Charli XCX - Spoons (2012)

In addition to Ariel Rechtshaid, in 2012 Charli XCX also began working with Swedish producer Patrik Berger, and after he sent her two beats, she quickly wrote songs for each, with one of them becoming 'I Love It' and the other 'You're The One'. She didn't end up releasing 'I Love It' herself as she could not reconcile it with her sound, but later that year, Swedish duo Icona Pop re-recorded the song and released it as a single featuring her vocals. The song became an international hit, hitting number 1 in the UK and climbing to number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2013. In June, she released 'You're The One' as a single from her EP of the same name, followed by her debut mixtape 'Heartbreaks And Earthquakes', a one-track file consisting of eight songs segued together and interspersed with film snippets, and including a cover of the Blood Orange song 'Champagne Coast' and Odd Future's remix of 'You're The One'. She followed that with a Halloween release of the single 'Cloud Aura' featuring Brooke Candy, followed by her second mixtape 'Super Ultra', which was released exclusively through her website in November. Despite 2012 being her most prolific year for official releases, there were a number of unreleased songs left over, enough in fact to have released a full-length album that year if she'd wanted to. 

Track listing 

01 Spoons
02 Heart Beats Hard
03 Dance 4 U
04 Losing My Cool
05 Rhinestone Hearts
06 Duke
07 Heatwave
08 Strobe Light
09 Diamonds
10 I'm Not Sorry
11 I'll Never Know
12 Valentine
13 Midnight

Prince featuring Margie Cox - Flash (1989)

Flash is an unreleased studio album by Flash / MC Flash (both names were considered for use), recorded between late 1987 and early 1989, and initially tentatively planned for release in 1990. The project began when Prince, during a day off from the Lovesexy Tour in November 1988, attended a concert by Dr. Mambo's Combo at Fine Line, Minneapolis, and after the gig he asked the group's singer, Margie Cox, if she would be interested in recording with him. They went to nearby Paisley Park Studios that night and recorded 'We Can Hang', with additional work being carried out on the track in late December 1988, when 'Warden In The Prison Of Love' and 'Curious Blue' were also recorded. 'Brand New Boy' was laid down soon after in early January 1989, while 'R U There?' was recorded in mid-January. 'Girls Will Be Girls' was also recorded at some point in January, with vocal overdubs added later that month, and there then followed a six month break before the reconvened in July to record 'Good Man', written by Levi Seacer Jr. and Rosie Gaines. 'Bed Of Roses' and 'Whistlin' Kenny' were recorded later that month, with 'Good Body Every Evening' being the final track recorded for the project, in late 1989. Nine of the album's ten tracks contained lead vocals by Margie Cox, with Billy Franze singing on 'Good Man', and Prince played the majority of instruments on each track, with some contributions by other musicians, including drums on some tracks played by Sheila E. Several record label representatives were brought to Paisley Park Studios in early 1990 to listen to the album, but none were very enthusiastic about the music, and no record deal was signed. Flash was the opening act for two Prince shows in Spring 1990, possibly to generate interest in the group, but he opted to use Mavis Staples as the opening act on the Nude Tour which followed soon after. The project was then put on hold, but Prince and Margie Cox did work together again in 1991, although this time it was on a Margie Cox solo project, rather than an album to be released by Flash. Most of these tracks remain unreleased, although 'Whistlin' Kenny' was included as the b-side of Margie Cox's single 'Standing At The Altar' in 1995. As with many of these unreleased albums turned down by cloth-eared record company executives, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it, and I'm sure fans of Prince will find much to enjoy here.   

Track listing

01 R U There?
02 Brand New Boy
03 Warden In The Prison Of Love
04 Bed Of Roses
05 Good Man
06 Whistlin' Kenny
07 We Can Hang
08 Curious Blue
09 Girls Will Be Girls
10 Good Body Every Evening

Taylor Swift - Taylor's Songs (2003)

As mentioned in the last Taylor Swift post, after striking up a lasting working relationship with Liz Rose, the two girls began meeting for two-hour writing sessions every Tuesday afternoon after school, and the fruits of these sessions were recorded as demos and burned to CD's to give out to talent agents. This was the point when Swift really started to blossom as a song-writer, as although her first song 'Lucky You' was written at the age of 12 with the help of Ronnie Cremer, she'd only completed about seven songs since then, but after teaming up with Rose they wrote over two dozen in 2003 alone. Two volumes of her acoustic demos were recorded in 2003, and while the first one is near impossible to find, songs from the second disc have surfaced over the years, and so it's possible to piece that one together, and I've used the title of the first demo as it sums up the content perfectly. It's housed in a cover featuring the 14-year old Swift, and despite the limited instrumentation on the songs, they shine out as a precursor of what was to come, especially when she got a band together and went into a studio just two years later for her next set of demos.    

