RS's list of 100 Greatest Debut Albums

Actually, there are only a few albums on this list that I'd argue are wasting space. But the order is totally wack, IMO.

1. Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill
2. Ramones
3. Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced?
4. Guns 'N Roses - Appetite for Destruction
5. The Velvet Underground and Nico
6. N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton
7. The Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks
8. The Strokes - Is This It
9. The Band - Music from Big Pink
10. Patti Smith - Horses
11. Nas - Illmatic
12. The Clash
13. The Pretenders
14. Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt
15. Arcade Fire - Funeral
16. The Cars
17. The Beatles - Please Please Me
18. R.E.M. - Murmur
19. Kanye West - The College Dropout
20. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
21. Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True
22. Violent Femmes
23. The Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die
24. Vampire Weekend
25. Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
26. Run-DMC
27. Van Halen
28. The B-52's
29. The Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
30. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
31. Portishead - Dummy
32. De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
33. The Killers - Hot Fuss
34. The Doors
35. Weezer
36. The Postal Service - Give Up
37. Bruce Springsteen - Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ
38. The Police - Outlandos d'Amour
39. Lynyrd Skynyrd - (Pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd)
40. Television - Marquee Moon
41. Boston
42. Oasis - Definitely Maybe
43. Jeff Buckley - Grace
44. Black Sabbath
45. The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy
46. Pearl Jam - Ten
47. Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
48. The Modern Lovers
49. Franz Ferdinand
50. X - Los Angeles
51. The Smiths
52. U2 - Boy
53. The New York Dolls
54. Metallica - Kill 'Em All
55. Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly
56. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
57. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
58. Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
59. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
60. Fiona Apple - Tidal
61. The Libertines - Up the Bracket
62. Roxy Music
63. Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual
64. The English Beat - I Just Can't Stop It
65. Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville
66. The Stooges
67. 50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin'
68. Talking Heads - 77
69. Wire - Pink Flag
70. PJ Harvey - Dry
71. Mary J. Blige - What's the 411?
72. Led Zeppelin
73. Norah Jones - Come Away with Me
74. The XX
75. The Go-Go's - Beauty and the Beat
76. Devo - Q.: Are We Not Men?
77. Drake - Thank Me Later
78. The Stone Roses
79. Elvis Presley
80. The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man
81. Gang of Four - Entertainment!
82. The Congos - Heart of the Congos
83. Eric B. & Rakim - Paid in Full
84. Whitney Houston
85. Rage Against the Machine
86. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.D.d. city
87. The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
88. Daft Punk - Homework
89. Yazoo - Upstairs at Eric's
90. Big Star - #1 Record
91. M.I.A. - Arular
92. Moby Grape
93. The Hold Steady - Almost Killed Me
94. The Who Sings My Generation
95. Here's Little Richard
96. Madonna
97. Endtroducing DJ Shadow
98. Joe Jackson - Look Sharp!
99. The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace of Sin
100. Lady GaGa - The Fame

RS offers this explanation for the rankings:

"Albums got docked points if the artist went on to far greater achievements (which is why Please Please Me and [/i]Greetings from Asbury Park[/i], great as they are, didn't made the top ten); conversely, we gave a little extra recognition to great debut albums that the artist never matched (hello, Is This It and Illmatic!). We also skipped solo debuts by artists who were already in well-known bands, which is why you won’t see Plastic Ono Band or Paul Simon. We focused, instead, on debuts that gave you the thrill of an act arriving fully-formed, ready to reinvent the world in its own image."

Was this a staff list, or a reader's list? And did they choose the order by drawing numbers from a hat?

Actually, I suspect that the average voters on this were all born in 1975 or something, therefore Licensed to Ill would've come out when they were 12 years old, making it the most awesomest thing ever!!!!! It's the same demographic that stubbornly insists that The Goonies is not only worth watching, but is one of the greatest movies of all time.

