Prince - The Second Coming (1981)

Following the release of the 'Controversy' album in 1981, Prince's next project was to be a film and accompanying live album, both called 'The Second Coming'. The album is believed to have been made up of tracks recorded during the 7 March 1982 show at the Met Center, Bloomington, and may have also included the studio version of the track 'The Second Coming', which was played over the PA as the introduction to all shows on the tour. The film part of the project was initially conceived as a professionally filmed concert movie, but it later evolved into a more ambitious "drama-documentary", combining live footage, backstage material and staged dramatic vignettes between songs. The title 'The Second Coming' carries a biblical connotation, and Prince had already explored this theme musically through the short, gospel-styled a cappella introduction used to open the Controversy Tour, but the film itself was not overtly religious, with its storyline remaining loosely defined throughout production. Prior to 'The Second Coming', Prince had already filmed some live performances for personal or internal use, with one or two cameras positioned near the stage, and with Morris Day sometimes acting as cameraman. However, unlike these earlier recordings, 'The Second Coming' was conceived from the outset as a professional production intended for commercial or public release. The project was directed by Chuck Statler, a Minneapolis-based music video pioneer known for his work with artists including Devo, The Cars and Elvis Costello, and according to Statler, the original intention was to create a filmed promotional vehicle for Prince, possibly for television or home video distribution. 

After reviewing the raw footage from the Met Center concert, Prince reportedly became enthusiastic about expanding the project beyond a standard concert movie, and began developing ideas for dramatic vignettes intended to connect the live performances, as well as including backstage scenes, audience interviews and staged sequences filmed after the end of the Controversy Tour. According to Statler, the dramatic filming sessions quickly became difficult and chaotic, with Prince repeatedly requesting scenes to be reshot without clearly communicating what he wanted, or how the material would ultimately fit together. Although portions of the concert footage had already been edited, the relationship between Prince and Statler reportedly deteriorated during production, and Prince ultimately decided that he no longer liked the material, and the project was abandoned before completion. Once that project was no longer on the cards, he started working on his next studio album, which would be released in 1982 as the double album '1999'. During 1981 Prince was still recording demos at his Kiowa Trail Home Studio in Chanhassen, and many of these songs were not used for the '1999' album, so as both the film and the live album versions of 'The Second Coming' were scrapped, here is a studio album that could have existed in 1981.

Track listing

01 The Second Coming
02 She's Just A Baby (Version 1)
03 Hard To Get
04 Strange Way Of Saying I Love U
05 Lisa
06 Tick, Tick, Bang
07 Gotta Stop Messin' Around
08 Broken
09 Kiss Me Quick
10 Rough
11 She's Just A Baby (Version 2)

Various Artists - In Another Time (2026)

It's a bit late, but I thought it was time for a review of the best TV from 2025 and the first half of 2026, and to compile an album of some of their best theme tunes. 'Slow Horses' was one of the biggest hits of the year, and in something of a scoop, it featured a theme song sung by Mick Jagger. The fourth series of 'The White Lotus' promised much, but was generally a disappointment, but it did remind me that I hadn't included the theme in previous volumes of the series. 'Professor T' was another hit series, based on a Belgian TV show of the same name, and featuring a lovely piano theme by Hannes De Maeyer. I really enjoyed 'Pluribus' which was a sci-fi TV show from 'Breaking Bad' creator Vince Gilligan, and Mark Gattis produced another great crime series with 'Bookish'. US medical drama 'Pitt' carried on a fine tradition of the genre which started with the classic 'ER', and it used the song 'Fail Forward' by Taji as its theme. The re-boot of the 1980's Jersey-based cop show 'Bergerac' was a bit of a surprise, but it was good that they kept the original theme tune, and left it to Adiescar Chase to update it for the new show. There were also a number of spin-off series from, and shows influenced by, fantasy and sci-fi, including 'A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms', 'The Wheel Of Time', 'House Of The Dragon', 'Dune: Prophecy' and 'Andor', and as they seem to out-number the crime series for this volume, I've gone for that theme for the cover.       

