Trust Company - Closer (2008)

Trust Company came together in 1997 through vocalist/guitarist Kevin Palmer and drummer Jason Singleton, who were originally called 41Down, before recruiting bassist Josh Moates and guitarist James Fukai. After building a local fan-base and releasing a self-titled album as well as a couple demos, the band went on to sign a major label deal with Geffen Records, changing their name to Trust Company to avoid confusion with the Canadian band Sum 41. The group released their well-received major label debut album 'The Lonely Position Of Neutral' in 2002, with the lead single 'Downfall' gaining heavy exposure through MTV2. Subsequently, the song entered the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts, and a second single 'Running From Me' followed with more moderate success, leading to tours with Thirty Seconds To Mars, Papa Roach, and Korn. The band was scheduled to play at Ozzfest 2003 but was forced to back out by their label in order to work on their second album 'True Parallels', which was belatedly released in 2005, after a 10 month delay. Despite having little promotion from their label, the album entered the Billboard album charts at No. 32, and has gone on to sell in excess of 200,000 copies. In August 2005, the band decided to take a break and focus on side projects and spend some time at home. Soon after the break, Palmer and original bassist Josh Moates came together to form a new band called Amity Lane, releasing their debut album 'The Sound Of Regret' the following year. In 2007, the four original members of the band – Palmer, Moates, Singleton, and Fukai – announced they were reuniting for two reunion shows in Montgomery, Alabama, and that they were writing and recording a new album for release sometime in 2008, posting two new songs titled 'Waking Up' and 'Stumbling' on their Myspace page. The band stated in a blog that these were demos and may be re-recorded, and they later announced that they would be handing out CDs with previously unreleased or rare material from past years at concerts, with the purchase of a T-shirt. In 2009 Josh Moates left the band and was replaced by bassist Eric Salter, who was in turn replaced by Wes Cobb the following year. The band released the promised third album 'Dreaming In Black And White' in March 2011, promoting it with a two-month tour with Drowning Pool. Despite announcements on Twitter of a new album in 2017 and 2020, it's been distinctly quiet on the band front in the last few years, and so to keep us going here is that afore-mentioned free disc that was given away with the purchase of a T-shirt from their online store, containing rare demos and out-takes from the recording sessions of their first two albums. 

Track listing

01 Stronger (Piano Loop)
02 Closer
03 I Can't Breathe
04 Seasons Change
05 Today
06 Moving In Circles
07 Hover (Quiet Mix)
08 Sterilize
09 Something Perfect
10 Losing View
11 Rock The Casbah
12 Time After Time

Lady Gaga - ARTPOP: Act II (2014)

'ARTPOP: Act II' was the planned sequel to Lady Gaga's fourth studio album from 2013 'ARTPOP', but instead she released the collaborative album with Tony Bennett, 'Cheek To Cheek' in 2014, and her fifth studio album emerged two years later with 'Joanne', so 'ARTPOP: Act II' has become the stuff of legend. In October 2012 Gaga announced that she considered 'ARTPOP' as "a bit more modern" and mentioned the possibility of splitting the project into a two-volume record; the first would contain the commercial songs, while the second would feature the experimental material. By October 2013 she'd confirmed that she had a number of songs for Act 2, and the following month she commented that it might be released before her tour, as it would be nice to play both acts live, dismissing her previous idea of splitting 'ARTPOP' into two halves. By April 2014 there appeared to be a strong possibility that she would release another volume of 'ARTPOP', but by September that plan was on the back-burner as the Bennett collaboration took precedence. Producer DJ White Shadow has been posting tweets about the album for some time, and following one where on April Fools Day 2021 he suggested releasing the track 'Tea' as an NFT, fans started a petition to get Lady Gaga and Interscope Records to release the album, and by later that month it had reached 40,000 signatures, which was acknowledged by Gaga herself on Twitter. While nothing concrete has come off the back of the petition, she did reveal during an interview on The Howard Stern Show in November 2013 that she'd written over 90 songs during the recording sessions for 'ARTPOP', fuelling speculation that a second volume was a possibility.  Late in the recording process, 'Temple' and 'Nothing On (But the Radio)' were cut from the album, while 'Brooklyn Nights' was removed at the last minute. At some point during the creation of the artRAVE: the ARTPOP ball, a backdrop and LED lights projection video for the stage were created for 'Brooklyn Nights', and the ball did include a few unreleased songs, such as  'Cake Like Lady Gaga', 'PARTYNAUSEOUS', and a part of the instrumental from 'Ratchet', and so with those tracks as a starting point, fans have been putting together their own versions of the finished album for some years now. Having checked out a few of their track listings I've taken what I think are the best recordings to make this version of 'ARTPOP: Act II', which includes all the tracks mentioned as being recorded for 'ARTPOP' and then cut, plus others that have leaked over the years from the original sessions. 

