All Downhill from Here...instances where an artist peaked with the first song on their first album

Gravity Grave and A Man Called Sun are the two best Verve songs, and are tracks 1 & 2 from their first EP

With that said...Throwing Muses: Call Me certainly counts. Does there exist a better Throwing Muses song than that? Undoubtedly no.

"There, we did it! NOW FUCK YOU, FANS." (triple live album CDR of stoned complaints to follow)

still <3 them and I am completely discounting a couple of low-key Denmark-only albums but Mew is sadly a valid answer to this question

I would also like to nominate King Crimson, because hey sure Starless was great but c'mon they only did one song which truly took a clawhammer to the face of music

(no, 'The World's My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum' does not take a clawhammer to the face of music)

The Cooper Temple Clause! Anyone remember them? Yeah they did this too. Final tracks on each of their first two albums push it close, but really, Did You Miss Me is the pinnacle of all they stood for

I was about to start a thread on this and thought better of it. Search & find.

Hoodoo Gurus - "I Want You Back"

The idea that this has happened to anyone, let alone a number of relatively famous acts, is pretty depressing.

And of course, I'm wrong that it was the first song on the first album--only on the American CD. Awesome.

there are days when i'd say the clash "janie jones." there are other days when i wouldn't.

i want you back was track 2 on the original sequencing

i prefer tojo on that LP anyway

Not many bands can boast a song better than Janie Jones. The fact that The Clash have several speaks volumes.

Sleigh Bells - Tell 'Em

i want you back was track 2 on the original sequencing

whoops i see you already mentioned that

It's hard to do this, but since EPs and singles don't really count on this thread:

Pavement - Summer Babe

^Speaking Truth to Power^

I Saw Her Standing There - The Beatles (I am actually serious - by far my favourite Beatles song)

The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored

Did the Damned top "Neat, Neat, Neat"?

Interpol
Seam

The Feelies (not a dip after the first song, but not a rise either)

haha interpol. very nearly. but the first song on that album probably isn't quite the best.

It really is, though.

Yeah Joy Division definitely! Good call.

I feel this way about MBV "Soft as Snow (but Warm Inside)" but fully understand that I am insane.

killing joke

totally disagree with joy division

shellac

totally disagree with joy division

Yes, cannot be said enough.

loooooool

JJ Fad

Much as I love the Ramones, there's a case for them going downhill after Blitzkrieg Bop.

Did they better it? Probably not.

Still, not a steep downward curve.

it's weird how some "classic" artists could legit fit in here - eg my favourite missy elliott song is often "hit 'em wit da hee", ie the...first (non-intro) track on her first album.

otherwise, various examples from the elephant's graveyard of failed r&b babydivas (teairra mari) and those kinda boring MOR types who somehow build a really long career on only one song that people care about (natalie imbruglia, gabrielle)

Garbage

I meant the band. The first track on their first album rocked quite a lot.

i was about to post garbage

resists temptation to repost on the 'out-of-context' thread.

nas

Screamingly obvious answer:

Oasis - Rock and Roll Star

is it possible to go downhill if you start off at the very bottom?

Evidently so!

The third track is my favourite tho

I still sometimes listen to that trio of songs occasionally and pretend they just released a single and then gave up and became accountants or whatever

Aimee Mann--"I Should Have Known"

The arc of the Ramones is long, but it heads in a straight line from Blitzkrieg Bop, bending slowly downwards

Beyonce - "Crazy in Love"
(arguably, although this is not my favourite song by her).

Same for Britney with "Baby one more time".

You could make a case for Violent Femmes with "Blister in the Sun." There are other songs on that record I'm more inclined to want to hear but that may be conditioned by the utter inescapability of "Blister."

Led Zeppelin

while i do not agree, i know a few people who could make a reasonable argument for the grateful dead here.

"Noticeable One" by Missing Persons. whole first album is great though

America: opener 'Riverside' is arguably not the best track on side one, but they definitely peaked with that first side of their first album. An ever-accelerating downhill ride into Blandsville from thereon, I'd say.
Heart - I suppose this depends on whether you prefer 'Magic Man' to 'Crazy on You', but anyway peaked on at least track three of album #1.
OK, here's one that's nailed on: Living Colour - 'Cult of Personality'.

I know someone who thinks 'Ruckzuck' is the best thing Kraftwerk ever did.

pretty sure there are at least a few posters here that feel that way about "ruckzuck"

"Blister In The Sun" is where a band records something so definitive that I wouldn't care less if everyone said that they peaked there and then

Fountains of Wayne - "Radiation Vibe"

Ruckzuck is really cool.

This thread is even harsher:

Artists whose first single was the best thing they ever did.

ELO.

Fountains of Wayne - "Radiation Vibe"

I was about to object, then realized that, while there are probably 15 FoW songs I like almost as much, you're probably right

Delays - "Nearer Than Heaven"

Raspberries - "Go All the Way"

ELO.

If you were a Move fan, sure.

Britney Spears OTM

Also agree with Fountains of Wayne

Ron Carter with his debut as a band leader- Where album, with Dolphy/Waldron, which is a minor masterpiece. Not really felt much else he did, although Uptown Conversation isn't terrible.

ELO.

If you were a Move fan, sure.

That would explain why I was going to say OTM

Guns N' Roses?

Meek Mill is never going to top Dreams And Nightmares (Intro) is he?

Enh he's recorded lots of stuff that's at least comparable in quality, if not urgency

t/s: blue gene tyranny 'next time might be your time' vs annette peacock 'i'm the one'

who bodied 70's avant-jazz-pop harder on the first try

What is Annette Peacock's first album, though? Revenge: The Bigger The Love The Greater The Hate has been re-released under her own name (and also features a version of "I'm the One", but not as the first track!).

a perplexing intrusion! nonetheless, picking between those two songs is quite the task isn't it. (i mean i am personally going BGT but they're both incredible)

"Jacking the Ball" by The Sea and Cake