New Sound Album: Difference between revisions

 

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* [[Kiss]]'s ''Music From The Elder'' was hated by fans, and later, the band themselves, and ''Revenge'' was met with lukewarm responses, both changing from the classic KISS style. Both were followed by returns to classic KISS (''Creatures of the Night'' for the former, the reunion album ''Psycho Circus'' for the latter).

* ''90125'' by [[Yes]]. The first album by a reunited band with a new guitarist (Trevor Rabin), ''90125'' saw the band reduce their song lengths and simplify their structures, while retaining enough weirdness and instrumental proficiency to remind fans that it was still a Yes album despite its newfound accessibility. It resulted in the band's only #1 hit, "Owner of a Lonely Heart". Some parts of the fanbase went straight for [[Old Guard Versus New Blood]], with the "Troopers" representing the former and the "Generators" (named after the band's followup ''Big Generator'') the latter, but the majority seem to enjoy both periods just fine.

** This was actually intended as a spinoff project (named "Cinema"), until Yes vocalist Jon Anderson liked the sound of the demos and decided to make it a Yes album.

** ''Drama'' from the same band is worth mentioning here, as it brought a new wave influence to Yes (courtesy of The Buggles' Trevor Horn, who helped define that musical style throughout the 1980s) years before ''90125''. Some critics, like Jeremy Parish of [[Game Spite]], argue that it did a better job of bringing the band into the new decade than the two subsequent albums. Not satisfied with taking Yes in ''one'' new direction, Horn and his bandmates also wrote Machine Messiah, the heavy metal-flavored lead track that would become an influence for the harder sound of neo-prog artists like Dream Theater.

* Believe it or not, The Goo Goo Dolls started as a punk rock band. After 2 punk albums, with 1990's ''Hold Me Up" they gradually began to change over to the lighter pop-rock they became known for in [[The Nineties]]. Their 1987 debut album isn't even in print today.

* [[The Ramones]]' pop experiment, the Phil Spector-produced ''End of the Century''.

** The low points for each band were ''St. Anger'' (Metallica, in 2003) and ''Risk'' (Megadeth, in 1999). The former stripped down for a rough, unpolished sound while the other tried to be more commercial after the success of the previous album's efforts. Their later efforts were ''mostly'' a U-turn: Metallica's ''Death Magnetic'' kept the longer songs of ''St. Anger'' with a turn back to their late-80s sound, and the three Megadeth albums after the band's reformation (''The System Has Failed'', ''United Abominations'', and ''Endgame'') steadily shifted more towards the seminal ''Rust In Peace''. Incidentally, the Megadeth albums tend to be overall better received than ''Death Magnetic'' is (blame the [[Unpleasable Fanbase|Metallica fans]]), though the latter's still pretty good.

* [[Sparks]] did this several times. While their first four albums were quirky glam rock, 1975's "Indiscreet" saw them exploring a wide variety of styles. Then, with "Big Beat" they turned into a hard rock band, and 1977's "Introducing Sparks" was a Beach Boys/Surf Rock pastiche. All of these are at least still mostly identifiable as rock music, but in 1979, they teamed up with electronic music pioneer Giorgio Moroder to produce "No. 1 in Heaven," a purely electronic disco-style album. They did another in this vein, 1980's "Terminal Jive", then went in a Synthpop direction for the rest of the 80s. With 1995's "Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins" they went Eurodisco. Finally, 2002's "Lil' Beethoven" turned Sparks into Orchestral Rock.

* [[Jars of Clay]] does one of these every second album or so.

* [[Green Day]] in [[The Nineties]] used to be a pop-punk band who wrote catchy songs about being lazy, being insane, masturbating, being bored the works. Cue ''[[American Idiot]]'' and their shift to a more complex style inspired by [[Rock Opera]] and [[The Who]].

** He took the focus he had on instrumentation and melodies and combined it with his old rapping style on his next release, ''My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy''. It worked.

* [[The Beach Boys]] evolved pretty gradually away from surf-rock, but fully went baroque pop with what's considered their masterpiece, ''Pet Sounds'' (which sadly didn't have "Good Vibrations" on it). They went back to simplicity later due to intra-band conflict and drug abuse.

* [[Urge Overkill]] started as a crappy noise-rock band ripping off The Jesus Lizard, Big Black and other contemporary Chicago bands. With ''Americruiser'' they hit upon their style, a combination of punk, power pop and arena rock. They never looked back and continued perfecting the formula until they struck the jackpot with ''Saturation''.

* Lampshaded by [[Lemon Jelly]], who wrote on their album '64 to '95: "This is our new album. It's not like our old albums."

** [[And the Fandom Rejoiced]] when the classic line up got back together in a comeback tour, Carnival of Sin, then later released the ''Saints of Los Angeles'' album. The Saints of Los Angeles album returned the sleazy hard rocking fast living sound with a bit of a modern edge, it's their best album in years.

* Muse's most recent album ''The Resistance'', which has raised cries of [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]]. Really, every single Muse album makes changes to their sound. Compare ''Showbiz'' to ''Origin Of Symmetry'', ''Origin Of Symmetry'' to ''Absolution'' and so on.

