Self-Titled Album

Music's way of straddling the line between No Title and In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It, a Self Titled (or "s/t", or "eponymous") Album is a record named after the artist(s) that created it. Often the first album of the band or used for debut albums or albums that mark a change in the band's lineup.

The Other Wiki has a long list of strictly eponymous albums, which won't be repeated here for brevity's sake—the examples below are limited to unusual cases, as delineated in each section.

Examples of Self-Titled Album include:

Multiple self-titled albums from the same artist

• Roberto Carlos has released 58 albums in a career spanning five decades; 35 of them are titled simply Roberto Carlos.
• Bachman-Turner Overdrive's first two albums, Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Bachman-Turner Overdrive II. Eleven years later, the band released another album titled Bachman-Turner Overdrive, without a number.
• The Beatles' self-titled album, almost universally known as the White Album. The compilations released in the 1970s, The Beatles: 1962-1966 and The Beatles: 1967-1970, are usually referred to as the Red Album and the Blue Album.
• Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's first album is self-titled and self-released. Their third album, released after they were picked up by Interscope, is officially titled "Americana Deluxe" per the liner notes, but since the only text on the front cover is the band's name it's often thought to be self-titled as well. (To make matters even more confusing, both the self-titled album and Americana Deluxe contain many of the same songs.)
• Billy Talent's Billy Talent I, Billy Talent II, and Billy Talent III.
• David Bowie has two different self-titled albums; the first is virtually forgotten, and the second is better known by its rerelease title, "Space Oddity." He also has two self-titled albums named after his hard rock band, Tin Machine. And a self-titled song, as seen below.
• Brave Belt's Brave Belt and Brave Belt II. Brave Belt III turned into the aforementioned Bachman-Turner Overdrive debut.
• Hardcore punk and alternative rock band The Bronx have released three albums under that name, each of which has been titled The Bronx. Mariachi el Bronx seems like an exception, but the name given for the artist on this release is, in fact, Mariachi el Bronx, the band's mariachi punk alter ego.
• Cheap Trick's 1977 debut Cheap Trick and the band's 1997 thirteenth album of the same name.
• The entirety of Chicago's discography, with only a few exceptions, in the form of Chicago and a Roman numeral. (The Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago's debut, was also a self-titled release prior to a change of name due to legal trouble with the actual CTA.)
• Duran Duran released two self-titled albums, one in 1981 and another in 1993. The second is often referred to as The Wedding Album due to its wedding-themed cover art.
• Peter Gabriel's first four albums, all literally titled Peter Gabriel—though due to Executive Meddling, the fourth was released in the U.S. as Security. The first three are often listed as "Car," "Scratch," and "Melt," after their album covers.
• The Hollies released an album called Hollies in 1964, and then another with that title in 1974 (after reuniting with original lead singer Allan Clarke). Some sources list the second album as Hollies '74 to avoid confusion, but its official title is simply Hollies.
• Led Zeppelin's first three albums, titled Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II, and Led Zeppelin III. The album usually referred to as Led Zeppelin IV or Zoso (after Jimmy Page's sleeve symbol) actually has No Title given on its sleeve.
• Country Music band The Mavericks released two self-titled albums. One was their first; the other, their last.
• Paul McCartney titled his first solo album McCartney and a solo album released in 1980 McCartney II.
• Tim McGraw's first album was self-titled. He later released an effectively self-titled album in 2001: Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors.
• Queen's first two albums, Queen and Queen II.
• Kenji "Julie" Sawada released two albums called "Julie" and "Julie II," then five more (three of which were live) called "Julie (number) (subtitle)," followed by "Jewel Julie 追憶" before he finally started using proper titles.
• Seal released two consecutive albums named Seal (the second is often called Seal II, since the fourth is Seal IV).
