The Blue Nile - The Second Act (2004)

Paul Buchanan and his childhood friend Robert Bell grew up together in Glasgow and both attended the University of Glasgow in the late 1970's, with Buchanan gaining a degree in literature and medieval history, and Bell one in mathematics. Although Buchanan's father had been a semi-professional musician and had musical instruments around the house, it was only after he and Bell had graduated that Buchanan began to think seriously about a career in music. While at university Buchanan became acquainted with Paul Joseph "PJ" Moore, who was studying electronics, and the three friends became part of a band. Calling themselves McIntyre (named after the John McIntyre Building, the university's administrative offices) and then Night By Night, the band struggled to retain a settled line-up, and by 1981 only Buchanan, Bell and Moore remained as members. They decided not to recruit anybody else, trading in a guitar for an effect pedal and borrowing an old drum machine that only played Hispanic American music rhythms. Renaming themselves The Blue Nile (after the title of the 1962 book by Alan Moorehead), the group managed to raise enough money to record and release their first single, 'I Love This Life', on their own Peppermint Records label. Only a limited number were produced, but one found its way to RSO Records via their friend and engineer Calum Malcolm, and RSO licensed the single for distribution, but almost as soon as the record was released RSO went bankrupt and was absorbed into the PolyGram recording company, and the single consequently disappeared. Undaunted by this setback, the band continued to play gigs around Glasgow, starting to write their own songs alongside the cover versions they were playing, and having no drummer and with limited musical ability, The Blue Nile adopted an atmospheric, electronic approach primarily out of necessity. 

The most commonly told story about The Blue Nile is that in 1983 they were approached by a local hi-fi manufacturer, Linn Products, and asked to produce a song that would showcase the Linn equipment to best effect. Linn was so pleased with the resulting record that it offered the Blue Nile a contract to make a whole album, and set up its own record label specifically to release it. However, this has been categorically denied by both Buchanan and Moore, who insist that they just got lucky that their friend and engineer Calum Malcolm was a friend of Linn's founder Ivor Tiefenbrun, and his studio was fitted out with Linn equipment, so when Linn representatives visited one day and asked to hear some music to test out their new speakers, Malcolm played them the demo of 'Tinseltown In The Rain'. Impressed, Linn offered the band a contract with the record label it was in the process of setting up, and despite the fact that the group took nine months to reply to Linn's offer, the contract was eventually signed and the band's first album, 'A Walk Across The Rooftops', was Linn Records' first release in May 1984. On its release the album gained widespread acclaim from music critics for its mixture of sparse, detailed electronic sounds and Buchanan's soulful vocals, and the band gained greater exposure in Europe, with the videos for their two singles, 'Stay' and 'Tinseltown In The Rain', often shown on the video channel Music Box. Keen to capitalise on the positive critical reception awarded to 'A Walk Across The Rooftops', Linn sent the band back to Castlesound studio early in 1985 to produce a quick follow-up record. However, as the band later admitted, there was no new material ready to record, and they were not happy with the songs they were producing under pressure in the studio. 

The lack of progress led to stress and arguments among the band members, and matters were not helped when Virgin Records, to whom Linn had licensed the band's records, began legal proceedings against the group and the label for not producing the new material stipulated in the licensing agreement. After two years with almost nothing to show for its efforts, the band was forced to leave the studio to make way for another band, and had to return home to Glasgow. Away from the pressures of the studio, the group overcame the writer's block and eventually returned to Castlesound in 1988, where they were able to rapidly complete a new album. 'Hats' was released in October 1989 to rave reviews, including a rare five-star rating from Q magazine, and with the sound being warmer and smoother than the first album, and exploring the highs and lows of romantic love, 'Hats' peaked at number 12 on the UK Albums Chart. It was also the group's breakthrough record in the US, where it reached number 108 on the US Billboard 200 album charts in May 1990, and all three singles released in the UK made the top 75 in the UK Singles Chart. The Blue Nile's first live public performance after making 'A Walk Across The Rooftops' was in December 1989 on the television programme 'Halfway To Paradise', which was a Scottish-based arts magazine show broadcast on Channel 4, and the band also composed and performed the theme tune for the programme, later releasing it as a single b-side. American singer Rickie Lee Jones had recently befriended the band and had become one of its biggest supporters, and as well as her recording a duet of their 'Easter Parade' for the b-side to her 1990 single 'Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying', they also supported Jones on her 1990 US tour. 

