I struggled to think of a bad band that made a surprisingly good album. My reasoning that if I didn’t like them I probably never got into them.

On the other hand are there bands that took a leftfield change of direction that got you into them?

I did not like Radioheads first 3 albums but then they made Kid A. That was a revelation. I was listening to Orbital and The Prodigy at the time. Kid A really pricked my ears towards Radiohead.

Bands that changed direction that turned me off ..
Genesis
Kings of Leon ..to name but two..

Back to the OP’s thread..

Never been into Country music ..but Sturgill Simpson ( a country artist) has just released a rock album “Sound & Fury ” ..which I’ve been listening to a lot..

Turn off directions
The Clash-Sandinista
New Order – post factory records
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry – Nothing Wrong
Pitch shifter – post Industrial
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – post Tupelo, I bought every L.P. but it never had the same excitement as those and the the Birthday Party
Rammstein – Rosenrot

Turn on directions
Ministry – The Land of Rape and Honey (until Filth Pig then turned off)
The Prodigy – post The Fat of the Land
The Beastie Boys – post their early punk days
Rowland S Howard – Pop Crimes

Pop Will Eat Itself started as a shit punk act then switched to Intergalactic Punk Rock Hip Hop and were awesome!

Daftpunk: Random Access Memories onwards. They always had a good groove but adding natural voice and some guitar broadened their appeal.

Fleetwod mac. The original band was generic blues rock, the addition of the American pair produced some pop classics.

Die Arzte: from generic punk to all sorts of styles with a punk attitude.

Bands that changed direction that turned me off ..
Genesis

Agreed. A bit meh post Peter Gabriel.

Fleetwod mac. The original band was generic blues rock, the addition of the American pair produced some pop classics.

Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac were far far better than the later pop group. Oh alright Rumours is pretty good, but…

Agreed. A bit meh post Peter Gabriel.

More so after Steve Hackett left, then it became Phil Collins and a couple of other blokes as his backing band – Hackett’s guitar added that distinctive sound that identified Genesis.

Slipknot – we are not your kind.

Far better than I expected. In fact it’s really good.

Last time I listened to slipknot was 1999 and it was all shouty. This one has shouty corey Taylor but also singing corey Taylor.

Check out “unsainted” and “my pain”

Depeche Mode springs to mind, started as a truly teenie pop act (not certain they ever managed to fully lose that label), then went left field all experimental industrial and then carried on being a bit more grown up

Wind Rose: First two albums were basically Euro Metal by numbers, then they hit upon their whole Dwarven Metal schtick, gave their sound a whole load more earthy oomph (technical term) and it was off to the races.

They’re great fun live too if you like your silly metal… which I unabashedly do.

Opeth got good, to me, when they ditched the growling and sang properly.

Taylor Swift when she went less country.

Talk Talk – Spirit of Eden is the obvious one for me. Signs were there on Colour of Spring (Chameleon Day should really have been the final track on that album). They’d made some fantastic pop music beforehand, proving capable musicians. Then Spirit of Eden came out, an album with absolutely NO pop pretentions whatsoever, just some of the most beautiful music you’ll ever hear. They refused to tour it; I think they knew it couldn’t be recreated live and most of the audience wouldn’t “get” it. Record company basically sacked them off after that, one more incredible album and they split – I believe fed up with the legal wranglings of the record company.

Last time I listened to slipknot was 1999 and it was all shouty.

Go back and check out vol 3, the change in their sound was started by Rick Rubin on that album (although subsequently most of them have slated him for that album).

‘Edukator
Daftpunk: Random Access Memories onwards. They always had a good groove but adding natural voice and some guitar broadened their appeal.’

AFAIK, Edukator, DP haven’t released anything since RAM. I wish they would!

Daftpunk: Random Access Memories onwards. They always had a good groove but adding natural voice and some guitar broadened their appeal

Agreed. Homework was genre defining, influential and cutting edge.

RAM was dogshit pop music.

Artic monkeys.

Johnny Cash and the American series of recordings.