Some bands take a while to put out its strongest album, since it usually takes time to work out the kinks and hone your songwriting, but these eight bands came roaring right out of the gate with their strongest full-length effort.
1. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)
Other than the Beatles, no artist in from the '60s was as consistently brilliant as the Velvet Underground, who released four classic albums (not including the Lou Reed-less Squeeze) that were completely different from one another. However, the best of these four was the very first, The Velvet Underground & Nico, which combined all of the band's best elements: classic pop songwriting, avant-garde arrangements, and transgressive lyrics.
2. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
King Crimson may have gotten darker and more experimental during the '70s with Larks' Tongues in Aspic and Starless and Bible Black, but the band's songwriting was never as sharp, eclectic, or accessible as it was on its 1969 debut In The Court of the Crimson King.
3. Echo and the Bunnymen - Crocodiles (1980)
There's not exactly a consensus as to what Echo and the Bunnymen's best album is. Many would say 1984's Ocean Rain, but the album has plenty of detractors who believe it's a bit too overblown (myself included), so I'm casting my vote for the band's 1980 debut Crocodiles, which offered a warmer yet still gothic take on Joy Division's post-punk template.
4. R.E.M. - Murmur (1983)
No list of classic debuts is complete without R.E.M.'s Murmur, which is probably the greatest debut of the '80s. The band would go on to release more classics, including 1984's Reckoning and 1992's Automatic for the People, but Murmur is easily the most singular, otherworldly, and focused album in R.E.M.'s discography, sounding as if it was handed down to them from the heavens, rather than recorded in a studio.
5. The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy (1985)
Few albums are as painful to listen to as the Jesus and Mary Chain's debut Psychocandy, with its piercing waves of guitar fuzz, but the album's timeless pop songwriting proved that there's no need to sacrifice accessibility for sonic experimentation.
6. The Strokes - Is This It (2001)
The Strokes are basically the American Oasis, an excessively hyped band who released two well-regarded albums before dropping off in critical favor. 2003's Room On Fire is a surprisingly strong effort, but it's 2001's tightly coiled Is This It that kickstarted American indie culture for the new millennium.
7. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights (2002)
If the poppier side '00s indie rock can be traced back to the Strokes, then the melancholy side can be traced back to Interpol, whose debut Turn On The Bright Lights revitalized gothic post-punk and paved the way for the success of the National and the Killers, among many others.
8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell (2003)
Completing our trifecta of New York indie rock bands that peaked with their debut is the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, whose 2003 album Fever To Tell brought us the classic dream-punk ballad "Maps," as well as other standouts of early '00s rock such as "Rich" and "Date with the Night." Though the synth-heavy It's Blitz! also had some stellar tracks, the band has yet to match the strength of its first full-length effort.
I know there's plenty more, so what other bands debuted with their best album? Let us know in the comments section!
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