Biggest sound changes between albums

I thought the difference between the debut LP of Captain Beyond and their second LP, "Sufficiently Breathless" was worth mentioning!

The debut LP was a quite remarkable blast of proto-prog-metal, while the second LP had a very heavy Latin sound, somewhat similar to Santana's sound of the era. I believe this came about because drummer Bobby Caldwell did not participate in the second LP, and so they had to scramble and improvise.

I love both of these albums, what an amazing band! RIP Rhino and Lee Dorman!

twosteves wrote: Th Yes Album to Fragile - CTTE to Tales and Tales to Relayer - Yes in its glory days changed sound as they brought in a new great player

Maybe from Tales to Relayer. Otherwise I only hear a very natural and organic change and sometimes growth from one album to the next.
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King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard has got quite a few:
Paper Mâché Dream Balloon (2015) Nonagon Infinity (2016)
Murder of the Universe (2017) Sketches of Brunswick East (2017)
Fishing for Fishies (2019) Infest the Rats' Nest (2019)
Made in Timeland (2022) Omnium Gatherum (2022)
PetroDragonic Apocalypse* (2023) The Silver Cord (2023)
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Kraftwerk: Autobahn (1974) Radio-Aktivität (1975)
Peter Hammill: Nadir's Big Chance (1975) Over (1977)
Tortoise: St. (1994) Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996)
Motorpsycho: Heavy Metal Fruit (2010) The Death Defying Unicorn (2012)

*; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation

**could have gone with In Camera (1974) Nadir)

Hector Enrique wrote: Marillion: Fish era >>> Hogarth era

I can't judge the band in two different periods, like that.
There was n of much of a change between Clutching at Straws and Seasons End.

There were changes between albums in the Hogarth era, for instance from Brave to Afraid of Sunlight. Or marillion.com to Anoraknophobia.

Edited by Cristi - June 08 2025 at 03:45

Roine Stolt - The Lonely Heartbeat (1989) -> The Flower King (1994)

Just came across this thread. I’d like to suggest Captain Beyond self tightled to Sufficiently Breathless. Complete 180 on sound and style.

Agree

Queen : Jazz > The Game >>> Hot Space
E, L & P : Brian Salad Surgery >> Works Vol 1/2 >>>>>>> Love Beach
Steve Hackett : Defector >>> Cured
Rush: I Phase > II Phase > III Phase
Deep Purple : Deep Purple album >>> In Rock
Opeth : Deliverance > Damnation
Marillion: Fish era >>> Hogarth era
Genesis : From Genesis to Revelations >>>> Trespass
Genesis : Wind & Wuthering >>> ...And Then There Were Three...
Yes : Time and a Word >>> The Yes Album
Yes : Drama >>> 90125

Awesoreno wrote: In fact, lots of classic prog acts incorporate elements of pop (in the context of the era) all the time.

yep that's called good songwriting. Current day's prog could learn a thing or two from that, instead of constructing meaningless riff puzzles with endless speed-of-sound soloing

FloydCrafty wrote: I think Genesis, Wind and Wuthering to ...And Then There Were Three... A huge transition from their progressive rock roots to their modern pop songs.

Interesting perspective. Genesis has roots in pop. From Genesis to Revelation is a pop album, albeit of a much more baroque pop than modern pop persuasion. Pop was a part of Genesis throughout, and the pop qualities of Wind and Wuthering has not struck me as that different from the pop qualities of ...And Then There Were Three. And both have Prog qualities. It has not struck me as a really huge or really unexpected shift of style.

I was going to mention the Italian band Dedalus jump from the fusion of their selftitled debut to the mad free jazz of the subsequent one..but I see it has already been mentioned.
Keeping with the Italians though, I find the jump from Claudio Rocchi’s early folky roots to first ambient and then all out corrosive progressive electronic with Suoni di Frontiera to be quite earthshattering. Is it even the same guy???

Another Italian that changed his style quite significantly from one album to the next is Franco Battiato. Sure the man was experimenting with minimalism on both Sulle Corde Di Aries and Clíc, but the subsequent M. Elle Le Gladiator was still like the proverbial punch to the gut. Going from experimental almost Krautrocking prog to no guitars, no bass and no drums..but church organ and synths was quite the artistic u-turn.