Early Installment Weirdness/Music


 * Sabaton now sings almost entirely about historical battles, but didn't settle on this until Primo Victoria. This can lead to a lot of What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?, as the style's more or less the same, but you're hearing about the exploits of a random biker gang instead of, for instance, the battle of Wizna.
 * The songs recorded in the mid-1970s by ACDC, arguably the biggest rock band on the planet today, sounded very different from their later hits; this was primarily because they weren't quite taking themselves seriously yet, and mostly preferred crude novelty songs. And the band that was the spiritual forerunner of AC/DC - the British Invasion one-hit wonder The Easybeats - hardly sounds like AC/DC at all.
 * Probably because that was with their original singer, Bon Scott, who died in 1980.
 * The major influence in their shift was when they hired Mutt Lange as their producer, starting with their Highway to Hell album, the last one with Bon. You can clearly tell it sounds much more like their next few albums than ever before.
 * Radiohead's whose first album, Pablo Honey, is cited as not being weird enough and is a fairly standard alt-rock album. They grew much more ambitious with their next album, The Bends, before becoming the wonderfully weird band we know and love with OK Computer onwards.
 * Listen to the first works of Pantera that came out in the early 1980's, then listen to anything from/after Cowboys from Hell. The difference can be... staggering.
 * If you believe Pantera's official website, their first release was Cowboys from Hell. Their early works aren't even listed.
 * This happens often in Country Music:
 * Shania Twain's first album was good, if unremarkable, mid-1990s mainstream country. Her second album, The Woman in Me, paired her up with rock producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, and she developed (for better or worse) the slick crossover sound she's forever known for.
 * Conway Twitty was a rock/pop singer in his early days. It wasn't until the mid-1960s that he switched to country and became known for his sultry, romantic ballads.
 * Sara Evans and Martina McBride both had a very neo-traditionalist sound on their respective debut albums. Both ladies pursued a more country-pop oriented sound on their far more successful second albums, and gradually pushed in more pop-oriented directions for the most part.
 * Before Big & Rich was founded, members Big Kenny and John Rich cut solo albums (which went unreleased until 2005). Although Big & Rich's music was a bizarre yet appealing country/rock/rap mashup, Big Kenny's solo album was psychedelic rock mixed with synthpop and John Rich's was unflinchingly bland late-nineties radio fodder.
 * Keith Whitley was also rather mainstream country-pop until 1988's Don't Close Your Eyes and 1989's I Wonder Do You Think of Me, which pushed him to a hardcore honky-tonk sound. Unfortunately, he died in late 1989.
 * Similarly, listen to Vince Gill's 1980s work on RCA Records versus his 1990s and 2000s material for MCA Records. The RCA material reverberates the hell out of his voice and throws it up against walls of keyboards (par for the course in the 1980s), while the MCA material shows him exploring mainstream country, traditional country and bluegrass with equal skill.
 * Kenny Chesney is another pretty extreme example. In the 1990s, his material was barely discernible from any other young hunk in a cowboy hat, and he had a heavy twang. By the end of the decade, he started to lean a little more pop and his voice lost some of its nasality. He now sings without the slightest hint of twang, and alternates between arena rock, Jimmy Buffett-esque beach country, and slow, acoustic numbers such as "You and Tequila".
 * Rascal Flatts sounded very much like a boy band on their first album, particularly on "Prayin' for Daylight" and "This Everyday Love". This basically meant catchy hooky choruses, breezy high-voiced harmonies, and none of the band members playing instruments. By the time the second album came out, they shifted to a more country-pop sound, replete with two of the band members playing their own instruments (lead singer Gary LeVox doesn't play anything) and slightly more substantial songs.
 * Long-lasting British band Status Quo started out in the late 1960s as a psychedelic/prog rock band (during this time, they had their one American hit, "Pictures of Matchstick Men"), before switching in the early 1970s to the guitar boogie style they've maintained ever since. This is parodied by the very un-metal early songs of Spinal Tap.
