10 Albums That Turned Out Nothing Like You Expected

10. Metal Machine Music—Lou Reed

Okay, yes, you probably saw this one coming. But come on, when was the last time a popular musician brought out anything as strange, as jarring and grating, as downright insane as Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music?

The most infamously unexpected album here, this effort from the Velvet Underground mastermind is exactly what its title sounds like: grinding, clanking machinery.

For track, after track, after track.

If you've never really wondered what that sounds like, then congratulations! You're in good company, as few Reed fans, mainstream music critics, or even people in general had ever given much thought to the sounds industrial machinery could produce.

And this album didn't lead many people to give it much more thought, either.

Though Reed later claimed to have invented heavy metal in what was presumably just a diabolical pun, not many fans wanted to hear more random clanking from the man who brought you Satellite of Love, and whilst the album signalled Reed's shift into more experimental territory, it was the first and last truly outre record of his long career.