20 bands whose second album is the best thing they ever did

The covers of Rainbow’s Rising, Lou Reed’s Transformer, Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell and Foo Fighters’ The Colour And The Shape

They say you have a lifetime to make your first album and six months to make the second. And while that’s true, it doesn’t mean the follow-up to a classic debut has to sit in the shadow of its predecessor.

Many bands haven’t just bettered their debut album at the second time of asking – they’ve delivered a record that stands as their finest work.