• Played for laughs by Ten Masked Men (hey, they are a death metal group that does covers of pop songs), who inject a Star Wars theme: Ten Masked Men, Ten Masked Men Strike Back, Return of the Ten Masked Men and The Phanten Masked Menace.
• Traveling Wilburys, as Vol. 1 and Vol. 3. There is no Vol. 2—their second album was intentionally mistitled.
  • Put down to 'George [Harrison] being George'.
• The Velvet Underground, both with and without Nico.
• Weezer's color albums ("blue", "green", and "red").
• Starflyer 59's first two albums were officially self-titled, but almost universally referred to as Silver and Gold (after the color of each album's monochromatic cover)--ten years later, these nicknames were used for the rereleased versions.
• Killswitch Engage's debut album and their latest as of 2010, both featuring a different vocalist.
• Crystal Castles' 2008 debut LP and 2010 sophomore album (dubbed Crystal Castles II by fans).
• Doctor Steel's albums Dr. Steel, Dr. Steel II: Eclectic Boogaloo, The Dr. Steel Collection and the Dr. Steel Read-A-Long. (Also extends to his video series, The Dr. Steel Show. And his songs, Dr. Steel and The Dr. Steel Show.)
• The Spits, a punk band, have released four full-length LPs all entitled "The Spits" (although the fourth one is unofficially titled "Volume 4"). One theory says that they're all one album that they just can't stop writing.
• Franz Ferdinand planned to do this, with each album being distinguished by its cover (especially the colour schemes) rather than its name. However, when the time came to actually title the second album, they ended up deciding that You Could Have It So Much Better was...well...so much better. On the other hand, YCHISMB doesn't have the title of the album anywhere on the cover; instead, it has Alexander Rodchenko's famous photo of Lilya Brik with the band name written on it.
• Fleetwood Mac had two eponymous albums, one in 1968 (the true debut album) and one in 1975 (the first album with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks).
• Kraftwerk's first album was self-titled, and its second album was simply titled Kraftwerk 2 (with artwork nearly identical to the first).
• Tokyo Blade's debut album and one of their compilations were self-titled. Their fourth album Ain't Misbehavin' was reissued as a self-titled album at one point .
• Red House Painters released two in the same year. The two albums were later retitled based on their artwork (Rollercoaster and Bridge). This is one of those few times the band was actually deliberately trying to confuse people.
• Leatherwolf's debut EP and first two albums were all self-titled. The EP and the first album even shared the same cover art.
• Van Halen has Van Halen, Van Halen II and Van Halen III (which is fact their eleventh, but marks the third formation/singer).
• Killing Joke has two self-titled albums: Their 1980 debut and a 2003 album.
• After several nearly-eponymous albums including Earth Vs The Wildhearts and The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed, their 2007 self-titled album was their fifth or sixth (depending how you count during 1994-96), but marked a reformation, a new line-up and a partial return towards what most fans regard as their classic sound.
• Contrarian indie band Ro C's debut was self-titled; they reportedly wanted their second album (and major-label debut) to be self-titled as well, but when this was refused, they named it after their record label instead, Virgin.
• Orbital's debut was named Orbital, and its followup was named Orbital 2. They're generally referred to instead as Green Album and Brown Album, respectively.
• Days Of The New have three albums, all of which are self-titled. Fans usually differentiate the albums by the color of the disc itself (Yellow, Green, and Red) or by release order (I, II, and III). Their long-awaited fourth album is going to break the pattern by only being nearly-eponymous: the title has been announced as Days of the New Presents Tree Colors.
• Thalía has three self-titled albums: her 1990 debut, then two consecutive albums in 2002 and 2003. The 2003 album is commonly known as The English Album since it was her only LP predominantly in English.
• Kylie Minogue has two, her Debut and her fifth album
• Eric Carmen has two of these: The first one, released in 1975 and the last one, in 1984 (at least for sixteen years, until he released a new studio album in 2000). Both are titled simply "Eric Carmen".

