Debut Albums

Hard choice, ITCOCK, elp, gentle giant are the best of the ones ive heard but in the end ill give it up to GG. If anyone votes FGTR by genesis ill faint

In The Court Of The Crimson King ... even though Piper At The Gates is a unique document of psychedelic rock ... and recently I've found myself enjoying both the ELP and GG self-titled debuts when both bands seems to be at their least self-conscious (and still made outstanding music!)

I prefer Rush's debut (some good zeppelin-esque tunes), but from the choices I'd say Marillion.

Crimson closely followed by ELP.

Script, ITCOTCK, Piper

I don't care how inconsistent Piper is - it has a unique charm and is madly experimental. It encapsultes not only an era, but also means of self-expression through music that are many-fold and more complex than a casual listen would suggest.

ITCOTCK - speaks for itself, really. Groundbreaking, a landmark - arguably the first prog rock album proper, superlative execution of carefully thought-out and composed music, and varied in style. The only drawback is the production - although even that can be argued to have a nostalgic charm. Like Piper, it does suffer a little from inconsistency.

Script just has it all (apart from the drums, maybe - but nothing's perfect). Driven by Fish's inspirational lyrics and strong melodies, close attention to drama, both lyrically and musically, Script is more convincingly in the progressive rock domain than Piper or ITCOTCK. It both shows and explores possibilites in rock song writing, rather than getting distracted by wierd sojurns into other genres or feeling the need to impress the audience with OTT virtuosity. A clear example of where the music is everything and the show is simply something to highlight the expression of the music rather than the other way around. There are simply no consistency issues with Script - it is a near-perfect unfolding of musical ideas supporting the lyrical events in the life of an archetype.

Freak Out is one of the most remarkable debuts of the last 50 years, though it's not really prog. Gentle Giant's debut was also splendid, though there was much better to come.

Am I the only person who thinks that ITCOTCK is overrated and sounds very dated? I like it, but it's not a patch on what was to come.

Kaztor, what a clever signature pic!

I don't know many of these, but I think Piper is way overrated.

At this time, my favorite debut album is Symphony X...by Symphony X. Yes, the production is bad. Yes, the lead vocalist they had then sounds like a girl. Yet musically, they are much closer to fully-realized than a lot of bands are at that point. I think of that album as a diamond in the rough.

Cluster One wrote: "ITCHYCOCK" and "PATGOD"

Well,I have had an itchy cock for many years now so I don't think I'll ever get to pat God.

ITCHYCOCK.

Pixel Pirate wrote: Cluster One wrote: "ITCHYCOCK" and "PATGOD" Well,I have had an itchy cock for many years now so I don't think I'll ever get to pat God.

I was going to patent that joke but realised it is so obvious that some dope-addled hippy probably beat me to it 35 years ago

No offense Jim Garten BTW