Bridget St. John - Songs To Keep You Company (1974)

Bridget St John (born Bridget Anne Hobbs) was born on 4 October 1946 in Surrey, England, and grew up in a musical household where her mother and sisters were all accomplished pianists. She took piano lessons at her mother's behest, but she did not get along with her teacher and quit when she was 11, later studying the viola for two years and then the trumpet for two years, before she bought her first guitar with £20 that her grandmother gave her shortly before she finished high school. In 1967, she spent three months in Aix-en-Provence as part of her French studies, and during this period she met American singer-songwriter Robin Frederick, who introduced her to John Martyn when they both returned to London. He was instrumental in getting her music out to a larger audience, and a mutual friend, Pete Roche, put her in touch with John Peel, and in 1968 she recorded four songs for his 'Nightride' radio show, using Al Stewart's ReVox tape recorder. Peel and Clive Selwood originally formed Dandelion Records just to release St John's music, and her 1969 debut album 'Ask Me No Questions' was produced by Peel, and recorded in nine to ten hours. In 1970, she duetted with Kevin Ayers on 'The Oyster And The Flying Fish for his 'Shooting At The Moon record, and her own second album was released the following year, with 'Songs For The Gentle Man' being was produced by Ron Geesin. This was a significant step up from her debut, and contained string arrangements mostly by Geesin himself, particularly striking on the opening track 'A Day A Way' and 'Seagull- Sunday'. Her third album 'Thank You For...' was released in 1972, and was even more ambitious using more musicians to create a folk-rock sound. The was her last album for the Dandelion label, however, which folded due to its artists' lack of commercial success, and St John's adventurous fourth album 'Jumblequeen' was released through Chrysalis Records in 1974. St John emigrated to Greenwich Village in 1976 and virtually disappeared from the public eye for over 20 years, re-emerging in 1993 for the Strawbs 25th Anniversary festival, and three years later she rleased a 'come-back' album, 'Take The Fifth', and appeared at a Nick Drake tribute concert in New York City in 1999. John Peel was always a huge fan of her wotk, describing her as "the best lady singer-songwriter in the country", and she recorded a number of sessions for his programmes, one of which included her affectionate ditty 'Pig And Peel' dedicated to Peel and his wife Sheila, who's nickname was The Pig. This collection of rare recordings includeds a number of those sessions tracks which never appeared on any of her albums, plus a few non-album singles and their b-sides, and a lovely live take of John Martyn's 'Head And Heart from 1974.   

Track listing

01 The River (John Peel session 1969)
02 Song To Keep You Company (John Peel session 1969)
03 Night In The City (John Peel session 1969)
04 If You've Got Money (single 1970)
05 Yep (b-side of 'If You've Got Money')
06 The Leaves Of Lime (John Peel session 1970)
07 There's A Place I Know (b-side of 'Fly High' 1972)
08 Suzanne (b-side of 'Fly High' 1972)
09 Passin' Thru' (single 1973)
10 The Road Was Lonely On My Own (b-side of 'Passin' Thru')
11 Choosing You Lose One (John Peel session 1973)
12 Head And Heart (Radio 1 In Concert 1974)
13 The Present Song/Pig'n'Peel (John Peel session 1974)

