Most diverse albums

[Ovi]

Queen - News of the World
Beatles - The White Album
Clash - London Calling
Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground & Nico

[JK]

Four off the top of my head:

Robert Fripp----Exposure
Appletree Theatre----Playback
Mercury Rev----Deserter's Songs
Family----Music in a Doll's House

[The Demon]

Mercury Rev----Deserter's Songs

Great album, but each song is in basically the same style and sound. 

I'd nominate a few suggestions:

The Beatles - Revolver, The Beatles
The Clash - Sandinista!
Elvis Costello - Spike! (similar sound across the LP, but diverse styles of writing)
Just about any album by They Might Be Giants

Not sure any single VU/Lou Reed album is amazingly diverse, but he sure had a diverse career.

[Ovi]

Not sure any single VU/Lou Reed album is amazingly diverse, but he sure had a diverse career.

Could be another interesting topic.

[the captain]

Not sure any single VU/Lou Reed album is amazingly diverse, but he sure had a diverse career.

Could be another interesting topic.

If I were going to name a VU album as among the most diverse albums (which I wouldn't), it would probably be Loaded. They're all rock and roll of some nature, but I think they cover more territory than any other VU album does in terms of subgenres.

Zappa/Mothers, Freak Out! and Uncle Meat (among others).
Most Zeppelin albums are pretty diverse--I'd say more than many albums listed here.
Of Montreal, A Satanic Panic in the Attic.
Tom Waits, Mule Variations always felt like a lot of disparate things to me.

[Please delete my account]

I second "The Beatles".
"20/20"
"Sign o' the Times"-Prince
"Bridge Over Troubled Water" goes through quite a few different genres for a uniformly mellow album.

Any comedy album where lots of genres are parodied.

EDIT: "69 Love Songs" by the Magnetic Fields. Even if the diversity is arguably superficial.

[the captain]

I second "The Beatles".
"20/20"
"Sign o' the Times"-Prince
"Bridge Over Troubled Water" goes through quite a few different genres for a uniformly mellow album.

Any comedy album where lots of genres are parodied.

EDIT: "69 Love Songs" by the Magnetic Fields. Even if the diversity is arguably superficial.

heh. I swear I was thinking about Sign O' the Times and 69.... So why didn't I include them? No idea. I'm an idiot. Or I'm lying now. You decide! (Really, I did think of them.)

[Summertime Blooz]

Billy Preston- Everybody Likes Some Kind Of Music
The whole concept of the album is that each song is in a different genre, so you literally cannot get any more diverse than that.

[Aum Bop Diddit]

"Sticky Fingers" by the Stones is pretty diverse.  Rock and Roll ("Brown Sugar"), Rock ("Sway"), C&W ("Dead Flowers"), A touch of Latin ("Can't You Hear Me Knocking?"), Blues (I've Got the Blues"), Country Blues ("You Gotta Move"), Ballad ("Wild Horses"), Dark and Death Oriented ("Sister Morphine"), Spacey mood piece/Oriental ("Moonlight Mile"), R&B ("Bitch").

I stretch the descriptions  a bit I know but you get the point.  I would not have thought of the Stones as "diverse" on first take, but fact is they made music in many ways.

[JK]

A look through my CDs reminded me of this:

[Ovi]

A look through my CDs reminded me of this:

What is that?

[the captain]

A look through my CDs reminded me of this:

What is that?

It's the Beta Band's 1999 self-titled debut.

[JK]

What is that?

Clicking on the image gives you a link to a review. Perhaps i should have pointed that out----sorry! 

[RangeRoverA1]

Billy Preston- Everybody Likes Some Kind Of Music
The whole concept of the album is that each song is in a different genre, so you literally cannot get any more diverse than that.

Very clever - even the title & cover speak volumes. I never heard any Billy Preston album, only individual songs. This seems like a good start. I like mishmash of styles & genres.