Acts whose debut album is an afterthought in their overall discography

Sly's A Whole New Thing is probably my favorite albums that by most measures qualifies for this thread

it's so good! but no hits, didn't chart, and i'd be shocked any sly-adjacent touring act would bother with anything from it

Los Lobos - Del Este De Los Angeles (1978)

I was just going to mention them! Though discogs claims they had one even two years earlier than that, which I'd never even heard of before. Also had no idea they were (one of) the main artist(s) on the Eating Raoul soundtrack in 1982 (assuming this is right.)

http://www.discogs.com/artist/173717-Los-Lobos

First couple Dr. John albums might qualify, they were really trippy and weird, though I guess Gris-Gris (his second,, supposedly?) always had its cult and has been reissued several times -- and his recent albums have harked back to that period, in a way.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/15152-Dr-John

First couple David Allan Coe LPs, too, before he went country. First one, more a blues record about prison, got reissued a decade ago. Second one is supposedly spoken word with musical backing; never heard of it before today.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/619909-David-Allan-Coe

except almost all of those albums have cult reputations; i think there are plenty of people who know the first two dr. john albums as well as any of his others!

i mean, they are from before his period of biggest fame, but you could say that of a lot of debut albums.

I believe that Giles Giles and Fripp album is pretty well-regarded, at least among those who have heard it. Certainly it's somewhat well-known now thanks to the King Crimson connection but I think it sold only like 500 copies on first release. It's quite a curious and fun little album, outside of the last two tracks (which do sort of point the way to what Crimson would do) you'd never think Fripp was on it at all. It's actually sort of a comedy album, not just because of the 'skits' that run between songs but because of the somewhat droll and often funny subject matter. Favorite song from the band is Sinfield's "Under the Sky", which didn't even place on the original, and is really different from everything else, but it's a real gorgeous tune.

Renaissance is a pretty good one, though I think it's kind of a weird situation, as mentioned none of those members made it to even the 3rd album, back then they were known more as a Yardbirds knockoff. They do get credit for being one of the first bands to use really overt classical influences in their music, almost similar to The Nice. Their second album I think fits those criteria better, as it was written and recorded as members were leaving, and by all accounts seems to be unfinished.

I guess my thing with cult albums like those Dr. John ones (wiki says Gris-Gris came before Babylon) not after btw), is sometimes their cult is people outside of the artist's usual fan base -- i.e., some people are just plain fans of cult albums or weird music, period. And I don't get the idea Penitentiary Blues was released, necessarily, with David Allan Coe's usual fans in mind. Seemed like more a hipster item. Something similar might apply to the early Human League stuff, for instance, which most Dare fans might still be oblivious to. I dunno. I could be wrong. Maybe should be a consideration, maybe not. (And I was kind of ambivalent about the Dr. John ones when mentioning them above anyway -- maybe all his fans do love Gris-Gris, for all I know. And looks like Rolling Stone ranked it pretty high on their all-time album list, which I guess should disqualify it. And their early record guides gave it 5 stars! But it's not just that his later albums sold more; it's that he completely switched up his style, seems like.) (And had before doing the Night Tripper thing, too, of course when he put out more conventional early singles back to the '50s as Mac Rebennack.)

Also I figure every album mentioned on here is a cult album to somebody, and all these bands have their crazy completist collectors somewhere! So it's just a matter of where you draw the line...

“midnight oil would be another one. unless you are australian.”

The debut wasn't released outside of Australia until years later (didn't come out in the US until 1990), so yeah, it's far more likely that Australians had heard/heard of it.

So do people think Head Injuries is the first or


I didn't read the first post, just the thread title.

It’s really silly to take umbrage if you don’t bother to read the thread btw

Blimey, that really GG Allin?

wikipedia says that, after his success, Luther Vandross bought the rights to the two albums released by his band Luther to stop them being re-released, is this a common thing?

I think Mac Rebbenack went into the studio for Gris Gris thinking that he would get somebody else in to do vocals and use the name Dr John but both wound up falling to him. I thought Babylon was at least a year later.
I also thought Walk On Gilded Splinters was a hit, or was that just for other people?
Certainly one of my all time favourite lps anyway.

Marsha Hunt, I think.

The Beta Band

the band's definitely revisited it live (they just did "box full of letters" at their last show!), and it's not a total embarrassment by any means, but kinda surprised Wilco's AM hasn't come up just for being so gestative, especially considering it's in grissos screen name.

― da croupier, Tuesday, May 12, 2015 8:10 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

As you point out, this one hasn't been orphaned like some of the other candidates on thread. I wanna say the band played the whole album live awile back when they were doing a run of album concerts. And like the Shania debut, this one became a staple of mid-price CD bins when Wilco got buzzy around '99.

