Nicole Scherzinger - Still Here (2007)

When Nicole Scherzinger started thinking about a solo career while still a member of The Pussycat Dolls, she dipped a toe in the waters by collaborating with a number of other artists during 2006 and 2007, and singing on their records. These included Avant's 'Lie About Us', Diddy's 'Come To Me', Vittorio Grigolo's 'You Are My Miracle', 50 Cent's 'Fire', and Timbaland's 'Scream', and soon afterwards she started to release singles under her own name, although none made any significant impact on the Billboard charts. Work on her solo album carried on throughout 2006 and early 2007, and at one point she probably had about 30 songs to choose from. About a dozen of the best were selected to appear on her debut album 'Her Name Is Nicole', but the release was pushed back a couple of times, before Scherzinger herself requested that it be shelved so that she could concentrate her efforts on the Pussycat Dolls' second album, 'Doll Domination'. At this point all of her solo recordings were consigned to the vaults, and 'Doll Domination' appeared in 2008, with the group embarking on a worldwide tour in support of it, commencing in January 2009 and lasting most of the year. In 2010 Scherzinger left the Pussycat Dolls, and the time was right to re-ignite her solo career, but rather than revisit her 2006/2007 recordings she wrote new material, and those old songs have remained unreleased. I've already posted a reconstruction of the 'Her Name Is Nicole' album here, and so this post is made up of the left-over songs from those sessions, but they are anything but inferior filler, and this collection is probably just as good as her proposed 2008 album.  

  
Track listing

01 Erotica Revolution
01 Psycho
03 I'll Be Your Love
04 Steam (feat. Eva)
05 I'm A Cheat
06 Loser
07 Whatever Happens
08 Get Em Ready (Ladies)
09 Break Yo Chest
10 Punchin' (Punch You In Your Sleep)
11 Still Here
12 Winning Women (feat. Rihanna)

Dua Lipa - Twisted Paradise (2017)

We close this quartet of albums from Dua Lipa with one final collection of songs recorded before the release of her debut album in 2017. But fans needn't worry, as there's more to come from 2020 later on. 

Track listing

01 Beg For It
02 Used To Know
03 That Girl At The Party
04 Cryptic
05 Good Things
06 21 Grams
07 On My Own
08 Daddy
09 Twisted Paradise
10 Lions & Tigers & Bears
11 Terms And Conditions 
12 Hard Liquor
13 Six Feet Under
14 Bite The Bullet (feat. Trey Campbell)

Ariana Grande - Voodoo Love (2019)

For this second instalment of the mega-post of rarities from Ariana Grande that were recently posted on Youtube, I'm featuring out-takes and demos mostly from the 'Yours Truly', 'My Everything' and 'Dangerous Woman' period of her career. 

Track listing

01 Strong
02 Human
03 Voodoo Love
04 Focus
05 Real
06 You
07 All That
08 Pretty Girls Like Trap Music
09 Hi
10 Oh Darling
11 Young Love
12 More (feat. Lucky Daye & Victoria Monet)
13 The Way It Is

Ayesha Erotica - horny.4u (2008)

Ayesha Alexis Auciello-Torres was born on 11 August 1996, and is better known as Ayesha Erotica, or Ayesha Nicole Smith. She started using the Ayesha Erotica name around April 2015, and would go on to produce Miss Prada's debut album 'Queen Of Pop', which was released in June of that same year. She also put out her own singles via SoundCloud throughout 2015, including songs such as 'Can I Get A Bump?' and 'That's Hot', and she released her debut mixtape 'Sick At Home' in January 2016, although not much is known about it as it was deleted soon afterwards. Her first actual album was 'BIG JUICY', which she self-released in April 2016, and which incorporated elements of electroclash, Miami-bass, hip-hop and electropop. After the success of 'BIG JUICY', she then released her second and favourite album titled 'Barely Legal' just a couple of months later, although not without some issues, where the release was delayed for a week and then two tracks were removed from the track-listing. In August she released her first EP, which was intended as a 7-track taster for her third album 'Gangbang', although this was later cancelled, and the title track was released as a single. After the cancellation of 'Gangbang', she announced that she'd be working on a new project titled 'Fresh Meat', and as a goodbye to the former project she uploaded a SoundCloud playlist titled 'What You Never Got To Hear: A Farewell To The Gangbang Era', containing the  unreleased tracks from the album. 

In 2017 she released three joke/skit EPs under the name "Lisa Schultz", and was considering issuing her own skit album, 'Loose Teens', in 2018, although this was also scrapped. After shelving 'Gangbang', she announced that her new album, 'Fresh Meat' was due out on 25 October 2017, but although the title track appeared as a single, the rest of the album has yet to appear, and even a track-listing for it is unknown. One last EP surfaced in  2018, and after shelving two albums and going on a temporary leave from music, she announced her new album would be 'horny.4u', with one single being released from the project titled 'Vacation Bible School'. The album apparently consisted of 14 tracks, and songs included 'Iconic', 'Anna Nicole', 'Taco Bell', and 'All Around The World', and while 'We Can Do It!' leaked on a Discord server from the Playtime Soundtrack, she also sold some of the tracks to her friends Slayyyter and That Kid. In late 2018, user "void4ngel" posted a master-post of all of her social media accounts that were previously unknown, and when she saw the post she falsely blamed the SoundCloud artist Quinn Fatale, who then leaked demos of her music as revenge, ultimately leading to the cancellation of 'horny.4u', and her eventual early retirement from the music scene. In December 2023 she announced on Instagram that she was returning to music and would be releasing 'horny.4u' as her new album, with a release date of 5 March 2024. She confirmed that one or two old songs would appear on it, while the rest of the material would be new, and so on the very day that the official album should be released, here is my reconstruction of the original record from 2018. 

