Is the debut album always a bands finest work?

The La's only ever released a debut thus making it their finest work

Having compiled the top 100 albums of the past decade I was surprised to see how many of them were debut’s of the artists involved. Out of the 100 listed 47 were the first efforts by the respective acts, that’s an insanely high proportion. Now I do understand that this is my personal opinion however if you go through the NME, The Guardian’s, Rolling Stone’s, Pitchfork’s, Gigwise’s, Drowned in Sound or any other list you will find that it featured a high proportion of debut albums.

What is it that makes the debut album so popular? Are we excited by the fact that there’s a new band and hopefully a new sound or is it that we tend to classify bands albums against their previous efforts and thus will inevitably be disappointed when we liked their debut? Everyone always talks about the difficult second and third album but rarely about the difficult first album. Could it be that most artists have forever to work on their debut album but once the popularity has arrived the fans want to hear more and they have to rush the follow up albums? In an age where last year’s hype band is this year’s bargain bin product, with people consuming tracks instead of albums I am finding that more frequently the standard of the debut has to be exceptional to sustain the interest in the artist. After all can we really expect another great album to come out of Klaxons, La Roux, The Ting Tings or Black Kids? Most of the time once we have enjoyed a band, given them the success and become bored of their sound we will continue on our constant path of finding the next hot new act and consume their music until we get bored of them.

It is incredibly rare these days for a bands sophomore album to be as good as their debut, this week see’s the release of Vampire Weekend’s ‘Contra’ album which after the massive success of their incredible debut it surprising to read all the reports saying that this album is as good as their previous effort. Is this an exception or an anomaly? Looking over the previous year there are only a handful of follow up albums which I was more impressed than the debut album; The Horrors ‘Primary Colours’ , TV on the Radio’s ‘Dear Science’; Phoenix ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Mystery Jets ‘Twenty-one’ and not surprisingly Jay-Z’s ‘Blueprint III’ which is clearly better than his debut ‘Reasonable Doubt’. Jay-Z however brings me onto my next point, most artists who’s debut albums become popular tend to end up either living shortened careers (We are scientists, The View, Wolfmother, The Vines, Razorlight, The Magic Numbers, The Feeling, Maroon 5 to name a few) the fact is that once the debut soars to great heights and sells well the record labels expect the sophomore album to be of the same quality and sell the same figures as the debut did. This means that the bands have to either change their sound to fit in with the times or try to release a similar album which inevitably bores the fans and critics alike. Unfortunately the reality is that this will end with the band being dropped and their careers regularly ending.

If we look at some of the artists who are still releasing interesting and critically acclaimed work most have been backed by their labels and allowed to release several albums, rarely their debut has been their finest work, Radiohead and Jay Z have now been recording for more than a decade and are clearly writing some of their best albums as they have slowly made it to the top of their respective genres as opposed to instant fame of the debut.

In conclusion I think that the majority of the acts out there will release their best album as their debut due to the time constraints that they don’t have in developing their sound. If it’s a good album it will clearly influence others and create a sound which people jump to imitate which inevitably leads to a genre which will predominately only ever see the releases of lots of debuts (nu-rave anyone?). However for the artists that you will be enjoying in 5 years time I it’s probably worth starting to listen closer to those whose albums are good but not great, the artists which are interesting but not hip or cool, those that aren’t manufactured for instant success! How you can tell who’s going to be around in 5 years time is near impossible to tell, however I may as well have a stab in the dark about a few artists! I would say watch out for Lupe Fiasco, Empire of the Sun, I will stick with my guns and say that I think that Wily Mason will one day get the love that he deserves! TV on the Radio, Santogold, Regina Spektor and the Mystery Jets. I know that these artists are already popular however I think that we will not only see them produce better albums than they have already done but also end up becoming the top artists in their respective fields.....


L-R Top: Santogold, Lupe Fiasco
L-R Middle: TV on the Radio, Willy Mason
L-R Bottom: Regina Spektor, Empire of the Sun

Download:
Good Shoes - Under Control
Good Shoes released their debut in 2007, with fast guitars the south Londoners wrote an alright album which had some great singles and managed to get a decent following. This is the first single to be taken from their forthcoming album ‘No Hope, No Future’ out later this year. ‘Under Control’ has a great sound and feel to it and if the rest of the album sounds anything like this then it’s definitely going to be a good sophomore!

Unsigned band to check out:
Rogues Myspace Link
Having been a much hyped band for the past 12 months I cant understand why they don’t yet have a record deal! Rogues mix guitars, synth and dual vocals, clearly influenced by Klaxons they have written some larger pop songs which will inevitably land them a deal and you will find them hitting the top 40 in months to come!