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Tuesday Coffee Break: Classic Debut Albums

Posted at 8:50 AM on November 30, 2010 by Steve Seel (32 Comments)
Filed under: 9:30 Coffee Break

Some artists come right out of the gate with debut records that set the tone for their career - albums so good that sometimes they're hard to follow up. What are some artists whose debut albums were classics? That's the topic for today's 9:30 Coffee Break. Tell us the artist, album, and song you think is a particularly good selection off of the record, and we'll construct a set of your best suggestions.

Song played:
Sex Pistols, "Holidays in the Sun" Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Arcade Fire, "Neighborhood 1 (Tunnels)" Funeral
Bon Iver, "For Emma" For Emma, Forever Ago
Jimi Hendrix, Experience "Fire" Are You Experienced
Elvis Costello, "Mystery Dance" My Aim is True
Weezer, "Buddy Holly" Weezer (The Blue Album)

Comments (32)

Pearl Jam

The Doors

The Black Crowes

Van Halen

Posted by Oj | November 30, 2010 9:01 AM

Pearl Jam: 10! Evenflow!

Posted by Brian Ellis | November 30, 2010 9:01 AM

Some influential, landmark records:

Led Zeppelin

This Is It -- the Strokes

Ramones

Are You Experienced? -- Jimi Hendrix

Ten -- Pearl Jam

Posted by lou | November 30, 2010 9:02 AM

Well, it was their debut album and only one, but it made quite an impression when it was released.
You Get What you Give - The New Radicals from Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too.

Posted by Becky | November 30, 2010 9:04 AM

Weezer - Weezer (The Blue Album)

Moby - Everything is Wrong

R.E.M. - Murmur

Posted by Nick | November 30, 2010 9:04 AM

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago - Skinny Love

Posted by Danny | November 30, 2010 9:05 AM

How about Elvis Costello's "My Aim Is True"?He's had an incredible career with hundreds of great songs, but I still love this record front to back - I play it often! Play "Red Shoes" or the classic "Allison". (I really love to hear Red Shoes though..)

Thanks for the fantastic work you do keeping us awake in the morning!!

Posted by Brant | November 30, 2010 9:05 AM

Anything off of the first Led Zeppelin album. This album set the stage for everything they did in the future.

Alive - Pearl Jam - Ten - by far their best release

Posted by Deb | November 30, 2010 9:05 AM

The Peter Gabriel debut blew the doors off of any other album that year. "Solsbury Hill" would be nice to hear for a change.

Posted by kNoizey | November 30, 2010 9:06 AM

REM "Murmur" (1983)

Led Zeppelin "Led Zeppelin" (1969)

Ramones "Ramones" (1976)

Frank Zappa "Freak Out" (1966)

Jimi Hendrix "Are You Experienced" (1967)

Posted by Tom Kapocius | November 30, 2010 9:06 AM

The Stone Roses (eponymous) - Elephant Stone is a good representative track. The neo-Zepp of Second Coming just didn't work for them. Basically they were "one and done."

Posted by Gabe Ormsby | November 30, 2010 9:06 AM

Big Star, "When My Baby's Beside Me," track 7 from "#1 Record." Demonstrates the band's promise. Melody, structure, texture... amazing this wasn't a hit.

Posted by Brad Schweikert | November 30, 2010 9:08 AM

weezer (blue album) - say it ain't so
depeche mode (speak & spell) - just can't get enough
guns & roses (appetite for destruction) - welcome to the jungle (duh).
beastie boys (license to ill) - brass monkey

I could go on...

Posted by michael | November 30, 2010 9:08 AM

The band that made garage rock in the early 00's
Is This It- The Strokes

Posted by Tina | November 30, 2010 9:09 AM

Tracy Champman- Tracy Champman...

Posted by Barbara | November 30, 2010 9:09 AM

The Beatles - Please Please Me: I Saw Her Standing there, Please Please Me, or Twist and Shout.

