Out of Their Wheelhouse Genius

R.E.M's "Fables of the Reconstruction" was quite a departure from the dreamy jangle pop of 'Murmur' and 'Reckoning,' but it did grew on me. Then they reinvented their sound several more times after that, for better or worse.

Perhaps the best at spending an entire career reinventing himself was David Bowie.

Ministry - "Twitch"; going from synth-pop to industrial metal.... And then there is King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, who re-invent their sound with pretty much every album, and often within songs on the same album. And they do it all really well.... 

@three_easy_payments, great points! But, I still think it's a fun exercise to call out some of those first dips of the toe into freezing water. 
@bdp24 Yeah man, Dylan going electric is a wonderful example that had tremendous impact. Cheers,
Spencer

The Beatles Revolver. Actually, their reinvention started with the 45 RPM single that preceded that album: "Paperback Writer"/"Rain". A group changing their sound that much (from the Rubber Soul album) was at that time considered very risky, the possibility of losing one's fan base a very real risk.

Perhaps the most fearless, brave artist of them all is Bob Dylan. Going electric alienated a lot of his older, Folk purist fans. He didn't care. Going "Christian" was another brave move, alienating even John Lennon, whose songwriting was hugely impacted by Dylan. Finding religion was a step too far for him (from Lennon's "Imagine" song: ....."imagine no religion".).

I'm going to "challenge" (in a friendly way of course!) whether any of these artists were ever "out of their wheelhouse".  With such immense talent and a wide range, just because we associate the most commercially successful recordings as "the wheelhouse" I think we'll find that their talent simply speaks to their range

There are far too many examples to cite, but just a few off the top of my head:

Stewart Copeland arranging movie scores
Numerous rock stars going country
Joni Mitchell recording jazz
Lucinda Williams collaborating on jazz albums with Charles Llloyd
Alison Krauss - honestly what can't she do? Folk, opera, pop rock...recording with Robert Plant or Yo-Yo Ma, now there's some range!
Stevie Ray Vaughn recording and touring with David Bowie
Jazz drummer Ginger Baker is hailed as a rock drummer
Many opera singers have crossed over into pop

The range of talent is much broader than we give credit to if only reflecting on what turned into mainstream popularity

Linda Ronstadt did 3 albums of standards with Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra. What's New, Lush Life, I Love You For Sentimental Reasons. Some of her best work.