Inspired by Mixedmedia's excelent "Fully Realised Album" thread (here:
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=112454) I thought we might take a look at a "Best First Album" list.
I'm not making set rules, but for myself, I'd say that it ought to be the first widely available album by a new artist, good as it is, I'd not count Thom Yorke's Eraser, as even though it's his first album as a solo artist, he's made several with pretty much the same group of people as Radiohead.
That said, I do count the first ELO album as fair game, even though they all made earlier records, so I'm already not making sense.
Do what you like.
Here's my stab at a list (based purely on what I have on this PC):
Air: Moon Safari
Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes
Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say
Asia: Asia
Barenaked Ladies: Gordon
The Beatles: With The Beatles
James Blunt: Back To Bedlam
British Sea Power: The Decline of British Sea Power
Buggles: The Age of Plastic
Eric Clapton: Eric Clapton
Counting Crows: August and Everything After
The Darkness: Permission To Land
Dire Straits: Dire Straits
Eagles: Eagles
Fleetwood Mac: Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac
Fun Lovin' Criminals: 100% Colombian
Billy Idol: Billy Idol
Iron Maiden: Iron Maiden
Jean-Michel Jarre: Oxygene
Keane: Hopes and Fears
Levellers: A Weapon Called The Word
Lightning Seeds: Cloudcuckooland
Madness: One Step Beyond
MeatLoaf: Bat out of Hell
Katie Mellua: Call Off The Search
Metallica: Kill 'Em All
The Mission: God's Own Medicine
Alanis Morissette: Jagged Little Pill
Muse: Showbiz
NIN: Pretty Hate Machine
OK Go: OK Go
Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells
Alan Parsons Project: Tales of Mystery and Imagination
Pink Floyd: Piper At The Gates of Dawn
Queen: Queen
Sade: Diamond Life
Sex Pistols: Never Mind...
The Streets: Original Pirate Material
Rick Wakeman: Six Wives of Henry VIII
Yes: Yes