* [[David Bowie]] '''many''' times. In order of significant ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, his first self-titled album was 1960s British pop with touches of music hall fare, and then he moved on to...

** Psychedelic folk (''Space Oddity'')

** [[Glam Rock]] (''Hunky Dory'')

** Proto[[Punk Rock]] (''Ziggy Stardust'')

** Blue-eyed [[Soul]] (''Young Americans'')

** Electronic proto-[[Post Punk]] [[Kraut Rock]] (''Low'')

** Top 40 R&B-influenced material (''Let's Dance'')

** [[Hard Rock]] (The two albums he recorded with Tin Machine)

* [[Electric Light Orchestra]]'s ''Discovery'': Compared to their previous work, it's well, [[Significant Anagram|very disco]].

* Jewel. One example would be ''0304'', the synthesizer heavy dance pop album she put out after primarily being known for acoustic adult alternative. Strangely averted with her country album ''Perfectly Clear'', which differed only in that John Rich wrote some of the songs and others had hints of steel guitar.

** ''A Thousand Suns'', on the other hand, decided to focus more on synths and electronic rock.

* [[Relient K]] left their punk rock sound for more alt-rock with Mmhmm; segueing to alt-folk-ish for Five Score and Seven Years Ago. Their latest album, Forget and Not Slow Down, is a blend of all their genres.

** Followed up with ''The King Is Dead'' in a way that proves that labels can be deceptive. Both their previous work and this album could be described as indie folk, but before this the "folk" element was Old World folk songs, particularly English and Irish ones. The folk in ''The King Is Dead'' is pure Americana, and a fair assessment of it would be "[[Bruce Springsteen|The Boss]] gone [[Country Music|Country]]".

* [[Crash Test Dummies]] - ''Give Yourself A Hand'', which is a radical departure from their earlier folk rock. The album mixes Funk Rock, [[Rn B]], Chillout, Trip Hop, Drum & Bass and even includes a string ballad. Brad Roberts tries new vocal styles - in addition to his original baritone, he pulls off an impressive falsetto and even unleashes his inner Mike Patton/Anthony Kiedis on some of the funkier tracks, which have very raunchy lyrics. Ellen Reid, previously the backing singer, has lead vocals on a few songs. It is hard to believe this is the same band who did "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" a few years before.

* [[Village People]] ("The Renaissance Album")

* ''5150'' by [[Van Halen]]. After 6 albums defined mostly by the combination of Eddie Van Halen's guitar wizardry and [[Large Ham|David Lee Roth]]'s comic persona, Roth left the band. He was replaced with Sammy Hagar, Eddie started including more and more synths, and their songs became poppier. Cue [[Broken Base]], which endures to this day despite Roth having returned.

* [[Primal Scream]] shifted their sound repeatedly throughout the 1990s, first moving from the indie jangle sound of their '80s albums to house rock with ''Screamadelica''. After a brief dip into a more traditional sound with the bluesy ''Give Out, But Don't Give Up'', the band closed out the decade with the dark, claustrophobic ''Vanishing Point'' and the angrily-political ''XTRMNTR''.

* [[REM|R.E.M.]] has a lot of these, especially experimental ''New Adventures in Hi-Fi''. ''Monster'' to an extent too, as it introduced a louder, more grunge-influenced sound, coming after two popular albums emphasizing orchestration and acoustic guitars. Don't forget Up, the first album after Bill Berry's departure. It introduced drum machines and synthesizers to their sound.

* It's hard to tell exactly ''what'' [[Tom Waits]] became after ''swordfishtrombones'', but it's nothing like what he was before. And it made him a legend.

* Subversion: Chinese band Silver Ash had one single New Sound ''song'' in 2007. It was pop- a long way from their previous goth/glam rock style, and in the PV they were dressed casually- unsual, as they had up until then considered themselves China's first Visual Kei band. It seems the change was brought about, not because the band fancied a change, but because they had finally been forced to comply with the Chinese government, who had been making life very tough for them for years. However, after the release of this song, the band disappeared into the wilderness, and very little news has been heard of them since. There is a lot of speculation, but nobody really knows whether they are going to [[Genre Shift|continue with their new pop sound]] or are [[Out-of-Genre Experience|planning to return to rock and VK as best they can]]- under the assumption that they are returning at all, of course.

* [[Soulwax]] has shifted over time from alt-rock in the 90s to "Dance-Punk". Their album ''Any Minute Now'' marked the start of the change, as it was an electronic-influenced rock album, and the remix/re-creation of Any Minute Now in the album ''Nite Versions'' sealed the deal (rock-influenced electronica album!). This has been largely seen as a good thing, as well as somewhat of a natural progression, as Soulwax's alter egos, 2 Many Dj's, have been electronica-ing it up for a while now.

* Metalcore band In This Moment went for a less heavy sound in their second album ''The Dream'', diitching most of the growling vocals and [[Metal Scream|Metal Screams]] after vocalist Maria Brink expressed a desire to challenge herself with more clean-vocals songs.

