Though it takes just months (and sometimes weeks) to release an album after it's been recorded, that's plenty of time for a band to completely implode. Here are six albums that were released shortly after the band split up.
1. The Beatles - Let It Be (1970)
Though the Beatles had intended on closing out its career with 1969's Abbey Road (the album's penultimate track is titled "The End," after all), there was still an entire album in the vault when Paul McCartney announced the band's split in April 1970. Producer Phil Spector compiled twelve tracks from the band's disastrous recording sessions from early 1969, which ended up being released as Let It Be in May 1970, a month after the Beatles had broken up.
2. Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York (1994)
Though it's not a studio album, there are some who consider Nirvana's somber MTV Unplugged in New York to be the band's finest LP. The set was recorded on November 18, 1993, but by April 1994, Kurt Cobain would be dead, and Nirvana finished. The band's MTV Umplugged set wouldn't be released until November 1994, a year after it was recorded, and seven months after Cobain had died. Sadly, Nirvana wasn't the first band to break-up after a band member's suicide.
3. Joy Division - Closer (1980)
Like Nirvana, Joy Division had a brief career that ended in tragedy, but changed the face of rock music forever. Just before Joy Division was set to tour the United States for the first time, the band's vocalist Ian Curtis committed suicide in May 1980 at age 23. Less than two months prior, Joy Division had recorded its second album Closer, and exactly two months after Curtis's death, the album was released, and would prove to be a seminal album of the post-punk era. Just days after the album's release, the surviving members of Joy Division made their live debut as a trio, and would eventually add keyboardist Gillian Gilbert and name themselves New Order.
4. Sunny Day Real Estate - Sunny Day Real Estate (1995)
On the Wikipedia article for Sunny Day Real Estate, the "Years Active" section is a mess: it says "1992-1995, 1997-2001, 2009-2013, 2014". Any band that has broken up so many times is a highly unstable unit. Though the band's first split came in early 1995, its underrated second album Sunny Day Real Estate (a.k.a. LP2 a.k.a. "The Pink Album") was released in November of that year.
5. Slint - Spiderland (1991)
One of the legends behind Slint's Spiderland is that the members of the band had to check themselves in to a mental hospital after recording it, a legend aided by the fact that the band split up before the album was even released in 1991. Though this story probably isn't true, it nonetheless provides some excellent context when hearing the album for the first time.
6. The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come (1987)
In just five years, the Smiths released four classic albums and over a dozen incredible singles, but by 1987, Morrissey and Johnny Marr were fed up with one another. Marr left the band officially in July 1987 in order to expand his musical horizons, and though there were attempts to replace him on guitar, they proved to be futile. The band's final album Strangeways, Here We Come would be released in September 1987, after the Smiths had broken up.
What other albums were released after the band had split up? Let us know in the comments section!
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