Track listing 

 
01 My Turn To Be Me
02 I Used To Fly
03 Same Girl 
94 Never Fade
05 Point Of View
06 Honey Baby 
07 Spinning Around 
08 Sugar
09 This Here Guitar 
10 Live For The Little Things 
11 That's Life 
12 American Boy
13 Mandolin 
14 4 U
15 In the Pouring Rain
16 Tennessee 

Curve - Learning (1993)

Curve were an English alternative rock and electronic music duo from London, formed by Toni Halliday on vocals and occasional guitar, and Dean Garcia, who looked after the bass, guitar, drums, and programming. Garcia, half Hawaiian and half Irish, had already played in some small bands when he auditioned for Eurythmics, and he was introduced to Halliday by Dave Stewart after he had read a rock magazine interview with her in which she praised his pre-Eurythmics band, The Tourists. Garcia had played bass guitar as part of Eurythmics' live band in 1983/84, and also on two of their studio albums, while Halliday was signed to Stewart's Anxious Records label as a solo artist. The pair formed an ill-fated group named State Of Play in the mid-1980's before parting ways, with Halliday embarking on an unsuccessful solo career and Garcia took on further stints as a backing musician, before reuniting for a more long-term partnership in Curve. This new band released three acclaimed and increasingly successful EP's on Anxious Records throughout 1991, and also made an impact on the UK album charts in 1992 with their debut studio album 'Doppelgänger'. 

The group toured extensively during this period, with Halliday and Garcia being supported on stage by two additional guitarists (Debbie Smith, later of Echobelly, and Alex Mitchell) and a drummer (Steve Monti, formerly of Ian Dury and the Blockheads). The band were invited to record two sessions for the John Peel show, and these were later issued as the 'Radio Sessions' album in 1993, while their second album 'Cuckoo' from the same year was a harder-edged affair, but didn't repeat the UK Top 20 success of the band's debut. That, coupled with the stress of the tour in support of the record, may have contributed to Halliday and Garcia's decision to disband the group in 1994. During their hiatus, Halliday formed the band Scylla, having their track 'Helen's Face' featured on the 'Showgirls' soundtrack, while Garcia began a solo project under the name Headcase. Halliday also collaborated with The Future Sound Of London, Freaky Chakra, and Leftfield on tracks from their various albums. In 1996 Curve reformed and released the 'Pink Girl With the Blues' EP, and they also collaborated with Paul Van Dyk by reworking the mostly instrumental song 'Words' from his album 'Seven Ways' and adding Halliday's vocals. 

In 1997, they released 'Chinese Burn' as the first single from their third studio album 'Come Clean', and this displayed a more pronounced influence of electronic music than earlier releases. The follow-up to 'Come Clean' was an internet-only compilation titled 'Open Day At The Hate Fest' which was released in 2001, and this was followed by their fourth studio album 'Gift', featuring guitar from My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields. In 2002 the band released the internet-only fifth studio album 'The New Adventures Of Curve', plus various download-only tracks via their official site, but in in early 2005 Halliday announced that she had left Curve for good. None of the tracks from the first three EP's appeared on any of their albums, so the first disc of 'Learning Curve' (I love a good pun) collects all the tracks from those records, and although they have actually been officially compiled on the 'Pubic Fruit' album from 1992, it's the perfect introduction to the second disc of rare b-sides and compilation appearances from the first incarnation of this innovative and much-missed outfit. 

