History Main / NewSoundAlbum

** ''Music/LivingThings'' has been described as combining elements of their four previous albums to make a unique sound. It basically sounds like indietronica meets RapRock. Fan reception is mostly positive, but as time passed, the album loses popularity as ''A Thousand Suns'' gains more traction.

* Music/{{Space}} did this with practically every album. ''Spiders'' was groove-heavy and influenced by Cypress Hill, with much use of drum loops and samples, and Tommy Scott doing what he called a 'Speedy Gonzales' voice. ''Tin Planet'' was much poppier, with most of the songs by Tommy, and a mixture of styles from Frank Sintra-esque crooning and disco to showtunes, straight up indie rock and techno. [[DevelopmentHell Lost album]] ''Love You More Than Football'' was even more so. Then Jamie Murphy left and the band got DarkerAndEdgier with ''Suburban Rock 'n' Roll'', which was musically more homogeneous, but had rougher production, synth bass and much slower-paced songs. When the band got back together, thanks to three new members joining, Space changed direction ''again'' with ''Attack Of The Mutant 50ft Kebab'', which was heavily influenced by ska, rockabilly and punk, with much faster songs.

* Music/TheSmashingPumpkins' first two albums, ''Gish'' and ''Siamese Dream'' are examples of early-90s alternative rock. Their third album, ''Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'', was a massive double album with music ranging from mellow acoustic ballads to blistering heavy metal. Their next album, ''Adore'' was mainly softer songs or electronica due to drummer Jimmy Chamberlain being fired and the band deciding to use a drum machine (Billy Corgan [[http://www.smashingpumpkinsnexus.com/#!ADORE-UPDATE-FROM-BILLY-CORGAN-AND-INFO-ON-HOW-TO-PRE-ORDER-AUTOGRAPHED-COPIES-AT-MADAMEZUZUSCOM-/c7ba/59DF2946-559F-4200-B532-C5BCB6F962C8 even said it was a]] PunBasedTitle, as the album was [[StealthPun "A Door"]] towards a new sound). Chamberlain returned a few years later and recorded the ''MACHINA'' albums [[note]]''MACHINA: Machines of God'' had a proper release while an album of outtakes, ''MACHINA II: Friends and Enemies of Modern Music'' was one of the first examples of an album being exclusively released on the Internet[[/note]], which expanded the electronic experimentation of ''Adore'' and ventured into [[Music/NineInchNails NIN-esque]] industrial metal. The band broke up afterward, and when Billy Corgan formed the second Smashing Pumpkins lineup, they too experimented with different genres of music.

* ''WebVideo/TheHappyVideoGameNerd'': Thatz a Rap.

* Music/{{Muse}}'s ''Music/{{The Resistance|Album}}'' has raised cries of TheyChangedItNowItSucks. Really, every single Muse album makes changes to their sound. Compare ''Music/{{Showbiz}}'' to ''Music/OriginOfSymmetry'', ''Origin Of Symmetry'' to ''Music/{{Absolution|Album}}'' and so on. Frankly, it wasn't that radical departure from ''Black Holes'' at all. Other than the song with no guitar parts, which was a first. But still Muse.
** They have, in fact, made each album deliberately different from the previous one.

** Composer Liam Howlett started the band as a bright, peppy British rave outfit, with kiddie show samples and tons of breakbeats, as heard on their debut, ''Experience.'' Then, in response to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (which was more or less designed to criminalize raves), Howlett significantly darkened the sound of the next album, ''Music for the Jilted Generation.'' The breakbeats were still there, but the music had a far more sinister and confrontational feel, with some rock and hip-hop influence creeping in (such as "Poison," Maxim Reality's vocal debut on record, after being their live MC since their infancy).
** Those rock and hip-hop influences came to fruition on their third album, ''The Fat of the Land,'' which became one of the defining albums of the big-beat movement and thus felt totally different in approach to what came before. The breakbeats were deemphasized in favor of more hip-hop influence, and a PunkRock feel to some songs, helped by dancer Keith Flint who contributed vocals for the first time. It's this record that would define the Prodigy's future records.