Track listing

01 PARTYNAUSEOUS (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
02 Tea
03 Red Flame (feat. Azealia Banks)
04 Tinnitus
05 Stache
06 Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe
07 Nothing On (But The Radio) 
08 Ratchet
09 Brooklyn Nights
10 I Wanna Be With You
11 Cake Like Lady Gaga (feat. DJ White Shadow)
12 I Want Your Love
13 Temple (feat. Matthew Koma)
14 ARTPOP 2.0

Mega update

Well, it's taken a while but I've now uploaded all 1267 albums onto Mega, and so I can let Yandex quietly expire. For anyone who has trouble with Soulseek just download the Mega file on the right and dive in. As I'd given the files coded names to try to hide the artists, it was tricky sometimes to work out my codes, so if you download a file and it's the wrong album then drop me a line at aiwe2@yahoo.com and I'll correct it. 

pj

The Charlatans - Back Room Window (1995)

In early 1992 The Charlatans released their second album 'Between 10th and 11th' (named after the address of the New York Marquee, the site of the group's first US concert), but it was critically lambasted on its release, and showed a drop in album sales due to the public backlash to towards the Madchester scene. Despite that, the lead single 'Weirdo' was a top 20 hit, and a double weekend of gigs in Blackpool and Brighton kept the band in the public eye. While the band were riding high on the success of their 'Weirdo' single, they suffered a major setback when Rob Collins was charged with armed robbery after a friend had robbed an off licence while he was waiting in the car outside. Collins claimed to have no foreknowledge of the robbery until he heard a gunshot inside the shop and his friend exited, although he later admitted that he should not have picked up his friend after he had realised what he had done. In court he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of "assisting an offender after an offence" and served four months in prison. Following the disappointing sales of their last album the band r]tried a differnet way of writing material, with members writing songs either indivually or in pairs, and all the other b=members of the group having the right to veto songs they didn't like. This method of working allowed them to have a pool of material to choose from when it came time to record their next album, and while Burgess and guitarist Mark Collins wrote traditionally structured songs, bassist Martin Blunt and drummer Jon Brookes opted for material that mixed dance, funk and heavy rock. Although Flood was considered to produce the band's next album, he was unable to schedule time, and so the band set about finding a new producer and engineer, eventually meeting up with Dave Charles, a long-time engineer who had previously worked with Elvis Costello, the La's and Edwin Starr, who suggested Steve Hillage as a possible producer. 

Recording commenced while Collins was in prison, with organ parts being added by Mark Collins' brother John, along with samples of earlier recordings by Rob Collins before he was incarcerated. 'Up To Our Hips' was released in March 1994, and has been variously described as funk-rock, baggy, and even part of the early Britpop scene, but the critical reception was not much better than that of their last album, but most reciewers being disappointed in the record. Three singles were released from the album, with 'Can't Get Out Of Bed' being the first, followed by 'I Never Want An Easy Life If Me And He Were Ever To Get There' and 'Jesus Hairdo' later on, and despite the critical mauling the album cracked the UK Top Ten and was certified silver in July 2013. Following a holiday, vocalist Tim Burgess and guitarist Mark Collins wrote material for their next album at Burgess' place in Chalk Farm, and then recorded the tracks at Monnow Valley Studio in Rockfield, Monmouthshire, with producer Steve Hillage, but after rejecting several mixes of the album, the band fired Hillage and engineer Dave Charles was brought in to take over. Further recording was then done at the nearby Rockfield Studios, with the finished album being released in August 1995. 'The Charlatans' is seen as something of a return to form for the group, and recieved generally favourable reviews from the music press, with the record topping the UK Album Charts. 'Crashin' In' was released as the lead single in December 1994, followed in May 1995 by 'Just Lookin'' and 'Bullet Comes' as a double A-side. The final single was 'Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over' in August, and the band spent the rest of 1995 and early 1996 touring the United States, mainland Europe, and the UK. These four years were very productive for the band, even if their music was not fully appreciated at the time, but despite the critical downturn they still looked after their fans by including exclusive songs on their singles, and so this second volume includes the flips from all their singles from 1992 to 1995. 