Track listing

Disc One - Learning The EPs
01 Ten Little Girls (from the 'Blindfold' EP 1991)
02 I Speak Your Every Word (from the 'Blindfold' EP 1991)
03 Blindfold (from the 'Blindfold' EP 1991)
04 No Escape From Heaven (from the 'Blindfold' EP 1991)
05 Coast Is Clear (from the 'Frozen' EP 1991)
06 The Colour Hurts (from the 'Frozen' EP 1991)
07 Frozen (from the 'Frozen' EP 1991)
08 Zoo (from the 'Frozen' EP 1991)
09 Clipped (from the 'Cherry' EP 1991)
10 Die Like A Dog (from the 'Cherry' EP 1991)
11 Galaxy (from the 'Cherry' EP 1991)
12 Cherry (from the 'Cherry' EP 1991)

Disc Two - Learning The Rest
01 Falling Free (b-side of 'Horror Head' 1992)
02 Mission From God (b-side of 'Horror Head' 1992)
03 Today Is Not The Day (b-side of 'Horror Head' 1992)
04 Arms Out (b-side of 'Fait Accompli' 1992)
05 Sigh (b-side of 'Fait Accompli' 1992)
06 I Feel Love (from the NME compilation album 'Ruby Trax' 1992)
07 On The Wheel (b-side of 'Missing Link' 1993)
08 What A Waste (with Ian Dury, from the 'Peace Together' charity album 1993)
09 Low And Behold (b-side of 'Superblaster' 1993)
10 Nothing Without Me (b-side of 'Superblaster' 1993)

Soulseek update

I recently treated myself to a new laptop, and over the last week I've pretty much got it knocked into shape, and now have everything where I want it, so the only thing left to do is to transfer all the albums from the site onto Soulseek on the new laptop. Unfortunately you can't upload multiple files, so every album will have to be uploaded individually, and also you can't have Soulseek open on two machines at the same time, so when I open it up on the new laptop the programme on the old one closes. This means that Soulseek will be unavailable for downloads at certain points over the next few weeks. If you try to download something and it doesn't work then try again the next day, as I'll only be updating for one day at a time, every few days (as I'm sure it will soon get pretty boring). Yandex will be unaffected, at least until my subscription runs out on Boxing Day, but I have a plan for that which will tide me over into the new year.  

Charli XCX - Rock Star (2011)

After Charli XCX met with American producer Ariel Rechtshaid, they had a two-hour session and wrote the song 'Stay Away', and it was at this point the she realised that things were starting to come together. Early in 2011 she was featured on the Alex Metric single 'End Of The World', and after leaving during the second year of her degree course at the Slade School of Fine Art to focus on her music career, she released two singles, with 'Stay Away' coming out in May, and 'Nuclear Seasons' in November. The singles gained attention from music website Pitchfork, where she earned "Best New Track" accolades for both, with the former eventually being named in the site's "Best Tracks of 2011" list. As well as those two singles, she also recorded more unreleased music that year, making enough for yet another album that could have been released in 2011. 

Track listing

01 Electronique
02 Silver Bullet
03 Tonight
04 What The Hell
05 Kiss My Beauty
06 Rockstar
07 End Of The Night
08 The Lonely Jaguar
09 Mess
10 Tough Love
11 Jungle (Phaeleh Remix)
12 We Collide
13 Time Off
14 Heal My Heart
15 Train In Vain (feat. Viv Albertine)

The Beau Brummels - Here We Are Again (1966)

