Satur-debut – …AND THE REST / IN CONCLUSION

It took 65 posts and nearly a year-and-a-half to finally revisit all of the debut albums I had previously written about in my Great Out Of The Gate series as well as some artist-specific series. You can read more about Satur-debut in the opening paragraph of the first post, which featured the debut album from Led Zeppelin. Here are four more debuts I should have included, followed by links to other debuts that were part of my Thirty Year Thursday (1986) and Forty-Year Friday (1977) series, and a few lists featuring more of my favorite debuts.

 

KISS – KISS (1974)
Before they became world-conquering mega-stars a few years later Kiss was just a straight-ahead rock ‘n roll band from New York with Kabuki-inspired makeup. Their first three albums are all very solid but the debut packs the largest number of songs that became staples of their live shows for the next 40+ years. They get a lot of flak from some music fans for being cartoon characters but those people are missing out on some great tunes.

KEITH RICHARDS – TALK IS CHEAP (1988)
The Rolling Stones were in disarray by the mid-’80s and ceased touring for most of that decade, so their founding guitarist took advantage of that time to step out on his own with a killer set of songs highlighted by his distinct, raspy vocals and those inimitable guitar riffs. This record still sounds fresh more than three decades later, which is not the case with many records from that era. His band of studio pros, The X-Pensive Winos, deserves a lot of credit for that.

LENNY KRAVITZ – LET LOVE RULE (1989)
Kravitz came seemingly out of nowhere with this collection of songs that covers a plethora of genres, from rock to funk to blues to soul to jazz and beyond. His voice was described at the time as a cross between John Lennon & Elvis Costello, which isn’t far off the mark. Most impressive is that he played just about every instrument and made it sound like a kick-ass band.

JUSTIN CURRIE – WHAT IS LOVE FOR (2007)
Scotland’s Del Amitri has been among my favorite bands since I first heard them in 1990, and I’ve probably listened to them more than any other artist over the last three decades. They went on hiatus in the early 2000s so when their lead singer/bassist/chief songwriter released his debut solo album it was cause for celebration. It’s a more introspective singer-songwriter album than anything he did with Del Amitri., which helps to highlight his incredible voice. The song I’m featuring here, “If I Ever Loved You,” has to be one of the all-time greatest post-breakup songs. I wouldn’t want to be the woman on the receiving end of those lyrics.

 

Here are several more debuts I already wrote about in the Thirty Year Thursday and Forty Year Friday series, with links to those posts:
ELVIS COSTELLO – MY AIM IS TRUE
BODEANS – LOVE & HOPE & SEX & DREAMS
CROWDED HOUSE – CROWDED HOUSE
DWIGHT YOAKAM – GUITARS, CADILLACS, ETC., ETC.
LYLE LOVETT – LYLE LOVETT
STEVE EARLE – GUITAR TOWN
BRUCE HORNSBY & THE RANGE – THE WAY IT IS

 

It might seem like I stopped listening to music by the end of the 20th century since the last Satur-debut album with its own post is from 2000, but that’s not the case. It’s just hard for newer albums to make the kind of lasting impact that older ones do. Here are some of my favorite debuts so far from the new millennium:
Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker
Richard Ashcroft – Alone With Everybody
Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast
Beachwood Sparks – Beachwood Sparks
Doves – Lost Souls
The New Pornographers – Mass Romantic
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – B.R.M.C.
Elbow – Asleep In The Back
Pete Yorn – Musicforthemorningafter
The Coral – The Coral
Kathleen Edwards – Failer
The Mars Volta – De-loused In The Comatorium
Joss Stone – The Soul Sessions
Blackfield – Blackfield
Keane – Hopes And Fears
The Zutons – Who Killed… The Zutons
Field Music – Field Music
Pure Reason Revolution – The Dark Third
The Young Knives – Voices Of Animals And Men
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Laura Marling – Alas I Cannot Swim
Steven Wilson – Insurgentes
John Grant – Queen Of Denmark
Rumer – Seasons Of My Soul
Flying Colors – Flying Colors

 

I also mentioned the following artists (in alphabetical order) at the end of the Great Out Of The Gate series as “Honorable Mentions,” since I love all of their debuts. Perhaps one day I’ll resurrect Satur-debut so they can get the spotlights they deserve:
Ambrosia, Badlands, The Bears, Ben Folds Five, Better Than Ezra, John Cale, Eric Clapton, Billy Cobham, Leonard Cohen, Counting Crows, Cream, Melissa Etheridge, Fish, Steve Forbert, Garbage, Richard X. Heyman, Rickie Lee Jones, King’s X, The Knack, Nick Lowe, Paul McCartney, Sarah McLachlan, Men At Work, Oasis, Ozzy Osbourne, The Alan Parsons Project, The Proclaimers, Rainbow, REM, Emitt Rhodes, Solas, Stephen Stills, Suede, Swing Out Sister, George Thorogood & The Destroyers and Vanilla Fudge.

 

Thanks for following along since January 2019. How many favorite debuts do we have in common? Did you discover any new favorites via this series? Most importantly, which debut albums are on YOUR list of all-time favorites?