Posted by geri | November 30, 2010 9:09 AM

How about a genre defining debut:

Portishead (Dummy) - Glory Box, or really anything from it! =)

Posted by David Berglund | November 30, 2010 9:15 AM

Jackson Browne - Saturate Before Using - Doctor My Eyes
The Beatles - Please Please Me - I Saw Her Standing There
Pearl Jam - Ten - Alive
Foo Fighters - Foo Fighters - This is a Call
Weezer - Weezer (Blue) - My Name is Jonas

Posted by Sneader | November 30, 2010 9:15 AM

A few big ones for me:
1983: R.E.M., Murmur, "Radio Free Europe"
1985: The Jesus and Mary Chain, Psychocandy, "Just Like Honey"
2005: Arcade Fire, Funeral, "Neighborhood #3 (Lights Out)"

Posted by Nils | November 30, 2010 9:17 AM

Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Fever to Tell

B-52's

Posted by Lyndee | November 30, 2010 9:18 AM

Kanye - College Dropout - Through The Wire
Nirvana - Bleach - Love Buzz
Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name
Run DMC - It's Like That

Posted by Brandon | November 30, 2010 9:18 AM

The Killers - Hot Fuss
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black

Posted by Chai | November 30, 2010 9:19 AM

Some UK ideas

Stone Roses- Anything really, waterfall, she bangs the drums
Oasis - Live Forever
The La's - There She Goes (they didn't even try to make a second album)
Supergrass - Caught by the fuzz
Verve - Slide Away
Charlatans - the only one i know

Posted by Dave | November 30, 2010 9:20 AM

So many great ones....But how about Talking Heads: 77 - "The Book I Read" or Bjork: Bjork "Venus as a Boy". Big Star #1 was already mentioned but that can no more be left off the list than VU's Nico record.

Posted by Steven Larsen | November 30, 2010 9:20 AM

WEEN - GodWeenSatan: The Oneness

This album highlights the Minneapolis music scene's tradition of diversity and a willingness to take chances. After they released this album on Twin\Tone (the label that brought you Soul Asylum, The Replacements, Babes In Toyland and many others) they played their first-ever show at the Uptown Bar, where they opened for Babes In Toyland.

Sure, the audience hated them so much that they got beat up out back after their set, but these weird, drugged-out kids took a sound that no one else in the country wanted and brought it to what was perhaps the eighties' most unsung hotbed of rising music legends.

Consider their level of success today (Terry Gross even interviewed them) and ask yourself if that would ever have been possible without the chance we gave them.

Consider playing "I Gots A Weasel" or "Don't Laugh, I Love You". There was a cleverly-disguised cover of Prince's "Shockadelica" on the original release. I don't know if it's still there, but it isn't what you'd call radio-safe anyway.

Posted by Rob Callahan | November 30, 2010 9:24 AM

Terrence Trent Darby's Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby

Posted by Travis | November 30, 2010 9:28 AM

Arcade Fire - Funeral
Fionna Apple - Tidal

Posted by karen | November 30, 2010 9:28 AM

get a job Rob Callahan!!!

Posted by pic | November 30, 2010 9:29 AM

"Turn on the Bright Lights" by Interpol.

I don't think they've ever come close to topping that record. So many good songs. "PDA" and "Roland" are excellent examples.

Posted by Brad Schweikert | November 30, 2010 9:30 AM

Television: Marquee Moon - "Elevation" This debut really set a new sound down and helped create the post punk movement.

Posted by Steven Larsen | November 30, 2010 9:30 AM

Soul Coughing- "Ruby Vroom"

Liz Phair- "Exile In Guyville"

KISS- "Kiss"

Ween- "God Ween Satan"

Posted by Seamus | November 30, 2010 9:38 AM

It seems that when a band "debuts" they have been around for a number of years, having created songs and honed their sound. to follow by creating another cd in a year or two rarely pans out.

Posted by tim | November 30, 2010 9:51 AM

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