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.