10 times artists released two masterpieces in the same year

While many acts would have needed a break after delivering just one masterpiece, the album they released the same year was a good enough record to rival it. Compared to where they had just been, both records seem to have their own separate characters, either continuing on the theme of the first album or taking things in a completely different direction.

Despite the massive competition on the charts, there was no one who could touch these artists once they got the ball rolling, even going on to greater success in the next half of their career. They learned to slow down a little bit between releases, but if they were able to pump out two classics in one year, you knew that they were never going to shortchange their audience in the future.

10 masterpieces released in the same year:

10. Green River and Bayou Country – Credence Clearwater Revival

The track record that John Fogerty had with Creedence Clearwater Revival is absolutely insane. The band put up all-star numbers throughout their prime and managed to be one of the biggest American counterparts to The Beatles, all while getting everything done in just two and a half years. Although Bayou Country was the proof of concept, Green River was where people realised just how deep Fogerty’s songwriting well went.

Compared to the other rootsy rockers that were playing country-tinged rock music, CCR felt like they arrived fully formed on their sophomore effort, introducing themselves with the immaculate sounds of ‘Proud Mary’ and ‘Born on the Bayou’. If that was their excuse to jam a little bit, then Green River was their opportunity to write amazing songs on their own, like ‘Wrote A Song For Everyone’ or the openhearted ‘Lodi’.

While it was hard to nail down any one sound that CCR fell under during their prime, that rootsy approach to rock and roll made them one of the biggest bands in the world, if only for their everyman nature. Led Zeppelin may have looked like rock and roll gods that no one could touch, but this was the kind of music that felt like it could have been written by one of your friends.

9. Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack- Queen

From day one, Queen never wanted to be another run-of-the-mill rock and roll band. Their first album already had that distinctive layered vocal sound, and while some songs were still indebted to rockers like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, it didn’t take a brain surgeon to realise they had something. Before they got to the big leagues, the band’s flirtation with progressive rock resulted in two of their most overlooked masterpieces.

While Queen II is the more iconic album if only for the cover, songs like ‘The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke’ and ‘March of the Black Queen’ border on progressive metal for just how ferocious they can be. Although the album didn’t skimp out on single material like ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’, Sheer Heart Attack is the first time where all the hallmarks of Queen were together under one roof.

After making some of their most ambitious work, their third release was their excuse to have some fun, putting raucous thrash metal like ‘Stone Cold Crazy’ right next to ferocious rockers, show tunes, and their biggest hit up until that point, ‘Killer Queen’. Queen never really looked back from their first album onward, but given that they were already sounding this fleshed out on their first project, is it really a surprise that ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ came right after this?

8. The Doors and Strange Days – The Doors

When The Doors first began, The Summer of Love just started to rear its head. The California rock scene had gotten deep into the drug culture, and artists were just figuring out what they could do if they put a beat behind their psychedelic visions. Whereas most people were talking about peace, love and understanding, Jim Morrison was looking to hold up a mirror to the darker side of the human condition.

For the most part, The Doors is practically the band as nature intended, playing live in the studio with very few overdubs. Compared to people like Jefferson Airplane, though, Morrison seemed to be engaging in hardcore performance art every time he sang, going from the crooning sounds of ‘The Crystal Ship’ to the sultry blues of ‘Back Door Man’ to the apocalyptic dread of ‘The End’ to close things out.

If ‘The End’ hinted at something darker, Strange Days delivered on that promise. While their debut was a look at what they sounded like live, their second album was an opportunity for them to put their listeners in their sonic psyche, going from singles like ‘Love Me Two Times’ to tortured songs like ‘I Can’t See Your Face In My Mind’ and ‘People Are Strange’. Other Doors albums certainly had some highlights, but this was probably the closest Morrison ever got to showing his listeners what his brain looked like.

7. Music of My Mind and Talking Book – Stevie Wonder

The golden age of soul tended to come from the singles. While someone like Stevie Wonder certainly became one of the biggest stars in the world as a teenager, there were only going to be so many places that he could go with a harmonica in his hand and a contract binding him to Motown. Once he got total artistic freedom in the 1970s, it was time for him to stretch what he could do.

Much like legends like Marvin Gaye had done before him, Wonder made his best music by quoting his own heart on Music Of My Mind. Outside of the amazing songs on the album, the production is heavenly throughout every single track, including some effects that some weren’t even sure were possible at the time. Despite feeling like one of the densest recordings Wonder worked on, he could still deliver when it came time to make singles.

Across Talking Book, every track could be spun into its own masterpiece, whether it’s him singing about the glory of love on ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life’ or the pure funk behind ‘Superstition’. The idea of Wonder releasing these back-to-back sounds insane, but this wasn’t about an artist trying to get his music out into the world. This was a song craftsman who had finally been told that he could do whatever he wanted, and he was more than willing to take the challenge.

6. The Kick Inside and Lionheart – Kate Bush

The idea of Kate Bush making her first album is one of the greatest feats in progressive pop. Since she had started most of her career while still in her teens, her writing on an album like The Kick Inside is enough to put any seasoned veteran to shame. Although many see Lionheart as a bit of a step down, her first records feel like companion pieces more than anything.

Since she had been discovered by David Gilmour during her early days, The Kick Inside was the first sign that we were dealing with a true artist, as she weaved together immaculate melodies on songs like ‘Wuthering Heights’. Lionheart is a bit of a different beast, though, putting together songs that weren’t as worn-in as her debut but with a more experimental slant to them.