 * CDR's 1999 debut was written and released before he had decided on a distinct sound. It's longer and more eclectic than much of his output, yet you'd be hard-pressed to draw a link between it and his later works.
 * The 1982 self-titled debut EP by the band Swans is vaguely creepy, saxophone-laced Post Punk with a pronounced No Wave influence; their first LP, 1983's Filth, is far harsher, not unlike some sort of primitive hybrid of Industrial and Hardcore Punk. It is also far more unsettling. And then there's their second LP, 1984's Cop. "Brutal" does not begin to describe it.
 * To simplify, the relative rock "hardness" of the band's sound increased from a 5 to a hard 10 in less than two years.
 * Listen to Korn's first album. Then listen to every single other one. Sure, it's all Nu-metal, but none of their work sounds as angry and raw as their first album.
 * One could argue that The Beatles were an example of this. Their first three albums were pure boy band pop music, meanwhile it wasn't until Beatles for Sale that they started to find their artistic footing. However it is argued that they didn't completely go from the Fab Four to artists until Revolver, which included much more experimental songs.
 * It's insane that "I Am The Walrus" came out only three years after A Hard Day's Night.
 * Celtic Woman's first concert focused much more on the solo artists, which makes sense - it was originally intended to be a one-off event at the Helix in Dublin, bringing together five of the biggest names in Irish music. The concert sparked a tour, Celtic Woman exploded onto the World Music scene, and by A New Journey the five artists - and the production team - had gelled into an organic, coherent whole. From A New Journey onward the performances were a pretty solid mix of duets/trios/group numbers and solo numbers, with each of the girls generally having one or two solo songs in the concert, and Celtic Woman had matured into its current form.
 * The Residents. Their earliest known works were remarkably less coherent than their more recent output.
 * Merzbow, of all people. His earlier stuff put far more emphasis on avant-garde than it did noise. For example, compare Merzbient (a box set of twentysomething-year-old recordings on CD) with the more recent (2009-2010) 13 Japanese Birds series.
 * Slipknot. Seriously, Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. bordered on Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly. It's considerably less cohesive than their current works.
 * It gets weirder. The original vocalist, Anders Colsefini, had an entirely different style than Taylor that was more akin to the late Peter Steele of Type O Negative, meets Kirk Windstein of Crowbar, with a dash of James Hetfield. The album also contains more than a few references to The World of Darkness series; the eponymous Slipknot (an early version of (sic)) being the most glaring example. And finally, to say it bordered on Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly, is a gross understatement as the album had jarring elements of glam, funk, jazz, and lounge. Yes, lounge.
 * You can make this argument about Nine Inch Nails. The first album, Pretty Hate Machine, was very electronic-influenced, sounds almost like a darker version of Depeche Mode. It would take Broken and The Downward Spiral to transform the band to the industrial metal its known for.
 * Type O Negative were always Doom Metal, but their first album Slow Deep And Hard contained more Thrash Metal influence than their more well known Gothic Metal sound. Their lyrics focus more on Peter's hatred for certain people than they do on sex, although there are a couple of songs about the latter.
 * Justified in that the songs on the album were written for Peter Steele's previous band Carnivore, who were a thrash band. This is also why the sound of the album is so raw. Type O Negative would become known for their clean sound quality (rare in metal) later on.
 * Nickelback's debut Curb and the follow-up album The State were a far cry from the Post-Grunge Pop-Rock sound that they're famous for. Those albums were much more in the vein of Godsmack as they were much heavier and Chad Kroeger's vocal style was much louder with a lot more screaming. It wasn't until Silver Side Up that Nickelback found their signature sound.
 * The Spinto Band had a lot of self-released albums full of Ween-inspired Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly; by the time they got signed they whittled down their influences to something more coherent. Nice And Nicely Done and Moonwink, their better known albums, are basically a mix of indie, New Wave, and Power Pop. Earlier albums like Digital Summer (New Wave Techno Pop) jump from trippy instrumentals to ska to novelty rap.