Singer Sal Valentino grew up in the North Beach area of San Francisco, and following a string of appearances on local television, he received an offer to play a regular gig at El Cid, a San Francisco club. He needed a band, and so he called childhood friend and songwriter/guitarist Ron Elliott, who recruited drummer John Petersen, rhythm guitarist/singer Declan Mulligan, and bassist Ron Meagher, and that gig later led to a more lucrative deal at the Morocco Room, a club in nearby San Mateo, California. Meanwhile, San Francisco disc jockeys Tom Donahue and Bobby Mitchell were looking for new acts to bring to their fledgling Autumn Records label, aiming to capitalize on the Beatlemania craze that had originated the previous year in the UK, and which was spreading across the U.S., and The Beau Brummels, as they had named themselves, signed with Autumn, where house producer Sylvester (Sly Stone) Stewart produced the group's early recording sessions.The band had taken their name from the Regency era English dandy Beau Brummell, and they liked having a British-sounding name, which, as legend has it, so closely followed The Beatles in the alphabet that their records would be placed immediately behind those of The Beatles in record-store bins. Although Valentino has since dismissed this notion, it's a nice story. The band's debut single 'Laugh, Laugh' entered the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in January 1965, and as the song climbed the charts, many listeners assumed that the band were British, a fact which was not denied by Donahue and Mitchell, who knew that the publicity could only help the band. The follow-up single, 'Just A Little', became the band's highest-charting single in the U.S., peaking at number eight in June, and both songs were included on the band's debut album, 'Introducing The Beau Brummels', which was released in April and reached number 24 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. By the time that recording began for the band's second album, 1965's 'The Beau Brummels, Volume 2', Mulligan had left the group, and their third single 'You Tell Me Why', became their final U.S. top 40 hit, peaking at number 38 in August 1965. The band continued recording new material despite Autumn Records being on the verge of collapsing, but before the album was completed and released, the entire Autumn roster, including the Beau Brummels, was transferred to Warner Bros. Records. However, as Warner Bros. did not control the band's publishing, the company chose not to have the band release an album of original material, and instead released an album of cover versions titled 'Beau Brummels 1966'. As usual, money was the label's only consideration, and so instead of giving the group's fans a chance to hear the new songs that they'd written, they forced the band to deliver an album of old songs by other artists. Luckily, their original songs weren't thrown away, and many of them have since surfaced on box sets, and so we can piece together an album of original material which would have cemented their reputation as one of the better beat bands of the 60's. In the end we had to wait for the release of 1967's 'Triangle' before that happened, with that and the subsequent 'Bradley's Barn' proving what a great band they really were. So this is the record they should have released in 1966, and although 'Two Days 'Til Tomorrow' didn't come out as a single until March 1967, a demo titled 'She's Coming' was taped in 1966, and so that's included as well.  

Track listing 

01 Here We Are Again
02 Guitar Talk To Me
03 On The Road Again

04 Gentle Wandering Ways

05 This Is Love
06 Delilah

07 She Reigns
08 Candlestickmaker
09 God Help The Teenagers Tonight

10 Dream On

11 Down On Me

12 I Grow Old

13 Love Is Just A Game

14 Two Days 'Til Tomorrow

15 It Ain't No Use

16 Hey Love
17 Out Of Control

Sugababes - The Sacred Three (2014)

Sugababes were formed in 1998 by All Saints manager Ron Tom and Sarah Stennett, and the original line-up consisted of Siobhán Donaghy and Mutya Buena, who at age 13 had both been signed as solo artists, but decided to work together, plus Buena's best friend Keisha Buchanan. The group's debut single, 'Overload', peaked at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart in 2000 and was nominated for a BRIT Award for Best Single, and the group co-wrote most of the tracks on debut album 'One Touch', with the help of All Saints producer Cameron McVey. The album peaked at number 26 on the UK Albums Chart, but sales didn't meet London Records' expectations, and so they dropped the group in 2001. Despite their later success, releasing seven albums and numerous singles, some of which topped the UK charts, the name of the band has become a byword for the revolving door-like comings and goings of band members. During a Japanese promotional tour in August 2001, Donaghy left the group, later being diagnosed with clinical depression amid reports of in-fighting amongst the group's members, and she was replaced by former Atomic Kitten member Heidi Range. The band were surrounded by continuous rumours of disagreements within the group and constant split reports, and following an apparent illness that prevented her from promoting their single 'Ugly', Buena left the group in 2005, and was replaced by Amelle Berrabah. In 2009 it was reported that Berrabah had left the Sugababes, as she had missed a couple of promotional gigs, but it was Buchanan, the sole original member of the group, who was the next to leave, with Jade Ewen taking her place. In March 2010, former group member Mutya Buena applied to the European Trademarks Authority for ownership of the group's name, insisting on the application that "the Sugababes have ended" without a founding member still in the group. She was granted her application to use the name on paper, cardboard and stationery. In 2013, despite announcements that the group had been writing songs for their new album and hoped to release new music in 2014, in an interview published in September the previous year Ewen confirmed that the group had actually split two years earlier. In October 2011, several news outlets reported that the original line-up of the Sugababes would reform, and the following April it was reported that the line-up had signed a £1 million record deal with Polydor Records. In July it was officially confirmed that the group had reformed under the name Mutya Keisha Siobhan and were writing songs for a new album for Polydor, including two tracks written with Shaznay Lewis, former member of All Saints. The first glimpse of new material came to light in January 2013 when the group uploaded a short a cappella clip of their rumoured debut single 'Boys', and a couple of months later their producer Dev Hynes uploaded a track on his official SoundCloud page, stating that it would not feature on the group's forthcoming album, with 'Lay Down in Swimming Pools' being a reinterpretation of Kendrick Lamar's 'Swimming Pools (Drank)'. The first officially released song was the 'Flatline' single, which emerged in June 2013, but there then followed a three year silence with no sign of any more new music. In June 2016, at London Pride's Wandsworth Radio special, Donaghy announced that the album was due the following year, but by August 2017 there was still no sign of it, and Buchanan finally admitted in an interview that the group were working on new material after their previous work was leaked online. So with no possibility that the album will ever officially appear, here it is as recorded by the three artists who will forever be known to their many fans as Sugababes. 

