💬 Weekly Question: What's your favorite debut album of all time?
I’m pretty sure this week’s art question doesn’t need too much explanation, so let’s just jump right in:
What's your favorite debut album of all time (and why)?
Sure, you can just drop a name and artist into the comments, but I’d encourage you to take the time to tell me what the album meant to you. Do you love it because of its technical achievement? Or maybe how it landed at a specific point in your life? Tell me everything, kids.
Oh, and don’t forget to read and comment on other readers’ answers. This is a conversation, after all.
My answer is: Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell (1977), which marked the beginning of a tumultuous, but always exciting professional relationship with Jim Steinman. I’ll be writing more about this album in the new year, in a feature article I’ve been developing for this Substack, but for now I’ll say that it’s a foundational part of my teenage life and my love affair with it continues to this day. When it entered my consciousness — right around 1991 — I’d already discovered how operatic rock could be by way of Queen, but Meat Loaf and Steinman introduced me to how much rock and stage musicals had in common. In fact, Bat Out of Hell began as a musical. Meat Loaf’s incredibly emotive, electric voice was the perfect delivery vehicle for it.
I'm not sure what my favorite would be, but for a debut album in which all the songs are strong from start to finish, I'm going to have to go with Tori Amos's "Little Earthquakes." On a more esoteric front, Michael Penn's "March" has long been a favorite album.
Okay, so with debuts out of the way, how about the best second album? For me, it would be a tie between Elvis Costello's "This Year's Model" (WAY better than his spotty debut) and R.E.M.'s "Reckoning." Oh, and for the record, pun intended, "With the Beatles" is stronger than "Please Please Me" (though the often punk-like sound of that first album is fantastic).
Gonna go with Tracy Chapman (self titled). It was meaningful because the songs really spoke to where I was in that moment. I bought it for my girlfriend when our relationship was rocky. The song For You literally saved our relationship.