The radio play gained by 'Hats' in the US, in particular the single 'The Downtown Lights', brought The Blue Nile to the attention of several well-known US-based musicians, and in 1991 the band was invited to Los Angeles to work on songs by Julian Lennon, Robbie Robertson and Michael McDonald. As a result, Buchanan moved to Los Angeles and lived there for a while, embarking on a relationship with the actress Rosanna Arquette between 1991 and 1993. Having been let go by Linn and Virgin Records, the group signed a deal with Warner Bros. Records in 1992, and the band decided that it wanted to find somewhere private to record its new album with its portable studio, so they began travelling around Europe searching for suitable locations. Having spent two years looking at and dismissing locations in cities such as Venice, Amsterdam and Copenhagen, the record was finally recorded piecemeal over three locations in Paris, Dublin and Los Angeles. In June 1996, seven years after 'Hats', The Blue Nile released a third album, entitled 'Peace At Last', which displayed a marked difference in style to the first two albums, with Buchanan's acoustic guitar work more to the fore. Despite its release on a major label, critical reaction to the album was more mixed than for the band's previous records, although sales were good, entering the UK album chart at number 13. In 1997, the band appointed a full-time manager for the first time, with ex-Dire Straits manager, Ed Bicknell, managing to extricate the group from the deal with Warner Bros. He also attempted to persuade the band to change its recording habits, but had little success, and following an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival in June 1997, the band disappeared from public view for the next seven years. 

After the longest period yet between albums, The Blue Nile released 'High' in August 2004, the same year that they parted company with Bicknell. Part of the lengthy delay in making the record was due to Buchanan contracting a form of chronic fatigue syndrome which affected his health for two years, but the band's perfectionism was also a factor, dumping an album's worth of songs that they weren't happy with. 'High' reached number 10 on the UK Albums Chart, the highest position to date for the band, and although acoustic guitar is still present on some tracks, the overall musical sound is more reminiscent of 'Hats'. It became apparent during the recording of 'High' that old tensions among the band members had resurfaced, and Buchanan has indicated that the album was finished more out of a sense of duty and loyalty rather than any willingness on the part of the band. During preparations for the tour in February 2005 following the album's release, Buchanan and Bell realised that Moore had stopped contacting them and would not be showing up, and so Buchanan and Bell toured England, Scotland and Wales in 2006, billed as "Paul Buchanan sings the songs of the Blue Nile", refraining from simply calling themselves The Blue Nile as a mark of respect for Moore's absence. Although there has never been an official statement to clarify whether or not The Blue Nile still exists, the indications are that the band have split up. In May 2012 Buchanan released his first solo album, 'Mid Air', a collection of short, stripped-back songs mostly with just his voice and piano, recorded with Calum Malcolm's son Cameron as the album's engineer, and released on Buchanan's own Newsroom Records label. The Blue Nile have been cited by a number of musicians as an influence, and their fans really are fanatical in their devotion to the group. This has been helped in no small part by deluxe re-issues of their albums, which have included otherwise unreleased tracks as bonuses, and so as a tribute to the group here are all the non-album b-sides to their singles, interspersed with those unreleased out-takes and demos. 

Track listing

Disc I - 1981-1991
01 I Love This Life (single 1981)
02 The Second Act (b-side of 'I Love This Life')
03 St. Catherine's Day (previously unreleased 1984 )
04 Saddle The Horses (b-side of 'Stay' 1984
05 Regret (b-side of 'Tinseltown In The Rain' 1984) 
06 Young Club (previously unreleased 1983)
07 The Wires Are Down (b-side of 'The Downtown Lights' 1989) 
08 Broadway In The Snow (previously unreleased 1989)
09 Halfway To Paradise (b-side of 'The Downtown Lights' 1989) 
10 Christmas (previously unreleased 1989)
11 Our Lives (i. Lost, ii. Bolivia, iii. New York) (b-side of 'Saturday Night' 1991)

Disc II - 1996-2004
01 A Certain Kind Of Angel (previously unreleased 1996)
02 O Lolita (b-side of 'Happiness' 1996)

03 Turn Yourself Around (previously unreleased 1996)
04 New York Man (b-side of 'Happiness' 1996)

05 There Was A Girl (previously unreleased 1996)
06 Wish Me Well (b-side of 'Happiness' 1996)
07 Wasted (previously unreleased 2004)
08 I (previously unreleased 2004)
09 Big Town (previously unreleased 2004)
10 Here Come The Bluebirds (previously unreleased 2004)

The Charlatans - Give Me A Reason (2004)

