Acts whose debut album is an afterthought in their overall discography

13. David Bowie - David Bowie

14. The Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Red Hot Chili Peppers

15. Lana Del Ray - Lana Del Ray

blur / leisure

*alright there's one hit on it. and i guess they do play it live.

Underworld's first two albums might fit into this category.

Hey I enjoyed Kraftwerk's !&2: low-budget Space Age bachelor pad music with jazzy breezes, often enough.

1&2, that is.

Genesis - From Genesis to Revelation

Prince

I mean it had a hit, but no one listens to our talks about that album in comparison to what followed.

Bad Religion's second album
Japan's first 2.8 albums

Grimes. I didn't even know her latest wasn't her first album although I loved it. Her fans may be aware (and like it ?), though.

Janet Jackson

Genius - Words from the Genius (aka the debut album from the rapper later known as GZA)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1a/Alanis1991cover.gif

Van Der Graaf Generator - The Aerosol Grey Machine
http://www.vandergraafgenerator.co.uk/pawnhearts/aerosol_mercury_front.jpg
(One of my fave songs is on this album)

Was gonna say that but expected objections

Wouldn't Fairport Convention's debut be a perfect choice for this?

Red Red Meat - S/T

TV On the Radio - OK Calculator

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

Lucinda Williams - Ramblin'

of Montreal - Cherry Peel

Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan

Lou Reed - Lou Reed
Neil Young - Neil Young

(last 3 debatable)

First Canned Heat album perhaps.

Girls Against Boys - Tropic of Scorpio

The first work of some of the tropicalistas, maybe:

Gilberto Gil - Louvação
Gal Costa and Caetano Veloso - Domingo

surely dylan is more known as the songwriter he'd become than a folk covers artist he began as xxxp

Oneida - A Place Called El Shaddai's

Al Greene - Back Up Train

Joni Mitchell - Songs To A Seagull

Hüsker Dü - Land Speed Record

Emmylou Harris - Gliding Bird
Billy Joel - Cold Spring Harbor
Juana Molina - Rara

Eminem — Infinite
Parliament — Osmium
Fleetwood Mac — Fleetwood Mac

Sly and the Family Stone - A Whole New Thing

(though I believe it underwent a major reevaluation/rediscovery in the mid-90s)

Another one I almost posted

10. Billy Joel - Attila
Billy Joel - Cold Spring Harbor

how many debuts does this guy have?

Isaac Hayes - Presenting Isaac Hayes

It may be just me but I don't care much about Bruce Springsteen's first album

10. Billy Joel - Attila
Billy Joel - Cold Spring Harbor

how many debuts does this guy have?

the Hassles' 1967 s/t album might also qualify as his debut (although he didn't sing on it). dude is the king of false starts.

Thin Lizzy - Thin Lizzy
Gentle Giant - Gentle Giant
Jethro Tull - This Was

The Divine Comedy - Fanfare For The Comic Muse

Sleater-Kinney: s/t

It may be just me but I don't care much about Bruce Springsteen's first album

Lots of people do, plus it has Blinded By the Light which was a huge hit for Manfred Mann.

John Cougar - Chestnut Street Incident

The Boo Radleys - Ichabod & I

Carly Rae Jepsen - Tug of War

yeah, but the singer of "go now" left the band after that lp, and as far as i know they didn't make a habit of performing anything from their first album after his departure. and their current audience would be surprised that that's a moody blues song. and they totally changed their sound with days of futures past. but you know all that. whatevs.

does the album suck, though? I was gonna name it and totally forgot that "Go Now" was #1, but I haven't heard it, can't imagine it's very good

doesn't suck if you're into merseybeat type stuff.

for that matter cat steven's first lp and single were uk hits, just not here in the states.

stevens'

xp first Moodies album doesn't sound much like "Go Now" either - it's mostly R&B type stuff

the Days of Futures Past lineup did play "Go Now" live for the first year or so. It's been played on the radio enough (and included in compilations) that I think most fans are familiar with it.

first albums that sound nothing like any that followed due to a different band lineup are their own category, like this one or Pink Floyd or Pulp.

yeah and considering how many people stan for those early Kraftwerk albums I think they belong there

The early Pulp albums sound like Pulp, albeit a not very good Pulp.

Does anyone from her existing fanbase care about any of the pre-2005 Robyn records? I've not heard them, but the impression I got was that she effectively hit the reset button on her career at that point.