* The [[Beastie Boys]] have done this a few times. First with ''Paul's Boutique'' they moved away from their more rap-oriented sound into eclectic genre hopping. ''Check Your Head'' and ''Ill Communication'' saw the band return to their roots as a late 70's hardcore punk band, resulting in a more alternative rock sound. ''Hello Nasty'' returned the band to rap, but added influences electronica and club dance music. ''To the 5 Boroughs'' featured a return to a more alternative rap sound. From what little that's been heard of their upcoming ''Hot Sauce Committee'' album, it seems that they're continuing with a more stripped down version of what they were doing on ''To the 5 Boroughs''.

* [[Depeche Mode]], at least six times. When main songwriter Vince Clarke left after the first album ("Speak and Spell") and Martin Gore (who had contributed a few songs) took over, the second album ("A Broken Frame") was much more "moody" sounding than Clarke's work while they were oddly marketed as a "boy band." For the next album ("Construction Time Again"), the classically trained Alan Wilder, Clarke's replacement at live shows as a keyboard player, became an official member while Gareth Jones engineered and later produced, and they helped shape what we know now as the band's sound as they started using samplers and the songs took a more dark and industrial turn, epitomized in ''"Black Celebration"''. After 3 albums together, DM and Jones had an amicable split and the next album, "Music For the Masses" had a similar sound but was largely self-produced with Dave Bascombe engineering. The biggest change may have been when Flood (who made a great team with Wilder) came in to produce "Violator," which introduced guitars as a staple and gave the world "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy the Silence." With grunge becoming huge and drug addled leader singer Dave Gahan immersing himself in the local music scene after moving to LA, "Songs of Faith and Devotion," the second album with Flood, was full on rock, while still recognizably Depeche Mode with the recognizable songwriting and layered arrangements. Wilder left, and while "Ultra" was billed as a return to the "Violator" era sound, "Exciter" was essentially "the soft and sensual side of Depeche Mode." "Playing the Angel" went back to the more "Violator" style sound, and then in 2009, they released "Sounds of the Universe," which was yet again completely different from all of their other albums as they used old analog synthesizers that Gore bought on eBay in new and bizarre ways. That's it so far. Whew.

** Ditto for Erasure's ''Union Street'' album.

* Speaking of [[Erasure]], the 2000 album ''Loveboat''. It can best be described as "Erasure goes indie", with a lo-fi, "basement-y" feel, heavier bass, and much greater use of acoustic instruments. in stark contrast to their typical campy, danceable synthpop. Fans ''[[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|hated]]'' it because the style was so different. A sizable majority of the fanbase consider it [[Fanon Discontinuity]] and the end of classic Erasure. It sold terribly in both the UK and the US and it didn't get released in the US until 2003 because Maverick Records dropped them like a hot potato when they refused to remix a good portion of the tracks. Even lead singer Andy Bell [[Creator Backlash|panned it]] [[Old Shame|years later]]. The worst part? Critics tended to like it, and it's a well-written album with a subdued, personal sound to it.

** From ''Guero'' onward, he's no longer been radically changing his sound on each release: but maybe it only seems that way, because (by now) he's ''already'' explored '''every possible''' genre.

* [[Kamelot]] started as a standard power metal band with a god-awful [[Queensryche|Geoff Tate]] wanna be of a vocalist, but upon said vocalist quitting and the subsequent addition of Norwegian opera-style vocalist [[Conception|Roy Khan]], plus the switch to a more progressive metal influenced style has made their album ''The Fourth Legacy'' both a New Sound Album as well as the start of their [[Growing the Beard|beard growth]].

* [[Sister Machine Gun]] is an odd case in which every album can be considered to be a [[New Sound Album]]. The only person who appears on every single release is the singer/songwriter and even during live concerts some songs are often performed differently than they were on the album they originate from.

** In the later years the shifts happened a bit less often, for example the 5th and 6th albums had EPs come after them that were each in the same style as the album they followed (for example the album ''6'' was followed by the EPs '6.1' and '6.2') but then the next album release would be another [[New Sound Album]].

** Third album 'Vices and Virtues' is pretty much a combination of both.

* [[Elton John]], a prolific and eclectic singer-songwriter, had several New Sound Albums. ''Tumbleweed Connection'' was a country-rock album inspired by the Old West. ''Honky Chateau'' featured the classic Elton John Band in full for the first time, abandoning the use of heavy and dramatic orchestration for a more group-based rock sound and more use of the guitar. ''Rock Of The Westies'' saw a new group lineup and a harder blues-rock sound in places. ''Victim Of Love'', released in 1979, was Elton's attempt at disco. ''Too Low For Zero'', hiscomeback album, combined the classic Elton sound with heavier use of modern synthesizers, sequencers and drum machines and a modern production, and saw the return of his classic backing band. ''Ice On Fire'' saw a new backing band and a more modern MOR/synth-pop sound, which continued until the more organic ''Songs From The West Coast'' in 2001.

* In a case of New Sound ''Career'', after the squeaky-clean British boy band Busted split, member Charlie Simpson formed the critically acclaimed post-hardcore band Fightstar. And then in 2011, while on hiatus from Fightstar, he released his first solo album...a collection of acoustic folk songs.

* [[Boards of Canada]]'s first two main releases, ''Music Has The Right To Children'' and ''Geogaddi'', which were laden with warm synthesizer sounds, were both greatly adored and critically acclaimed albums. Their third release, The Campfire Headphase which utilized guitar and a more pastoral sound, was released to a mixed reception.

