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When is a band's 'pop' album a sell out, and when isn't it?
Inspired by an amyblue comment on the C'mon Kids thread, what examples of 'sell out' and 'not sell out' pop albums can you think of?
By sell out, I mean a deliberate and conscious decision to ignore a band's normal style to pursue a 'populist' sound in an effort to achieve commercial success.
As a side point, you could argue that Blur's Parklife album was a deliberately 'pop' album, but it seemed a natural evolution of their sound and just happened to have very strong songs. I think amyblue's point was that The Boo Radley's Wake Up Boo was a pop album that really didn't sit comfortably with the rest of their discography (hence the return to experimentation on C'mon Kids).