Four Artists Most Likely To Release A Surprise Album This Year
Surprise albums are all the rage, and it’s easy to understand why. They make sense for both fans and artists, and there’s hardly any downside to just throwing your highly anticipated album up for download on a random Saturday night with nothing else going on around the Internet. It practically sells itself at that point.
Take a look at Kendrick Lamar: his new record, To Pimp A Butterfly, wasn’t even technically a surprise, as it was just allegedly “accidentally” released early on iTunes before its release. It still yielded the same results as a complete surprise album would, and it smashed a ton of streaming records like the 9.6 million number that was achieved via Spotify listens. The record-holder before that was, of course, none other than Drake’s surprise mixtape, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. You can see the trend here.
Read More: Kendrick Lamar Scores First Number One Album
You could argue that new albums from Lamar and Drake would still get those same kind of figures even if they were planned to be released on a certain date, but something about a surprise release from a massive star is borderline exhilarating - it’s a model that can simply never get old. We’re only three months into the year, so there’s a lot of new music left to be heard - which acts are most likely next in line to release new music without notice?
Blink-182 were recently responsible for some of the most entertaining pop-punk band-drama the world’s ever seen. This past January, it was announced that the legendary rockers would be moving on without their longtime vocalist/guitarist Tom DeLonge, and social media basically went crazy. A very long story short: DeLonge is out, and Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba is in temporarily - at least for now. While Skiba is just around to play some Blink shows with bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker, nobody has ruled out the possibility for new music. If it all goes well, the high might be so great that they decide to hit the studio in the near future, and what better way to debut a new-look Blink than to release it without telling anyone?
Next page: Three other artists that could release a surprise album
One Direction dropped a heartbreaking bombshell this week when they announced the departure of member Zayn Malik. As depressing as it is, there are a couple of brightsides: Malik is hopefully now in a happier state of mind, and the group is also going to continue as a four piece with a new album by the end of the year. Who knows what route the record will take, but it’s bound to be massive in every way imaginable. With all of the hype that’ll emerge over a Zayn-less record, it’d make sense to drop it out of nowhere.
Fun.
As hard as it is to admit, there’s no real reason why fun. ever needs to release a follow-up to 2011’s incredible effort, Some Nights. Guitarist Jack Antonoff has a great thing going with his project Bleachers, and Nate Ruess has a solo album coming that just might have some of the best songs he’s ever written, if his single ‘Nothing Without Love’ is anything to go by. Although everyone expected a new fun. album this year, the band has kind of put it on indefinite hold while they all do their own thing - but they’re definitely not broken up. If things start to die down a bit in the members’ schedules sometime this year, it’d be the perfect time to link up, get a fun. record done, and release it to the masses without a peep. Considering Antonoff announced last year’s Bleachers record via an ad on Craigslist, a surprise album probably isn’t too far-fetched for these guys.
Read More: Zayn Malik Leaves One Direction
Adele is coming out with a new album this year. Maybe. Or maybe not. Nobody really knows. But that’s the best ingredient for a surprise album these days, isn’t it? Adele has reportedly been in the studio for a while, working with the likes of Ryan Tedder, Diane Warren, and Phil Collins - so new music at least exists. For what it’s worth, some online retailers have even listed the record up for pre-order (with no release date of course). This mysterious third Adele album, hopefully titled 27, could be the mother of all surprise albums if it decides to go that route. If she’s trending on Twitter soon and your router spontaneously combusts, you’ll know the reason why.