10 Blatantly Unfinished Albums (That Were Released Anyway)
3. You Me At Six - Night People
Night People is far from a bad album, but recently You Me At Six frontman Josh Franceschi announced on social media that if he could tweak any YMAS album, he'd go for the Surrey outfit's fifth outing.
In fact, You Me At Six began expressing dissatisfaction with the follow up to their chart-topping fourth album Cavalier Youth almost immediately after release, stating that they felt they weren't able "to deliver what [they] wanted to", as they had focused more on creating a unified body of music than the quality of the individual songs.
Listening to Night People, this shows. "Take On The World", which sounds like You Me At Six's take on the Coldplay and Snow Patrol ballads, a watered-down "Fix You", received an updated "New Version" only two months after the release of the record, with more background instrumentation more emphasised in the mix, and an entire minute chopped of the track's length.
The ballad - which has since become a fan favourite and set-list staple, despite its imperfections - is not the only song on Night People which sounds half-baked or incomplete. "Brand New", which shifts from minimalist introspective verses into a danceable bop of a chorus with a transition as smooth as sandpaper, feels like a ghostly draft of a song rather than a finished product, much of the song feeling sparse and incomplete.