50 Cent - Guess Who's Back? Again (2004)

50 Cent (Curtis James Jackson) had a troubled childhood, dealing narcotics at age 12 when his grandparents thought he was in after-school programs, as well as bringing guns and drug money to school. In the tenth grade, he was caught by metal detectors at Andrew Jackson High School, and in 1994 he was arrested for selling four vials of cocaine to an undercover police officer. He was arrested again three weeks later, when police searched his home and found heroin, ten ounces of crack cocaine, and a starting pistol, and although he was sentenced to three to nine years in prison, he served six months in a boot camp and earned his GED. In order to try to turn his life around in the late 90's, he adopted the name 50 Cent and began rapping in a friend's basement, where he used turntables to record over instrumentals, and in 1996, a friend introduced him to Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC, who was establishing Jam Master Jay Records. Jay taught him how to count bars, write choruses, structure songs, and make records, and his first appearance was on 'React' with Onyx, for their 1998 album 'Shut 'Em Down'. He credited Jam Master Jay for improving his ability to write hooks, but he left Jay in 1999, and the platinum-selling producers Trackmasters signed him to Columbia Records. They sent him to an upstate New York studio, where he produced thirty-six songs in two weeks, eighteen of which were included on his unreleased 2000 album 'Power Of The Dollar'. He continued to record, laying down over thirty songs for mixtapes to build a reputation, using the DJ circuit to his advantage by taking the hottest beats from other artists and flipping them with better hooks. His popularity increased, and in 2002 he released the mixtape 'Guess Who's Back?', and when Eminem heard it he was impressed enough to invite 50 Cent to fly to Los Angeles and introduce him to Dr. Dre. After signing a $1 million record deal, he released the mixtape 'No Mercy, No Fear', and in 2003 he issued his debut album 'Get Rich Or Die Tryin'', described by AllMusic as "probably the most hyped debut album by a rap artist in about a decade". It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 872,000 copies in its first four days, and it's lead single 'In Da Club' set a Billboard record as the most listened-to song in radio history within a week. Despite being signed to a label and having an actual record under his belt, 50 Cent carried on recording songs for his mixtapes, and in 2004 he released his next one 'Guess Who's Back? Again', featuring all new tracks from this most productive part of his career, so here it is for your enjoyment.  

Track listing

01 Intro (Shot Caller '04)
02 Here We Go
03 Doin' My Own Thing 
04 Guess Who's Back Again  
05 She Luv It
06 Die For Me
07 After My Chedda
08 G-Unit Soldier (Ride Out)
09 187 Freestyle
10 Flex Freestyle
11 No Introduction
12 As Time Goes By
13 Heaven/Hell
14 Gee's Up 
15 Gettin' Mine 
16 Bad News (Mixtape Version)
17 I'm A Soldier
18 Ching, Ching, Ching
19 Say What You Want (Outro)

David Bowie - Omikron: The Nomad Soul (1999)

In late 1998 David Bowie was offered the the chance to compose the soundtrack for the upcoming video game 'Omikron: The Nomad Soul', developed by Quantic Dream and published by Eidos Interactive. Writer and director David Cage chose Bowie over a list of other applicants including Björk, Massive Attack and Archive, and it's been suggested that Bowie was drawn to the game due to its Buddhist overtones, noting that when a character died, he or she was reincarnated. As well as composing the music, Bowie also appeared in the game as a character named Boz and, along with guitarist Reeves Gabrels and bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, as the un-named singer of an in-game band called The Dreamers, who performed gigs in the bars of Omikron City. The 'Omikron' project provided the springboard for Bowie's next album, and between late 1998 and early 1999 Bowie and Reeves Gabrels amassed a large number of songs, some of which were written for Omikron and others for a Gabrels solo album, including 'Survive', 'The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell', and 'We All Go Through'. Unlike the experimental cut-up nature of Bowie's other 1990's recordings, these tracks were written in a more conventional style reminiscent of his mid-1980's works, with demos primarily written on guitar, while 'Thursday's Child' and 'The Dreamers' were written on keyboards. At an E3 press conference in 1999, Bowie said that his main priority was to imbue the game with "emotional subtext" and regarded this as a success. In the end, 'Omikron' featured variants of every track from the 'Hours' album except 'If I'm Dreaming My Life, 'Brilliant Adventure' and 'What's Really Happening?', and including the new song 'We All Go Through'. Various instrumentals which also appeared in the game were later developed further for release as b-sides, for instance 'Awakened 2' is an instrumental version of 'No One Calls' and 'Thrust' (as heard during a rooftop fight with a demon) would become '1917'. The futuristic electronic ambient score and rock songs helmed by Bowie and Gabrels, along with electronic soundscapes from Xavier Despas, was met with near-universal acclaim, and players could hear the full vocal versions of the eight original songs at The Dreamers' secret concerts in the game. Characters in the game could buy a virtual album by The Dreamers that they could listen to in their apartments, or they could simply walk into an apartment that already has some of the music laid out in plain view or in hidden compartments. The 'hours...' album was released about five weeks earlier than the game, with 'We All Go Through' being omitted from the general issue, although it was released as a Japanese bonus track, and also as a single b-side. Some of the recordings in the game are different versions to the ones on 'hours...', and there's also a considerable amount of unique instrumental music on the soundtrack, so even if you are a fan of 'hours...' already then this will still be worth a listen.   

