Unfinished albums that we would still love to hear
Artists have famously abandoned their work, leaving fans to wonder
Recently, The Weeknd revealed that he ditched an “upbeat” album following his split from Selena Gomez.
Instead, he released the downbeat My Dear Melancholy, because it was a better reflection of where he was at in his life. Contemplating unreleased recordings is a what-if moment that makes us wonder about the roads not taken. Here’s a look at unreleased and unfinished albums we’d still really love to hear.
ADELE — UNTITLED
Before Adele released her third studio LP 25 in 2015, she worked with multiple collaborators. “I did write an album about being a mom, but that’s pretty boring,” Adele told BBC 1. “I scrapped that.” Some tracks she co-wrote with Sia ended up on the Aussie singer’s, This Is Acting. Adele’s collaborations with Blur frontman Damon Albarn didn’t go well. “Some songs (were) not f---ing good enough,” Adele told Rolling Stone in 2015.
DAVID BOWIE — TOY
In 2001, the Thin White Duke prepared to release a 14-song set that was a mixture of new tracks and revamped takes on some of his older, more obscure material. Two tracks on Toy — Uncle Floyd and Afraid — eventually appeared on his 2002 album Heathen, while others — including Let Me Sleep Beside You, Your Turn to Drive and Shadow Man — surfaced on his 2014 compilation Nothing Has Changed. Toy leaked online in 2011, but Bowie completists are still awaiting an official release.
DRAKE — IT’S NEVER ENOUGH
In 2010, Toronto rapper Drake was putting the finishing touches on his R&B mixtape It’s Never Enough. “It’s feeling really good, man,” Drizzy told MTV. Drake abandoned the project to work on what would become Take Care. In the years since, one song from the sessions has leaked online — I Get Lonely Too.
DR. DRE — DETOX
It’s rap’s version of Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy. After working on Eminem’s The Slim Shady LP, and the release of his own 1999 in 2001, Dr. Dre announced Detox would be his “final album.” For more than a decade, Dre is rumoured to have worked on tracks with everyone from Eminem to Mary J. Blige. Asked about Detox recently, Dre said he’s “working on a couple songs.”
GREEN DAY — CIGARETTES AND VALENTINES
In 2003, Green Day had nearly finished the follow up to 2000’s Warning. When the master tapes were stolen, they started from scratch, recording 2004’s American Idiot. After the band recovered the stolen tapes, some tracks were used for B-sides and reworked for 2012’s Tre. “It’s pretty much in the vault right now,” Billie Joe Armstrong told NME. “There was the one song, Cigarettes and Valentines, that we brought out live ...”
JIMI HENDRIX — BLACK GOLD
In the early 1970s, the guitar God recorded a 15-song acoustic album onto cassettes labelling them Black Gold. The tapes were rediscovered in 1992, with six tracks appearing on posthumous releases. In 2010, Hendrix’s estate promised that Black Gold would be released at some point “this decade.”
GEORGE MICHAEL — TROJAN SOULS, EXTENDED PLAYTHING, WHITE LIGHT
After his death, reports surfaced that George Michael had left behind three albums of unreleased material. One album — Trojan Souls — dates back to the ’90s and was supposed to feature vocals from Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Sade, Seal, Bryan Ferry and Janet Jackson. The Daily Mirror said the singer had two other nearly finished albums: Extended Plaything and White Light (which was released as a single in 2012).
PINK FLOYD — HOUSEHOLD OBJECTS
After 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd recorded an album using hand mixers, light bulbs, wood saws, hammers, brooms and other appliances. “A lot of the time it would just be like plonky noises ... Ultimately, to me personally, it became rather unsatisfying,” guitarist David Gilmour said in a 2007 BBC documentary. After a month, the band abandoned the sessions and went on to record the platinum-selling Wish You Were Here.
PRINCE — DREAM FACTORY
Dream Factory — a double LP recorded with his backing band The Revolution in the early ’80s, has tantalized fans for decades. “It was a period when he was doing a lot of jazz-informed stuff — not jazz but you could tell he had been listening to it,” former tour manager Alan Leeds told Rolling Stone after the singer’s death. After Prince dissolved the Revolution in 1986, Dream Factory was scrapped. Some reworked songs appeared on 1987’s Sign ‘O’ the Times, while others were featured on his 1998 compilation, Crystal Ball.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN — ELECTRIC NEBRASKA
After recording an intimate version of Nebraska, the Boss recruited his E Street compatriots to re-record the album with the full band sound. In his autobiography, Springsteen confirmed that there is a full-band Nebraska album. “I went into the studio, brought in the band, re-recorded and remixed everything,” he writes. “On listening, I realized I’d succeeded in doing nothing but damaging what I’d created.”
NEIL YOUNG — HOMEGROWN
In early 1975, Neil Young was putting the finishing touches on an acoustic record. An album cover had been created, the track list was set, but Young got cold feet ahead of its scheduled release after playing the record for some of his friends. “It was just a very down album,” Young told Rolling Stone. “A lot of the songs had to do with me breaking up with my old lady. It was a little too personal ... it scared me.”
AMY WINEHOUSE — UNFINISHED THIRD LP
When Amy Winehouse died, Island Records cobbled together an assortment of tracks for Lioness: Hidden Treasures in late 2011, but demos the singer had recorded for her unfinished third LP were destroyed. “It was a moral thing,” David Joseph, chairman and CEO of Winehouse’s label, Universal Music U.K., told Billboard. “Taking a stem or a vocal is not something that would ever happen on my watch. It now can’t happen on anyone else’s.”