Not so great debut albums by great acts

Tried to find a thread for this, but couldn't quite find it.

Ones I can think of to begin with are:

David Bowie
Van Morrison
Moody Blues (controversial, I know)
Matthew Sweet

the stone roses
moby grape
the sex pistols
guns and roses
jeff buckley

Cat Power, Dear Sir - apart from "Rockets," it really goes nowhere. I don't even own it anymore.

Midnight Oil, Midnight Oil (1978) - they still sounded like a (not very good) bar band. There is a huge leap in quality by the time of Head Injuries the following year.

Van Morrison

You're joking right?

The Beatles
T Rex
Underworld
Radiohead
Robbie Williams

Van Morrison

You're joking right?

― Deluxe Merseybeat Wig (Jack Battery-Pack), Saturday, March 20, 2010 3:49 PM

Blowin' Your Mind is alright, but considering the run that followed it over the next five or so year, it seems kind of... lacking.

The Afghan Whigs, Big Top Halloween - Some people really like this, but whatever they're hearing, I'm not.

girls aloud

aahh... I see... I don't really consider Blowin' Your Mind the debut album...

Love Bowie's early Tony Newley stuff

I haven't heard that first album GZA released as The Genius, but I assume it belongs to this category.

The Who - "The Who Sings My Generation"

Tempted to add 'Big Star' and then open the window and listen for Geir exploding half way across the continent....

Seriously, Mott the Hoople
Talk Talk
Sonic Youth
Replacements
Husker Du

"The Party's Over" yet even much better than "#1 Album".....

Talking Heads '77

Really? It's far from their best but it's still a great album imo

mobb deep
sleater-kinney
aimee mann

Really? It's far from their best but it's still a great album imo

A very good, often excellent, but not great.

Hahaha well yeah maybe but hardly in the spirit of this thread title then

The Kinks
Willie Nelson

Japan - Adolescent Sex

aimee mann

Wow. Whatever is one of my top 10 albums of all time, and has what I think are several of her greatest songs: Could've Been Anyone, I Could Hurt You Now, Fifty Years After The Fair, 4th of July . . . in fact, now that I think about it, it's far better than its followup!

Like Flies on Sherbet *ducks*

I'm going to head into potential challop territory here, but I have to say Queen. I LOVE Queen II, but Queen I starts off with a great opener ("Keep Yourself Alive"), and...heads right into a boring ballad. And never really recovers.

Abba
My Bloody Valentine
Eurythmics (maybe)

Eminem (W.E.G.O.)

err my bad the album was "Infinite"

Al Stewart - Bedsitter Images
Van der Graaf Generator - The Aerosol Grey Machine
Peter Hammill - Fools Mate
Genesis - From Genesis to Revelation

Def Leppard

Japan

...oops, someone beat me to that one.

the stone roses

Whaaaa???

Judas Priest (Rocka Rolla=zzzzzzzzzzzz other than a few tracks)
Meshuggah (they were fairly boring until they reinvented themselves and became legendary)

Lucinda Williams - Ramblin'
10,000 Maniacs - Secrets of the I Ching
Cowboy Junkies - Whites off Earth Now
Kraftwerk - Kraftwerk
Dead Can Dance - Dead Can Dance
Cocteau Twins - Garlands
Fairport Convention - Fairport Convention

Squeeze

ZZ Top

the stone roses

Whaaaa???

Think the joke is that the Stone Roses were fucking shit, but that precludes the "great acts" bit of the title.

Shania Twain

Nirvana - Bleach
Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan
Neil Young - Neil Young
Drive-By Truckers - Gangstabilly

Prince's first album doesn't compare favorably to the rest of his work.

Go-Betweens - Send Me a Lullaby

Bleach is awesome

Joni Mitchell
the kinks

The Tragically Hip
Led Zeppelin (some good tunes, but its probably my least favourite overall)

New Order - Movement

Blur - Leisure

The Jam - In The City

Springsteen, circa "Human Touch".

Queen is actually a very good call.