Track listing

01 Victory
02 Back To Life
03 Fall From Grace
04 Today
05 Summer Of '99
06 Flatline
07 Love In Stereo
08 Boys
09 Metal Heart
10 I'm Alright
11 Up In Flames
12 Beat Has Gone
13 Too In Love
14 Great Escape
15 Love Me Hard
16 No Regrets
17 Back In The Day
18 Lay Down In Swimming Pools

Phish - Sci-Fi Soldier (2021)

Phish have just released their new album, entitled 'Get More Down', performed by their alter-egos Sci-Fi Soldier. Sci-Fi Soldier come from the distant future in an attempt to save the home planet of a group of ancient prophets (Kasvot Växt of Earth) from a self-inflicted apocalyptic event called The Howling, set to take place in 2071. Using the prophets' teachings about the "nine cubes", which allow you to freeze time and view nine possible realities, the Sci-Fi Soldiers embark on a quest to find the great oracle, Holy Blankenstein, and learn how to stop The Howling (put a blank space where Earthlings’ minds should be on 10/31/21). They travel back to 2021 to find human vessels to use for the task, riding the time stream to Earth, and set out as the members of Phish (Clueless Wallob as Trey Anastasio, Pat Malone as Page McConnell, Paulie Roots as Jon Fishman, and Half-Nelson as Mike Gordon) to save the planet by helping it "get more down". 

Phish had actually previewed this set of songs a year ago, in their Halloween "musical costume", which was performed as the invented band Sci-Fi Soldier on 31 October 2021. Fans who attended the gig in the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, were given a 14-page comic book on entry, which detailed the group's adventure to save the planet. The booklet is packed with fun sci-fi and comic tropes, veiled environmental allegories, and attempts at universe-building within the Phish canon a la Marvel or D.C. In true Phish fashion, the narrative is strange, silly, and packed with in-jokes. For the set itself the band performed in elaborate costumes (helmets and all), with alternate instruments (Trey on a BCR Mockingbird), each playing within a flashing/glowing shape (two circles and two squares), after descending (in the form of holograms) from the ceiling in cylinders of coloured light. 

'Knuckle Bone Broth Avenue' included extended choreography by Trey and Mike, while during 'Get More Down' matching upright geometric shapes danced around behind the band, reducing to the two circles overlapped by 'Egg In A Hole', which featured pyrotechnics. Before 'Clear Your Mind', Trey introduced the band as from the year 4680, and during 'The 9th Cube' there were projections of donuts and turtles on a cube above the band. Fireworks rained down on the stage during 'The Inner Reaches Of Outer', and for the closer 'I Am In Miami', Trey switched to an acoustic guitar and the band stood together at stage front with the four-mic a cappella setup. After the set, the band departed as holograms back up the coloured tubes. The album versions of these songs are quite concise, but the live takes stretch them out considerably, extending the three tracks which last less than a minute on the album to over five minutes in a live setting, while others top the ten-minute mark. If you like what you hear then do check out the studio version and support the band. 

