Horses is a top shoutThese are all great choices (although I'm less familiar with the Cowboy Junkies one than the others).
I was also going to put forward if you ignore mini albums and go for debut full length then Surfer Rosa may take the prize. Another band around the same time where you can do the same thing and ignore two early mini albums, is My Bloody Valentine with Isn't Anything.
but god, yeah Patti Smith's Horses. Opening with the line "Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine" can't really be topped.
Three debut albums not mentioned yet but should be are The Smiths eponymous (forget about what Morrisey later became), Portishead eponymous and Tricky with Maxinquaye.
It is a great album - more like most bands 3rd or 4th album when they’ve evolved and matured as songwritersAppetite for Destruction was quite a statement of intent.
Yes I tend to agree there are some better first albums but none other had such an impactI was tempted by this but more in terms of it's historical context (the birth of the biggest and most influential band of all time). And whilst it's a pretty good album and has some very good songs on it, I wouldn't rank it that highly by their standards, maybe like their 7th or 8th best album?
Good point ^Yes I tend to agree there are some better first albums but none other had such an impact