The Who - "The Who Sings My Generation"

NO! It's great.

maybe... but does one all-time classic, unassailable track really make a whole album great? tbh, I find the rest of the album a bit of a drag after 'schizoid man'.

The rest of the album (to a much bigger extent than "20th Century Scizoid Man" defined what symphonic rock would sound like and was perhaps the one most important influence on the likes of Yes, Genesis, Camel and ELP. King Crimson then (or at least after their third or fourth album) went on to become something else. But that album still stands as a pinnacle in the history of symphonic rock, as the blueprint more or less.

XTC

You're insane.

No, even Andy Partridge doesn't like White Music that much!

But that album still stands as a pinnacle in the history of symphonic rock, as the blueprint more or less

In The Court of the Crimson King is not "symphonic rock".

In the Court...is just boring. Listen to Red/Starless/Lark's!

Tim McGraw
Toby Keith
Kenny Chesney

(x-post) You can be bored by anything you wish to be bored by, or think Red is a better record or whatever, but anyone arguing that King Crimson's isn't a great debut album is flat-out wrong.

^^^

Sub-genre: pesky albums recorded prior to the big lable launch that come back to haunt you. See Emmylou Harris' "Gliding Bird" or Prince's "Minneapolis Genius"

xp so even if you think it's boring, you should acknowledge its greatness? I don't think that's how it works.

I can understand where you are coming from. Surely, you like the highly experimental and anarchistic King Crimson of the mid 70s, but you are not to big on more traditional symphonic rock. "In The Court Of The Crimson King" is more Yes and less Zappa than later King Crimson, and it may not be your thing for that reason.

I guess I feel the same about Moody Blues. Very tempted to mention their debut here, because it is in a genre that I have never seen much value in, while I think they got brilliant later on. People who dislike pretentious baroque pop concept albums and love British 60s R&B probably see it in a completely different way though.

Cocteau Twins - Garlands

this is the best Cocteaus album by miles

depeche mode

SCOTT

Queen's first one is pretty great.

also The Knife is better than Deep Cuts

xp scott? really? it's the weakest of the first four, but I'd still easily place it in the 'great' category without a moment's hesitation.

RE King Crimson and boredom: Not to get all Captain Canon, but I think the multitudes of critics and fans who have found Crimson's combination of rock-jazz-classical stunning (in 1969 and now) trump the bored naysayers.

I can acknowledge greatness in records I personally find boring, or overrated, or simply hate, from Sgt. Pepper to Sonic Youth, if the performance is in some way unique or precedent-setting.

SCOTT

― piscesx, Monday, March 22, 2010 5:30 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

xp scott? really? it's the weakest of the first four, but I'd still easily place it in the 'great' category without a moment's hesitation.

― m the g, Monday, March 22, 2010 5:33 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

not only is scott GREAT, but sometimes i think it's his best album. it's ALWAYS better than 2, which is so so so overrated.

Divine Comedy
Pulp
Prince
New Order
Magnetic Fields
Simple Minds (They qualify as they were a great act for the next five albums)

I've only heard half of the album but I'm sure The Boo Radleys would belong here.

With the ones suggested already I would strongly second the Go Betweens, Blur and Radiohead.

Magnetic Fields

quite possibly their best album.

Maybe I should go back to it. I don't remember enjoying it at all and I do like some of their earlier albums, especially Holiday.

I really can't imagine it being better than 69 Love Songs though.

it's different than 69 love songs, that's for sure. i could make a case for almost any mag fields album thru (and including) 69ls as being their best, including holiday, though i find that one maddeningly uneven. distant plastic trees has -- besides susan anway, who i'm reasonably sure is the best singer who's ever tackled a stephin merritt song -- "you love to fail," "falling in love with the wolfboy" and merritt's masterpiece, "100,000 fireflies." among others. i miss the mag fields as synth poppers.

Creedence Clearwater Revivial

The debut is probably my favourite of their first five (I've never heard the last two).

RE King Crimson and boredom: Not to get all Captain Canon, but I think the multitudes of critics and fans who have found Crimson's combination of rock-jazz-classical stunning (in 1969 and now) trump the bored naysayers.