Track listing

01 Iconic
02 We Can Do It!
03 Vacation Bible School
04 Anna Nicole
05 Taco Bell
06 All Around The World (La La La La La)
07 Come C My Tits (feat. Miss Luxury)
08 Hello Kitty
09 Alone
10 Star (feat. Baby Zionov)
11 Delicious
12 Alice
13 BFF
14 Control - The Finale

Dua Lipa - Living Life (2017)

This third collection of left-over tracks from 2017 is another fine album from the early days of the singer/songwriter.

Track listing

01 Love You Better
02 Satisfied
03 Living Life
04 Talk About It
05 Rule Number 4
06 Overflow
07 Superstitious
08 Cry Baby
09 Deep
10 Carry On (feat. Kygo & Charlie Puth)
11 For Julian
12 Lost In Translation
13 Irreversible
14 Drinking

Ariana Grande - Sweet 'n Low (2018)

When I posted my first collection of Ariana Grande rarities there weren't that many around, and so the post included out-takes from all her albums from 'Yours Truly' in 2013 to 'Sweetener' in 2018, plus some one-off collaborations. At the beginning of February someone uploaded about 60 songs onto Youtube, and luckily I found them three days later, and was able to grab them all before they were removed, which they now have been. That means that I now have enough unreleased material to post a further three albums of out-takes and demos, and as the majority of the songs were from the 'Sweetener' sessions in 2018, I'm starting with a companion album to that, which I've titled 'Sweet 'n Low', and which is housed in an alternate version of the original sleeve. I've had to make an edit to 'One Hundred', as it was an unfinished demo, and the second half was all instrumental, so I've patched in an extra verse to fill it out.  

   
Track listing

01 Ever Been
02 Chasing (Jason) On Occasion
03 Hate That You (Made Me Love You)
04 Clarity
05 My Way
06 Let's Talk About U (S E X)
07 One Hundred (feat. Pharrell Williams)
08 I Love Me
09 Sober
10 Keep It Cool  
11 Cocoon
12 Rush
13 Wifey

Normani - Black Woman (2023)

While Normani's management struggle to release her debut solo album, having postponed it so many times since 2018 that fans are seriously doubting that it will ever appear, here is my attempt at her sophomore release, comprising songs recorded in the last few years. It includes a solo rendition of 'Wild Side' without Cardi B, and I've titled it 'Black Woman', not only after one of the tracks from the album, but also as a tribute to Normani's achievement at being listed on BET's "Future 40" list as a young woman who is "redefining what it means to be unapologetically young, gifted & black".  

Track listing

01 Used To
02 Parade
03 Black Woman
04 Candy Paint
05 Fair
06 Make Me Feel
07 Go Deep
08 Eh Yo
09 Touch Myself
10 Wild Side
11 Waiting For You
12 Cest La Vie
13 Disconnected
14 Ocean Club

Leslie Carter - Like Wow! (2001)

Leslie Barbara Ashton (née Carter) was born on 6 June 1986 in Tampa, Florida, and at the age of 13 she signed a record deal with DreamWorks Records, where she began recording her debut album. This was set for release in June 2000, but it was delayed because DreamWorks wanted to test her fanbase before releasing the record in order to ensure its success. Her single 'Like Wow!' appeared on the 'Shrek' soundtrack and received minor radio airplay, peaking at No. 99 on the Billboard Hot 100, and her debut album of the same name was set for release on 10 April 2001. However, following a number of reported problems from the set of her debut music video, Dreamworks cancelled the album and dropped her from the label, although promo copies later became available online, and "Metal Mike" Saunders of The Village Voice described it as "the best bubblegum album of the entire '97–Y2K era." She started a small club tour in Canada in December 2005, and had a showcase in New York City in January 2006, with hopes it would lead to a new record deal, showing that she'd abandoned her bubblegum pop roots for a more mature, pop rock-oriented sound. In late 2006 she founded the band The Other Half, which included her backup musicians, with the final line-up consisting of Carter on vocals, Mike Ashton on drums, Jason Eldon on electric guitar, and Sean Smit on bass and back-up vocals, but in September 2009 they mutually decided to split up. On 31 January 2012 Carter was found unresponsive at the home of her father and stepmother while she was visiting them. She'd fallen asleep after she fell in the shower and did not wake up. She was just 25 years old. She only released the one single in her way too short career, and so to show that she wasn't just a one-hit wonder, here is her shelved album from 2001. Fans of B*Witched should love this record. 

