10 Hard Rock Bands Never Better Than Their First Album
Starting off with a bang.
There's a certain amount of sting that comes with being a one-hit wonder. While it's always great to have your time in the spotlight, you get painted into a corner and often have to live in the shadow of your biggest hit. It's never an easy career path, but it can end up working with albums as well.
Every so often in hard rock, an album will come along that is so complete that the artists seem to be pointing towards the future of rock. Rather than let these artists build a career path for themselves, many times the fans are left dissatisfied that the band haven't wowed them the same way that they did on their debut. It often gets so frustrating for bands that they more or less end up repeating the formula of their first album in hopes that they'll receive the same adulation that they got in their prime.
Does that mean everything else these bands created is bad? No, far from it. While some of these bands have released several great records, their debut still remains the definitive moment in their catalog. Success is rarely a bad thing in the rock world, but when your first try is this good, it can also be a double-edged sword.
10. Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd Skynyrd are the definitive Southern rock band. Whenever you turn on any of the band's hits, it immediately transports you to a wide open field in the middle of the South, where it was equally as laid-back as it was dangerous. When talking about the band's best work, it all comes down to their sort-of self-titled album Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd.
While the band admittedly had many hits after this album like the anthem "Sweet Home Alabama," this concentrated blast of energy shows you everything you need to know about what made them so great. Across eight tracks, you get some of the band's greatest ballads like "Simple Man" and "Tuesday's Gone," while being balanced out with the immortal guitar jam "Free Bird" on the back half.
Even for those not suited for the latter's 9 minute slog, tracks like "Gimme Three Steps" get right to the point, as the band pump out a tune that is one part bluesy rocker and another part drunken sing-along. Some of the songs that Skynyrd made after this may have been heavier or more thoughtful, but in terms of raw power, their first record really is the perfect package. It's probably not something you'd revisit every day, but whenever you're in the mood for good Southern boogie, nothing hits the spot better.