Rock music is all about iconic albums: the Catchy Debut, the Uneven Sophomore Effort, the Live Album, the Greatest Hits and the Embarrassing Late-Career-Let's-Try-It-One-More-Time Release. But none of these is quite as intriguing as the Crazy Album. This one usually occurs after a group has had some success, shaken off some measure of big-label control and wants to take on a really big project that will stretch them as artists. The Crazy Album is also a litmus test. It can reveal the limitations of the artist's talent and the limitlessness of the artist's ego. Or, it can be amazingly awesome-tacular and catapult the artist to a new level of recognition and success. The possibility of the latter is all the incentive many acts need to attempt the Crazy Album.

Sure, some artists release exclusively Crazy Albums (Flaming Lips, Beck) and some never will (it's hard, though ultimately worthwhile, to envision a Backstreet Boys concept project), but there are a surprising number of acts that try it just once.

Let's take a look at some of the big hits and huge misses of Crazy Album efforts.

Bob Dylan: "Slow Train Coming" (1979)
Really, you could make a case for almost any Bob Dylan album being the Crazy Album, but this 1979 collection of Christian tunes stands out. Recorded after Dylan says he was visited by Jesus in a Tucson, Ariz., hotel room (!), it was filled with enough theology and preaching to delight believers while making Dylan fans wonder what the hell happened to Bob. Still, being an album by arguably the greatest singer-songwriter of all time and a guy who always fared pretty well at surprising people, it was still pretty damn -- excuse me -- darn good. At the time, Dylan swore he'd never play secular music again, but in a couple years, the Crazy subsided and secular Bob was back.
Craziness Factor: 6

Kiss: "Music From 'The Elder'" (1981)
The sound stemming from the combination of glam/monster megaband Kiss with the form of prog rock is roughly akin to the Alan Parsons Project being systematically fed into a wood chipper. The band had already produced two live albums and four simultaneously released solo albums by 1981. And, while "Gene Simmons as balladeer" is pretty Crazy, "Music From 'The Elder'" featured a young boy being recruited by a secret society of elderly crime fighters, thus earning it Crazy Album status. The reaction was so stinging that within two years the band would be removing their makeup, singing "Lick It Up" and making society even worse.
Craziness Factor: 8

Styx: "Kilroy Was Here" (1983)
Here we see an example of the Desperation Crazy Album, often trotted out when a band's popularity has begun to wane and it feels a need to reinvent itself and possibly pursue an idea that has been kicked around for a number of years. When the Beatles did it, it became "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." But Styx is not the Beatles, and so you get this. Most famous for the melodramatic single "Mr. Roboto," it's a concept album of a futuristic world where an oppressive, ultra-conservative regime wants to stamp out heavy metal. Or something. You'd think that eliminating metal would delight Styx, but whatever. While "Mr. Roboto" is roundly and justly mocked, several other songs have never received the mocking they deserve.
Craziness Factor: 4

Radiohead: "OK Computer" (1997)
To many casual fans, Radiohead was best known for putting out the morose-yet-catchy song "Creep." But that was before the triumphant and highly Crazy "OK Computer." The band abandoned the more personal songwriting of their first two albums and fashioned a futuristic sci-fi dystopia. "OK Computer" was a huge critical and commercial success, skillfully combining innovation, intelligence and quality music. Radiohead has released other Crazy Albums since, but none would ever touch the hem of this Crazy garment. "OK Computer" was their turning point.
Craziness Factor: 8

Guns N' Roses: "Chinese Democracy" (Never?)
After 13 years and with more than $13 million in production costs; a lead guitarist who, for a while, wore a KFC bucket on his head; and, more speculation, confusion and mockery than anything ever made by any humans anywhere ever, Axl Rose, along with whatever temps he managed to round up, is once again very close to releasing this album. Supposedly. It was scheduled for this month, then quietly withdrawn. Again. It could not possibly be worth the wait, and it might not be as bad as everyone expects, but, regardless, there is no way in the world it is not the Crazy Album.
Craziness Factor: We'll go out on a limb and say, on a scale of one to 10, this will be a 45.

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John Moe is a frequent contributor to MSN Music, as well as to McSweeney's and National Public Radio. He is also author of the book "Conservatize Me: How I Tried to Become a Righty With the Help of Richard Nixon, Sean Hannity, Toby Keith and Beef Jerky."