… surely Hard Days Night?
I have it on right now. I found the vinyl going for a tenner at Tynemouth Flea Market a few months back and I play it an awful lot. IMHO “With The Beatles” sounded great but it’s not as good as “Please Please Me” is it?
And then along comes “A Hard Day’s Night” which not only had to keep the momentum going, it also had to soundtrack a damn film which was shot rapidly amongst tours and recording. It’s snatched from one of the most insane schedules a band ever had, it’s literally the only entirely Lennon and McCartney Beatles album there is and it’s just joy distilled. Surely it’s the moment where literally everything clicked? And surely its the album which demonstrated to The Beatles themselves that they could just do anything? Has an album done more than this one? Never mind a 3rd album?
Apologies for the list threads folks, somewhat time poor at the moment and trying to reconnect with music a bit…
But…but….it’s not an album. It’s a film soundtrack.*
* I’m messing. It’s my favourite Beatles album. Certainly their most consistent. No pastiche, no music hall, no Ringo vocal IIRC.
May well be my favourite too. As for great 3rd albums, The Velvet Underground, Summerteeth (Wilco), The Times They are a Changin’ (Dylan) but surely the greatest one is Love’s Forever Changes?
I have a few suggestions:
Stranded
Fear Of Music
Pretzel Logic
Dixie Chicken
To Pimp A Butterfly
Ray Charles At Newport
Marcus Garvey
The Slider
The Temptin’ Temptations
Slade Alive!
John Coltrane with The Red Garland Trio
This Is Happening
Dubnobassinmyheadman
Nina Simone At Town Hall
Risqué
Pretzel Logic and Dixie Chicken are hard to argue with. I think the old “first album = everything they had prepared/second album = barrel scraping” rule is true. The third album is where bands stand or fall. Oddly led Zep 3 was a brave album as they shied away from blues rock bombast and embraced their folky side which on reflection was the right thing to do but was brave at the time.
Depending on the month, Led Zep III may well be my favourite
(this month it’s In Through The Out Door)
I love in Through The Out Door.
Marcus Garvey – good call.
Stranded – noooooo. Nowhere near as great as the second one; For your Pleasure.
Stranded is amaaaaaazing. Even Eno agrees it is Roxy Music’s best album. For Your Pleasure is fantastic, too, but it’s the debut part two. Stranded leaps into an unknown I never knew didn’t exist.
Never liked it. Too arch and mannered. The first album was a masterpiece and the last few brilliant for quite different reasons but the middle – not for me. I’m just giving it a listen now and by track 3 I’m struggling.
Roxy Music were always arched and mannered!
Indeed but if attached to great songs it’s ok. If it’s just a vehicle for warbling it’s not.
Mother Of Pearl is their finest song.
Surely you meant “A song for Europe”? Arch, mannered, pretentious, glam, and bloody fabulous. Give me this over “Bad Company”, any day.
Do The Strand.
Exactly. Starts as it means to go on. Bloody marvellous album.
Eno is wrong. As usual.
Speaking of whom: Another Green World.
E no he isn’t… (sorry).
Stranded is a great shout. Their finest hour.
Damn The Torpedoes, Peter Gabriel 3 and Born To Run are all contenders. But Screamadelica wins for me.
Oh yeah Born to Run. Wonder if solo albums after leaving bands should count
Scott 3
Benefit – Jethro Tull
Every Picture – Rod Stewart
Helps if bands have some way to go to be fully formed and don’t make a definitive statement from the off. Radiohead had a unconvincing start. The second album was a big leap forward but still hinting at further possibilities, still following the current style of college rock or whatever you want to call it. Then bang! A third album. For a minute there they found themselves.
Parallel Lines was the big break for Blondie but I prefer the 2nd.
Armed Forces is where EC patented his mix of modern and borrowed
Although Foxtrot was the officially received third, Jonathan King would remind us of FG2R, making it Nursery Crymes. And it fits better for me as the one that fully rounded their guitar sound. Unsurprisingly, as it was Hackett’s debut.
Unhalfbricking works for Fairport.
Nursery Cryme for me too. Never bettered.
Likewise. The end of Musical Box is one of the finest things ever put to tape.
‘154’ by Wire has been a difficult album for me to like in comparison with the previous two, but I now realise how extraordinary it is and how it anticipates so much music of the 80s. Self-consciously “difficult”, but worthwhile.
And on other days, “Evol” by Sonic Youth might be my favourite album of theirs, or at least the first one where the band really take off.
And finally, there is VDDG, “Pawn Hearts”: arguably their dark-prog masterpiece, albeit not for all tastes.