* The Doobie Brothers -- During the Tom Johnston era, the band was known for hard-rocking and bluesy songs. After Michael McDonald became lead singer, the band became much more concentrated on falsetto and harmony-heavy pop songs. By ''Minute by Minute'', they were completely rid of their old sound. They got their old sound back, however, when the band reunited with Johnston on lead vocals.

* Every one of Falling Up's five records sounded generally different from the rest, as they moved more and more in the direction of experimental rock. They took it to a new level with "Fangs!" though, which saw a complete restructuring of their sound and how the band performed and recorded. Unfortunately it was also their last album.

** The Colour And The Shape is also their only album with a notable emo influence, which was caused by the band's bassist and then drummer (who had both been in Sunny Day Real Estate) contributing to the songwriting process. My Hero is the primary example of this, though so are the verses of Hey Johnny Park. Awkwardly, it remains the band's most popular album despite the fact they rock much harder these days.

* Rap superstar [[Lil Wayne]] decided to follow in the footsteps of his friend [[Kid Rock]] and record a [[Rap Rock]] album entitled ''Rebirth''. [[Your Mileage May Vary|It sucked hard]]..

* BT has changed sounds several times. His first album ''Ima'' was deep/progressive house, then he changed to drum&bass/trance/ambient/trip-hop for ''ESCM'' and ''Movement in Still Life'', then ''Emotional Technology'' was pop-trance, electro, and rock ballads. ''This Binary Universe'' was a complete [[Genre Shift]] to experimental ambient and new age material (influenced by [[Creator Breakdown]] due to his equipment being stolen and his daughter's kidnapping), then ''These Hopeful Machines'' ventured back down the ''Emotional Technology'' route, as well as incorporating elements of IDM and glitch-hop.

** At about the same time as [[Coldplay]] released ''Viva la Vida'' too, going in something of the other direction, from slightly more upbeat acoustic-ish straight pop into a darker concept album sort of flavour.

* The band [[Brand New]] changes their entire style each album. Their first album, "Your Favorite Weapon", was entirely teenage angst and sounded a bit like New Found Glory. Their next and second album, "Deja Entendu", showed how Brand New had matured out of pop rock and straight into emo. Their next two albums, "The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me" and "Daisy", show two hard to define, unique styles that are themselves very distinct from each other.

* After helping define Melodic Death Metal in Sweden, In Flames began changing their style with ''Colony'' and to a greater extent with ''Clayman''. Then they released ''Reroute to Remain'' which is now considered by fans where "Old" ''In Flames'' ends and "New" ''In Flames'' begins. Each album after that has had its own distinct sound. This has lead to one hell of a [[Broken Base]]. Just check the comments on any of their music videos.

* [[Pink|P!nk]] has done this with pretty much every album.

** More like five if you take into account their experimental albums like ''Ummagumma'' and ''Atom Heart Mother''.

** However the transitions are so gradual that in many cases it's difficult to pinpoint ''exactly'' which one is the [[New Sound Album]]. ''Dark Side Of The Moon'' is not so different from ''Obscured By Clouds'', which is not so different from ''Meddle'', which is not so different from ''Atom Heart Mother''... yet ''Atom Heart Mother'' and ''Dark Side Of The Moon'' are worlds apart.

* Bloc Party's debut album Silent Alarm was well received and known for its heavy use of guitars and was generally considered an example of a good indie album. As the band's career progressed they released A Weekend in the City and Intimacy, two albums with increasingly dancier music and less emphasis on guitars and other standard indie fare. [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on the extent of their change.

* [[The Offspring]] became popular as a punk rock band with catchy upbeat songs. Their recent album ''Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace'' has only two songs in their signature style with the rest being slow and more thoughtful. [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on whether this counts as [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]].

** There breakout album, 1994's ''Smash,'' is itself a [[New Sound Album]]. Their previous two albums are much rougher hardcore punk, while ''Smash'' marked the debut of better hooks and a strong metal influence.

** To be fair, they often had slower, "more thoughtful" songs and interludes on almost all of their albums (except maybe ''Smash'') and they worked quite well, at least in counterpoint to the harder material - some of my favourites being album tracks where they skillfully blended the two (''Gone Away'' or ''Gotta Get Away'' (despite the similar titles, two quite different songs), for example). They diced with the powers of suck with ''Conspiracy of One'' but just about made it, however I'll admit ''RAFRAG'' didn't hit my local market with any kind of fanfare so I missed it... would be well worth trying out and seeing which side of the line it falls.

* [[Feeder]] seem to have a habit of changing every two albums. Swim and Polythene are pretty heavy grungey style stuff, Yesterday Went To Soon and Echo Park are more straightforward rock albums, with a bit of punk influence, Comfort In Sound and Pushing The Senses are much softer (but still with some straight up rock songs, like Godzilla and Helium). Their newest albums, Silent Cry and Renegades, seem to be if you shoved all their previous albums into a blender, with the softer stuff on Silent Cry and the heavier stuff on Renegades.

