10 Albums That Turned Out Nothing Like You Expected

Some albums can never hope to live up to fan expectations.

Perhaps the record is years in the making, or the follow up of an unexpectedly huge hit. Regardless of the context, plenty of albums are doomed to be disappointing long before they are even unleashed on the world. After all, Yeezus could have literally led to the second coming of Jesus himself, and it still wouldn't have been My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Other albums were always going to blow away fans and critics. Maybe it's because the artist never enjoyed much success with critics before and as such expectations are low for their new release, or maybe it's just because they'd had a while out of the limelight and the fact that they're back guaranteed anything passable would receive a fond reception.

But some albums, whether good or bad, signaled a huge shift in an artist’s sounds and aesthetic, and this fundamental change was one no one could have predicted. Some of the albums on this list were immediately adored whilst others were abhorred. Some have been vindicated by time, whilst others were well liked at the time and are now considered the beginning of the end.

But every one of these ten was an unexpected release that changed an artist's sound for good, turning out nothing like fans expected them they would.

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.