Following the release of the 'Forever' single, 'My Beautiful Friend' was originally scheduled for 29 November 1999, but was eventually released as the album's second single on 6 December 1999, with two new songs on one of the CD editions. Sometime after this, Tim Burgess moved to Los Angeles and got married to his long-time girlfriend, and in March and April 2000 the band embarked on a two-week tour of North America with Stereophonics, followed by a UK tour, dubbed Chewing Gum Weekend Tour, and ending with a gig in Ireland with support from Gomez and JJ72. 'Impossible' was released as the third single from 'Us And Us Only' on 15 May 2000, with two editions released on CD, each with a new song on it. The album was met with generally favourable reviews from music critics, with one commenting that it was merely a step below their previous high point of 'Tellin' Stories'. When the band were ready to start thinking about recording a new album, Burgess invited Mark Collins, Martin Blunt, and Jon Brookes to join him in L.A. for a three-week stint, just long enough to sort out the songs that would become 2001's Curtis Mayfield-influenced 'Wonderland'. Although the band admit that they had been obsessed with Manchester music up until this point, the California vibe influenced their new music, with Gram Parsons and The Beach Boys becoming heroes to Burgess. Daniel Lanois added some pedal steel guitar, and legendary session musician Jim Keltner played some drums, and the album was written and recorded by June 2001. 'Love Is The Key' was released as a taster single in August, with the album following in September, and a second single, 'A Man Needs To Be Told', was released in November. 'You're So Pretty, We're So Pretty' was initially due for release as the third and final single from album, but it was withdrawn at the last minute at the mutual agreement of the band and the record company, even though pressings had been made for a full retail release. Despite their new melodic-funk direction, 'Wonderland' was well-received by the music press, but the band kept a low profile over the next few years, supporting Oasis at Finsbury Park in July 2002, but generally just chilling out. In 2004 the band reconvened to write and record their eighth studio album, but after a string of Top Two albums in their native UK, 'Up At The Lake' didn’t even crack the Top Ten. This could be down to their last album deviating significantly from the band's rollicking, Stones-and-Dylan-influenced rock, replacing them with drum machines, soul-sister backing vocals and Curtis Mayfield arrangements, which was just enough of a departure to make lots of hardcore fans scratch their heads. It didn't help that the band lost their American record deal around this time, meaning that 'Up At The Lake' is the band's only album never to have received a US release. With the glitzy LA soul fixation out of their system, 'Up At The Lake' found the band as laid back as ever, stripping back their sound to a point that most recalls 1997's 'Tellin' Stories', which was seen by many as their peak. The title track and 'Try Again Today' were released as singles, while 'Loving You Is Easy' was issued as a radio only promo, and once again these singles all included exclusive tracks on the flips, which are gathered together here for a collection which covers 1999 to 2004.  

Track listing

01 Scorched (b-side of 'My Beautiful Friend' 1999)
02 Your Precious Love (b-side of 'My Beautiful Friend' 1999)
03 You Got It, I Want It (b-side of 'Impossible' 2000)
04 Don't Go Giving It Up (b-side of 'Impossible' 2000)
05 Viva La Sociale (b-side of 'Love Is The Key' 2001)
06 It's About Time (b-side of 'Love Is The Key' 2001)
07 All I Desire (b-side of 'A Man Needs To Be Told' 2001)
08 Shotgun (b-side of 'A Man Needs To Be Told' 2001)
09 Room 518 (b-side of 'You're So Pretty, We're So Pretty' withdrawn single 2001)
10 For Where There Is Love, There Will Always Be Miracles (b-side of 'Up At The Lake' 2004)
11 M.I.A. (b-side of 'Try Again Today' 2004)
12 Give Me A Reason (b-side of 'Try Again Today' 2004)

Miley Cyrus - SHE IS MILEY CYRUS (2020)

