It’s Been A Long Time Since These Artists Released An Album
Published on April 22, 2019
Being a musician means having to drop consistent content for your fans around the world. Sometimes, you might have a few years between albums in order to get inspiration. These musical artists haven’t released a record in over a decade! They have some legitimate reasons for the long wait, though.
The Way You Move
Following 2006’s Idlewild, Outkast members Andre 3000 and Big Boi focused more on their solo careers. In 2014, the group reunited to celebrate their 25th anniversary. While fans thought this could lead to new music, Big Boi was the bearer of bad news. “This is the Outkast 20-year anniversary — just a way for us to celebrate with our fans, but no album in the works,” he told Revolt TV.
Bulls On Parade
Rage Against the Machine delivered some of the most vicious political tunes in the ’90s. Their 2000 album Renegades was overlooked by the band’s breakup months before its release. When the band reunited in 2007, they knew any new material would seem unlikely. “We had political vision and the shows never suffered, but we just couldn’t agree on stuff and that unearthed feelings that made it hard to make records,” Tom Morello said on Lars Ulrich’s It’s Electric show in 2018.
In the Air Tonight
Phil Collins is easily the most prolific English singer of all time. After 2010’s Going Back, he decided to retire from music to focus on his family. “I’ve got a couple of things that I think are great, but I don’t want to get caught up in that rock & roll promotion thing. And I have young children, so I don’t feel the drive to go out there and compete,” he told Rolling Stone in 2012. Fortunately, he made his return, but he’s only focusing on touring right now.
We Didn’t Start The Fire
Billy Joel’s last proper studio album of new material was 1993’s River of Dreams. For him, the lack of new material stems from not wanting to disappoint fans. “I’ve seen artists on that treadmill, putting out albums year after year, and the albums get worse and worse, less and less interesting, and it’s, like, ‘Maybe you should stop,'” he told The New Yorker. Since 2014, he’s been playing monthly sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden.
Supa Dupa Fly
In 2005, Missy Elliott unveiled her sixth studio album The Cookbook. Unfortunately, a run-in with Graves’ disease almost ended her music career. Following treatment, the Grammy-winning rapper started working more as a producer. In recent years, she’s appeared in tracks alongside Ariana Grande, Skrillex, and Fall Out Boy. When it comes to the ongoing delay in album number seven, Elliott needed to reset. “Your brain needs time to refresh! Things happen in your life where you can then write something else instead of the same three topics. Like, how many times we gonna talk about the club?” she told Fuse.
Will these acts ever release another album? It certainly depends on the ever-changing landscape. You can expect fans to welcome new tunes with open arms when it happens.