Track listing

01 Theme From "The Wish" (b-side of 'Weirdo' 1992)
02 Normality Swing (b-side of 'Tremelo Song' 1992)
03 Out (b-side of 'Can't Get Out Of Bed' 1994)
04 Withdrawn (b-side of 'Can't Get Out Of Bed' 1994)
05 Only A Boho (b-side of 'I Never Want An Easy Life If Me & He Were Ever to Get There' 1994)
06 Subterranean (b-side of 'I Never Want An Easy Life If Me & He Were Ever to Get There' 1994)
07 Stir It Up (b-side of 'Jesus Hairdo' 1994)
08 Back Room Window (b-side of 'Crashin' In' 1994)
09 Green Flashing Eyes (b-side of 'Crashin' In' 1994)
10 Chemical Risk (b-side of 'Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over' 1995)
11 Frinck (b-side of 'Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over' 1995)
12 Your Skies Are Mine (b-side of 'Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over' 1995)

Scylla - Afterglow (1996)

In the recent Curve post I mentioned in passing that when Toni Halliday and Dean Garcia disbanded Curve in 1994, Halliday formed a new band with Julian Brown, Richard Barber, Lindy Pocock, and Fiona Lynsky. Christened Scylla, they had their track 'Helen's Face' featured on the soundtrack to Paul Verhoeven's 1995 film 'Showgirls', but that wasn't the only material that they recorded, as they actually laid down enough songs for an album, which never saw the light of day. The band spent the summer of 1995 touring around the UK playing small clubs, with Halliday insisting that her name be kept off of any advertising posters for the gigs. At the end of the summer they went into the studio to record some demos for a possible album, but shortly after completing the recordings Halliday decided to knock the whole thing on the head. The demos were produced by Halliday's husband Alan Mulder and their good friend Flood, who were two of the top record producers of the time, and luckily the tapes have survived thanks to the band's road manager at the time, Bob Edwards, who found his copy tucked away in his collection some fifteen yeas ago, and who has shared the tracks online, as he felt that fans deserved to hear them. So here is the album that Scylla could have released in 1996 if Halliday had kept the band going just a little bit longer. 

Track listing

01 Trip To Another Planet
02 Helens Face
03 Get A Helmet
04 Cruiser
05 No Idea
06 Afterglow
07 Butter
08 Rumour
09 Under Her Command
10 Missing
11 Fools Rule
12 Rag Doll 

Val McKenna - Mixed Up Shook Up Girl (1970)

Val McKenna was one of the better white female pop soul-style singers to come out of early to mid-'60s England, with her career being managed by John Carter and Ken Lewis, who were both members of the UK pop group The Ivy League. Apart from a convincing delivery on numbers like 'Mixed Up Shook Up Girl', she also benefited from the presence of Jimmy Page on lead guitar on her records, which included 'Baby Do It' and 'Now That You've Made Up Your Mind', the latter being her own composition. In 1966 she joined up with the afore-mentioned John Carter, plus Mickey Keen, Robin Shaw and Russ Alquist for some recording sessions with their band The Ministry of Sound, and on one of them they were also joined by singer Lesley Duncan, although none of the recordings ever saw the light of day as singles. With her bleached blond hair, sunglasses and PVC cap, 16-year-old McKenna embodied mid-60s youth, and once her own singles dried up she enjoyed a long career in the music business as a singer/songwriter, and sometime backing vocalist. Despite her run of singles in the mid-60's, there's very little information about her online, and in fact only two grainy black and white photos of her seem to exist, so I'll be the first to admit that the cover is not one of my best. The music, however, more than makes up for it. 

