Adele’s new album is another critical and commercial success, but it was close to nobody hearing it at all. Just before she released 30, the singer considered scrapping the entire material and writing new songs. Fortunately for the fans, the original set was released as planned. But not every album has that much luck, and all too often, complete bodies of work get withdrawn, for one reason or another. Some are reworked into new projects, like the Beatles’ Get Back and Kraftwerk’s Techno Pop, or relegated to bonus tracks on another album (Marvin Gaye’s Lover Man, Brian Eno’s My Squelchy Life). They accumulate legends and sometimes have their very existence questioned. Below are 10 could-have-been albums which never made it onto store shelves – or digital platforms, for that matter.

 

Jimi Hendrix — Black Gold

In early 1970, equipped only in a Martin acoustic guitar, Jimi Hendrix recorded an “autobiographical, multi-song fantasy piece”, intended to accompany an “animated feature about a black rock star – himself on the road”. He shared the 16-track cassette demo with his drummer Mitch Mitchell who… soon forgot about it, and even had no idea that the tapes were the original master recordings! Presumed lost or stolen for over two decades, the Black Gold demos were unearthed in 1992, when Tony Brown, an avid Hendrix collector and biographer, got to interview Mitchell. Six of the tracks were subsequently released on posthumous albums. In 2010, Jimi’s half-sister Janie promised to officially release the lost project in full “this decade”. Over ten years later, she still hasn’t delivered on the promise and Black Gold remains a holy grail among Hendrix collectors.

 

Barbra Streisand — Life Cycle of a Woman

With 40 albums to her name, the ever-prolific Barbra Streisand was particularly busy in the 60s and early 70s, when she often served not one, but two albums a year. Her 1970 project The Singer never materialised, but all its nine songs later appeared on various albums. In 1973, she teamed up with some of her favourite lyricists, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, for a concept album Life Cycle of a Woman, chronicling different stages of a woman’s life, from birth to death. The ambitious idea never progressed beyond recording only a handful of tracks, though. Streisand held some reservations towards a couple of the songs, and when she got involved in other projects, “the idea lost momentum”, she explained in 1999. Over the years, songs from those sessions popped up on various retrospectives, most recently on the 2021 Release Me 2.

 

The Beach Boys — Adult/Child

Having just produced two successful the Beach Boys albums all by himself, co-founder Brian Wilson was seemingly on a roll, readying another LP for autumn 1977. The title was a term coined by Wilson’s psychotherapist, but Adult/Child may have also referred to the preceding album’s somewhat juvenile subject matter, considering that many of the tracks were outtakes from those sessions. But the material’s big band arrangement didn’t go down well with other group members, which escalated to a serious fallout. Reprise Records rejected the album, most likely because of its uncommercial sound. The Beach Boys then went on to record the disappointing M.I.U. Album. Adult/Child has since been circulated on bootleg copies with the original intended track list, but never released officially.

 

Mick Jagger & The Red Devils — 1992 album

While working on his third solo album, Mick Jagger was introduced by his producer Rick Rubin to the music of the Red Devils. After performing with the band live in May 1992, he invited them to collaborate in a Hollywood studio the following month. The recording session reportedly lasted only 13 hours, but was an intense one, producing 13 covers of blues classics, including T‑Bone Walker’s “Mean Old World” and Willie Dixon’s “Talk to Me Baby”. However, when Jagger’s album Wandering Spirit was released in 1993, it didn’t include any of the songs recorded with the Devils. In spring that year, Jagger performed live with the band again, and there were talks about releasing their collaborative material. Nearly three decades later, nothing has materialized, but one song, “Checkin’ Up on My Baby”, made its way onto the 2007 compilation The Very Best of Mick Jagger.

 

Seal — Togetherland

In 1999, Seal started working on a new album with songwriters Guy Gershoni and Dave Palmer in his LA home studio. The sessions resulted in experimental underground club tracks, radically different from his earlier output. Warner Bros. Records first suggested that they be released under a pseudonym, so as to not confuse Seal’s fanbase. Then, they involved composer Henry Jackman to shape them into more commercially accessible material. In the end, the label just cancelled the release of the album, which was expected to arrive by 2001. Only the song “This Could Be Heaven” was made commercially available (albeit in a different version from the original), on The Family Man soundtrack. The singer himself proceeded to recording another album, Seal IV. Some of the withdrawn material has since circulated online, generating praise from the fans. But it’ll most likely never be officially released as the singer himself isn’t happy with the songs. “Togetherland will NEVER see the light of day whilst there’s blood in my veins, so there’s no need for anyone to wait”, he tweeted in 2010.

