The B-52s, GnR, Pearl Jam, The Strokes are some of the easy calls here - they all made classic debut albums and never approached that same level later on in their careers. Some tougher calls that are debatable would be Bad Brains - I think their debut is legendary, and while they produced other classics later on in their career like I Against I, Quickness, and one of my personal favorites I And I Survived, they never made an album as perfect as the S/T. Also, Godflesh. They never made a bad album and their discography is as close to perfect as any band's. Pure and Hymns are nearly perfect in their own way, but Streetcleaner is on an entirely different level. I realize that they technically released an album before Streetcleaner, but that was pretty much just a demo.
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