Nearly-eponymous albums

• The Aquabats! have The Return of the Aquabats (which was actually their first album), The Fury of the Aquabats!, and The Aquabats! vs the Floating Eye of Death
• Average White Band's AWB, based on the official abbreviation of the band's name.
• The Beach Boys' The Beach Boys Today! and Beach Boys' Party!
• The Beatles' With The Beatles and Beatles for Sale. Many of the band's American releases also included the word Beatles in the title, including Meet the Beatles, Beatles VI, and Beatles '65.
  • Some Wings albums include "Wings" in their true title—most notably Wings at the Speed of Sound and Wings Over America. This also makes Wings Greatest an awkward compilation to talk about.
• Mary J. Blige's Mary.
• Buffalo Springfield's self-titled debut was followed by Buffalo Springfield Again.
• Cream's Fresh Cream.
• Terence Trent D'Arby's Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby.
• Deep Purple's Shades of Deep Purple and Deep Purple in Rock.
• Devo has Three: "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!" "Oh, No! It's Devo" and "Total Devo"
• Bob Dylan's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and Another Side of Bob Dylan, which followed a proper self-titled release.
  • There was also a release in the 1970s called Dylan, but the artist has officially disavowed that one.
• Missy Elliot's Miss E...So Addictive
• Aretha Franklin has released three albums titled Aretha over the course of her career. Then there's Aretha Arrives, Aretha Now, Aretha in Paris...
• Delta Goodrem 's Delta.
• Heavenly released four albums, all titled like this: Heavenly vs Satan, Le Jardin de Heavenly, The Decline and Fall of Heavenly and Operation Heavenly. For good measure, they also had a compilation called This is Heavenly.
• Whitney Houston's Whitney (which followed Whitney Houston)
• Janet Jackson's janet.
• Britney Spears "Britney"
• The Kinks' Kinda Kinks, The Kink Kontroversy, Something Else by the Kinks, and The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society. Also their kompilation album The Kink Kronikles.
• KMFDM's twelfth album is officialy known as Symbols), however some people simply call it "KMFDM".
• The Knack's Get The Knack.
• Kyuss' Welcome to Sky Valley is actually a self titled album, as is Trouble's Psalm 9.
• Lady Macbeth's debut EP, simply entitled The Lady Macbeth EP
• Madvillain's Madvillainy.
• Monty Python's Another Monty Python Record, Monty Python's Previous Record,
• Eddie Murphy's Eddie Murphy: Comedian
• The O.C. Supertones had Adventures of the O.C. Supertones, Supertones Strike Back, and Revenge of the O.C. Supertones.
• POD's Payable on Death.
• Prince and the New Power Generation's 1992 album, whose title was this wacky symbol thingy that Prince later used as a name for a while.
• The Rolling Stones' The Rolling Stones, Now!
• The Sex Pistols' Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols.
• Paul Simon's There Goes Rhymin' Simon.
• The Spice Girls' Spice. Their second album was Spiceworld.
• George Strait played with this a bit on some of his early albums, some of which were puns on his last name (e.g. Strait from the Heart). Strangely, he did not release a truly self-titled album until 2001... and it was his worst-selling and -performing.
• The Who's The Who Sing My Generation, Ready Steady Who, The Who Sell Out, Who's Next, The Who By Numbers, Who Are You, and Who's Last.
• Wilco's Wilco (The Album).
• "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D
• Yes's Yessongs and The Yes Album. Both came after their first album, Yes, which is completely different.
• Many artists have released albums titled The (name of artist) Album.
• Bobby Brown's Bobby
• Jill Scott's Who is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1
• Macy Gray's Macy Gray On How Life Is
• The Vaccines' What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?
• Evanescence third album is self titled.
• Wavves have one self-titled album and one album that's so "nearly-eponymous" that it might as well be self-titled: the debut is Wavves, while the second album is Wavvves (yes, with three v's this time). To further the confusion, both albums have Textless Album Covers with different pictures of the same kid skateboarding in a backyard.
• Sparks' Introducing Sparks. Which, despite the title, was their seventh album.
• Phantom Planet's Phantom Planet Is Missing. They also have a just plain Self-Titled Album.
• The Rentals' Return Of The Rentals (though the title implies otherwise, it's their first release)

