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Detour Albums
Neil Young baffled fans with "Trans." Bjork growled throughout "Medulla." And Frank Sinatra tanked with "Watertown." When musical artists take a sharp left turn in their careers, the albums that result can be awful, weird -- or truly groundbreaking. Zeth Lundy, music columns and features editor for PopMatters.com, joins us for a look at "detour albums."
Our blog: John Schaefer on detour albums
Tell us about a detour album that surprised you.
"Detour Albums" feature on PopMatters.com
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Don't forget Pat Boone's "In a Metal Mood"
I'm trying to, but it just won't go away.
Most Beatles fans know that McCartney was one of the first to heavy experimentation with unconventional sounds. He was making this kind of stuff way back in 1966. Though Lennon is usually given the credit for being the "far-out" one, McCartney was far more adventurous, sound-wise, than he.
Peter Gabriel's Passion was one of my favourite detour album
Radiohead's Kid A
Neil Young's detour album was "Tonight's the Night," which was supposed to follow "Harvest" and which Neil's record company shelved for 2 years, releasing it in 1975. "TTN" was a real detour, several years before Trans.
I think any good musician is interested in genres other than the one they specialize in---"detour" albums are a natural result of a healthy musical curiousity
One good "Detour Album" would be Paul Simon and his Graceland album. It was quite a departure from his Garfunkel complilations and moved into the world music genre. This detour has taken him on his new permanent road of this genre of music. I loves it!
And don't forget Stevie Wonder's instrumental album under the name "Eivets Rednow" from 1968. Lots of great harmonica.
But are they really detours? Didn't Elvis make a living on Christmas music? Dolly Parton? Many of the greats have done Seasonal Albums, A good number have done children's music and faith related... I think its more of another avenue of income...
I personally really loved David Bowie's "Earthling" - I read that he wrote and recorded it in something like 14 days. It was all bonkers techno/electronica, and pretty amazing for what it was.
Kiss "Dynasty" album...capitalized on the disco era of the 70s...realllllyyy awful!
great show...
one question..when is an album truly a detour vs. an evolution of an artist? For instance...Beck's albums have gone from paste-DIY-beat driven-mash-up style of Mellow Gold to something like Sea Change and even Modern Lies?
Miles Davis must be the king of detour albums. He went from hard bop to "cool", then went minimalast with "Kind of Blue", then his rock/electonic stuff of the late 60's was totally out of left field.
KISS, the "Gods of Thunder" themselves, know for such heavy hits as "Detroit Rock City" and "I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night" caving to the disco pressure and putting out "I Was Made for Loving you??" E-gads!
I always thought of Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" as a detour album, since we're on the topic of Dylan.
I consider it a detour album because of the intimate songwriting and lyrics. I feel like many would disagree because it "sounded" typically Dylan, but I disagree.
isn't highway 61 revisited a desert island keeper?
Elvis Costello's "Juliette Letters" is the pinnacle of his intriguing reinventions.
Also - whatever happened to Paul Weller and The Jam between the blistering punk and the end of their reign preceding/predicting Style Council? I appreciated both, but sure missed the energy of the early years.
How about Linda Ronstadt's many eddies of detour albums, notably her collection of boleros, "Frenesi" which is really well produced and beautifully realized.
John,
How abut Dee Dee Ramones Rap Album! Hilarious.
Dave
Hi,
Interesting show...but how come it has to be all about rock music? what about Keith Jarrett's "Spirits"--great detour album--basically no piano, mostly ethnic instruments recorded in his own basement, etc.
RADIOHEAD'S KID A!
Mentioning Bjork's Medulla reminded me of my favorite detour musician- Mike Patton, who is one of the musicians on the Bjork album. He is always changing directions and I am almost always pleasantly surprised.
Bjork: thanks. Ten more minutes, two more minutes of Bjork and I would have confessed. However whatever wherever why ever she does it, I pray to god I don't have to know about it, much less hear it. If I had to choose cod liver oil on anything and everything I ever ate again or Bjork, I would happily prefer the cod liver oil.
U2's "Achtung Baby." It was almost as if an entirely new rock band had hit the scene! Also, it must be one the best "follow-up to a smash hit" albums.
And, BACK to Bob Dylan, doesn't "Nashville Skyline" count as a totally differnt sound and direction for Dylan?
Bruce Springsteen's recent "Seeger Sessions" is also a dramatically brand new sound from a very familiar artist.
It's Rickie Lee Jones' Ghostyhead! With lines like...
Roadkill
What's the matter with it? why's it look that way?
What's the matter with it? what's it trying to say?
What's that on its back? where's it trying to go?
A mystical vision got dressed up one night
Locked the door, walked through the misty porch light
Headed over to somebody's house
For an occasion long awaited
As it crossed the road, vista del mar
and
Firewalker
Everybody's been hit
Everybody's been hurt
Everybody's been kicked
Everybody's been dirt
Then again Jones has always had a masterful tongue. it's the music..two basses, beats and eerie whirlygigs. This is beat hip hop. Respectable and Cinematic!
Listened to the Soundcheck show about this, and loved the article. But one omission just glares:
What, no Elvis Costello? A county album (Almost Blue), a pop-album-cum-string-quartet (The Juliet Letters) or collaboration with Burt F’in’ Bachrach??(Painted From Memory). Every Costello album is unique in some way, but these were head scratchers at the time they were released.
Joni Mitchell has made a career out of detour albums.
I have actually come to love Slow Train Coming. When it first came out, "Gotta Serve Somebody" was a huge it and, while I sort of chuckled at it, the monster groove could not be denied. So years later (a few years ago), I decided to check out the album and was more than pleasantly surprised. It's a vigorous album with great songs and the Muscle Shoals sound can't be beat. It's my personal opinion that Dylan immersed himself in Christianity as a way to reenergize his songwriting with new imagery and concepts. A song like "Jokerman" from Infidels would not have been possible without the Christian phase. As for Saved, it's definitely a weaker record but when judged against most white gospel sounds pretty good.
As for a detour that put me off a band for years, Killing Joke's Outside the Gate would have to take the cake. I was a huge fan and bought the lead-off single ("America") when it came out in 1988. It was so wretched that I ignored all their subsequent releases until 2003. Now I have gone back and found that I missed some good albums but Outside the Gate still sounds terrible. I recently learned that it was originally supposed to be Jaz Coleman's (lead singer) solo album but the record company insisted on using the KJ name!
Great subject - I look forward to reading the complete articles on Pop Matters. And who knows, maybe I'll love Watertown this time around!
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