9 Albums That Caught the Music World by Surprise
Revisit surprise albums by Beyoncé, the National, and more that caught music fans, critics, and record labels off guard.
Surprise albums have become an increasingly useful tool for artists to disrupt norms, increase anticipation, and forge a more direct connection with audiences in the music industry’s ever-changing landscape. Unlike the longer, conventional promotion cycles that typically precedes an album’s launch, these unexpected releases catch an artist’s fans, music critics, and sometimes even their own record labels off guard.
In the wake of piracy and streaming-era changes to distribution, many musicians began bypassing traditional announcements and marketing campaigns in favor of surprise releases to avoid leaks, generate immediate buzz, and allow them to control the narrative around their work. Social media simultaneously gave artists new avenues to directly connect with fans, generate immediate buzz, and eliminate the need for pre-release press.
While British band Radiohead are widely recognized to have dropped the first modern surprise release with 2007’s In Rainbows, it was Beyoncé’s self-titled 2013 album that exploded the trend into the mainstream, inspiring scores of other artists to follow suit. Revisit some of music’s most memorable surprise albums with this list.
In Rainbows (2007)
by Radiohead
After ending their contract with EMI in 2003, Radiohead made the radical move to self-release 2007’s In Rainbows, their seventh studio album, as a first-of-its-kind, pay-what-you-want digital download, with guitarist Jonny Greenwood announcing the album on the band’s blog just 10 days prior to its release. The release quickly became the subject of much discussion among artists, music industry executives, and the press, with some calling it revolutionary and praising Radiohead for challenging old distribution models in the midst of pre-streaming era piracy, while others claimed it devalued music as an art form. Ultimately, In Rainbows claimed the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 and its subsequent physical release became the best-selling vinyl album of 2008.
Channel Orange (2012)
by Frank Ocean
For his debut studio album Channel Orange, R&B singer-songwriter Frank Ocean eschewed the sample-heavy production of his previous mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra, instead incorporating live instrumentation into the record’s eclectic blend of electro, funk, soul, jazz, and psychedelic pop styles. To prevent Channel Orange from leaking online before its announced date, Ocean and Def Jam locked down the album’s physical copies and released it to digital platforms one week early. Ocean later admitted that the early release “was actually the plan all along.”
Beyoncé (2013)
by Beyoncé
Despite her status as one of music’s biggest superstars, Beyoncé managed to release her self-titled fifth studio album as a complete surprise. Written and recorded in secrecy, and made available on the iTunes Store in the early hours of December 13, 2013, Beyoncé explores personal themes while experimenting stylistically with electronic, R&B, and soul. It’s also a visual album — at the time of its release, every song was accompanied by a music video, creating a non-linear short film illustrating the album’s themes. The record, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this month, is credited with inventing the modern visual album and popularizing surprise releases in the music industry. Beyoncé told Billboard she wanted to reinforce the significance of albums in the era of streaming playlists, saying, “so much gets between the music and the art and the fans,” and that she “miss[ed] that immersive experience” of listening to a new album.
Government Plates (2013)
by Death Grips
Experimental hip-hop group Death Grips have always taken a fiercely independent approach to releasing their albums, self-releasing debut mixtape Exmilitary in 2011 and leaking their sophomore album No Love Deep Web in 2012 following conflicts with their label Epic. So, it was a surprise, but not entirely out of character, when the band dropped their third studio album, Government Plates, online without any advance notice exactly 13 months, 13 days, and 13 hours after their last release — making the album available via free digital download, as well as uploading it to file sharing sites. The Record Store Day edition of Government Plates is Death Grips’ most wanted release on Discogs and the album is ranked among the most coveted and most expensive RSD releases of all time.
Black Messiah (2014)
by D’Angelo and the Vanguard
D’Angelo largely withdrew from the public eye following the release of his critically acclaimed Voodoo in 2000, but the singer-songwriter had already begun work on his third studio album. Back then, recording engineer Russell Elevado told Spin that D’Angelo was striving for full creative control over his next project and attempting to play every instrument on the record himself, drawing influence from Prince, the Beatles, Parliament-Funkadelic, and Jimi Hendrix. Virgin Records executives thought the songs were unfinished, and while leaks from the recording sessions and rumblings about release dates surfaced between 2007 and 2011, nothing ever materialized. In 2012, the singer previewed four songs from the Black Messiah tracklist in live performances, which were well-received and quickly became tour staples. Finally announced for 2015, D’Angelo sped up Black Messiah’s release in response to decisions in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases, surprise dropping the album to iTunes on December 15, 2014.
Songs of Innocence (2014)
by U2
Following No Line on the Horizon’s poor commercial performance, U2 spent nearly six years working on their next album. They emerged to announce their 13th studio album Songs of Innocence at a product launch event for Apple, who automatically added the album to the libraries of every iTunes user for free — a total of more than 500 million people. While the band praised the strategy as “incredibly subversive” and “really punk rock” for putting the deeply personal album about their shared youth in front of so many people, iTunes users complained that the album was uploaded to their devices without consent while journalists called the move the rock and roll equivalent of spam.
Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz (2015)
by Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus was riding high on the chart-topping success of Bangerz in 2013, but she had already begun planning something very different for its follow up. Cyrus worked on the album daily over an 18 month period following the release of Bangerz, occasionally mentioning it — and her collaboration with The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne — in interviews. RCA didn’t hear the album until it was completed and supported Cyrus’ plan to release it independently as a free download. As she closed out the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards with a previously unannounced performance of new song “Dooo It!,” Cyrus surprised fans and critics when she announced that her experimental psychedelic pop album Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz was available to stream online.
Folklore (2020)
by Taylor Swift
After canceling her Lover Fest tour due to COVID-19, Taylor Swift used the seclusion of quarantine to write and record her next project, working remotely with the National’s Aaron Dessner and producer Jack Antonoff — they worked from New York while Swift recorded vocals at her home studio in Los Angeles. On July 23, 2020, Swift took to social media to announce Folklore’s release just 16 hours before it was set to hit streaming platforms, saying, “if you make something you love, you should just put it out into the world.” Influenced by the isolation of lockdown, the record nods towards folk and indie styles with its acoustic instrumentation. Swift only informed Republic Records about Folklore a few hours before its release, which initially limited the availability of physical copies of the album in retail stores.
Laugh Track (2023)
by The National
Acclaimed indie rock band the National can seem slow and methodical in their approach to music making, but they count among the latest groups to skip traditional album promotion in favor of a surprise release. The band announced their 10th studio album, Laugh Track, at their own Homecoming music festival in September 2023 — five months after previous album First Two Pages of Frankenstein – and released the record three days later. The National employed an “unstructured” approach to writing and recording Laugh Track, refining the songs during soundchecks on tour. The record features appearances from Justin Vernon, Phoebe Bridgers, and Roseanne Cash.
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