WTF?? albums.

[Mr. Vengeance]

With the release yesterday of Bob Dylan's "Another Self Portrait" which is the latest in the Dylan bootleg series, revisiting the era when arguably his most disliked album, "Self Portrait" was recorded, I was thinking about other bands who have made an album that was such a departure from what you expected from them, you just said, what the fuck?????? We've had variations on this theme before, but generally for bad albums by good bands. This one I'm thinking of albums that may not have been all that bad, but were such a change from what you were used to, at first listen you thought what the fuck is this?

Like Metallica's so called-"Black album". Not a terrible album, but not what you were expecting.
Diver Down I can put on the list. A good album, but certainly wasn't what I was expecting. Especially with all the cover songs, and certainly not the bombastic VH.

[FORD]

Bad Religion - Into the Unknown.

A punk rock band tries to go "prog rock" with their second album. It tanked so bad that it went out of print even faster than VDIII. Not surprisingly, their next album was called "Back to the Known", and the band would probably rather not admit this fiasco ever happenned.

If you buy the Bad Religion compilation 1980-85, you will note that not a single song from this album is included. And nobody noticed.........

[Zing!]

Dave's YFLM falls into this category for me. Took me about 15 years to finally "get it." And there are still more than a couple WTF tunes on there (Travis Tritt?)

[DLR Bridge]

Lotta good threads today! I'm going to go with Radiohead's Kid A. I loved the Bends for its various acoustic and electric guitar textures and Thom Yorke's voice was always alright in my book. I wasn't at all expecting them to spring a keyboard and spooky noise CD on me upon giving the disc a spin. I remember going to work and telling friends I was disappointed. About 3 listens later, I played the shit out of it for about a month.

[FORD]

Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967)



Obviously their answer to The Beatles Sgt. Pepper. Apparently the idea was "Let's take a ridiculous amount of acid, and then roll the tape and see what the fuck happens".

Some of it fit the times. Moments of it were brilliant. Others were just goddamned weird.

And the true oddity? Bill Wyman actually got to sing!

[damngoodtimes]

that album Chris Cornell did with Timbaland...

[DLR Bridge]

that album Chris Cornell did with Timbaland...

Is that the one with the Billie Jean cover on it? That's all I heard. Didn't think it was going to be a Euphoria Afternoon.

[twonabomber]

Def Leppard, Slang. Different, but I don't think it's that bad.

[Mr. Vengeance]

If you're a 60's music fan, and listened to The Mamas and the Papas, check out John Phillips' first solo album, "John- Wolfking of L.A." Very weird, but also just some awesome country-rock. It was certainly a WTF album.

[Mr. Vengeance]

Def Leppard, Slang. Different, but I don't think it's that bad.

Yeah, I agree. Not bad at all, but certainly not what Lep sounded like.

[FORD]

If you're a 60's music fan, and listened to The Mamas and the Papas, check out John Phillips' first solo album, "John- Wolfking of L.A." Very weird, but also just some awesome country-rock. It was certainly a WTF album.

I'll have to look for that one. Though I thought his "Pay, Pack, and Follow" was great.... although it took decades to get an official release.

[Mr. Vengeance]

I'll have to look for that one. Though I thought his "Pay, Pack, and Follow" was great.... although it took decades to get an official release.

Yeah!!! I grabbed that one too when it finally saw the light of day. Kinda creepy hearing "She's Just 14" which he allegedly wrote about Mackenzie. Especially after the incest allegations. (which for the record, I find the story to have an awful lot of holes).

That stuff he did with Mick and Keith and Ronnie is certainly more rock than "Wolfking". "Wolfking" is very mellow, but did have a minor hit for him called "Mississippi".

[saint]

Queen - Hot Space, a very dance orientated album, an effort to make an album of another one bites the dust. The song Body Language is probably the worst queen song (or at least single) ever The A - side was so bad I never actually listened to it. Back in the day I hated it, now the album is a kind of cool since I rarely listened to it.

[VHscraps]

Kiss, 'Music From The Elder'.

It was just a tad ridiculous - the concept etc. - but I liked it quite a lot at the time, it was a grower, and because I had a little brother who was a Kiss freak and we shared a record player, I heard it a lot - and if you listen to it beginning to end it is a damn good album (although they all disown it 'cos it was not a success). Even the ballads - e.g., Under The Rose - can be bombastically over the top in the manner of 70s Moody Blues (!) while still being quite memorable in a 'fuck, is that Kiss?' kinda way.

Lou Reed - probably in need of cash - co-wrote some songs.

The other bonus with the album was that instead of their ugly unpainted mugs (as would follow on their next album) you got a gatefold sleeve full of luxurious shots of an ominous looking wooden door ...

Diver Down was a definite WTF - I bought it right when it came out, and loved it. It just was proof for me that VH were cut from a different cloth than every other band they would routinely be lumped in with.

[Mr. Vengeance]

Kiss, 'Music From The Elder'.