VdGG – isn’t H to He their actual third album?
To win an argument, I consider The Aerosol Grey Machine a non-starter (Peter Hammill solo-project, released only in the US as a contractual get-out when the actual band signed to Charisma) but this is a grey area.
On reflection…..you might win that one on points….
The Stooges – Raw Power
Ramones – Rocket to Russia
Springsteen – Born To Run
Copperhead Road
Side one yes, side two not so much. It runs out of steam IMHO.
I totally agree. I had it on cassette tape way back then. The second side started with ‘Even When I’m Blue’ which I always played, then fast forwarded the rest. What a first side though!
…..and now that I think about first sides, I think Making Movies was a 3rd album, so it’s another contender for the title.
Born To Run.
Dare
I was going to say that.
I think Dare is a strong contender here. The previous two albums had bleak electronic songs from some dour, shadowy Yorrkshire blokes..
As soon as it hit the shelves I knew Dare would be massive. Very much right-place, right-time stuff.
Possibly hinted at by the three sizeable hits preceding its release 😉
Well quite…but the LP took things up a notch by being really good and a global chart-topper.
Over the years I’ve played Love And Dancing more often that Dare.
The Yes Album
Janet Jackson – Control
OK Computer anyone?
It’s a no from me.
All Mod Cons
Fear Of Music
Fear Of A Black Planet
London Calling
Trout Mask Replica, of course.
Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention – We’re Only In It For the Money
Neil Young – After The Gold Rush
The War on Drugs – Lost in the Dream
Van Morrison – Moondance
Elton John – Tumbleweed Connection
Tom Petty – Damn the Torpedoes
Strange Times by the Chameleons. Their meisterwerk.
Not overly AW stalwarts, but 2 from my youth.
Slippery When Wet – Bon Jovi. The second album was a dud at best, the third so good it created rock royalty.
Operation: MIndcrime- Queensryche. After an image heavy (but very good) second album, who thought a prog metal concept album in the late 80s would define the band? Anyone? Out of left field, a stone cold metal classic.
…either Sparks, Kimono My House or Indiscreet depending whether you include the first two Halfnelson albums as Sparks albums as they were repackaged as such.
Talk Talk – The Colour of Spring.
@smudger
Yes, entirely correct! I much prefer this to their next two post-rock offerings which actually have no actual tunes.
Not sure I concur with your thoughts on their final two albums but at least we agree on TCOS.
Laughing Stock in particular is an absolute favourite of mine.
@smudger
I’ve tried, believe me I’ve tried. I don’t mind them but I certainly don’t love them.
Billy Bragg – Talking With The Taxman About Poetry. The Billster went from angry busker to a more soulful songwriter and storyteller. It’s still his (joint) highest chart place in the UK.
Of course, there’s the album that’s actually labelled on the front cover as “The difficult Third Album”, namely “Talking with the Taxman about Poetry” by Billy Bragg.
I’d also offer:
Magazine – “The Correct use of Soap”
Santana – “III”
Caravan – “In the Land of Grey and Pink”
Genesis – “Nursery Cryme”
Was (Not Was) – “What Up, Dog”?
Tangerine Dream – Zeit
Matthew Halsall – “On the Go”
Joan Armatrading – “Joan Armatrading”
Hüsker Dü – “New Day Rising”
Linton Kwesi Johnson – “Making History”
Al Stewart – “Zero She Flies”
III is so the right answer for Santana.
Not wrong for CaRavan either
IICDIAIDIAOY is better actually.
Bugger.
I meant IICDIAOAIDIAOY
Nice list, as ever duco, but isn’t Linton Kwesi Johnson’s third album Bass Culture, after Dread, Beat & Blood and Forces Of Victory? Arguably, even better.
1. Yes, you’re right about “Making History”. A poor call on my part.
2. I wholeheartedly agree with Blue Boy’s nomination of Joni’s “Ladies of the Canyon”
3. I’m no expert on Supertramp, but how about “Crime of the Century”?
4. Here’s a good ‘un: David Ackles – “American Gothic”
5. Do we have any Wire fans on this board? How about “154”?
Big “up” for 154….Wire’s masterpiece…..
Caravanserai is the masterpiece.
I’ll be the sole defender of The Osmonds – Phase III https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GTcM5okLQw
I like that. My wife will love you forever.
She saw what’s left of them recently at an under attended local gig. No Donnie or Marie of course but the almost exclusively female audience just loved that they were there and the brothers responded in kind.
London Calling
The Slider
Parallel Lines
Rocket To Russia
Argus certainly put Wishbone Ash on the rock map. Also never bettered.