Track listing

01 Knuckle Bone Broth Avenue
02 Get More Down
03 Egg In A Hole
04 Thanksgiving
05 Clear Your Mind
06 The 9th Cube
07 The Inner Reaches Of Outer
08 Don’t Doubt Me
09 The Unwinding 
10 Something Living Here
11 The Howling
12 I Am In Miami

The Mighty Lemon Drops - Going Under (1991)

In December of 1985, The Mighty Lemon Drops released their debut single 'Like An Angel' on regional indie Dreamworld Records, owned and run by Television Personalities' Dan Treacy, and it rose to number one on the U.K. indie chart. After appearing on NME's influential C-86 compilation, the band signed with Geoff Travis' new Chrysalis subsidiary Blue Guitar in the U.K., and with Sire in North America, and they set about recording their debut album 'Happy Head'. When it was released in 1986 it was well-received and was reported by a Sounds magazine critics poll to be one of the 50 best albums of the year. They followed it up with 1987's 'Out Of Hand', and then again in 1988 with their third album 'World Without End', which yielded the hit 'Inside Out'. 'World Without End' rose to number 33 on the U.K. charts and to number one on the U.S. College chart in 1988, but later that year the band parted ways with Chrysalis, although they kept their contract with Sire in the U.S. During sessions for their fourth album, 'Laughter', Linehan left the band and was replaced on bass by Marcus Williams, and as the band remained popular in the American modern rock scene, 'Laughter' debuted at number one on the College charts, even managing to crack the Billboard Top 200 pop chart. The band continued writing and recording their brand of well-made, melodic alt-pop, and released two more albums before disbanding, with 'Sound...' coming out in late 1991, and their final studio album, 'Ricochet' appearing just before their split in 1992. Alongside their album they also released a number of fine singles, and most of them had exclusive tracks on the flip, including some interesting covers of classic 60's psyche, such as The 13th Floor Elevators' 'Splash #1' and The Rolling Stones' 'We Love' You', as well as contemporary songs like The Teardrop Explodes' 'When I Dream' and The Only Ones' 'Another Girl, Another Planet'. So here they all are in one place, so that you can enjoy some rare recordings from one of the founder members of the once much-maligned, but now much-loved, C86 movement.   

Track listing

Disc One 1985-1988
01 Now She's Gone (b-side of 'Like An Angel' 1985)
02 Sympathise With Us (b-side of 'Like An Amgel' 1985)
03 Uptight (b-side of 'The Other Side Of You' 1986)
04 Open Mind (b-side of 'My Biggest Thrill' 1986)
05 Rollercoaster (b-side of 'My Biggest Thrill' EP 1986)
06 Wait And See (b-side of 'My Biggest Thrill' EP 1986)
07 Waiting For The Rain (Radio 1 Janice Long session 1986)
08 When I Dream (Radio 1 Janice Long session 1986)
09 Out Of Hand (single 1987)
10 Going Under (b-side of 'Out Of Hand')
11 Splash #1 (Now I'm Home) (b-side of 'Out Of Hand' EP 1987)
12 Count Me Out (b-side of 'Out Of Hand' EP 1987)
13 World Without End (previously unreleased 1988)

Disc Two 1988-1991
01 Shine (b-side of 'Inside Out' 1988)
02 Head On The Block (b-side of 'Inside Out' 1988)
03 Paint It Black (b-side of 'Fall Down (Like The Rain)' 1988)
04 Laughter (b-side of 'Fall Down (Like The Rain)' 1988)
05 Rumbletrain (b-side of 'Into The Heart Of Love' 1989)
06 Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White (b-side of 'Into The Heart Of Love' 1989)
07 Forever Home At Heart (b-side of 'Beautiful Shame' 1989)
08 Discontent (b-side of 'Too High' 1991)
09 We Love You (b-side of 'Too High' 1991)
10 You Don't Fast (b-side of 'Too High' 1991)            
11 In Vain (previously unreleased 1991)
12 Another Girl, Another Planet (b-side of 'Unkind' 1991)

Cypress Hill - Ghost Rider (1995)