* Music/{{REM}} has a lot of these, especially the experimental ''New Adventures in Hi-Fi''. ''Monster'' to an extent too, as it introduced a louder, more grunge-influenced sound, coming after two popular albums emphasizing orchestration and acoustic guitars. Don't forget ''Up'', the first album after Bill Berry's departure. It introduced drum machines and synthesizers to their sound.

** Their self-titled debut album (released prior to virtuoso drummer/lyricist Neil Peart joining the band) to ''Fly by Night'' were pretty straightfoward 70s bar-band fare ala Bad Company or Led Zeppelin. Enter Peart with ''Fly by Night'', and suddenly the lyrics become sci-fi and the drumming much more technical, but the overall song structures still pretty straightforward hard rock.
** ''Caress of Steel'' to ''Hemispheres'' had the band started to move into prog territory, with very long multi-part epics, including the very popular ''2112''.

** ''Signals'' to ''Hold Your Fire'' threw the band into a New Wave influenced synthesizer-based sound and went for a more poppier approach, which lasted throughout TheEighties.
** ''Presto'' and ''Roll The Bones'' had the band throwing the synths into the background and the guitar was now back into the foreground. It still had a pop-rock sound to them and the band experiment with many genres on ''Roll The Bones'', such as electronic, funk, and even hip-hop.
** ''Counterparts'' had the band ditched their poppier synth-laden sound in favor of a grunge-influenced sound sound that was met with commercial and critical success at the peak of grunge's popularity. They heavier sound has been part of the band ever since, with ''Music/ClockworkAngels'' moved the band back to a '70s sounding heavy-prog.

** Their first two albums were mostly straightforward rock, with a few mellow moments. And then they started to go weird with 1997's ''Music/OKComputer'', an album featuring spacey rock with recurring themes of globalization and alienation. The massive hype and the highly positive reception gave them much popularity and attention, but the amount of touring and inter-band strife forced the band to re-think itself.

** ''A Thousand Suns'' saw the integration of industrial, experimental, and electronic sounds. [[BrokenBase Depending on who you ask]], it's either the point where they [[GrowingTheBeard grew the beard]] or where they [[JumpingTheShark jumped the shark]]; however, as time goes on it becomes VindicatedByHistory.
** ''Living Things'' has been described as combining elements of their four previous albums to make a unique sound. It basically sounds like indietronica meets RapRock. Fan reception is mostly positive, but as time passed, the album loses popularity as ''A Thousand Suns'' gains more traction.
** ''The Hunting Party'' finally saw Linkin Park return to nu metal, but also integrated elements of '90s ThrashMetal and PunkRock, with a sound that's easily their least commercial friendly of their entire library, to a mixed-to-positive reception.
** ''One More Light'', ironically, shifts to a pop style to create their ''most'' commercial friendly record. This massive change was near-universally hated, and most considers the album the weakest Linkin Park has ever made, but after the death of Chester Bennington two months later, the album gains a slightly better retrospective reception, in most part due to the very personal lyrics.

* Music/MachineGunKelly's ''Tickets to My Downfall'': his previous album, ''Hotel Diablo'' added some RapRock elements to his usual HipHop style, but ''Tickets to My Downfall'' took it a step further, with Kelly largely singing instead of rapping. Critics have referred to it as a throwback to the early 2000s PopPunk scene.

* Music/{{Metallica}} and Music/{{Megadeth}} simplified their style almost simultaneously, with ''Metallica'' (''The Black Album'') for the former and ''Countdown to Extinction'' for the latter. While initially successful, both bands continued with the simplification for the rest of TheNineties, to predictably diminishing returns.

** Her second (and last) album for Deconstruction, ''Impossible Princess'', was highly polarizing on release because it was not afraid to experiment - it went from drum and bass to Celtic pop to Britpop to progressive pop rock, and that's just the first four tracks.

