Music

I think one of the main reasons an artist’s earliest albums are often their best is because those albums have hunger at their core. You can’t fake a sincere sense of hunger from the soul. And the more successful you become, the harder it is to maintain that kind of hunger. Success is like food. It’s satiating. The artist becomes satisfied. Not completely, but moreso than they were before. They become comfortable. They have something to lose. Expectations to meet. It is hard for the art to be as pure as it was before. For the creation to be as unadulterated. The artist is creating for an audience, where there was none before. They were their own only audience. That’s why I love the early albums. The artist before they made it.

Good point, I agree in general.

Another overlooked aspect of early albums, particularly successful debut albums, is that the artist probably developed those songs over at least a couple years. Whereas subsequent albums, once they have a record deal, will usually come out in 1-2 year increments and the work is getting filtered through A&R and label reps. Guess that’s pretty closely related to your point.