The first Vampire Weekend album, a greater debut than Gang of Four. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

"Licensed to Ill" is. . . good? It's the only BB album I won't own.

The first Zeppelin blows it away. . . and I'm not much of a Zep fan. But I do listen to that particular album front to back at least a couple times a year.

Yazoo's Upstairs at Eric's is one of the top 100 debuts of all time? I LIKE Yazoo, but I call shenanigans on that. If this is a list made by Rolling Stone writers, I have to think that Yazoo's appearance is entirely a Rob Sheffield stunt.

Kudos for even including Moby Grape (at 92). Fricke must have walked through the meeting on the way to vending at that point.

Realizing this list assumes a decent level of general awareness, I'll throw in my last few glaring omissions and continue stewing over this instead of sleeping:

Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain
Sinead O'Connor - The Lion & The Cobra
Indigo Girls - Strange Fire
Whiskeytown - Faithless Street

You know what would be a more interesting list? Acts that were never able to equal or surpass their debut effort.

Incidentally, Mr. Reno, I can assure that Sheffield's entirely responsible for #93 (The Hold Steady - Almost Killed Me) as well as Yazoo.

Quote

Sinead O'Connor - The Lion & The Cobra

This snubbing makes sense ... if it's true that the new Pope is on the RS Top 100 Lists Board of Directors.



It's just some sort of arcane Catholic thing. Maybe.

I believe it was a staff list. Had RS readers voted on these, I don't believe it would've included nearly so many hip-hop albums. And Led Zeppelin would've been in the top ten, for sure.

I defended the first Boston album on this board once, but I sure wouldn't put it ahead of Led Zeppelin's first album.

> "Licensed to Ill" is. . . good? It's the only BB album I won't own.

It says something when a band spends the rest of its career openly admitting it hopes to live down its debut album.

ripper thread del,
but right now, all i can think of is the MODERN LOVERS

i reckon i'll list mine one atta time...

PAPAS CULTURE but...



Post Edited (04-02-13 19:20)

i hear ya keeper of the zoo,
too bad them collegiate bball teams in miami, gainesville or tallahassee caint hear us.

Someone is always going to find fault with these types of lists, but the absence of The Crossing makes it completely null and void, IMO.

staying on topis (thx agin delvin!),

big audio dynamite-THIS IS

trouble funk LIVE!!

three o'clocks sixteen tambourines fer fucks sake...

generation x

j&MC

the FRIGGS

This list would've been better if they'd limited it to 10 to 20. Including Madness (One Step Beyond), Steve Earle (Guitar Town) and The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit are the Very Best) would've been even better.

BTW, Yazoo wasn't exactly coming out of nowhere as Vince Clarke had just quit Depeche Mode about 3 months earlier. Okay, maybe it was 6 months.

It's pretty weird to observe just how out of favor Tom Petty is these days when his band's debut can't crack the top 100. And what of Teenage Fanclub?

Stone Roses way too low (among others), Police way too high (among others), no LAMF, La's, Guitar Romantic or Howlin' Wind makes me raise an eyebrow.



Post Edited (04-03-13 18:45)

Up next? Top 100 @#$% Rolling Stone Lists of All @#$% Time!

I assume Ryan Adams falls under the "he was already in an acclaimed band" caveat. That also has to be the only reason Rolling Stone would leave Wilco's A.M. off this list.

Though I suppose it's possible a sudden bout of integrity might have caused them leave Wilco's so-so debut album off, even though we live in an era of forced Wilco-inclusion on any sort of best of list anyone comes up. But it's more likely they just decided to hide behind a technicality

It would also be viewed as a plus to have some sort of criteria that allowed them to exclude Son Volt as well as Wilco, since this is definitely a list that would obviously be crap if they included Tweedy but excluded Farrar, as Trace wiped its ass on A.M.. So best to leave them both out, since the official dogma these days is that Tweedy was always the genius and Farrar was just the dour old fussbudget who couldn't stand the radiant light emanating from his god-annointed bandmate.