* Music/{{Moby}} is primarily known as a major figure in ElectronicMusic, who started with 90s rave music and proved himself to be more diverse than previously thought when he added elements of new age, rock, ambient and hip-hop. So far, so good, but when he took the plunge and did a full-length AlternativeRock album with 1996's ''Animal Rights'', it sank like a rock and made him a laughingstock (though its first single, a CoverVersion of Music/MissionOfBurma's "That's When I Reach For My Revolver", was a minor hit). Luckily, four years later, ''another'' New Sound Album, ''Play'' (most famous for its downtempo sound and liberal use of blues and gospel samples) not only revitalized his career, but was the highest selling album ''ever'' in electronic music, selling 12,000,000 copies.

* Music/{{Muse}}'s ''The Resistance'' has raised cries of TheyChangedItNowItSucks. Really, every single Muse album makes changes to their sound. Compare ''Showbiz'' to ''Music/OriginOfSymmetry'', ''Origin Of Symmetry'' to ''Absolution'' and so on. Frankly, it wasn't that radical departure from ''Black Holes'' at all. Other than the song with no guitar parts, which was a first. But still Muse.

* Finch's ''Say Hello to Sunshine'', which was a huge departure from their [[PopPunk poppier]] [[Music/{{Emo}} 2000s emo]] sound that they helped to helm on their first album, and their foray into [[GrowingTheBeard heavier, more experimental territory]].
** They did this again with their 2012 album ''Back to Oblivion'', which was preceded by several years of turbulence, false-starts to their third album, and a breakup which lasted all of two years. ''Back to Oblivion'' introduced a more [[Music/AlternativeRock alternative-rock]] approach to the band's sound, such that it was set apart from anything they had done before.

* Music/JethroTull began as a Cream-like blues-rock band tinged with bluesy/jazzy flute playing with ''This Was'', then added more folk and pop influences with ''Stand Up''. ''Benefit'' introduced a harder rock sound. ''[[Music/AqualungJethroTullAlbum Aqualung]]'' brought the group into a more progressive/conceptual style, which they followed up with two EpicRocking album-length concept albums. ''War Child'', ''Minstrel In The Gallery'', and ''Too Old to Rock and Roll, Too Young to Die!'', introduced an Elizabethan folk/hard rock/prog/classic rock style with shorter songs. ''Songs from the Wood'', ''Heavy Horses'' and ''Stormwatch'' rounded off the decade with progressive folk-rock and more of the acoustic side. TheEighties saw Tull dabble in synthesizeritis and [[TotallyRadical modern production techniques]], with more emphasis on electric guitar by the late eighties (1987's comeback album ''Crest of a Knave'' would even beat Metallica for Best HardRock[=/=]HeavyMetal album at the Grammy's). They would gradually return to more folk influences (and some world music flavors) by TheNineties. Tull's last album is a very acoustic-based ChristmasAlbum reminiscent of their folk-rock Seventies style.

* Music/ArcticMonkeys' ''Humbug'', a Music/PinkFloyd -influenced psychedelic album, quite different from the frantic garage-rock of their previous material.

** Their 2013 album ''AM'' is sort of a cross between Humbug and Suck It and See, with some R&B influences.

* Music/{{Beyonce}} did this with "4", moving away (not entirely, but largely) from hip-hop and dance music, going more towards old-style R'n'B and orchestral music. Then there was her SelfTitledAlbum, which saw her shift to the newly-created and rapidly rising PBR&B genre, heavily influenced by HipHop and ElectronicMusic. Then ''Lemonade'' came out flirting with many genres from Garage Rock, Soul Music, Trap Rap, and even Country music. Her seventh studio album, ''Renaissance'' (2022), put her back into the pop sphere but with more of a dance influence than her previous pop music.

* Music/{{Blur}} started as a roughly Madchester-style band with ''Leisure'', before transitioning to Britpop with ''Modern Life Is Rubbish''. Their later career basically consisted of four of these: ''Blur'' took inspiration from American indie rock and lo-fi bands such as Music/{{Pavement}}, ''13'' continued into more experimental territory, and ''Think Tank'' was kind of like ''13'', but with more electronic influences. Their comeback album ''The Magic Whip'' had lots of experimentation as well, taking cues from Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon's solo work, their Britpop career, and even David Bowie's Berlin trilogy.