The ‘Vish really did have a difficult third album – bad vibes at Trident Studios, London in June 1973 (which emerged 36 years later as ‘The Lost Trident Sessions’). Instead, they had Columbia tape two nights at Central Park in August 1973 and released the sensational live LP ‘Between Nothingness & Eternity’, containing the three key tunes from the Trident debacle. And then they fell apart.
Conversely, the Pentangle’s ‘Basket of Light’ (1969) was their third album (of six, 1968-72) and is arguably their high water mark – definitely commercially (UK No.5), probably behind only ‘Sweet Child’ creatively.
Free’s third, Fire & Water, was certainly a cracker, but any I’d contend that any suggestion that second album, the eponymous Free, was a case of barrel scraping be met with a slap around the head with a wet haddock.
So there!
Soft Machine – Third
Iron Maiden – The Number Of The Beast
Metallica – Master Of Puppets
Slayer – Reign In Blood
Wrong regarding Soft Machine – Third.
Volume Two was a far better album.
Genius Of Modern Music Vol. 2
The Damned – Machine Gun Etiquette
Blur – Parklife
The Who – Sell Out
Dire Straits – Makin Movies
Queen – Sheer Heart Attack
Marillion – Misplaced Childhood
Boomtown Rats – Fine Art Of Surfacing
Pogues – If I Should Fall From Grace With God
Radiohead – OK Computer
Paul Weller – Stanley Road
A musing on the subject:
https://rigiddigithasissues.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-third-album.html
I much prefer Wild Wood.
The first album is Paul does Traffic, and then Wild Wood is Paul improves upon Traffic.
I may be alone in this, but I rank As Is Now and Sonik Kicks as his best
The band I recorded at the weekend reminded me of Traffic. They were all great players, the singer had a voice rather like S. Winwood, and we were in the loft of a watermill. Getting it together in the country, indeed.
Talking of whom, HMV have a sale on and the Traffic studio albums remastered at Abbey Road vinyl box set is down to £85.
I would, but I’ve just bought a(nother) mixing desk.
There were some cynics who suggested it should be titled “Winwood” !
The Queen is Dead (on the basis of Hatful of Hollow being a compilation album).
Also, possibly not too familiar on here, but a shout out for Free All Angels by Ash.
Wings – Band On The Run
Cheeky was going to say Ram (after The Family Way and McCartney).
All Things Must Pass (after Electronic Sounds and Wonderwall Music)
Ringo (after Sentimental Journey and Beaucoup of Blues)
Doesn’t work for Lennon though (Plastic Ono Band being his 5th)
New Order – Low Life
That would’ve been my choice too.
OK, it’s not the best difficult 3rd album of all time, but I have a soft spot for Robert Palmer’s ‘Some People Can Do What They Like.’ In fact, I have a soft spot for his first four solo albums.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bad Robert Palmer album TBH.
Nick Drake – Pink Moon
My 14 year old self would plump for Muds Use Your Imagination, following on from Mud Rock 1 & 2
Crikey, that’s taken me back! Mud go soul-ish.
Green River is when Creedence Clearwater Revival really hit their stride.
A few others
Jimi Hendrix Electric Ladyland
Joni Mitchell Ladies of the Canyon
Randy Newman Sail Away
Bob Dylan The Times They Are A-Changin
Brilliant!
Rocket To Russia.
Or maybe Raw Power.
…or maybe The Impossible Dream….
There Goes Rhymin’ Simon
God yes. Not to mention Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme. Maybe the third album isn’t so difficult after all.
Eh?? Unless I’ve missed it above (or miscounted….) SURELY the answer is…. Hunky Dory? Can’t believe no one has suggested it. 🙂
There was David Bowie on Deram, then David Bowie with Space Oddity on it, then The Man Who Sold The World.
Either Man Who Sold the World or Hunky Dory would win it for me.
Not his greatest by any means, but a great third album…Dirty Mind by Prince.
Ornette Coleman – The Shape Of Jazz To Come
Oh, yes….brilliant album….mind you, any album with Lonely Woman on it is brilliant by definition….
Tears For Fears ‘The Seeds of Love’
Top tunes.
You silly, twisted boy…
If Magick Brother…is first….
And if we can count Continental Circus as second…in recording order if not release order…..
…then Gong’s third album was Camembert Electrique…..I rest my case…..
*thumbs up*
The Smiths “The Queen Is Dead”. Although you get the strong impression they didn’t find the process of writing and recording difficult in itself, Johnny Marr was pretty much the de facto manager. There is a story about Salford Van Hire ringing the studio asking for him to discuss a payment when he was agonising over a guitar part.