** Indeed, putting Echo Park on a christmas / birthday list one year and receiving Swim instead (when a confused relative couldn't find their then-unavoidable chartbuster) was a heck of an eyeopener. I had to fire up the 56k modem to go double check it was actually the same band. Then again they've done this in a miniature way with just ''one version of a single''. The world gets to know Just A Day through the Gran Turismo soundtrack's perfectly formed edit. What's released to market is a set of increasingly different and overly busy-sounding mixes with the original nowhere to be seen, other than by recording it from the console's optical-out.

* [[Bon Jovi]] had two, maybe justified as the lineup underwent a slight change and lead singer/writer Jon aged and mellowed a little - and they went after the changing tastes of ladies more their own age ([[Hair Metal]] always being, in the end, all about the ladies)... but, the stylistic shift experienced between the classic but ironically titled ''Keep The Faith'', and newer, poppier, mushier ''Crush'' (with "These Days" as a confused, halfway turning point, and "Crossroads" being a sort of "this is the ''Best Of the OLD Bon Jovi'', now watch as we ''change it all"'') is still a heck of a jolt for male fans who enjoyed the heavier, more traditional rock flavour of their first 15 or so years. Those two start the [[Broken Base]], with women (stereotypically) liking the new phase and rockers (of both genders) the old one.

** There is also ''Lost Highway'', the band's attempt at a country album, though most people don't hold it in high regard.

** Indeed, for about 25 years, they just kept exploring the same hard rock/blues rock material they started with, refining and adding elements of pop rock, funk, hip hop, whatever they could, with varying degrees of success. That was all progression. ''Just Push Play'' on the other hand definitely seems to count.

* [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]] had ''Blood Sugar Sex Magik'', abandoning heavy metal riffs for full-fledged funk rock. It proved to be their breakthrough album. To see how much they changed, listen to ''[[Greatest Hits Album|Greatest Hits]]'' and compare "Higher Ground" (the only song from before ''BSSM''<ref>because EMI, their previous label, licensed it in exchange for "Under the Bridge" in their compilation ''What Hits?!''</ref>) to the rest of the tracks. ''One Hot Minute'' (after guitarist John Frusciante departed) and ''Californication'' (when Frusciante returned) kinda count too.

* Cathal Coughlan. To begin with, his duo Microdisney played post punk that consisted of him yelling political rants over an uneasy backing track (evidenced by the compilation only track 'National Anthem'). By the time they had released their first record, they had acquired a minimilalist indie sound, with melodic synths, jangly guitars and drum machines, the vocals despairing and cynical. Come their second album, they had acquired a proper backing band including a drummer and bassist. He also changed his vocal style so that it was louder and more positive sounding. The resulting album almost sounds like adult orientated pop music, but there are still traces of the old sound in there. The next album was an even greater change, the band adding violins and female backing singers. The following album, their last, was far more lyrically biting, and with less of a chart orientated sound. The music was still fairly upbeat though. When Microdisney broke up Cathal went on to form The Fatima Mansions, who played a combination of American influenced noise rock, grunge and electronica with a mostly completely different vocal style, many songs shouting instead of singing. After that band broke up, he recorded some somber solo albums. His latest album however is far more reminiscent of the music he used to make in the mid 80s, suggesting that some things come full circle. As he is somebody who has never been after a hit, the return to form seems all the more remarkable.

* While [[Oasis]] roughly kept the same "Beatlesesque songs" style through their whole career, their albums from the third to fifth fall into this: ''Be Here Now'' focused on [[Epic Rocking]], ''Standing on the Shoulder of Giants'' was psychedelic and ''Heathen Chemistry'' had a crude sound.

* [[The Rasmus]] did this with the release of ''Dead Letters''. Possibly a case of [[Executive Meddling]], maybe just a bad change of direction whilst trying to [[Break America]] / Rest-of-English-Speaking World, but... Energetic and thoroughly enjoyable (if not particularly special) Finnish pop-rock band tries for some strange pop-goth-electronica vibe, falls spectacularly flat, ends up generally derided by the English-Speaking-World goth rock-listening public and having one single, solitary, not very representative song played to death on commercial rock radio. Shame, a couple of the album tracks that hark slightly back to their old sound (which would likely have done well in the pop charts) are excellent, but the rest of it is a pretty forgettable dirge. - YMMV, naturally. They made 2 future albums in a similar genre.

* "A" went for a similar trend-chasing shift from unique melodic punkiness to full on Offspring / [[Green Day]] style pop-punk... and subverted it by actually being quite good, recognisably the same [[Beach Boys]] -inspired band that made ''How Ace Are Buildings'' and ''A Vs Monkey Kong'', and scoring some commercial success. Then subverting it even harder by sticking with a slight refinement of the same theme for ''Teen Dance Ordinance'', somehow getting nowhere with anyone, and splitting out of frustration.

* Speculative: Paul Simon, with ''Graceland''. Being too young at the time to know anything much about what was going on, I do wonder what longterm Simon & Garfunkel fans made of Paul's seminal solo album. Wildly popular, but notable in history because of how much of a stylistic shift it was. Though it is one of my own favourites, not everyone who liked his earlier work and collaboration must have dug the African rhythms and acapella.

* [[Me Without You]]- It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright! contained more acoustic than electric, a highly folky campire sound, and actual SINGING by Aaron Weiss.

