Right, here's an idea that I've been kicking around for some time. In fact, I was contemplating doing a web site about it. (One may even exist somewhere, since the more I trudge around the internet, the less original thoughts I appear to possess).
So like all the rest of my half-formed and half-assed ideas, I shall provide a home for it here, where it can languish in peaceful obscurity...
What's the deal, then?
Music critics (who can't make music even by rubbing their back legs together, according to noted philosopher Mel Brooks) often employ a conceit called "second album syndrome", where an artist or band are judged to have failed to live up to the perceived standards of their first effort.
Lazy journalism always likes an easy putdown, and this is one of them. Many justifications can be given to try to make such accusations stick, and sometimes there is truth in it. But quite a lot of the time, the reverse is the case.
And that's what this is all about. Having a look at second albums and seeing whether they're any good or not.
Simple as that.
And to start the ball rolling, let's have a look at the first second album I ever bought...
IRON MAIDEN - "Killers" (EMI, 1981)
Indie pop and sombre gothic rock were all the rage among my schoolfriends at the time, and neither held much interest for me. Waving lupins at Morrissey never appealled, and I was told catagorically that I was too fat to be a Goth.
Having no particular inclination towards such types of music at all, I hankered after the rock bands that I remembered from my younger days, bands like the Ramones, the Sweet and the Jam, who made the charts in the 1970s fast, furious and (most of all) fun.
And the only music that was checking those boxes and within easy reach to me at the time was Heavy Metal. (And more specifically the new genre of Thrash Metal, but much more on that later).
Anyway, I gave a friend a blank BASF C90 chrome cassette, got back two Iron Maiden albums (the first port of call of any budding Metaller, I would imagine), and my fate was sealed.
Maiden's second album "Killers" wasn't one of them, but it was soon purchased in York's WH Smith and the album's artwork was soon adorning both my bedroom wall and my portly teenage chest. (A t-shirt obviously, not a tattoo. Which would have been cool, but a little risque back then, and would almost certainly have led to expulsion from the minor public school I attended at the time).
I believe that back then Iron Maiden's visual image probably gained them as many fans as their music did. Having a recognisable logo that could be easily scribbled in a school textbook or painted on the back of a denim jacket was a prerequisite for any Metal band, and probably still is. More importantly, they also had a control freak band leader (Steve Harris) and manager (Rod Smallwood) who were the architects of every visual aspect of the band's promotion, and a sole illustrator (Derek Riggs) to provide the artwork.
So, to say that the Iron Maiden media machine had a consistency and drive that most consumer brands would kill for is probably an understatement.
Anyway, the cover of the album was something of a fascination to a middle-class youth in a rural market town with a penchant for the post-industrial urban landscape of squallor and concrete that still existed in the 1980s before gentrification (I refuse to call it regeneration because of the obvious connotations) became all the rage.
Rigg's previous Maiden covers all revelled in the same threat of nocturnal violence in lonely alleys, and his use of the old 1970s low-pressure sodium street lighting is staggeringly evocative. And although certainly not a "concept" album, it is certainly apt for an album that has its fair share of standard Heavy Metal cartoon violence in its lyrics.
Basically, it's a great record cover and Rigg's attention to urban detail is impressive just when the fashion for it was starting to decline.
This was the last time Maiden would be seen to be a "street" band, and future releases lyrically contented themselves with retreading the contents of Steve Harris' bookshelves. Vocalist and occasional lyric writer Paul Di'anno would depart during the Killers tour to spend more time with his drug issues. (He never escaped the shadow of his former band, and his subsequent antics read very much like a career in terminal decline).
Musically, there's not much evidence of a slip in quality when compared to the band's eponymous debut. The production is certainly a lot more smooth, and Martin Birch's services would be retained for many years to come.
If memory serves, Steve Harris has expressed his dissatisfaction with the album, but that's mainly due to his having penned the majority of the material himself. Despite having two instrumental tracks - usually a sign of weakness in a Metal band - all the album material is strong and the majority was well road-tested having been part of the band's repertoire for some time.
So, with only two newly-penned tracks and a non-album single, the first entry in this column seems to be a bit of a cheat.
But what the heck. I have a feeling I will be writing a hell of a lot more rubbish in this column before I am through.
Some of it may even be about the music...
Some of it may even be about the music...
