Rock Minutes

Some of the greatest albums of all time have been a band’s debut album. But many bands have a hard time following a great debut album with their next effort or their third or fourth… and in many cases, these bands never come close to making an album as good as their debut. In this article, I am going to explore the top five greatest debut albums ever recorded – where the bands initial success and future hopes of rock masterpieces were never realized by following up a classic, with a classic stinker.

I often wonder why some bands peak with the first album, than slide downhill with each of their following attempts. What I have come up with is this: that the music made by a band when they are still yet to be famous and poor, is more in line and closer to the average fan. If you think about it, most rock comes from the gut. It comes from the struggle to fit in or against modern conformity. Rock is a form of social rebellion and conventional cultural mores. Rock and Roll stands against conformity. It protests with the youth against the bourgeois. It’s defiant against authority. It laughs at suit-inspired corporate greed.

A young band struggling against these things feels the passion of this movement that Rock and Roll was raised on. They have their hands in their empty pockets, their feet planted in the unfriendly terra-firma of the western social ladder, and a chip on their shoulder to the people who just don’t believe they can make. This feeling of being counted out, of being unnoticed and overlooked creates hunger. The money struggles create a common ground the average Rock and Roll fan feels working in the mad-rush for daily-cash. These bands are still getting screwed over by old girlfriends, getting rejected by future prospects and dumped by family members who have written them off as failures. This creates a fire burning in their gut, burning like the flames in hell. This creates great music!

But what happens after that music or debut album skyrockets and that band becomes rich, famous, and wanted by everyone? What happens is that the common fan can no longer relate to these bands’ new material. The bands get sloppy, their music un-relatable, and their fire quenched. Not every band experiences this of course, some people stay true to the pain that drives them to make great music (like Kurt Cobain). But this is an article about the latter, the bands that could never live up to their debut greatness: The top five greatest debut albums ever recorded; where the bands initial success and future hopes of rock masterpieces were never realized.

No. 5 – “Ten” and “Vs.”
By Pearl Jam

I know right off the bat this pick is extremely controversial and many of you may not agree, and that’s ok. But can you really stack up “Vs” or “Vitalogy” for that matter, against “Ten”? Let’s be honest, you really cannot. Ten is a true masterpiece in every sense of the word. Every song is a piece of art and every lyric is true poetry. Ten might have been one of the top 10 albums of the 1990’s. In my opinion Vs is ultra forgettable. Songs like “Rearviewmirror,” “Blood,” and “Rats,” are pretty terrible, in fact the entire album is pretty terrible. There is nothing that comes close to “Jeremy” or Even Flow.” Don’t get me wrong, I’ve heard a lot worse than Vs. in my lifetime, but when compared to Ten, it really most be considered a true follow up failure.

No. 4 – “Van Halen I” and “Van Halen II”
By Van Halen

I have this placed at number four on my list, but I could have had it as high as number two. The reason I put it at number four and not higher is pretty bogus, but it’s my list so whatever. The reason it is not higher than number four is because of Van Halen’s “Fair Warning.” Which I believe is still one of their best albums to date and a needed follow up to “VH II”, and back to “VH II.” What a piece of crap! Expect for, “Dance the Night Away (which is a truly a commercial-pop song and not a true VH song: they were going for pure radio play with this joker)” most people cannot name one song from this album. It is historically tragic after the great Van Halen debut. I love early Van Halen but their follow up to their debut album is really one of the greatest missteps in rock and roll music.

No 3 – “Violent Femmes” and “Hollowed Ground”
By The Violent Femmes

The Violent femmes really did catch lighting in a bottle with their debut album. It was irreverent, pop-art, smart, and fresh. The tunes were poppy, and the lyrics catchy and humorous. The album had a sense of self. It was understated and didn’t try to be too big. In fact, one thing that made that album great is that it stayed small in a time of over-produced sound and bigger-than-life image. Come on admit it, you still like “Add it Up” and “Blister in the Sun.” Hollowed Ground on the other hand is vinyl garbage. Talk about a true stinker, Hollowed Ground is just that. It tries to hard to be all the things their debut album was organically. The group really never recovered from that bomb and kind of faded into obscurity…a true lesson to be learned.

No. 2 “Boston” Vs “Don’t Look Back”
By Boston

Boston’s debut album is a true classic in every sense of the word. Every song on that album is great! In fact, if you go home put that album on right now and listen to it from start to finish, you will fall in love it with it all over again, or maybe for the first time (Nick). In my humble opinion, it was the greatest debut album of the decade (1970’s) and one of the top five debut albums of all time. Songs like “More than a Feeling,” “Piece of Mind,” “Long Time,” and “Rock and Roll Band,” anchor this masterpiece. Boston never really lived up to anything close to what their expectations were after this debut. This album was so tight and perfect, maybe nothing could have been close to it; no matter how good the sophomore effort was. It is a great album and really the only album worth owning from Boston.

No. 1 “Appetite for Destruction” Vs “Lies”

Do I really need to write this blurb? Really? I will just say this; Appetite for Destruction is the greatest debut album of all time! And GNR LIES SUCKS! ‘NOUGH SAID, you all know what I am talking about.

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