Though Rolling Stone does seem to be showing a little bit of flexibility on the issue. They're not the AV Club, at least, who show no signs of backing away anytime soon from the insistence that Wilco cures cancer while Son Volt causes it.

Bit of a digression there, but I've had a burr under my saddle ever since the AV Club reviewed Farrar's recent (unread by me as of yet) book and the proceedings predictably turned into a rousing chorus "Hosanna Jeff Tweedy."

It's got to suck to be poor old Jay Farrar - a curmudgeonly sort with the social skills of an armadillo on his best days, who every time he does anything it inevitably gets him nothing but a chorus of "Go away, you old sourpuss. We like Jeff better."

I'd go through life with a chip on my shoulder myself if everything I ever did got me compared to an old bandmate while the bandmate is allowed to have a career where he's never compared to me, even though he likely wouldn't have that career if he hadn't spent the first few years of it clinging to my coat tails.

First of all, Brad, I'll agree there's no way to call Heartbreaker an unknown quantity following Whiskeytown's notoriety. I concur with your assessment of Son Volt's Trace vs. Wilco's A.M., too.

Here's the thing, though: "Box Full of Letters," from A.M. is way, way better than anything on Trace.

I don't have a way of qualifying this statement. By the end of their run with Uncle Tupelo, Tweedy was coming up with more interesting stuff (give "Acuff-Rose" & "We've Been Had" a listen).

And if Farrar's supposedly unable to glad hand/get along with people while Tweedy's an amicable idiot-savant, that's simply not the case. Spend some time with Jay Farrar. Spend some time with Jeff Tweedy. Tell me who's less uncomfortable.

I've been as disappointed with Wilco albums as often as I've been pleased. Over the long haul. Wilco's still better than Son Violt, in spite of Trace wiping the floor with A.M.

Yeah, Jermoe, "Box Full of Letters" is pretty damn great.

As usual when I get myself going on the topic, I end up sounding much more anti-Wilco than I actually am. I like Wilco just fine. I just end up empathizing with Farrar in the whole thing because it just seems like when Wilco does anything, it's allowed to be analyzed on its own merits. On the other hand, it seems like - in some circles, anyway - every time Jay Farrar does anything, there will be some inevitable comparison to Jeff Tweedy thrown into the proceedings to knock Farrar down on a notch or two.

It gripes me to no end. However, I also predict that in 10 years or so, the Son Volt catalog will be one of those things that suddenly gets a huge critical re-assessment and it'll be decided that it was always better than it was given credit for at the time.

None of which explains why the hell No Depression didn't make the RS list. It only inspired a major movement that had a huge effect on the course of a couple of decades of music, after all, and launched the career of one of the major rock critic darlings of the last decade. But it's nowhere near as good as The Postal Service or Yazoo, apparently.

I'd put Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker on that list as well. Never a popular choice, but it stands up well--and represents a time before he became uber-popular and his career went a bit pear-shaped.



Post Edited (04-03-13 12:33)

No Specials, No Crocodiles, No Beggars Can Be Choosers.

No Graham Parker, Bunnymen or Nick Drake--hard to buy.

It would have been nice to see the "exemption" list broken out, to a Top 10 or 20. Hard to see how anyone other than Van wins, for Astral Weeks, if you accept that Berns or heirs threw out whatever would stick as an LP from those '67 sessions; not an album proper. A left field offering in the same list: Nils Lofgren, whose first A&M solo disc is terribly underrated.

Would also love to see a list of "One And Done." Pistols at the top, inevitably, but I'd toss in Blanket of Secrecy, to all five people who ever heard it.

Also MIA: Ray Charles, who had recorded for Atlantic for 4 years before his first LP, inevitably a compilation, but who's gonna refuse that? And a little surprised at the absence of Santana, from RS' hometown scene, and Los Lobos, if you count How Will The Wolf Survive? as their first long player.