Tricky Third Album

Guess what I meant to say yesterday was better said, long long ago by Tony Parsons (above with a young Julie Burchill when they were both beautiful young things on the NME): [please excuse paraphrase]

A great first album is not that unusual: lots of bands do one great album and then disappear – a     band tours a lot and develops a really tight set of ten or twelve songs that it has really knocked
    into shape.

    The second album is normally written on the road, in a rush. So it doesn't tell you anything         
    about the quality of the band.

    It's only when you get to the third album that you know if the band is any good: the third album     has all the time and resources in the world thrown at it; all the boredom and the distractions of     success so the band have no escape.