What’s Your Favorite Track One on a Debut Album?

Whew! Is it just me or has this week felt l o n g? Gonna guess that has something to do with launching Hearing Things on (*checks notes*) Tuesday, and starting to build our ~community~ of amazing subscribers. Seriously: The comments we’ve gotten so far are good as hell—fan-penned reviews in some cases, respectful dissent in others.

In the spirit of encouraging that kind of feedback, and because arguing about music is part of the fun, we’re launching Sound Off: a weekly music question for staffers and subscribers to answer on the boards. It’ll run Fridays in the blog, and the point is that we want to hear from YOU! But in order to do that you have to, you know, be able to comment—which is only for paid members. Doesn’t stop you from scrolling through the responses, though. 

The question this week, as you might have guessed, is all about first songs on debut albums. We’re talking about the kind of opening to a record that sears a hole in your brain and heralds the debut of a future legend. I’ve been mulling my response all week, and I’ve gotta go with Fiona Apple’s “Sleep to Dream,” off her 1996 debut Tidal. She makes my personal musical Mount Rushmore so no big surprise here. The clang of beats sputtering out, then a teenaged Fiona’s first line: “I tell you how I feel but you don’t care.” SHEESH. 

I sang “Sleep to Dream” at karaoke last week and I’m told it killed—Altos for Apple—until one of my friends sat on the remote and accidentally skipped to the next song. Bummer. But it’s given me an excuse to return to “Sleep to Dream” all week, left unfulfilled by never reaching the bridge. I’m constantly amazed by how self-possessed Fiona was from the jump, how all the core elements of her brilliance are present in Tidal (put crudely: the cadence, the flow, the drums, the voice). Even just that line—“I don’t go to sleep to dream”—to be 19 and say, I’m gonna make my dreams come true, I don’t need to imagine them through my subconscious. Or at least that’s how I hear it in the context of Fiona’s career. (Sidenote: My friend Jenn Pelly wrote an incredible piece on “Sleep to Dream” at Pitchfork years ago, I encourage any Fiona fan to read it.)

Anyway, my runners-up to the question at hand include: Weezer’s “My Name Is Jonas,” the Velvet Underground’s “Sunday Morning,” Nine Inch Nails’ “Head Like a Hole,” and “Tennessee” by P.S. Eliot, the early pop-punk project of the Crutchfield sisters (later of Waxahatchee and Swearin’ fame). If you’ve never heard this last one, I highly recommend it!

Now let us know: What’s your favorite opening track on a debut?