Track listing

01 Be Mine
02 Like Wow
03 They Don't Know
04 I Need To Hear It From You
05 Too Much Too Soon
06 Shy Guy
07 I Wanna Be Your Girl
08 True
09 Boy Like That
10 Mine

Camila Cabello - Unforgettable (2017)

Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao was born on 3 March 1997, and is best known for being a member of the girl group Fifth Harmony, which became one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. She auditioned for the TV talent competition show The X Factor in Greensboro, North Carolina, with Aretha Franklin's 'Respect', but her audition was not aired because the series did not get the rights for the song. After elimination during the "bootcamp" portion of the process in Miami, Florida, Cabello was called back to the stage along with other contestants Ally Brooke, Normani, Lauren Jauregui, and Dinah Jane to form the girl group that would later become known as Fifth Harmony. After finishing in third place on the show, they signed a joint deal with Simon Cowell's Syco Music and Epic Records, and released the EP 'Better Together' to some acclaim (see previous 5th Harmony post here). Two albums followed, with 'Reflection' coming out in 2015, followed by '7/27' the following year. In November 2015, Cabello collaborated with Canadian singer Shawn Mendes on a duet titled 'I Know What You Did Last Summer', a song they wrote together, charting at number 20 in the US and number 18 in Canada, and in 2016 American rapper Machine Gun Kelly released a joint single with Cabello called 'Bad Things', which reached a peak of number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. On 18 December 2016, Fifth Harmony announced Cabello's departure, with both sides giving contradictory explanations of the circumstances for her exit. After her departure she appeared on songs from Norwegian DJ Cashmere Cat and rappers Pitbull and J Balvin, and later she announced the future release of her first studio album, at the time titled 'The Hurting. The Healing. The Loving.'. 

Her debut solo single 'Crying In The Club' was released in May 2017, followed by a performance at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards, and then new writing and recording sessions for her album were undertaken following the success of her 'Havana' single, in order to capitalise on it's success. The single became Spotify's most-streamed song ever by a solo female artist in June 2018, with over 888 million streams at the time, and so she wanted the album to go in that musical direction. This postponed the album's original release date, and 'Camila', her debut album, was eventually released on 12 January 2018. It was a pop record containing Latin-influenced songs and ballads, and debuted at number one in the United States with 119,000 album-equivalent units. In April 2018 she embarked on the Never Be the Same Tour, her first headlining concert tour as a solo artist, and by May she was performing as the opening act for American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift in her Reputation Stadium Tour. In October 2018, Cabello announced she would start working on new music in the new year, and in April 2019 it was announced that she would star in an upcoming film adaptation of 'Cinderella', directed by Kay Cannon for Sony Pictures. Because her debut album was drastically revised after the success of 'Havana', a number of songs were dumped from it in order to make room for the new 'Havana'-influenced tracks, and so there were quite a few demos and out-takes left over when it was released. Enough, in fact, to make up a perfectly acceptable companion album to 'Camila', which could have been released shortly afterwards to tide fans over until her next single was released in 2019. 

Track listing

01 Be Right Here
02 Love Life
03 Come When I Call (feat. Pharrell Williams)
04 Must Be Love
05 Cleopatra
06 OMG (feat. Quava)
07 Scar Tissue
08 Curious
09 The Middle
10 Unforgettable
11 Died
12 Thinkin' Bout One
13 Knows Me
14 Witness
15 Just Like You
16 The Boy (feat. Ed Sheeran)

Meghan Trainor - Treat Myself (2019)

Meghan Elizabeth Trainor was born on 22 December 1993, in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and she began singing at age six, at a Methodist church with her father, who was a music teacher and organist. Her family encouraged her to pursue her musical interests, and she had told her father she wanted to become a recording artist, so she began writing songs and recording them using the digital audio workstation software GarageBand. At the age of 12, she began performing as part of the cover band Island Fusion, which also included her aunt, younger brother, and father, staying with them for four years, singing and playing piano, guitar, and bongo drums. She and her family left Nantucket when she was in the eighth grade, temporarily relocating to Orleans, Massachusetts, before moving to North Eastham, where she attended Nauset Regional High School and studied guitar, played trumpet, and sang in a jazz band for three years. While she was a teenager, her parents encouraged her to attend songwriting conventions, and at 15, she took guitar lessons from former NRBQ member Johnny Spampinato. During this time, Trainor used Logic Studio to record and produce her compositions, and later worked independently in a home studio built by her parents. Between the ages of 15 and 17, she independently released three albums of material she had written, recorded, performed, and produced, with her debut album 'Meghan Trainor' being released on Christmas Day 2009, followed by the acoustic albums 'I'll Sing With You' and 'Only 17' the following year. Though she'd been offered a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music, she decided to pursue her songwriting career and signed with Big Yellow Dog Music in 2012, starting out as a songwriter-for-hire, because of her ability to compose in a variety of genres, but being unsure about becoming a recording artist herself. 

Throughout 2013 she travelled to Nashville, New York City and Los Angeles, where she wrote and helped produce country and pop songs, singing lead and background vocals on demos for other artists, and her vocals were occasionally used on the final recordings. In June 2013 Trainor met producer Kevin Kadish in Nashville, and they found that they both liked retro style music and began recording together that month, later writing 'All About That Bass' together. The duo offered the song to several record labels, all of which rejected the doo-wop song because it was not "synth-y, pop-y" enough, but she when she performed the song for Epic label boss L.A. Reid, he signed her 20 minutes later. 'All About That Bass' was released as her debut sonhle on 30 June 2014, and it reached number one in 58 countries, and it sold 11 million units worldwide. Her debut EP, 'Title', with songs composed by Trainor and Kadish, was released in September 2014, and peaked at number 15 on the US Billboard 200. Her three self-released albums were removed from sale in the build-up to the release of her major-label debut studio album 'Title', which replaced her EP of the same name on the iTunes Store, and it was released on 9 January 2015, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200. Singles from the record, 'Dear Future Husband' and 'Like I'm Gonna Lose You', reached the Hot 100's top 20, and she began her first headlining concert tour, That Bass Tour, on 11 February 2015, but just before starting her "MTrain Tour" in July, she was diagnosed with a vocal cord haemorrhage, and her medical team ordered her to undergo complete vocal rest, delaying the first two dates of the tour. 