Track listing

01 Baby Do It (single 1965)
02 I Believe In Love (b-side of 'Baby Do It')
03 Mixed Up Shook Up Girl (single 1965)
04 Now That You've Made Up Your Mind (b-side of 'Mixed Up Shook Up Girl')
05 I Can't Believe What You Say (single 1965)
06 Don't Hesitate (b-side of 'I Can't Believe What You Say')
07 Hey Girl (No Need To Push) (demo with The Ministry Of Sound 1966)
08 You've Gotta Tell Me (demo with The Ministry Of Sound 1966)
09 Something's Coming Along (demo with Lesley Duncan & The Ministry Of Sound 1967)
10 (Your Mama Said) Roll On (demo with The Ministry Of Sound 1967)
11 House For Sale (single 1968)
12 I'll Be Satisfied (b-side of 'House For Sale') 
13 It's All In My Imagination (single 1969)
14 Sweet Sweet Lovin' (b-side of 'It's All In My Imagination')
15 Love Feeling (single 1970)

A little gift from PowerPopTOM

I had a message the other day from PowerPopTOM through Soulseek, who told me that he'd been burning some of the albums from the blog onto CDs, and making covers for them based on the post. He's offered to share these with anyone who had the same idea, and has sent me a batch of them, with 21 albums picked from the blog, and you can get an idea of them from the samples that I've posted below. If you want copies of the front and backs so that you can print them off then there is a Mega link in the comments. If he sends more then I'll add them to the folder and let you know so that you can grab them. 

Grace Jones - In Dub (1986)

In 2011 Grace Jones issued a dub version of her return-to-form 2008 album 'Hurricane', but this was not the first time that she'd gone down the dub route with her music. The 12" version of her 1982 single 'My Jamaican Guy' featured a dub take titled 'J.A. Guys', and a promo sampler of 1998's 'Private Life' included an exclusive dub mix as well, while 'She's Lost Control', which was one of the b-sides of 'Private Life', was also given an extended dub version. The 12" version of 1986's 'Crush' included both an extended remix and a dub take, and while not strictly speaking dub versions, 1985's 'Slave To The Rhythm' was given en extended Hot-Blooded remix, and her 1980 single 'Love Is The Drug' was given an extended re-issue in 1985. As all of these takes clock in at around the eight-minute mark, you only need half a dozen of them to be mixed together to make a great 46-minute album, which is exactly what I've done, and as some of these versions are now quite hard to track down then I think the album stands up as a tribute to the superb musicianship from such luminaries as Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar on the Compass Point recordings, and the remixing skills of Trevor Horn, Steve Thompson and Alex Sadkin.      

Track listing

01 In Dub (featuring Slave To The Rhythm / J.A. Guys / Private Life / She's Lost Control /

                                                                                                           Love Is The Drug / Crush)

The Charlatans - Taurus Moaner (1991)

The Charlatans were formed in the West Midlands by bassist Martin Blunt, who recruited fellow West Midlanders Rob Collins on keyboards, Jon Brookes on drums, Jon Day (aka Jonathan Baker) on guitar, and singer-guitarist Baz Ketley. Ketley left the band and was replaced by singer Tim Burgess, who had supported the Charlatans with his previous band, the Electric Crayons. Although the Charlatans would later become popularly associated with the Madchester scene, the band's early demos were recorded in 1988 in Birmingham and Dudley, and their signature sound was already established, dominated by Collins's Hammond organ, but underpinned by the driving rhythm section of Blunt's powerful running bass and Brookes's drumming. Their sound fused 1960's soul, R&B and garage rock, and the band saw themselves firmly in the West Midlands tradition of hard-edged soul and R&B that included Birmingham bands such as The Spencer Davis Group and early Dexys Midnight Runners. Their debut single 'Indian Rope' was released on their own Dead Dead Good Records label, proving to be a huge indie hit, and the group soon found themselves signed to a major label in Beggars Banquet offshoot Situation Two, just in time for the release of 'The Only One I Know', which reached the Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart. One more single 'Then' preceded their debut album 'Some Friendly' later that year, and it was around this time that the band were forced to add UK to their name for an American tour, due to the US band of the same name claiming ownership of it. Day left the band after 1991's 'Over Rising' single, to be replaced by Mark Collins, and they brought in producer Flood for the recording of their second album. Right from the start of their career the band have treated their fans well, and have added new compositions to the flips of their singles, and so in the first of a series of posts of non-album tracks, here are all the songs from their singles from 1990 and 1991. 

