Biggest sound changes between albums

Somebody help me here. Can this truly be the same band???

From the excellent first "Gravedigger" hard rock lp to the limp Kitaro/Yannish newage slobber-pap of "Journey".

Cristi wrote: DoobieBrother6 wrote: Somebody help me here. Can this truly be the same band??? From the excellent first "Gravedigger" hard rock lp to the limp Kitaro/Yannish newage slobber-pap of "Journey". I for one do not know who you're talking about.

The band is Janus, although I believe that Out of Time came out before Journey. that's huge gap between albums. Journey came out in 1991 and Gravedigger in 1972. Different times.

Within 5 years?

From Camel Moonmadness to Rain Dances. There was a change in direction. They sounded more jazzy on Rain Dances . Also a bit more Pop oriented. "Highways Of The Sun" sounding the most commercial and I began remembering the style on The Snow Goose or White Rider from Mirage...which wasn't a commercial style. On Rain Dances the Pop style began to surface.

From Raindances to Breathless. By the time Breathless was released it was evident that they were making attempts or efforts to write hit records.

I Can See Your House From Here was another attempt at perhaps writing a song that would chart.

Nude, Single Factor and Stationary Traveller ...all 3 seemed to have similarities to Alan Parsons Project.

From Stationary Traveller to Dust And Dreams. A huge change in composition. Dust and Dreams, Harbour Of Tears, Rajaz, and A Nod And A Wink all seemed geared toward Latimers writing style...which!!...had matured even more alongside some of the instrumentals that reflected pieces from Camel's past...such as "Lunar Sea"....

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.

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.

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

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

Agree