10 Awesome Rock Bands With Terrible Debut Albums

10. Styx - Styx

It's pretty much par for the course for every music critic to have a bone to pick with Styx. Though they may have been able to stretch a little more and define the mainstream side of rock and roll for a generation of rock fans, there was always something about Dennis DeYoung's approach to songwriting that always rubbed critics the wrong way. And on their first album, it's not like those critics didn't at least have a point.

On their first outing, Styx's self titled just feels more confused than anything else, with pop songs sandwiched between some more ambitious stuff that often goes nowhere. Compared to the sounds that they would be making later down the line on stuff like the Grand Illusion, hearing Dennis DeYoung tear through an arrangement of Movement for the Common Man comes off more like he wants to flex his musical chops than actually write a song.

For the dyed in the wool Styx fans though, this is still one of the more forgettable releases of the group's career, especially since the rock and roll spirit of Tommy Shaw isn't even a part of the band yet. There is the makings of a good band in here somewhere, but they had a lot of growing up to do from this wannabe version of Yes or Genesis.