Debut albums which became their own phenomenon outside the rest of their catalogue

is there not already a thread on artists who arrived fully formed and then fell off a bit? this is a very similar scenario

― maf you one two (maffew12), Thursday, June 16, 2022 2:36 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

idk about that, like I wouldn't say Pink Floyd arrived fully formed with Piper, nor did they "fall off" exactly...I mean sure their next 5 or so weren't as good, but last I checked Floyd made some pretty classic albums after that. and yet Piper is just sorta off on its own little island with its own contingent of very dedicated fanatics who think their popular albums are "boring"

i think the implication here is that the follow-up work isn't necessarily worse and may in some cases be better but the singularity of the debut is never followed up on

i think bands that had sudden lineup shifts after the debut are like maybe too-easy answers for this question, much as piper is still kind of a perfect answer

an interesting counterexample to this is artists whose first two albums seem of a piece, in conversation with each other, thus disqualifying them from this thread, but i can already name a few examples, like... underworld, the doors

Elvis’ Sun Sessions would be a great one if it had actually been an album at the time

illmatic

xxp actually Underworld did come to mind because dubnobass (and all that 93-94 stuff) feels like it's written in such a unique language, while STITI I think fits a lot more snugly into the progressive electronica that was becoming popular back then. but dubnobass isn't actually their debut and in fact a lot of its uniqueness has to do with them transitioning from one type of band to a very different one. yet still having some remnants of their old style. there ain't anything like it

"Aerosmith"

xxp actually Underworld did come to mind because dubnobass (and all that 93-94 stuff) feels like it's written in such a unique language, while STITI I think fits a lot more snugly into the progressive electronica that was becoming popular back then. but dubnobass isn't actually their debut and in fact a lot of its uniqueness has to do with them transitioning from one type of band to a very different one. yet still having some remnants of their old style. there ain't anything like it

― frogbs, Thursday, June 16, 2022 12:54 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol i knew you would disagree with me here. i feel you though. "ME" especially

with frog on Dubnobass... Second Toughest is more of a piece with what came after to my ears.

But yeah they didn't change their name so.. lol whatever

honorable mention a la trout mask replica then

How about Funkadelic and Osmium?

uhh which "first two albums are in conversation" example can i use in underworld's place uhhhh oh the band!!!

DEVO may qualify to be part of this rather exclusive gang ?

― mark e, Thursday, June 16, 2022 1:52 PM (fifty seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

was thinking of mentioning them for the Hardcore Devo stuff, which ticks a lot of these boxes. had Devo never gotten a deal and the Hardcore tapes were just "discovered" some decades later I imagine it would've been a big "holy shit everyone needs to hear this right now" sorta phenomenon

― frogbs,

yeah, i get that re the pre album material, however, this thread was all about the DEBUT album.

so, the earlier stuff is not relevant re DEVO ;)

Mellow Gold

Movement

first Springsteen would fit if not for the second

hmmmm

Maxinquaye by Tricky feels like it fits here

i think i also agree with murmur

Interesting. I see their first three albums (plus the Chronic Town EP) as being very much of a piece.

i think that's legit to some degree but idk for me there is something perceptibly different between murmur and reckoning, like two different photographs of the same band but the band is more in focus in the second one

uhh which "first two albums are in conversation" example can i use in underworld's place uhhhh oh the band!!!

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, June 16, 2022 3:06 PM (twenty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Cluster seem like they might fit there

As great/singular as Murmur is, I have always thought of Chronic Town as even more exemplary of – "imagine if they had recorded only this and then disappeared, how legendary it would be..."

I scrolled down here from the OP ready to post that R.E.M. somehow have two of these, between Chronic Town and Murmur!

otm

Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville ?

Chicago (Transit Authority)

Not an album and not different enough from what came next but maybe worth mentioning Spiral Scratch.

The Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike

Every single debut album by a famous band will be in this thread

― imago, Thursday, June 16, 2022 2:26 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was about to say "that's silly, think about a band like REM where Murmur is so fully of a piece with (at least the next 5-6 years of) what follows," but a mere nine minutes later

REM Murmur possibly?