Self-titled albums with self-titled songs

• "Angel Witch", Angel Witch, Angel Witch.
• "Bad Company", Bad Company, Bad Company.
• "Bang Camaro", Bang Camaro, Bang Camaro.
  • Lyrics: "Bang! Camarooooooo..." (repeats)
• "Black Sabbath", etc., etc.
• Averted by Blue Oyster Cult, whose self-titled song was not on their self-titled album, and was actually a retitling of their earlier song "Astronomy".
• "Carolina Rain", etc., etc.
• "Electric Wizard", etc., etc.
• "Star Trek: First Contact", First Contact Soundtrack, #10: First Contact.
• "The Grave Digger", so on and so forth.
• "Hellyeah", Hellyeah, Hellyeah...HELL YEAH!
• "Iced Earth"... you know the drill.
• "Iron Maiden".
• "Iron Savior"
• Barely averted by King Crimson, with "The Court of the Crimson King" from In the Court of the Crimson King.
  • King Crimson did this twice, actually. In 1981, having just changed their name back from "Discipline" to "King Crimson", they put out the album "Discipline" containing the tracks "Discipline" and "Indiscipline".
• "Living In A Box".
• "Motorhead".
• For a particularly hellish example, "The Good, The Bad, And The Queen". According to the band's frontman, Damon Albarn, the band was nameless and TGTB&TQ was just the title of the album, but everyone ended up calling the band by the album's name for the sake of sanity.
• "Wilco (The Song)", Wilco, Wilco (The Album).
• "Buena Vista Social Club"... rinse and repeat.
• Hey, Hey! The Monkees, The Monkees, (Theme From) The Monkees.
• Double slightly averted? Slightly double averted? "Killer Queen" from Sheer Heart Attack, as well as "White Queen" and "March Of The Black Queen" from "Queen II".
• Eisbrecher did this as well.
• "Theocracy", on Theocracy, by Theocracy.
• "Wavves", from the album "Wavves", by the bedroom-musician-turned-noise-rock-band Wavves.
• "Megasus", on the album Megasus, by the band Megasus.
• "Metal Church", by the band Metal Church, on their debut album, Metal Church.
• Great Big Sea's debut album was Great Big Sea, and it's first track was Great Big Sea/Gone By the Board
• The School of Rock soundtrack has a song called "School of Rock" by School of Rock.
• Amesoeurs, from the album Amesoeurs, by the now broken up French shoegaze-black metal band Amesoeurs.
  • Similarly, from the same album is "I XIII V XIX XV V XXI XVIII XIX – IX XIX – IV V I IV". When letters are substituted in place of the numbers, this translates to "AMESOEURS IS DEAD".
• Big Time Rush, although technically the album is titled BTR.
• Queensrÿche come close with the song Queen of the Reich on their first, self-titled, EP. ("Rÿche" isn't a real word in any language, but is pronounced roughly the same as the German "reich".)
• "Tin Machine", Tin Machine, Tin Machine
• "Damn Yankees," "Damn Yankees", "Damn Yankees"
• Witchfinder General, etc., etc.
• Train
• "Everything Else" by Everything Else off of the album Everything Else.
• "Meat Puppets", Meat Puppets, Meat Puppets.

Other

• Karp have an album that is actually titled Self-Titled LP.
• They Might Be Giants have a self-titled album, and a self-titled song on a different album (Flood). They also have a b-side compilation called Miscellaneous T, named after the section their music is usually shelved in at record stores.
• Zao has an album named [Self Titled].
• Queen Latifah released a Cover Album entitled The Dana Owens Album. Dana Owens is her real name.
• R.E.M. has a compilation album called Eponymous.
• The Living End has a song called "The Living End" on their first EP (Hellbound). Their first album was self-titled.
• Lampshaded by rap artist Lifeseeker (he did the theme song for the convicts in Dead Rising) with his debut album Self Titled Debut Album.
• Eminem's The Slim Shady LP, The Marshall Mathers LP, and The Eminem Show.
• Not sure if this counts, but Filter has an album called "Title of Record".
• Manowar have a self-titled song on their debut album, Battle Hymns.
• Likewise, Blitzkrieg's self-titled song appears on A Time of Changes.
  • Sledgehammer, another NWOBHM band, did this with their Blood on Their Hands album.
• Queen's song "Sheer Heart Attack" was not completed at the time that the album of the same name was released. It was eventually included three years later on "News Of The World".
• The Advantage have an album with the Pun-Based Title Elf-Titled.
• Black Sabbath released the album Heaven And Hell with Ronnie James Dio on vocals. In Later years, a lineup similar to what is on the album toured and released an album under the band name "Heaven And Hell". Additionally Black Sabbath albums including "Heaven And Hell" have been included in the "Heaven And Hell" discography making this retroactively a Self-Titled Album.
• The Tragically Hip made fun of this concept with the Greatest Hits album Hipeponymous.
• Aphex Twin has the Richard D. James Album, which is titled after his real name.
• Mindless Self Indulgence frontman Jimmy Urine released a solo album titled "Mindless Self Indulgence" a few years before the actual band was formed; it's now something of a sought-out item among fans, and copies sell for hundreds of dollars on eBay.