Inspired by the one-hit wonder thread and the appearance of The Boo Radleys, whose Giant Steps album rode roughshod over genre boundaries (dub, shoegaze, Beatlesque melancholia, trumpets farting all over the place). What other albums cross several genres (preferably successfully) and is it restless creativity that drives their recording or an identify crisis?
So from the above (dub, shoegaze, melancholia in that there order):
This isn’t going to be a popular answer whatsoever, but I think 311’s Transistor fits the bill. For however ridiculous they are, I’ll always respect them for following up their commercial breakthrough with an hour long psychedelic fusion of rock, reggae, rap, funk, trip hop, and more.
was one that sprung to mind for me - veered all over the place between Fall’esque blathering, krautrock, Ultramarine-esque bouncy electronica, shoegaze and straight indie stompers. Can’t even find it on youtube.
Think this kind of thing definitely started to gain more traction in the 90’s. You can also throw in andrew weatheralls various projects, broadcast, stereolab, pram, david holmes, barry adamson etc…
Think Roxy Music’s first couple of albums were an early example of this kind of eclecticism.