Senen Reyes (also known as Sen Dog) and Ulpiano Sergio Reyes (also known as Mellow Man Ace) are brothers born in Pinar del Río, Cuba, who immigrated to the United States with their family in 1971, and settled in South Gate, California. In 1988, the brothers teamed up with New York City native Lawrence Muggerud (also known as DJ Muggs) and Louis Freese (also known as B-Real) to form a hip-hop group named DVX (Devastating Vocal Excellence). The band soon lost Mellow Man Ace to a solo career, and changed their name to Cypress Hill, named after a street in South Gate. After recording a demo in 1989, the band signed a record deal with Ruffhouse Records, and their self-titled first album was released in August 1991, with the lead single 'The Phuncky Feel One'/'How I Could Just Kill A Man' receiving heavy airplay on urban and college radio, most notably peaking at #1 on Billboard's Hot Rap Tracks chart. The success of this and their other singles led 'Cypress Hill' to sell two million copies in the U.S. alone, and it peaked at #31 on the Billboard 200. 'Black Sunday', the group's second album, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 in 1993, recording the highest Soundscan for a rap group up until that time. 'Insane In The Brain' became a crossover hit, and garnered the group their first Grammy nomination, while 'Black Sunday' went triple platinum in the U.S. and sold over 3.million copies. The group played at Woodstock 94, officially making percussionist Eric Bobo a member of the group during the performance, and followed that by playing at Lollapalooza for two successive years, topping the bill in 1995. Cypress Hill's third album 'III: Temples Of Boom' was released in 1995, and peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200, with 'Throw Your Set In The Air' being the most successful single from the album, earning the band their third Grammy nomination. Shortly after the release of the album Sen Dog became frustrated with the rigorous touring schedule, and just prior to an overseas tour he unexpectedly left the group. Cypress Hill continued their tours throughout 1995 and 1996 with Eric Bobo, and also various guest vocalists covering Sen Dog's verses, but in 1997 the group took a break while the various members pursued solo careers. Their record label issued a nine track EP titled 'Unreleased And Revamped' in 1996, while a bootleg titled 'Unreleased And Unknown' also appeared around the same time, containing much rarer material than the official EP. This included both sides of the unofficial 12" single 'Freak To Tha Funk'/'Ghost Rider (Crossfire)', which was pressed up from tapes apparently stolen from the band's studio, and while it is not the best sound quality, it is one of the rarest Cypress Hill records. It also included 'Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up', which was the band's contribution to the 1995 stoner film 'Friday', plus a couple of 'III: Temple Of Boom' out-takes in 'Whatta You Know' and 'Smugglers Blues'. It was completed by the Ice Cube and Macc10 Disstrack 'Fuck Westside Connection', and one of the better unreleased tracks from the 1996 EP, 'Intellectual Dons', making for a great collection of rare Cypress Hill tracks. Unfortunately it was only 27 minutes long, so I've added a few more rarities from the same period, which are the 'Throw Your Hands In The Air' single, which was nothing to do with 'Throw Your Set In The Air', the b-side of the 'Lick A Shot' single, 'Scooby Doo', and an instrumental version of 'Killa Hill Niggas' from the flip of 'Throw Your Set In The Air'. That all makes a great near-40 minute album all from 1995, from the band that Rolling Stone magazine had named Best Rap Group in their music awards of a few years earlier.  

Track listing

01 Roll It Up, Light It Up, Smoke It Up
02 Freak To The Funk
03 Killa Hill (Instrumental)
04 Throw Your Hands In The Air
05 Ghost Rider
06 Intellectual Dons (feat. Call O Da Wild)
07 Whatta You Know
08 Scooby Doo
09 Smugglers Blues
10 Fuck Westside Connection

Charli XCX - Candyfloss (2010)

After signing to Asylum Records in 2010, Charli XCX took a break from music which she's described as a lost period in her life, and she eventually attended the Slade School of Fine Art at UCL before dropping out after her first year. In an interview with The Guardian, she said: "I was still in school, I'd just come out of this weird rave scene, and I wasn't really sure what to make of that. And when I got signed I hated pop music; I wanted to make bad rap music. I didn't know who I was. I didn't know what I liked. Even though I was signed, I was still figuring it out". She eventually flew out to Los Angeles to meet producers, and found it "wasn't working out for me" until she met with American producer Ariel Rechtshaid. Before that happened she was still recording her songs, and this third post features tracks recorded in 2010 and never released, and you can hear her music maturing, with the songs sounding more professional than those from 2008 and 2009. 

