16 Best Albums Released By Musicians After They Died

Posted by Jen Zoratti
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On Jan. 8, U.K. electronic outfit Broadcast released Berberian Sound Studio -- an original soundtrack to Peter Strickland's 2012 film of the same name. It'll be the last Broadcast album to feature the distinctive vocals of frontwoman Trish Keenan, who died of pneumonia at the age of 42 in January 2011.

Posthumous album releases carry a lot of weight. It's a gravitas that comes from the context of their releases -- see post-suicide works such as Nirvana's Unplugged in New York or Elliott Smith's From a Basement on a Hill -- but also from their striking finality. This is the last we'll hear from Biggie, Ian Curtis, Amy Winehouse. For fans, that's a hard pill to swallow.

These are recordings that have the power to leave indelible legacies; The Notorious B.I.G.'s posthumous sophomore album -- fittingly titled Life After Death -- stands as one of the most important hip-hop albums of the '90s. Other final sessions may never be heard; cult icon Harry Nilsson recorded the vocals for his last album just hours before he died of heart failure in 1994 and the record (tentatively titled Papa's Got a Brown New Robe) has yet to be released.

In honor of Broadcast's release, here are 16 of the best posthumous records -- and no, they're not all from Tupac.

View the Best Records By Dead Artists