'SHE IS MILEY CYRUS' was to have been the seventh studio album by the American singer, and it was expected to be released in 2020 through RCA Records. Work on the album had begun shortly before the release of her sixth studio album 'Younger Now' in September 2017, but the album was scrapped in favour of the more rock inspired 'Plastic Hearts', which came out in its place in 2020. In May 2019 she confirmed that the album was complete and she held a private listening session for iHeartRadio executives, announcing on social media on 9 May that she would be releasing new music at the end of the month, later stating that the rollout of this new music would be "unconventional". On 31 May she tweeted that the record would be titled 'SHE IS MILEY CYRUS', and that it would be preceded by three six-song extended plays: 'She Is Coming' on 31 May, 'She Is Here' in the summer, and 'She Is Everything' in the fall. She described the three EPs as being "different chapters to a trilogy", that together would form the full-length record. Their track listings were to be "seasonal" in nature, and she related 'She Is Coming' to feeling the light and warmth of early summer, while 'She Is Here' and 'She Is Everything' would be colder and a little darker. Cyrus continued work on the record following the separation from her husband Liam Hemsworth in August, but the following month it was reported that she was undecided between updating the existing completed album or scrapping that version of the record altogether. On New Year's Day 2020, she uploaded a highlight video of the past decade and announced that "the new era starts now". With the release of the single 'Midnight Sky' on 14 August, she confirmed the cancellation of the 'She Is Here' and 'She Is Everything' EPs, and also the album that would have followed them. The 'She Is Coming' EP was released in 2019, and so we do have six tracks that we know were intended for the record, and other songs have leaked over the past couple of years, so by taking a dozen of the best of them we can approximate the 18 track record that the three EPs were meant to precede, and finally hear the full 'SHE IS MILEY CYRUS' album. 

Track listing

01 Sagittarius
02 Mother's Daughter
03 Unholy
04 LA Money

05 Night And Day
06 Party Up The Street (feat. Swae Lee & Mike Will Made-It)
07 If I Fall
08 D.R.E.A.M. (feat. Ghostface Killah)
09 Cattitude (feat. RuPaul)
10 Victoria's Secret
11 Slide Away
12 Right Hand Man

13 Mary Jane
14 Miley What's Good (The American Dream Is Boring)
15 Just Stop
16 Something To Live For
17 Not My Vibe

18 The Most

Christine Holmes - From Your Window (1971)

Christine Anne Authors (aka Christine Holmes) was born in 1949, and her musical career started when she studied violin and piano in Manchester, and was a member of the Manchester Youth Orchestra at just 11 years old. She moved to Solihull at 14 where she sang one night a week with The Applejacks pop group, after previously singing with the Downbeats, who were one of a very few bands to have a female singer, enabling them to widen their repertoire to include covers by Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield, and The Supremes. She was spotted by The Applejacks manager and taken to London at 16 years of age, chaperoned to the Embassy Club nightly, and performed in a BBC Pop Club show called Gadzooks as a regular host and singer. Her career took off when she won the part of Charlie Girl in the West End production of the same name, which ran for five years at the Adelphi Theatre London, and she also hosted three series of the children's TV series 'Crackerjack', all before she was 21. In 1969 she joined The Family Dogg, replacing departing vocalists Doreen De Veuve and Pam Quinn, and she stayed with them until 1972, when they released their final album 'The View From Rowland's Head', scoring a hit single along the way in the Netherlands with a cover of Rare Bird's 'Sympathy'. In the early 70's glam rock was the place to be, and so with a little reinvention, Christine Holmes became Kristine Sparkle, and with the addition of Glitter Band-style drums, fuzz-guitars, and hand-claps, she released a number of singles in 1974, including glammed-up takes of 'It's In His Kiss', 'Hokey Cokey', and 'Eight Days A Week', as well as her album 'Image' the same year. She then embarked on a pop/country career in 1976, and enjoyed hit records in Canada as a singer/songwriter. One of her songs was recorded by Cliff Richard in 1976, with 'Devil Woman' giving him his first American hit, and she also wrote 'No Charge', which was a big hit for J J Barrie, with both of these singles being in the UK top 5 at the same time in 1976. There was a compilation of Kristine Sparkle's music released in 2008, but no-one has ever compiled her singles as Christine Holmes, and so here are all the tracks she recorded between 1964 and 1971, included some unreleased acetates, and a cringe-inducing flexi-disc which tried to get 'the kids' to start saving their money at the Post Office.  

Track listing

01 This Is My Prayer (single 1964)
02 My Dream (b-side of 'This Is My Prayer') 
03 Play Me A Sad Song (Please Mr. Dee Jay) (single 1964)
04 Doesn't He Know (b-side of 'Play Me A Sad Song (Please Mr. Dee Jay)') 
05 Goodbye Boys Goodbye (Ciao, Ragazzi, Ciao) (single 1964)
06 Many Things From Your Window (single 1965)
07 You'd Better Believe It (b-side of 'Many Things From Your Window') 
08 Goin' Where The Lovin' Is (single 1965)
09 Where There's Smoke There's Fire (b-side of 'Goin' Where The Lovin' Is') 
10 Every Little Kiss (acetate 1965)
11 Here Comes My Baby (acetate 1965)
12 The Pop Way To Save (Post Office Savings Bank flexi-disc 1969)
13 A Shoulder To Cry On (previously unreleased)
14 The Drum (single 1971)
15 I Wanna Be The Star Of The Show (b-side of 'The Drum') 

