10 Legendary Music Artists That Never Got Better Than Their Debut Record

Some bands really know how to make a first impression on the first album. In just one listening experience, these guys were able to take everything that made them legends and put them into one amazing package that seemed almost impossible. If you were to ask them to do it again though, it's not going to be that easy.

For as amazing as some of these albums were back in the day, none of these bands were able to really reach these kind of heights ever again, always being in the shadow of what they had done before. Does that mean that every single album that they released after has been trash? Hell no.

If anything, having your best album be your first gives you a lot of room to expand your sound and toy with musical styles that you may have been too afraid to take on when you were at the top. Although the later records might have been amazing for what they were, that doesn't even come close to measuring up to the perfection that happened the first time around. Whether it was just the magic in the room at the time or whatever, it's time to take a look at what happened with these bands. How did they manage to make that big an impression, and where did they end up once everything fizzled out?

Most of the magic that comes with being garage rock is the spur of the moment music that happens whenever you play. Nothing is ever going to sound the same way twice, so you may as well give your all to every single song that you're going to play. When that had to translate to the studio though, the MC5 seemed to not bring that trademark spark along with them.

Granted, that's not to say that everything that the MC5 worked on in the studio was bad by any stretch. Across their discography, you can have a listen to the old school rock and roll band that they wanted to be, taking the sounds of Little Richard and injecting them with musical steroids to sound absolutely massive. Once you have a listen to their debut live album Kick Out the Jams though, it's like night and day trying to go back into the studio.

This was always a band that fed off of their live show, and the energy that they bring throughout their entire performance is a lot more visceral than what they could have produced when they only had the audience behind the mixing board. Then again, the most important instrument here might be the audience, as the band fed off of their energy throughout their live album and never let up for even a second. Although you could argue that this album was a lot more sloppy than what they turned in at the studio, somewhere in that sloppiness was also the magic behind the group.