If anything, the fact that Lionheart sounds a lot more dishevelled songwriting-wise probably led to her going on to bigger and better things in the future. It might not have been what people were expecting after the success of The Kick Inside, but the highlights of her sophomore release are what gave her permission to go even further when working on albums like Hounds of Love.

5. Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited – Bob Dylan

There came a moment in the mid-1960s when almost anyone would have been tired of being Bob Dylan. Since he was now becoming known as one of the biggest voices of his generation, Dylan wasn’t exactly in love with the pedestal he was put on as the folk voice of the people. He wanted to test how far his audience would follow him, and Bringing It All Back Home was the first sign that something different lay ahead.

One half was the traditional folk we all knew and loved, but seeing Dylan break out the electric guitar was certainly a change of pace. Most folk fans felt betrayed seeing their idol suddenly give in to rock and roll, so Dylan responded by doubling down on Highway 61 Revisited, giving birth to folk-rock and breaking down the doors for other rockers on ‘Like A Rolling Stone’.

When you listen to many of the songs across both records, this was no longer a man who claimed to have all the answers. The rebellion that he started had grown too big for him to really stand, and since he didn’t fancy himself a leader, the only thing left to do was rebel against what he started.

4. Black Sabbath and Paranoid – Black Sabbath

By the start of the 1970s, most people were waking up to the fact that the hippie dream was dead and gone. As much as people wanted to make love and happiness a reality on earth, the ongoing struggles with The Vietnam War meant that little to nothing was going to change in terms of man’s penchant for violence and hate. Black Sabbath didn’t necessarily agree with those principles, but they were certainly ones to observe on their debut album.

Since the psychedelic dream was ending, Black Sabbath felt like a splash of cold water into the next decade, complete with Tony Iommi’s menacing guitar riffs. Even though Ozzy Osbourne’s voice was what got everyone talking, Paranoid was where they went from a decent macabre rock band to one of the originators of heavy metal, turning in anthems like ‘Iron Man’ and ‘War Pigs’ without really thinking.

The core of Sabbath had always been a rough-and-tumble blues band, but when you picked up both these albums, people started to realise that they were much more than just the blues. This was something that felt truly evil, and now that they had the world’s ears dialled in, Sabbath was going to blaze the trail for what metal would become.

3. Are You Experienced and Axis Bold as Love – Jimi Hendrix

You can point to various artists that helped kickstart the psychedelic movement. The Beatles had been making their most adventurous music well before this, and The Grateful Dead were on their way to the top through their insane live act and adoring fans looking to tune in and drop out. All those bands were adjacent to psychedelia, but Jimi Hendrix felt like one artist who absorbed everything culture was about and then applied it.

Across Are You Experienced, fans are listening to a musical kaleidoscope of everything Hendrix stood for, whether that was cutting loose on ‘Purple Haze’ or making more sentimental ballads like ‘The Wind Cries Mary’. While Axis Bold as Love tends to be overlooked when sandwiched against his other masterpieces, it might be the best Hendrix ever put out.

Compared to the more adventurous sides of Electric Ladyland, his sophomore effort takes all of the sounds that he cultivated on his debut and makes them a lot more vicious, like the amazing riff in the middle of ‘Spanish Castle Magic’ or the beauty of ‘Little Wing’, who’s only crime is being too short. Then again, maybe the key to Axis Bold as Love is because it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Much like Hendrix himself, both these albums feel like capturing a piece of brilliance for a few minutes before it’s lost forever.

2. Led Zeppelin and Led Zeppelin II – Led Zeppelin

By the time Led Zeppelin got started, no one really had time for screwing around. Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones had already been veterans of the rock and roll session scene, so they knew how to get their sound fairly quickly whenever they entered the studio. Although their debut did promise a return of ‘The New Yardbirds’, hearing both their debut and Led Zeppelin II is like seeing a band grow up by five years in the span of a few months.

Compared to where Page had been, Led Zeppelin is closer to the band he had promised, putting out a bluesy hard rock outfit with the occasional dip into experimental territory like on ‘Dazed and Confused’ and ‘How Many More Times’. While Robert Plant sounded a lot more vicious on the debut, Led Zeppelin II is a good indicator of everything the band could do, from goliath riffs to ballads to just standard bluesy fare.

Whereas the debut might still be identified as a true blues record, Led Zeppelin II is the sound of hard rock reaching its final form, with every song featuring the band cutting loose in some way and having a killer riff behind them all. When scientists eventually try to pair down the essence of what the term ‘hard rock’ stands for, chances are that ‘Whole Lotta Love’ will be Patient Zero.

1. Sgt Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour – The Beatles

The Beatles’ schedule had always been a non-stop cycle of album and tour. Brian Epstein had made sure that he stopped at nothing until they were the biggest band in the world, but once they saw that kind of success, it wasn’t like they were thrilled about being screamed at wherever they went. Once they got off the road for the final time, the band ventured into the studio and proceeded to go absolutely berzerk.

While Revolver proved that the group wanted to make things no one had heard before, Paul McCartney’s vision for an imaginary band was the right album at the right time. Released just as The Summer of Love began, Sgt Peppers was a look at what every kid was feeling at the time, looking to take their problems and channel them into music, ranging from the joy of ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ to the spiritualism of ‘Within You Without You’.

There were still songs that didn’t make the cut, and as the Fab Four underwent their next movie, Magical Mystery Tour felt like the band taking their acid-soaked dreams to new heights, going from the cinematic sounds of ‘The Fool on the Hill’ to singles that artists would have given their left arm to have written like ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘I Am the Walrus’. The Beatles had their moments as a great rock and roll, but these two albums were practically a message to the rest of the world. This isn’t the band you knew before; they were even better.

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