I do think that Alice Cooper's "Pretties For You" is the front-runner here.

Current 93's "Lashtal" kind of fits, except that it was a 12" rather than a full album.

Jane's Addiction.

has 'Jane Says' on it, disqualified

i do think calling Please Please Me/Meet The Beatles an "afterthought" is silly, especially considering where the bar's been generally set on this thread, but i'm sorry if it really upset you to hear that - that wasn't my intent

― da croupier, Tuesday, May 12, 2015 8:41 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fwiw, Meet wasn't their US debut; it was Introducing...the Beatles on Vee-Jay, which shared its tracklisting with Please, Please Me (minus "Please, Please Me" and "Ask Me Why" on initial pressings).

xp yeah but tbh I've never heard that album, the one everyone knows is the Nothing's Shocking version isn't it?

Jane's Addiction always played a few songs from that first record live though, even on the recent tours

does anyone listen to the first guided by voices album? it ain't no bee thousand and it was even put out by Sony in the U.K. Sony is not very lo-fi!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6fhnHu6d6I

to heck with the who, r.e.m. rule!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsPa7hnm1ss

The first "James" album?

It's not "Sit Down" and other anthems...

john lennon - two virgins
george harrison - wonderwall music

― fact checking cuz, Sunday, May 10, 2015 5:32 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and arguably - paul mccartney - the family way OST (1965)

also:

Nilsson - Spotlight on Nilsson
Neutral Milk Hotel - On Avery Island
Bee Gees - The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs
Stevie Wonder - The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie

What about: everyone who started out by self-releasing tapes for friends/family like Banco De Gaia and Boards Of Canada?

Explosions In The Sky - How Strange, Innocence

Future Sound of London - Accelerator (ok ok, there's a second release with that Papua New Dead Can Dance thing on it)

Nomeansno - Mama

what about: everyone whose career had an upwards commercial arc of any kind at all

does anyone listen to the first guided by voices album? it ain't no bee thousand and it was even put out by Sony in the U.K. Sony is not very lo-fi!

no one listens to any of the first four gbv albums!

and if that first one was ever put out by sony, that would have been a reissue many years later. sony was not interested in gbv when they put that record out. nor was anybody else.

all of them, however, were collected in gbv's first box set, box, which probably disqualifies the whole lot per the rules of this thread.

i'm just going by this:

http://www.discogs.com/Guided-By-Voices-Devil-Between-My-Toes/release/6583697

but maybe it doesn't exist. i dunno...i was just surprised to see that when i looked up the title. (couldn't actually remember the title of the first GBV album...)

hmmm, yeah, that does not seem even remotely feasible.

anyway, the real gbv afterthought is the ep forever since breakfast, which was the first actual thing they put out and which they themselves seem to hate.

some scruffy the cat vibes on forever since breakfast...

yeah i can buy that. i've always heard some uncomfortably close rem vibes.

The Stone Roses - s/t

Metallica's long forgotten debut "Sloughing Through the Muddy Banks of the Petaluma River in Search of My Tennis Racket"

The Stone Roses - s/t

this is a joke right

Neutral Milk Hotel - On Avery Island

This feels like a different category--the solid debut that is ultimately a warm-up for great second album. Although maybe it does fit the "basically ignored by the vast majority of their fans" criteria.

does anyone listen to the first guided by voices album?

Yup!

The Stone Roses are a strange one, because they made an album with Martin Hannett in 1985 which wasn't released until 1996 against the wishes of the band. Two tracks were put out as a single at the time though: 'So Young'/'Tell Me'. A lot has been written about Second Coming over the years, but I believe even less people enjoy Garage Flower.

So try The Rolling Stones. Featuring one Jagger/Richards composition, and nothing anybody ever hears on the radio.

― Vic Perry, Wednesday, May 13, 2015 12:06 AM (18 hours ago)

this fits the thread perfectly and it's why i prob listen to this more than any other stones album these days. no overplayed songs, nothing i've ever had a chance to get sick of, but everything still sounds wonderful.

i wouldn't say a critically-acclaimed album that hit #1 in the UK and featured a Top 5 single that made their '95 stadium setlist perfectly fits the thread

they also did "route 66" in 2012, "I Just Want To Make Love To You" in the '00s, etc

there might be ten beach albums you'd buy before Surfin' Safari but damn Surfin' Safari is still a big part of the story

Accelerator is a great album IMO. When Children Cry gets frequent plays at my house. The whole album is a slightly leftfield take on progressive house and early uk electronic styles. Anyway, it is probably forgotten by most fans so it fits in with the thread, just had to rep for it.