Before we go any farther, I must share the three most important criteria I applied while compiling this list:
1) I have to like the record.
2) The record must be generally considered great or important by people who are not me.
3) Extra weight will be given to debuts that are clearly the best album in the artist’s discography.
Another important criterion for a great debut album is especially pertinent here. It’s the “what in the hell is this?” factor. Now, “what in the hell is this?” can be uttered in a good way (“what in the hell is this?!”) or a bad way (“what in the hell is this?!”). But it’s best if, at first, it’s neutral, in the sense that you literally don’t know what in the hell this is and must listen obsessively in order to find out. Which is to say: The music is new and fascinating and enigmatic and rewiring your brain in real time.
The fifth criterion for this list is somewhat related to the “what in the hell is this?” factor, but it goes one step further. It’s a debut album that actually invents something. It doesn’t have to be a big something, it just has to be a something something. (The “invented a big something” debuts are naturally further down the list.)
The sixth criterion will surely be the most controversial: No “historically important” debuts that can’t stand alone as truly great. This ties back to Criterion No. 3, i.e. “extra weight will be given to debuts that are clearly the best album in the discography.” In the same way that the MVP in sports is a regular season award, this best debuts list is fixated on the debut and not necessarily on the career that came afterward. Therefore, Please Please Me is not on this list, because while it is clearly very good and extremely important, it is nobody’s favorite Beatles album. The same is true of Bob Dylan’s self-titled debut. I had a harder time leaving off the first albums by U2 and Metallica, because I love both of them, but neither debut belongs ahead of the best three or four records by those bands.
Let me tell you a story about unintended consequences: Because of Criterion No. 6, I also did not include debut albums made by Tom Petty, Electric Light Orchestra, and Roy Orbison. And then I made up a seventh criterion: If you make the list with one band, you can’t also make the list with a solo record or another band. Which meant that all five members of The Traveling Wilburys were now qualified to make it with The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1.
Let’s steer back toward sanity for a moment. The eighth criterion won’t be controversial at all: A great debut should be influential.
The ninth criterion might also be controversial, though it’s really just a practical reflection of how most people listen to albums: A great debut does not need to be great all the way through if there are at least three-to-five undeniable peaks that everybody ends up focusing on.
I’m going to add one more criterion that I’ve hinted at throughout but haven’t officially codified yet: A great debut should be extremely you. What I mean is that if you only listened to this one album, you would have a completely full and accurate view of the artist.
Best Debut Albums
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Originally Posted by Sting