* BT has changed sounds several times. His first album ''Ima'' was deep/progressive house, then he changed to drum&bass/trance/ambient/trip-hop for ''ESCM'' and ''Movement in Still Life'', then ''Emotional Technology'' was pop-trance, electro, and rock ballads. ''This Binary Universe'' was a complete GenreShift to experimental ambient and new age material (influenced by CreatorBreakdown due to his equipment being stolen and his daughter's kidnapping), then ''These Hopeful Machines'' ventured back down the ''Emotional Technology'' route, as well as incorporating elements of [=IDM=] and glitch-hop. ''If the Stars Are Eternal So are You and I'' and ''Morceau Subrosa'' are ambient follow-ups to ''TBU'', while ''A Song Across Wires'' is straight-up contemporary EDM.

* Music/TheClash changed their sound with ''Music/LondonCalling'', moving from outright punk to a heavily reggae and blues influenced sound. The seeds of this were seen on the previous album, ''Give 'Em Enough Rope'', most notably on Julie's Been Working From The Drug Squad that displayed heavy New Orleans Jazz influences. At the time it was derided for betraying "punk" but has since gone on to be considered one of the best albums of all time. Later albums also experimented with style, but to a lesser degree of success, although there are fans of ''Music/{{Sandinista}}'' and ''Combat Rock''. Most fans consider ''Cut The Crap'' (the band's final album) to be, well, crap.

* Music/{{Coldplay}} started as a soft, early-Music/{{Radiohead}}-esque band with 2000's ''Parachutes,'' then switched to a harder, more Music/{{U2}}-like sound on ''A Rush of Blood to the Head'' in 2002. 2005's ''X&Y'' averted this trope ([[ItsTheSameNowItSucks which many didn't like]]), but in 2008 ''Viva La Vida'' introduced a radically different art-rock/baroque pop/world beat sound reminiscent of Music/ArcadeFire. And then they changed again, with 2011 seeing the heavily electro-rock/R&B-influenced ''Mylo Xyloto'' (with guest vocals from, of all people, Music/{{Rihanna}}.) ''Ghost Stories'' wound up more like the U2-esque sound due to a CreatorBreakdown, but all albums ever since remained on the sonic landscapes of ''Viva La Vida'' and ''Mylo Xyloto''.

* Music/CrashTestDummies - ''Give Yourself A Hand'', which is a radical departure from their earlier folk rock. The album mixes Funk Rock, RnB, Chillout, Trip Hop, Drum & Bass and even includes a string ballad. Brad Roberts tries new vocal styles - in addition to his original baritone, he pulls off an impressive falsetto and even unleashes his inner Mike Patton/Anthony Kiedis on some of the funkier tracks, which have very raunchy lyrics. Ellen Reid, previously the backing singer, has lead vocals on a few songs. It is hard to believe this is the same band who did "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" a few years before.

