Acclaimed Music's Best Debut Albums of All-Time

[Holden]

Hello! Seeing all of the discussion regarding the best debut singles of all time, I decided to go into the AM list and find the best debut albums of all-time, which is a pretty mammoth task! So I decided to go yeay by year and post the results here as I go!

Acclaimed Music's Best Debut Albums of All-Time:
Rank (Overall AM Rank) | Artist | Album (Year)
Year Lists:


2015
1 (429) | Courtney Barnett | Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
2 (460) | Jamie xx | In Colour
3 (880) | Vince Staples | Summertime '06
4 (1627) | Viet Cong | Viet Cong
5 (1856) | Natalie Prass | Natalie Prass
6 (2164) | Mbongwana Star | From Kinshasa
7 (2390) | Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment feat. Jamila Woods | Surf
8 (2483) | Floating Points | Elaenia
9 (2588) | Algiers | Algiers
10 (2626) | Tobias Jesso Jr. | Goon
11 (2922) | Shamir | Ratchet


2016
1 (901) | ANOHNI | Hopelessness
2 (1798) | Kaytranada | 99.9%
3 (2116) | Whitney | Light Upon the Lake
4 (2283) | Kate Tempest | Let Them Eat Chaos
5 (2523) | Margo Price | Midwest Farmer's Daughter
6 (2953) | Neko Case/k.d. lang/Laura Veirs | case/lang/veirs



2017
1 (759) | SZA | Ctrl
2 (1107) | Sampha | Process
3 (1306) | Kelela | Take Me Apart
4 (2217) | Moses Sumney | Aromanticism
5 (2747) | Cigarettes After Sex | Cigarettes After Sex
6 (2794) | Priests | Nothing Feels Natural

[Harold]

Should Hopelessness be considered a debut album? It's obviously ANOHNI's first release under that name, but she has a whole prior history.

[Holden]

Should Hopelessness be considered a debut album? It's obviously ANOHNI's first release under that name, but she has a whole prior history.

I feel like a solo discography and band discography should be considered separate for this list

[Jackson]

Kate Tempest's Everybody Down came before the excellent Let Them Eat Chaos, right?

[Holden]

Kate Tempest's Everybody Down came before the excellent Let Them Eat Chaos, right?

Yup, 2014 and 2016 respectively

[Hymie]

Hello! Seeing all of the discussion regarding the best debut singles of all time,

Where is that?

[Holden]

Hello! Seeing all of the discussion regarding the best debut singles of all time,

Where is that?

In the Critics Lists under RS's list.

[Rob]

6 (2953) | Neko Case/k.d. lang/Laura Veirs | case/lang/veirs

This is stretching definitions of a debut to the widest possible angle. A one-time (?) collaboration of three people with extensive solo careers seems a bit much to call a debut, especially since they didn't even pick a band name. By that definition is Under Pressure a debut single by Queen and David Bowie?

[Holden]

6 (2953) | Neko Case/k.d. lang/Laura Veirs | case/lang/veirs

This is stretching definitions of a debut to the widest possible angle. A one-time (?) collaboration of three people with extensive solo careers seems a bit much to call a debut, especially since they didn't even pick a band name. By that definition is Under Pressure a debut single by Queen and David Bowie?

Okay question: would you say that Crosby Stills & Nash is the debut album or the band Crosby Stills or Nash or would you say it doesn’t count as a debut? Not trying to be sly or anything legitimately asking. Upon researching further it seems as though most sources credit the band as having the name of case/Lang/Veirs as opposed to just their names, so this feels like it has a similar supergroup band idea to CS&N, which means that I would consider it a debut. But legitimately wonderihn your thougths

[Edre Depeche Head]

6 (2953) | Neko Case/k.d. lang/Laura Veirs | case/lang/veirs

This is stretching definitions of a debut to the widest possible angle. A one-time (?) collaboration of three people with extensive solo careers seems a bit much to call a debut, especially since they didn't even pick a band name. By that definition is Under Pressure a debut single by Queen and David Bowie?

Okay question: would you say that Crosby Stills & Nash is the debut album or the band Crosby Stills or Nash or would you say it doesn’t count as a debut? Not trying to be sly or anything legitimately asking. Upon researching further it seems as though most sources credit the band as having the name of case/Lang/Veirs as opposed to just their names, so this feels like it has a similar supergroup band idea to CS&N, which means that I would consider it a debut. But legitimately wonderihn your thougths

While it is techinaclly a debut, I consider a debut album for an artist as the first album from the artist regardless of project

[Rob]

6 (2953) | Neko Case/k.d. lang/Laura Veirs | case/lang/veirs

This is stretching definitions of a debut to the widest possible angle. A one-time (?) collaboration of three people with extensive solo careers seems a bit much to call a debut, especially since they didn't even pick a band name. By that definition is Under Pressure a debut single by Queen and David Bowie?

Okay question: would you say that Crosby Stills & Nash is the debut album or the band Crosby Stills or Nash or would you say it doesn’t count as a debut? Not trying to be sly or anything legitimately asking. Upon researching further it seems as though most sources credit the band as having the name of case/Lang/Veirs as opposed to just their names, so this feels like it has a similar supergroup band idea to CS&N, which means that I would consider it a debut. But legitimately wonderihn your thougths

The thing with supergroups is that the whole concept is based on the idea that they are all already well-respected veterans. Stills was with Buffalo Springfield, Crosby with The Byrds and Nash with The Hollies and they were significant contributors there. It depends all in how you interpret the word "debut", but I tend to think of it as the real career start. I guess that with lists based around this I tend to think about artist who had the most remarkable first album or song of all time and the idea that you compare the effort of a real first-timer with artists who have twenty years of experience in another set-up seems to me to defeat the point.