Acts whose debut album is an afterthought in their overall discography

Marvin Gaye - The Soulful Moods Of Marvin Gaye

an album primarily of standards released a year before Stubborn Kind of Fellow

While Hall & Oates' Whole Oats has no hits, didn't chart, songs from it got covered by other people and the same people all worked on the hit follow-up a year later. But apparently the first single was initially credited to Whole Oats, as they were thinking about call themselves that. So i'd say it's like 2/3rds a qualifer.

Lana Del Rey

Fall Out Boy's Evening Out With Your Girlfriend

a debut album that has been demoted to EP on the band's wikipedia page

The Wailing Wailers

I think sometimes you get this with solo albums when they're still in the band, then when the breakup happens, the solo albums feel different. Peter Hammill's first album is okay but he really put everything into the second album after VDGG broke up

Pete Townshend - Who Came First

Giorgio Moroder's definitely fits the bill here:

That's Bubble Gum – That's Giorgio

Hell, his next five records are also just as obscure. Wouldn't most fans consider his Knights in White Satin LP to be his "debut"?

I've got his Son Of My Father from 1972 (title track from which went #46 in the U.S.); didn't even know he had any before that 'til now.

So...does Beck qualify? What do the referees say? First album was apparently initially cassette-only; second, Stereopathic Soulmanure, is up to 146,000 copies sold so far, according to Wiki. Doubt the vast majority of his fans have ever heard it, though.

That's a tough one! Part of me feels like the fact that these works are totally invisible to even his fans means they qualify.

But on the other hand, I feel like a major part of Beck's success in the early 90s was his slacker weirdo persona--the fact that he seemed like the type of goofball who probably released a couple of random tapes of noise and fell ass-backwards into a hit. I am undecided.

Golden Feelings definitely feels completely ignored by the majority of fans & i doubt most know it exists, but surprisingly he's played tracks from it live as recently as 2012.

Sufjan Stevens - A Sun Came is a another one

Lightning Bolt - Lightning Bolt

Silly Hat vs. Egale Hat and Meetle Mice by Dan Deacon, even though they're fucking great and have some of his best songs ("My Own Face is F Word," "The House I Was Isnt My Girlfriends Porsche," "Song for Dina," "I Will Always Have Juice Today," "Shit Slowly Applied on Cock Parts," "It's Not as It's Going Downtown").

Jimmy Eat World - S/T

Songs of Faith - Aretha Franklin (and all her subsequent pre-Atlantic albs)

Ween - Synthetic Socks

The s/t Incredible String Band which is straighter folk done by a 3 piece.

Ein Produkt Der and possibly Die Kleinen und Die Bosen by Deutsch Americanisch Freundschaft both cut by the band as a group not a duo. First one is largely instrumental, an imaginary film soundtrack. 2nd is like funky electronic drenched hardcore. Not sure how well known it is. I love it.

I think I've seen an Original Album series or equivalent for Alice Cooper that has the 1st 5lps in it including the Straight ones. So maybe they're becoming more accepted.

Earth, Wind & Fire's 1st lp and maybe the next few. Could be they have now been discovered by a different audience, whatever Rare Groove is called these days but it is pretty different to what they went onto once they became really famous. More psychy funk than Nilotic fantasy disco. &their first work was backing Melvin van Peebles on Sweet Sweetback's Badass Song. which I have on cd but am not sure if it got a release prior to it coming with the book about the film.

"Chicago Transit Authority"

'Free Form Guitar' is the highpoint of their discography!

Rick Wakeman - Piano Vibrations. It's a covers album.

Miranda Sex Garden debut is all A Capella folk songs, poems. I'm not sure if they were originally going to stay in that mode. I think fans probably like it too much for it to be considered an afterthought though.

Dinosaur- ST

This one's weird, but I know a lot of people who think "Severed Lips" is Mascis' best song

Oh & Journey started out good as a non-latinate Santana offshoot playing good almost psychy jazz-rock.

I'd assume the first three records, made before Steve Perry joined, are pretty much written out of memory, but who knows, maybe they still play a song or two live.

