Yeah, attributing Illmatic to the Beasties was a typo; corrected.
There's a strong subjective component to music, so while I understand that sales may not equal quality, how else do you equalize for personal tastes/preference? Surfer Rosa is a good album and a strong debut, but it's become stronger with time than when it debuted. Every album I listed had more critical acclaim and commercial success than Surfer Rosa.
Oasis is most certainly not an error; Definitely Maybe is a fantastic pop/rock album and holds up well today. For that matter, What's the Story, the MTV Unplugged Show, and Live at Knebworth are all fantastic as well. Oasis made some excellent music in their prime.
To me that’s makes Surfer Rosa even better as a debut, it was so under appreciated at first. The fact that it hasn’t disappeared into the void of irrelevant history, despite abysmal initial sales says a lot. Sales figures are really affected by promotion budgets, maybe more then by quality of music. I mean Michael Bolton and Richard Marks sold a ton of records.
I just can’t stand Oasis.