The Jam’s “All Mod Cons” is a more classic difficult third as the original batch of songs were binned after Weller had a talking to from Polydor A&R and his somewhat no-nonsense Dad, John.
I like this thread.
Slightly overrated third albums? At the time, the Happy Monday’s third, ‘ Pills ‘n Thrills and Bellyaches,’ was celebrated as their shift into the big time of dance-rock with DJ producers, although I still prefer ‘Bummed’. Also, many would argue that ‘Doolittle’ is The Pixies at their best, and it is good, although I go with the Steve Albini-produced ‘Surfer Rosa’.
Manics are a bit marmitey on here – but the Holy Bible is a hell of a third album.
That album is a bit marmitey.
I don’t get the fuss
Absolutely
No, that was Madness 😉
Hmmmmm. I’d never noticed before the similarities in the career paths of the Manic Street Preachers and The Clash: first album has too many songs, is derivative but lots of energy and a couple of nuggets; second album is all rawk swagger but nonetheless features the band’s most genuine and affecting song (Stay Free, From Despair To Where); third album it all comes together and, one suspects, it needed to.
And each band’s fifth album yielded an unlikely number one record…
It’s ‘Small Change’ by Tom Waits.
I remember being sent this in the 90s, subtitled ‘The Difficult Third Album’, by whimsical Dublin 60s scenesters Dr Strangely Strange. I recall asking their PR representative, ‘Is it any good?’ ‘Frankly, no,’ they replied. I find them pretty rubbishy, to be honest – especially the supposedly classic Island LPs.
A few more contenders
“Empires and Dance” – Simple Minds
“No One Can Ever Know” – The Twilight Sad
“Introspective” – Pet Shop Boys
“Oil and Gold” – Shriekback
“The Plot Against Common Sense” – Future of the Left
Drums and Wires
Fables of the Reconstruction
Bless the Weather (ignoring the albums with Bev’, this was Martyn’s third album)
Never for Ever
This is the sea
Good call on Drums And Wires.
True Bue is arguably Madonna’s finest.
I’ll argue for Like A Prayer.
Let me add
John Zorn – The Big Gundown
Cowboy Junkies – The Caution Horses
Rufus – Rufusized
Can – Tago Mago
Focus – Focus 3
Brand X – Masques
Groundhogs – Thank Christ for the Bomb
Literally difficult was Traffic’s 3rd, Last Exit, with the band falling to pieces and Island releasing anything they could find. Still pretty good though.
Great shout on The Caution Horses.
Alice Cooper – Love It To Death
Jackie Leven – Fairytales For Hardmen
Strictly speaking, Forbidden Songs of the Dying West would be Jackie Levin’s third (after Control and The Mystery of Love… ) – but your point still stands.
@lando-cakes LC , sort of right-ish and idid think about it but… Control was initially released, albeit just in Spain and was under the name John St Field, it only got a wider release in 1997 when Cooking Vinyl released it under Jackie’s name in 1997.
and there could be an argument that The Argyle Cycle was the 3rd in line, but that’s a compilation of sorts, featuring some previously released material, so again I disregarded it.
Oh good call on Alice. That was the first import I ever bought and it was cool as it had a different cover the the UK one.
@twang was it on the Charter Line label, pale blue with a picture of Alice and a snake and jumbo jet in the top corner?
No mine’s on Warner’s
Interesting, never seen that version.
The Decemberists – Picaresque
Worth the price of admission just for the Mariner’s Revenge Song :
Erm … has anyone mentioned “Neu! 75” yet?
No?
Ok, then, I will.
Neu! – “Neu! 75”
A third album.
And a top album.
Not the received wisdom, and probably my least-favourite of the three, but a good call all the same.
Similarly, Ralf und Florian is heaps better than KW 1 & 2. They’d written some tunes and stopped dropping ball bearings onto snare drums by then.
The first two Bee Gees albums – “14 Barry Gibb Songs” and “Spicks and Specks” – were (I think) only released in Australia.
So that means that their third album was, in fact, the classic “Bee Gees 1st”
And what a cracking little pop gem it is.
Sunburst Finish – Be Bop Deluxe (of course…)
The Original Soundtrack – 10cc
Unhalfbricking – Fairport Convention
Drums And Wires – XTC.
Ommadawn – Mike Oldfield
Mainstream – Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
Fear of Music – Talking Heads
Architecture and Morality – OMD
@oldfieldian
V good call on Mainstream. Really really good album.