When Bands Change Their Sound...

I'm sure all of us have bands we've liked that changed their "sound" from one album to the next. Which changes have you liked/hated/felt indifferent about?



Changes For The Better:

Powerman 5000 - Mega!! Kung-Fu Radio --> Tonight The Stars Revolt! (crappy industrial punk to awesome industrial space music)

Fischerspooner - #1 --> Odyssey/Entertainment (sorta gay electro pop to awesome electronica)

Sneaker Pimps - Becoming X --> Bloodsport (not that Becoming X was bad, but Bloodsport was a vast improvement)



Changes That Were Just As Good:

Van Halen - Roth --> Hagar (Roth might have had some of the best songs, but I think Hagar had more good songs overall)

Coldplay - X&Y --> Viva La Vida (I was disappointed in VLV until I saw them live and realized that was how the album was designed to be played)

Garbage - Version 2.0 --> beautifulgarbage (from alt rock to pop)

Garbage - beautifulgarbage --> Bleed Like Me (back from pop to alt rock)

No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom --> Return of Saturn (ska-ish to pop-ish)



Changes For The Worse:

Green Day - Dookie --> Everything After Dookie (selllllllllllllllll out)

No Doubt - Return of Saturn --> Rocksteady (Gwen Stefani's Ego. Self-Explanatory.)

The Killers - Hot Fuss --> Sam's Town/Day & Age (way to follow up an amazing first album with boring tripe)

Leona Naess - I Tried To Rock You But You Only Roll --> Leona Naess (catchy folk-rock to sappy love song caca)

Thievery Corporation - Everything Before Radio Retaliation --> Radio Retaliation (eclectic downtempo world music/electronica to fucking reggae... FUCKING REGGAE)

Orgy - Vapor Transmission --> Punk Static Paranoia (electro-industrial to industrial punk...blech)

Joaquin Phoenix - Actor --> Rapper (lolz)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Arkhangelsk

Muse... remains to be seen. I'm not so hot on their latest song, but maybe I need some time with it. The last two albums were instant likes, but rumor has it that they're using more orchestra, which is usually a good thing for me.

Muse is my favorite band. I like the two new singles well enough and I think they show a hint of genius that I hope the album itself maxes out on. I know the album will be good, but I want it to melt my face off.

Originally Posted by knkwzrd

I would just like to point out that to people with ears, Sammy Hagar is fucking awful, and he completely ruined that band. Roth's first solo album destroys anything anyone in that band played on after 1984, and David Lee Roth's solo material is pretty shitty for the most part, so that's not really saying much.

Oh, one of you. While Van Halen did become less classic rock and more 80's synth, it doesn't mean they still didn't make good songs. Sammy Hagar has a perfectly decent voice IMO anyway. And sorry, but I'll take Right Now, Dreams, and Why Can't This Be Love over Unchained, Jamie's Cryin, and Dancing In The Street any day. That being said, Panama and Hot For Teacher are still their best songs.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Jessykins

Industrial Punk? What? Punk Statik Paranoia sounded pretty much the same as Vapor Transmission. The songs just weren't as good.

And for the record, Splinter came before Bloodsport, and was the best album the Sneaker Pimps ever made.

I honestly have not listened to anything on Punk Static Paranoia since I originally bought the album, so I could be wrong about the sound, but I remembered the vocals being more punk-esque and the whole thing was really just horrible.

I never heard anything off Splinter, just Becoming X and Bloodsport. Time to torrent!

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I never was a big Green Day fan to begin with, but for me, I don't care that they "sold out" by going from an indie to a studio label. Band's gotta make money, no problem with that. To me, they sold out their music. I think their sound changed quite a bit; it became far more mainstream (radio-friendly) and boring, nothing as entertaining as what they started with was. Boulevard of Broken Dreams (and also The Saints Are Coming, which has some great things going on in it, but is kind of ruined by U2) is probably the only song of theirs I can tolerate from the last 10 years+. Creating songs that are more "radio-friendly" (ie. stuff the majority of boring Americans will listen to without being offended in some way) is not necessarily a bad thing if you're still creative about it, many great bands have certainly done it and still remained great (Muse being one, for instance). Green Day isn't one of those bands.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?