The Velvet Underground & Nico
This is getting too easy. Her only 2 hits were off her second album - including her signature song.
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The majority of the songs from both the first and second albums were written prior to her signing with a record label. I think she chose the best songs from her coffee house performances for her first album and left a lot of second tier songs for “Solitude Standing.” SS may have been more popular, but that was almost entirely because of Luka and I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people who liked the rest of the first two albums didn’t like Luka and vice versa. In my humble opinion “Suzanne Vega” was a superior album overall.
De gustibus non disputandum and all that
I’d personally go with Four-Way Street as the best CSN&Y album.
I think one almost has to regard the BS&T of Child Is Father to the Man and the BS&T of the subsequent albums as essentially different groups. They may have shared a name and a decent number of instrumentalists, but the Al Kooper-fronted group of Child has a completely different sound from the David Clayton-Thomas-fronted group that had hits such as “Spinning Wheel” and “Lucretia McEvil”.
I like them both, but for very different reasons. I’ll concur that Child is better than any albums by the ‘other’ BS&T.
I think it’s fair to say that alot of people liked Luka and alot of people liked Tom’s Diner too.
I’m not sure that the phrase “alot of people” applies to anything else Suzanne Vega ever did.
Wait, that reminds me! Lisa Loeb!
I posted on this. Honestly. Where did it disappear to? 
What I said was something like that I agreed completely that the first It’s a Beautiful Day album is by far their best and that I can’t understand those who make a claim for Marrying Maiden. Along with a joke to not take the brown acid because it messes up your mind. So yes, I really believe that those who think the first BS&T album, which was good, is better than the second, which had better song choices, far better arrangements, and the perfect singer for that one album in David Clayton-Thomas, must have taken the brown acid at Woodstock.
Or maybe I did. Something happened at the keyboard last night. I wish I knew what.
Cheap Trick’s first was their best in my opinion.
I’d never heard of those earlier albums. I only became aware of Frampton after Comes Alive came out. In it’s time Comes Alive was a huge hit. I remember hearing it on the radio constantly in junior high school. It’s pretty dated now.
I once read a great interview with Joe Walsh in which he talked about showing Peter Frampton how he used Bob Heil’s high powered Talk Box on the Barnstorm self-titled album and *The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get *on “Rocky Mountain Way”.Apparently, Frampton had received one as a Christmas gift.
Walsh joked that he had no idea Frampton could base his whole career around it and that he probably made more money than he ever did.
Many people haven’t, which is somewhat strange since it is where one of Bruce’s signature songs comes from (especially live) “Rosalita”
I just don’t feel most of the songs on the first Clayton-Thomas album have held up all that well. It’s got three very good songs in “Spinning Wheel,” “And When I Die,” and “Smiling Phases,” but beyond that it’s mostly filler IMHO. Child is much better top-to-bottom.
You’re right, of course, but in the context of the album in question, I find “instrumentals” and “tunes” to be inadequate at best, so I persist with the notion of non-verbal/non-vocal “songs”, which bother me less despite being technically incorrect.
.
Richard and Linda Thompson - I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
Belly - Star
Tindersticks - Tindersticks
Rasputina - Thanks for the Ether
Magazine - Real Life
Orange Juice - You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever
The Apples in Stereo - Fun Trick Noisemaker
That one immediately came to mind for me. Fantastic album, but no good follow through. 
The Specials, The Specials
The Beat, I Just Can’t Stop It
Tears For Fears, The Hurting
Go West, Go West
Living Colour, Vivid
Morrissey, Viva Hate
Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures
I’m not sure if Running Up That Hill has been covered more times than The Man With The Child In His Eyes, but the covers of it have been huge hits, especially Placebo’s version - potentially eclipsing Wuthering Heights in her legacy.
Every fan poll I’ve seen has The Dreaming and Hounds of Love trading places in the number one and two spots.
Isn’t it time for everyone to admit that if fans can make an argument that two or more other albums are better than the first, that artist shouldn’t be in the running here? 
Agreed. I posted here because she was mentioned in the OP:
My personal favorite of her albums is Hounds of Love.
While I love a few of these, they are not enduring artists, in fact, at least one of them (Ian Curtis of Joy Division) is long dead.
Leonard Cohen.