Acts whose debut album is an afterthought in their overall discography

Green Day - 1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours & Kerplunk

― LimbsKing, Monday, May 11, 2015 4:08 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this doesn't fulfil a single one of the original criteria, good work

idk his narrative that well at all but isn't Alice Cooper's first album really totally different/not usually talked about?

Al Stewart – Bedsitter Images

Chrome - The Visitation

That album that Refused did before The Shape Of Punk To Come

rihanna - music of the sun

Noooooo that's still one of my favourites.

Supposedly the Rush debut but fans are generally so unenthusiastic about it, I cant be bothered checking if theyre right.

There are two radio staples on this + they played "Working Man" live when I saw them in 2002.

(I can't remember another song from it aside from "In the Mood" and "Working Man", though.)

Scorpions - Lonesome Crow

Faith No More - we care a lot?

Supposedly the Rush debut but fans are generally so unenthusiastic about it, I cant be bothered checking if theyre right.

- Robert Adam Gilmour

There are two radio staples on this + they played "Working Man" live when I saw them in 2002.

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 11 May 2015 12:55

(I can't remember another song from it aside from "In the Mood" and "Working Man", though.)

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Monday, 11 May 2015 13:01

Come to think of it I don't much like Fly By Night apart from the lovely title track.

Slipknot - Mate Feed Kill Repeat
Beth Orton - Superpinkymandy

Does that first Feist album fit the bill?

Stoney & Meatloaf

The Offspring - The Offspring

would Peter Gabriel's first count? He never recorded another song with "moribund" in it again.

rihanna - music of the sun

― lex pretend, Monday, May 11, 2015 10:08 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Noooooo that's still one of my favourites.

― Tim F, Monday, May 11, 2015 10:17 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's one of my favourite rihanna albums but popular and critical consensus - wrongly! - holds that she became important with GGGB

John Martyn – London Conversation

The Flaming Lips – Hear It Is

Peter Gabriel debut had Solsbury Hill

Huey Lewis and the News

ZZ Top--ZZ Top,s First Album

Replacements

The Who "My Generation"

I know, but ignore the single(s) and mm, how many tracks have anything to do with the band they became?

Don't see it listed but first thought of:
Paul Simon- Paul Simon Songbook (1965)

Sufjan Stevens - A Sun Came maybe? Don't know if he ever played any of those songs live and besides "it's kinda decent" I've never heard anyone speak well of it.

Glass Hammer - Journey of the Dunadan, an almost infamously awful concept album about Lord of the Rings that embodies everything lolworthy about prog in 70+ minutes. And it doesn't do it in a way that's actually somewhat awesome, the way a lot of their later albums would...lots "Synth Fanfare 2"-type melodies and hilariously terrible vocals.

Fluke - Techno Rose of Blighty - dunno if the fans dislike this one, but it's kind of a bad take on Madchester, it's nothing like what they'd get famous for, and most of their better material didn't even make the album (which I believe was only like 6 tracks/30 minutes on its first release?)

Robert Wyatt - End of an Ear, do people like this one at all?

Also - how about those first two Primal Scream albums?

Otherwise it's really easy to come up with albums that meet some of those criteria; prog rock in general has a ton of "false start" albums, but I think they're all enjoyable to some degree (especially the VdGG and Yes ones)

End of an Ear is a p solid Brit free improv rec

ZZ Top's First Record has Brown Sugar, which shows up on best-of's and they played in concert on a recent tour. And though it's not their best work, it's definitely good and all the components of their early 70s aesthetic are basically there.

I feel like there's a distinction to be made between that type of album, where the band is not quite firing on all cylinders and a few years away from a great record, and the first 10 or so mentioned on the thread, where the albums are viewed as actual embarrassments (Y Tori Kant Read) or not officially the start of their discography (like the album Bjork made when she was 12).

Like I don't think any ZZ Top fan is going to listen to the first album and think, "It was a mistake to release this, I bet they regret this youthful indiscretion," or "Wow, this is an like a whole other band that is totally underdeveloped and it's weird to think of them putting this out."

Same goes for The Who, and maybe the Green Day examples above.

also, great thread idea, kornrulez6969

The Who "My Generation"

I know, but ignore the single(s) and mm, how many tracks have anything to do with the band they became?

