Top 100 Debut Albums of All Time



According to Rolling Stone


Some notable omissions, and you can tell it’s an American list, but some surprising inclusions.

I wouldn't have said it's overly American. Some great British stuff in there like PJ Harvey's Dry. But yes, as you say, some notable omissions and surprise inclusions. And a distinct lack of anything that's not American or British.
 
Surprised at no.1

Groundbreaking at the time, but barring two or three songs I doubt it gets played much nowadays.

Haway everyone, let's hear your nominations for debut albums you would have included that didn't make their list.

I'll start us off with these ten:

Counting Crows - August And Everything After
Matchbox 20 - Yourself Or Someone Like You
Terrorvision - Formaldehyde
The Wonder Stuff - Eight-Legged Groove Machine
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
The Wildhearts - Earth vs The Wildhearts
Blind Melon - Blind Melon
Alice In Chains - Facelift
Skunk Anansie - Paranoid And Sunburnt
Skin (UK band, not the singer of Skunk Anansie) - Skin
 
No-one is going to agree on a top 10 like :lol:
Off the top of my head.......

Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
Sex Pistols - Nevermind the Bollocks
Sandy Denny - The North Star Grassman and the Ravens
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle
Pearl Jam - Ten
Slayer - Show No Mercy
Pantera - Cowboys From Hell
The Pogues - Red Roses For Me

There's loads of great ones really, although a great deal of the greatest albums are not debuts of course - Pink Floyd, Metallica, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Opeth, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Radiohead etc etc
 
No-one is going to agree on a top 10 like :lol:
Off the top of my head.......

Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
Sex Pistols - Nevermind the Bollocks
Sandy Denny - The North Star Grassman and the Ravens
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle
Pearl Jam - Ten
Slayer - Show No Mercy
Pantera - Cowboys From Hell
The Pogues - Red Roses For Me

There's loads of great ones really, although a great deal of the greatest albums are not debuts of course - Pink Floyd, Metallica, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Opeth, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Radiohead etc etc
You’ve just copied @mini-x2 list there man!
 
Groundbreaking at the time, but barring two or three songs I doubt it gets played much nowadays.

Haway everyone, let's hear your nominations for debut albums you would have included that didn't make their list.

I'll start us off with these ten:

Counting Crows - August And Everything After
Matchbox 20 - Yourself Or Someone Like You
Terrorvision - Formaldehyde
The Wonder Stuff - Eight-Legged Groove Machine
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
The Wildhearts - Earth vs The Wildhearts
Blind Melon - Blind Melon
Alice In Chains - Facelift
Skunk Anansie - Paranoid And Sunburnt
Skin (UK band, not the singer of Skunk Anansie) - Skin
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers was the one I was most surprised to have seen omitted.

I also reckon Ryan Adams’ debut would have been in there had those allegations not been made at the beginning of the year.

There are a few SoCal punk bands I would have liked to see in their but not surprised they weren’t.

pleaseantly surprised that The New Pornographers are in there.
 
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No-one is going to agree on a top 10 like :lol:
Off the top of my head.......

Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
Sex Pistols - Nevermind the Bollocks
Sandy Denny - The North Star Grassman and the Ravens
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle
Pearl Jam - Ten
Slayer - Show No Mercy
Pantera - Cowboys From Hell
The Pogues - Red Roses For Me

There's loads of great ones really, although a great deal of the greatest albums are not debuts of course - Pink Floyd, Metallica, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Opeth, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Radiohead etc etc

Cowboys From Hell was Pantera's fifth album you daft sausage.
 
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers was the one I was most surprised to have seen omitted.

I also reckon Ryan Adams’ debut would have been in there had those allegations not been made at the beginning of the year.

There are a few SoCal punk bands I would have liked to see in their but not surprised they weren’t.

pleaseantly surprised that The New Pornographers are in there.

You might be right about Ryan Adams. At the same time, he had made three albums with Whiskeytown before going solo so not sure whether that would invalidate him.

I didn't previously know that Yazoo were known as Yaz in the USA.
 
I know that but it's their first major label so counts. I love Power Metal.....Over and Out should have been on CFH imo

Some bands never make it onto a major label but still have good debut albums. I don't think we should pretend albums don't exist just because they aren't widely known. :)

CFH is class like. And Vulgar Display Of Power is up there on my most-played and most-loved albums of all time.
Drake higher than Stone Roses..... Utter drivel.

Neither of them would be in my top 100 debut albums.
 
Got Horses on now as it happens.


Licensed to Ill's fuckin' pants - canny top 10 otherwise (Ramones a bit over-ranked mind).

Nee Montrose. :rolleyes:

Led Zeppelin 72 - Vampire Weekend 24. :lol: Fairplay to Rolling Stone for keeping up their anti-Zep stance after all these years.
The US version of The Clash :rolleyes: :lol:
 
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You might be right about Ryan Adams. At the same time, he had made three albums with Whiskeytown before going solo so not sure whether that would invalidate him.
Cyndi Lauper released an album with Blue Angel before her solo album and she makes the list. At the other “side” of things a number of the New Pornographers released solo albums before the band’s debut and they make the list, so I think Ryan Adams would qualify if not for the allegations.
 
Cyndi Lauper released an album with Blue Angel before her solo album and she makes the list. At the other “side” of things a number of the New Pornographers released solo albums before the band’s debut and they make the list, so I think Ryan Adams would qualify if not for the allegations.

It's true of The Postal Service as well, in fairness. Death Cab For Cutie had made 3 or 4 albums before their album with Ben Gibbard on vocals and Dntel, who provided the music, was 3 albums down as well.

I was wondering about The Beatles solo stuff but it's tricky to decide what marked Lennon's solo debut (Unfinished Music no, Imagine yes), Harrison's debut was soundtrack weirdness, nobody would put any Ringo solo effort in the top 100 of anything and McCartney was semi-unfinished.
 

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