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Some follow-ups are just cash grabs, but others become classics in their own right. Join us as we count down the sequel albums that didn’t just live up to the originals — they helped define entire eras of pop, rock, hip-hop, and beyond. Our picks include “2001,” “Aladdin Sane,” “American IV: The Man Comes Around,” and more! Which one hits the hardest?
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00:07Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most satisfying and
00:12independently outstanding music albums that were designed to follow one another.
00:17That's not counting albums like Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion 2,
00:21designed to be an immediate companion piece.
00:32Number 10, Confessions 2, Madonna.
00:36The Queen of Pop subjects were floored by the experimental style and introspective songwriting
00:41in 2005's Confessions on a Dance Floor.
00:43Two decades later, Confessions 2 was developed as a conceptual successor and a career comeback
00:49for Madonna.
00:50It wound up being a triumph.
01:00The futuristic odyssey through various electropop styles sounds like a raging night at the
01:05club, but cuts deep into themes of the human condition and the digital age.
01:10Featured talents include modern superstars like Sabrina Carpenter, Fade, and Madonna's own
01:15daughter, Lola Leon.
01:24But with its stellar commercial and critical success, Confessions 2 confirms that Madonna
01:30is, as ever, a singular force in pop innovation with bold expressions.
01:41Number 9, Only Built for Cuban Links, Part 2, Raekwon.
01:46Also known as The Purple Tape, 1995's Only Built for Cuban Links proved Raekwon's chops
01:52beyond the Wu-Tang Clan.
01:53The rapper received more mixed reviews for the following two albums, until Only Built for
01:58Cuban Links, Part 2, returned to the cinematic mafioso oeuvre.
02:02Don't try to take faces, latch still in the grass, you'll learn respect, curse when
02:06I ask, rhyme master, busy-wizzy on the subject, love deck.
02:10It's old-school street rap on an epic scale, contrasting playful skits with a gritty crime
02:16saga.
02:16You can see me in the street or the yacht, I'd rather be promoting your block, or buying
02:20fresh sneakers with rocks, yo, I'm an ill dude, always been the real dude.
02:23Raekwon spent years agonizing over the project, with a production team that included other Wu-Tang
02:29alumni, Dr. Dre, and the late Jay Dilla.
02:31Their efforts were met with a blockbuster chart performance and lasting acclaim.
02:36Thus began an era of consistent praise for Raekwon's more mature artistry, although the
02:41Only Built for Cuban Links series is entirely timeless.
02:44Keepin' cool silks and duqueries, cool glasses of food, real salmon tryna make a move, those
02:50who knowin' they be dappin' they do.
02:52Number 8, Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers.
02:55After her 2017 debut established one of the most compelling voices in indie folk, Phoebe
03:01Bridgers came back with a vengeance.
03:03Everything's growin' in our garden, you don't have to know that it's haunted.
03:11Punisher continues the eerie sonic and thematic progression that began in more minimalistic
03:16form with Stranger in the Alps.
03:18Bridgers swaps the ghost motif for a skeleton, while tuning her heady existentialism more to
03:23the modern world.
03:31The title track and the Grammy-nominated Kyoto even contemplate the nature of the fame brought
03:36by the previous album.
03:37Bridgers may be above the public's accolades, but Punisher received plenty as a commercial
03:42hit that was widely ranked among the best albums of 2020.
03:46And the beautiful, sullen saga continues with 2026's Lost Weekend.
03:57Number 7, Bat Out of Hell 2, Back Into Hell, Meatloaf.
04:02True to its title, 1977's Bat Out of Hell unleashed Meatloaf as a major force in operatic arena rock.
04:09Like a bat out of hell, I'll be gone when the morning comes.
04:13Momentum then steadily declined over the next 16 years, along with the singer's relationship
04:19with producer-songwriter Jim Steinman.
04:21Their reconciliation over Back Into Hell came during a very different time for mainstream
04:25rock.
04:26Still, the bombastic opus topped charts worldwide, and won a Grammy for the 12-minute-long
04:32I Do Anything For Love.
04:34I'd do anything for love, anything you've been dreaming of.
04:39Critics were otherwise split on Meatloaf's more self-awarely theatrical expression of
04:44youth and rebellion in the age of grunge.
04:46But since the 2006 release of Bat Out of Hell 3, the monster is loose.
04:51The whole sweeping trilogy has become a classic.
04:54I'll edge it up, cry over, die over me, baby, just in one time.
05:02Number 6.
05:04The Marshall Mathers LP 2, Eminem.
05:0613 years after his breakthrough album in 2000 made Marshall Eminem Mathers a controversial
05:11icon, his childhood home in Detroit graced another cover.
05:15The dilapidated state of it by 2013 says everything you need to know about the Marshall Mathers LP 2.
05:21I'm beginning to feel like a rap gun, rap gun.
05:24The legacy sequel isn't just lazy nostalgia with its infectious mix of genres from an old-school
05:30hip-hop foundation.
05:31It instead brings aggressive perspective to the rapper's struggles with substance use,
05:35troubled relationships, and stardom beyond the slim, shady persona.
05:39I can see the finish line with each line that I finish.
05:41I'm so close to my goals I can almost pole-pole over the goalposts.
05:45The Marshall Mathers LP 2 topped the Billboard 200, went quadruple platinum, and won six
05:52Grammys.
