The Top 10 Debut Rock Albums
As turbulent as the current climate is, all the extra time we’re spending indoors offers an opportunity to practice reflective listening. We’ve revisited some of the best pieces of music history, albums that shaped the landscape of what we listen to today. Here’s a round-up of the top ten debut rock albums.
10. Ten // Pearl Jam, 1991
Pearl Jam seemed to be battling Nirvana as the champions of grunge, but Ten is an outpouring of the band’s own blend of grunge with an ageing style of rock, earning the tenth spot on this list. This Nirvana-Pearl Jam rivalry was motivated, mostly, due to both bands hailing from Seattle and their respective popularity — it’s the Beatles vs The Rolling Stones all over again. This rivalry with Nirvana leaves the temptation to simply view Ten as a grunge album that relied on incorporating aspects of a forgone rock aesthetic to earn recognition. Or, a tribute to the past — of Generation X fans of bands and musicians drifting out of popular culture. But it is much more than either of those reductive interpretations, a meaning commitment to the sound of the band. Eddie Vedder’s voice is remarkably adept at switching between a deep-ranging form into a high-reaching vibrato, the angry, explosive guitar of Mike McCready a fitting accompaniment.
Spearheaded by ‘Alive’, which so marvellously captures all the elements of the band, it’s a complex album that seems to change direction sporadically. It goes from the hard-hitting ‘Once’ to the almost tactile ‘Black’.
It took Ten a year to reach success, eventually climbing to the second sport on the Billboard charts in 1992, and has remained the band’s most successful album.
9. The Doors // The Doors, 1967
The gloom of The Doors’ debut album is one of its hallmark features, the wispy crooning of Jim Morrison’s voice, versatile in its switch to melodic screech, partnered with the walking baseline and sporadic organ.
Classics such as ‘Light My Fire’ and ‘The End’ are rife with destiny and ominous futures, the band nurturing songs in experimentation that seemed too obscure to work. But the album created icons seemingly overnight; their exoticism, darkness and popular refusal to adhere to any codes provided an alternative in a landscape otherwise saturated with songs relying predominantly on upbeat melodies. The spoken word element used by Morrison — often the Electric Poet — only further shifts The Doors from rock to an unmistakable mystic entity.
In eleven years, eight albums failed to match up to their debut, except perhaps L.A. Woman. In 1973 the band parted ways, two years after Morrison’s death at 27.
8. The Stone Roses // The Stone Roses, 1989
Since its release, The Stone Roses has cemented the band’s place in rock history, debuting amongst the glories of the Madchester phenomenon and the Second Summer of Love, promoted in part by one concert at the Haçienda night club.
The characteristic and rhythmic talent of John Squire, whose fluidity and psychedelic twists evoke Jimi Hendrix, drives the album forward. Ian Brown’s unique voice combines the specific angst of the era with a bouncy, melodic twist, predating the sound of Britpop.
There is so much to appreciate from the album, with its raw, unapologetic clash of sounds to the harsh lyrics. “Don’t waste your words I don’t need anything from you / I don’t care where you’ve been or what you plan to do,” sings Brown in ‘I Am the Resurrection’. So much was this album praised that in 2006, NME named it their best British album of all time.
The Stone Roses would spend five years trying to recapture the magic of their debut, eventually disbanding during the promotional tour of their lacklustre second album, Second Coming. Placing the album eighth on this list credits it with a deserved place in the echelons of rock, but while the Stone Roses unrefined nature was part of their charm, it also left room for improvement.
7. Appetite for Destruction // Guns N’ Roses, 1987
Few albums begin with the aggression that is ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, and for good reason too — few bands can start with that and follow it up.
The debut album first appeared as a study in the appreciation and nuances of eighties hard rock, but was catapulted to the upper reaches of the period, the band watching as they left their peers in their dust. Axl Rose’s unmistakable voice, rippling through its paces while Saul Hudson aka Slash’s epic guitar solos walk beside the frontman. The combination of funk, blues and the boisterous drumming of Steven Adler created the perfect storm.
It was the peak of the band, as is often the case with such resoundingly successful debuts. Released four years before Pearl Jam’s Ten, the members of Guns N’ Roses found themselves adorned with unexpected fame — and pressure. While they would continue to release successful music, such as ‘November Rain’ and ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’, it would never quite match their first album.
6. Boston // Boston, 1976
We’ve all heard ‘More Than a Feeling’. We’ve all listened to its easy beginning, before it launches us into a glamorous tundra of youthful yearning.
But Boston’s debut album is more than just that song, it’s a seventies rock classic, quintessential in the conversation of rock’s evolution. Although under-appreciated, the entire project is so finely crafted by Tom Scholz, it’s more like a love project to rock than an album in and of itself.
Sitting beside Foreigner and REO Speedwagon as examples of early pop or synth-rock, the album deserves a place here for two reasons: firstly, it forgoes the shackles of rock and found its own place among giants, and secondly because of the brazen boundary pushing attempted.
5. The Velvet Underground & Nico // The Velvet Underground, 1967
Lou Reed’s ode to nihilism could be the most important rock album that went unrecognised, mostly due to the overt descriptions of controversial topics, including drug abuse and prostitution.
But it’s within the transgressions of The Velvet Underground & Nico that its brilliance is found. The refusal to pander to themes and willingness to confront harsh realities of a world blurred by the Summer of Love was a bold move by the band. The glam rock element and sometimes subtle punk nature are fused to create an album that is as enticing to novices of alternative rock as it is essential to the genesis of bands such as The Cure, The Smiths and Nirvana, to name a few.