Track listing

01 Indian Rope (from the 'Indian Rope' 12" single 1990)
02 You Can Talk To Me (from the 'Indian Rope' 12" single 1990)
03 Who Wants To Know (from the 'Indian Rope' 12" single 1990) 
04 Everything Changed (b-side of 'The Only One I Know' 1990)
05 Taurus Moaner (b-side of 'Then' 1990)
06 Opportunity Three (b-side of 'Sproston Green' 1991)
07 Happen To Die (promo only single 1991)
08 Over Rising (single 1991)
09 Way Up There (b-side of 'Over Rising')
10 Me. In Time (single 1991)
11 Occupation H. Monster (b-side of 'Me. In Time')

Soulseek hint, try taurus aiwe

Fefe Dobson - Sunday Love (2005)

Felicia Lily Dobson was born on 28 February 1985, in Scarborough, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto, and attended high school at Wexford Collegiate Institute, during which time she took singing lessons at the New Conservatory of Music in Agincourt, Scarborough to improve her singing. She began sending demo tapes – recorded on a home karaoke machine – to many recording companies in North America when she was 11 years old, and two years later she started playing the piano, which then evolved into her starting writing music, and Jive Records attempted to develop her as a popular musician, which she eventually refused, seeing herself more in the rock mould. After that experience, Dobson met Jay Levine and contracted with Nelly Furtado's manager Chris Smith, who arranged showcases with several recording companies. Universal Music Canada president Randy Lennox showed interest in her, and persuaded Island Def Jam CEO Lyor Cohen and his manager of A&R, Jeff Fenster, to fly to Toronto for another showcase, and about 30 seconds into the first punk thrash song 'Stupid Little Love Song' the executives gave her a contract. Dobson's self-titled debut album was released in December 2003 by Island Records, and sold 307,000 copies in the United States, debuting at number one on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart. Four singles were released from the album, and two album tracks were used in the 2004 film 'The Perfect Score'. During much of 2004 she promoted her debut album, performing live on the program 'Total Request Live' and featuring on numerous magazine covers and articles. In July she released a new single, 'Don't Go (Girls and Boys)', which was also featured in a Tommy Hilfiger commercial, and the album was later reissued with that single added. She collaborated with a number of other artists during the recording process, including Holly Knight, Nina Gordon, Matthew Wilder, Cyndi Lauper, Courtney Love, Joan Jett, and Rancid's Tim Armstrong, and sessions commenced for her second album 'Sunday Love' in the summer of 2004. The album's fourteen tracks (thirteen on the eventual album) were recorded over an eight-month period in California, and Island Records set an initial US release date of 20 September 2005, but this was pushed back a number of times before the album was eventually cancelled, and Dobson's contact with Island Records was terminated just days before the album was scheduled for release. Promo copies gained favourable reviews in both Spin and Vibe magazine, but neither of the two single released from the album, 'Don't Let It Go to Your Head' or 'This Is My Life', charted, although 'Be Strong' did feature on the soundtrack for the 2006 film 'It's a Boy Girl Thing'. In April 2005 Dobson was nominated for two Juno Awards, Pop Album of the Year and New Artist of the Year, although missed out on both, but her songs started to be covered by other artists, with 'Don't Let It Go to Your Head' being released as a single by Norwegian girl group Lilyjets, and the music of 'This Is My Life' was used by the Taiwanese girl-group S.H.E in their song 'I Love Trouble', while 'Start All Over' was recorded by Miley Cyrus for her album 'Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus'. 'Sunday Love' is actually a really good indie-rock album and didn't deserve to be cancelled, so it was fitting that it eventually received a digital only release in 2012, but with no physical copies around it's still talked about as Dobson's "lost" album, and so for fans who might have missed it here is your chance to hear what should have been the official follow-up to that Juno-nominated debut. 

