This week Björk delighted fans with the news that she was bringing the release of her new album Vulnicure forward two months to combat leaks that had surfaced online. It’s started 2015 with a bang, continuing a hot trend of artists releasing albums with little or no promotion.
You’ve gotta wonder if the shine is being taken off these ‘surprise’ albums as more and more artists are releasing music this way. The promotion sorts itself out as music websites across the world scramble to cover it, but are we taking the fun out of it all? Well, every release is different, and these ‘surprise albums’ can range from a welcome gift to a nasty surprise… or worse.
THE GOOD
Beyoncé – Beyoncé
The album that will go down in the history books as the surprise album is Beyoncé’s self-titled fifth studio release, which was released in its entirety as an iTunes exclusive on December 18, 2013.
Did this plan pay off for Beyoncé? ‘Yes’ would be an understatement. Billboard reported that 88,000 copies were sold on iTunes in the first three hours of its release (that’s seven copies sold every second). Meanwhile, fans posted over 1.2 million Tweets about the album in 12 hours, bought 828,773 copies in the first week and Beyoncé went to number one in 104 different countries. So yeah, it went pretty well.
The Raconteurs – Consolers Of The Lonely
One of the first bands to go the way of the surprise album release, The Raconteurs (or The Saboteurs for Australians) is a side project of Jack White, and they’re a band that plays it relatively straight compared to the man’s other projects. When the wildest suggestion Jack White has for your band is a surprise album release, you should probably consider yourself lucky. Consolers Of The Lonely came out March 25, 2008 alongside a music video for ‘Salute Your Solution’. The album was particularly surprising as no-one was even sure if there was going to be a second album (kinda like their third album…).
Consolers Of The Lonely ended up being the most successful release for the band with The Observer calling it “one of the most exciting musical events of 2008”. The combo of Jack White and Brendan Benson melded well together, picking up a nomination of Best Rock Album at the Grammys that year.
THE BAD
Azealia Banks – Broke With Expensive Taste
Is it possible for something to be a surprise and completely unsurprising at the same time? The biggest shock in regards to Banks’ album is that it eventually got released. American hip hop artist and Twitter beef aficionado Azealia Banks started working on her debut album in 2011, getting signed to Interscope in 2012. She struggled with the label over the next two years before finally being released from her contract in July 2014. She then later released the album, announcing it through Facebook on November 7, 2014.
The album failed to gain traction, reaching only #35 on the Billboard charts and falling far lower the week after. Critics, however, received the album warmly with Time magazine calling it their tenth favorite album of 2014.
U2 – Songs Of Innocence
Where do you start with Songs Of Innocence? On September 9 2014, U2 announced their 13th studio album at an Apple conference, releasing it on iTunes the very same day for free. The album was given a “critical” reception to say the least. Songs Of Innocence magically appeared on Apple products around the world, and the world asked how to remove it. Six days after the release, iTunes released information on how to delete the album from your account.
Why is there a U2 album on my phone? Am I still asleep? Is this a NIGHTMARE? Am I CURSED?
— Adam M (@helloitsadam) September 10, 2014
honestly putting this U2 album on my phone without my permission is like force feeding lamb to a vegetarian im pretty angry
— Lady Gaga’s Dad (@CoolNEGuy) September 9, 2014
Naturally, when you offer your album up for free to half a billion people, your record sales are going to be a little underwhelming, Songs Of Innocence was U2’s worst charting record in 33 years, landing at number nine in the Billboard charts (presumably bought by people who don’t know how computers work).
THE UGLY
Death Grips – No Love Deep Web
Death Grips have to be one of the only bands to not only release their album out of the blue, but be leaking it at the same time. The ground-breaking hip hop act have caused a stir all over the world for their antics and music. The art for the album, which is about as NSFW as album covers get (click here for the uncensored version, if you must) wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms by the record company, and when the band began to have problems with the label in regards to the release date, they took to social media, SoundCloud and BitTorrent to release the album themselves. Because Death Grips are that type of band, Death Grips are the type of band that write their album name on their penis and then leak it to the world.
No Love Web Deep topped BitTorrent’s “List of Most Legally Downloaded Music” with over 34 million downloads. Epic dropped the band from the label, and the album was released officially by Harvest Records, landing at #22 on the US Rap Albums Chart.