Track listing

01 Bookish (Sarah Warne)
02 Vortex (Kamasi Washington) [from 'Lazarus'] 
03 Fail Forward (Taji) [from 'Pitt']
04 Strange Game (Mick Jagger) [from 'Slow Horses'] 
05 Dark Matter (Jason Hill)
06 Professor T (Hannes De Maeyer)
07 The White Lotus (Cristobal Tapia de Veer)
08 The Last Of Us (Gustavo Santaolalla)
09 Your Friends & Neighbours (Hamilton Leithauser and Dominic Lewis)
10 A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms (Dan Romer)
11 American Gods (Brian Reitzell)
12 Dune: Prophecy (Volker Bertelmann)
13 Pluribus (Dave Porter)
14 Bergerac (George Fenton arr. Adiescar Chase)
15 His Dark Materials (Lorne Balfe)
16 Andor (Nicholas Britell)

17 Marble Hall Murders (Murray Gold)
18 The Wheel Of Time (Lorne Balfe)
19 The Rapture (Dominik Scherrer)

Pentangle - Anniversary (1992)

The Pentangle compilation album 'Anniversary' was released in 1992, and was intended to celebrate the British folk-jazz combo's milestone legacy. It came out on the German record label Hypertension Music, but was withdrawn almost immediately, and although neither the band nor the label have ever published an official press release detailing the removal, the withdrawal of 'Anniversary' is widely understood in collector communities to be due to licensing issues and unauthorized track clearances. Because the band members frequently performed in varied iterations and solo configurations throughout the late 1980's and early 1990's, unauthorized live packages frequently ran into sharp legal opposition from the artists or their primary publishing representation, forcing the CD to be pulled from store shelves almost instantly. Because of its abrupt withdrawal, the physical disc has become a rare collector's item sought out on secondary music marketplaces. As the album contains recordings from Pentangle itself, plus others from various combinations of Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Jacqui McShee, Danny Thompson and Peter Kirtley, as well as solo tracks from Jansch and Kirtley, this is in no way a "best of" the group, but is certainly a collection a rare recordings which any fan would love to hear.

Track listing

01 Play The Game (Pentangle)
02 Reynardine (Pentangle)
03 Dragonfly (Pentangle)
04 Share A Dream (Pentangle)
05 So Early In The Spring (Pentangle)
06 Can't Hide Love (Jansch)
07 Mother Earth (Pentangle)
08 Colour My Paintbook (Jansch, Kirtley)
09 Ever Yes, Ever No (Jansch)
10 Bonny Portmore (Jansch)
11 The Trees They Grow So High (Renbourn, McShee)
12 Willie O'Winsbury (Renbourn, McShee)
13 Sally Free And Easy (Jansch, McShee, Renbourn, Thompson)
14 Tell Me What Is True Love (Jansch, McShee, Renbourn, Thompson)
15 I've Got A Feeling (Jansch, McShee, Renbourn, Thompson)
16 Come Sing Me A Happy Song (Jansch, Kirtley, Thompson)
17 She Moved Through The Fair (Pentangle)
18 Straight Ahead (Pentangle)
19 I Won't Ask You Anymore (Peter Kirtley)

The live recordings on tracks 9 to 15 come from American folk musician Derroll Adam's 65th birthday party. 

Drake - One Night In Ibiza (2025)

On 16 July 2022, rapper Drake made an unannounced appearance in Ibiza, showing up onstage during Black Coffee’s gig at the Hï Ibiza nightclub. Black Coffee had been performing at Hï Ibiza weekly since mid-May, DJing in the club’s main theatre every Saturday as part of a residency spanning four and a half months, when Drake made a surprise drop-in at the gig, joining Black Coffee onstage when the latter spun the 'Honestly, Nevermind' track 'Massive'. Though he didn’t actually perform the track with Black Coffee, Drake could be seen vibing out to the song and partying with the Grammy-winning DJ. He had released 'Honestly, Nevermind' the previous June to an NME review that described it as "an unexpected elevation from the bland trap" of its predecessor, 'Certified Lover Boy', and with this news story as an inspiration, TheDrZhark and his mate Shug Lane have put together an album to celebrate that night in Ibiza, using Drake's vocals over their own music, in a similar vein to my previous post of Drake's 'Honestly, Nevermind 2' album. 