Todd Rundgren is a weird one. His official solo debut is the great Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren but a year earlier he released a pretty much forgotten album also called Runt, which iirc was meant to be the debut of a new band called Runt, but which is now credited to Todd.

Dan Hartman's first couple of albums were more aligned to his Edgar Winter Group beginnings than his disco stuff from album three onwards.

"Chicago Transit Authority"

― Mark G, Tuesday, May 12, 2015 5:36 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

'Free Form Guitar' is the highpoint of their discography!

― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, May 12, 2015 5:41 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And "Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?" and "Beginnings" are all over oldies radio.

Pete Townshend - Who Came First

― WilliamC, Monday, May 11, 2015 9:19 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thought about posting this, though he's revisited the material live a few times, both solo and with the Who (even "Sheraton Gibson," played once on a 1996 Who show).

It's disregarded because its "Chicago Transit Authority" as a title, and the band has no name.

Well, that's what it sort-of says on my copy..

Sarah McLachlan - Touch

Ween - Synthetic Socks

Silly Hat vs. Egale Hat and Meetle Mice by Dan Deacon

I'm wondering how much these actually should count since they weren't really distributed nor were they intended to be; if we're counting stuff like this then I would think that all sorts of early demo-ish stuff would be in this thread as well

Giorgio Moroder's definitely fits the bill here:

That's Bubble Gum – That's Giorgio

Hell, his next five records are also just as obscure. Wouldn't most fans consider his Knights in White Satin LP to be his "debut"?

I always thought Son of my Father was his debut, and that one's pretty damn good really. Never heard this one, but judging by that comp of early tracks that came out a few years back I would bet it qualifies.

Todd Rundgren is a weird one. His official solo debut is the great Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren but a year earlier he released a pretty much forgotten album also called Runt, which iirc was meant to be the debut of a new band called Runt, but which is now credited to Todd.

Either way it's got "We Gotta Get You a Woman" which was his first solo hit

Tangerine Dream – Electronic Meditation

not that TD ever had hits exactly, but like the first three Kraftwerk albums, this one stands apart from the rest of their discography

"Some of my best friends are songs" - Richard D. James

oooh good one - Klaus Schulze and Conrad Schnitzler were on that one!!

Dinosaur- ST
This one's weird, but I know a lot of people who think "Severed Lips" is Mascis' best song

I always thought they went downhill off of the "Repulsion" 45 off this myself (and thought of nominating it yesterday anyway.)

"...went downhill after "Replusion"....I meant

"Some of my best friends are songs" - Richard D. James

What is this?

tiptoes away...

did someone already say Kraftwerk?

i always think of the first simple minds album. which, like the first japan album, has that glammy ultravox/roxy thing going on. it's good, but i never play it and i doubt many people remember it much. (needless to say, the 6 albums after that are some of my fave 80's records...)

(also weird is their second album came out the same year as their first album and the second album is way better...)

The Knife, self-titled

(some tracks, IIRC, are played live, albeit in heavily reworked form, that said I would be surprised if a lot of fans knew it existed)

I think Mark G meant to put that in the Syro thread

"Earth, Wind & Fire's 1st lp and maybe the next few."

there are tons of examples of pre-fame soul/r&b albums that fit this bill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VouLLPvoS3M

Adam And the Ants!

Also maybe Human League? (Scott should know.)

Gary Numan/Tubeway Army

No, no and no!

feel like these post-punk debuts by acts that became early 80s pop stars are generally too popular with fans/music nerds to really count as afterthoughts anymore.

A Product Of... (Participation) by Thompson Twins is another one of these that still maybe seems kind of forgotten?

take away the song "tell me" and the rolling stones' debut would come damn close to qualifying.

yeah, i was just gonna say that first thompson twins record....nobody listens to that one. midnight oil would be another one. unless you are australian.

xxpost:

Not so much that, but none of those artists have really had a bad word to say about any of those albums. Even though the first Ants album is a different line up to the Kings Of The Wild Frontier version of the Ants, and The Human League is a different line up to the Dare line up, and Tubeway Army's debut is more guitar heavy, I don't think any of those artists have ever written off those albums, and fans generally cherish 'em.

Japan and Simple Minds have definitely had some unkind words to say about their debuts, though.