* Music/{{Deftones}} have had something of a shift in sound with every album. ''Adrenaline'' was pretty much straight-out NuMetal, while ''Around the Fur'' had a similar direction, but included electronics and an overall slightly more experimental sound. ''White Pony'' was the biggest shift, switching the band from nu-metal to experimental rock with heavy use of samples. Their self-titled album had Frank Delgado using keyboards instead of turntables, and had a very eclectic sound (but overall heavier than ''White Pony''). ''Saturday Night Wrist'' and ''Diamond Eyes'' are the second big shift, being a lot more melodic and positive than their previous work.
* Music/DepecheMode, at least seven times. When original main songwriter Vince Clarke left after the first album (''Speak and Spell'') and Martin Gore (who had contributed a few songs) took over, the second album (''A Broken Frame'') was much more 'moody' sounding than Clarke's work while they were oddly marketed as a 'boy band'. For the next album (''Construction Time Again''), the classically-trained Alan Wilder, Clarke's replacement at live shows as a keyboard player, became an official member while Gareth Jones engineered and later produced -- and they helped shape what we know now as the band's sound as they started using samplers and the songs took a more dark and industrial turn, epitomized in ''Black Celebration''. After 3 albums together, DM and Jones had an amicable split and the next album, ''Music for the Masses'' had a similar sound but was largely self-produced with Dave Bascombe engineering. The biggest change may have been when Flood (who made a great team with Wilder) came in to produce ''Violator'', which introduced guitars as a staple and gave the world "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy the Silence". With grunge becoming huge and drug-addled lead singer Dave Gahan immersing himself in the local music scene after moving to LA, ''Songs of Faith and Devotion'', the second album with Flood, was full-on rock, while still recognizably Depeche Mode with the familiar songwriting themes and layered arrangements. Wilder left, and while ''Ultra'' was billed as a return to the ''Violator''-era sound, it unusually played with trip-hop influences in places. ''Exciter'' was essentially "the soft and sensual side of Depeche Mode". ''Playing the Angel'' went back to the more ''Violator''-style sound, and then in 2009 they released ''Sounds of the Universe'', which was yet again completely different from all of their other albums as they used old analogue synthesizers that Gore bought on eBay in new and bizarre ways. ''Delta Machine'' returned to a more muted and stripped-down style with a slight blues influence, similar to ''A Broken Frame'', but with more modern production elements. 2017's ''Spirit'' got a new producer in Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford, and with his involvement came an aggressive sound that is basically ''Songs of Faith and Devotion'' with more synthesizers and angry, openly political lyrics. That's it so far. Whew.

* [[Music/{{Devo}} Devo]] slowly started moving towards synthpop with ''Freedom of Choice'', and then suddenly changed to industrial dance on ''Total Devo'' and ''Smooth Noodle Maps''.

* Disclosure's first album ''Settle'' put heavy emphasis on instrumentation over vocals. Their second album ''Caracal'' is much more vocal-oriented, with a poppier sound fit for mainstream radio, while still maintaining their original UK garage style.

* The Music/FooFighters, after their PostGrunge-heavy first two albums (SelfTitledAlbum and ''The Colour and The Shape''), have decided to explore different styles - including an all-acoustic disc for their DistinctDoubleAlbum ''In Your Honour'', as well as disco on one side of ''Hail Satin''.[[note]]The last album was released under the name "Dee Gees"; the disco side was covers of songs by Music/{{the Bee Gees}} and their brother Music/AndyGibb.[[/note]]

* Music/{{Genesis|Band}}, which began as a vaguely psychedelic pop band with ''From Genesis To Revelation'' in 1969, changed to ProgressiveRock a year later with ''Music/TrespassGenesisAlbum''. They stayed this way even after Music/PeterGabriel's departure (and replacement by drummer Music/PhilCollins) in 1975. After the departure of longtime guitarist Steve Hackett and their reduction to a trio in 1978, they gradually began including shorter and more commercial-sounding songs (starting with "Follow You, Follow Me") into their repertoire by the late 1970's. The ''Music/{{Abacab}}'' album of 1981 found the group almost entirely abandoning their prog roots for a more streamlined, high-tech prog-pop sound, winning success on MTV and the Top 40. Though they gained a new audience, much of the [[BrokenBase older fanbase]] was alienated from the new style.

** ''Music/DemonDaysAlbum'' built off of the HipHop and AlternativeRock aspects of [[Music/GorillazAlbum their self-titled debut]], as well as introducing more guest features and {{Pop}} elements, at least compositionally. The actual ''tone'' of the album, became [[DarkerAndEdgier significantly darker and more cinematic]] than the "assorted mixtape" vibe of their debut, with much more directly political lyrics commenting on [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror the state of the world]] and celebrity culture.

* The Horrors switched from the gothy garage-punk of their first album ''Strange House'' to {{Shoegazing}} on their second album, ''Primary Colours''. They've [[GenreShift kept this style]] for their third album ''Skying''.