* Chiodos has done this multiple times. Their first few [[E Ps]] were emo-tinged pop rock with some post-hardcore influences, with the first full length album ''All's Well That Ends Well'' going straight into post-hardcore territory. The second full length ''Bone Palace Ballet'' had more influences from classical music (with some gothic tinges in certain songs). 2010's ''Illuminaudio'' is alternative rock with electronic influences.

* [[REO Speedwagon]] was a hard rock band for the entire duration of [[The Seventies]], but transformed into pop with ''Hi Infidelity''. Although initially sucessful, this move caused the band to lose credibility and dissapeared off the radar after the 1980s.

* With ''Discouraged Ones'', Katatonia shifted from death/doom into alternative metal, using exclusively clean vocals. ''Viva Emptiness'' was another one, Returning to it's heavier roots towards a Gothic/Doom sound with the progressive ambient guitar work of the early career making a return.

* [[Yeah Yeah Yeahs]] practically went alt. dance with "It's Blitz!", an album that still sounds like them (largely because of Karen O's unmistakable voice) but is vastly different than "Show Your Bones", and DEFINITELY different than "Fever To Tell".

* Enter Shikari's first album, 2007's ''Take To The Skies'', was more or less screamo with some synthesizers. Their second full-length, 2009's ''Common Dreads'', aimed for a less heavy but more experimental sound and also made the lyrical change from singing about more or less anything to highly political, anti-capitalist lyrics. 2010's one-off single ''Destabilise'' went even heavier on the synths and also added some hip hop elements. [[Word of God|According to the band]], the forthcoming album is going to include influences by both [[Sigur Ros]] and Rammstein.

* [[Deftones]] have had something of a shift in sound with every album. ''Adrenaline'' was pretty much straight-out [[Nu-metal]], while ''Around the Fur'' had a similar direction, but included electronics and an overall slightly more experimental sound. ''White Pony'' was the biggest shift, switching the band from nu-metal to experimental rock with heavy use of samples. Their self-titled album had Frank Delgado using keyboards instead of turntables, and had a very eclectic sound (but overall heavier than ''White Pony''). ''Saturday Night Wrist'' and ''Diamond Eyes'' are the second big shift, being a lot more melodic and positive than their previous work.

* [[Def Leppard]] went with a more organic sound with darker lyrical content in 1996 with the ''Slang'' album. Their rationale at the time was that, with [[Hair Metal]] being [[Deader Than Disco]], they may as well make the most "Un-[[Def Leppard]]" album they could (Though one member said that, in hindsight, they probably included some of those ideas a little too eagerly, without doing proper quality control beforehand), because they were going to get slammed no matter what they did. Reaction was mixed, the album wasn't very successful in the USA and the band returned to their trademark sound with 1999s ''Euphoria''.

* [[The Crystal Method]]'s ''Divided By Night'' consists mainly of chilled midtempo/downtempo pieces, as opposed to their usual upbeat breaks, although it has a few of those too.

* With their second album, Shiny Toy Guns mostly abandoned their previous retro synthpop/rock style and went for a [[Darker and Edgier]] emo sound, which had many fans clamoring "[[Ruined FOREVER]]".

* [[Behemoth]] started incorporating [[Death Metal]] into their mostly up to that point [[Black Metal]] sound in the album ''Satanica'', and have continued this movement on each subsequent album

* [[The Crystalline Effect]]'s sound is generally electronic/trip-hop, and doesn't tend to have very heavy beats. Their latest EP, ''Industrial Re-Evolution'', sounds very much like industrial and does.

* [[No Doubt]]'s second big album, ''Return of Saturn'', was a different sound from that heard in the wildly popular ''Tragic Kingdom'', but it was more an evolution than any sort of sudden shift. But ''Rock Steady'' was a drastic change, so drastic that (for better or worse) it barely sounded like [[No Doubt]] at all. Ska/punk had morphed into a pop/dance sound.

* Chicago is well known for their transition from being an experimental "rock band with horns" in the '70s to a ballad-heavy and synth-heavy band in the '80s, with the transition point being ''Chicago X'', with [[Throw It In]] ballad "If You Leave Me Now" becoming their first number 1 hit.

* Assemblage 23 has shifted from aggro-EBM to a lighter Futurepop sound with his recent albums.

* The Horrors switched from the gothy garage-punk of their first album ''Strange House'' to [[Shoegazing]] on their second album, ''Primary Colours''. They've [[Genre Shift|kept this style]] for their third album ''Skying''.

* Orbital's ''In Sides'' and ''The Altogether''.

* Laserdance, from ''Hypermagic'' to ''The Guardian of Forever'', shifted to a faster Hi-NRG-esque sound, and ''TGOF'' had a [[Halfway Plot Switch|Halfway Genre Switch]] to techno-trance. Their sound changed again with their swan song album, ''Strikes Back'', due to being co-produced by Julius Wijnmalen, although rekindling the spirit of their original style.

** This was possibly influenced by Rolling Stone's completely false 1969 article about the supposed lost Beatles album ''Hot As Sun,'' which was wiped from existence in the same manner.

