GN’R and Weezer have endured long careers under the giant shadows of Appetite For Destruction and The Blue Album.

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However, many bands have successfully followed stellar debuts with even stronger second albums, as you’ll hear below.

‘Dirt’ by Alice In Chains (1992)

When Alice In Chains released “Man In The Box” as a single, grunge hadn’t yet become a culture-shifting force. Nonetheless, if offered a dark alternative to the glitzy bands dominating MTV. “Man In The Box” may be Alice In Chains’ defining song, but Dirt remains the Seattle band’s best record. It opens with “Them Bones”, a crushing track featuring Jerry Cantrell’s sludge metal guitar riff, punctuated by Layne Staley’s interjections—Ah!

As if to test the limits of just how much gloom pop culture would tolerate, Dirt features grunge staples like “Rooster”, “Angry Chair”, and perhaps Alice In Chains’ finest recorded moment, “Down In A Hole”. The album ends with “Would?”, a tribute to the late Mother Love Bone singer, Andrew Wood, whose young death became a pivotal moment in rock history.

‘Ritual De Lo Habitual’ by Jane’s Addiction (1990)

It’s hard to imagine alternative rock’s rise in popularity without the commercial success of Jane’s Addiction. And it’s not a coincidence that Dave Jerden co-produced both Jane’s Addiction and Alice In Chains. Jerden’s production threaded the line between hard and alternative rock, with enough traditional influences to widen the tent to include classic rock, punk, and underground music fans.

Any good sophomore release must have a great opener. A statement song. Ritual De Lo Habitual begins with a Spanish introduction. Then Dave Navarro plays a funk metal riff before Perry Farrell continues the hullabaloo he started on Nothing’s Shocking. The music video for “Been Caught Stealing” ignited a revolution on MTV. The weirdos were taking over, and soon, Midwest kids would see that nothing would be shocking when everything’s shocking as Farrell’s Lollapalooza festival hit the road.

‘The Downward Spiral’ by Nine Inch Nails (1994)

Trent Reznor helped bring industrial music to mainstream audiences on Nine Inch Nails’ debut, Pretty Hate Machine. With rigid drum machines, synthesizers, and found sounds, Reznor also employed danceable beats and pop melodies. The lyrics were dark. Really dark. But it moved your body like a Prince record. “God money’s not concerned about the sick among the pure.” Amen, dude.

So how do you follow a perfect debut? With a masterpiece. On The Downward Spiral, Reznor dials up the angst with titles like “March Of The Pigs”, “The Becoming”, and the primal “Closer”. You don’t need me to remind you of its hook. But if that’s your hook, the groove better be so deep, even the bleeped version makes the body move. I saw NIN play this when I (with Ruby Amanfu’s band) shared the bill with them at Voodoo Fest in New Orleans, and it was so funky, I couldn’t take it. Then there’s “Hurt”, one of the most devastating tracks of the 1990s, most famously resurrected as an end-of-life hymn by Johnny Cash.

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