It could perhaps be viewed as reductive of rock, pulling back the skin and simply art being created through another new medium, which producer Andy Warhol was more than happy to be a part of.
However, it’s one of the more divisive albums — it’s either appealing or its charm is lost, neither to say which is better. It may be pointlessly profound, or it could be a startlingly aware album that understands the murkier waters of rock and the world it exists within.
4. Lynyrd Skynyrd (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd) // Lynyrd Skynyrd, 1973
While Lynyrd Skynyrd are far and away best known as the band behind ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, with more than double their second-highest stream song on Spotify. But the band, originating from Florida, did something better than any on this list — embraced rock’s country heritage.
Rock music is steeped in the foot-tapping, back and forth rhythm so associated with the Southern United States, and the varying lead guitarists of Gary Rossington, Allen Collins and Ed King all incorporate the country moan of unsettled riffs, withheld and patient, yet still infused with elements of rock. Billy Powell’s keyboards add a much-needed romantic element, splitting the composition of typical rock music to excellent effect. Ronnie van Zant’s voice is exactly how you’d expected an American South Robert Plant to sound, just as much as Plant is the English van Zant.
And sticking with the Led Zeppelin comparisons, Lynyrd Skynyrd has not one but two rock ballads which seriously contend with ‘Stairway to Heaven’: ‘Tuesday’s Gone’ and ‘Free Bird’. The band went on to great success, although a plane crash in 1977 saw the tragic deaths of van Zant, guitarist and vocalist Steve Gaines, backup vocalist Cassie Gaines, as well as the pilots and road manager, Dean Kilpatrick. But this album is one of the quintessential country-rock fusions and announced Lynyrd Skynyrd to the world, revitalising a breed of rock.
3. Are You Experienced // The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1967
Any time something has ‘greatest’ and ‘rock’ in its title, there should be an expectation to see the Jimi Hendrix name somewhere. With Noel Redding on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums, Hendrix and his band would release Are You Experienced, an album so rich with innovative techniques and brazen psychedelic themes that it would permanently alter the landscape of the genre.
It sounds unlike anything you’d expect from a debut album, a transformative reimagining of blues, dusted with acid rock and the creation of a new rock aesthetic. Hendrix’s deep vocals, mature and full-bodied, perfectly balance with Redding’s bass.
While the band would only release two more studio albums, Axis: Bold as Love in 1967 and Electric Ladyland in 1968, it’s the debut which captures the authenticity of Hendrix’s prowess, let loose upon his guitar with madness, he created shattering riffs that would forever ripple. But it’s also full of songs that are delicate in their composition, such as ‘May This Be Love’, heed to the craft of Hendrix. He was just getting started and you’ve got ‘Hey Joe’, ‘Purple Haze’ and ‘The Wind Cries Mary’.
2. Led Zeppelin // Led Zeppelin, 1969
There are so few bands as closely associated with rock as Led Zeppelin are, and even fewer that are as unique. Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham all fortuitously came together in 1968 London, and a year later the band’s eponymous debut would be released. It peaked at ten on the Billboard charts and at six in the United Kingdom and was met with reviews that critiqued the writing abilities of the band and nominated them as a placeholder for the demised Cream.
But what puts the album second on this list is that is undeniably and unabashedly Led Zeppelin. Part of the power that Led Zeppelin hold is the artful combining of rhythmic blues, lumbering riffs and psychedelic overtures, coupled craftily with Plant’s powerful, diverse vocals and Bonham’s prowess.
Few bands elect to be this varied in style, and to do it on debut is as brave as could be — all the while maintaining the subtle elegance of British folk music. ‘Communication Breakdown’ and ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’ seem so distinct, yet hold onto enough of a semblance of similarity to provide a consistent thread of thought to the album. The band would, of course, go onto become nothing short of legendary, perhaps only comparable in classic rock mythology to Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix.
1. Definitely, Maybe // Oasis, 1994
The Gallagher brothers have lived in music infamy since the less-than-magnanimous splitting of one of the true great modern rock bands, but their music has hardly faltered in its importance within British music genealogy. No, if anything, the band has become something of an untouchable deity.
The Manchester group’s debut came in 1994, on an album fledged with fury and grunge that reignited a faltering pop music scene in 1990s Britain. Additionally, while bands had been struggling to make headway into the United States, Definitely, Maybe sold over one million copies. Blur and Suede had failed to penetrate the US market quite as successfully as the then-flag bearers of a sub-sect of the British musical mythos.
Few singers have a voice as distinctive as Liam Gallagher, while the songwriting of Noel is an almighty force that no British band has come close to eclipsing ever since. The fusion of rock with something outside of that genre, something that also rejected distinctive Britishness and opened the band to the world, projected them to the limelight.
While the commercial success of Definitely, Maybe was outdone by the following two albums, it was with Definitely, Maybe that Oasis laid the foundations of their careers. They introduced themselves to the world with anticipation, releasing the energy of a generation desperately pleading for a lightning rod to vocalise their spirit. The shifts in style over time still retained the essences of their origins.
Definitely, Maybe takes the top spot because it encapsulates the ideas of one of rock’s greatest bands, set the tone for their entire discography, and announced one of the UK’s greatest rock bands to the world.
Words by Billy Brake
Originally published at https://www.indiependent.co.uk on May 31, 2020.
