Top 10 Style Changes that Resulted in Bad Albums

Hey Everyone!

I was just having a discussion on the nature of prog with someone and the topic of bands experimenting with their established style came up.

I was wondering what everyone thought (in a top 10 or other format) were the worst stylistic changes a band has made to their music. On the flip side, what are some of the better ones? I think a discussion of the "worst" will prompt more interesting discussion, but in the last few days I have read on PA about the positive change in Pink Floyd after Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother, a Dream Theater fan dissatisfied with their more "straight metal" sound on Train of Thought, and I read on another forum (less prog-oriented) about a displeased dude and his 12-year-late-reaction to Megadeth's Risk.

I'll post mine soon, when I've had a chance to think it over a bit, but for now...any thoughts?

Don't know if I can think of 10 but most memorably:

Yes - after Relayer

Genesis - after And Then There Were Three

Gentle Giant - after Interview

I guess non-prog bands are cool for this thread too, and probably much easier to come up with!

+1 on the comments on Deftones and Pain of Salvation.

When I heard Saturday Night Wrist I thought, "C'mon, you can do better than this Deftones!!"
Also, for non-prog bands, when Megadeth returned to heavy stuff on The World Needs a Hero, I thought it was pretty great, but then United Abominations and Endgame sounded like rehashes of The System Has Failed...and it's been downhill from there, imo.

As for positive changes in style, I think Silverchair made awesome progress in artistry along the way. Frogstomp was punk and rock and grunge, and Freakshow was grungy, and suitably alternative for that time, but after that, Neon Ballroom is awesome songwriting, and Diorama if pure symphonic prog (in short compositions). If you haven't heard Diorama, I recommend it for fellow proggers. I can't guarantee you'll like it, but I would bet you'll have more respect for Silverchair if you're not currently a fan!

BTW, Dream Theater fans, I love the album Scenes from a Memory, which to me was a bit of a departure in style. My prog buddies mostly think that Scenes from a Memory is a weak album. What do you guys think?

Even though I'm not a huge DT fan, that's one of my favorite albums!

^ Yeah, me too about the Deftones for sure. I give it a spin occasionally but not as much as their other albums.
 
And I definitely agree about silverchair's Diorama, a superb change from their early stuff, it's one of my favourite albums easy.

Unfortunate lineup changes and shift to a more pop-structured song format for Jefferson Airplane on 'Bark'.

Abandoning strings for synthesizers (The Moody Blues on 'Octave' and ELO with 'Discovery').

Wishbone Ash trying to do country (poorly) on 'Locked In'.

Style is spelled incorrectly in the thread title, which is a change in style that I don't agree with.

I'd say that whenever a prog band attempted to "go sexy," results were, well, less than optimal.  Most famously....

Worst changes:

^Oldfield was always trying to find the skill of writing short songs. Not for commercial reasons particularly. So I agree with. I like all of his albums really.

cstack3 wrote: I'd say that whenever a prog band attempted to "go sexy," results were, well, less than optimal.  Most famously....