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

if Jagged Little Pill counts, then Off the Wall!

― maf you one two (maffew12), Friday, June 17, 2022 7:23 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

no way

jmm, absolutely. This is more interesting for bands with big careers and many albums people like... but where the debut still feels like it sits apart, in the listen and in the legend. Versus the probably more numerous people who take several albums to arrive at that magic spot, the fair number of "phenomenon" debuts where the "rest of their catalog" might as well not exist for most listeners, etc.

Thriller is more a piece with Bad than Off the Wall, no? OTW smashes everything after for what that's worth

But why is it different other than that it was made in 79 instead of 82?

In other words, why is outside the rest of the catalog?

I feel like the most interesting examples of this are where subsequent albums somewhat dwarf the debut, but where that in turn lends something to the magic of the debut. That's kind of what Piper is.

― jmm, Friday, June 17, 2022 10:28 AM (twenty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah that's why I think Piper is the best example of this out there, I can't believe I didn't mention it in the OP

Brian Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets sorta fits along those lines, it's a great album but what really makes it interesting is that Eno fled pretty far from this sound

it's much more a disco record than anything after

xp

Because it was made in 79!

If Thriller were made in 79 it would have been a disco record too.

xxp What.. what about Tiger Mountain

oh i see.. if there's a criteria about being out of step with the zeitgeist i missed it!

this is a pretty fun one to chew on in any case

Actually, after rereading the initial post, you might be more right than I am.

lol

i am seeing now how you read "own phenomenon"

xxp What.. what about Tiger Mountain

― maf you one two (maffew12), Friday, June 17, 2022 10:56 AM (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

definitely similar but Warm Jets has this real unhinged quality to it, if that was the only Eno album you knew you'd be pretty surprised at how the rest of his career went. whereas Tiger Mountain cements him as a more serious art-rock guy prone to those kind of diversions.

i gotcha but Tiger Mountain really takes the edge off of saying Warm Jets is such an outlier in a body of work like that

fwiw I don't think Alanis or Jacko should fit... but at the same time it feels silly to disqualify "Debut" because of the record Bjork made as a child. I don't think it fits more because "Post" exists.

I almost would have said Warm Jets but it seemed like a bit of a troll even though I know it has its champions who think he never did anything else as good. Some days I'm among them ;-)

No takers for the first Mercury Rev, then? I'm sure it's in a very similar sitation, it kind of has a part II in Boces but it's still pretty singuler in their catalog, they defintiely haven't pinned down what they're going to go on to do and later albums were much bigger.

In The Garden. The one lp by the band I really love backed by band that is rotating members of Can and Blondie doing something i hear rooted in Britfolk rock stuff with a major psychedelic tinge.

Later stuff is ok but this is phenomenal. Especially when the cd version replaced teh earlier tinny sounding version

Horseflies Human Fly
is something special I think they continued with something far less special and more mainstream.

"anything else as good", or as wild and freewheeling anyway. xp to me

There for In The Garden, yes!

somebody had alread mentioned Yerself Is Steam which I thought had been recorded by the band actually became a band. Different players going into the studio at different times and overdubbing. Soundtracking sub aquatic film footage from what I remember.

Would love to know how Sounds Familiar had teh record before it really came out or got much publicity. So I didn't know really what it was just taht it looked really interesting. So i got it and listened to it quite a bit at the time. Coloured vinyl tripped out sound.

I think the Caribou Vibration Ensemble live cd sounds pretty similar to those first 2 mercury Rev lps.

Saw them a few times when they first hit the UK too. Think I caught the last few dates of a tour they'd started out supporting Ride on.

Live sets around the era are pretty cool too. Spotify used to have a couple up

by the band before they actually became a band. I don't think they had played live at the time or anything. Wasn't their 2nd gig supporting Dylan?

thread reminded me I've never bothered to listen to that first Ted Leo record

it would fit, but I'm not sure anyone has ever heard it

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

― imago, Thursday, June 16, 2022 3:26 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Pearl Jam

Meatloaf

Björk

What can I say? When you're right, you're right

don't forget Rush

Gris Gris / Dr John

I thought about this one cause it def appeals to people who have no real interest in his other work, it is singular for sure and goes somewhere his other records don't.

But it is SO MASTERFUL, i mean no fucking way was the guy who made this not gonna have a decades-long career in music.

gris gris is a great answer

The first Peter Gabriel album kind of fits this - stylistically all over the place, stands apart from his catalogue while being very much of it (not to mention that two of his best known songs are on it), and somewhat overshadowed by later works.

I think the things that make it great are deliberate and repeatable, otherwise yes. xp

frogbs, ok, i hear ya re: Clarks

*Clerks

has anyone mentioned prefab sprout and swoon?