Talk Talk - A Chameleon Hour (1994) **UPDATE**

I stumbled on a Talk Talk forum the other day, where Jules (aka Specialist Spectrus) had commented on this post, and mentioned that he still considered that 'Again, A Game…Again' should lead into the piano version of 'Call In The Night Boy', which then goes into 'My Foolish Friend', as those three run together so well, and they should ideally lead off the album. I never tried this combination when he first mentioned it in the comments to the post, but was now intrigued to see if it worked, so I've completely revamped the running order of the album, and have to agree that it does work very well. 'Again, A Game…Again' / 'Call In The Night Boy' / 'My Foolish Friend' now opens the album, with the piano version of 'Call In The Night Boy' replacing the band version, and I've also flipped the order of 'Desire' and 'Renée' as they flow better that way, and lastly I've moved 'Such A Shame' to the end, as it has the perfect outro to close the album. As I think this version works so well, I've updated Soulseek and Mega, so give it a try and see if you agree.

Track listing

01 Again A Game...Again
02 Call In The Night Boy
03 My Foolish Friend
04 Renée
05 Desire
06 Why Is It So Hard?
07 For What It's Worth
08 Without You
09 Such A Shame 

Squeeze - Squeeze Box (1993)

Squeeze were formed in March 1974 by Chris Difford (guitar, vocals, lyrics), and Glenn Tilbrook (vocals, guitar, music), who began writing songs together, and soon added Jools Holland (keyboards) and Paul Gunn (drums) to form an actual band. The group performed under several names, most frequently Captain Trundlow's Sky Company or Skyco, before selecting the band name Squeeze as a facetious tribute to the Velvet Underground's oft-derided 1973 album 'Squeeze'. In 1975 Gilson Lavis replaced Gunn on drums, and Harry Kakoulli joined on bass, and the band spent their early career around Deptford in south-east London, where they were part of a lively local music scene which included Alternative TV and Dire Straits. The group was initially signed to Miles Copeland III's BTM Records, but the label went under in late 1976, so their early singles and debut EP, 1977's 'Packet Of Three', were released on the Deptford Fun City label, with the latter being produced by John Cale, who had been a member of the band that Squeeze took their name from. In the United States and Canada the band were dubbed UK Squeeze, owing to legal conflicts arising from a contemporary American band called Tight Squeeze, but after their debut album was issued in the US as 'U.K. Squeeze' the "U.K." was dropped for all subsequent releases, although in Australia the same name change lasted until 1985 due to legal conflicts arising from an existing Sydney-based band also called Squeeze. The 'Squeeze' album generated two hit singles in 'Take Me I'm Yours' and 'Bang Bang', both produced by the band themselves, but their second album 'Cool For Cats' contained their two highest charting UK singles in 'Cool For Cats' and 'Up The Junction', both of which peaked at No. 2, and they also released a stand-alone Christmas single the same year. Following the release of the 'Cool For Cats' album in 1979, John Bentley replaced Harry Kakoulli on bass, and the band released their third album 'Argybargy' the following year, being their third hit album in the UK, and the one which broke them in the US and Canada, with the single 'Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)' receiving airplay on US rock radio stations. In 1980 Jools Holland left the band for a solo career, and he was replaced by highly rated singer-keyboardist Paul Carrack, a former member of both British soul-pop band Ace and progressive rock band Roxy Music. 

In 1981 the band released 'East Side Story', which was produced by Elvis Costello and Roger Bechirian, and featured Carrack's lead vocals on the radio hit 'Tempted', but he left the group after the release of the album and was replaced by Don Snow, with this line-up recording the 'Sweets From A Stranger' album in 1982. However, this was their first record which didn't receive rave reviews, and the negative criticism, together with the stresses of touring and conflict between band members, led Difford and Tilbrook to break up the band later that year. Difford and Tilbrook continued to work together, and released one self-titled album as the duo Difford & Tilbrook in 1984, and although it is not officially a Squeeze album, to many fans 'Difford & Tilbrook' is considered a "lost" Squeeze album. Squeeze re-formed to play a one night charity gig in 1985, with all five members from the 1980 'Argybargy' line-up of Difford/Tilbrook/Holland/Lavis/Bentley, and the performance was such a success that the band unanimously agreed to resume recording and touring as Squeeze, although they replaced Bentley with bassist Keith Wilkinson, as they were searching for a different sound. In 1985 this new incarnation released the album 'Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti', which featured complex double-tracked keyboard parts which could not be duplicated by a single keyboard player on stage, so Jools' brother Christopher Holland, then aged 17, played and toured as a second keyboardist in 1985. His tenure in the band was short-lived, though, as he had signed to I.R.S. Records as a solo artist, so he was replaced by Andy Metcalfe of The Soft Boys and The Egyptians, and the sextet released the 'Babylon And On' album in 1987, which produced their only US top 40 hits in 'Hourglass' and '853-5937'. Metcalfe left the band in 1988, and the remaining five members recorded 1989's 'Frank', but the album was a commercial disappointment, with no charting singles to promote it, and the band was dropped from A&M. 