* Metalcore band In This Moment went for a less heavy sound in their second album ''The Dream'', diitching most of the growling vocals and {{Metal Scream}}s after vocalist Maria Brink expressed a desire to challenge herself with more clean-vocals songs. ''Blood'' saw yet another major shift to an industrial rock/nu metal hybrid, which is the sound that they've seemingly opted to keep.

* Music/ArcticMonkeys' ''Humbug'', a Music/PinkFloyd -influenced psychedelic album, quite different from the frantic garage-rock of their previous material.

** Their 2013 album ''AM'' is sort of a cross between Humbug and Suck It and See, with some R&B influences.

* Music/{{Beyonce}} did this with "4", moving away (not entirely, but largely) from hip-hop and dance music, going more towards old-style R'n'B and orchestral music. Then there was her SelfTitledAlbum, which saw her shift to the newly-created and rapidly rising PBR&B genre, heavily influenced by HipHop and ElectronicMusic. Then ''Lemonade'' came out flirting with many genres from Garage Rock, Soul Music, Trap Rap, and even Country music. Her seventh studio album, ''Renaissance'' (2022), put her back into the pop sphere but with more of a dance influence than her previous pop music.

* Music/{{Blur}} started as a roughly Madchester-style band with ''Leisure'', before transitioning to Britpop with ''Modern Life Is Rubbish''. Their later career basically consisted of four of these: ''Blur'' took inspiration from American indie rock and lo-fi bands such as Music/{{Pavement}}, ''13'' continued into more experimental territory, and ''Think Tank'' was kind of like ''13'', but with more electronic influences. Their comeback album ''The Magic Whip'' had lots of experimentation as well, taking cues from Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon's solo work, their Britpop career, and even David Bowie's Berlin trilogy.

* BT has changed sounds several times. His first album ''Ima'' was deep/progressive house, then he changed to drum&bass/trance/ambient/trip-hop for ''ESCM'' and ''Movement in Still Life'', then ''Emotional Technology'' was pop-trance, electro, and rock ballads. ''This Binary Universe'' was a complete GenreShift to experimental ambient and new age material (influenced by CreatorBreakdown due to his equipment being stolen and his daughter's kidnapping), then ''These Hopeful Machines'' ventured back down the ''Emotional Technology'' route, as well as incorporating elements of [=IDM=] and glitch-hop. ''If the Stars Are Eternal So are You and I'' and ''Morceau Subrosa'' are ambient follow-ups to ''TBU'', while ''A Song Across Wires'' is straight-up contemporary EDM.

* Music/TheClash changed their sound with ''Music/LondonCalling'', moving from outright punk to a heavily reggae and blues influenced sound. The seeds of this were seen on the previous album, ''Give 'Em Enough Rope'', most notably on Julie's Been Working From The Drug Squad that displayed heavy New Orleans Jazz influences. At the time it was derided for betraying "punk" but has since gone on to be considered one of the best albums of all time. Later albums also experimented with style, but to a lesser degree of success, although there are fans of ''Music/{{Sandinista}}'' and ''Combat Rock''. Most fans consider ''Cut The Crap'' (the band's final album) to be, well, crap.

* Music/{{Coldplay}} started as a soft, early-Music/{{Radiohead}}-esque band with 2000's ''Parachutes,'' then switched to a harder, more Music/{{U2}}-like sound on ''A Rush of Blood to the Head'' in 2002. 2005's ''X&Y'' averted this trope ([[ItsTheSameNowItSucks which many didn't like]]), but in 2008 ''Viva La Vida'' introduced a radically different art-rock/baroque pop/world beat sound reminiscent of Music/ArcadeFire. And then they changed again, with 2011 seeing the heavily electro-rock/R&B-influenced ''Mylo Xyloto'' (with guest vocals from, of all people, Music/{{Rihanna}}.) ''Ghost Stories'' wound up more like the U2-esque sound due to a CreatorBreakdown, but all albums ever since remained on the sonic landscapes of ''Viva La Vida'' and ''Mylo Xyloto''.

