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After four albums that are now considered classics but didn't spawn any hits in the U.S. the Ramones gave into management and agreed to record with producer Phil Spector. The sessions didn't go well and the resulting album was not one of the band's favorites. Despite the initial thought that they should be a good match their recording and production styles clashed throughout, and a set of mostly tired and forgettable songs didn't help.
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INXS's 1988 album Kick was one of those '80s albums that kept delivering the hits over a year later. That gave the band some time to rest after their tour and regroup, releasing X in 1990. Since the previous hits made it feel like they never left the new songs helped them stay on the charts as they molded their slick dance pop into something that resembled the alternative scene at the time.
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Violator was Depeche Mode's international breakthrough after spending the latter part of the 1980s on the verge of worldwide success. The album didn't depart much from their style, but a surprising element was the inclusion of guitars and other traditional rock instruments along with the usual synth sounds. In 1993 the band went all in with Songs of Faith and Devotion, creating a recording now regarded as one of their best, but at the cost of a founding member.
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After the revolutionary In the Court of the Crimson King in 1969 King Crimson did a tour behind the record, which was a hit in the UK and a cult favorite in the U.S. Problem was, by the end, Robert Fripp and Pete Sinfield were the only full-time members left in the group. Fripp was able to talk Greg Lake, Michael Giles and Peter Giles to return to record In the Court of the Crimson King, but the tour would lead to a new lineup. Meanwhile, their second album became their highest charting in the UK, and was a sign of things to come.
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After achieving international success with the 1987 Diesel and Dust and a hit single, "Beds Are Burning", Midnight Oil could have decided to go mainstream pop and capitalized on their success. Instead, they stuck by their guns, something they have done throughout most of their career, and delivered an even more pointed and political album, Blue Sky Mining, in 1990.
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After scoring a number two hit with "Keep Your Hands to Yourself" in 1986 the public were quick to write off the Georgia Satellites as a one-hit wonder novelty act. There was much more to them, as evidenced on their 1988 album Open All Night, but the ran into typical audience and radio indifference to their sound.
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Arch Enemy's addition of Angela Gossow on vocals for their 2000 album Wages of Sin was revolutionary at the time. No other death metal band had a female singer, and Gossow certainly proved that she could scream and growl with the best. Problem is, although she contributed, Arch Enemy is the baby of guitarist Michael Amott, and when he finds something that works he is more than happy to keep going back to the well.
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Kansas, after working hard for years, finally had a top-five hit with "Dust in the Wind" from their 1977 album Point of Know Return. Thinking it was time to move away from the progressive sound they had nurtured over the course of their career, they went about producing Monolith themselves, pursuing a more commercial sound.
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The Cars was a successful debut album, containing a list of songs that played like a new wave best-of. Candy-O, the follow-up, sold even more, despite not all the songs being up to the same level as the debut. They still managed to turn out a solid second record, something few new wave and punk bands were able to do.
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2112 proved to be the album that Rush needed to save their contract with Mercury Records. The follow-up, A Farewell to Kings, was even more ambitious. Challenging themselves in different ways and fully integrated synthesizers into their sound, the Canadian trio produced one of their most complex, but overlooked, albums.
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After releasing their best album, 1973's Brain Salad Surgery, Emerson, Lake and Palmer embarked on a world tour, followed by a much-needed break. When they returned they did so with the double album Works Volume 1, featuring one side each of solo material and one side as a band. To say it was spotty is an understatement, and more than anything highlighted a group that was becoming tired of working together.
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"Rock Lobster" quickly became a song that filled dancefloors in the late 1970s and, though it only sold moderately well at the time, The B-52's has become one of the top new wave albums in everyone's collection. Pressured to get something out fast, the Athens, Georgia band quickly recorded Wild Planet and released it in 1980. Similar in sound to the first, it outsold the debut. Unfortunately, it was more of the same, with a lot of great songs but with many of the album tracks lacking.
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After Public Image Ltd's second album Metal Box (known as Second Edition in the United States) bass player Jah Wobble left. John Lydon and Keith Levene continued on, with drummer Martin Atkins, for the extremely experimental The Flowers of Romance. Despite being as non-commercial as possible it was still a modest hit in the UK and a few other places around the world. It would also be the last album featuring the original band members.
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Dio's first two albums, Holy Diver and The Last in Line, were hard rock classics. So, why change things up? If anything, Sacred Heart was a bit poppier, but largely it sounded like the first two, which was both a blessing and a curse. It would be the last album with Vivian Campbell on guitar, signaling that the band's sound would change a bit for the following record, but not radically.
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After a critical success with Murmur, R.E.M. again teamed with producers Mitch Easter and Don Dixon for their sophomore effort, Reckoning. In some ways it was more of the same, but a slightly rawer, rocking sound became evident as well.
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Devo scored a top-20 hit with the song "Whip It" in 1980, from their third album, Freedom of Choice. Unfortunately, it meant that even though the band had worked hard on its concept and identity through music, touring and visuals, it was now known as a novelty act by most people. They followed it up by upping the synthesizers in their sound, as well as the cynicism, for 1981's New Traditionalists, forging ahead rather than consciously trying to repeat the success of "Whip It".
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After dominating late '80s pop and hard rock radio with seven singles from their album Hysteria it took a while for Def Leppard to get a new album out. During that time guitarist Steve Clark passed away and longtime producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange decided to go on to other projects. Still, the band carried on briefly as a quartet, using what they could of Clark's work on Adrenalize and still scoring a major hit album even though it was clear the formula was wearing thin.
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Peter Gabriel, the unique and flamboyant lead singer of Genesis, decided to part ways with the band in 1975 after the conclusion of their tour supporting their 1974 album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. That album had been a major hit and, like the one before it, almost broke them on U.S. radio. With Gabriel gone the search was on for a new singer, and much of the British press thought the band should just call it quits. Instead, after a fruitless search, they settled on drummer Phil Collins, who had sung the odd song on some of their previous albums. A Trick of the Tail was a hit in the UK and, surprisingly, did moderately well in the U.S. as well.
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After the double album Blonde on Blonde became one of the biggest selling and most lauded of his career Bob Dylan decided, either for health or other reasons, to pull back on his exhaustive touring schedule. After abortive sessions with the Band, he went to Nashville and, with a small group, recorded an album of country and folk inspired songs that almost harkened back to his acoustic roots.
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After releasing one of the most influential albums in history Pink Floyd found itself without its guiding light, Syd Barrett. With new guitarist David Gilmour the band was tasked with recording a follow-up to The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. In 1968 they released A Saucerful of Secrets which, though it was largely made without Barrett's involvement, so continued in the spirit of what he had started.
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