Biggest sound changes between albums

How about Mike Oldfield from Incantations to Platinum and his 80's albums? I'm sure he had many other dramatic leaps in his sound from one album to the next. Rick Wakeman should have some very notable changes of sound between some of his albums, going from prog rock (or at least rock) to solo piano or New Age.

Edited by Dellinger - 4 hours 27 minutes ago at 16:06

Logan wrote: 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.

The OP said no albums with a gap longer than 5 years. It makes sense.

Edited by Cristi - 8 hours 36 minutes ago at 11:57

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.

moshkito wrote: Jacob Schoolcraft wrote: ... however my personal preference was in the deepness of Bridget Wishart. I liked her costumes ...her theatrics...her masks!! and renditions of Robert Calvert songs. I really liked her emulation and original style the best. She could role play characters and her stage presence was unique in Hawkwind. Hi, Not sure what the whole thing was about, but she was definitely a special touch in the life of Hawkwind, but it never got off that macho thing in loudness, and not allow for Bridget to shine even more and that album is really good and has some far out touches ... but I suppose that DB thought it would sidetrack the "trip" for the band ... something that nowadays, looks a bit ridiculous and very silly, and for me, the band died after those albums. I have not enjoyed listening to anything since, and in fact, stopped buying altogether, including side albums.

That is very sad and I agree with you. Hawkwind did have a good run of albums from different time periods. The early albums were unique and then by 1975 they used a Mellotron on Hall Of The Mountain Grill and then Warrior On The Edge Of Time. Hawkwind and Man toured the U.S. together in 74' and then things changed when Bob Calvert became the frontman for Hawkwind and wrote stories about the future...which I found fascinating.

After Calvert Hugh Lloyd Langton who had a brief stay and appeared on the first album..returned...and along with Ginger Baker the Levitation album along with 5 or 6 more albums was a good run of material. Then Bridget Wishart...then Hawkwind as a 3 piece band...then Ron Tree joining which was okay...however I wasn't thrilled with the direction they took thereafter. Arthur Brown would sometimes perform with the band and forget the words to the songs...then Blood Of The Earth...Insomnia and others were not magical to me. I can certainly understand why fans of Hawkwind would like those albums and perhaps it's just my preference and they didn't grow on me. I wish I could still enjoy their music. I was always thrilled over the idea that they hired real Sci-Fi writers to create concepts and of course lyricism

Jacob Schoolcraft wrote: ... however my personal preference was in the deepness of Bridget Wishart. I liked her costumes ...her theatrics...her masks!! and renditions of Robert Calvert songs. I really liked her emulation and original style the best. She could role play characters and her stage presence was unique in Hawkwind.

Hi,

Not sure what the whole thing was about, but she was definitely a special touch in the life of Hawkwind, but it never got off that macho thing in loudness, and not allow for Bridget to shine even more and that album is really good and has some far out touches ... but I suppose that DB thought it would sidetrack the "trip" for the band ... something that nowadays, looks a bit ridiculous and very silly, and for me, the band died after those albums. I have not enjoyed listening to anything since, and in fact, stopped buying altogether, including side albums.

Cristi wrote: verslibre wrote: One of the single biggest changes happened between Goblin's 1980 soundtrack Contamination and the disco-fueled pop rock of their studio LP Volo two years later. Its sole instrumental, "Est," was a leftover they later used again for the Notturno soundtrack. That's a strange one indeed, but i guess Goblin split in two in the early 80s, just check the line-up for Volo and that of Tenebre OST. I like the Tenebre soundtrack.

Indeed, Simonetti, Morante and Pignatelli created Tenebre, but Pignatelli is also on Volo.

Jacob Schoolcraft wrote: ...  to Electric Teepee....a huge change in structure by returning to more of a Space Rock style of jamming. Gone was the Metal oriented style and they returned to repetitive Space Rock jamming ...though it differed from the Space Ritual sound because of new keyboards. ...

Sean Trane wrote: About Supersister, if Iskander was a departure from Pudding, what shall we say about Spiral Staircase compared top either of them?  ... let's give Mosh a break, will ya Pedro survived the Summer Of Love in Frisco in 67.... So if his often overlong  posts are always a bit difficult to comprehend, there aren't spelling many mistakes or stutters that would lead anyone to think he's drunk. He might still have not come down from his last LSD trip (whenever that was), but he's not drunk.

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. < defer="" ="https://static.cloudflareinsights.com/beacon.min.js/vcd15cbe7772f49c399c6a5babf22c1241717689176015" integrity="sha512-ZpsOmlRQV6y907TI0dKBHq9Md29nnaEIPlkf84rnaERnq6zvWvPUqr2ft8M1aS28on72PdrCzSjY4U6VaAw1EQ==" -cf-beacon=""rayId":"92ead60cee87ef9d","Timing":"name":"cfExtPri":true,"cfL4":true,"cfSpeedBrain":true,"cfCacheStatus":true,"version":"2025.3.0","token":"717409392a644498b4dbcbfbeafd4181"" crossorigin="anonymous">

One of the single biggest changes happened between Goblin's 1980 soundtrack Contamination and the disco-fueled pop rock of their studio LP Volo two years later. Its sole instrumental, "Est," was a leftover they later used again for the Notturno soundtrack.