This subject came up in another thread, but I figure it's important enough to have a topic for it. The question was posed why the second album didn't have any pop hits on it...
I bought the box set of these two and, when listening to them back to back, I don't hear a big difference...well, outside of Roy Orbison not being there. The musical climate had changed, naturally, but the Wilburys were out of step with what was current at the time of the first album anyway. My feeling was that the first record came as such a wonderful surprise at the time, a second album could never have lived up to it. Additionally, perhaps people had wearied of the "Jeff Lynne Sound" production...after all, we had "Cloud Nine", "Mystery Girl", "Full Moon Fever", Wilburys Vol.1 and Jeff's "Armchair Theatre" all in the space of a couple of years.