The band's album debut, Tin Machine ( 1989 ), was initially popular, though its politicised lyrics did not find universal approval: Bowie described one song as " a simplistic, naive, radical, laying-it-down about the emergence of neo-Nazis "; in the view of biographer Christopher Sandford, " It took nerve to denounce drugs, fascism and TV [...] in terms that reached the literary level of a comic book.

With the string section laid off, synthesisers took a dominating role, as was the trend in the larger music scene of the time, although studio strings were present on some of the tracks conducted by Rainer Pietsch, the overall soundscape had a more electronic feel in keeping with the futuristic nature of the album.

Having topped the charts around the world with Welcome to the Pleasuredome and its accompanying singles, Frankie Goes to Hollywood took off to Amsterdam to record the follow-up album, Liverpool.

To create buzz for the project, Brooks took on the identity of Gaines in the October 1999 album Garth Brooks in ...

The album also contains the posse rap track, " The Syndicate ", which took aim at LL's lyrical ability, claiming that rapping about oneself so frequently was a " first grade topic ".

Derrick recorded a solo EP under the moniker Today's Sounds in 1996, and later on in 1999 took charge of re-issuing the Puppets ' original seven records on Rykodisc as well as putting out their first live album, Live in Montana.

While the recording took place in a studio, each record of this series has the structure and feel of a live performance, with several first takes on each album.

The album took 64 weeks to hit # 1 on the Billboard 200 album sales chart — the longest an album has been on the market before hitting # 1 — and spent 10 weeks there.

Key recordings included Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow, the first album to come out of San Francisco during this era, which sold well enough to bring the city's music scene to the attention of the record industry: from it they took two of the earliest psychedelic hit singles: " White Rabbit " ( 1967 ) and " Somebody to Love " ( 1967 ).

Recording sessions for the album took place during June 2000 to September 2002.

According to the band, the entire developmental process for Vapor Trails was extremely taxing and took approximately 14 months to finish, by far the longest the band had ever spent writing and recording a studio album.

In the fall of 1985, Bailey took Twain down to Nashville to stay with a friend, record producer Tony Migliore, who at the time was producing an album for fellow Canadian singer Kelita Haverland and Twain was featured on the backing vocals to the song Too Hot to Handle.

The band Radiohead took their name from the Talking Heads song " Radio Head " from the 1986 album True Stories.

After recording demos for a fourth album the group disbanded in 1981, when Shelley took up a solo career.

Jesperson chose an eight-track home studio in Minneapolis called Blackberry Way ; however, as the band had no clout at the studio, time spent in the studio was intermittent, and so it took about six months to record the album.

Westerberg wrote songs in stops and starts, so it took several sessions of recording to finish the album.

Nicks has expressed major disappointment with the album, claiming that a lot of production work took place during her second stint in rehab, meaning she had little to no say over the final product.

The American band Machines of Loving Grace took the name of a sex act performed by one of the main characters during a Black Mass for the title of their song " Rite of Shiva " on their eponymous album.

He took two weeks off from his tour to record what would be his fourth studio album, a big band album.

One of Mercury's most notable performances of The Games final track, " Save Me ", took place in Montreal, and the concert is recorded in the live album, Queen Rock Montreal.

Blur, a group that formerly mixed elements of shoegazing and baggy, took on an Anglocentric aesthetic with their second album Modern Life Is Rubbish ( 1993 ).

Eventually Rabin took over final production, and the album was released in September 1987 which reached number 17 in the UK and number 15 in the US.

The album struck a much darker note, leaning more towards downtempo, acoustic soft-rock songs, with more mature ( yet still optimistic ) lyrics.

Produced by Roy Thomas Baker, the album featured a darker, more sinister sound than its predecessors.

American avant-garde composer John Zorn released an album called Grand Guignol by Naked City in 1992, in a reference to " the darker side of our existence which has always been with us and always will be ".

" The album Blue Valentine ( 1978 ) displayed Waits's biggest musical departure to date, with much more focus on electric guitar and keyboards than on previous albums and hardly any strings ( with the exception of album-opener " Somewhere " — a cover of Leonard Bernstein's song from West Side Story — and " Kentucky Avenue ") for a darker, more blues-oriented sound.

The album was recorded in an Irish church, in Delgany, County Wicklow, with Amos taking advantage of the church recording setting to create an album ripe with baroque influences, lending it a darker sound and style.

The mood of the album was darker, as he wrote and recorded it in the wake of his divorce.

The fourth studio album, Clutching at Straws, shed some of its predecessor's pop stylings and retreated into a darker exploration of excess, alcoholism, and life on the road, representing the strains of constant touring that would result in the departure of Fish to pursue a solo career.

Focusing on a darker, heavier style, the album spawned the doomy single " Horrorscope ", a departure from the band's earlier singles, which had traditionally been uptempo songs.

The music on the album had a complex shoegazing dance / dub rhythm, harking back to the crossover success of Screamadelica, yet sounding significantly darker.

* Marina and the Diamonds's second album Electra Heart is based on a character she created of the same name whose story is told through the album, and which portrays the darker side of the American dream with elements of Greek tragedy which are particularly apparent in her visuals and aesthetic.

Nothing Is Sound, was released on September 13, 2005, and with Shirley's inclusion saw Switchfoot's sound become even more densely layered and guitar-heavy, resulting in an album that was edgier and darker than any of their previous work.

The album was darker than previous Primus efforts, dealing with murder, suicide, and alienation.

The album featured a darker lyrical outlook as compared to the band's previous record, although there is still a great deal of the band's trademark humor.

Prior to its release, band members promised a much darker and heavier album than Slipknot, and many sources praised the band for achieving this – effectively fulfilling their promises.

During an interview in 2008, percussionist Shawn Crahan retrospectively evaluated their time creating the album, proclaiming that they owe their overtly darker sound to their state of mind during that period: " When we did Iowa, we hated each other.

The album featured a darker tone and was more lyrically advanced than No Doubt's previous work.

The album had a darker and far more experimental atmosphere, announcing some of the New Wave experimentation that would become the band ’ s trademark sound over the next two albums.

The year 2000 saw the release of The Dark Ride, a more experimental and darker album than their previous releases.

The song was originally intended to be included on the debut album, but was left out at the final selection, which may explain why the song is somewhat at odds with the darker feel of the second album.

Featuring a darker, more subdued and heavily electronic sound at a time when alternative rock was declining in mainstream cachet, Adore divided both critics and fans, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales ( it sold 1. 3 million discs in the US ).

released their fifth studio album, Payable on Death, which saw the group shift from their well known rapcore sound to a darker, more melodic metal sound.