In August she announced the cancellation of the remainder of her North American tour, undergoing surgery "to finally fix this once and for all". In March 2016 she released the first single from her new album, with 'No' peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, which was followed by 'Me Too' in May, the day before her 'Thank You' album appeared, and although it received mixed reviews, it still debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200. In December 2017 Fox announced Trainor as one of the judges on the show 'The Four: Battle For Stardom', along with Sean Combs, DJ Khaled and Charlie Walk, with the show's first two seasons being broadcast in 2018. Her third major-label studio album, 'Treat Myself', was scheduled for release on 31 August 2018, but was delayed because she wanted to write and record more songs for it, and its lead single 'No Excuses' was released in March 2018 and peaked at number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100, followed by 'Let You Be Right', 'Can't Dance' and 'All The Ways', and 'Treat Myself' was given a January 2019 release date, although it was not actually released until 31 January 2020. Trainor wrote enough material for four albums while trying to adapt to new trends in the music industry, and the final track listing was drastically different from the original incarnation, and it received mixed reviews on its release, only reaching number 25 on the US Billboard 200. In the end only four songs from the original track list made it to the actual album, with even the title track being removed, and so this early version of 'Treat Myself' is almost a completely new album for you to enjoy. 

Track listing

01 Treat Myself 
02 No Excuses 
03 Let You Be Right 
04 Hard To Please 
05 Evil Twin 
06 I'm Down 
07 Foolish 
08 Look At Us 
09 Another Opinion 
10 Don't Think About Leavin' 
11 Can't Dance 
12 All The Ways 
13 After You 
14 Good Morning (feat. Gary Trainor) 

Tracks 01, 03, and 11 released as singles.
Tracks 06, 07, 12 and 14 later released on 'The Love Train' EP.
Tracks 02, 05, 09 and 13 kept for the official album.
Tracks 04, 08 and 10 previously unreleased.

Dua Lipa - Roses & Fire (2017)

This second collection of demos and out-takes from Dua Lipa is another great album which could have been released at the same time as her actual debut in 2017.

Track listing

01 Lot To Love
02 All Or Nothing
03 Berlin Summer
04 Pour Me A Lie
05 Favourite Problem
06 Bad Idea
07 Top Dollar
08 Try
09 Roses & Fire
10 Afterlight
11 Save Someone
12 Wicked And Wild
13 Lose Myself

Normani - 1996 (2019)

Normani Kordei Hamilton was born on 31 May 1996, and she rose to fame as a member of the American girl group Fifth Harmony, which became one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. She auditioned for the second season of The X Factor USA in 2012 with a performance of 'Chain Of Fools' by Aretha Franklin that earned approval from all four judges. She was cut during the second round of boot camp, but was invited back to the show to perform as part of a group with Ally Brooke, Lauren Jauregui, Dinah Jane, and Camila Cabello, who later named itself Fifth Harmony, and made it to the finale, finishing in third place. In October 2013, Fifth Harmony released their first EP, 'Better Together' (see previous post here), followed by their debut album, 'Reflection', in 2015, and their second album, '7/27', in 2016. After Cabello's departure from the group in December 2016, Fifth Harmony released their self-titled album as a quartet in August 2017, and Normani became the quartet's de facto leader, leading solos and choreography. Her onstage confidence in the group caught the attention of executive Tunji Balogun, who founded RCA's imprint Keep Cool, and manager Brandon Silverstein, who began working with Normani in late 2017. On 19 March 2018, the group announced their decision to take an indefinite hiatus to pursue solo careers. Before that, from February 2016 through to January 2017, Normani released covers of several songs, including Tory Lanez's 'Say It' and mashups of Drake's 'Fake Love'/'Sneakin'', and Solange's 'Cranes In The Sky'/'Don't Touch My Hair', with the help of producers The Invaders. 

She competed on season 24 of 'Dancing With The Stars' from March through May 2017, alongside her dancing partner, professional ballroom dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy, and they reached the finals, finishing in third place. In October 2017, it was announced that she'd signed to management company S10 Entertainment as a solo artist, and her duet with Khalid, 'Love Lies', from the soundtrack of the romantic teen comedy-drama film 'Love, Simon' was released the month before Fifth Harmony retired, in February 2018. In April it was announced that Normani had become the first ever artist to sign to Keep Cool/RCA Records, ahead of the release of her debut solo album, as well as signing a modelling contract with Wilhelmina, and a contract with Puma to endorse the brand's RS-0 shoes. In October Normani and Calvin Harris released their EP, 'Normani x Calvin Harris', which features the songs 'Checklist' (with Wizkid) and 'Slow Down', and this was followed by 'Waves' in November, with her album being scheduled to be released in the first quarter of 2019, and its title was hinted to be a number. On 11 January 2019, Normani and Sam Smith released the song 'Dancing With A Stranger', which peaked at number 3 in the United Kingdom and number 7 in the U.S. charts. The song earned her a nomination for Song of the Year at the 2020 Brit Awards, and just one year into her solo career, she became the fastest solo artist (without an album) to surpass one billion combined streams on Spotify. 

