Bands that drastically altered their sound

[K]

Best Beastie Boys Post ever.

I have the Some Old Bullshit album you mentioned, as well as the Aglio E Olio collection which is just awesome to listen to. It's eleven tracks with a total run time of six minutes. But what a six minutes.

Yeah. Huge Beasties Fan, happy they switched to hip hop.

I totally forgot about the Aglio E Olio album, thanks for bringing that up. That's another great album in a long line of great albums produced by them. It basically furthers my point that they can do punk or hip hop with relative ease.

Are there two Aglio E Olio albums? I have one thats an EP...8 songs and 11 minutes long...

As far as I know there is only one Aglio E Olio album. I think it was released in 1995, and the as far as I know it's the only one. They also have Some Old Bullshit which is a compilation of their older punk work. Some Old Bullshit takes the ep Pollywog Stew (released in 1982, considered an LP collectors item) and combines it with a few of their unreleased demo's and NY radio spots.

Yeah my bad, I got the numbers mixed up. Sorry.

[Bigal]

The most obvious has to be Bob Dylan when he went electric. Although he sort of shunned his acoustic stuff for a while, I think once he started to mix the two, that was when his really great stuff started.

[Fanku Kaibutsu]

Smash Mouth's first album was one of the best over-all rock albums I've ever heard. Then their second album came out, and it was like they realized "Hey! We could sell a lot more albums if we started making bland, cheery, inoffensive pop music." And gone were the songs about suicide, homeless women, drunken debauchery, pissing off your neighbors, and being in love with a lesbian, replaced with covers of 70s pop music and songs that sound like covers of 70s pop music.

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers are another band that, to me, have greatly changed. I haven't heard My Friends or Stadium Arcadium, so I can't comment on those, but Blood Sugar Sex Magic, Uplift Mofo Party Plan and Mother's Milk were full of amazing music. The songs were full of soul, funk, energy, and so on, but since Californication, they just sound so... listless. It's almost hard for me to believe that the band making songs like "The Zephyr Song", "Scar Tissue", and "By The Way" made songs like "Apache Rose Peackock", "Party On Your Pussy" and "Johnny Kick A Hole In The Sky."

[Liam]

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers are another band that, to me, have greatly changed. I haven't heard My Friends or Stadium Arcadium, so I can't comment on those, but Blood Sugar Sex Magic, Uplift Mofo Party Plan and Mother's Milk were full of amazing music. The songs were full of soul, funk, energy, and so on, but since Californication, they just sound so... listless. It's almost hard for me to believe that the band making songs like "The Zephyr Song", "Scar Tissue", and "By The Way" made songs like "Apache Rose Peackock", "Party On Your Pussy" and "Johnny Kick A Hole In The Sky."

I must admit that RHCP changed a load from thier beginnings, but admittedly, it is very rare to find those who prefer thier funky beginnings to where they are now.

BSSM is still thier pinnacle, IMO.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I have to agree with Fanku, I own the S/T, Mother's Milk, & Uplift Mofo Party Plan. The only newer album I own is By The Way, and it's inferior in almost every way to UMPP or Mother's Milk.

Johnny, Kick A Hole In The Sky > *

[Liam]

You checked out BSSM?

[MalaCloudy Black]

Yeah. I don't own it, but I've listened to it.

It went pretty downhill after BSSM.

[Liam]

Yeah, it probably did. I think BSSM was the point where they managed to perfectly mix thier funk with thier rock sensabilities.

Don't get me wrong, I loved Californication and By The Way, but BSSM was just...it, as far as I am concerned with them.

[SeanDMan]

Red Hot Chilli Peppers are a great example, and I agree, their later stuff isn't up to the BSSM days. I mean I was never the biggest fan, but I was actually overtly annoyed by some of the Californication stuff. Except Other Side, which I think was that era, which was kind of okay.

To me, the biggest varience in sound I've heard was the jump from The Bends/OK Computer Radiohead to the Kid A/Amnesiac Radiohead. It's not a subtle change at all, as the first two were primarily guitar driven compositions with a little play on distortion and sampled sound, but Kid A, right from the first song, is far more heavily electronic, with a synthesized beat and distorted, echoing vocals. The Amnesiac album, recorded at the same time, pushes things a bit further, as the instrumental track, Hunting Bears, is extremely odd in an unusually soothing kind of way, and Like Spinning Plates features not only the sythesized beat but also the vocals sung in reverse and the beat oddly staggered. This direction, pushing into exploring electronic ambient sound, is kind of a "love it or hate it" move, and a lot of people apparently hated it. Personally, it reminds me of Pink Floyd, where each albums became more progressive and expiremental until you hit Dark Side, with tracks like On The Run... and I am a massive Pink Floyd fan. I wouldn't say Radiohead are as successful or as innovative, but they're compelling and I think the change was interesting and probably for the better.