Track listing

01 A Princess Song
02 Dynamite
03 Interior
04 Boyfriend Material
05 Camdyfloss
06 Get Dirty
07 Supernova
08 X-Ray Spex
09 Angry All The Time
10 Atomic
11 Nothing Too Serious
12 Tulips In The Fields
13 Violins & Violence
14 Jungle
15 You, Me, And The Radio

Taylor Swift - Who I've Always Been (2005)

Taylor Alison Swift was born on 13 December 1989 in West Reading, Pennsylvania, and was named after singer-songwriter James Taylor. She spent her early years on a Christmas tree farm that her father had purchased from one of his clients in his former job as a stockbroker, eventually moving to a rented house in the suburban town of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, where she attended Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School. At the age of nine, she became interested in musical theater and performed in four Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions, travelling regularly to New York City for vocal and acting lessons. She later shifted her focus toward country music, inspired by Shania Twain's songs, and spent weekends performing at local festivals and events. After watching a documentary about Faith Hill, she felt sure that she needed to move to Nashville to pursue a career in music, so when she was eleven she traveled with her mother to visit Nashville record labels and submitted demo tapes of Dolly Parton and The Chicks karaoke covers, but these were rejected as the market was already flooded with singers with the same idea. When she was around 12 years old, computer repairman and local musician Ronnie Cremer taught her to play guitar, and also helped with her first efforts as a songwriter, leading her to write 'Lucky You', and in 2003 Swift and her parents started working with New York-based talent manager Dan Dymtrow. With his help, she modelled for Abercrombie & Fitch as part of their "Rising Stars" campaign, and she had an original song included on a Maybelline compilation CD. After performing original songs at an RCA Records showcase, the 13 year old singer was given an artist development deal and began making frequent trips to Nashville with her mother. 

When in Nashville she worked with experienced Music Row songwriters such as Troy Verges, Brett Beavers, Brett James, Mac McAnally, and the Warren Brothers, and formed a lasting working relationship with Liz Rose. They began meeting for two-hour writing sessions every Tuesday afternoon after school, and the fruits of these sessions were recorded as demos and burned to CD to give out to talent agents. Two volumes of her acoustic demos were recorded in 2003, and the following year, when she was 14, she became the youngest artist to be signed by the Sony/ATV Tree publishing house, although she soon left the Sony-owned RCA Records due to the label's lack of care. At an industry showcase at Nashville's Bluebird Cafe in 2005, Swift caught the attention of Scott Borchetta, a DreamWorks Records executive who was preparing to form an independent record label, Big Machine Records, and she became one of the label's first signings, while her father purchased a three-percent stake in the company for an estimated $120,000. She had been writing and recording tracks for a couple of years before starting work on her debut album with Producer Nathan Chapman, and 13 of these recordings were burned to a CD in 2005, with four of the songs later being re-recorded for the 'Taylor Swift' album. All the songs on this disc are full band recordings, and the music is universally excellent, so much so that she could easily have released this disc as a country/pop album in 2005. For this post I've removed three of the songs which did eventually appear on her first album, to make room for some others from the same year which were not included on the disc. One that I did leave on was 'Teardrops On My Guitar', which she'd written with Liz Rose about her unrequited love for high school classmate Drew Hardwick, name-checking him in the lyrics, but she also recorded a version with a more general appeal by replacing 'Drew' with 'you', and I've included that version here. This album give us a taste of Swift's musical direction in this early part of her career, and it shows what a precocious talent she was, considering that these recordings were made when she was just 15 or 16 years old.  

Track listing

01 I'm Only Me When I'm With You
02 Teardrops On My Guitar
03 I'd Lie
04 Sweet Tea and God's Graces
05 Better Off 
06 What Do You Say
07 Brought Up That Way
08 Welcome Distraction
09 Dark Blue Tennessee
10 R-E-V-E-N-G-E
11 Nevermind
12 Thirteen Blocks
13 Making Up For Lost Love 
14 Need You Now
15 We Were Happy
16 This is Really Happening
17 Who I've Always Been