In August 2019 she released the single 'Motivation', co-written by Ariana Grande, which was her first truly solo record, without a featured artist. By this time 2019 was almost over, with no sign of her album, and it was announced that it would appear some time in 2020, confirming that it was only a little more than halfway complete. Her next release was when she collaborated with Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj on the song 'Bad To You', for the soundtrack of the 2019 film 'Charlie's Angels', which was released in November. In January 2020, she joined rapper Megan Thee Stallion on the song 'Diamonds', which served as the lead single for the soundtrack of the 2020 superhero film 'Birds Of Prey', and in February she was listed on BET's "Future 40" list, which is a list of "40 of the most inspiring and innovative vanguards who are redefining what it means to be unapologetically young, gifted & black". 2020 passed with still no sign of her debut album, and in July 2021 she released 'Wild Side', featuring Cardi B, which reached number 1 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop chart, and which won her the Best Dance Performance award at the 2021 BET Soul Train Music Awards. In an interview following her win, she was asked if she had a message for her fans, and she responded with "Summer's gonna be lit", referencing when her album will be released. 

In March 2022 she released a new single, 'Fair', and the following month she was announced as the face of Cracker Jill, for which she sang a reimagined version of the song 'Take Me Out To The Ball Game'. The same day she was also announced by Vogue France as the face of AMI Paris' photo campaign for the French brand's L'Accordéon bag. July saw the release of another single with Calvin Harris, Tinashe and Offset, 'New To You', which was taken from Harris's album 'Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2'. In February 2023, she voiced the character Giselle, a member of the fictional '90s music group The Soul Vibrations, on the second season of the animated Disney+ television series 'The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder', and in August she announced that she'd split with the management company S10 Entertainment, and signed a new management deal with managers Brandon Creed and Lydia Asrat. With another year gone and still no sign of that album, could this be the final straw, as music that she'd originally recorded would now be five years old. As her management seems unable to get their act together and release Normani's first solo album, then it's up to us to do it for them, so here is a collection of tracks recorded in the first couple of years of her solo career, and using the 'number' title that was hinted at way back in 2018. 

Track listing

01 Blessing
02 Motivation
03 1-On-1
04 Runaround
05 Time Waster
06 Last Best Thing (feat. Kiana Lede)
07 Waves (feat. 6LACK)
08 Somebody Else
09 Ride Out
10 Blue
11 Insomnia (Whiskey)
12 Gold
13 Feel Me

The Veronicas - Life On Mars (2012)

The Veronicas is an Australian pop duo from Brisbane, formed in 2004 by identical twin sisters Lisa and Jessica Origliasso. Before that the twins made their first demo recordings with Brisbane producer Stuart Stuart at Analog Heart Records in 2001, firstly in an electronic style and, a year later, a second batch of songs in the pop rock style that the group initially became known for. In 2004 the sisters, who were then performing as The Twins, were introduced by Gabrielle McKinley to Robin Donald Smith, who owned the recording and music publishing company Multiplay Music Australia. After meeting their father/manager and auditioning the girls, Multiplay offered to sign The Twins to their first recording and music publishing agreements, after which Smith took them on several world-wide songwriting trips to Britain, Sweden, Canada and the US in order for them to collaborate with top songwriters in each country to further develop their skills. On their return to Australia in 2005, Smith met with executives at Engine Room and negotiated a contract with Warner Bros. Records in the US, who recognised that Smith had discovered and developed a musical talent. They renamed themselves The Veronicas after Winona Ryder's character in 'The Heathers', and set about recording their debut album, which was released in October 2005, with 'The Secret Life Of...' entering the ARIA Album chart at No. 7, and spending a year in the Australian Top 40. It was released in the US on 14 February 2006, debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, and it was also successful in New Zealand, Belgium and Holland. 

In early 2007, The Veronicas began work on their second album, which was written and recorded in Los Angeles, California, and when 'Hook Me Up' was released in Australia on 3 November 2007 it crashed in at number two on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart. Writing for their third studio album had started in December 2009, and recording began in January 2010, with influences now including classical music, classical rock and pop genres, and bands such as The Subways, The Dead Weather, Mazzy Star, Ladytron and Peaches. In February 2012 it was announced that a release date for the album was "coming soon", with "LOM" being tagged on their Twitter feeds as an important phrase. On 2 June 2012 the band revealed the name of the album would be 'Life On Mars', and that it was to be released in September or October 2012. Warner Music then delayed the release of the album until 2013, but did release a single from it, with 'Lolita' appearing in July 2012. Due to label conflicts, the sisters embarked on a process of making many changes to the album, resulting in the release date being postponed again while the content and theme of the project was being changed. They also explained that 'Lolita' was not an official single promoting the new album, but was "just a single release for our Australian fans, as it's been such a long time since we have had anything new over there". On 26 October 2013, The Veronicas announced via their official Facebook page that they had split from Warner Bros. Records, and 'Life On Mars' was consigned to their vaults. Over the years the songs have leaked online, and following a rough track listing we are able to reconstruct what their third album could have sounded like, so here is The Veronicas' 'Life On Mars' for you all to enjoy. 