Jools Holland left Squeeze again in early 1990, and was not immediately replaced, with the band using session musicians such as Matt Irving, Steve Nieve, and Bruce Hornsby for the 1991 release 'Play', which was issued on their new label Reprise Records. This release again spawned no UK hits, although in the US the singles 'Satisfied' and 'Crying In My Sleep' received significant airplay on modern rock stations, and in Canada 'Satisfied' was a top 50 hit. Despite the renewed interest in the band, Reprise dropped them after the one album, and more line-up changes ensued, with drummer Gilson Lavis being let go in 1992 and replaced by Nieve's Attractions bandmate Pete Thomas, while Paul Carrack also returned to the band in 1993, but by this point the revolving door of departing and joining members made it seem like Squeeze was not so much a band as it was a trade name for Difford and Tilbrook plus sidemen. The band re-signed to A&M in time for 1993's 'Some Fantastic Place' album, and after a period of commercial decline in the UK, lead single 'Third Rail' hit No. 39, becoming their first UK Top 40 hit in six years. Squeeze's line-up during the mid-1990s changed constantly, with Thomas leaving, requiring Carrack to double on snare and keyboards for a few gigs before session drummer Andy Newmark was brought in. Then Carrack himself left in 1994, which allowed keyboardist Andy Metcalfe to return to the band for a short spell. Drummer Kevin Wilkinson, formerly of The Waterboys and China Crisis, was also added around this time, replacing Newmark, although he only lasted until 1995. With the only constant members being Difford and Tilbrook, Squeeze was no longer the band that fans had loved from the early days, and so I'm calling a halt at this point to this 'box' set of the many non-album b-sides that they included on their early singles, along with a couple of stand-alone and unreleased singles, covering their most successful years between 1977 and 1993. I've made just one slight update, replacing the live version of 'All Fed Up' from the flip of 1978's 'Take Me I'm Yours' with the more powerful Peel session version from the previous year.    

Track listing 

Disc I - 1977-1980
01 Cat On A Wall (from the 'Packet Of Three' EP 1977)
02 Night Ride (from the 'Packet Of Three' EP 1977)
03 Back Track (from the 'Packet Of Three' EP 1977)
04 Night Nurse (b-side of 'Take Me, I'm Yours' 1978)
05 All Fed Up (John Peel Session 1977)
06 Deep Cuts (unreleased single 1978)
07 Saints Alive (b-side of 'Goodbye Girl' 1978)
08 All's Well (b-side of 'Slap And Tickle' 1979)
09 Wrong Way (free flexi-disc with Smash Hits Magazine 1979)
10 Christmas Day (single 1979)
11 Going Crazy (b-side of 'Christmas Day')
12 Pretty Thing (b-side of 'Another Nail In My Heart' 1980)
13 What The Butler Saw (b-side of 'Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)' 1980)

