5 Underrated Classic Rock Albums That Followed Masterpieces

Never follow a legend. You hear that in the world of sports all the time. But it also applies to rock and roll. We’re talking about the albums that suffered the fate of following up on LPs that are generally regarded as masterpieces.

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These follow-up albums often don’t get a fair shake, if only because they’re unjustly compared to the ones that came before them. Here are five of those records that are actually quite excellent in their own right.

‘Stage Fright’ by The Band (1970)

There are few albums in rock history that are as hallowed as The Band’s 1969 self-titled album, their second LP. Stage Fright followed hard on that in 1970. At that point, the harmony among the group’s members was a bit frayed by their nonstop pace and hard living. You can hear some of the fatigue and pressure in songs like the title track, “The Shape I’m In”, and “The Rumor”. But they’re still great songs. Other highlights include the gorgeous parable “Daniel And The Sacred Harp” and the beautiful lullaby “All La Glory”. There wasn’t much letdown on this album at all.

‘Living In The Material World’ by George Harrison (1973)

All Things Must Pass proved that George Harrison was woefully underutilized as a songwriter within The Beatles. He had more than enough great stuff to fill up a double LP without an ounce of filler. Living In The Material World arrived about two and a half years later, and it was scaled back to a single album. But that in no way meant that Harrison was lacking inspiration. The album contains some of his beautiful melodies on songs like “Be Here Now” and “Try Some, Buy Some”. On the title track, Harrison brilliantly expresses how human concerns kept getting in the way of his spiritual quest.

‘Goats Head Soup’ (2023)

Here’s another case of a single album following up a double, causing some folks to feel like it was somehow lesser. We’re not going to stand here and argue that Goats Head Soup rises to the level of Exile On Main St., or, for that matter, to any of the three albums in the Stones’ catalog released right before that. But the album is an important one in that it represents the band’s shift into more of a crowd-pleasing role. The smooth ballad “Angie” is a beauty, while tracks like “100 Years Ago”, “Coming Down Again”, and “Winter” are evocative, underrated gems.

‘Tunnel Of Love’ by Bruce Springsteen (1987)

Even though this album was a big hit and spawned yet another Top 10 single in “Brilliant Disguise”, it felt like it arrived even while Springsteen’s victory lap for Born In The U.S.A. was still ongoing. As a result, the latter album couldn’t grab the public attention in the same way. The fact that most of the songs were introspective, where Born In The U.S.A. reached for the rafters on every track, didn’t help either. But Tunnel Of Love, Springsteen’s fearless excavation of the heart’s darkness, deserves now to be ranked as one of his finest album-length statements.

‘Echo’ by Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers (1999)

In this case, the artist himself didn’t help the reputation of the album in question. Petty long praised Wildflowers as an album of his that he loved, while expressing deep ambivalence about Echo, the follow-up. His main qualm about the latter album was how it dwelt so much on the deep torment he felt as he went through a divorce from his first wife. If you’re willing to engage the album on that harrowing level, however, you’ll find some of Petty’s most powerful songwriting. And The Heartbreakers match him at every step with their impassioned playing on cuts like the title track, “Swingin’”, and “One More Day, One More Night”.

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