The goal in any studio session is to make the best work possible. Though, often, an artist is left with regrets about how something turned out, there is the rare moment when an album comes out perfectly. It’s a moment of celebration, to be sure. But, that feat presents a new challenge: How to follow it up…How do you compete with the best thing you’ve ever made? That’s a question the artists below had to ask themselves after these powerful albums.
Videos by American Songwriter
3 Albums That Made it Difficult to Make the Next One
1. Hotel California – Eagles
New Eagles fans who have only listened to their greatest hits compilations might be surprised to know that a significant portion of those hits come from one album: Hotel California. Despite its relatively short track list, this album produced a number of timeless tracks for the rockers, including the title track, “New Kid in Town,” “Life in the Fast Lane,” and more. Though they eventually got over the success of this album enough to create a similarly beloved album, The Long Run, it created a barrier for them to surmount in the studio.
“It made us very paranoid,” Joe Walsh once said of the band’s creative process following Hotel California. “People started asking us, ‘What are you going to do now?’ and we didn’t know. We ended up on the next album in Miami with the tapes running, but nobody knowing what was going on. We lost perspective. We just kinda sat around in a daze for…months.”
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim, I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway, I heard the mission bell
And I was thinkin’ to myself, “This could be heaven or this could be hell”
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
2. All Things Must Pass – George Harrison
All Things Must Pass is George Harrison’s magnum opus–arguably with his work with the Beatles considered. Though he delivered his fair share of timeless classics for the band, he fully spread his wings on this work. Harrison seemed to let out years worth of stifled creativity on this album. It is the very essence of Harrison and his world view. Though his fans might disagree, nothing else from his solo career quite measured up to this album.
Sunset doesn’t last all evening
A mind can blow those clouds away
After all this my love is up
And must be leaving
But it’s not always going
To be this grey
All things must pass
All things must pass away
3. Rumours – Fleetwood Mac
Those that haven’t dived into Fleetwood Mac’s discography might be forgiven for only knowing Rumours. It’s really the only album people talk about–at least in circles outside of classic rock aficionados. And it’s not hard to see why this album has risen to the top of the Fleetwood Mac heap. There isn’t a single throwaway song on this record. You’d hard-pressed to click the “skip” button. The follow up album to Rumours, Tusk, failed to reach the same prestige. Though it has merits in its own right, you don’t hear people ruminating on the excellence of Tusk decades after its release–at least not at the same rate.
Now here you go again
You say you want your freedom
Well, who am I to keep you down?
It’s only right that you should
Play the way you feel it
But listen carefully
To the sound of your loneliness
Like a heartbeat drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost
And what you had
And what you lost
Photo by Herbert W. Worthington; Courtesy of Apple)
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