05:53While it may have been a difficult homecoming for him, the fans considered it a triumphant
05:57one.
06:06There's always more story to tell with music.
06:09Explore more content like this on the 24-7 Ms. Mojo pop culture livestream.
06:13I don't know what words to use.
06:15Let me know when it occurs to you while I'm ripping any one of these verses that verses
06:18use curtains.
06:19I'm inadvertently hurting you.
06:20Number 5.
06:22Harvest Moon.
06:23Neil Young.
06:23I want to see you dance again because I'm still in love with you.
06:31It was 20 years of mostly rock-based iconoclasm after Neil Young delivered his 1972 masterpiece,
06:38Harvest.
06:38The resulting tinnitus compelled him to revisit the quieter roots of folk and country, along
06:44with material he'd been working on for years.
06:53Harvest Moon ultimately formed a revival of Young's classic meditations on life and relationships
06:58with a more mature perspective.
07:00Backing him up are the ethereal work of veteran collaborators like Nicolette Larson, Linda Ronstadt,
07:06James Taylor, and the Stray Gators.
07:16Tremendous hype followed Harvest Moon all the way to the Juno Award for Album of the Year.
07:21Now it enjoys classic status right alongside Harvest, both of them speaking to the timeless
07:26genius of Young's storytelling.
07:28Can we make it last, like a musical rhyme?
07:37Number 4.
07:38A Day at the Races, Queen.
07:40How could you follow a magnum opus like 1975's A Night at the Opera?
07:45The Marx Brothers had already done some of the work by following their classic movie of
07:49the same name with A Day at the Races.
07:51The album of the same name is full of stand-alone lyrics, through which Queen continued their
07:57experiments with theatrical genre-bending and complex production values.
08:01Tie your mother down, tie your mother down.
08:04Don't jump, play your ghost, I don't need no surround.
08:07From the arena rock rager Tie Your Mother Down, to the gospel glam anthem Somebody to Love,
08:13it's a more irreverent mosaic than its artsy predecessor.
08:17Anybody find me Somebody to Love, and you
08:25Thus, critics were initially bewildered after championing A Night at the Opera.
08:29Over time, though, A Day at the Races has been raised as a worthy tonal companion that matches
08:35the brilliance.
08:36Just hold on tight, that's because I'm a good old Lusher, Lusher, Loverboy.
08:42Number 3.
08:44American 4, The Man Comes Around.
08:47Johnny Cash.
08:47Producer Rick Rubin brought country legend Johnny Cash's traditionalism into the modern
08:52mainstream.
08:53But the American series never quite measured up to its 1994 premiere, much less Cash's
08:58heyday, until the fourth installment.
09:01Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers.
09:05100 million angels singing.
09:08The Man Comes Around is a haunting achievement in visceral storytelling from the titular opening
09:14track.
09:14Covers include the Beatles' In My Life, Sting's I Hung My Head, and Depeche Mode's Personal
09:20Jesus.
09:21The crowning achievement is a twist on Nine Inch Nails' Hurt that is considered one of modern
09:25music's great swan songs.
09:36This would be Cash's last single in his lifetime, with Rubin having enough material to continue
09:41their series.
09:42As far as The Man In Black's luminous career, though, The Man Comes Around is the perfect
09:47final word.
09:48Working in the dark against your fellow man, but as sure as God made black and white, what's
09:54done in the dark will be brought to the light.
10:00The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars build itself as a complete rock epic.
10:06While touring the seminal 1972 concept album, David Bowie had a breakthrough.
10:18The tour was still active when he wrote and released Aladdin Sane to process the parallels between
10:24sci-fi adventure and sudden celebrity.
10:27The Rolling Stones-inspired glam anthems like The Gene Genie epitomized the fantastical psychodrama
10:32that Bowie described as, quote, Ziggy Stardust goes to America.
10:44Critics warmly welcomed the whole spacey odyssey as a savvy bonus to the Ziggy Stardust buzz,
10:49finally taking Bowie to number one in his native UK.
10:53Since then, Aladdin Sane has sustained its own buzz as a raucous masterpiece in its own
10:58right.
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11:14Are you not entertained?
11:17Number 1, 2001, Dr. Dre.
11:21After 1992's The Chronic established Dr. Dre as a West Coast icon, he disappeared behind
11:26the scenes for seven years.
11:28The producer's return to the mic was originally titled Chronic 2000, but rival Suge Knight dropped
11:34a similarly titled compilation album as a power move.
11:37They wanna know if he still got it.
11:39They say raps change.
11:41They wanna know how I feel about it.
11:42The modestly titled 2001 still proved to be an instant hit on the strength of its pristine
11:48production and expansion on the Chronic's themes of urban hustle.
11:52The endlessly groovy, star-studded tracklist features classics like Still D.R.E., The Next
11:57Episode, and Forgot About Dre.
11:59Got a crib with a studio and a saw full of tracks, to add to the wall full of plaques.
12:04Hanging up in the office and back of my house like trophies.
12:06And hip-hop lore hasn't forgotten the multi-platinum 2001 as Dr. Dre continues to transform the
12:12genre, while teaching a masterclass on albums that both evolve a concept and stand tall on their own.
12:19Stipping through woods, what are we?
12:21Carpkins, Long Beach, Englewood.
12:23South Central out to the west side, it's California love.
12:27What are your favorite album series?
12:29Follow up in the comments below.
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