The vault doors are opening on music's greatest mysteries! Join us as we count down the most fascinating abandoned albums that never saw official release. From Britney's rebellious "Original Doll" to Pink Floyd's experimental "Household Objects," these legendary lost recordings continue to tantalize music lovers everywhere. Which unreleased album are you most curious to hear?
00:00Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we'll be discussing abandoned, unfinished, or unreleased recording sessions that weren't released during their initial eras.
00:21The original doll, Britney Spears.
00:24It was back in December of 2004 when Britney Spears debuted the demo version of a new song titled Mona Lisa, live on the air during a spontaneous visit to KISS FM in Los Angeles.
00:41This is the only song to be officially released from Spears' clandestine recording sessions that occurred during this time.
00:49Her work with collaborators like Avant was said to be for an album titled The Original Doll, but any other demo material was set aside indefinitely not long after Spears' appearance on the air.
01:01It would be the Blackout album that served as the official follow-up to 2003's In The Zone, while Britney fans are still hoping that more original doll material might one day see the light.
01:23The story behind this punky alt-grunge release is truly stranger than fiction.
01:28Someone's Ugly Daughter is the title.
01:32This was never released.
01:34Never released. But I do like the cover, and I drew this cover.
01:38Mariah Carey actually wrote and recorded an album titled Someone's Ugly Daughter back in 1995, in an attempt to break out from her established role as a pop diva.
01:48The original masters that featured her lead vocals remain unreleased, although a version featuring Carey's pseudonym backing tracks alongside friend Clarissa Dane was quietly issued on CD and cassette back in the day.
02:01The Someone's Ugly Daughter album can go for decent money on the second-hand market, although it remains to be seen whether or not Carey's initial foray into this rock and roll world will ever be unearthed to her fans.
02:20Electric Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen, and the E Street Band.
02:25There were a number of presents released for Bruce Springsteen fans during October of 2025.
02:30Everything dies, baby, lots are back.
02:35But maybe everything that dies, someday comes back.
02:39An album compiling the Electric Nebraska Sessions was finally released to coincide with the big-screen biopic that documented this period of the boss's life, Springsteen, Deliver Me From Nowhere.
02:52It was the original Nebraska from 1982 that served as one of Springsteen's most uniquely personal efforts up until that point.
02:59A stark and striking acoustic album that brought the boss closer than ever to his fans.
03:05The expanded reissue treatment of Electric Nebraska now reveals full band sessions from this era, exploring Springsteen's creative vision in a manner similar to that of the similarly niche Streets of Philadelphia sessions from the early 90s.
03:18Everybody's got a blind spot, brings up and down.
03:27Household Objects, Pink Floyd.
03:29There is a wealth of unreleased Pink Floyd music out there, to the point where there have been entire bootleg archives devoted to documenting the band's fertile creative history.
03:39The aborted Household Objects sessions might be the most intentionally difficult and obtuse, however.
03:54A post-Dark Side of the Moon experiment in Musique Concrète and found sounds.
03:59The group struggled to make Household Objects feel cohesive alongside engineer Alan Parsons, however, with only two tracks, Wine Glasses and The Hard Way, eventually seeing the light of day via reissues.
04:15So, was Household Objects going to be a modern experimental classic or simply a bad idea of psychedelic overindulgence?
04:23The world may never know.
04:24The vault, Prince.
04:33The death of Prince in 2016 not only left a huge void in the music world, it also left behind a literal vault of unreleased recordings, sessions and performances.
04:44And we are coming on the air right now with the breaking news that the pioneering musician Prince has died at the age of 57.
04:50One of the most well-known lost albums for Prince remains the Black Album.
04:55A studio effort that was recalled right after some promotional copies left the record company.
05:00There were certain connections between the Black Album and other aborted sessions from around this same time.
05:05He basically said, I've done an album.
05:09It's a dance record and nobody will know.
05:13We'll sneak it out.
05:14Efforts such as the Camille LP that Prince recorded in 1986 under a pseudonym, as well as unreleased double and triple albums with the revolution titled Dream Factory and Crystal Ball, respectively.
05:26Connections that reveal not only Prince's fertile creative mind, but his restlessness as an artist.
05:32It's unclear at this point whether or not the original masters to Green Day's unreleased Cigarettes and Valentines LP from 2002 were actually stolen, per the band's claim.