Track listing

01 The Journey Pt. I
02 The Journey Pt. II
03 New Angels Of Promise (Omikron)
04 The Journey Pt. III
05 Something In The Air
06 The Journey Pt. IV
07 The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell
08 The Journey Pt. V
09 Save Your Soul
10 Thursday's Child
11 A Pretty Reprise
12 Survive
13 The Journey Pt. VI
14 We All Go Through
15 The Journey Pt. VII
16 The Journey Pt. VIII
17 The Dreamers
18 The Journey Pt. IX
19 The Journey Pt. X
20 Seven

For anyone interested, here's a synopsis of the game:
The Nomad Soul is set in a futuristic city known as Omikron, which is a densely 
populated metropolis on the world of Phaenon, the second planet of the star Rad'an. At the 
start of the game, players are asked by an Omikronian police officer named Kay'l 669 to 
leave their dimension and enter Omikron within his body (therefore breaking the fourth 
wall). After doing so, players continue with the investigation of serial killings that Kay'l 
and his partner Den were originally working on, attempting to pick up where Kay'l was 
apparently stopped from investigating. The city of Omikron exists beneath an enormous 
crystal dome which was constructed to protect against the ice age that Phaenon entered after 
its sun's extinction. The city is split into four different sectors: Anekbah, Qualisar, Jaunpur and Lahoreh. Because it is forbidden for the inhabitants to leave their respective sectors, each area has developed uniquely, which is reflected by the diverging lifestyles and architecture. Common to all Omikronians, however, is the heavily oppressive and controlling government which is run by a supercomputer called "Ix". Soon after the beginning of the game's introduction, the player begins the investigation in the Anekbah sector. He uncovers information that suggests the serial killer he is looking for is in fact not human but actually a demon. When members of an apparent underground, anti-government movement contact the player and confirm his suspicions, the investigation deepens and uncovers information; one of Omikron's chief police commanders (Commandant Gandhar) is a demon pretending to be human and lures human souls into Omikron  from other dimensions by way of the Omikron video game. Kay'l 669 asking the player to help him was a trap: supposedly, if the in-game character dies, the real human playing the video  game will lose their soul forever. Despite many assassination attempts on the protagonist's life by other demons working behind the scenes, the player destroys Ganhar with supernatural weaponry. After this brief victory, the player is invited to join the mysterious anti-government movement named "The Awakened" (referring to the fact the characters have "awakened" from the lies and drugs of the government). The Awakened work in tandem with an ancient religious order who are led by Boz (played by Bowie), a mystical being that exists in purely electronic form on the computer networks of Omikron. The Awakened refer to the protagonist as the "Nomad Soul" since he has the ability to change bodies at will. The Nomad Soul learns afterwards that what is going on in Omikron is merely an extension of a thousands-of-years-old battle between mankind and demons led by the powerful Astaroth. Astaroth, who was banished to the depths of Omikron long ago, is slowly regenerating power while using demons to both collect souls and impersonate high members of the government; he believes he can eventually take complete control and move across Phaenon and the Universe beyond. Only by harnessing ancient, magical technology and by re-discovering several hidden tombs underneath Omikron's 
surface, can the Nomad Soul hope to discover how to destroy Astaroth, return to his own 
dimension, and prevent his soul from being captured by demons.

Taking a break.....

