Child Is Father To The Man and Blood, Sweat and Tears are kind of combination debuts, since BS&T was the more successful of the two.
And Chicago Transit Authority ("…call them CTA". Yeah, right.;))
The drum solo on “I’m A Man” is a killer!
Quasi
Seriously? For game changers and the way that music was made?
Appetite is the firmest second. Mentioned twice now.
I’m amazed that no one has mentioned Nevermind yet. It’s the firstest of them all.
Okay, so maybe that wasn’t the OP. But I don’t believe there have been two albums that have changed the course of popular music more than these two.
Nevermind was actually Nirvana’s second album; their first was Bleach (1989).
And personally, I like Bleach a lot better than Nevermind.
I liked the roughness of Bleach, and it had its moments, but it’s a pretty mediocre album overall. The drumming on that album, especially, needed serious work. In Utero was their high point, but Nevermind was pretty much a perfect album of pop craftsmanship, only suffering from being horribly overplayed. The songwriting and melodies on that are just impeccible.
Maybe I misunderstood the question. “Game changers”, for instance. shrug
Q
Sublime - 40oz of Freedom
I totally agree with you about Nevermind. I just don’t like it as much; I prefer the rough sound to the polish.
I don’t have an opinion really about what the best debut album might be, but it’s nice to see that some people remember how great Chicago was when they first hit the scene. Yep, that’s a terrific album. Then they turned into pablum.
I’ll challenge this notion and argue that the already mentioned “Velvet Underground & Nico” was the most influential debut album of all time. It virtually influenced everything in the field of punk/alternative/indie and glam that followed. Sure, it took much longer for their music to penetrate the mainstream than the Doors’, but a great chunk of the music from the seventies up to the present are unthinkable without this album, whereas I fail to see the lasting impact of the Doors.
And it was simply great, groundbreaking and daring music.
Pink Floyd ‘Piper At The Gates Of Dawn’. They invented (English) psychedelia.
Television - Marquee Moon
Funny that so many votes are for Boston. We must be using a really loose definition of band.
Boston’s first album was some genius nerd in a basement, and vocals added later.
Joy Division- Unknown Pleasures
The Velvet Underground and Nico- The Velvet Underground and Nico
The Sex Pistols- Never Mind the Bollocks, Heres the Sex Pistols!
Talking Heads- Talking Heads 77
The Beatles- Meet the Beatles (Im a little spotty on if this would count)or Please Please Me
Arcade Fire- Funeral
Patti Smith- Horses
Ramones- Ramones
and of course my guilty pleasure Beastie Boys- License to Ill
Violent Femmes-Violent Femmes That album has not aged one bit.
The Stone Roses would be a close runner-up though.
It’s hard to argue this was better than some of the others mentioned, but my favourite might be Uncle Tupelo’s No Depression.
Rage Against the Machine…by Rage Against The Machine.
Or perhaps Never Mind The Bollocks by the Sex Pistols.
“Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” by Arctic Monkeys
*Fastest selling album in UK history
Pearl Jam - Ten
The Offspring - Smash
I’ll give all due respect to Lou Reed and company; their work is probably still the most evident influence in alternative rock today.
That said, I’ll reiterate that essentially all rock guitar since 1967 (or, at the very least, the guitarist’s role as a soloist) would be largely impossible without Are You Experienced.
Stone Roses was my first thought, and I think I’ll stick with it.