It was just a tad ridiculous - the concept etc. - but I liked it quite a lot at the time, it was a grower, and because I had a little brother who was a Kiss freak and we shared a record player, I heard it a lot - and if you listen to it beginning to end it is a damn good album (although they all disown it 'cos it was not a success). Even the ballads - e.g., Under The Rose - can be bombastically over the top in the manner of 70s Moody Blues (!) while still being quite memorable in a 'fuck, is that Kiss?' kinda way.

Lou Reed - probably in need of cash - co-wrote some songs.

The other bonus with the album was that instead of their ugly unpainted mugs (as would follow on their next album) you got a gatefold sleeve full of luxurious shots of an ominous looking wooden door ...

Diver Down was a definite WTF - I bought it right when it came out, and loved it. It just was proof for me that VH were cut from a different cloth than every other band they would routinely be lumped in with.

The Elder was one that I considered, but then I had to think that I really didn't so much say WTF, as "This shit SUCKS!" when I first heard it.

Next album was Creatures of the Night- still with makeup.

[VHscraps]

The Elder was one that I considered, but then I had to think that I really didn't so much say WTF, as "This shit SUCKS!" when I first heard it.

Next album was Creatures of the Night- still with makeup.

Ah - forgot that !

My mind zoomed straight to Lick It Up.

[78/84 guy]

Def Leppard, Slang. Different, but I don't think it's that bad.

That's the album that came too mind for me before I clicked on the thread. But I think it sucked. Along with almost anything they have done since. How bout G' N R Lies ? Not what I expected but a cool album.

[FORD]

That's the album that came too mind for me before I clicked on the thread. But I think it sucked. Along with almost anything they have done since. How bout G' N R Lies ? Not what I expected but a cool album.

If you wanted to go with a GnR album, I'd say "The Spaghetti Incident" fits even better.

A covers album, made up mostly of old punk rock songs, ending with a Charles Manson tune, of all fucking things. And it turned out to be the last actual Guns n Roses album, on top of all that. (No I don't count Chinese Hypocrisy, or anything else AxHole may or may not release in another 10 years)

[78/84 guy]

True. I liked that album also. It was stripped down music after the bloated Illusion albums. I think the Manson song was at the end of Lies wasn't it ? Maybe both are not good choices for this thread. Lol. How bout Zep 3 ? I like some of it but as a whole it isn't a good Zep album at all.

[Mr. Vengeance]

How about Sabbath's "Technical Ecstacy"? Very different from their usual sound when it came out. Really no real doom and gloom. No downtuned songs. Bill Ward singing a song....

very good album though, IMO.

[Mr. Vengeance]

Oh shit...one I should have thought about right off the bat- Alice Cooper "Flush the Fashion". Great album, but when I first heard "Clones" I couldn't believe it was him.

[Igosplut]

Oh shit...one I should have thought about right off the bat- Alice Cooper "Flush the Fashion". Great album, but when I first heard "Clones" I couldn't believe it was him.

HA! Funny, I bought that cassette back in the day. I think that was his answer to the electronic music of the 80s...

[Monkeeman]

Neil Young - Trans

Neil using a vocoder and trying to sound like Kraftwerk.

[DLR Bridge]

Cheap Trick - The Doctor. Still a WTF album in my book. I think maybe half of one song grew on me. Glad they got that out of their system.

[Mr. Vengeance]

I'd say you could put about a dozen Frank Zappa albums on this list, except that you always pretty much expected to say WTF??? when you put the new one on.

[78/84 guy]

Joe Satriani Engines Of Creation was terrible ! He tried too do a techno album like Jeff Beck did on JEFF. It was a what the fuck moment for him. Beck somewhat pulled it off. Satriani hasn't come up with a truly great album since Crystal Planet.

[Hardrock69]

In 1979 I played the Black Sabbath song "All Moving Parts Stand Still" from the Technical Ecstasy album in a rock band I was in.

The biggest WTF moment came when Judas Priest released Turbo......the band I was in was looking forward to the next Priest record. We discussed immediately adding the first single to our set list. We figured it would be something kickass to blow the audience away.

*ahem*

I still rate it as my least favorite Priest album. They were so watered down. They had been headed in the right direction. British Steel followed by Screaming For Vengeance followed by Defenders Of The Faith.....thrash had hit big....I saw Metallica open for Ozzy that summer....the second show of the US tour that year.

So I was expecting Priest to move in an even heavier direction.

Boy was I wrong.

We ended up playing "Locked In". We figured that was the heaviest song on the album....but that's not saying a lot. They recovered somewhat on the album Ram It Down, though the low point was doing a cover of "Johnny B. Goode", and then Painkiller they were back where they should have been musically....but by this time they were also-rans.....bands like Slayer and all the thrash/death/speed metal bands that had arrived had pushed the boundaries of metal far beyond even where Priest is today.

Halford did the sensible thing.....the perfect thing in my opinion would be to have a good thrash band with Halford singing......and so he did that with Fight, lol. And Priest suffered in the songwriting department until Halford came back 10 years later, lol.