 * Japan's first album Adolescent Sex is camp glam rock with frequent use of the words 'dancing' and 'babe' and vocals delivered in quite a high range. Japan would become famous for melancholic new romantic music with baritone vocals and oriental influences. So anyone who was into the later stuff picking up their first album out of curiosity without reading about it first would have been shocked. Their second album, 'Obscure Alternatives' is very experimental and has Sylvian singing in both his older falsetto style and his later baritone style, with a mix of both the glam rock songs and the post-punk/new romantic style they would evolve into. Unsurprisingly, David Sylvian wishes Adolescent Sex never existed and that Obscure Alternatives should have been their first album, which is quite a brave statement considering many fans of the band discredit the first two albums entirely and start with their third "Quiet Life", which sounds like the band's signature style coming into place but not being quite there yet. Possibly because of this dramatic change in style, the compilation "Assemblage" was released at the height of their popularity in 1981. It features some of their early work and but also most of their later work that didn't appear on albums.
 * The Human League were one of several bands who pioneered dark synthpop, recording two very dark albums, Reproduction and Travelogue. A few years later, they dropped two of their original members, hired two female vocalists and gradually began turning into a pop-disco band, the most infamous example being Crash. They were eventually ridiculed for their change in sound and have begun re-embracing their old style. It should be noted that the two members who left the original lineup (Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh) were those who formed the band originally, but were actually fired by the singer they hired (Phil Oakey). As a result they formed the band Heaven 17 with the singer they originally intended for The Human League (Glenn Gregory), so it turned out alright for them too.
 * The majority of Split Enz's earlier songs could best be described as strange, ethereal ballads, often over six minutes minutes in length. As of their third album they shifted to a much more poppy and mainstream music style (though still fairly quirky).
 * Skillet's music used to sound very explicitly religious, like a lot of Christian rock groups; Ardent Worship and Hey You I Love Your Soul being the most obvious albums. "Collide" is when they started changing, and their songs began to sound more like mainstream Alternative Rock that have various Alternate Character Interpretation's. A lot of people don't even notice they're a Christian Rock group nowadays.
 * On their self-titled first album, Rush sounds like just another Led Zeppelin clone. This started to change with their second album, Fly By Night, when drummer Neil Peart joined and took over writing most of the lyrics, although it took another couple albums until they finally became the Rush pop culture knows them as.
 * Similarly, on their first album, This Was, Jethro Tull sound like a Cream rip-off. Again, this began to change with their second album, Stand Up, when original guitarist Mick Abrahams left, and front-man Ian Anderson started to monopolize the band's song-writing duties.
 * Queen had much more of a rock feel to them in their early albums. They didn't really hit their stride as a Genre Roulette band until A Night At The Opera, which featured hits like "I'm In Love With My Car", "39", and the wildly popular "Bohemian Rhapsody".
 * The Flaming Lips' first EP was heavily psychedelic-influenced punk rock, with very low-pitched monotone vocals (courtesy of Wayne Coyne's brother Mark - Wayne got promoted to lead singer soon after). While psychedelia has pretty much always been a part of their sound, the first EP is barely recognizable as the same band. Even after switching singers, it sort of took a while for their sound to evolve - for instance, Wayne Coyne took a few albums to start using the higher-pitched vocal style he's now known for.
 * If you met Lady Gaga from "Bad Romance" onward, listening to The Fame will be weird, as it's mostly standard electropop that mostly lacked the Darker and Edgier shock-rock/pop overtones from the newer tunes (except maybe "Paparazzi").
 * Even more jarring is her pre-Gaga work as the namesake of the Stefani Germanotta Band. Their one EP, Red and Blue, features mostly (as phrased by Gagapedia) "female-vocal ballads with a glam rock edge," very similar in style to her acoustic versions of "Poker Face" and "Paparazzi". Though the title track is more in the vein of No Doubt than anything else.
 * The first two Matthew Good Band albums, Last of the Ghetto Astronauts and Underdogs are decidedly different from the next album, Beautiful Midnight, and miles away from Good's solo work. The sound is different (Astronauts in particular is fond of guitar-strumming instead of the guitar-playing in later albums), the themes are different, and the lyrics are much heavier on repetition. They're not bad albums, but the jump from Underdogs to Beautiful Midnight, or from either to Avalanche (Good's first solo album) is jarring.