* [[Deep Purple]]'s sound changed with every new line-up, starting off as hard-edged psychedelic rock and moving to progressive rock by their third album, at which point they changed line-ups and shifted to straight hard rock/heavy metal until they changed line-ups again, playing more blues-rock and funk-flavored hard rock. Their sound has stabilized nowadays to a classic-flavored hard rock, however.

** [[Blatant Lies|Not to]] [[Don't Explain the Joke|explain the joke or anything]], but this is of course a [[Pastiche]] of several famous bands of the 60s and 70s, particularly [[The Beatles]], [[Pink Floyd]], and [[Led Zeppelin]]. ''We Are All Flower People'' in particular seems to be intended to have been a mix of ''Sgt. Pepper'' and ''Piper at the Gates of Dawn''.

* [[They Might Be Giants]] moved up from "Two guys, an accordion, a guitar and a drum machine" to a full band for their fourth album ''John Henry''.

** Examples for the second season songs include both "Go! Go! Maniac!" and "Utauyo! Miracle", which sound eerily mathcore-esque, but is still mathrock since they don't even scream. "Girls In Wonderland" has tumpets used, "Listen" sounds quite jazzy thanks to the keyboards, "Early Summer Rain (20 Love)" sounds quite much like a radio-friendly modern rock song.

** For a slightly-straight example, the "Second" album, to this troper's opinion, however, it feels like listening through a children's album. Yui's vocals sound baby-ish for most of it. Note that songs done by Mio always seem to be the more heavier songs.

* ''Vinyl Confessions'' by Kansas represented a major lyrical shift towards [[Christian Rock|Christian themes]] with replacement of Steve Walsh (who quit over philosophical differences with guitarist Kerry Livgren, who was mostly responsible for their new, Christian influences) with John Elefante.

* John Cale reinvented himself several times, perhaps the first noticeable break with tradition being 1979's ''Sabotage/Live'', his response to punk and foreign policy. Then he released an awful 80's pop album, ''Caribbean Sunset''. He then released an album of classical interpretations of his previous catalogue, ''Fragments of a Rainy Season''. More recently he's into hard rock (''Circus Live'').

* Christian alternative metal band [[Thousand Foot Krutch]] did this with ''every single album''. Their first album was essentially rap-metal with a couple of pop-punk songs thrown in. Their second album was pretty straightforward nu metal. Their third album was soft alt-rock/alt-metal with little screaming and only a few heavier songs. Their fourth album was more traditional alt-rock mixed with post-grunge and heavy metal. Their fifth release is mostly heavy metal with some heavier alt-metal and some slower rock tracks of a much different quality than their others, and the album is the band's heaviest to date. Their latest album, ''The End Is Where We Begin'', is essentially a mix of everything, even the rapping.

* ''[[Rhapsody of Fire]]'' underwent a rather drastic change between ''Power of the Dragonflame'' and ''Symphony of Enchanted Lands II''. Whereas albums up until Power were more like music that told a story, Symphony II onward focused more and more on the story rather than the music, building up the cinematic feel almost to the point where the Dark Secret Saga feels more like a movie without the pictures as opposed to the story-telling music of the Emerald Sword Saga. Fan opinion on which style is better tends to be divided.

* [[Skinny Puppy]], while still mainly [[Industrial]], have more IDM influences on their latest two albums.

* [[Lupe Fiasco]], with his third album Lasers, due to heavy [[Executive Meddling]]. Atlantic Records saw the success the single 'Superstar' had made upon his previous album The Cool, and thus wanted him to continue going down that path. It must also be noted at the time, Lasers was heavily anticipated, due to the solid approbation of his first two albums and especially with back-and-forth rumors of Lupe going into early retirement. After molding the album accordingly, Lasers finally got a release date. While the lyricism was still mostly genuine, it featured a heavy pop-oriented slightly electro sound that a good portion of the fanbase didn't sit well with.

* [[Demi Lovato]] is exploring a grittier, more hip-hop/R&B-influenced style on her third album, ''Unbroken'', than her earlier pop-rock sound.

* One of the most radical shifts in style would be Everything but the Girl, the jazzy adult pop duo. When their song “Missing” became a massive hit after being subjected to a dance-oriented remix, they reinvented them as a synth-based techno-styled act. The result was another major case of [[Broken Base]].

* [[Sound Horizon]] made a significant shift in musical stylings between ''Elysion'' and ''Roman'' - songs became longer, the primary genre shifted from [[Baroque Pop]] to [[Progressive Rock|Symphonic-Progressive]], and a larger, rotating roster of vocalists (including the band's [[I Am the Band|founder/composer/lyricist/guitarist/accordionist/bagpipes player/occasional pianist, Revo]]) was introduced to replace Aramary, who had resigned from the band for personal reasons. While there were (and still are) some detractors that weren't happy with Aramary's resignation, the change has worked out rather well for them, and they've been carrying on in this direction since.

* Ingo Kunzi, for his second Ayla album, ''Unreleased Secrets'', after a nearly 8 year hiatus, shifted more to a mid/downtempo chillout style, with "Tribal Symphony" being the only standard trance tune on the album.

