Reunion albums that sound nothing like at all like the band

I am listening to Can's Rite Time and despite its general jankiness it's a genuinely funny album, in part because it sounds nothing AT ALL like any era of Can. If you didn't know I don't think you'd ever guess it was them. Was trying to think of other reunion/comeback albums where this is the case but could only come up with Technodon by Yellow Magic Orchestra. Maybe 80's King Crimson but that's a very different thing. ILM, what you got??

Celtic Frost's Monotheist isn't a perfect example, but it was different enough from their classic period that although many loved it, there's a large portion of the fanbase that arched an eyebrow. the classic riffing style was replaced by a more atmospheric, groovy low end style.

Then after they split again and Tom G Warrior created Triptykon, who had a similar sound and did it better, it made more sense (and I retroactively came to appreciate Monotheist when I realized what Tom was trying to do).

I haven't listened to it in years but I'm sure some of "Rite Time" sounds like Can. Sounds more like some of Holger Czukay's solo work though maybe?

Wire

yeah it does sound kinda like their solo work but I don't think it sounds a thing like any Can record outside of maybe Flow Motion (at least "Give the Drummer Some" does). that's what happened with the YMO record too, if you listen to their 90s solo work you can see where it comes from but I'd imagine most of the people who heard it don't know that stuff and were confused why it sounded like that

That's a funny album to choose, because I read an article about Can in 1990, and, never having heard them, called up my local college radio to request anything they had. They played "Like A New Child" and, though I still haven't heard the whole record, I wouldn't call that song very atypical for the band.

"Nothing at all" is a high hurdle to leap, but maybe Rain Tree Crow?

From memory "Like a New Child" is one of the most atypical songs on the album.

Wire are an interesting example, although I would say the jump from 154 to The Ideal Copy is not as wide as if they had reunited with Manscape or The Drill.

As a big fan of the propulsive drums being a main ingredient in the MBV recipe, I'll say MBV (the album).

Mr Bungle may have done some shitty thrash in their youth, but precisely nobody wanted them to bring it back for their reunion

offtm

You could say that Jefferson Airplane doesn't sound a whole lot like any of the albums the band recorded under that name – but given all the branch-offs and side projects in the '70s & '80s, it certainly wasn't a jarring evolution.

maybe not a huge departure, but Two Against Nature is a huge step back in scale from the prior Dan albums.

Chinese Democracy probably wins this one

Oh yeah that’s a good one

Wait though… Isn’t that like the opposite of a reunion album? Lol

well reunion in that the 'band' got back together, albeit with a completely different cast

We wanted to go back to just one guy and some hired guys in a room

i like how some people will just use a name over time no matter what they do. its just a brand. like red krayola. or faust. and whatever they do musically will somehow just end up being red krayola music or faust music. sui generis type people. i remember getting some of that 21st century cindytalk stuff on editions mego and hey thats what cindytalk is now. i don't even know who cindytalk IS anymore. but it doesn't matter. they make cindytalk music.

this doesn't really have anything to do with reunions though. sorry.

Faust is kind of the opposite of this, when I first heard them I thought they were way different than the 71-74 records, but they're more similar than you think. main thing is they just don't write songs anymore.

In a similar vein, Neu! 86 or even more so the Neu! 4 version Dinger put out.

yeah big difference between Rother and Dinger's version there, Dinger's version is really heavy on the anthemic synth stuff and eliminates the one track that really does sound like classic Neu!, while Rother's is exactly the sort of good-but-not-classic reunion you'd expect

though speaking of Krautrock duos maybe Qua by Cluster is one of these, same deal where if you heard Moebius's concurrent solo albums it would make sense but if you only knew the other Cluster albums it would sound way out of place

Cluster made all sorts of different albums anyway though.

Never, ever would I have expected the same band that made Beat Rhythm News to make this but otoh it's fun and catchy so maybe I should have expected it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8AYff-uytU