By Nathan Kelly

Every great album needs an equally great roll-out to build up anticipation for its release. Singles are arguably the most important part of a roll-out, and it’s difficult to get that right.

You need to strike a perfect balance of songs that will grab the listener’s attention and songs that best display the album’s narrative or sonic themes. This then allows for certain songs to fall deep under the listeners’ radar and not gain nearly the recognition they deserve.

Here are eight songs that should have been pushed as singles for their respective albums.

Honourable Mention: The Dress – Dijon

Only an honourable mention considering it’s the most popular song on the album, but surely it would be obvious to drop this as a single?

It’s the most commercially friendly song Dijon has ever written, having the most polished production and catchiest chorus, so surely it would be a no-brainer, right?

Obviously Dijon still went on to have his breakout year this year, playing a huge part in Justin Bieber’s Swag and releasing his own sophomore album Baby. But releasing this song as part of the roll-out to Absolutely would have done absolute wonders for the album’s promotion, especially since hindsight tells us that it’s his most popular song so far.

DANCING WITHOUT MOVING – Quadeca

This song strikes the balance mentioned earlier perfectly. It’s upbeat and groovy rhythm makes for an instant attention grabber, whilst being pivotal to the understanding of Vanisher, Horizon Scraper’s narrative.

Out of the three lead singles, the near eight-minute-long emotional climax ‘FORGONE’ is the clear outlier, I’d have no issue having these two songs trade places.

Dorothea – Taylor Swift

Evermore perfectly capture the late autumn/early winter vibes with its warm, mellow soundscape, but two out of the three singles really showcase that darker sound that half of the album occupies.

‘Dorothea’ with its light guitar strums and pretty piano melodies would help further the cozy tone of the album even more than the singles already did.

Dough & Damani – Conway the Machine

From King to a GOD by Conway the Machine

From King to a GOD was Conway’s first stand-out project since forming the label ‘Griselda’ in 2014, but there wasn’t a big roll-out for the album.

The only lead single was ‘Lemon’ featuring well-respected emcee Method Man, so surely it wouldn’t’ve hurt adding a second single?

‘Dough & Damani’ has a very relaxing piano-driven beat to start off, before switching the beat halfway to a much grimier, more menacing instrumental. His cold, intimidating delivery works perfectly on both beats, showing his versatility as a rapper.

Crusades - Geese

3D Country naturally is a very ambitious indie rock record, so no matter the single choices they were bound to do the job of drawing people into the release. ‘Crusades’ however is a track I feel goes under the radar more often than it should.

On an album packed with dynamic vocal performances, ‘Crusades’ has some of Cameron Winter’s more subdued vocals. But his grungy tone still scratches a certain itch in the mind. This track also has some of the most fascinatingly intricate lyrics, which make it a joy to dive into.

I Can Tell – Travis Scott

Rodeo is considered by many to be Travis Scott’s magnum opus. It’s a trap record that borders the line of atmospheric and hectic flawlessly, but the same as the Conway record, there weren’t many singles released in the build-up.

So, when thinking of an additional single to add to the lineup, I looked no further than the song that arguably fits the album’s philosophy the greatest, ‘I Can Tell’.

It starting off with a dreamy, atmospheric synthline, before hitting you in the face with booming 808s and Scott’s rigid delivery would be a perfect entry into the world of Rodeo.

Rudolph – MJ Lenderman

Manning Fireworks is a beautiful country-rock album with a really interesting sonic palette. The singles released were a great showcase of the softer, more country-leaning tracks on the album, however, there definitely could’ve been a single that represents the slacker-rock sound a little bit more.

‘Rudolph’ is a punchy, up-beat banger with a captivating groove. Lenderman’s voice is so addictive too, it’s creaky and earthy but so damn satisfying.

Obvious – Ariana Grande

This song not being a hit is genuinely baffling. It has a killer chorus from Ari, a really groovy beat and is just overall so insanely catchy.

Granted, the three selected singles were all fantastic choices to draw attention to the album, but I feel like having both ‘positions’ and ‘34+35’ wasn’t very necessary.

By the very nature of the two songs, they were bound to blow-up regardless. So, I feel like it’s just taking so much shine away from a song that could (and should!!!) be a smash hit.

8 album deep cuts that could have been singles