albums that were (possibly) made with the intention of alienating or narrowing the artist's fanbase

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recent threads about Dylan's Self Portrait and Prince's Around The World In A Day have focused on this angle. it kind of interests me, the idea that someone would get so big that they'd want to piss off a large segment of their audience, either with a strange or just plain bad album, not necessarily as career suicide but just to weed out the fair weather fans from the diehards

― Al (sitcom), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:35 (twenty years ago)

The Fall - Room to Live, Seminal Live, Sinister Waltz, Fiend with a Violin, Oswald Defense Lawyer, Are You Are Missing Winner, Interim

― The Argunaut (sexyDancer), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:38 (twenty years ago)

The Liars: They Were Wrong, So We Drowned.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:39 (twenty years ago)

Boo Radleys - C'mon kids.

in fact any boo radleys album

theyve managed to aliebate both the hard core fan base with the commercial Wake up, then alienate that fan base with C'mon Kids.

― Danny boy, Monday, 14 March 2005 16:39 (twenty years ago)

Flowers of Romance - PiL

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:40 (twenty years ago)

Lou Reed - Sally Can't Dance, Metal Machine Music, Take No Prisoners, The Blue Mask, The Raven

― The Argunaut (sexyDancer), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:41 (twenty years ago)

Pulp - This is Hardcore.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:42 (twenty years ago)

I always thought Pitman's debut album was a deliberate attempt to make sure he didn't have a novelty crossover hit.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:44 (twenty years ago)

Broken by Nine Inch Nails seemed to be designed to scare off the more mainstream pop-inclined factions of Trent's audience. Not sure if it really worked, though.

In Utero seemed to attempt the same....unsuccessfully.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:45 (twenty years ago)

see, I don't want to edge to close into crossing over completely with the "failed follow-up albums" thread. more evidence, pls, like quotes from the artist that imply that they were anticipating or even hoping for a dropoff in sales/fans.

― Al (sitcom), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:45 (twenty years ago)

xpost to Lou Reed albums:

The first three I might agree with. But the last two? Not that I like the Raven- actually I've steered clear of it, so I've never heard it.

Neil Young - Trans.
The (English) Beat - Wh'appen.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:46 (twenty years ago)

ooh, In Utero's another good example. it probably would've succeeded in losing a lot of Nevermind fans if they'd lasted past that album.

― Al (sitcom), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:46 (twenty years ago)

It's difficult to stick to the rules on this thread, as it was on Dadaismus's Songwriters Mentioning Other Songwriters thread.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:48 (twenty years ago)

Metal Machine Music?

The last 3 Radiohead albums?

― mei (mei), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:49 (twenty years ago)

xpost: Blue Mask is where Reed sings about his house in suburbs, how only a woman can love a man, how he's just "an average guy." All this after being the poster boy for sexual deviance. The Raven, well it really has to be heard to be believed.

― The Argunaut (sexyDancer), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:50 (twenty years ago)

i give you "dazzle ships" by OMD: eighties popsters go gloriously, wonderfully left-field with a typewriter, a radio and a speak-and-spell machine, decimating their sales in the name of art.

tragically, they followed that up by hiring a horn section and going to montserrat. twats.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:50 (twenty years ago)

Rain Dogs

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:53 (twenty years ago)

really, Rain Dogs? I guess that didn't work out too well, did it?

― Al (sitcom), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:54 (twenty years ago)

Extremities, Dirt & Various Repressed Emotions by Killing Joke -- while hailed as a "return to form" -- seemed to purposely bury the needle in the aggro department, possibly to scare off people who'd embraced their respective 'glossy pop' and 'ham-fisted prog' phases (Brighter Than a Thousand Suns and Outside the Gate).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:55 (twenty years ago)

Radiohead's attmepts to go "art" also sold shitloads

― The Argunaut (sexyDancer), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:56 (twenty years ago)

EMF's second album. full on noisy stuff to scare off those who jumped on board cos of the pop hit .. and it worked. no-one bought it.

― mark e (mark e), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:57 (twenty years ago)

Blue Mask is where Reed sings about his house in suburbs
Good point. But at that point the only way he could be outrageous anymore was to talk about how straight he was, plus he reintroduced weird sounding guitars plus he namechecked Delmore Schwartz, so I say it was an attempt to win back his former audience.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:58 (twenty years ago)

Or would it have been Swordfish Trombones?

Anyway, sure Tom Waits only gotten more popular but it must have killed his lounge singer/romantic comedy soundtrack/safe for your mom image.

xposts

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:58 (twenty years ago)

Angels With Dirty Faces and Juxtapose by Tricky, although there are purchase-worthy high points to both IMO.

― maria b (maria b), Monday, 14 March 2005 17:00 (twenty years ago)

I hate to bring the man up again, but hasn't Elvis C. doing this on every other album he's made since circa 1985?

The approximate cycle is: rock album, then "other" [country, jazz, klezmer, R&B] album, then rock album--prompting rockist critics to express relief that he's "gone back to rocking after his [rockabilly, bluegrass, baroque] detour." Then he makes a [raga, a capella, salsa] album, and then a rock album that prompts rockist critics to express relief that he's come back to rock....