Track listing

01 Intro 
02 Greedy (feat. PARTYNEXTDOOR)
03 Shut It Down
04 Liability 
05 CN Tower (feat. PARTYNEXTDOOR)
06 Sound42 (Interlude) 
07 Bahamas Promises 
08 TSU 
09 Don't Matter To Me (feat. Michael Jackson) 
10 Sideways 
11 Polar Opposites 

George Harrison - Somewhere In England (1981)

George Harrison began recording 'Somewhere In England' in March 1980 and continued sporadically, finally delivering the album to Warner Bros. Records, the distributor of his Dark Horse record label, in late September that year. However, the executives at Warner Bros. rejected the album, feeling it was "too laid back" and not sufficiently commercial, and so Harrison agreed to rework the album, and to record new material. The original cover art, featuring his profile against a map of Great Britain, was also vetoed by Warner Bros., and so he also agreed to commission a new design for that as well. Returning to the project in November 1980, Harrison was joined in his FPSHOT studio in Henley-on-Thames by Ringo Starr, who arrived specifically to have Harrison produce some songs for him. They recorded two Harrison originals – 'Wrack My Brain' and 'All Those Years Ago' – plus a cover version of Paul Weston's 'You Belong to Me', for Starr's eighth studio album 'Can't Fight Lightning', which was later released as 'Stop And Smell The Roses'. The two other songs were completed, but 'All Those Years Ago' was left unfinished, with Starr later admitting that the key was too high for him to sing. On 8 December 1980, John Lennon was shot dead outside his apartment building, the Dakota, and after the shock and devastation of Lennon's murder, Harrison decided to utilise the unfinished recording of 'All Those Years Ago' as a tribute to him, and so he changed the lyrics of the song to reflect the Lennon tragedy. With Starr's pre-recorded drum track in place, Harrison invited Paul and Linda McCartney, and their Wings bandmate Denny Laine, to record backing vocals in early 1981. Along with 'All Those Years Ago', three more songs were added to the album: 'Blood From A Clone" (a criticism of the WB executives who had rejected his original album), 'Teardrops' and 'That Which I Have Lost'. To make room for the new songs, Harrison elected to drop four tracks from the original line-up: 'Tears Of The World', 'Sat Singing', 'Lay His Head' and 'Flying Hour'. 

A new cover was then shot in the Tate Gallery in London, and 'Somewhere In England' was resubmitted and accepted. 'All Those Years Ago' was released as the lead single in May 1981 to a strong response, reaching number 13 in the United Kingdom and number 2 in the United States. It was Harrison's biggest hit since 'Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)' in 1973, and the sales of 'Somewhere In England' benefited from the song's popularity. The album was released on 1 June in the US and 5 June in the UK, and it peaked at number 11 in the US, and at number 13 in the UK, giving Harrison his highest-charting album there since 1973. The record's chart run was relatively brief in America, however, and it became Harrison's first album since the Beatles' break-up not to reach gold status there, while the second single, 'Teardrops', peaked at only number 102 on Billboard's singles listings. Reviewing the album favourably in 1981, People magazine called it one of Harrison's best and highlighted the "moving" tribute to Lennon. Fans tend to agree that it is some of his best work, but those who have heard the rejected version have commented that this was the better record, with generally superior songs, and with the whole thing having a better flow. This was emphasised by the fact that in 2006, a survey was conducted on the GeorgeHarrison.com message boards to find the artist's 50 most popular songs. The results featured only one track from 'Somewhere In England', which was 'Life Itself', at number 29, whereas three of the four rejected songs made an appearance, with 'Flying Hour' at number 14, 'Lay His Head' at number 27, and 'Sat Singing' at number 41. If you want to hear the original album that Harrison submitted to his label, then here it is, including the original mixes of 'Unconsciousness Rules' and 'Lay His Head', an alternative mix of 'Tears Of The World', and housed in an updated version of the original sleeve design.

Track listing

01 Hong Kong Blues
02 Writing's On The Wall
03 Flying Hour
04 Lay His Head
05 Unconsciousness Rules
06 Sat Singing
07 Life Itself
08 Tears Of The World
09 Baltimore Oriole
10 Save The World

Patsy Cline - Faded Love (1963)