[Terry]

In 1979 I played the Black Sabbath song "All Moving Parts Stand Still" from the Technical Ecstasy album in a rock band I was in.

The biggest WTF moment came when Judas Priest released Turbo......the band I was in was looking forward to the next Priest record. We discussed immediately adding the first single to our set list. We figured it would be something kickass to blow the audience away.

*ahem*

I still rate it as my least favorite Priest album. They were so watered down. They had been headed in the right direction. British Steel followed by Screaming For Vengeance followed by Defenders Of The Faith.....thrash had hit big....I saw Metallica open for Ozzy that summer....the second show of the US tour that year.

So I was expecting Priest to move in an even heavier direction.

Boy was I wrong.

We ended up playing "Locked In". We figured that was the heaviest song on the album....but that's not saying a lot. They recovered somewhat on the album Ram It Down, though the low point was doing a cover of "Johnny B. Goode", and then Painkiller they were back where they should have been musically....but by this time they were also-rans.....bands like Slayer and all the thrash/death/speed metal bands that had arrived had pushed the boundaries of metal far beyond even where Priest is today.

Halford did the sensible thing.....the perfect thing in my opinion would be to have a good thrash band with Halford singing......and so he did that with Fight, lol. And Priest suffered in the songwriting department until Halford came back 10 years later, lol.

Turbo was too slick by half: it wasn't so much that Priest were totally unrecognizable sound-wise on that album, but it was such a blatant effort to tone down the style and sound in order to have a somewhat broader appeal. Not as blatant as, say, Van Halen when Hagar joined up, but there's no denying a concerted effort was made.

I mean, to go from Point Of Entry to Screaming For Vengeance to Defenders Of The Faith to...Turbo? Considering the chronology of the recordings, by the time Turbo came around Priest were capitulating to the softer, more mid 80's "MTV-friendly" sound to a degree. And in the end I don't necessarily think [Turbo] got them that many more new fans than compared with the amount of previous fans who were put off by the album.

Still, I'd much rather listen to Turbo than anything from Twisted Sister, Poison, Bon Jovi or any of the other bands that broke big on MTV from 1985 onwards.

[FORD]

Turbo is when I gave up on Judas Priest. Even Defenders of the Faith was somewhat of a disappointment after Screaming For Vengeance, but Turbo made them just another synth pop band.

[Hardrock69]

I hate the mix on Defenders Of The Faith. I have ranted about it on other occasions here, lol. The songs were heavy, but the mix did not reflect it. You can barely hear the drums. And they sound like shit.

Priest....a synth-pop band, lol.

[binnie]

How about Sabbath's "Technical Ecstacy"? Very different from their usual sound when it came out. Really no real doom and gloom. No downtuned songs. Bill Ward singing a song....

very good album though, IMO.

I reviewed that one. Very interesting record, if a notch down from their best.

[binnie]

I hate the mix on Defenders Of The Faith. I have ranted about it on other occasions here, lol. The songs were heavy, but the mix did not reflect it. You can barely hear the drums. And they sound like shit.

Priest....a synth-pop band, lol.

I'd have to agree with this. When you REALLY listen to DOTF, you realise that the songs are better than the records that preceded it. I'm more of a '70s Priest fan than an '80s Priest fan, but DOTF was the strongest '80s record in terms of tunes, imo.

[binnie]

Is that the one with the Billie Jean cover on it? That's all I heard. Didn't think it was going to be a Euphoria Afternoon.

No, that was 'Carry On' (2007), which also featured the James Bond tune he did. Not a bad record, but nowhere near 'Euphoria Morning' (easily a top 5 record for me).

The Timbaland record was called 'Scream' (review page 1 on the Album Reviews thread). Grunge does hip hop - you do the maths.

[binnie]

I would add 'Risk' by Megadeth to the list.

If your name is Megadeth, you cannot do mainstream rock!

[Seshmeister]

Turbo is when I gave up on Judas Priest. Even Defenders of the Faith was somewhat of a disappointment after Screaming For Vengeance, but Turbo made them just another synth pop band.

I think that's a bit of an exaggeration, adding some guitar synths to heavy metal doesn't make it pop.

I remember a lot of fans being annoyed at the time but even recently Turbo Lover was still in their set list.

[Mr. Vengeance]

I think that's a bit of an exaggeration, adding some guitar synths to heavy metal doesn't make it pop.

I remember a lot of fans being annoyed at the time but even recently Turbo Lover was still in their set list.

It is. Fans still cheer wildly when the opening starts. It's much heavier live than the album version.

[Mr. Vengeance]

See, I find Ram it Down by Priest to be lighter than Turbo. RID was IMO the 2nd worst Priest album- the worst being that steaming pile of dogshit, Nostradamus.

[Mr. Vengeance]

I would add 'Risk' by Megadeth to the list.

If your name is Megadeth, you cannot do mainstream rock!

That's a good choice.