Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Best Debut Albums of All Time"

Rolling Stone magazine recently released their picks for the 100 best debut albums.  But before they even get to the list itself, they're making excuses for the selection process.  From the magazine's website:

It was fifty years ago that the Beatles’ released their first album, Please Please Me. In honor of that world-changing LP, we’ve compiled a list of the 100 Greatest Debut Albums of All Time. A note on how we made the list: Albums got docked points if the artist went on to far greater achievements (which is why Please, Please Me and Greetings from Asbury Park, great as they are, didn't made the top ten); conversely, we gave a little extra recognition to great debut albums that the artist never matched (hello, Is This It and Illmatic!). We also skipped solo debuts by artists who were already in well-known bands, which is why you won’t see John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band or Paul Simon. We focused, instead, on debuts that gave you the thrill of an act arriving fully-formed, ready to reinvent the world in its own image.

Let's see which of these 100 albums were released during my favorite decade.  If the time span is the past five decades, 1976-85 is very well-represented with 32 entries.

#	Artist	Title	Year	Label
98	Joe Jackson	Look Sharp!	1979	A&M
96	Madonna	Madonna	1983	Sire
89	Yaz	Upstairs at Eric's	1982	Mute
84	Whitney Houston	Whitney Houston	1985	Arista
81	Gang of Four	Entertainment!	1979	WB

76	Devo	Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!	1978	WB
75	The Go-Go's	Beauty and the Beat	1981	IRS
69	Wire	Wire	1977	Harvest
68	Talking Heads	Talking Heads: 77	1977	Sire
64	The English Beat	I Just Can't Stop It	1980	IRS
63	Cyndi Lauper	She's So Unusual	1983	Epic
54	Metallica	Kill 'Em All	1983	Elektra
52	U2	Boy	1980	Island
51	The Smiths	The Smiths	1984	Sire

50	X	Los Angeles	1980	Slash
48	Modern Lovers	Modern Lovers	1976	Beserkley
45	The Jesus & Mary Chain	Psychocandy	1985	Reprise
41	Boston	Boston	1976	Epic
40	Television	Marquee Moon	1977	Elektra
38	The Police	Outlandos d'Amour	1978	A&M
28	The B-52's	The B-52's	1979	WB

27	Van Halen	Van Halen	1978	WB
26	Run-D.M.C.	Run-D.M.C.	1984	Arista
22	Violent Femmes	Violent Femmes	1983	Slash
21	Elvis Costello	My Aim is True	1977	Columbia
20	Joy Division	Unknown Pleasures	1979	Factory
18	R.E.M.	Murmur	1983	IRS
16	The Cars	The Cars	1978	Elektra
13	Pretenders	Pretenders	1980	Sire

12	The Clash	The Clash	1979	Epic
7	The Sex Pistols	Never Mind the Bollocks	1977	WB
2	The Ramones	The Ramones	1976	Sire

As usual for a list of this nature, the results range from expected (The Sex Pistols at #7) to inspired (X at #50) to confusing (Joe Jackson too low at #98) to downright bewildering (what's Cyndi Lauper doing on this list?).  With my listening biases, I might have at least considered other great debut albums such as The Lexicon of Love by ABC, Asia, and New Order but no matter. I haven't heard all these albums (Wire and Television weren't exactly on my radar in 1977) but hope to rectify that oversight in the near future.