Patsy Cline was born Virginia Patterson Hensley om 8 September 1932 in Winchester, Virginia, and her first professional performances began in 1948 at local radio station WINC when she was 15. In the early 1950s', she began appearing in a local band led by performer Bill Peer, and various local appearances led to featured performances on Connie B. Gay's 'Town And Country' television broadcasts. She signed her first recording contract with the 4 Star label in 1954, and had minor success with her earliest 4 Star singles, including 'A Church, A Courtroom, Then Goodbye' in 1955 and 'I've Loved And Lost Again' the following year. In 1957, she made her first national television appearance on 'Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts', and after performing 'Walkin' After Midnight', the single became her first major hit on both the country and pop charts. Cline's further singles with 4 Star Records were unsuccessful, although she continued performing and recording, and in 1958 she relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, to further her career. Working with new manager Randy Hughes, she became a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and then moved to Decca Records in 1960, where under the direction of producer Owen Bradley, her musical sound shifted, and she achieved consistent success. The 1961 single 'I Fall to Pieces' became her first to top the Billboard country chart, but she was then severely injured in an automobile accident, which caused her to spend a month in the hospital. After she recovered, her next single, 'Crazy', also became a major hit, and more successes followed, with 'She's Got You', 'When I Get Through With You', and 'So Wrong' all charting. She also toured and headlined shows with more frequency, and was on the cusp of major stardom when, during a flight from Kansas City back to Nashville, she was killed in the 1963 Camden PA-24 airplane crash, along with country musicians Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins, and the pilot Randy Hughes. 

Cline's next Decca album, 'Faded Love', was slated for release in late March 1963, but it was cancelled due to her untimely death on 5th March. The photo shoot for the cover had already been completed, and it was later used for 'The Patsy Cline Story', the well-known double album that became her first posthumous LP release on 10 June 1963. The selections recorded at her final sessions are generally thought to have taken up the bulk of the material for 'Faded Love', although interestingly, hardly any of the selections from these sessions were included on 'The Patsy Cline Story'. Instead they were released scattershot on later Decca & MCA compilations, and as posthumous 45 singles. There's speculation that the (then) half-penned Roger Miller tune 'Lock, Stock And Teardrops' was also to have been recorded upon Cline's return to Nashvhille for inclusion on the album, but obviously that never happened, and Miller later recorded the tune himself. Don Hecht, who was the co-writer of 'Walkin' After Midnight', had just bought a plane ticket to Nashville, at Cline's own request, to collaborate on original material together for another new album, possibly her follow-up to 'Faded Love'. During their final visit together, in a Las Vegas hotel room in December 1962, she expressed fondness for her 1957 recording of Hecht's 'Cry Not For Me', a song which actually made #59 on Cashbox. To this day the song has never seen inclusion on any of her chart compilations, likely because it sounds too "pop", and so she wanted to re-record it, alongside other Hecht compositions. There was also talk of her and her producer, Owen Bradley, having made plans to record an album of showtunes and jazz standards, and so 1963 would surely have been the most prolific and successful year for Cline yet, had she lived. As most of the sessions for the album had been completed before she left for Nashville, then we have a rough idea of what would have been included on the record, and with the addition of a few contemporary recordings, we can have a reasonable guess at what the album would have sounded like. 

Track listing

01 Love Letters In The Sand
02 That's How A Heartache Begins
03 Does Your Heart Beat For Me
04 Crazy Arms
05 Blue Moon Of Kentucky
06 Faded Love
07 Someday (You'll Want Me To Want You)
08 Your Kinda Love
09 Back In Baby's Arms
10 Always
11 Leavin' On Your Mind
12 Sweet Dreams (Of You)

13 You Took Him Off My Hands

Thanks to keoki82 from the Steve Hoffman Music Forums for the background, and for the suggested track listing for this album. 

Frank Zappa - Hunchentoot! (1972)

December 1971 is still remembered as the bleakest month in Zappa history. On 4 December a crazed fan fired a flare gun during the band's performance at the Montreux Casino in Geneva, Switzerland, causing the venue's heating system to explode, and starting a fire that left several fans injured, the band's equipment destroyed, and the venue itself burned to the ground. The fire inspired Deep Purple's classic 'Smoke On The Water'. Six days later, on 10 December, Zappa and his band were playing a concert at the Rainbow Theatre in London, when disgruntled fan Trevor Charles Howell pushed Zappa off the stage, inflicting multiple injuries and ultimately leaving him in a wheelchair. The "Rainbow Theatre Incident" took place during the band's encore, as Zappa (in a nod to his British surroundings) launched into a cover of the Beatles' 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'. That slightly sarcastic performance seemed to spark the rage of Howell, a 24-year-old manual worker, who raced to the stage, pushing Zappa into the venue's concrete orchestra pit, much to the horror of the band and audience. "The band thought I was dead," Zappa later recalled in his 1989 autobiography 'The Real Frank Zappa Book'. "My head was over on my shoulder, and my neck was bent like it was broken. I had a gash in my chin, a hole in the back of my head, a broken rib, and a fractured leg. One arm was paralyzed." As Howell attempted to flee, he was caught by enraged audience members, who passed him off to Zappa's roadies, who may or may not have roughed him up a little, and meanwhile, rumours of Zappa's allegedly fatal accident spread like wildfire throughout the crowd. The vicious attack forced the band to cancel the remaining dates of their tour, leaving Zappa wheelchair-bound for nearly a year. While recovering from his injuries in the summer of 1972, Zappa wrote a musical science-fiction script for a two-act Broadway stage production. He designed the costumes, wrote stage instructions, and composed the musical score for 'Hunchentoot!', which would have required a 42-member cast. 