Disc II - 1981-1986

01 Trust (b-side of 'Is That Love' 1981)

02 Yap, Yap, Yap (b-side of 'Tempted' 1981)

03 Squabs On Forty Fab (b-side of 'Labelled With Love' 1981)

04 The Hunt (b-side of 'Black Coffee In Bed' 1982)

05 I'm At Home Tonight (unreleased promo single 1982)

06 Elephant Girl (b-side of 'When The Hangover Strikes' 1982)

07 Annie Get Your Gun (single 1982)

08 Spanish Guitar (b-side of 'Annie Get Your Gun')

09 Suites From Five Strangers (b-side of 'Lost Time Forever' 1985)

10 The Fortnight Saga (b-side of 'No Place Like Home' 1985)

11 Loves Crashing Waves (Live) (b-side of 'King George Street' 1986)

Disc III - 1987-1993

01 Wedding Bells (b-side of 'Hourglass' 1987)

02 Splitting Into Three (b-side of 'Hourglass' 1987)

03 Frank's Bag (b-side of 'If It's Love' 1989)

04 Red Light (b-side of 'Love Circles' 1989)

05 Who's That? (b-side of 'Love Circles' 1989)

06 Maidstone (b-side of 'Sunday Street' 1991)

07 Mood Swings (b-side of 'Sunday Street' 1991)

08 Happiness Is King (b-side of 'Satisfied' 1991)

09 Laughing In My Sleep (b-side of 'Satisfied' 1991)

10 Jumping (b-side of 'Some Fantastic Place' 1993)

11 Is That The Time? (b-side of 'Some Fantastic Place' 1993)

A gift from PowerPopTOM - Part 2

PowerPopTOM has been busy on his PC again and has sent over another batch of CD covers that he's made for use if you want to burn some of these albums to CD. They've all been added to the file, so I'll list the ones that are in there so that you can see if you want to download it. So far we have:

Bad Company - Easy On My Soul
Big Brother & The Holding Company - Misery

Brian Eno - Textures

Bryan Ferry - Horoscope

Caravan - Looking Left, Looking Right

Cockney Rebel - Another Journey

The Cure - Plastic Passion

The Cure - Mansolidgone

The Cure - Out Of Mind

The Cure - Scared As You

The Cure - The Exploding Boy

The Cure - Listen

Curved Air - Thinking On The Floor

Dave Davies - Lincoln County

David Bowie - Silhouettes And Shadows

Deep Purple - Coronarias Redig

Emerson Lake & Palmer - A Time And A Place

The Faces - A Fifth Of The Faces

Fleetwood Mac - Kiln House

Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart - Bondage

Free - Songs Of The Free

Kraftwerk - K4

Kraftwerk - Techno Pop

Lemmy - Lemmy Write You A Song

Roxy Music - The Pride And The Pain

The Sex Pistols - Spunk

Soft Machine - Rivmic Melodies

Soft Machine - Soft Machine's Little Red Records

The Stalk-Forrest Group - Hidden Mirrors

Status Quo - Tune To The Music

U2 - The Desert Songs

The Velvet Underground - The Sceptre Studio Sessions

Yes - Works

and one that wasn't actually posted on the site, but on Paul's, so if you have The Who live at The Young Vic Theatre 1971, then there's a cover for that as well. 

and the next batch is

Mott The Hoople - The Saturday Gigs

Jimi Hendrix - Mosaic

Nazareth - Storm Warning

Van Halen - The Warner Brothers Years

Mick Ronson - ...and on guitar

Mick Ronson - Just Like This

and from Paul's site, The Flying Burrito Brothers

Enjoy

pj and PowerPopTOM

 

The Charlatans - Down With The Mook (1999)

In early 1996 The Charlatans spent time at home writing material for their next album, and guitarist Mark Collins arranged for him and vocalist Tim Burgess to have use of a remote cottage in the Lake District where they could work on ideas. Upon returning home, the pair learned that bassist Martin Blunt, drummer Jon Brookes and keyboardist Rob Collins had completed three songs, and so at Easter 1996 the band travelled to Monnow Valley Studio in Monmouthshire to start recording. 'One To Another' was quickly earmarked as a single, but the progress was generally slow, and Burgess felt that it was being hindered by Rob Collins, who would intentionally ruin tracks that he did not like, and ruined songs he did like due to being intoxicated. Burgess had an argument with Collins, and confided to Mark Collins that he wished to kick Rob out of the band, but before that could happen, Collins was killed in a car crash on 22 July 1996. Returning home from the pub, he lost control of his car after hitting a kerb, causing it to slide across the road, go through a hedge and roll over a bank. As he was not wearing a seatbelt, Collins was ejected from the car, and although he managed to stand up prior to collapsing, he subsequently died in the ambulance taking him to hospital. After being told about the accident the rest of the band were distraught, and considering ending the group, but at the urging of Rob Collins' father, they agreed to continue, and enlisted the help of Martin Duffy of Primal Scream to fill Collins' role. Aware that progress on the album had stalled, the band re-focused themselves on finishing it, with Duffy playing back Collins' parts and then performing his own, and letting the band choose whichever they preferred. Burgess later said that the liner notes did not mention which songs Collins or Duffy had individually played on out of respect for Collins. As they were nearing completion of recording process, the band signed a deal with MCA Records and its parent company Universal Music Group in the US for £1 million, though they remained with Beggars Banquet for the UK. Their first US single on MCA was 'One To Another', which was released in August 1996, followed by 'North Country Boy' in March 1997, and both of these releases included a couple of otherwise unheard tracks on the b-sides. 