― Mark G, Monday, May 11, 2015 11:05 AM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was going to mention this too, mainly because it's not served well by oldies/"classic rock" radio, and non-fanatics generally aren't aware of it.

But in addition to the title song and "The Kids Are Alright," I think every song here (except maybe "I Don't Mind" and "Please Please Please") was a blueprint for what they became. Until Moon died, they never strayed from the basic approach on this record, and continually expanded on it. "In a Hand or a Face" is a more knowing "La-La-La-Lies," "Who Are You" is an older, grizzled "Circles," and "Cut My Hair" is "Out In The Street" from a different perspective. For that matter, Quadrophenia is really just "My Generation" expanded to 2 LPs.

Neil Young - s/t
Lou Reed - s/t
Rush - s/t

^
|
|

Sometimes it feels like Bleach is silo'd away from the rest of Nirvana's discography, all of which feels of a piece to me, or has a narrative at least, and yet while it's got some classics and no Nirvana fan would be without it, the line-up is different and it's still the sound of a band finding its identity (to me at least).

Hoobastank - They Sure Don't Make Basketball Shorts Like They Used To

Already mentioned upthread, but just look at this young man:

http://i.imgur.com/7pMB19v.jpg

Everlast - Forever Everlasting
Kid Rock - Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast
Fastball - Make Your Mama Proud
Blink 182 - Buddha
Finger Eleven (as The Rainbow Butt Monkeys) - Letters From Chutney

My mind keeps thinking of acts who got big in the late 90s.

Not sure about Neil Young, I think it's too strong to be here.

Lycia - Wake. It does have a few great tracks though.

Liars probably.

But I wouldn't quite count Sugar Ray or No Doubt in this category.

al green(e) -- back up train

Warren Zevon
Boomtown Rats
(U.K.) Squeeze
Swans (EP)
Zac Brown Band (first few)
Old Crow Medicine Show (first few)
John Hiatt (first couple, at least)

Mekons (maybe their first few, but almost definitely their first)

i feel like sixties california has more than their fair share of these (the utterly forgettable tim buckley debut hasn't been mentioned yet, for instance). to generalize, it seems like seventies punk bands when the scene started up didn't get to record albums, sixties hippie bands did get to record albums, but they were unrepresentative and generally awful.

also, great thread idea, kornrulez6969

Thanks. And I take back the first ZZ Top record, I just didnt recognize any songs and according to wikipedia it didn't chart. But it takes more than that to qualify for this thread.

I will, however, stand by the first Huey Lewis album as a near perfect example.

i feel like we've got two separate beasts in this thread - the modest debut, ie Neil Young and Rihanna, where they didn't have their defining aesthetic nailed quite yet, but still featured some hits people still care about now ("The Loner," "Pon De Replay" respectively). And then there's the straight up FORGOTTEN debut, like Randy Newman and Warren Zevon, where zero fucks are given by anyone but the most hungry-for-juvenalia fan.

oh yeah that huey one is perfect

Faith No More - we care a lot?

― StanM, Monday, May 11, 2015 1:41 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not sure if this one qualifies - the title track gets played live a lot still (and is fairly well remembered by fans, even those that hated the Mosley era) and the Mosley era does have a lot of champions, even if it is more for Introduce Yourself.

Mike Patton even re-recorded "As the Worm Turns" from the first one.

Guess Who (first few)
Golden Earring(s) (first few)
Billy Ocean (first few)
Blackfoot (first couple +)
Whitesnake (first few)
Rick Springfield (first few, though his actual debut a little less so)
K.C. and the Sunshine Band
(Ambrose) Slade

i feel like we've got two separate beasts in this thread - the modest debut, ie Neil Young and Rihanna, where they didn't have their defining aesthetic nailed quite yet, but still featured some hits people still care about now ("The Loner," "Pon De Replay" respectively). And then there's the straight up FORGOTTEN debut, like Randy Newman and Warren Zevon, where zero fucks are given by anyone but the most hungry-for-juvenalia fan.

There's also the notoriously embarrassing debut (Ministry, Tori Amos, Pantera). I don't know the Newman and Zevon records, maybe they qualify for that.

Sylvester (first couple w/ Hot Band)