The main character in 'Hunchentoot!' is Drakma (Queen of Cosmic Greed), an alien that wants to invade Earth, and other characters were the title character, who was a giant spider, Durk (a shifty Earthling con-man of the future), six Forceling players, a 22-piece orchestra and a 10-voice chorus, and a narrator. Renowned author William Burroughs, of 'The Naked Lunch' fame, expressed interest in playing the narrator of the show should it reach Broadway, and Taj Mahal read for the giant spider. However, Zappa had no one in mind for the role of the evil space girl. "I've looked and looked and looked," he complained with a touch of mischievous irony, "And it's such a difficult part to sing - besides which it's a comedy role - that it's hard to find somebody with a voice that can actually do the notes and still do the comedy stuff too. Actually, the only person who could probably do it with ease would be Barbra Streisand, but she's busy and she's having her hair done and so forth." 'Hunchentoot!' was never staged, although near the end of his life Zappa did try to find a director to film it, and he approached Terry Gilliam and the crew of Mystery Science Theater 3000, but nothing came of it. Some of the music later appeared on his 1979 album 'Sleep Dirt' in instrumental form, although the tracks did originally have vocals provided by Thana Harris during preparations for the stage show. 'Overture' was re-titled as 'Regyptian Strut' on 'Sleep Dirt', and while the track 'The Human Mind Is The Ultimate Power' has not yet surfaced, 'The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution' from 'Sleep Dirt' has such a similar title that they must be connected, and so I've used that track for this reconstructed version of the soundtrack of the abandoned stage show. 'Think It Over' would later become 'The Grand Wazoo', and I've used an alternate recording of that, which together with the Harris-sung songs, and a live take of 'Cheepnis' from when Zappa returned to touring, is as close as we'll get to hearing this mysterious production.   

   
Track listing

01 Overture
02 Time Is Money
03 The Human Mind Is The Ultimate Power
04 Think It Over
05 Flambay
06 Spider Of Destiny
07 Think It Over (Reprise)
08 The Planet Of My Dreams
09 Cheepnis
10 Epilogue

King Sunny Ade & His African Beats - The Master Guitarist Vol. 7 (1972)

We're up to Volume 7 of the Master Guitarist series, and Sunny Ade has stuck with his new band The African Beats for this one. They will now remain with him for the majority of his career, and become synonymous with the guitarist, playing on all of his best known albums. There is just one more volume in this original series, before we're treated to a special Anniversary album the year following the release of Volume 8.  

Track listing

01  01 Afai Bawon Ja / Igba Tode / Won Sq Wipe A Kere / Asese Bere
02  02 Omo Wumi / Jarinatu Seriki / Memudu Alabi / Danfo

Neil Young - Ain't It The Truth (1988)

Following the recent post of Neil Young's possible rock album that could have been released between his Bluenotes phase and his return to form on 'Freedom', Mike S wondered if there could have been another record released around the same time, as Young was playing a lot of songs on the Bluenotes tour of 1987/1988 which he never recorded in the studio. One of these was the track 'Sixty To Zero', which did eventually appear on 'Freedom' in a rewritten form as 'Crime In The City (Sixty To Zero Part 1)', but even though that is a lengthy track, earlier versions of the song, when it was still called 'Sixty To Zero', were even longer, going on as long as 11 verses and 20 minutes. Young would play both acoustic and electric versions of the song in concert, though the final released version was heavily acoustic, and so the centrepiece of any album from 1988 would have to be a seventeen-minute, electric version of 'Sixty To Zero'. Also played on that tour were more of his old Squires tracks, including 'Ain't It The Truth', and 'High Heels', which I had to leave off 'Welcome To The Big Room' purely for reasons of space, as well as a call-back to his old Buffalo Springfield days with a rendition of 'On The Way Home'. 'Don't Take Your Love Away From Me' is a superb blues track, of the sort that Young doesn't do nearly enough of, and so in answer to Mike's question, yes there is enough good quality material for a follow-up to 'Welcome To The Big Room'. Here, therefore, is 'Ain't It The Truth', another "studio" rock album from 1988 in an alternate universe. 