You may have noticed that I haven't posted as much on the blog as usual since I returned from my holiday, and that's because those two weeks away from it, listening some classic old albums and actually reading some books, made me realise just how much time I was spending on it at the expense of other activities. With work also being extremely busy and so being offered overtime incentives that I couldn't turn down, as well as with the better weather finally arriving in the UK, I've decided to scale back on the posts so that I can take advantage of the little spare time that I have and get out of the house and relax in the garden a bit more. I've posted five albums a week without fail for the past three years, and so it's also come to the point where ideas for the posts are drying up, so I'll just be posting one or two albums a week from now on until inspiration strikes again. I have a stockpile of a couple of dozen which I haven't managed to galvanise myself into writing notes for, so I'll work my way through them over the next few months and then see how it goes after that.   

Belinda Carlisle - Private Lives (1987)

Belinda Carlisle's first venture into music was in 1977 as drummer for the punk rock band The Germs, under the name Dottie Danger, after she was recruited into the band by Lorna Doom, whom she had met in an art class while a student at Newbury Park High School. Her time in the band was short owing to her contracting mononucleosis, and she never recorded or performed live with the band, but according to Germs guitarist Pat Smear (who later played in Nirvana and Foo Fighters), when she quit she introduced her friend, Donna Rhia, who became her replacement. Soon after leaving The Germs, she co-founded The Misfits with friends and fellow musicians Margot Olavarria, Elissa Bello, and Jane Wiedlin, later changing their name to The Go-Gos. Olavarria and Bello were soon out of the group and the new line-up included bassist-turned-guitarist Charlotte Caffey, guitarist-turned-bassist Kathy Valentine, and drummer Gina Schock. The band went on to become one of the most successful American groups of the 1980's, helping usher new wave music into popular American radio, and becoming the first and only all-female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to ever achieve a No. 1 album with their 'Beauty And The Beat', which featured the hits 'We Got The Beat' and 'Our Lips Are Sealed'. Two more albums followed on I.R.S. Records, including 1982's 'Vacation', which went gold, before they disbanded in 1985. Carlisle and Wiedlin both embarked on successful solo careers, and Carlisle's first solo album 'Belinda' was released in 1986, achieving Gold status in the United States and Platinum in Canada. Hit singles soon followed, with 'Mad About You' peaking at No. 3 in the United States, while Charoltte Caffey's Motown-influenced 'I Feel The Magic' and a cover of the Freda Payne classic 'Band Of Gold' also did well for her. The Lindsay Buckingham co-write 'Since You've Gone' was used only for promotion, while Susanna Hoffs co-wrote the single 'I Need A Disguise', on which she sang back-up vocals alongside Jane Wiedlin. During this time Carlisle also had songs featured on movie soundtracks, notably 'In My Wildest Dreams' from the movie 'Mannequin', 'Shot In The Dark' from the Anthony Michael Hall thriller 'Out Of Bounds', as well as 'Dancing In The City' from the Whoopi Goldberg movie 'Burglar'. In 1987 she began work on her follow-up album, and recorded demos of a number of new songs, some of which were later re-recorded for inclusion on the 'Heaven On Earth' album, while a number of them remain unreleased to this day. The album's first single, 'Heaven Is A Place On Earth', topped the single charts in the United States and the UK, and is perhaps her most famous song, while the Diane Warren-penned 'I Get Weak' peaked at No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. The third single from the album was 'Circle In The Sand', another Top 10 hit in the United States, the UK, and Germany. Following the success of the album, Carlisle embarked on the Good Heavens world tour, which sold out Wembley Arena in London. As this was a pivotal point in her solo career, I've collected together those demo recordings, and also added in a couple of the songs from the movie soundtracks of the same period, to give an idea of how she polished these early versions of her songs to perfect what would become the album that broke her into the mainstream. The cover of Donovan's 'Wear Your Love Like Heaven' had a serious drop-out which I've managed to patch, so hopefully that isn't too noticable.   

