Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGoodTexan
I don't disagree with your points.
Shake Your Money Maker was made at the tail end of an era, with respect to radio play. That album came out before "grunge" took over the airwaves, and it was made with radio play in mind (this is not a bad thing, in and of itself). By the time Southern Harmony was made, radio was strongly aimed in a different direction. I think that only one song on that album ever played...and not that much really.
I think that by the time they were preparing to make Amorica they had realized that their kind of music no longer made it on radio. I think this freed them up, creatively. They could do what ever they wanted.
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I think you're right about this too. We probably shouldn't overlook the fact that with their first album they had to be able to hit the airwaves hard in order to establish themselves and be successful. They were also incredibly young (Chris was 21, I think), and I think a lot of that youthful energy comes out.
So did their youthful idealism. By their 3rd album they were thought of as loose cannons by the record companies (and every corporation who might have sponsored them), largely because they spent almost all of their media attention blasting away at the establishment. I think their next albums were part "let's do whatever we want" and part "let's do what they don't want us to because we can."
To my ears, that resulted in albums with a couple of memorable songs, and a bunch of forgettable ones.