10 Strange Music Albums By Mainstream Acts

It's not secret that, by the early '80s, Tom Waits found himself increasingly frustrated by the musical cul-de-sac in which he was seemingly trapped, stifled thanks to his own self-projection as 'bar-fly jazz crooner.' Over seven previous albums, the singer had built up a cult following and garnered critical acclaim, but no great commercial appeal.

It's fair to say that Waits was far more bothered by his inability to pin-point exactly what sort of sound he wished to communicate. That all changed with the release, in 1983, of Swordfishtrombones. It was a radical move. The singer changed his record label, manager, producer and personnel, and in doing so produced a set of extraordinary avant-garde rock which embraced everything from mad circus tunes and surrealism to improvised percussion and studio experimentation.

Listening back with hindsight, foreshadows of the revolutionary music to be found on Swordfishtrombones were present in the singer's earlier work. Even so, listeners were understandably shocked and surprised. Waits would never look back again, and the album remains one of the most striking examples of musical changes in direction to be found.