Track listing

01 Private Lives
02 Some Hearts
03 Out Of My Hands
04 Circle In The Sand
05 Wear Your Love Like Heaven
06 Love Never Dies
07 In My Wildest Dream
08 World Without You
09 Waiting For A Star To Fall
10 Should I Let You In
11 Dancing In The City

Jan Panter - Si Si Señor (1969)

Jan Panter hailed from Finsbury Park in London, and began her short recording career in 1965 with a cover of the Mary Wells song 'My Two Arms - You = Tears' ('My Two Arms Minus You Equals Tears'), which was released on the soon-to-be-defunct Oriole label. 'Let It Be Now' came out a few months later on CBS, and a year later she was working with producer Mark Wirtz, who directed the session for the best-known of her singles, 'Scratch My Back'/'Put Yourself In My Place', with 'Scratch My Back' being more rock-orientated than most of her other recordings, and featuring some prominent fuzz-guitarwork. Following a gap of a couple of years Panter was back, this time with an out and out pop record, with 'Si Si Señor' appearing in the UK and Spain on President Records, and also being released on Columbia Records in Germany, with a b-side in the same language. One more song was recorded in 1969 but was never issued, and with that Panter's career was over, leaving behind enough music to make an album which is just shy of half an hour, but which contains some great 60's soul, pop and R'n'B. 

Track listing

01 My Two Arms - You  = Tears (single 1965)
02 Does My Heart Show ‎(b-side of 'My Two Arms - You  = Tears')
03 Let It Be Now (single 1965)
04 Stand By And Cry ‎(b-side 'Let It Be Now')
05 Scratch My Back (single 1966)
06 Put Yourself In My Place (b-side of 'Scratch My Back')

07 Stella In Lights (b-side of UK issue of 'Si Si Señor')
08 Si Si Señor (single 1969) 
09 Wenn Die Liebe Kommt (b-side of German issue of 'Si Si Señor' 1969)
10 Yours Sincerely (unreleased acetate 1969)

Crystal Jacqueline - Grantchester Meadows (2022)

Jacqueline Bourne was born in Wiltshire, England, and from an early age she developed a love and a talent for music, busking around Bath and playing various events and shows around the region which gained praise and much valuable experience. In 2010 she recorded her first album 'Heal Yourself' as Crystal Jacqueline, which was all originals by Icarus Peel save 'Circle In The Sand', and the style is more mainstream than her current work, bringing to mind Stevie Nicks and Bonnie Rait, although there were some signs of her future path, with 'Lying In The Rain' and 'Circle In The Sand' both pointing to a more ethereal sound. In 2012 she joined The Honey Pot with Peel, alongside Iain Crawford, John Wyatt and Wayne Fraquet, and they released their debut album 'To The Edge Of The World' that year, with one of the major highlights being her performance of 'Paper Garden', a drone like contemplation of horticulture in the sky. Her first recording for the Fruits De Mer label, which now releases all her work, was a cover of 'Cousin Jane' by The Troggs, and both Jacqueline and The Honey Pot have always included well-chosen cover versions on their recordings. Having recently invested in the double 7" vinyl 'The Hobbit House Collective' on the Fruits De Mer label, and been highly impressed by her take on Led Zeppelin's 'The Battle Of Evermore', I thought I'd collect some of her best covers for an album that not only showcases both her vocal talents and her great backing band, but also shows some of her influences, which she repays superbly with this tribute to them. 

Track listing 

01 Night Of The Long Grass (The Troggs)
02 Feast Of Stephen (Mike Heron)
03 I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night (The Electric Prunes)
04 Sally Go Round The Roses (The Jaynetts)
05 In My Chair (Status Quo)
06 Grantchester Meadows (Pink Floyd)
07 Play With Fire (The Rolling Stones)
08 The Battle Of Evermore (Led Zeppelin)
09 A Fairy Tale (Second Hand)
10 Morning Dew (Tim Rose)

The cover uses a photo by Elena Jo Melanson

Tammy St. John - Concerning Love (1969)