Track listing

01 Lolita
02 Runaways
03 Did You Miss Me (I'm A Veronica)
04 Army Of One
05 Stutter
06 Alive
07 101
08 Back To Life
09 Dead Cool
10 Take Me Home
11 Spirits And Sin
12 Sugar Daddy

Destiny's Child - Let's Do Us (2004)

Destiny's Child started life as a four-piece group called Girl's Tyme, comprising Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, LaTavia Roberson, and LeToya Luckett. Over the course of the early years in their career, Girl's Tyme changed their name to Somethin' Fresh, Cliché, The Dolls, and finally to Destiny, under which name they were signed to Elektra Records, but they were dropped several months later before they could release an album. They then signed to Columbia Records in 1997, adding the word 'Child' to their name, as they were unable to trademark the name Destiny. The group was launched into mainstream recognition following the release of the song 'No, No, No' in 1997, and a debut album followed the next year, but it their best-selling second album, 'The Writing's On The Wall', in 1999 which cemented their reputation as a chart-topping group, containing the number-one singles 'Bills, Bills, Bills' and 'Say My Name'. Despite critical and commercial success, they were plagued by internal conflict and legal turmoil, as Roberson and Luckett attempted to split from the group's manager, Beyoncé's father Mathew Knowles, citing favouritism of Knowles and Rowland. In early 2000, both Roberson and Luckett were replaced with Michelle Williams and Farrah Franklin, but Franklin quit after a few months, leaving the group as a trio. Their third album, 'Survivor', was released in 2001, and the title and themes were interpreted by the public as a channel for the group's recent experiences. It produced the worldwide hits 'Independent Women', 'Survivor' and 'Bootylicious', but in 2001 they announced a hiatus to pursue solo careers, reuniting two years later for the release of their fifth and final studio album, 'Destiny Fulfilled' in 2004, after which they officially disbanded in 2006. While writing songs for their records, they often had left-overs which had to be omitted from the final track listings, either due to time constraints, or because they didn't fit the feel of the album. This post collects thirteen of them, recorded between 1997 and 2004, mopping up all the songs that never made it to one of their studio albums.   

Track listing

01 Forever Starts Today
02 I Try
03 Never Had A Love Like Mine
04 Show Me
05 You & Me
06 Life Like This
07 Like Dat
08 Body Rock
09 Heart
10 Let's Do Us
11 Never Enough
12 Sugar Daddy
13 Twirk

Tracks 1-5 'Destiny's Child' out-takes 1997
Track 6 'The Writing's On The Wall' out-take 1999
Tracks 7 'Survivor' out-take 2001
Tracks 8-13 'Destiny Fulfilled' out-takes 2004 

Dua Lipa - Telling It Like It Is (2017)

Dua Lipa was born on 22 August 1995 in London, the eldest child of Kosovo Albanian parents Anesa (née Rexha) and Dukagjin Lipa. She was musically influenced by her father, who was the lead singer and guitarist of the Kosovan rock band Oda, and he continued to play music at home, including his own compositions and songs of artists such as David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Radiohead and The Police. It's no surprise then that Lipa began singing at the young age of five. She attended Fitzjohn's Primary School, and her music lessons there included the cello, but when she auditioned to enter the school choir, the teacher told her that she couldn't sing, so at the age of nine she began weekend singing lessons. In 2008 her family moved to Pristina after Kosovo declared independence, moving back to London in 2015 to finish her schooling. She starting writing her own songs, which she uploaded to SoundCloud and YouTube, along with videos of her covering tracks such as 'If I Ain't Got You' by Alicia Keys and 'Beautiful' by Christina Aguilera. She also modelled for Topshop and signed with a modelling agency, which helped her land a role as a "singer" in an ITV advertisement for The X Factor in 2013, covering the song 'Lost In Music'. In 2013 she signed a contract with Tap Management, directed by Ben Mawson and Ed Millett, who offered her a monthly salary to leave her job as a cocktail waitress and focus on recording music. During one of the sessions she co-wrote the song 'Hotter Than Hell', which led to her signing a record deal with Warner Bros. Records in 2014. In August 2015 she released her first single, 'New Love', followed by 'Be The One' in October, which reached number one in Belgium, Poland and Slovakia, as well as charting in the top ten in over eleven European territories. 

She toured the UK from January to early December 2016, during time which she released her third single, 'Last Dance', in February, followed by 'Hotter Than Hell' in May, which peaked at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart. Her fifth single 'Blow Your Mind (Mwah)', was released in August, and not only broke the UK Top 30, but was also her first entry on the US Billboard Hot 100, debuting at number 72. In May 2017, she performed at the anniversary of Indonesian television channel SCTV and won the award for Young and Promising International Artist at the SCTV Music Awards, and to build on this success she released her debut self-titled album in June 2017. The new single ,'New Rules', was released the following month, and it was her first number one in the UK. In June she performed at the Glastonbury Festival, and in July she performed at the We The Fest, an Indonesian music festival in Jakarta. In December, she was named the most streamed woman of 2017 in the UK by Spotify, and in January 2018, she received nominations in five categories at the Brit Awards, more nominations than any other artist that year. Between signing with Warner Bros. Records in 2014 and the release of her first album three years later, Lipa had been constantly writing and recording new songs, so that by the time she was ready to choose a dozen of them for her first album, she had around 60 to pick from, and so rather than waste those rejected tracks, I'll be posting four albums of out-takes and demos recorded between 2014 and 2017. 