* Music/CrashTestDummies - ''Give Yourself A Hand'', which is a radical departure from their earlier folk rock. The album mixes Funk Rock, RnB, Chillout, Trip Hop, Drum & Bass and even includes a string ballad. Brad Roberts tries new vocal styles - in addition to his original baritone, he pulls off an impressive falsetto and even unleashes his inner Mike Patton/Anthony Kiedis on some of the funkier tracks, which have very raunchy lyrics. Ellen Reid, previously the backing singer, has lead vocals on a few songs. It is hard to believe this is the same band who did "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" a few years before.

* Music/{{Deftones}} have had something of a shift in sound with every album. ''Adrenaline'' was pretty much straight-out NuMetal, while ''Around the Fur'' had a similar direction, but included electronics and an overall slightly more experimental sound. ''White Pony'' was the biggest shift, switching the band from nu-metal to experimental rock with heavy use of samples. Their self-titled album had Frank Delgado using keyboards instead of turntables, and had a very eclectic sound (but overall heavier than ''White Pony''). ''Saturday Night Wrist'' and ''Diamond Eyes'' are the second big shift, being a lot more melodic and positive than their previous work.
* Music/DepecheMode, at least seven times. When original main songwriter Vince Clarke left after the first album (''Speak and Spell'') and Martin Gore (who had contributed a few songs) took over, the second album (''A Broken Frame'') was much more 'moody' sounding than Clarke's work while they were oddly marketed as a 'boy band'. For the next album (''Construction Time Again''), the classically-trained Alan Wilder, Clarke's replacement at live shows as a keyboard player, became an official member while Gareth Jones engineered and later produced -- and they helped shape what we know now as the band's sound as they started using samplers and the songs took a more dark and industrial turn, epitomized in ''Black Celebration''. After 3 albums together, DM and Jones had an amicable split and the next album, ''Music for the Masses'' had a similar sound but was largely self-produced with Dave Bascombe engineering. The biggest change may have been when Flood (who made a great team with Wilder) came in to produce ''Violator'', which introduced guitars as a staple and gave the world "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy the Silence". With grunge becoming huge and drug-addled lead singer Dave Gahan immersing himself in the local music scene after moving to LA, ''Songs of Faith and Devotion'', the second album with Flood, was full-on rock, while still recognizably Depeche Mode with the familiar songwriting themes and layered arrangements. Wilder left, and while ''Ultra'' was billed as a return to the ''Violator''-era sound, it unusually played with trip-hop influences in places. ''Exciter'' was essentially "the soft and sensual side of Depeche Mode". ''Playing the Angel'' went back to the more ''Violator''-style sound, and then in 2009 they released ''Sounds of the Universe'', which was yet again completely different from all of their other albums as they used old analogue synthesizers that Gore bought on eBay in new and bizarre ways. ''Delta Machine'' returned to a more muted and stripped-down style with a slight blues influence, similar to ''A Broken Frame'', but with more modern production elements. 2017's ''Spirit'' got a new producer in Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford, and with his involvement came an aggressive sound that is basically ''Songs of Faith and Devotion'' with more synthesizers and angry, openly political lyrics. That's it so far. Whew.

* [[Music/{{Devo}} Devo]] slowly started moving towards synthpop with ''Freedom of Choice'', and then suddenly changed to industrial dance on ''Total Devo'' and ''Smooth Noodle Maps''.

* Disclosure's first album ''Settle'' put heavy emphasis on instrumentation over vocals. Their second album ''Caracal'' is much more vocal-oriented, with a poppier sound fit for mainstream radio, while still maintaining their original UK garage style.