Track listing

01 High Heels
02 Fool For Your Love
03 Don't Take Your Love Away From Me
04 Sixty To Zero
05 On The Way Home
06 Ain't It The Truth

The Pandoras - Come Inside (1987)

The Pandoras were formed when singer/guitarist Paula Pierce, a member of the mod/garage/pop Action Now, met singer/guitarist/bass player Deborah Mendoza (a.k.a. Menday), at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga in 1982. Pierce brought in Gwynne Kahn (also known as Gwynne Kelly) on keyboards/rhythm guitar and Mendoza brought in drummer Casey Gomez. After a band meeting in December 1982, the Pandoras were born, though names such as the Keyholes, Hole, the wHolesome, and the Goodwylls were considered first. After recording the 'I'm Here I'm Gone' EP on Moxie Records in 1983, Mendoza left the group and was replaced by Bambi Conway, a childhood friend of Kahn. This line-up recorded the band's debut album in 1984, with 'It's About Time', being released on Greg Shaw's Bomp! Records. In 1984, the Pandoras split into two factions just as 'It's About Time' was being released, with Conway quitting the group, after which Pierce fired Kahn, and then when Gomez left these three now ex-members later reformed as the Original Pandoras' in 2025. Pierce decided to continue as the Pandoras, immediately recruiting three new members who embarked on tour for the 'It's About Time' release. The new line-up consisted of Melanie Vammen on keyboards, Julie Patchouli on bass, and Karen Blankfeld on drums, and momentum began picking up with the release of the 'Hot Generation' single on Bomp! Records in late 1984. Patchouli departed the Pandoras in the spring of 1985, and was replaced in July 1985 by bassist/backing vocalist Kim Shattuck, future founder of the Muffs. The band then signed to Rhino Records and began recording the basic tracks for the 'Stop Pretending' album during the winter of 1985 with producer Bill Inglot, and the record was released in 1986. The band continued to play live and record demos for what would be their next album, and in 1987 Elektra A&R man Steve Pross signed the band to Elektra Records. They group made numerous attempts to record an album to be titled 'Come Inside', but during this period, Blankfeld was forced from the band due to disagreements about band management, and was replaced with Kelly Dillard on drums. Dillard was only in the Pandoras for two months, but during that time she appeared in photoshoots intended for the Elektra cover of 'Come Inside', before she was replaced on drums in November 1987 by Sheri Kaplan. Before the release of the record, which had reached the test-pressing stage, Pross was let go by Elektra Records, and as a result, the label dropped both bands he had signed — Jetboy and The Pandoras — with their respective records being withdrawn from release. Many of the demo recordings the Pandoras made during the Elektra-era eventually surfaced on the 'Psychedelic Sluts' bootleg CD, but test pressings of 'Come Inside' did escape, and so we can now hear the finished album, although the artwork with Kelly Dillard has yet to surface.  

Track listing

01 Run Down Love Battery
02 Take The Lead
03 Just A Picture
04 Hard On Me
05 Again And Again
06 Hungry For You
07 What I Need & What I Don't
08 I Walk Away
09 Wear My Ring
10 Craving For Your Love

Raye - All In (2014)

Time for another collection of songs from that most prolific of years for Raye of 2014, during which she wrote and recorded around 50 or so songs, which her stupid record company refused to allow her to release on an album, and so they've remained hidden away for nearly a decade. Once again, this is a fine collection from the singer, and had it been released in 2014 then it would surely have enhanced the reputation of the burgeoning artist. 

