Not available in stores...or anywhere else
March 3, 2007 4:38 PM Subscribe
Is there an official or unofficial listing of "unreleased" albums by prominent artists and whether or not the artists have made them available online?
A couple of days ago, I inadverently discovered that a recording artist I thought had released only one album and then disappeared had actually gone underground after her label had declined to release her completed second album because they didn't think it would sell enough.
The artist is Imani Coppola whose only major label release was "Chuppacabra" from 1997. Her second album, "Come and Get Me...What?" evidently didn't pass muster with Columbia, and it was never released by them. She has since released on her own and over the net and has apparently continued to produce and self-release new material at the rate of about one album a year since 2000.
I've loved "Chuppacabra" after coming very late to it, only discovering Imani Coppola in 2003 on a rerun of "Sessions at West 54th". I was quite disappointed that I could find no follow-ups and was really excited this week when I discovered that she'd actually released a lot of other stuff that I was never even aware existed. I've since purchased the 2000 record and look forward to buying the others in the future.
This got me thinking. Most everyone knows stories of albums that were never or almost never released for one reason or another. The most famous examples I can think of are the Beach Boys' "Smile" and Prince's "Black Album", both because the artists balked. Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and Aimee Mann's "Bachelor No. 2" were both almost not released because of record company reservations. Wilco eventually released "YHF" on a different label, effectively being paid twice for the same record, and "Bachelor No. 2" was ultimately being released by Mann herself on her own SuperEgo Records.
There have to be a lot more cases of this than I'm aware of, and I'd like to know about more of them. In some respects, given the homogenizing effect of recording industry economics, I'd even think that an aborted release might actually be a recommendation, indicating that it might be a little too quirky or interesting for general commercial consumption.
How many cases like this can people out there think of and do they know the these works are available digitally?
A couple of days ago, I inadverently discovered that a recording artist I thought had released only one album and then disappeared had actually gone underground after her label had declined to release her completed second album because they didn't think it would sell enough.
The artist is Imani Coppola whose only major label release was "Chuppacabra" from 1997. Her second album, "Come and Get Me...What?" evidently didn't pass muster with Columbia, and it was never released by them. She has since released on her own and over the net and has apparently continued to produce and self-release new material at the rate of about one album a year since 2000.
I've loved "Chuppacabra" after coming very late to it, only discovering Imani Coppola in 2003 on a rerun of "Sessions at West 54th". I was quite disappointed that I could find no follow-ups and was really excited this week when I discovered that she'd actually released a lot of other stuff that I was never even aware existed. I've since purchased the 2000 record and look forward to buying the others in the future.
This got me thinking. Most everyone knows stories of albums that were never or almost never released for one reason or another. The most famous examples I can think of are the Beach Boys' "Smile" and Prince's "Black Album", both because the artists balked. Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and Aimee Mann's "Bachelor No. 2" were both almost not released because of record company reservations. Wilco eventually released "YHF" on a different label, effectively being paid twice for the same record, and "Bachelor No. 2" was ultimately being released by Mann herself on her own SuperEgo Records.
There have to be a lot more cases of this than I'm aware of, and I'd like to know about more of them. In some respects, given the homogenizing effect of recording industry economics, I'd even think that an aborted release might actually be a recommendation, indicating that it might be a little too quirky or interesting for general commercial consumption.
How many cases like this can people out there think of and do they know the these works are available digitally?
Apparently David Bowie has released a lot of material over the years via bowienet, his website, that hasn't been commercially released. I've never been able to muster up a joining fee to find out for sure, but my information came from reputable sources.
posted by shelleycat at 5:09 PM on March 3, 2007
posted by shelleycat at 5:09 PM on March 3, 2007
The Smashing Pumpkins' Machina II fits that - it's available a bunch of places.
posted by soma lkzx at 5:15 PM on March 3, 2007
posted by soma lkzx at 5:15 PM on March 3, 2007
Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine was the subject of a fair amount of controversy, with almost 4 years between recording and release, and a leaked version floating around the internet for much of that time.
Country singer Rebecca Lynn Howard has had at least 2 albums which have never been released due to disputes with her record labels, and she doesn't own rights to the music so can't take it to a different label. (I'd have to get more details than that from my wife, but she's not handy at the moment.)
posted by jferg at 8:28 PM on March 3, 2007
Country singer Rebecca Lynn Howard has had at least 2 albums which have never been released due to disputes with her record labels, and she doesn't own rights to the music so can't take it to a different label. (I'd have to get more details than that from my wife, but she's not handy at the moment.)
posted by jferg at 8:28 PM on March 3, 2007
Darren Hayes is releasing his 3rd solo album "These Delicate Things We've Made" through his own label. He's using MySpace a great deal to promote this - putting up videos and songs, writing a near-daily blog of the recording process, even holding MySpace contests for some club gigs he's playing in the next couple of months.
Try looking for the artist's MySpaces to see if there's anything interesting.
posted by divabat at 8:36 PM on March 3, 2007
Try looking for the artist's MySpaces to see if there's anything interesting.
posted by divabat at 8:36 PM on March 3, 2007
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posted by Lentrohamsanin at 5:03 PM on March 3, 2007