Track listing

01 As A Blonde 
02 If I Was A Guy 
03 Don't Let It Go To Your Head 
04 Get You Off
05 This Is My Life 
06 Scar 
07 Miss Vicious 
08 Man Meets Boy 
09 Get Over Me 
10 Hole 
11 The Initiator 
12 Yeah Yeah Yeah 
13 Be Strong 

Scalping - Monolithium (2021)

I first discovered the industrial techno of Scalping when I found a few of their singles on Soundcloud around 2019 (some of them now long gone), and I thought that they were worth keeping an eye on. The band hail from Bristol, and are made up of Isaac Jones on drums, James Rushforth on bass guitar, Nick Berthoud on guitar and Alex Hill on electronics. For the last five years they've been writing, recording and performing music together, trying to answer the question that guides their work "How can a band bridge the gap between live guitar music and live electronic music?" After forming, they played live for two years, almost exclusively in Bristol, before releasing any music, and by sourcing band-centred equipment that pushes boundaries, that music incorporates bass-amplifying techno elements into their repertoire. After releasing some of their music on Soundcloud, they finally issued their debut album 'Void' in April last year, and is was as good as I'd hoped it would be from what I'd already heard. The sound of the album is moody, distorted and rhythmic, but the use of electronic techniques gives the finer details room to breathe. As I still have all the Soundcloud stuff, there's the equivalent of another album's worth of material available for fans to listen to, so here it is, named after the suitably heavy sounding 'Monolithium', and housed in a cover that pretty much sums up what you're about to hear. 

 
Track listing

01 Chamber
02 Satan II
03 Monolithium
04 The Perimeter
05 Cloudburst
06 Empty Cascade
07 Ruptured
08 Deadlock

George Michael - Trojan Souls (1993)

George Michael's second studio album 'Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1' was released in September 1990, with its title being an indication of his desire to be taken more seriously as a songwriter. It reached No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart, and peaked at No. 2 on the US Billboard 200, and spent a total of 88 weeks on the UK Albums Chart, being certified four-times Platinum by the BPI. The album produced five UK singles, and despite Michael refusing to do any promotion for the record, it won Best British Album at the 1991 Brit Awards. Later in 1991 he embarked on the 'Cover To Cover' tour in Japan, England, the US, and Brazil, where he performed at Rock in Rio, but this was not a proper promotion for 'Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1', but rather it featured Michael singing his favourite cover songs, one of which was released as a single that year, with his duet with Elton John on his 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me' reaching No. 1 in both the UK and US. An expected follow-up album, 'Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 2', was scrapped due to his lawsuit with Sony, with Michael donating three of the songs to the charity project 'Red Hot + Dance', for the Red Hot Organization which raised money for AIDS awareness. A fourth track 'Crazyman Dance' was released as the b-side of 1992's 'Too Funky', with Michael donating the royalties from 'Too Funky' to the same cause. Following the scrapping of 'Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 2', Michael started a new musical project with childhood friend Andros Georgiou, with 'Trojan Souls' being due to be released on their joint record label Hardback in 1993. Michael reportedly pitched 'Trojan Souls' to Sony and recorded the album between 1991 and 1993, during his legal fight with the label, but he stopped working on music after the death of Anselmo Feleppa, who he called the first love of his life, and who he met at the Rock in Rio concert in 1991. 'Trojan Souls' was to feature songs he would perform himself, as well as songs he wrote and planned to get Elton John, Sade, Seal, Stevie Wonder and Anita Baker to sing, although it is unknown if those artists ever recorded their vocals, apart from Elton John, whose track has leaked online. Fans have long circulated bootlegs of 'Trojan Souls' tracks, most of which are only in instrumental form, as the project was never finished, but there are enough tracks with vocals to gain some idea of what it might have sounded like, and by adding a couple of instrumentals it can be fleshed out to full album length. Prince's guitarist Wendy Melvoin was involved in the project, and 'Sketch For Wendy' was to be her showcase, while 'Pieces' is a mood piece which sits nicely on the album. After 'Trojan Souls' was scrapped, Michael spent the next three years working on new music, which eventually surfaced as the 'Older' album in 1996, but here is the chance to hear what he was working on directly after the massive success of 'Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1', and what, with a bit more work, could have been its follow-up record. 