Track listing

01 One For The Night
02 Between A Bullet And A Heartbreak
03 High, Wild And Free
04 New York (Mend My Broken Heart)
05 Chasing The Dragon
06 Looking For Trouble
07 Telling It Like It Is
08 Follow Me
09 Talk Myself (Out Of It)
10 Kinda Like That
11 Voodoo
12 Under The Lights
13 Yours

Ellie Goulding - Bittersweet (2019)

As you will have seen if you've read the notes for the last two Ellie Goulding posts, right from the start of her career she was providing songs to be included in the soundtracks to films and TV series. Sometimes there were taken from her albums, but often they were written specifically for the film, and so I've collected them all here for an album that could be called 'Ellie Goulding At The Movies'. A couple of her tracks have appeared in US or UK TV shows, but the majority of the songs featured in films from 2010 to 2019, and many of them had never appeared on her albums until they were sometimes added to deluxe re-issues. 

Track listing

01 Starry Eyed (from the film 'Kick-Ass' 2010)
02 A Day At A Time (from the film 'Life In A Day' 2011)
03 I Know You Care (from the film 'Now Is Good' 2012)
04 Bittersweet (from the film 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2' 2012)
05 You My Everything (from the TV series 'Skins' 2013)
06 How Long Will I Love You (from the film 'About Time' 2013)
07 Hanging On (from the film 'The Host' 2013)
08 Mirror (from the film 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' 2013)
09 Beating Heart (from the film 'Divergent' 2014)
10 Heavy Crown (with Iggy Azalea) (from the film 'Kingsman: The Secret Service' 2014)
11 Love Me Like You Do (from the film 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' 2015)
12 When Your Feet Don't Touch The Ground (from the Broadway show 'Finding Neverland' 2015)
13 Still Falling For You (from the film 'Bridget Jones's Baby' 2016)
14 Do You Remember (from the film 'Fighting With My Family' 2019)

Fifth Harmony - Girls Like Us (2016)

After the tour supporting 'Reflection' was complete, Fifth Harmony decamped to the recording studio to begin work on their second album, which was given a provisional release date of 20 May 2016. It was to be named '27/7', after the date that they were formed on The X Factor, and in keeping with this theme of '27', it was later announced that the album's release had been pushed back a week to 27 May. The lead single, 'Work From Home', which featured American singer Ty Dolla Sign, was released in February 2016, and it peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the group's highest-charting single in the United States. As announced, '27/7' was indeed released on 27 May, and debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, as well as achieving their first chart appearances in Japan and South Korea. A tour supporting the record started in June, and covered South America, North America and Europe, with supporting artists Victoria Monét and JoJo. The group's last performance of 2016, and as a quintet, was on the previously taped 'Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve', during which they performed 'Worth It', 'Work From Home' and 'That's My Girl'. On 18 December 2016, the group announced that Camilla Cabello had left, and that the remaining four members would continue as a four-piece. As before, while recording songs for the '27/7' album, they taped more than they needed, and while some were later added to exclusive Japanese pressings of the album, or given away by Napster, others have yet to make an official appearance, so I've added those unreleased tracks to the Japanese and Napster rarities for one last album by the original five-piece Fifth Harmony. They made one further recording as a quartet, with the eponymously titled 'Fifth Harmony' album being released in 2017, but this time they kept a tighter rein on the out-takes, and although we know the titles of some of the rejected songs, most of them are yet to make an appearance online, apart from one solitary track 'Better With You', which I've slotted in here so as not to waste it. On 19 March 2018, the group announced their decision to take an indefinite hiatus to pursue solo projects, so this is the final post from the girls, although out-takes from some of those solo projects will make an appearance in the future. 

Track listing

01 Girls Like Us

02 No Way

03 Feel So Right

04 PSA

05 Voicemail

06 1000 Hands

07 Come Get It

08 Better With You

09 Monies (feat. Tory Lanez)

10 Big Bad Wolf

11 All Again

12 Ladder

Ellie Goulding - Tainted Memories (2016)

In 2012, Ellie Goulding appeared on 'Fall Into The Sky' from Zedd's debut album 'Clarity', and on Calvin Harris's song 'I Need Your Love', as well as releasing a cover of Active Child's song 'Hanging On' as a free download on her SoundCloud page. In late July 2012, it was announced that her second album was to be titled 'Halcyon', and it would be released on 8 October 2012, preceded by the lead single 'Anything Could Happen' on 21 August. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, who complimented Goulding's more aggressive showcase of her voice and the album's bold production, and it debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart. In November she contributed a track titled 'Bittersweet' (produced by Skrillex) to the soundtrack of 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2', and in May 2013 she released a cover of Alt-J's song 'Tessellate' via her SoundCloud page. In July she premiered a song called 'You My Everything' in the first episode of the TV series 'Skins', and that same day she confirmed that 'Halcyon' would be re-released later that year as 'Halcyon Days', appearing on 23 August. The re-release featured ten additional tracks, and was preceded by the single 'Burn', which had been uploaded to her SoundCloud page the previous day. 

