On June 15, 2019, former lead singer Mario Cuomo of cancelled suburban Chicago indie rock group The Orwells, posted his former group’s unreleased self-titled fourth studio album onto his own personal YouTube channel.
The group had disbanded a year earlier amidst serious allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour, resulting in The Orwells being fired by their record company and their newly minted record permanently shelved.
Cuomo’s accompanying statement read, “Hey everybody. I could not wait any longer for this record to be heard. Sorry it has taken so long but it would have taken even longer if I didn’t make the decision to self release this album. Self recorded, self titled, self released. The Orwells.”
The album’s cover is blank and contains just the band’s name and text reading “We had an album cover we wanted to use, but after getting dropped by our label we can no longer afford to use it. So instead you can stare at this blank square.”
This Orwells album with the blank cover is Rock N Roll Fashionistas Album Of The Week for the week ending Sunday July 13, 2025.