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Monday, 14 March 2005 17:39 (twenty years ago)

ABC, "Beauty Stab"

OTM on "Blue Mask." Lou is way scarier bleating "SYYYYYLVIIIIIAAAAA!" than talking about heroin.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 14 March 2005 17:41 (twenty years ago)

Melvins: Prick, Stag, Honky, Electroretard, Colossus of Destiny, Singles 1-12, etc, etc

― The Argunaut (sexyDancer), Monday, 14 March 2005 17:45 (twenty years ago)

the first thing i thought was the Liars

Tim Buckley seemed to do it first with the avant Lorca & Starsailor and then with the soul on Welcome to LA.

― The JaXoN 5 (JasonD), Monday, 14 March 2005 17:48 (twenty years ago)

Bonnie Prince Billy Plays Greatest Palace Music

He almost lost me.

― giboyeux (skowly), Monday, 14 March 2005 17:57 (twenty years ago)

The Holy Bible

― Si Carter (Si Carter), Monday, 14 March 2005 18:17 (twenty years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000000WDA.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 14 March 2005 18:57 (twenty years ago)

Dylan (besides Self-Portrait):
Long Train Coming
Saved
Shot of Love

Lennon's first four solo albums through Plastic Ono Bands ("I don't believe in Beatles")

― Lovey, Monday, 14 March 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)

Agree about "Plastic Ono Band". However, it doesn't seem to me that "Imagine" was an attempt to alienate his fans.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)

theyve managed to aliebate both the hard core fan base with the commercial Wake up, then alienate that fan base with C'mon Kids.

And then, those hardcore fans that might have forgiven them after the "return to form" on "C'Mon Kids" were probably pissed with the relatively pop oriented "King Size"

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:09 (twenty years ago)

How about the White Album, at least in part?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:11 (twenty years ago)

Everything Neil Young did in the eighties?

― darin (darin), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden

― PB, Monday, 14 March 2005 19:35 (twenty years ago)

REM's Monster.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:36 (twenty years ago)

Beck's "Stereopathetic Soulmanure"

― Aerodynamic (Aerodynamic), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

Zooropa certainly sounds like an attempt to scale back. I don't think they were going for mass popularity with songs like Numb and Lemon.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:50 (twenty years ago)

it seems like there's a tension in these responses: is the artist alienating their fanbase or POTENTIAL, post-breatkthrough fanbase?

wowee zowee

― jake b. (cerybut), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:52 (twenty years ago)

The Byrds - "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" 1968

I can't claim to know if this was an attempt at narrowing an audience, but what could they expect with this headlong dive into country music?

Anyway, most musicians fight hard to find an audience to begin with. It's hard to believe that even the most vain among them would attempt to weed out imagined "poser fans." I think a more likely scenario is that of the musician as avatar. Musicians follow their muses and hope to lead their audiences with them...whether it's into the american countryside or into the metal machine.

― mono.mono, Monday, 14 March 2005 21:51 (twenty years ago)

Air - 10,000 mghz Legend; A highly calculated attempt, and somewhat successful it seems.

― Steve Gertz (sgertz), Monday, 14 March 2005 22:05 (twenty years ago)

Beck's "Stereopathetic Soulmanure"

In fact, more or less every single Beck album...

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 14 March 2005 22:27 (twenty years ago)

Coltrane - Meditations
Sandanistas??

― theophilus jones (theophilus), Monday, 14 March 2005 22:52 (twenty years ago)

I don't know if he has ever intended to get rid of his fans, but David Bowie has certainly run the risk several times throughout his career.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 00:20 (twenty years ago)

The Promise Ring - Wood/Water

― earinfections (Nick Twisp), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 00:37 (twenty years ago)

Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star (to name his first attempt)

― Deluxe (Damian), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 03:52 (twenty years ago)

Will Oldham seems to be fond of doing this, to the point that it's kind of *what he does*. I think the whole thing where he keeps changing names (Palace, Palace Brothers, Palace Music, Will Oldham, Bonnie Prince Billy, Superwolf) is part of it. Doing the single with Tweaker of NIN, the almost too-tender Master and Everyone, his general pattern of covering stuff you wouldn't think he'd cover, etc.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 04:07 (twenty years ago)

Tori Amos's "From The Choirgirl Hotel" must have scared off some of her crunchiest fan contingent. Good thing, too - it's her best album by a mile...

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 05:44 (twenty years ago)

Scott Walker to thread

― dronez are not ours to eat, dronez are not ours to wear (smile), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 07:17 (twenty years ago)

Black Flag - everything after Damaged
Autechre - Confield
Black Dice - Beaches & Canyons
surely heaps of Sonic Youth's more indulgent records

― dronez are not ours to eat, dronez are not ours to wear (smile), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 07:25 (twenty years ago)

i'm not sure scott walker ever really did this. maybe "scott 4" qualifies.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 07:46 (twenty years ago)

not saying every one did. sorry if it came off that way. he's just an artist with a real penchant for audience alienation. to name names: Scott 4, Tilt, and Til The Band Comes In seem the most fitting.

― dronez are not ours to eat, dronez are not ours to wear (smile), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 08:07 (twenty years ago)

i think i misread that altogether. i gotta get some sleep.

― dronez are not ours to eat, dronez are not ours to wear (smile), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 08:09 (twenty years ago)

ayler's "new grass"?

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 08:28 (twenty years ago)

Green day - whatever that pile of shit was called that they released after Dookie

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:00 (twenty years ago)

Mr. Bungle's Disco Volante. Not possibly, but SPECIFICALLY.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:04 (twenty years ago)

Actually, in a way, California really was as well. I think everything they've done since that first album has been attempts to piss off the dorky funk-metal goobers who loved their first album so.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:05 (twenty years ago)

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