05:59Or if Green Day simply decided to move in a different direction.
06:02What is known is that American Idiot served as Green Day's proper follow-up to Warning from 2000.
06:08A rock opera that proved to be the band's most commercially successful release to date.
06:12Some sources have claimed that it was additional tracks recorded during the Cigarettes and Valentines sessions that led to the spark of inspiration for American Idiot.
06:32With only B-sides like Too Much Too Soon and the aborted title track serving as musical sneak peeks into this lost era.
06:40Songs from the Black Hole
06:41Weezer
06:42The release of Weezer's second album, Pinkerton, in 1996 essentially proved that songwriter Rivers Cuomo was destined to get darker and more personal.
06:52It just took on a different name.
06:54That's because there was actually another aborted recording session that possessed similar themes to Pinkerton, for an album that was tentatively titled Songs from the Black Hole.
07:03Sometimes I wanna go back to school
07:06Some of the material from these sessions would be used, while other ideas were dropped, but the mission statement seemed to remain the same, deviate from the poppy formula of Weezer's debut.
07:21Meanwhile, archival ideas from the songs from the Black Hole sessions would be dropped on various Rivers Cuomo compilation efforts, shining brighter light into these intriguing recordings.
07:31Somebody's giving me a whole lot of money to do what I think I want to
07:37Black Gold
07:39Jimi Hendrix
07:40It can certainly be exciting when one of our favorite artists re-releases some obscure relics from their past, but what about when one such artist is taken from the world much too soon?
07:51I'm rushing on
07:53I'm rushing on
07:53I'm rushing on
07:54I'm rushing on
07:55I'm rushing on
07:56I'm rushing on
07:57I'm rushing on
07:58The Black Gold recordings are unreleased material
08:00taken from the home tapes of Jimi Hendrix
08:03Acoustic idea sketches for a future album
08:06Some of those ideas eventually turned into songs like Machine Gun or Suddenly November Morning, while others remain tantalizingly out of reach for fans
08:14Lately days seem a little colder
08:18The wind seems to get a little bolder
08:21Hendrix's step-sister Janie is said to be in possession of Jimi's master, while a copy reportedly given to drummer Mitch Mitchell remains unsourced at the time of this writing
08:31Carnival of Light, The Beatles
08:33It seems inconceivable that a band as big as The Beatles could have anything unreleased at this point, yet fans are still clamoring to hear this obscure avant-garde recording from the Fab Four
08:44And Carnival of Light, of course, was written for, uh, happening at the Roundhouse, wasn't it?
08:49So you're not thinking of slipping that in the set?
08:51Um, that wouldn't be possible to, it's, uh, it's kind of like a real avant-garde little thing
08:56Carnival of Light was actually produced in conjunction with London's Roundhouse Venue, a 14 minute experimental piece composed for an event called the Million Volt Light and Sound Rave
09:07Paul McCartney has confirmed that he still retains a copy of Carnival of Light, although it remains officially unissued on any of The Beatles' box sets or compilations as of November 2025
09:18And it's, uh, it's quite strange, but it needed to be, it was a happening
09:22And, uh, I actually wanted to try and get it on The Beatles Anthology, but, um, George didn't like it
09:28Those that have heard it claim that Carnival of Light is a piece for keyboard, percussion, guitar, and voice
09:34With a psychedelic bent and progressive spirit
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09:51Adult Child, Beach Boys
09:55The death of Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson in 2025 not only reminded generations of fans about the man's wonderful music
10:03But also those lost sessions that spoke to Wilson's uniquely creative mind
10:08Young and beautiful
10:10Like a tree that's just been planted
10:14I found life today
10:16The Smile sessions received a glorious box set release back in 2011
10:21But it remains to be seen how much from the equally experimental adult-child period will be reissued to this end
10:29This aborted follow-up to 1977's The Beach Boys' Love You
10:32Has been heavily bootlegged and hungrily dissected by die-hard Beach Boys fans
10:38Though you're gone, your love lives on
10:42When moonlight feeds
10:44It's quirky, strange, and often silly stuff, to be sure
10:50An album that was kiboshed by other members of the band
10:53Although certain elements eventually made their way into 1978's MIU album
10:59What are your thoughts on some of these lost rock relics?
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