* Most of [[Jean Michel Jarre]]'s albums were New Sound Albums. ''Oxygène'' made him famous. ''Equinoxe'' sounded almost the same. Then came six albums (not counting ''Music For Supermarkets'' and live albums), none of which sounded like any of their respective predecessors, especially not like ''Oxygène'' and ''Equinoxe'', because both Jarre's style and electronic instrument technology evolved. ''Oxygène 7-13'' from 1997 was a partial return to Jarre's old sound, but all releases from then to the re-recording of ''Oxygène'' from 2007 were individual New Sound Albums again.

* You may remember the group 4hero for the breakbeat techno song "Mr Kirk's Nightmare" back in the early 90's. Well, in 2007, following a six-year hiatus, they made a complete [[Genre Shift]] to downtempo and nu-jazz with the appropriately named ''Play with the Changes''.

* [[Sevendust]]'s first album featured rawer production, simpler writing, harsher vocals, less melody, and a more aggressive sound. ''Home'' was more melodic, leaning a little closer to the band's signature style, but still maintaining a similar sound to their debut. ''Animosity'' brought in the real change, with much stronger songwriting and a much more melodic sound. From then on, the band has made little alterations to their music.

* [[Fear Factory]] started off with a death metal sound on ''Soul of a New Machine''. It wasn't until ''Demanufacture'' when they found their signature sound.

* Ween seems to like to change it up quite a bit.

* [[The Clash]] changed their sound with ''London Calling'', moving from outright punk to a heavily reggae and blues influenced sound. The seeds of this were seen on the previous album, ''Give 'Em Enough Rope'', most notably on Julie's Been Working From The Drug Squad that displayed heavy New Orleans Jazz influences. At the time it was derided for betraying "punk" but has since go on to be considered one of the best albums of all time. Later albums also experimented with stylistic, however to a lesser degree of success, although there are fans of ''Sandinista!'' and ''Combat Rock''. Most fans consider ''Cut The Crap'' (the bands final album) to be, well, crap.

* Fun.'s ''Some Nights'': Their debut, ''Aim And Ignite'', was [[Baroque Pop]]-leaning indie, not that dissimilar from Nate Ruess's previous band The Format. ''Some Nights'' still had the [[Baroque Pop]] elements, but had a much more electronic sound, with heavy use of drum machines, synthesizers, and even some vocoder. The change was reportedly due to the band starting to listen to recent hip hop, with [[Kanye West]]'s ''My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'' being noted as a particular influence.

* Kerli's upcoming second album, which will include the electropop singles "Army of Love" and "Zero Gravity", will be very different in style from her first album, which was alternative/indie rock. She describes her current style as "bubblegum goth".

* UK thrash metal band Onslaught's album ''In Search of Sanity'' features a more melodic and complex style of thrash than the simpler, Slayer-esque sound they had on their previous release. It also featured vocalist Steve Grimmett from Grim Reaper, whose soaring and clean vocal style was a point of contention at the time of the album's release.

** On the topic of Onslaught, their first album was more of a thrash and hardcore punk hybrid than the full-on thrash they would play on their second album.

* [[Mariah Carey]] is easily this. Her debut album, ''Mariah Carey'' incorporated 80s synths with slight R&B dance vibes. It switched to a 50s/60s/70s Disco/Soul vibe in ''Emotions'', which then suddenly changed into Adult Contemporary mellow-sounding ballads for ''Music Box''. ''Daydream'' started to lean more towards modern, underground music and incorporated, and fused, pop, R&B, hip-hop and AC. ''Butterfly'' later dropped the noticeable Adult Contemporary aspects and went for a heavy R&B/hip-hop sound with slight pop/AC leanings (like 75% R&B/hip-hop, 25% pop). This eventually turned into full R&B/Hip-hop with a bit of pop (90% r&b/hip-hop, 10% pop) during ''Rainbow'', where there was some pop but only because she was really popular at the time. It dropped the AC leanings completely. Then came the infamous ''Glitter'' which utilized a myriad of rappers and incorporated a bunch of 80s pop samples creating some weird 80s influence r&b/hip-hop with modern day rap. Then, during ''Charmbracelet'' she had slight r&b/hip-hop leanings and returned back to her old AC style only for her to return back to full R&B/Hip-Hop for ''The Emancipation of Mimi''. Then, for E=[[MC 2]], she adopted... [[Follow the Leader|whatever was popular]] in 2008 and used some reggae/dance hall music and returned to a more familiar pop/r&b/hip-hop/dance sound. Finally, for ''Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel'' she utilized an R&B style with heavily, electronic instrumentation which had some 80s influences. So, in short, we have:

** 80s pop with slight R&B/Dance vibes (''Mariah Carey'')

** Current trends in Pop/R&B/Hip-Hop/Dance (''E=[[MC 2]]'')

** R&B/Hip-Hop with 80s Electronic Keyboards/Synths (''Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel'')

* ''Life In The So-Called Space Age'' by God Lives Underwater. Their earlier releases (as well as the album released after vocalist David Reilly's [[Author Existence Failure]]) were a mix of [[Industrial Metal]] and [[Alternative Metal]], but this one had them shift towards a much more electronic, [[Synth Pop]]-influenced sound. Fittingly, the album title was a [[Shout-Out]] to the back cover of [[Depeche Mode]]'s ''Black Celebration''.