Continuing my list of best debut albums (with quite a few caveats)…
Hootie and the Blowfish – Cracked Rear View (1994)
I couldn’t resist listing the best-selling debut album in U.S. history, especially when it’s one I really loved back in the day. I haven’t returned to Hootie and the Blowfish’s Cracked Rear View much since my early 20s, but it has the same comfortable power when I do.
This album received a modest rollout, aimed at boosting the profile of a hard-working bar band. It ended up catching fire, selling more than 20 million copies in the U.S. alone, buoyed by the top ten hits ‘Hold Her Hand,’ ‘Let Her Cry,’ and ‘Only Wanna Be with You.’
The critics were less kind, calling the band safe and boring. Only many years later was this album reassessed and given credit for the rootsy soul of its sturdy songs, and particularly the richness of Darius Rucker’s vocals.
Critics and music snobs are often allergic to earnestness. Cracked Rear View is, more than anything, an earnest album… a collection of sincere love songs and wide-eyed observations about a world gone wrong, all set to catchy heartland rock music. If it’s a formula, it’s not an easy one — otherwise, plenty of well-meaning bands would have one of the most successful albums in history.
Rucker and company were the right band at the right time, tapping into something elemental and serving up a song cycle that still works like magic.
Tomorrow used to be a day away
Now love is gone and you’re into someone far away
I never thought the day would come
When I would see his hand, not mine
Holding on to yours because I could not find the time
[Chorus]
And now I can’t deny “nothing lasts forever”
But I don’t wanna leave and see the teardrops in your eyes
I don’t wanna live to see the day we say goodbye
[Verse 2]
Now there comes another part of life I call “alone”
Sitting at a bar with Chris that I can’t leave
‘Cause my house ain’t no home, no
I just wanna touch you, girl, I wanna feel you close to me
Without your love, I would give up now and walk away so easily
[Chorus]
So, maybe, while we’re young, we’ll figure out together
That, even with the pain, there’s a remedy and we’ll be alright
I don’t want to live to see the day we say goodbye, oh
[Bridge]
When I first met you, I couldn’t love anyone
Oh, but you stole my dreams and you made me see
That I can walk into the sun and I can still be me
[Outro]
And now I can’t deny “nothing lasts forever”
But I don’t wanna leave and see the teardrops in your eyes
So, maybe, while we’re young, let’s figure out together
That, even with the pain, there’s a remedy and, oh, we’ll be alright
I don’t want to live to see the day we say goodbye
We say goodbye
Oh, goodbye
Goodbye
Meet Me In Montauk 
And gave long suffering Fins fans one of the best commiserating lines of all time – “I’m such a baby, yeah the Dolphins make me cry”
I loved this album and had no idea their origin story. Not sure how I got my music news pre-internet. Just remember hearing and loving the songs, getting the CD and listening to it all the time, and, eventually thinking Darius was friends with Dan Marino caused he showed up in a music video. Cool that they were a “bar band.” Wonder where they played!