diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index b8ab9cd62..730cd235d 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
   to the @listen decorator (Thanks again, Lugoues!)
 * In path formats, $albumartist now falls back to $artist (as well as
   the other way around).
+* The importer now prints "(unknown album)" when no tags are present.
 * When autotagging, "and" is considered equal to "&".
 * Fix some crashes when deleting files that don't exist.
 * Fix adding individual tracks in BPD.
diff --git a/beets/ui/commands.py b/beets/ui/commands.py
index 8141e473b..40a9e5f64 100755
--- a/beets/ui/commands.py
+++ b/beets/ui/commands.py
@@ -76,8 +76,10 @@ def show_change(cur_artist, cur_album, items, info, dist, color=True):
     def show_album(artist, album):
         if artist:
             print_('    %s - %s' % (artist, album))
-        else:
+        elif album:
             print_('    %s' % album)
+        else:
+            print_('    (unknown album)')
 
     # Identify the album in question.
     if cur_artist != info['artist'] or \