Sparklehorse Lost Recordings (Unreleased Fifth Studio album, 2007-2010)

Status: Lost

Sparklehorse was the recording project of Mark Linkous formed in 1995. The project gained acclaim in the late 90s with help from Radiohead's discovery of the band, leading to a tour together. Linkous continued releasing albums as Sparklehorse throughout the late 90s and early 2000s, with each record gaining acclaim. His final formal album was released in 2006 and a collaborative album done with Danger Mouse and other musicians was released a few months before his suicide in 2009.

Following his suicide in 2010, it was revealed by his publicist and manager that Linkous had been in the process of recording his next album. The title has yet to be known but was allegedly 95% complete at the time of his death. It was set to be released on ANTI Records. His manager stated that Linkous "had recently completed most of the work for a new Sparklehorse album and was in the process of moving to Knoxville and setting up a new studio to complete the album".

It was revealed in 2011 by music producer Steve Albini that he hadn't heard of any plans of the album being released, but added that Linkous had recorded "an hour's worth" of raw material. Though he also added that they never recorded anything Linkous considered "finished" and had no idea what his intentions were with the songs.

There's speculation as to what happened to the album following Linkous' death. Some say the family tried to get assistance to complete the album while some say there's a lot of legal issues regarding the release. No new information has come out regarding the album since 2012 where Steve Albini discussed the recording sessions in details in an audio interview with GoingThruVinyl. Unfortunately, the interview has been lost as the site has been deleted.

https://www.electricalaudio.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=54550 http://www.sparkleon.org/?cat=27&paged=2 https://web.archive.org/web/20160530095951/https://www.brooklynvegan.com/mark-linkous-sp/ https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/the-singer-songwriter-known-as-sparklehorse-is-dead-at-47/