 * KMFDM's second (and breakout) album, What Do You Know Deutschland, had more of a proto-EBM or industrial electro type sound, similar to Microchip League, early Ministry, and Nine Inch Nails' first album, rather than their signature Industrial Metal style. Their obscure first album, Opium, was more experimental and thus even weirder.
 * Pink Floyd began in 1965 as the prototypical psychedelic rock band, a band noted for improvisational "freakouts", who were encouraged by record execs to produce hit pop singles. After 1967's The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, their bandleader, Syd Barrett, became a tragic acid casualty (he only appears on three songs on A Saucerful Of Secrets, and only sings on one), and bassist Roger Waters and new guitarist David Gilmour became vocalists/bandleaders. They spent 1968-72 basically "learning to use their chisels", as Waters would recently put it in a TV documentary, experimenting and slowly forming a group sound and style independent of Barrett, creating Cult Classic albums like Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother in the process. 1971's Meddle was the first work to resemble what we now know as the Pink Floyd sound and style. They also created music for Italian psychedelic art films of largely instrumental tracks, two of which were released as soundtracks: More (1969) and Obscured By Clouds (1972). Fans who realize the existence of the first six or seven albums might barely recognize them prior to their 1973 breakthrough album, The Dark Side of the Moon, by which Waters began to take over as Face of the Band.
 * Delta Goodrem's first single ("I Don't Care") and the first two video's she recorded were decidedly pop to take advantage of the trend of the time. It was 2001 and she was finding her feet, but contrast incredibly with her Innocent Eyes and Mistaken Identity albums.
 * While not as left-field as some others on this page, Metallica's Kill 'Em All contains some weirdness that wouldn't be found in their next several albums. James Hetfield sings in more of a "shriek" than on later albums, and the album has a couple songs ("Hit the Lights", "Whiplash") whose lyrics are, in his words, "Sort of Judas Priest, 'let's go rock out..'"
 * Not to mention that while the music is as fast, loud and angry as they arguably never repeated, the production is kind of muddy and the instruments are hard to discern (particularly the drums).
 * Covenant's first couple albums were darker and harder, closer to true industrial. They didn't take on the familiar Futurepop style until Europa, their third album.
 * Clutch's first LP, Transnational Speedway League is a gritty metal album with a few lyrical homages to southern life. While there are some of Neil Fallon's trademark spacy lyrics, the blues influence that is currently a hallmark of the band's music is almost nonexistant.
 * Underworld started out as a new wave/alternative pop band and released two albums (Underneath the Radar and Change the Weather) in this style, which also fetched them a minor American hit in the single "Stand Up". After a nearly five year recording hiatus following their second album, they emerged as an electronica/house group, which they have remained ever since.
 * Ministry's first album With Sympathy was a synth pop album in which Alain Jourgenson attempted to sing in a fake British accent. Their next album, Twitch is an album of aggressive EBM. Neither prepared anyone for their third album, The Land of Rape and Honey, which premiered the harsh industrial sound they became famous with. Jourgenson has disowned With Sympathy and has been varying in his press statements on Twitch.
 * Coldplay's work is mostly based on pianos ("Clocks") or sonic landscapes ("Viva La Vida"), but their debut, Parachutes, is mostly filled with acoustic guitars.
 * The Descendents' first single, Ride The Wild \ Hectic World: As opposed to the melodic Hardcore Punk they'd become known for, the two featured songs were sort of a mix of Power Pop and New Wave, prominently featuring a Surf Rock-influenced guitar-playing style with no distortion. In addition, Milo Aukerman hadn't joined the band yet, so lacking a real lead singer, members Frank Navetta and Tony Lombardo sang one song each. "Ride The Wild" and "Hectic World" were later included on the compilations Bonus Fat and Two Things At Once, and the contrast with the rest of the material can be sort of jarring.
