My favorite debut album, with Led Zeppelin not far behind.

No doubt...They just don"t make them like that anymore...

My top favorite debut albums:

1. “Core” Stone Temple Pilots
2. “Hybrid Theory” Linkin Park
3. “Jagged Little Pill” Alannis Morrisette
4. Outlandos d'Amour“ The Police

My two favorite debuts that come to my mind are "Van Halen" and "Boston".

Boston’s debut album was phenomenal. So phenomenal in fact that they could never replicate that success.

Commercially, no. But I'm always up for some "Don't Look Back" (entire album) and even "Third Stage".

Couldn't the same be said about VH though? Did any follow-up album really match their debut in overall awesomeness?



EDIT: This pic was talking about DLR VH, I'm also a fan of Sammy (with and without VH).

I think many fans would place “1984” right up there with their debut album.

I’d have to say my favorite debut albums are:

Chicago Transit Authority
Dio - Holy Diver*
Iron Maiden
King Diamond - Fatal Portrait
Asia
Styx

*Solo debut, he’d obviously made albums prior to this.

Favorite debut album:

Queen - Queen
The Alarm - Declaraction

Count me in as one of those fans.

But not everyone here feels this way...

"Rock is currently dead... Van Halen brought it back in 78' till about 81' " - Re: Did Rock & Roll die in 2015?

...and I can understand this opinion, being that 2 of the 4 radio hits on 1984 were so synth heavy (assuming that's part of the reason, remembering complaints when I was in high school).

I listen to "1984" at least as much as "Van Halen".

Count me as on of the fan's that didn't care for 1984. I didn't even buy it. And I love/loved Van Halen. My first 4 vinyl albums were VH, VHII, WACF and Fair Warning.Ted Nugent broke the VH streak.

1984 was too poppy for my liking. Not to mention it was overplayed on radio/MTV.

I put Van Halen's first 5 albums up against anyone else's first 5. Zeppelin maybe the only contender.

Gun's n Roses had a pretty solid debut as well. Even though we have probably heard the songs to many times by now.

Yeah, I was also thinking about "Appetite for Destruction". I have some seriously good memories with that album.

But I put Rush's first 8 albums (10 if you count concert albums) against anyone else's...

Rush
Fly By Night
Caress Of Steel
2112
All The World's A Stage (concert)
A Farewell To Kings
Hemispheres
Permanent Waves
Moving Pictures
Exit...Stage Left (concert)

...and I don't even have girlfriend/fiancé nostalgia with Rush, it's just that awesome!

Iron Maiden
Killers
The Number of the Beast
Piece of Mind
Powerslave

Their first 10 albums really does represent their creative height. Let's be honest here, how many memorable songs did they write after 1990? I can barely think of any.

"Boy" by U2 is a great debut album - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_(album)

Some of my favorite U2 songs to listen to often are on this one:

The Electric Co.


An Cat Dubh


Stories for Boys


and one I crank every time - I Will Follow


Track Listing:

I Will Follow
Twilight
An Cat Dubh
Into the Heart
Out of COntrol
Stories for Boys
The Ocean
A Day WIthout Me
Another Time, Another Place
The Electric Co.
Shadows and Tall Trees

1974 - 1990 is still a pretty good run.

When "Roll the Bones" was released in 1991, I was living in Atlanta and at the time 96 Rock was playing "Dreamline", "Roll the Bones" and "Ghost of a Chance" pretty regularly. And that was after playing Presto (1989) "Show Don't Tell", "The Pass" and "Presto" on a regular basis. I believe "Roll the Bones" is the cutoff for their mainstream success, but that still covers 14 out of 20 studio albums, so not so shabby.

My problem with those final albums isn't the songs as much as the quality of production on some of them, especially Vapor Trails (2002). They all needed the Terry Brown touch like the earlier albums, IMO.

Honestly, I like them all. "Test For Echo" probably gets the most hate, but it's also one I regularly load on the Shuffle, maybe because I never wore it out. Lots of catchy stuff in there that helps to get my feet moving.

Oh absolutely and most bands would KILL to have success on that level.


I just find it interesting how all bands have their creative height where they crank out song after song where you listen to them once and they immediately stick to your memory. In other words, they are songs that become classics and leave an indelible mark on your brain. Eventually though, these same bands start putting out songs that are just "ok" and unremarkable. You listen to the song but then a few days later you completely forget about it.

Absolutely! Though I don’t think it’s so much a Terry Brown thing, since everything between Signals and Counterparts had extremely good production. After that the loudness wars really took off, and I’ll never understand why the guys didn’t tell their producers “NO. Make it crisp & clean like our previous albums! This sounds like you recorded it on a mono cassette deck from an AM radio turned all the way up.”

Snakes & Arrows had good production, IMO, but I don’t know about CA because I haven’t been able to get into it enough to actually listen for the production. T4E & VT, though? Blah.

I would be one of those fans.


Wheels