"Cochin Moon" is Hosono's one of these & not a debut

and again too great a "masterpiece" to qualify anyway

Barenaked Ladies' "Gordon".. massive hit in Canada at least. Then they tried to be serious for a bit. Then goofy again but it was..uh... yeah

Nice new
Stereogum #1s series article about "One Week" out today: https://www.stereogum.com/2190488/the-number-ones-barenaked-ladies-one-week/columns/the-number-ones/

Is Gris Gris really that different than most of Babylon?

"Cochin Moon" is Hosono's one of these & not a debut

― The 25 Best Songs Ever Ranked In Order (Deflatormouse), Friday, June 17, 2022 12:57 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think his actual debut works though, it's clearly within his style but also unlike any of his other solo albums, plus most of the reviews are like "there's something about this but I can't say what"

a certain hosonissance

Is Gris Gris really that different than most of Babylon?

― Cabernet Frank (PBKR), Friday, June 17, 2022 2:08 PM

Yeah totally, Gris Gris has this incredible sense of exterior space, it's a guided tour through a mythical landscape that only exists in the collective imagination, like the Disneyland Railroad Grand Tour. And where does Rebbenack position himself? He's the tour guide, not the bandleader. He's a peripheral figure giving a kind of commentary as we move between stations. With "Babylon" he brings it indoors and situates himself at the center of the ensemble.

re: "Hosono House" it's actually the one of the only albums of his, maybe the only album of his that doesn't interest me much. So idk

has anyone mentioned prefab sprout and swoon?

― in places all over the world, real stuff be happening (voodoo chili), Friday, June 17, 2022 10:54 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh this is perfect

think it satisfies basically every criteria of the op

Badly Drawn Boy, "The Hour of Bewilderbeast"

The album that immediately jumps to my mind is the Neu! debut. They could have called it day afterwards and it would still absolutely stand as one of the greats. Sure, the members were all experienced in other groups is beforehand. But nobody was making music quite like Neu! before Neu! It seemingly sprung out of nowhere fully formed as an artistic statement. Negativland alone basically created a new genre.

Agree fully with the Bristol bands' debuts.

Meet the Residents, maybe

In The Garden

good one

Crazy Rhythms is a good one.

Three Imaginary Boys (maybe??)

spongehead's "potted meat spread"?

Is that a Bloomsday reference?

The KLF's Chill Out (1990) springs to mind. Probably because the OP mentioned The Orb. Technically the band had released several singles and a couple of albums before that, but Chill Out was the first album credited to the KLF.

It was very influential but it's also an aberration. The KLF's next album was totally different, and most of the ambient music that followed from other musicians had beats, whereas Chill Out is mostly beatless. I have the impression it was intended as a throwaway joke that wasn't expected to age well, but it still holds up.

Gang of Four's Entertainment - specifically the guitar sound - is the first thing I think of when I think of UK post-punk. Not just Gang of Four but UK post-punk in general. I haven't heard a single thing the band released after that. They were so angry! Pere Ubu's Modern Dance is similar but with US post-punk-albeit-very-early-post-punk. When I think of US post-punk I immediately think of David Thomas going ahahahaha as if someone had dropped an ice cube down his back.

Modern Dance certainly was its very own fire escape experience when it first materialized. so unknown to many of us in boondocks beyond CLE (aside from a glimpse on a comp). But later there was this, which I never saw on CD, and no doubt if I'd heard the EP first oh shit (we haven't talked about EPs here, come to think of it) Must admit xgau nearly nailed it, as he could still do then:

Terminal Tower: An Archival Collection [Twin/Tone, 1986]
Side one is the long unavailable Datapanik in the Year Zero EP, itself comprising two indie singles and a compilation cut and as powerful a sequence as side one of Dub Housing nevertheless. Side two collects the kind of oddments that rarely cohere on LP, yet here the outtakes and B sides and stray singles come together as a record of David Thomas's slide or progress from willed optimism to blessed whimsy. In short, this is a gift from God--a third Ubu album from the former Crocus Behemoth's pre-God period. A-

Also, Music From Big Pink was its own kind of experience, like getting lost in the cornfield in the evening sun, and coming across a fallen scarecrow with pulsating kandy leaking out: there's a steady cadence, but they've just kept working it and packing and feeding the levels, as if the Dead could have brought something of their psychedelic overbudget studio expeditions to, say, Workingman's Dead. Also fitting this thread, The Band and some later tracks worked in their own terms, but never again like this.

Not psych in the overt weirdo sense, but mind-expanding in the syncretic writing, arranging, performing and production (incl. recording, sequence of tracks et.), together and separately (though mostly the former).