Judith Coster was born in Hornchurch, Essex, and is the sister of the famed operatic mezzo-soprano Janet Coster. Judith was gifted with a voice whch had a deep, soulful delivery that could convincingly have come from the other side of the Atlantic, and at the age of 14 she was signed to Pye Records, who released a number of singles by her under the name of Tammy St. John. Although they didn't make much of an impression when they were released in the 60's, a few of her records were later embraced as part of the Northern Soul boom, with 'Life And Soul Of The Party', 'He's The One For Me',  'Nobody Knows What's Going on in My Mind', and 'Stay Together Young Lovers' all became vastly expensive to find as original copies were snapped up by DJ's. Her third single was the Fangette Willett barnstomer 'Dark Shadows And Empty Hallways', and this atmospheric track is in keeping with the dramatic sound of singers such as Dusty Springfield, but it also has elements of the girl groups, particularly the teenage mini operas being recorded by the Shangri-La’s. St John's voice was sophisticated and strong, a bit like a young Sandie Shaw, and the song comes across as both sophisticated and mature rather than simply self absorbed teen melodrama, especially considering that it's sung by a 15-year old girl. St. John only released five singles during her short career, and so this is a rather short album, which was the original reason that I held back from posting it, but in the end I decided that these songs are too good to keep hidden, and so this is the first of a few of these shorter albums to be posted in this series. 

Track listing

01 Boys (single 1964)
02 Hey Hey Hey Hey (b-side of 'Boys')
03 He's The One For Me (single 1965)
04 I'm Tired Just Lookin' At You (b-side of 'He's The One For Me')
05 Dark Shadows And Empty Hallways (single 1965)
06 I Musn't Cry (b-side of 'Dark Shadows And Empty Hallways')
07 Nobody Knows What's Goin' On (In My Mind But Me) (single 1966)
08 Stay Together Young Lovers (b-side of 'Nobody Knows What's Goin' On')  
09 Life And Soul Of The Party (previously unreleased 1967)
10 Concerning Love (single 1969)

Alvin Stardust - The Danger Zone (1977)

In 1973 a single was released by 'Alvin Stardust', with 'My Coo Ca Choo' soon sitting at number 2 in the UK singles chart, faring even better in Australia, where it topped the charts for seven weeks. The song was written, sung, and recorded by Peter Shelley, using the glam rock pseudonym of Alvin Stardust, and although he had already appeared on the Lift Off television programme under the Alvin Stardust persona, Shelley had no desire to take his own stage creation any further than that. If the act were to become more than just a one-hit wonder, then a "face" was required to be, and perform as, Alvin Stardust. The ideal person, in Shelley's opinion, was Bernard Jewry, who at the time was performing in small clubs under the name Shane Fenton, and who had been suggested to Shelley by his manager Hal Carter. Bernard William Jewry was born 27 September 1942 in Muswell Hill, and made his first stage debut in pantomime at the age of four. In the early 1960's he joined the band Shane Fenton and the Fentones, who had recorded a demo tape and mailed it in to a BBC programme with the hope of being picked to appear on television. While awaiting a reply from the BBC, the band's 17-year-old singer Shane Fenton (real name Johnny Theakston) died as a result of the rheumatic fever he had suffered in childhood, following which the rest of the band (guitarists Jerry Wilcock and Mick Eyre, bassist Graham George Squires and drummer Tony Hinchcliffe) decided to break up. Unexpectedly, they received a letter from the BBC inviting them to come to London to audition in person for the programme, and Theakston's mother asked the band to stay together, and to keep its name in honour of her son's memory. Jewry, who was a roadie with them at the time, was asked to join the band and to use the Shane Fenton name, and following the BBC audition the combo had a few hits in the UK with 'I'm A Moody Guy', 'Walk Away', 'It's All Over Now', and their biggest hit 'Cindy's Birthday'. 