Track listing

01 In The Morning
02 Maria
03 Up In Here (feat. MNEK)
04 All The Way Down
05 Love Sick
06 More_Less
07 We Don't Make Love Anymore
08 Flex
09 I Won't
10 All In
11 It's Cool
12 Keep Going
13 I Don't Know You
14 Scared

Jermaine Stewart - Set Me Free (1992)

William Jermaine Stewart was born in Columbus, Ohio, and in 1972 his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Stewart took his first steps toward a career in entertainment. Eventually, he gained recognition as a dancer on the locally produced television show 'Soul Train', and while working there he befriended two other 'Soul Train' dancers, fellow Chicagoan Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel. After the show relocated to Los Angeles, the three friends auditioned to become members of the group Shalamar, which was put together by 'Soul Train' creator Don Cornelius and booking agent Dick Griffey. Watley and Daniel were selected for the group as backup/semi-lead vocalists, but Stewart lost out to Gary Mumford during his audition for lead vocalist, although Stewart toured with the new group as a dancer for several years. While in London for a show, he met Mikey Craig of Culture Club, and realizing that Stewart was a talented singer, Craig helped him put together a demo tape, and Stewart was given the opportunity to sing background vocals on Culture Club's song 'Miss Me Blind'. As a result of the combination of a strong demo and his ties with Culture Club, he landed a recording contract with Arista Records. Stewart saw some success in 1984 with the single 'The Word Is Out' from the album of the same name, which peaked at number 90 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart, and number 30 on the US R&B Albums chart. 

Stewart's next album was 1986's 'Frantic Romantic', which included the Billboard Hot 100 top ten song 'We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off', which was a global hit, peaking within the top ten of the charts in Canada, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom. A second single, 'Jody', was released, the inspiration being his friend Jody Watley, and this reached the US R&B top twenty. Stewart's third album was entitled 'Say It Again', with production handled largely by André Cymone, and supported by international live dates with his band The Party, the title track became Stewart's second US Top 40 Billboard hit, and also reached the US R&B Top 10. Stewart's fourth and final album under contract with Arista Records was 'What Becomes A Legend Most', but the album sold poorly in America, while the lead single 'Tren de Amor' only just reached the top 100 in the UK. In 1991, Stewart teamed up with Chicago producer Jesse Saunders for his last recorded work, an album for Reprise Records called 'Set Me Free'. The title track was released as a single in the US, but sold poorly, and so the 1992 release date was cancelled, and the album remains unreleased. Stewart would later return to his R&B roots and begin work on a follow-up project, but sadly he would pass away from complications of liver cancer aged just 39, before the album was completed. Here is that 1992 album, so that we can hear Stewart's last recorded work before his untimely death in 1997. 

Track listing

01 Intro (The Riot)
02 Set Me Free
03 Conclusion
04 Happiness
05 Dippin'
06 Special
07 Never In A Million Years
08 Shell-Shock
09 Don't Sit Down
10 Friends Like You
11 Good Times
12 I Just Want To
13 Ask No Questions
14 I'm in XTC
15 XTC
16 Set Me Free (Reprise)
17 Money
18 Basement Boy
19 Lifestyle

Linda Ronstadt - Keeping Out Of Mischief (1982)

With her album 'Mad Love', which was released in 1980, Linda Ronstadt's career took a turn away from the country-rock style she'd succeeded with for more than a decade. The album reflected the advent in the later 1970's of punk rock and new wave music, and many veteran acts, including Fleetwood Mac, Carly Simon, Heart, Queen, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, made sincere (and often successful) efforts to revitalize their sound by adopting aspects of the stripped-down, unpretentious D.I.Y. punk and new wave aesthetic. 'Mad Love' was Ronstadt's response to this trend, and the record-buying public proved to be more adventurous than anticipated, making Ronstadt's risk pay off richly. Following that success she performed on Broadway in 1980/81, receiving a Tony nomination for her performance in 'The Pirates of Penzance', and during production of the play in New York she expressed a desire to record an album of standards. In 1981, she went into the studio with producer Jerry Wexler and a small jazz combo for a planned album titled 'Keeping Out Of Mischief', but she was dissatisfied with the results and cancelled its release. Although she would later revisit the concept (and most of the songs she'd attempted with Wexler) for a trilogy of albums with Nelson Riddle, her next album, 1982's 'Get Closer', was recorded to satisfy her label obligations, with Ronstadt working again with producer Peter Asher and returning to the genres that had resulted in her commercial and critical success throughout the 1970's. If you're curious to hear what an album of jazz standards as sung by Linda Ronstadt would sound like, then here's your chance. 

Track listing

01 Falling In Love Again 
02 Crazy He Calls Me 
03 Keeping Out Of Mischief
04 Lover Man 
05 Never Will I Marry 
06 I Don't Stand A Ghost Of A Chance With You 
07 Someone To Watch Over Me 
08 I've Got A Crush On You 
09 What'll I Do 
10 Goodbye