― OG Bob Sacamano (will), Thursday, June 16, 2022 2:35 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

As a result, if they're good, these albums sometimes don't even really feel like a part of their catalogue as a whole, and often people discovering them have no interest in the rest of their work.

I mean surely none of you would say this of Murmur!

Actually maybe Jagged Little Pill is this! It really is a thing a young person did not even really knowing the magnitude of what she was doing and the adult Morrissette never really made records that had the thing JLP had.

The B-52s

It brought John Lennon out of retirement.

illmatic is the best hip-hop example i could come up with that doesn't involve the addition or departure of a group member. maybe if kmd's mr. hood is considered mf doom's "debut album"

even then it involves the loss of subroc

The Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike

― MarkoP,

as much as i love them, the debut sounded like every other Go Team album ..

Motley Crue - too fast for love?

I want to say the first Joanna Newsom album.

Subsequent albums are all singular in their own right, but Milk-Eyed Mender has that quality of an immensely inspired debut.

Is professionalism an element here? In other words, the artist is too young/raw/naive/disconnected from the industry/etc. to know what they are doing is different. After the debut, they become more proficient/richer/connected/etc. and lose something in the process, though maybe gaining other things.

My Generation is beloved by many who have no use for anything else the Who did. After the debut, it was mini-operas and concept albums; no more James Brown covers, and no more feedback.

The Streets first album fits... now that i think of the people often don't care to try other work criteria

(similarly Dizzee, as mentioned)

I'm starting to think of this as a kind of Mercury/Polaris/whatever prize syndrome

how much does artist intent matter? Kind of takes Illmatic out of it

i'm sure he intended to make good albums after illmatic

sorry couldn't resist the joke

Crass - Feeding of the 5000

Pearl Jam - Ten

Huge album that made them instant superstars, three massive hits, a right place-right time generation defining band that looked set to continue on U2-level multi-album superstardom…but i’m instead they immediately settled a couple levels below for a fairly lucrative but relatively boring career making solid but unremarkable records that nobody except the die-hard fans remembers, no hits, no adventures.

Bad Brains s/t ("the yellow tape"). Napalmed the entire hardcore punk scene, massively influential, and super raw in a way they never were again (Rock For Light, from the following year, is super polished by comparison - produced by Ric Ocasek!).

Sinead O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra (an album that to me sounds like the first album of the 90s, over two years too early)

i always thought of r.e.m.’s document as the early first album of the 90s, but i guess that’s for another thread

oooh Hosono House might be one of these. very special album with a sound that's weirdly hard to pin down, it's not one of his Top 5 (IMO) but it has a weirdly devoted following online. it somehow has more ratings on RYM than all his other albums (Pacific notwithstanding)

Crazy Rhythms fits the model as I understand it--fully realized, out of left field, the band gradually became somewhat more recognizable in sound and songwriting approach....

I wasn't sure if anybody had said Meat Puppets s/t before me but it does seem to create its own thang which may have been picked up on people afterwards but is moved away from by the band. II seems a lot more clearly produced and overtly countryesque. The jazz/psych/grunge thing which had them being compared to ballroom scene bands when it was reviewed in the British press was not something they stayed with in the studio at least. maybe they were just continually morphing thanks to acid and things. I guess that SF comparison is there for a lot more of their music but the amateurish improvisatory grunge thing gives way to them showing they have chops if they need them far more clearly and they soon get a lot more rockish, like 4 lps or so later or something.
I guss the thing is doing their own thing and also doing it to country classics first heard from the Sons of the Pioneers etc, doing similar things to tracks from South pacific for hardcore Dead Kennedys audiences is also a really god trick. Not sure what timespan those 2 were over though. Assume the grungier bits might be understood by hardcore crowds but the anti genericism might not be.

The first 3 puppets records were like 3 different bands, none of which they ultimately continued as IMO. Traces of all three remained but their long haul persona was basically Huevos. (Of course they still play tracks from II and UotS).

Actually with the addition of keyboard dude they are in a major new shift to their sound currently

Anyway

Pups

I remember seeing it on the shelves at Best Buy in my early CD-buying days in '97.

heh -- I BOUGHT the first two Pere Ubus at Best Buy in summer '98.