During the height of record label excess, a band was worth only as much as was spent on promoting their album. Roll-outs inherently involved full-page spreads, radio station tours, TV interviews, and a good amount of posing sensuously for cameras. But in the modern age of online promotion and social media, strong pieces of art can snowball into cultural institutions on the backs of fan favour alone.
Today, surprise-dropping an album is as much a part of pop culture as hailing a cab with your phone, or using CBD oil for stress. But while plenty of hip-hop and pop artists have dropped records without a hint of promo, only a handful of rock acts have done so successfully. Here are 10 of the ones who most impressed us out of the blue…