Ten sequel albums that didn't live up to the original

From Neil Diamond's 'Hot August Night II' to Ja Rule's 'Pain Is Love 2' Eminem pulled off a pretty amazing feat last month: he released a stellar sequel album.

_The Marshall Mathers LP 2_ may not _quite_ live up to the original, but compared to other sequel albums in rap and rock history it's the musical equivalent of _The Godfather 2_ – or,

at the very least, _Terminator 2: Judgment Day_. Sequel albums in rap are fairly common, but in rock they tend to come when an artist has trouble getting attention for any of their recent

work. Predictably, most are highly disappointing. Here are 10 rap and rock sequel albums that failed to live up to the original. _BY ANDY GREENE_ * CHEAP TRICK – ‘BUDOKAN 2’ When Cheap Trick

made the original _At Budokan_, they sifted through the tapes from two shows at the historic Japanese venue and released the 10 greatest songs, including "Surrender," "I Want

You to Want Me" and their cover of Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame." These versions made their studio counterparts seem limp by comparison, and the album finally

broke Cheap Trick as a huge band. Fourteen years later, at a time when Cheap Trick's commercial appeal had drastically diminished, they returned to the 1978 Budokan tapes and crafted

_Budokan 2_. The 12 songs on the new LP, including "Elo Kiddies" and "Southern Girls," are by no means bad, but there's a reason they didn't make the original

cut. They finally released the whole thing in 1998, leaving _Budokan 2_ as a forgotten footnote.  * PETER FRAMPTON – ‘FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE II’ Much like Cheap Trick, Peter Frampton broke

through in a huge way with a live album back in the Seventies. As Wayne Campbell said in _Wayne's World 2_: "Everybody in the world has _Frampton Comes Alive_. If you lived in the

suburbs, you were issued it. It came in the mail with samples of Tide." It sold millions and millions of copies, but things quickly turned sour from Frampton, and just 10 years after it

came out he was playing guitar in David Bowie's backing band. Thinking that maybe people just didn't want studio versions of his songs, he made another live album in 2005 and

called it _Frampton Comes Alive II_. The songs on the LP are superior to the originals, but this was the era of Hootie and the Blowfish, and very few people cared.  * MEAT LOAF – ‘BAT OUT OF

HELL III’ Meat Loaf's 1993 album _Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell_ accomplished the impossible: It revived the completely dead career of the Seventies rocker. This was the peak of

Pearl Jam and Nirvana, yet somehow the nearly-forgotten Meat Loaf got a single on the charts that would not die. It's largely due to the fact he re-teamed with the brilliant Jim

Steinman, who wrote and produced the entire album. The duo split apart after it came out, and 13 years later  a business dispute and Steinman's health issues forced Meat Loaf to make

the third _Bat out of Hell_ album without the songwriter. Desperate to use Steinman songs, Meat Loaf revived "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (famously recorded by Celine

Dion), a song Steinman wrote for an aborted Batman musical, and other odds and sods the man wrote over the years. The result was a bizarre Franken-Steinman album that didn't come close

to capturing the magic of the first two _Bat_ records. Meat Loaf has been telling the press he's made peace with Steinman and they're going to work together again, but we'll

believe it when we hear it.  * METHOD MAN – ‘TICAL 0: THE PREQUEL’ Five years after George Lucas made the world fear the world "prequel," Method Man dropped a prequel to his

beloved 1994 solo debut _Tical_. While it wasn't quite the disaster of _Star Wars Episode One: The Phanton Menace_, it was a big ol' mess. Everyone from Diddy and RZA to Ludacris

contributed to the effort, and the result was a scattershot collection of songs the critics ripped into. Two years later, he told MTV he wasn't happy with the album. "On the third

LP, it was suggested to bring in Harve Pierre and P. Diddy," he said. "Who am I to argue? Puff knows how to sell some records. But that wasn't the direction to go in, and I

know that now." * IAN ANDERSON – ‘THICK AS A BRICK 2’ Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson had a lot to live up to when he began work on a sequel album to his 1972 magnum opus _Thick as a

Brick_ a couple of years ago. Beyond the fact it had been 40 years since he made the original, he didn't have the help of any of his bandmates since he opted to record the disc as a

solo artist. The original _Thick As a Brick_ tells the story of English schoolboy Gerald Bostock across the course of a single 44-minute song divided between both sides of the record. It was

a huge influence on prog bands like Rush, but the sequel simply didn't have much bite. Presenting five different futures for Bostock over 13 songs, it failed to make any sort of

impression with the public.  * LIL WAYNE – ‘THA CARTER IV’ With the very notable exception of _Rocky IV_, franchises are usually running on fumes when they come around to the fourth chapter.

Check out _Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers_, _Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol_ and Lil Wayne's 2011 disc _Tha Carter IV_. It followed the rapper's stint in prison

and his ill-fated rock album _Rebirth_, and it was clear Lil Wayne was spreading himself a little too thin. Drake, Rick Ross and John Legend did what they could to help, but the record still

lacked the genius of Wayne's earlier work. Sadly, things almost got worse with 2013's _I Am Not a Human Being II_. Maybe it's time to start a new franchise.  * WYCLEF JEAN –

‘CARNIVAL VOL. II: MEMOIRS OF AN IMMIGRANT’ Wyclef Jean's post-Fugees work got off to a very strong start in 1997 with the release of _The Carnival_. He scored a big hit with "Gone

Till November," and even managed to get Bob Dylan to appear in the video. Ten years later – right around the time he was back on the radio with "Hips Don't Lie" – Wyclef

released a sequel album. It revisited many of the characters and themes of the originals, and had guest spots from Paul Simon, Mary J. Blige, Norah Jones, Serj Tankian and even Louis

Farrakhan. There were some very nice moments on the album, but musically the thing was just all over the place, a little too eclectic for its own good.  * NEIL DIAMOND – ‘HOT AUGUST NIGHT

II’ A sequel to a live album is rarely a good idea, especially when you wait 15 years and use many of the same songs from the original. Neil Diamond's _Hot August Night_ captured the

Jewish Elvis at his live peak during a run of magical shows at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. By 1987, his was an oldies act belting out "Cracklin' Rosie" and "Sweet

Caroline" for the 10 millionth time. Fans never tire of hearing the classics, but this whole package just sounds a little too Vegas and is wildly inessential.  * KISS – ‘ALIVE IV’

Imagine taking the Kiss that recorded the original _Alive!_ in 1975, adding 28 years of wear and tear to their vocal cords, swapping out beloved guitarist Ace Frehley for former Kiss cover

band guitarist Tommy Thayer and tossing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra on top of the whole thing. That's pretty much the formula behind the 2003 Kiss LP _Alive IV_. The symphony does

make familiar fare like "Beth" and "Love Gun" sound a little different, and it is their last album with drummer Peter Criss, but nobody needs to hear this thing when the

original _Alive!_ is out there.  * JA RULE – ‘PAIN IS LOVE 2’ Things haven't gone so well for Ja Rule since the release of his 2001 album _Pain Is Love_. Long prison sentences for tax

evasion and gun and drug possession robbed him of much career momentum. He was dropped from his label, and eight years passed without the release of a single physical album. The original

_Pain Is Love_ had guest spots from Jennifer Lopez, Ashanti, Missy Elliott and many other big stars. The 2012 sequel, released when he was still in prison, had appearances by the likes of

Anita Louise and Amina. It's hard to promote an album from the clink, and it peaked at number 197 on the Billboard album chart. It sold 3,200 copies that week and went downhill from

there.