Track listing

01 This Kind Of Love
02 One Day I'll Know
03 Lonely Nights
04 Sketch For Wendy
05 You Slipped Away From Me
06 Day And Night
07 Waiting For A Heart
08 Pieces
09 So Damn Hard

Bonnie McKee - Love Spell (2008)

Bonnie Leigh McKee was born in Vacaville, California, and raised in Seattle, Washington, studying classical piano and becoming a member of the Seattle Girls Choir Prime Voci at age 12. She recorded two albums with the choir, titled 'Jackson Berkey Meets The Seattle Girls' Choir' and 'Cantate', and with that as a background, McKee's mother gave a demo CD featuring her singing her songs, plus covers of Bette Midler and Fiona Apple, to a friend of hers Jonathan Poneman, who was the co-founder of the Sub Pop label. He was intrigued by her songwriting talents, and according to McKee, this was the moment when she realized she had to be "more than just a singer," but a songwriter, as well. By the age of 15, McKee was writing songs and performing in the Seattle area, and one of her demos reached Colin Filkow, an ex-Priority Records label executive, who recognized that she was a rare talent and signed her to his management company, Platinum Partners Artist Management. Although she was only 17 at the time, he flew her to Los Angeles and welcomed her into his family, inspiring her to sing and write songs and to trust her instincts. Filkow took her demos to dozens of labels, publishers, agents, and entertainment lawyers, and after more than a year, he managed to get her signed to Warner Bros. Records in one of the most lucrative signings ever for a new artist. Her debut album 'Trouble' was recorded across a period of two years by producers Bob Power and Rob Cavallo, and was commercially released in September 2004, but Reprise was unsure on how to sell her, so the label settled on a partnership with internet radio website LAUNCHcast, which would promote the lead single 'Somebody'. This soon became one of the most played tracks on the website, and its popularity with young females led to a strategy where McKee would be a subversive alternative to the teen pop demographic. 

The album received positive reviews in Blender, Nylon, The Los Angeles Times, and Teen People, but was commercially unsuccessful, and she was devastated when the album didn't happen, saying later "I realized there are so many steps from getting a deal to having a hit...and I didn't get there. It was a huge let-down." Despite this she started work on a second studio album, but her life started on a downward-spiral, and she began to abuse crystal meth, an addiction with which she struggled for several years. She was dropped from the label after defacing the CEO's car with lipstick during the middle of the night, and her cancelled second album became the stuff of legend. Following her release from Reprise Records, McKee managed to get a job at Pulse Recordings' publishing arm, Check Your Pulse, through her boyfriend and longtime collaborator, Oliver "Oligee" Goldstein, and while living in poverty, without hot water, a cell phone, or a car, she spent many hours in the recording studio, learning how to use Pro Tools and crafting new songs alongside Elliott Yamin and Leighton Meester. In 2009, she was introduced to music producer Dr. Luke by her manager Josh Abraham, and as Dr. Luke had collaborated with McKee's longtime friend Katy Perry on her second album 'One Of The Boys', he was able to put her name forward when Perry expressed interest in having a co-writer. Together, along with Max Martin and Benny Blanco, they began writing songs, ultimately producing the hits that would appear on Perry's third album 'Teenage Dream', including the three singles from the album, 'California Gurls', 'Teenage Dream', and 'Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)', the last of which was inspired by McKee and Perry's misadventures in their teenaged years. 

Each of the singles topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and they earned McKee several BMI Pop Awards in 2011 and 2012 for her role as a songwriter. She also co-wrote two more chart-toppers for Perry, 'Part Of Me' and 'Roar', and four other songs that hit number one on either the Hot 100 or the UK Singles Chart, being Britney Spears' 'Hold It Against Me', Taio Cruz's 'Dynamite', Rita Ora's 'How We Do (Party)' and Cheryl's 'I Don't Care'. On June 22, 2017, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced that 'Roar' had received an RIAA Diamond certification award for 10 million copies sold. With her new career as a songwriter now firmly established, she didn't feel the need to release her own music, but her fans felt differently, and the forums have been filled with chat for years about the albums that they would love to hear from her. A possible 2014 album for Epic Records is top of the list, but her abandoned second album is often mentioned, and with her backlog of hundreds of unreleased songs she could easily release half a dozen albums full of the sort of songs that were hits for other artists. I've managed to get hold of a huge number of these unreleased recordings, and so am able to piece together some of these sought-after records, and I'm starting with that shelved second album from 2008, now titled 'Love Spell'. 

Track listing

01 Love Spell
02 Thunder Of My Heartbeat
03 Deja Vu
04 Make It Through Another Day
05 Head On
06 Friends
07 Mine
08 Worst In Me
09 Stars In Your Heart
10 To Find You
11 Infatuation
12 Teenage Heart