How Did We Get So Dark: The Art Behind A Successful Second Album
Ben Thatcher (left), and Mike Kerr of Royal Blood. With most musicians who are blown into the fray with a meteoric debut record, it is extremely difficult for them to follow it up with an effort just as contemporary and mind blowing as the first. They have to have a unorthodox ability to not be caught up with all the demands and lavishings of life in the spotlight; to not be carried away with the financial benefit they might've stumbled into as a result of their initial effort. Most sequel albums are simply not as good as their predecessor because the unprecedented quality of it was what made it blow up in the first place: they were in the right place at the right time. With a second album, artists are much more liable to experiment and dabble within genres; with more money at their expense, they get carried away with production, trying out new instrumentation and including it unnecessarily. There is a knack and a God-given talent - and a fair amount of resistance needed as wel...