* The Music/FooFighters, after their PostGrunge-heavy first two albums (SelfTitledAlbum and ''The Colour and The Shape''), have decided to explore different styles - including an all-acoustic disc for their DistinctDoubleAlbum ''In Your Honour'', as well as disco on one side of ''Hail Satin''.[[note]]The last album was released under the name "Dee Gees"; the disco side was covers of songs by Music/{{the Bee Gees}} and their brother Music/AndyGibb.[[/note]]

* Music/{{Genesis|Band}}, which began as a vaguely psychedelic pop band with ''From Genesis To Revelation'' in 1969, changed to ProgressiveRock a year later with ''Music/TrespassGenesisAlbum''. They stayed this way even after Music/PeterGabriel's departure (and replacement by drummer Music/PhilCollins) in 1975. After the departure of longtime guitarist Steve Hackett and their reduction to a trio in 1978, they gradually began including shorter and more commercial-sounding songs (starting with "Follow You, Follow Me") into their repertoire by the late 1970's. The ''Music/{{Abacab}}'' album of 1981 found the group almost entirely abandoning their prog roots for a more streamlined, high-tech prog-pop sound, winning success on MTV and the Top 40. Though they gained a new audience, much of the [[BrokenBase older fanbase]] was alienated from the new style.

** ''Music/DemonDaysAlbum'' built off of the HipHop and AlternativeRock aspects of [[Music/GorillazAlbum their self-titled debut]], as well as introducing more guest features and {{Pop}} elements, at least compositionally. The actual ''tone'' of the album, became [[DarkerAndEdgier significantly darker and more cinematic]] than the "assorted mixtape" vibe of their debut, with much more directly political lyrics commenting on [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror the state of the world]] and celebrity culture.

* The Horrors switched from the gothy garage-punk of their first album ''Strange House'' to {{Shoegazing}} on their second album, ''Primary Colours''. They've [[GenreShift kept this style]] for their third album ''Skying''.

* Metalcore band In This Moment went for a less heavy sound in their second album ''The Dream'', diitching most of the growling vocals and {{Metal Scream}}s after vocalist Maria Brink expressed a desire to challenge herself with more clean-vocals songs. ''Blood'' saw yet another major shift to an industrial rock/nu metal hybrid, which is the sound that they've seemingly opted to keep.

* When The Cult started out, they were playing trippy psychedelic post-punk. With their third album, ''Electric'', they suddenly started playing [[Music/{{ACDC}} AC/DC-esque]] hard rock.

* One of the most radical shifts in style would be Everything but the Girl, the jazzy adult pop duo. When their song “Missing” became a massive hit after being subjected to a dance-oriented remix, they reinvented them as a synth-based techno-styled act. The result was another major case of BrokenBase.

* Music/FaithNoMore's ''Angel Dust'' mostly abandoned the funk-metal sound of the band's previous albums. It was the second album to feature Mike Patton, but the first in which he was involved from start to finish. Consequently, the album benefits from his ideas and the fact that he no longer had to sing in an unnatural style to accommodate the band. It's a much heavier album than their first three, while also drawing on an eclectic variety of influences and an equally varied collection of samples ("Midlife Crisis" samples both Music/SimonAndGarfunkel and Music/TheBeastieBoys).

* The Music/BeastieBoys have done this a few times. First with ''Music/PaulsBoutique'' they moved away from their more rap rock-oriented sound into eclectic genre hopping. ''Check Your Head'' and ''Ill Communication'' saw the band return to their roots as a late '70s hardcore punk band and integrating live instruments, resulting in a more alternative rock sound. ''Hello Nasty'' returned the band to rap, but added influences of electronica and club dance music. ''To the 5 Boroughs'' featured a return to a more alternative rap sound. Their final album, ''Hot Sauce Committee Part 2'', continued with a more stripped down version of what they were doing on ''To the 5 Boroughs''.

* Music/TheSpiceGirls released a third album, after Geri's departure titled ''Forever''. Their previous two albums had been pure bubblegum pop while ''Forever'' had a more R&B sound to it in an attempt to cultivate a maturer image. Reaction was incredibly mixed and it was the lowest selling Spice Girls album (though it did sell over 4 million copies worldwide).

* Music/AlterBridge: [[SerialEscalation Started out with what sounded like Classic Hard Rock, then gradually moved towards a darker, heavier sound on every subsequent album]].