Best British Album Debut - Progressive Rock Music Forum

National Health's debut has my personal preference, although ELP's debut is certainly excellent as well and KC's and Hatfield's first albums are also up there for me.

KC, followed closely by Camel.

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It's good to see National Health have already picked up three votes. They were a last minute inclusion in the poll after I reviewed their first album earlier this week.

hatfield

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Mirakaze wrote:

Psychedelic Paul wrote:

Blacksword wrote:

I've not heard them all, but of those I know, ELP is my favourite debut, closely followed by The Enid, Moody Blues and KC fairly equally.

I think the Moody Blues had an album out before DOFP though. DOFP is their debut album, in the same way that Trespass is the Genesis debut.

I was conveniently ignoring the fact that "Days of Future Passed" isn't the Moody Blues debut album just so I could vote for it. I know they released an album titled "The Magnificent Moodies" back in 1965, but "Days of Future Passed" was the first proggy album with the classic line-up.

Sorry for the nitpick but that's cheating a bit. By that logic, From Genesis To Revelation also shouldn't be on the list because it's in a style that's not prog and which the band never pursued again afterwards. Or what about Renaissance's debut, which didn't involve a single person from the band's "classic" line-up?

Yes, it is cheating a bit, admittedly, but the difference is that Genesis had virtually the same line-up for the first and second album - apart from the drummer - and I really like Genesis' first album too - and it was also quite proggy, unlike The Magnificent Moodies album, which wasn't proggy at all.

Edited by Psychedelic Paul - January 23 2020 at 16:08

I suggested Shocking Blue for inclusion in Prog-Archives recently in the Proto-Prog category, but they were rejected because they weren't considered proggy enough.

First ELP album for me. Not a bad track on it and no song with two good minutes then ten minutes of noodling. Wink

Snicolette wrote:

Wasn't The Moody Blues debut "The Magnificent Moodies?"

Yes it was. Many people erroneously believe(and consider) DoFP to be their first. I feel that if that's the case then we could consider Trespass the first Genesis and TYA the first Yes. I voted for ELP anyway. :P As great as DoFP is(imo)it isn't, like you pointed out, their first album.

It's kind of funny you mentioned them too because I was just looking up information on them about ten seconds before reading this having listened to one of their live albums(a later one)in my car earlier today.

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - January 23 2020 at 18:55

I'm voting for ITCOTCK because it is so stunning, and was so different. After that, would be ELP for me, although, as stated, I love so much of the music here.

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AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

Snicolette wrote:

Wasn't The Moody Blues debut "The Magnificent Moodies?"

Yes it was. Many people erroneously believe(and consider) DoFP to be their first. I feel that if that's the case then we could consider Trespass the first Genesis and TYA the first Yes. I voted for ELP anyway. :P As great as DoFP is(imo)it isn't, like you pointed out, their first album.

It's kind of funny you mentioned them too because I was just looking up information on them about ten seconds before reading this having listened to one of their live albums(a later one)in my car earlier today.

To be honest, the Moody Blues as configured prior to Days of Future Passed featured Denny Laine as the lead singer and Clint Warwick as the bassist. It was Merseybeat in musical delivery and 8 of the 12 songs on The Magnificent Moodies were written by other artists. Their output was primarily singles and lasted through 1964-66.

When Laine and Warwick exited and Justin Hayward and John Lodge took their places, there was a profound and tidal shift in the music. DoFP and every album thereafter was composed and written by the band members (Hayward, Lodge, Thomas and Pinder, for the most part, with occasional poetic interludes supplied by Graeme Edge). Pinder picked up a mellotron in early 1967, and the band consciously abandoned their Merseybeat/R&B leanings.

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Poll Question: Which British Prog band had the best debut album?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery & Imagination (1976)	1	[1.05%]
Barclay James Harvest - Barclay James Harvest (1970)	0	[0.00%]
Camel - Camel (1973)	2	[2.11%]
Caravan - Caravan (1968)	1	[1.05%]
Curved Air - Air Conditioning (1970)	2	[2.11%]
Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1970)	15	[15.79%]
The Enid - In the Region of the Summer Stars (1976)	0	[0.00%]
Family - Music in a Doll's House (1968)	2	[2.11%]
Genesis - From Genesis to Revelation (1969)	1	[1.05%]
Gentle Giant - Gentle Giant (1970)	9	[9.47%]
Hatfield & the North - Hatfield & the North (1974)	2	[2.11%]
Hawkwind - Hawkwind (1970)	1	[1.05%]
Jade Warrior - Jade Warrior (1971)	1	[1.05%]
Jethro Tull - This Was (1968)	1	[1.05%]
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)	35	[36.84%]
Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed (1967)	6	[6.32%]
National Health - National Health (1978)	5	[5.26%]
Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)	7	[7.37%]
Procol Harum - Procol Harum (1967)	1	[1.05%]
Renaissance - Renaissance (1969)	1	[1.05%]
Spooky Tooth - It's All About (1968)	0	[0.00%]
Traffic - Mr. Fantasy (1967)	1	[1.05%]
Van der Graaf Generator - The Aerosol Grey Machine (1969)	0	[0.00%]
Wishbone Ash - Wishbone Ash (1970)	0	[0.00%]
Yes - Yes (1969)	1	[1.05%]
You can not vote in this poll