She also appeared on the soundtrack to the film 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' with the track 'Mirror', and on 15 October 2013, she confirmed on Fearne Cotton's radio show that 'How Long Will I Love You' would be the next single for BBC's Children in Need. On 22 January 2014, Goulding confirmed through her Facebook page that she had contributed the song 'Beating Heart' to the soundtrack for the film 'Divergent', and on 3 February she released a cover of the James Blake song 'Life Round Here' through her SoundCloud page. In November 2014 she announced that she was focusing on a third studio album, and in early 2015 she released the song 'Love Me Like You Do', which was featured on the soundtrack to the film 'Fifty Shades Of Grey'. Having finished recording new material on 27 July 2015, Goulding tweeted a link to an Instagram post of her leaving Abbey Road Studios captioned, "That's a wrap!", and 'Delerium' was released on 6 November 2015 by Polydor Records. Music critics were generally impressed by the overall production of the record, although they were ambivalent in regards to its originality, but it still debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart. Three singles were taken from the record, with 'On My Mind' as the lead single, followed by 'Army' and 'Something In The Way You Move', and on 19 August 2016 she released the song 'Still Falling For You' for the soundtrack to the film 'Bridget Jones's Baby'. As you can see by the number of songs that she gifted to movie soundtracks, Goulding was writing and recording way more than was needed for 'Delerium', and so once again there were demos and out-takes left over after the album was released, which are collected here for another companion album, this one from 2016. 

Track listing

01 Closed For Love
02 Kingdom
03 Mosaic
04 I've Done Chamber
05 President
06 You Don't Know
07 Tasting Colour
08 Over Me
09 Beautifully Numb
10 Electricity
11 Hush
12 Real Love
13 Tainted Memories

Aimee Allen - I'd Start A Revolution (If I Could Get Up In The Morning) (2003)

Aimee Allen was born in Montana 2 February 1982, and began singing in bands in her hometown, before moving to Los Angeles at the age of 18 to pursue a career in music. In Los Angeles, she was lead singer of a punk band with members of No Motiv called Forum. After the band's record deal with MCA fell through in 2002, Allen signed a solo deal with Elektra Records, after she was spotted by producer Randy Jackson. Her debut album 'I'd Start A Revolution (If I Could Get Up In The Morning)' was recorded in 2003, and featured tracks produced by Mark Ronson and Don Gilmore, but it was never released due to the label being absorbed by Atlantic Records in 2004. The label did, however, release her first single 'Revolution', which was the theme for the WB television series 'Birds Of Prey'. She co-wrote 'Save Me (Wake Up Call)' with Linda Perry for Unwritten Law's 2005 album 'Here's To The Mourning', and in 2007, her song 'Stripper Friends' was re-worked and recorded by Kevin Michael featuring Lupe Fiasco as 'We All Want The Same Thing', while Allen herself sang the song 'Cooties' on the soundtrack to the 2007 film 'Hairspray'. In 2011, Allen formed the ska/punk band the Interrupters with brothers Kevin, Justin, and Jesse Bivona, singing as Aimee Interrupter. The Interrupters' debut self-titled record was released on 5 August 2014 on Hellcat/Epitaph Records, and the band are still working today, with their 'In The Wild' album coming a couple of years ago. For anyone who wants to hear Allen at the start of her career, here is that cancelled album that should have come out on Elektra  in 2003. 

Track listing

01 Revolution
02 I'm Not Your Girlfriend
03 In The Sun
04 If It Feels Right (Do It)
05 Oblivion
06 Silence Is Violence
07 Good Times
08 Stripper Friends
09 Too Fucked Up For Love
10 Wasting My Youth
11 A Little Happiness

Britney Spears - Whiteout (2007)

In November 2003, while promoting her fourth studio album 'In the Zone', Britney Spears told Entertainment Weekly that she was already writing songs with Henrik Jonback for her fifth studio album, and was also hoping to start her own record label in 2004. When asked about her next album, she said she had been experimenting in her home studio with live musicians, stripping down her sound and playing the piano, and that she wanted the album to represent her Louisiana roots. However, her personal life was very turbulent at this time, giving birth to her second son Jayden James in September 2006, and then filing for divorce from Kevin Federline in November, citing irreconcilable differences. This was finalized in July 2007, but during her divorce her partying and public behavior drew attention from the worldwide media, ending with her suffering a nervous breakdown and shaving her head, which caused intense media scrutiny. Once she'd recovered she returned to her music, and while recording of the album had begun in 2006, she met J.R. Rotem in Las Vegas and enlisted him to work with her after hearing Rihanna's 'SOS'. She also worked with Keri Hilson, Jim Beanz, Corté Ellis, and Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, known as Bloodshy & Avant, and they recorded about two dozen tracks for possible inclusion on the album. 'Blackout' was set to be released on 13 November 2007, but Jive Records announced on 10 October that the release date would be moved up two weeks, to 30 October, due to unauthorized leaks. The following day, Zomba Label Group filed a lawsuit against Perez Hilton, claiming he illegally obtained and posted on his gossip blog at least ten songs and unfinished demos of the album. The following month, The District Court judge dismissed the case with prejudice, and the album was released on 25 October 2007. On its release, 'Blackout' received mixed to positive reviews from music critics, with one calling it a seamlessly entertaining collection of bright, brash electropop, although there was no getting away from the fact that her off-disc life was both a distraction from, and enabler for, this album. As we know from the court case, there were a number of unused songs and demos floating around, and most of them have now appeared online, so here are fourteen of the best, which can make up a companion album to 'Blackout', which I've called 'Whiteout'.

Track listing

01 State Of Grace
02 Love 2 Love U 
03 All That She Wants
04 Let Go
06 When U Gon' Pull It
06 Rebellion (interlude)
07 Sugerfall
08 This Kiss
09 911
10 Kiss You All Over
11 Little Me (Just Yesterday) 
12 (What You) Sippin' On
13 Pull Out