Mood whiplash, Music edition

What are some cases of mood whiplash you\'ve encountered with music, either with MP 3 shuffling or actual albums? Heres one that happened to me today involving my mp3 player. Alice Cooper\'s lighthearted \"I Love America\" segued into Heaven and Hell\'s dark \"Bible Black\".

Cowboy Troy's first album, twice. Most of the album is a bizarrely engaging fusion of crunk and country, then halfway through comes the dead-serious ballad "If You Don't Wanna Love Me", with a haunting chorus by Sarah Buxton. Then when that ends, you suddenly have Larry the Cable Guy bellowing "Git-r-done" and introducing the next party jam.

Orbital did this to themselves, in a single song. Their live version of "Halcyon" starts off as this upbeat semi-ambient techno. Right in the middle, without any warning, they throw in a frickin' Bon Jovi vocal sample. "Boop boop boop, wordless female vocals, boop boop boop boop SHOT TO THE HEART, AND YOU'RE TO BLAME!"

I love it.

This happens to me A LOT when I play my music in shuffle because my phone doesn't have the "stops playing after this track" function. All the music apps from the Google Play Store at my region don't have the function too. A few examples that I can think of:

• Blur's "Country House", followed by Radiohead's "Everything in Its Right Place"
• The xx's "VCR", followed by Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK"
• Dusty Springfield's "The Look of Love", followed by The Beatles' "Helter Skelter"
• Joni Mitchell's "River", followed by Madonna's "Like A Virgin"

Most radio stations at my place that play music from various eras are guilty of this. One day, one of them played Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way". The next suitable song to play immediately after that? Nicki Minaj's "Starships" of course!

A local station once played "Long Black Train" by Josh Turner followed by "The Outsiders" by Eric Church. Because follows a song styled like a 1940's bluegrass-gospel tune better than the most metal-sounding country song ever to hit the country Top 40.

I feel like there could be a less fitting Nicki single to follow that up with - perhaps "Anaconda".

I already put this in the mood whiplash page for music, but The Zombies' minor-key, War Is Hell song "Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914)" sounds pretty out of place on Odessey And Oracle in general, but it's particularly jarring after the optimistic "This Will Be Our Year". I do like "Butcher's Tale" anyway - I tend to support the one track on any album most people don't like as an "underdog", and I guess you could argue the rest of the album needed a darker counterpoint somewhere.

edited 1st Feb '15 4:14:51 PM by MikeK

This happens with Nicki Minaj quite frequently. On the deluxe version of The Pinkprint, track sixteen, the somber, violin assisted ballad about heartbreak is followed by the hardcore, sexually charged trap song Big Daddy.

On my phone I have the hardcore rap song "Worldwide Choppers" by TechN9ne immediately followed by the breakup ballad "Love T.K.O." by Teddy Pendergrass.

I also have the intense, horror-inspired "Stress" by Justice followed by the cheery, bouncy Vocaloid electropop song "Reverse Rainbow"... which is also followed immediately by Kahimi Karie's "David Hamilton", a song about a man who takes erotic photos of a little girl.

edited 10th May '15 7:09:51 PM by PhysicalStamina

Blur: Trailerpark. It's 4 minutes long, so won't take TOO long to listen to.

Two immediately come to mind:

• On One of Us Is the Killer, the transition from "When I Lost My Bet", which is very heavy and features almost completely screamed lyrics and a lot of time signature changes, to the title track, which has a straightforward beat, a very mellow melody, and which is sung almost in a falsetto in the verses.
• The stretch of tracks on tool's Ænima album running from "Forty Six & 2" through "Jimmy"; those songs bounce through several different moods and can be very jarring on first listen.

edited 11th May '15 6:36:09 AM by Willbyr

I've got the first American Now! That's What I Call Music compilation on my computer because it makes for a good dose of nostalgia once in a while. It's bizarre enough that "Karma Police" by Radiohead is on it, but it's placed directly after "Barbie Girl" by Aqua of all songs.

One just happened while I was listening to my playlist today. In order: TVC 15 by David Bowie, Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees, I Am All Of Me (Final Doom ver.) by Crush 40, then back to relaxed in Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai, THEN back to intense in It's Time to Die by DAGames, and after that came Within by Daft Punk.

The I Am All Of Me part was pretty much a Jump Scare, the sudden intro considered.

edited 26th Aug '15 8:14:31 AM by DarkDestruction

Jandek's "Chair Beside a Window". Opens with the acoustic, melancholic "Down in a Mirror", then out of nowhere a full band, electric version of "European Jewel" comes in at full volume.

Once I had a campus internet radio show called 'Deathcult for Eternity'. On one airing I played a song off of Angelcorpse's ''Exterminate'' before switching to Gentle Giant. I had some very confused messages from listeners on facebook.

edited 26th Aug '15 11:26:43 AM by StillbornMachine

Motorpsycho - Trapdoor

Here's one within the boundaries of a single song. I just love how subtle the mood change is: this starts as one of the saddest alternative rock songs I know, with the minor chords, the piano, the lyrics... But as it segues into the final solo, it switches to the major, the fuzzy bass chimes in, there's a banjo... By the end of the track you may forget just on what low note it started out.

edited 5th Sep '15 2:41:53 PM by Small_Mess

Yesterday i was listening to XM Radio's The Pulse station, and they went from Adele's Hello to Green Day's Holiday. Jarring to go from a sad sounding song like that to a bouncy pop-punk song. Whats odder is that Holiday is completely different from the format of the rest of the station (before the adele song they played Matt Nathanson and Safetysuit, which at least did fit the stations format).

SOPHIE's PRODUCT is sort of made of tonal whiplash. It's pretty great.

In a single song, The Olivia Tremor Control's "The Sylvan Screen", St. Vincent's "Huey Newton", and any number of longer Ludus and This Heat songs have some really alarming musical gear changes.

Issues are the masters at doing this in the same song. They switch from one vocalist's Harsh Vocals and Metal Screams to another's '90s Boy Band-esque R&B singing at a moment's notice.

I fully agree with this.