After The Fentones broke us, Jewry disappeared from the spotlight for a decade, working in music management and performing at small venues with his first wife Iris Caldwell, the sister of Rory Storm. He was contacted by Shelley and agreed to become the face of Alvin Stardust, and appeared on BBC Television's Top of the Pops, lip-synching to 'My Coo Ca Choo'  just as the record entered the UK Top 30, before finally reaching number 2. Because of the speed with which this substitution happened, the b-side of 'My Coo Ca Choo', 'Pull Together', is another Shelley composition which was sung by him rather than Jewry, although all future songs were sung by him. Shelley followed up 'My Coo Ca Choo' with a string of hits for Stardust, including 'Jealous Mind', which went to number 1 in the UK in March 1974, 'You, You, You', 'Red Dress' and 'Good Love Can Never Die', amassing seven Top Ten entries, in a chart career lasting almost 25 years. He was also part of the Green Cross Code road safety campaign Children's Heroes in 1976, and released a tie-in song on the b-side of his 1975 single 'Move It'. The glam-rock hits dried up around 1977, but he carried on writing and recording right up to his death in October 2014. Alvin Stardust was one the best and most memorable of the glam rock stars of the early 70's, holding his own against Slade, The Sweet, Suzi Quatro, T Rex, and The Glitter Band, and this collection of non-album singles and rare b-sides should bring back memories of a short but much-loved genre that brought a touch of glamour to the pop charts in the 70's. As a special bonus the albums ends with a song written and recorded by Jewry in 2009, which was to have been included on the jazz-rock album that he was working on at the time, but which remains unreleased to this day.   

Track listing

01 Pull Together (b-side of 'My Coo Ca Choo' 1973)
02 Roadie Roll On (b-side of 'Tell Me Why' 1974)
03 Come On! (b-side of 'You You You' 1974)
04 Good Love Can Never Die (single version 1974)
05 The Danger Zone (b-side of 'Good Love Can Never Die')
06 Little Darlin' (b-side of 'Red Dress' 1974)
07 Be Smart Be Safe (The Green Cross Code Song) (b-side of 'Move It' 1975)
08 Sweet Cheatin' Rita (single 1975)
09 Here I Go Again (b-side of 'It's Better To Be Cruel Than Be Kind')
10 The Word Is Out (single 1976)
11 No Parking Space (b-side of 'The Word Is Out')
12 Sweet Little Rock 'n' Roller (single 1977)
13 Save Your Love (b-side of 'Sweet Little Rock 'n' Roller')
14 Growin' Up (single 1977)
15 A Hobo's Life (b-side of 'Growin' Up')

16 Your Dad (previously unreleased 2009) 

Kanye West - Turbo Grafx 16 (2016)

In 2016 Kanye West tweeted that his next album after 'The Life Of Pablo' would be called 'Turbo Grafx 16', as it was one of his favourite gaming systems when he was a kid, with 'Blazing Lazers' being a particular favourite. West was, of course, talking about the TurboGrafx 16, which was the first console released in the 16-bit era in 1989, and was joint-developed by Hudson Soft and NEC. The console was best known for the Bonk series, as well as having one of the best Castlevania games, 'Castlevania: Rondo Of Blood'. West's favourite game for the console, Blazing Lazers, was actually a pretty decent space shoot-'em-up that features some decent beats, and it was hoped that we would hear these with West rapping over them. The album was due to appear in the summer of 2016, and work was done on it in the early part of the year, with some recordings appearing on Japanese bootlegs with titles which appended the names of TG16 games to the titles, but these are generally just sub-par instrumentals. Most of the other leaked tracks are pretty standard West pieces, and rumour has it that these were scrapped when his next album was suddenly changed to 'Love Everyone', which was in turn scrapped completely and a full new album recorded in just a few months, to be released as 'Ye' in 2018. For this reconstruction I've ignored the Japanese bootlegs, as the general consensus is that the best track-listing is the one I've used here, so enjoy yet another unreleased album from this immensely prolific artist. 

Track listing

01 Can't Look in My Eyes/
02 Can U Be? (feat. Travis Scott)
03 All Eyes On Ye
04 Hold Tight
05 Euro2 (Switch Hands) (feat. A$AP Rocky)
06 Only Ye (Make You Love Me)
07 Face Down (feat. Quavo & Lil Yachty)
08 Jealous
09 Tongues (Interlude)
10 Rich Nigga Drunk
11 Bad Night (Capri Sun) (feat. Young Thug)
12 No Reason

Holiday time!