"Show Me Love" from her first album was an international Top 10 (by comparison, none of her post-2005 songs have made the Hot 100 in the US) and she still plays it live so it's definitely not a hated, ignored, unknown afterthought

though she probably has plenty of younger fans with no context for it, i'm sure

i hope at least once a true-blue '90s pop fan wandered into a Robyn gig expecting a retro show and was like WHUUUUUH

Do Notwist fans care about the self-titled punk album they debuted with in 1991? (I like their next few myself, though I get the idea their American fanbase, inasmuch as it exists, doesn't care much about anything before Neon Golden in 2002.)

https://bekoob.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/shakira-magia.jpg

http://eil.com/images/main/Celine-Dion-La-Voix-Du-Bon-Di-261703.jpg

(although Celine's did have a couple of Quebec region hits on it)

First several Miami Sound Machine LPs, too:

http://www.discogs.com/artist/48245-Miami-Sound-Machine

Doesn't look like they got any U.S. Latin chart action early on, either. "Dr. Beat" off 1984's Eyes Of Innocence was finally a top 10 hit in Europe and Australia, apparently, but I get the idea even that one's been way downplayed over time, and it was way into their career, either way.

does this count?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Angel_%28Blue_Angel_album%29

cyndi lauper's band, before "she's so unusual." album went nowhere fast. wasn't even reissued on CD (outside of japan, naturally) for many years.

not a bad album btw!

Seems like if you include that (which I used to have a copy of, ages ago), you have to include Debbie Harry's first band, too:

http://www.discogs.com/Wind-In-The-Willows-The-Wind-In-The-Willows/master/213789

But I kind of think "bands people were in before they were famous" is a whole different category, myself.

what about rufus's self-titled, extremely low charting debut, the only one they made before they officially became "rufus featuring chaka khan"?

yeah going back upthread Show Me Love was HUGE, I remember seeing it on MTV as a kid and digging it. the album that it's on is fantastic too.

But I kind of think "bands people were in before they were famous" is a whole different category, myself.

yeah, true.

Oh speaking of early Sly, that 2014 Light In The Attic comp, I'm Just Like You: Sly's Stone Flower, has a lot of good stuff, ditto the 2013 box, Higher!, although there's some overlap I think.

the stone flower comp is great! it's very simple to an earlier comp on ace records, but the sony comp has better sound IMO.

cyndi lauper's band, before "she's so unusual." album went nowhere fast.

o it's already been broughten

Lauper was the lead singer of Blue Angel, so would be a different category as noted above, re Debbie Harry in pre-Blondie band The Wind In The Willows (also as noted, the album by Blue Angel is good, with Lauper's 50s-80s belting in a no-frills club rock setting).
Haven't heard Alice Cooper's xpost Pretties For You, but used to play Easy Action and thought it was pretty okay: a bit demo-y, but Vince's vocals really go for the gusto, as they used to say in that beer commercial he probably relished.

Did anybody mention these cobbled-together collections that can come out soon after the first proper albums hit it big, like Hendrix on sessions of Curtis Knight, Little Richard, the Isley Brothers (got some of the first two, would love to get the remixed tracks, with guitar highlighted, that the isleys bought out on their label: really good reviews, OOP forever, prob 100s of dollars on eBay)

since somebody mentioned it...

http://www.willardswormholes.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/cover1-293x300.jpg

Inquire within:
http://www.willardswormholes.com/archives/468

does the Jefferson Airplane debut count?

no, but the first Jefferson Starship album (Blows Against the Empire) almost does....

Jefferson Airplane Takes Off is a solid debut, and neither fans nor the band distanced themselves from it. I think of it like the first Fairport Convention album (which sounds surprisingly similar, and is also very good); each was made with a fine female vocalist who left after the first album and are unfairly maligned because they're not Grace Slick/Sandy Denny, and weren't as popular or quite as good as what followed.

Gerry Rafferty's Can I Get My Money Back? (1971) is a weird one. Tucked in between the three Humblebums albums that proceded it and the three Stealers Wheel albums that followed, it was ignored upon its release and still (undeservedly) gets little attention now. It would be another seven years before City to City, which topped the charts in the US and many probably think is his solo debut.

John Cale's Vintage Violence fits doesn't it?
Think it's his first, stylistically different etc. VU were still obscure when he left.
Not sure what's on it though, so he may have reworked songs live.

First Little Big Town album (Monument 2002) also fits.

Did Dead Can Dance get a mention already?

First two Sparks albums? No hits on either of them, recorded with a different band to the "classic" era, and I guess most people assume their recording career started with "Kimono My House".

What about Mark Everett's pre-Eels solo records? I guess "Bad Dude In Love" probably doesn't count as it was self-released and obscure to the point of being an urban legend, but "A Man Called E" and "Broken Toy Shop" must do.

Yeah did think of those, they're a more pop version of himself..

Suave House released an album Rick Ross recorded back in 2002-04 ("Rise to Power") after he dropped Port of Miami.

"Genesis - From Genesis to Revelation"

def