I can acknowledge greatness in records I personally find boring, or overrated, or simply hate, from Sgt. Pepper to Sonic Youth, if the performance is in some way unique or precedent-setting.

see, I don't think greatness resides in consensus, which is largely meaningless, but in the reactions of individuals. the naysayers are just as 'right' as the supporters. uniqueness and innovation are an entirely different category of judgement than 'great' - the former can be value-free, the latter never can.

not only is scott GREAT, but sometimes i think it's his best album. it's ALWAYS better than 2, which is so so so overrated.

4 is usually the one that gets the most effusive praise, but my own favourite, 80% of the time, is 3.

hell, they're all good.

this may be CONTROVERSIAL and i've admittedly not listened to it in years, but tracking down Randy Newman's s/t after obsessing over 12 Songs, Good Ol Boys and Sail Away was rather disappointing. "Love Story", a couple of others excepted obv.

The Fall - Live at the Witch Trials

One of my favorite albums by them; maybe my favorite, period. So, no.

yeah much <3 for that one.

Regarding "Speak & Spell", it's a very different album from what Depeche Mode would become known as later, but it's still a nice little synthpop album and not at all bad.

I've seen at least a dozen debuts I personally love so far

re: Randy Newman's s/t -- i like it, but it's nowhere near as good as what came after. Great songs, but there are better versions by other artists ...

Creedence Clearwater Revivial

― kornrulez6969, Sunday, March 21, 2010 9:57 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Creedence Clearwater Revivial

The debut is probably my favourite of their first five (I've never heard the last two).

― Gavin in Leeds, Monday, March 22, 2010 7:19 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

first creedence is nowhere near as good as cosmo's factory or green river, and only a little closer to bayou country or willy and the poorboys. however, saying it is "not so great" is seriously retarded.

No, even Andy Partridge doesn't like White Music that much!

That doesn't mean I have to agree with him. I'm not worried about what he likes, I'm worried about what I, and I'll take White Music over virtually everything that came after Oranges & Lemons every day of the week.

ABBA good call. "Ring Ring" is hardly essential (and the first Björn and Benny album even less so)

Lot of knives being thrown. Different strokes for different folks, indeed.

And when I say something is 'boring', I'm voicing my own feelings on the music, what it does for me, how often I want to listen to it. In no way is 'boring', a unilateral slight on a piece of art set to invalidate its stature and its supporters.

I'll take White Music over virtually everything that came after Oranges & Lemons every day of the week.

Hell, I might take it over anything after Drums and Wires! What the heck does Andy Partridge know, anyway? "Radios In Motion" and "This Is Pop?" are up there with anything they ever did!

And I'm not sure Depeche Mode ever topped their debut, either.

What about the Stones? Their s/t debut is ok (edit, the version of Not Fade Away is great) but don't think anyone would remember them if this was all they ever did.

They'd be remembered as one out of several British R&B bands, but they surely wouldn't have had quite the same position.

ABBA definitely. Some of the other suggestions here are insane.

first creedence... saying it is "not so great" is seriously retarded.

Well I think it's seriously retarded to say that it's retarded to say that the first Creedence record is not so great.

Maybe we should have set up some ground rules on what makes an album a "not so great debut album!"

1. album must be not so great

hmm, this isn't helping

2. If I say it's not great, it's not great.

"Not so great" may be hard to define. For me, when I used the term, I thought of it as kind of an understatement, meaning not at all great. In which case I guess the first Creedence doesn't qualify even though it is obviously not as good as the ones that followed.

Bee Gees? I've never been clear on whether they released a "real" album before 1st.

I do believe they released some albums when they lived in Australia and were indeed very young.

"The Bee Gees 1st" is their best ever album, so it would be madness to namecheck that one in this thread.

Tool. Aenima/Lateralus/10,000 Days >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Opiate & Undertow

that is 100% backwards

I've never heard Opiate. I was always put off by the COMPLETELY TERRIBLE cover.

Blondie