I'm heading off for two weeks in the sun tomorrow, so the blog will be on hold for a couple of weeks. You can still download all the albums from Yandex via the link to the right, but I'm not leaving the laptop on for two weeks so Soulseek will be out of action until I get back. Take the time to go back through the 1,100 albums that I've posted so far on the blog and see if you missed anything the first time round, and then you can get it when I'm back. 

See you soon

The Wannadies - As If We Care (2002) UPDATE

I've just noticed that this post from last December was a bit of a mess, as I'd meant to title it 'As If We Care', rather than 'As If I Care', but despite that I'd tagged all the tracks as 'Want More' anyway, so I've updated the whole thing. I've also re-done the cover, and at the same time toned down the colours, which were a bit garish. The folder is updated in Soulseek and Yandex, so download the new file if you like, although the music itself hasn't changed. 

Track listing

01 Everybody Loves Me (b-side of 'You And Me Song' re-issue 1996)

02 We Were Sitting In A Car On Our Way From Mold To Bath As A Thunderstorm 

                                                            With Hail Stones Passed (b-side of 'Friends' 1996)

03 Just Can't Get Enough (b-side of 'Hit' 1997)

04 (Yeah Yeah Yeah) In Your Face (b-side of 'Hit' 1997)

05 As If You Care (b-side of 'Hit' 1997)

06 I Like You A Lalalala Lot (b-side of 'You And Me Song' EP 1997)

07 What's The Fuss (bonus 7" with 'Bagsy Me' album 1997)

08 Are You Exclusive? (b-side of 'Shorty' 1997)

09 Taking The Easy Way Out (b-side of 'Shorty' 1997)

10 Princess Spoon (b-side of 'Yeah' 1999)

11 After All (b-side of 'Yeah' 1999)

12 Trick Me (b-side of 'Yeah' 1999)

13 Love And Hate (b-side of 'Big Fan' 2000)

14 Fabian's Space Disco (b-side of 'Skin' 2002

Norah Jones - Picture In A Frame (2002)

When 22 year old Norah Jones submitted her debut album 'Come Away With Me' to her record label in 2002 it was rejected, as they were expecting something more along the lines of the demos that they'd heard from their newest young signing. Jones was a big fan of Cassandra Wilson's 'New Moon Daughter' album, and wanted a similar sound on her first record, so initial recording sessions had been carried out at Allaire Studios in Woodstock, New York with a dream collective of musicians, including Rob Burger on accordion and organ, guitarists Bill Frisell and Kevin Breit, bassist Lee Alexander, and Brian Blade and Kenny Wollesen on drums, all under the direction of producer Craig Street, who had produced Wilson's album. Jones still rates some of those early recordings, and thinks that they could have easily been on the album with a little spit and polish, but in the end most of the songs were scrapped, and just under half of them were re-recorded with the label's suggestion of producer, Arif Mardin. The version of the album that was eventually released cherry-picked the best moments from three different sources, with 'Don’t Know Why' and 'Turn Me On' coming from demo sessions recorded when she secured a demo contract with Blue Note, while 'Seven Years', 'Feelin' The Same Way' and 'The Long Day Is Over' came from the 21 songs recorded for the Street-produced set, and nine songs were recorded or re-recorded with Mardin, who added a burnished veneer of sophistication without subtracting from the freshness that had characterised the demos. When 'Come Away With Me' was released in 2002 it kick-started a career that was to fascinate the world, and introduce one of the great voices of our time. The album continued to gain popularity, eventually becoming a global phenomenon, reaching the top of the charts in 20 countries, selling nearly 30 million copies and scoring eight Grammy Awards in 2003. With the recent release of the 20th Anniversary box set, we can now hear most of those Street-produced sessions, and get an idea of what the album could have sounded like if the record company hadn't decided to go for a smoother sound with Mardin at the helm.   

Track listing

01 Picture In A Frame
02 Peace
03 What Am I To You
04 I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
05 Come Away With Me
06 A Little At A Time
07 Turn Me On
08 What Would I Do
09 I've Got To See You Again
10 Painter Song
11 One Flight Down
12 Nightingale
13 Fragile