# Enduring musical artists whose first albums were never bettered **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 14, 2011, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410 "2011-06-14T10:31:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/21 "2011-06-14T14:20:03Z")
Blue Oyster Cult has had a long, successful career and has had much more commercially successful albums than their first… but I think their debut album was by far their best. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/22 "2011-06-14T14:35:16Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > **Meat Loaf** Better than his second, **Bat Out of Hell**? Me and the critics would not agree. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/23 "2011-06-14T15:15:39Z")
**Television** - _Marquee Moon_ **Gang of Four** - _Entertainment!_ **Liz Phair** - _Exile in Guyville_ Definitely those. One can make an argument for **The Clash** , as well, although I personally would give _London Calling_ the nod for best of oeuvre. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/24 "2011-06-14T15:19:30Z")
Van Halen pretty much peaked with **Van Halen**. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/25 "2011-06-14T15:24:49Z")
You can look at the early history of [Miles Davis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Davis_discography) recordings and make the case that _Birth of the Cool_ was not his first album. But in spite of the landmark _Kind of Blue_ a decade later and other monster sellers, I can’t honestly say that anything he did afterward surpassed BotC. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/26 "2011-06-14T15:26:27Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > **The Black Crowes** Yeah, and for this, I’d definitely say _Southern Harmony and Music Companion_ is where they hit their stride and find their voice. The first album is pretty good, too, but it still sounds “young,” like a band on the cusp of greatness, but still in the last stages of woodshedding. Not that it’s sloppy or anything like that–I just still hear a band that is a little green and gelling together their sound and songwriting, which they nailed on the next album. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/27 "2011-06-14T15:36:36Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > **Television** - _Marquee Moon_ > **Gang of Four** - _Entertainment!_ The first 2 that popped into my head. ---
**Author:** ![Vihaga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Vihaga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vihaga)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/28 "2011-06-14T15:44:59Z")
I like a lot of Counting Crows’ other stuff, too, but _August and Everything After_ is one of my favorite albums of all time. I disagree about Liz Phair; I like random songs on all her albums. ---
**Author:** ![BDoors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BDoors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BDoors)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/29 "2011-06-14T15:56:57Z")
I think Oasis’s \*Definitely Maybe \*is better than _What’s the Story Morning Glory_, and it was obviously downhill from there. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/30 "2011-06-14T16:38:40Z")
I must say that _Are You Experienced?_ remains, for me, the essential Jimi Hendrix album. Ditto for It’s A Beautiful Day’s eponymous debut, and _I Just Can’t Stop It_ by the (English) Beat. Also _Moby Grape._ (Yeah, I guess those aren’t all “enduring”.) The Doors’ debut LP was incredible, and while I wouldn’t rate it as clearly their best, I’m not sure they clearly bettered it either. Ditto for _Ramones_, _Talking Heads '77_, _The Velvet Underground & Nico,_ and the Band’s _Music from Big Pink._ I also like the Allman Bros.’ first album about as much as anything else they ever did. King Crimson… it’s very hard to make a decision, as their records were so different, but there’s something about that first album (_In the Court of the Crimson King_) that’s just magnificent. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/31 "2011-06-14T16:40:04Z")
**Patti Smith** ’s horses is a landmark recording of its time, head and shoulders above her later stuff. **Van Morrison** ’s Astral Weeks is often touted as being in a league of its own, never bettered by him. I’m not familiar enough with his later output to know how true this is. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/32 "2011-06-14T16:45:10Z")
**Chicago** - _Chicago Transit Authority_? The early ones were pretty strong, but the first was probably the best… **Cyndi Lauper** - _She’s So Unusual_ another close call with her 2nd album, _True Colors_, but I think it wins… it certainly has more hits on it. ---
**Author:** ![samjones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@samjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samjones)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/33 "2011-06-14T16:46:52Z")
> [@Busy\_Scissors](#): > > **Van Morrison** ’s Astral Weeks is often touted as being in a league of its own, never bettered by him. I’m not familiar enough with his later output to know how true this is. Richard Davis’s Astral Weeks featuring Van Morrison on vocals, is more like it. Moondance was just as good as Astral Weeks, but all those early Van Morrison albums were great - Saint Dom’s, Hardnose the Highway, Veedon Fleece, Into the Music. ---
**Author:** ![samjones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@samjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samjones)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/34 "2011-06-14T16:47:54Z")
> [@Vihaga](#): > > I like a lot of Counting Crows’ other stuff, too, but _August and Everything After_ is one of my favorite albums of all time. Recovering the Satellites was just as good. ---
**Author:** ![samjones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@samjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samjones)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/35 "2011-06-14T16:50:06Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > Van Halen pretty much peaked with **Van Halen**. I loved Diver Down. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/36 "2011-06-14T16:51:50Z")
> [@Vihaga](#): > > I disagree about Liz Phair; I like random songs on all her albums. So do I. In your opinion, which album would you say is better than _Exile in Guyville_? _Whip Smart_ and _whitechocolatespaceegg_ had their moments, but her debut was absolute perfection and one of the best and most important albums of the 90s. ---
**Author:** ![samjones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@samjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samjones)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/37 "2011-06-14T16:53:10Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Is it? I thought Automatic for the People was held to be the best. Automatic seems to be in a three-way tie with Out of Time and Monster for their best-seller. “Best seller” and “Best album” are 2 different things. You can’t really compare REM from the (then) tiny IRS with REM from Warner. Their first 4 albums are their best - Murmur, Reckoning, Fables, Pageant. If you go to the trouble of buying those then you might as well buy Dead Letter Office and then there’s no reason to ever listen to anything REM ever did after that. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/38 "2011-06-14T16:59:53Z")
**Marshall Crenshaw**. IMHO none of his later albums came up to the level of pop perfection that is his first, self-titled album. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/39 "2011-06-14T17:00:23Z")
> [@samjones](#): > > “Best seller” and “Best album” are 2 different things. You can’t really compare REM from the (then) tiny IRS with REM from Warner. I don’t think the sales prove which album is best. I was saying I hadn’t heard this consensus that Murmur is the best album, and mentioned the sales as a data point. There are some very good songs on Murmur (I especially liked Pilgrimmage), and I got very into Lifes Rich Pageant four or five years ago. I think Automatic for the People is better than either. ---
**Author:** ![Crawlspace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Crawlspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crawlspace)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410/40 "2011-06-14T17:03:58Z")
Lynyrd Skynyrd - **Pronounced** Not quite fair since a portion of the band died just 4 years later, but by then they had released 5 albums none of which is quite as good as **Pronounced**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enduring-musical-artists-whose-first-albums-were-never-bettered/585410.md?page=3)