the difficult second Lp

Counting Crows made a masterpiece, IMO, with August And Everything After. They never came close to that one.

Timrhu, you are 100% correct. One or two after are also good, but none approach that debut recording. I think I once read Neil Young saying something like, you have 20 years to write your first album, and 6 month for the second. Tough to do well time after time. Some are exceptions, where music is at high level all thru, and some latter are better than earlier, but rare. Beatles.

REM followed up their seminal "Murmur" with "Reckoning"...and almost eclipsed it IMHO...great songs,simple production=timeless release. Stumbled a bit on "Fables"...but 2 out 3 ain't bad!

Johnny Winter hit the ball out of the park with his second album, "Second Winter". It still rocks and has great sound (the original LP and the remastered CD). A classic.