 * The first two albums of Yes count. Along with the unique playing styles of founding guitarist Peter Banks and founding keyboardist Tony Kaye, Yes specialized in re-arranged covers of Byrds, Beatles and Buffalo Springfield songs, while their originals showed more '60's pop influences. The band's second album, Time And A Word also incorporates orchestral accompaniment, which Yes would rarely use to such an extent until 2000's Magnification.
 * Also, their breakthrough third release, The Yes Album, was Yes' first attempt at using synthesizers, and were used in a relatively subtle way, as keyboardist Kaye was reluctant to use them. Their multi-keyboard sound would not develop until the followup, Fragile, by which Rick Wakeman would replace Kaye in the lineup.
 * The Red Hot Chili Peppers fit this trope to a T with everything before Mother's Milk (or their breakthrough Blood Sugar Sex Magik).
 * Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Fever To Tell" is a lot more punk-sounding than "Show Your Bones" and "It's Blitz!".
 * Selena Gomez mentioned that when making her first album as "Selena Gomez And The Scene", Kiss + Tell, she hadn't yet decided on a style, so she imitated all of her favorite female singers. The album explores pop-rock, pop-punk, new wave, electro-dance and hip-hop styles in a way she wouldn't for the rest of her career. It was only when the synth-electro-dance-styled "Naturally", her personal favorite, became a Top 10 hit, that the style for her next two albums would be decided on.
 * Eminem's first album Infinite had more of a low-key feel and sounded more like the other hip-hop artists of the time that inspired him, and even contained less profanity. It wasn't until The Slim Shady EP and The Slim Shady LP that Eminem established his more "unique" style and his eponymous psychotic alter-ego, as well as more story elements in his tracks.
 * Goldfrapp are constantly changing styles, so those more acquainted with the electro/dance of Black Cherry, Supernature and Head First will probably be quite surprised at Felt Mountain, their first album, which was incredibly trippy and about as far from dance as it gets.
 * Captain Beefheart fans who stumble across his first album, 1967's Safe As Milk will be shocked to find that it's relatively normal, with very little of the weirdness that would appear in later albums like Trout Mask Replica and Lick My Decals Off, Baby.
 * Industrial/EBM band Eisenfunk's first album, Eisenfunk was nothing special compared to other bands. The only thing that distinguished them from others was the heavy use of electronic music and sampling. In their next album, 8-Bit, they kept the electonic music but overhaluled everything else, becoming much Lighter and Softer (and humorous) and incorporating numerous references to geekdom. It was these changes that made them well known. Their third album, Pentafunk stayed the course (for most part), leaving Eisenfunk as the odd ball album.
 * Chimaira's first album featured a much rawer, lighter sound, leaning towards Nu-metal / Industrial Metal. This sound was largely dropped on their second album, in which they found their signature groove / death / Metalcore hybrid sound.
 * Chevelle has always been an Alternative Metal band, but their first album featured a much closer sound to Tool, and Pete's voice was quieter.
 * Gothic rock band Helalyn Flowers' first album had a rather Industrial Metal-influenced sound. With their second album, they went somewhat Lighter and Softer and focused more on synthesizers, giving it a Darkwave vibe.
 * The first album by Da Yoopers included two dead-serious songs ("My Shoes" and "Critics Tune") and a parody ("Road to Gwinn", a spoof of Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again"), two formats in which the band almost never dabbled again. It was also their only album besides Yoopy Do Wah not to include interstitial comedy sketches.
 * The Avalanches' El Producto EP did have the same dense layers of samples as their more well-known Since I Left You, but used them to a somewhat trippier and slightly less danceable effect. More importantly, while Since I Left You was instrumental except for sampled vocals, El Producto actually featured the group rapping Word Salad Lyrics over most of the songs.
 * German NDH band Oomph!'s first album in 1992 was considered to be an Electronic Body Music album. Their second album, Sperm (1994) had much more of an industrial metal sound, while retaining some EDM influences. It is considered to be the first NDH album, inspiring artists such as Eisbrecher, Unheilig, Megaherz, and most famously, Rammstein.