Eden xo - Dirty Blonde (2016)

Following her stint in Shut Up Stella in 2007, and an attempt at a solo career in 2008, Jessica Eden Malakouti formed Jessie And The Toy Boys in 2011, which was actually more of a solo project, with the Toy Boys being mannequins. She said in a 2011 interview that she wanted plastic bandmates that could not get in the way of her creative vision, and under that name she independently released the 'Show Me Your Tan Lines' five-song EP. 'Push It (feat. Yelawolf)' hit the Top 10 on the Billboard dance charts, and during the summer of 2011 she opened for Britney Spears and Nicki Minaj on the North American leg of the Femme Fatale tour. The band's debut album, 'This Is How Rumours Start', should have followed, but it was pushed back to summer 2012, and despite some of the songs appearing as videos on Youtube, the album itself has failed to materialise. In May 2013 she released 'White Girl Wasted' under her own name, and this sparked rumours that she would no longer be releasing music under the name Jessie And The Toy Boys. This was confirmed when she announced that she'd signed to Virgin, changed her name to her middle name of Eden, followed by xo, and released her first single under this name with 'Too Cool To Dance'. It hit the Top 40 on the Billboard chart and the Top 20 on the club charts, and in 2014 it was featured on 'So You Think You Can Dance' to mark National Dance Day. 'The Weekend' was another hit single, as was a remix of the track that featured Lil Jon, and she also recorded a version of the Thompson Twins song 'Hold Me Now' in 2015. Her next release was intended to be an EP titled 'Dirty Blonde', but due to label problems she ended up being dropped by Virgin and the project was shelved. During her time at Virgin Records she had sessions with Ron Fair, Toby Gad, Fred Falke, Sean Paul, and Jesse Shatkin, and had enough songs for an album at the time that the EP was cancelled, and so if she hadn't left the label in 2017 then she could have expanded the EP into her debut album. As she didn't do that then I have, and so here is Eden xo's first and only album, which should have come out around 2016.

 
Track listing

01 Dirty Blonde  
02 Too Cool To Dance  
03 Drips Gold (feat. Raja Kumari) 
04 Finger
05 All Day Every Day 
06 Sideline (feat. Swick)
07 Torn (Don't Stop Believing) 
08 Cinematic Goodbye
09 Say That Again (feat. Travis Mills)  
10 El Barrio 
11 Hold Me Now  
12 Color Me In (feat. The Hot Damns) 
13 The Weekend 

Jessie Malakouti - Pretty & Gritty (2008)

While she was still a member of Shut Up Stella between 2007 and 2008, Jessie Malakouti was thinking ahead to a solo career, if and when the band broke up, and she was writing and recording her own songs. After Shut Up Stella was dropped from Epic Records, she flew to Sweden to work with production team Money&Stuff and other producers such as Arnthor Birgisson, Justin Trugman, Lester Mendez, Matt Rowe and Wayne Rodrigues, with the intention of producing her debut solo album, which was to be titled 'Pretty & Gritty'. The record was due to be released in 2008, but it was never completed, and so she uploaded some songs to her MySpace page, while others were consigned to the vaults, although two of her songs, 'Trash Me' and 'Outsider', appeared in episodes of MTV's 'The Hills', as well as being independently self-released as music videos and digital downloads. In December 2008 she signed a publishing deal with EMI, and the next two years were spent in London working on dance music with Fred Falke, as well as writing for UK production house Xenomania. In 2010 she formed Jessie And The Toy Boys, launching them with the  single 'Push It' in February 2011, and so all thoughts of a solo career had by then faded away. To fill in the gap between the cancelled 'Shut Up Stella' album and the cancelled' 'This Is How Rumors Start' by Jessie And The Toy Boys (can you see a pattern emerging here?), we have the cancelled 'Pretty & Gritty' by a solo Jessie Malakouti.  