[TAFKA Castroneves]

Ill Nino have changed a hell of a lot since Revolution/Revolucion, that album was a lot heavier - while probably still fitting into their Nu-Metal persona. Nowadays they are a lot more poppy in my opionon, One Nation Underground has a lot of songs that fit into that while Confession was the first step towards that. I do like all three of their albums, but I would have prefered it if they had gone for a sound similar to that of their first album - and loads of true metal fans I have met have agreed.

[Evil Chase K]

Someone want to tell me what power metal Pantera was like? Anything will do...just curious.

I honestly think the picture says it all....

[Guest Bluesman]

I'll take Joe Bonamassa for different reasons than currently found here. In concert his music is straight forward blues and blues/rock, with a heavy emphasis on the music. His studio cd's are overproduced and quite poppy with an emphasis on songwriting. It's almost like it's two completely different musical groups, the contrast is that great. Indigenous is another group that suffers from this.

Here are some groups who I'm not too familiar with, so if anyone wants to jump in and correct/add anything, go ahead:

Sugar Ray: Someone mentioned them previously, and they were spot on. They were an actual rock band, and even had an edge IIRC.

No Doubt: Well, obviously there is the transformation into "Gwen's Pop Band", but even before that they sounded better, with Tragic Kingdom marking the beginning of the end.

Audioslave: I liked them more when they were RATM

DC Talk: The ultimate music whores. Back in the day I went to a religious school, and everyone listened to them and their shitty rap music. A few years later my friend (who is straight rock/punk) is bragging them up, and come to find out they are now an alternative rock group. I seem to recall them changing their style completely once again, but am not certain.

U2: I liked them more when they didn't suck.

[YI]

The Get Up Kids...went from a really garage style emo band with hardcore punk influences, to be...I can't describe it...less garagey...I can't describe the transformation, but compare their first 2 studio albums to their second 2 and they sound totally different.

[fineintent]

Cave In.

From hardcore band to anthemic rock band, back to hardcore. Sort of.

[Liam]

I think Cave In are one of the best examples of pulling it off even when they changed thier sound. They were good as both hardcore and rock band.

[fineintent]

I think Cave In are one of the best examples of pulling it off even when they changed thier sound. They were good as both hardcore and rock band.

[YI]

I think Cave In are one of the best examples of pulling it off even when they changed thier sound. They were good as both hardcore and rock band.

Edited May 7, 2006 by YI

[ClaRK! Kent]

The 12-year old in me says Blink 182. Definite change to a poppier, more Greenday-esque sound after Enema of the State, commercially more successful but IMO not as good as Dude Ranch or Cheshire Cat.

Otherwise, Bob Dylan fuck knows how many times. Hmm...

- 1964, Another Side of Bob Dylan. Move to a more poetic and visionary, insular and reflective style from the old hard-hitting protest songs.

- 1966, Blonde on Blonde. The 'going electric' era's high point and arguably the best thing ever put onto record.

- 1969, John Wesley Harding. Post-accident, acoustic and poetic, move away from his 'beatnik' persona.

- 1971, Nashville Skyline. Duets with Johnny Cash, beginning of a 'country singer' image/style.

- 1976 - Desire. Return to world touring, return to his 60s style somewhat but much more mature. Return to the protest cause with 'Hurricane.'

- 1980 - Infidels. The 'born again' album. Christian Rock.

- 1989 - Oh Mercy. Finally recaptures his old spirit, move away from his 80s excess and idiocy.

- 2001 - Love and Theft. A return to form, some great, mature songs echoing his earlier work.

Probably some more I've missed, maybe!

Black Eyed Peas. Before Fergie came along they were a very different act, much less pop-hop than they are now. Change for the better though, IMO.

No Doubt. Started as ska/US punk, turned into a sort of electric/bubblegum group towards the end, with RockSteady and the version of It's My Life on the singles collection.

Beck. He's kinda swung back and forth, with ablums like Odelay, Sea Change and Guero, from a weird alternative thing to the rockier, more guitar-driven stuff he's been doing recently.

Blur. Between Modern Life is Rubbish, Parklife, and The Great Escape, a big change in style to the more 'Britpop' sound and largely losing the more 'indie' sound the started with. Then got very overblown towards the end, which is part of why Coxon left, obviously.

Green Day. Everything started to go downhill after Nimrod in IMO, slowly at first but then into a big nosedive for American Idiot. Move to a self-parodying, self-important sound I think.

Some more at random, as I'm tired of writing explanations.

- The Smiths

- Led Zeppelin

- Jay-Z

- Dr. Dre

- Michael Jackson

[Skummy]

I heartily disagree with the concept that the Black Eyed Peas was a change for the better.

Also, The Smiths never drastically altered their sound, really. They have different sounds, but they were always fairly eclectic, and any change they made was fairly gradual.

[fourstarfizzle]

Black Eyed Peas were about 200 times better before Fergie joined, I prefered the cameos from the likes of Macy Gray, etc. It's all gone shite with that ugly bitch now.

Edited May 8, 2006 by fourstarfizzle