'Tellin' Stories' itself appeared in April 1997, with the US edition following in June with an amended track listing. The band embarked on a tour of the UK that ran into May 1997, and the London show saw the debut of Tony Rogers, who was now the band's full-time keyboardist. 'How High' and the title track were released as singles, each with extra tracks on the flip, and they finished 1997 with another tour of the UK. The critical reception of 'Tellin' Stories' was even better then that for 'The Charlatans', with the general feeling being that while 'The Charlatans' was an acceptable comeback album, 'Tellin' Stories' was the real deal, with no discernible dip in the quality of the material, and it appeared high on the albums of the year charts, alongside 'OK Computer' and 'Urban Hymns'. By late 1998, the band decided to build their own residential recording studio, which they hoped would help save on the costs of recording at other studios. While this was being constructed the various members spent time with friends and family, before reconvening at the start of 1999, only to find that their studio was still being built. They had planned to start recording in late January, but had to postpone until March when the studio was finally completed. On the same day that the band christened their studio Big Mushroom, they learned that their accountant Trevor Williams had stolen £300,000 from their funds, which should have been used for paying taxes dating back five years. Sessions for the new album were held at Big Mushroom in Middlewich, and at Great Linford Manor in Buckinghamshire, with the band self-producing, and by late April 1999 recording had almost wrapped up. 'Forever' was released as the lead single on 4 October 1999, and the album 'Us And Us Only' followed on 18 October 1999 through Universal in the UK, as the band's contact with Beggars Banquet had expired. This third collection of b-sides starts with one final one from 1995, then includes all the flips from the 'Tellin' Stories' singles from 1996 and 1997, and all three b-sides from 'Forever' from 1999.  

Track listing

01 Floor Nine (b-side of 'Bullet Comes' 1995)
02 Two Of Us (b-side of 'One To Another' 1996)
03 Reputation (b-side of 'One To Another' 1996)
04 Don't Need A Gun (b-side of 'North Country Boy' 1997)
05 Title Fight (b-side of 'How High' 1997)
06 Down With The Mook (b-side of 'How High' 1997)
07 Keep It To Yourself (b-side of 'Tellin' Stories' 1997)
08 Clean Up Kid (b-side of 'Tellin' Stories' 1997)
09 Great Place To Leave (b-side of 'Forever' 1999)
10 When Your Ship Comes In (b-side of 'Forever' 1999)
11 Sleepy Little Sunshine Boy (b-side of 'Forever' 1999) 

Bonnie McKee - Electric Heaven (2014)

In 2012 Bonnie McKee co-wrote two songs that appeared on Adam Lambert's album 'Trespassing', which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 Album Chart, and she appeared as a featured performer on 'Thunder' from Rusko's album 'Songs', released on Mad Decent. It was during this time that she signed a recording contract with Epic Records, who had spotted her unusual fashion sense when she featured on E!'s Fashion Police, and appeared on the pages of The New York Times, New York Post, and Schön! Magazine. In 2013 she was awarded three more BMI Pop awards for her songwriting work on Katy Perry's 'Wide Awake' and 'Part Of Me', as well as Britney Spears' 'Hold It Against Me'. McKee's first single under Epic Records was 'American Girl', which was released in July 2013, followed in October by another new song titled 'Sleepwalker', which McKee confirmed was not a single, but rather an "inbetweengle", to tide fans over until her next official release. The plan was to record and release her second album, under a joint deal between Epic and Kemosabe Records, in the summer of 2014, and a second single titled 'S.L.A.Y.' was performed at a number of venues while she was on the road with Karmin on their Pulses Tour, but it was delayed many times and eventually cancelled. Feeling that she had lost control over her career and the creative direction that she wanted to take, she left Epic and Kemosabe Records, and her official second album was shelved. As the recording of a lot of songs had taken place over 2012 and 2013, these began to leak on the internet, and before long there were enough of them for fans to start to put together their reconstructions of the shelved Epic album. I've looked at a few of them online, variously titled 'American Girl' or 'Electric Heaven', and distilled them into a definitive track listing of the legendary Epic album that never was. 

Track listing

01 American Girl
02 S.L.A.Y.
03 Forever 21
04 Hot City
05 Hit Me Up
06 Don't Get Mad, Get Famous
07 Electric Heaven
08 Everything But You
09 Somebody's Gonna Get Hurt
10 Sleepwalker
11 Rewind Your Heart

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)