 

Nicole Scherzinger — Her Name Is Nicole

Nicole must be used to recording and shelving albums – she’s apparently done that five times! In March 2007, the singer announced the name of her first solo album, Her Name Is Nicole, with a tentative release date in October. Quite shockingly, the first two singles, “Whatever U Like” and “Baby Love”, completely flopped in the US, despite decent promotion, top collaborators (T.I. and will.i.am), and Nicole’s status as the lead singer of a hugely popular group. “Baby Love” did achieve moderate success in Europe, but it couldn’t change the fate of the album. After several push backs, its release was cancelled and the recorded material, which included a funky track “Physical” and an elegant ballad “Just Say Yes”, was re-assigned to other singers. After the failed start, Scherzinger reunited with the rest of the Dolls for one more hit album. She then had another go at a solo career with 2011’s Killer Love. This time with much more success.

 

Andi Fraggs — Visions

“My new self-written album will be released early 2014 and it’s called Visions”, Andi Fraggs announced in November 2013. The following March, he reported that he had finished recording the two final tracks and that the “album story runs from darkness to light”. He went on to tease such song titles as “I See Thru You” and “Angels of Mine” on his social media channels, and previewed some of them live at a London concert in September. Singles “Visions” and “Rain Comes Soon” promised more of his signature electronic, 80s-inspired material, but they were then followed by a series of more traditional, melodic pop songs, such as the Eurovision offering “One Song” and the ballad “I’ll Still Be There”. 2015 came and went without any further info, before Fraggs released Pure as his second album in 2016. Whether Visions ever sees the original release it’s unknown, considering Andi’s current hiatus.

 

Carly Rae Jepsen — Disco Sweat

This pop darling surely has more than just one unreleased set of songs in her vault. We’re talking a woman capable of writing up to 200 songs during an album cycle! In 2016, Carly fell into a 70s disco rabbit hole in preparation for her next record. The infatuation with the catalogues of ABBA, the Bee Gees and Donna Summer was so strong that it resulted in recording an entire mini-album called Disco Sweat (“I indulge”, she admitted). Carly had “a very strong intention to make an understated disco, living room dance party thing”. Although she channelled those influences into the final version of Dedicated (with “Julian” being a prime example, and one other song literally referencing “sweat disco”), we are unlikely to ever hear that material. Carly has made it clear that the collection “will probably never be released”, and that it “will be buried in [her] backyard”.

 

Iggy Azalea — Digital Distortion

When Iggy Azalea was recording her second album, little did she know that the material would never see the light of day. With the title and artwork confirmed in late 2015, and the lead single “Team” released in spring 2016 to favourable (although not overwhelming) reception, the project was off to a promising start. But it only went downhill from there. As Iggy had just broken up from her fiancé Nick Young, the release date was pushed back to the following year. Although totally understandable at the time, today it’s clear what a critical mistake it was in the context of the album rollout. Two decent 2017 singles, “Mo Bounce” and “Switch”, made minimal impact on the charts and failed to revive the momentum. After several more delays, in November the same year, Azalea finally confirmed that the album won’t be released. She blamed it on Def Jam and ultimately left the label. The majority, if not all Digital Distortion tracks, have since leaked onto the Internet.

 

Cheryl — 2018 album

After five intense years of solo career, during which she churned out four hit albums and five UK number 1 singles, Cheryl Cole (a.k.a. Tweedy, a.k.a. Fernandez-Versini) took somewhat of a break from recording to focus on family life. In July 2018, she teased that her comeback album was “pretty much finished”, and that she worked on the material with producer Naughty Boy and her Girls Aloud bandmate Nicola Roberts who co-wrote every song. To reflect the nature of the streaming era, three singles were promised before the release of an album. “Love Made Me Do It” premiered in November to positive feedback, but turned out Cheryl’s lowest-charting lead single, and its release was marred by bad press revolving around stuff not even related to music. Released the following May, “Let You” fared even worse in the charts, and no new music has been released since. The singer has hinted that if the new material were to underperform, it would be time for her to move on from music, and – unfortunately – she may have just kept the word.

See also: 10 Legendary Unreleased Albums Part 1