Track listing

01 Trash Me 
02 Eyes Closed 
03 Bad Guy 
04 Check 'n Out 
05 I Need Love
06 Big Booty 
07 Commitment Issues
08 PS 
09 Upside Down 304
10 Lately 
11 Outsider 
12 Crash Bang Baby
13 You're My Viagra 
14 Things

Shut Up Stella - Shut Up Stella (2007)

In 2006 Jessica Eden Malakouti moved to Los Angeles following her graduation, and started an all-female punk band, Shut Up Stella, with Kristen Wagner, and Allison Jayne Lurie, otherwise known as Fan 3. Fan 3 had been recording and releasing music since she was 13, with one of her songs being featured on the 'Lizzie McGuire' soundtrack, and there were even plans to release her debut album in 2005. However, after a sampler disc was sent out for the tentatively titled 'Let Me Clear My Throat', she was dropped by her label and her album was shelved. In 2006 Fan 3 met up with Malakouti and Wagner and formed Shut Up Stella, and they were signed by Epic Records shortly after their formation. One of their first recordings was 'Watch Me Rain', which was produced by Greg Kurstin, and it featured in a few movies, including the 2008 film 'Baby Mama', starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. After a very short tenure with the label, during which time they did manage to record around a dozen songs for a proposed 2007 album, they were dropped by Epic, and their album was cancelled. Malakouti quit the band and decided to focus instead on her career as an actress, songwriter and solo artist, while Fan 3 helped out Kay Hanley with backing vocals on her second album 'Weaponize', before recording and releasing covers and original music on Youtube and Myspace under her given name of Allison Jayne. The 'Shut Up Stella' album has floated around Youtube for a while now, and so to start a short overview of Malakouti's career, which later continued with Jessie And The Toy Boys, and then as Eden xo, here is her first effort.  

Track listing

01 Welcome To My Party
02 On My Bed
03 Twister
04 Waiting For You
05 Cheap Champagne
06 Watch Me Rain
07 Postcards (Forgot To Remember)
08 These Are The Days
09 Light It Up
10 Country Lemonade (Sip It Up)
11 Pound Star
12 Oprah For President

Jessie And The Toy Boys - This Is How Rumors Start (2011)

Jessica Eden Malakouti was born on 30 March 1989 in Anaheim, California, and at age 16 she emancipated herself from her parents, graduated high school two years early, and moved to Hollywood to pursue her show business dreams. Soon after arriving in Hollywood, she started an all girl punk rock band called Shut Up Stella, which signed with Epic Records in 2006, and their songs started to appear in films such as MTV's 'Sweet 16 The Movie', which featured 'Watch Me Rain', while 'Welcome To My Party' appeared in the both 'Girl Positive' and 'Baby Mama' in 2008. Later that year the band were dropped by Epic, and the forthcoming album was cancelled, prompting Malakouti to go solo. In 2008 her songs 'Trash Me' and 'Outsider' appeared in episodes of MTV's 'The Hills', as well as being independently self-released as music videos and digital downloads, and in December she signed a publishing deal with EMI. The next two years were spent in London working on dance music with Fred Falke, as well as writing for UK production house Xenomania. The result of this time was a single called 'Standing Up For The Lonely', which was released on British dance label Ministry of Sound. In 2010 she formed Jessie And The Toy Boys, launching them with the  single 'Push It' in February 2011, which peaked at 7 on the Billboard dance chart, following this in June with the EP 'Show Me Your Tan Lines', and Malakouti made her network television debut on the Conan O’Brien Show. During this time, Jessie And The Toy Boys was one of the opening acts during Britney Spears' sixth concert tour, the Femme Fatale Tour, and they also released their next single 'Let's Get Naughty' in October. The band's debut album, 'This Is How Rumours Start', should have followed the single in October, but it was pushed back to summer 2012, and despite some of the songs appearing as videos on Youtube, the album itself has failed to materialise. In May 2013 Malakouti released a music video for what was originally a Toy Boys song called 'White Girl Wasted' under her own name, and this sparked rumours that she would no longer be releasing music under the name Jessie And The Toy Boys. In September 2013 she uploaded a picture via her Facebook page confirming that she had signed a new recording contract with Virgin Records, and that confirmed that the band was no more. As well as the songs posted on Youtube, others tracks have also leaked online, and track listings have even appeared, and so it is fairly easy to piece the album together to hear what it would have sounded like had it appeared as intended. 

Track listing 

01 This Is How Rumors Start 
02 Flashback 
03 Perfect Shade Of Red 
04 Marilyn 
05 Petty Theft 
06 Let's Get Naughty 
07 Boxers 
08 Push It (feat. Yelawolf) 
09 Money Makes The Girl Go Round 
10 Valentine
11 We Own The Night 
12 Key To The City 
13 Hitman 

14 Summer Boy
15 Can't Go Back To London 
16 Runaway 
17 Angels Get To Sing