Holiday time...

I've posted the last three albums a day early this week as I'm off to Turkey for 10 days tomorrow, and so these will have to tide you over until I get back. 

Take the time to investigate some of the artists that you might have passed by, as I have posted a lot of music by modern female singers which has not been downloaded as much as some of the more mainstream bands, but if the music wasn't worth hearing then I wouldn't post it. I must say that I was very impressed with Michelle Branch, and also the two Foxy Brown albums, and I even liked the Miley Cyrus, Bonnie McKee, and Mutya Buena ones, which I really didn't think I would as I hadn't heard much from any of them, so be adventurous and try something a bit outside your comfort zone. 

I was going to leave the laptop on over the holiday so that Soulseek would work, but it's been downloading updates and then restarting on its own recently, and if it did that while I was away then Soulseek would close anyway, so I've decided to turn it off while I'm away. All the albums can still be downloaded from Mega via the folder in the link at the top right of the blog, and Soulseek will be back on 12th June, as will I. 

The Magic Numbers - I Hope You Don't Mind (2014)

Romeo and Michelle Stodart are the children of a Scottish father and a Portuguese mother, and were born in Trinidad in the Caribbean, where their mother was an opera singer, and had her own TV show. The family fled an Islamic coup attempt there in 1990, and moved to New York City, before re-locating to London in the mid-1990s, when Romeo was 16 and Michele was 10. Sean and Angela Gannons lived in Hanwell, London where they became friends with their neighbours the Stodarts, and in late 2002 the four youngsters formed The Magic Numbers, touring the London circuit and gradually building a small cult following. The band signed a deal with Heavenly Records, narrowly choosing that label over Rough Trade Records, and in November 2004 they released a limited edition 7" vinyl single, 'Hymn For Her', to coincide with a three-show residency at The Borderline in London. On the back of releasing just one commercially available single, 'Forever Lost', and even before their debut album was released, they played a sold-out show to a crowd of over 2,000 at The Forum in Kentish Town, London, where a limited number of live albums of the gig were released. Their eponymous debut album was recorded in late 2004 and early 2005 at Metropolis Studios in London, and released on 13 June 2005, with three more singles being taken from it in the shape of 'Love Me Like You", 'Love's A Game' and 'I See You, You See Me'. 

They received a large amount of press attention for being the first band to walk off the TV show Top Of The Pops, after host Richard Bacon allegedly insulted their physiques, calling them "a big fat melting pot of talent". After their heavy touring and promotion of 'The Magic Numbers', the band released the follow-up album 'Those The Brokes' in autumn 2006, and another extensive run of shows to promote it culminated in an appearance at the 2007 Glastonbury Festival. The band took some time off during 2008, before reconvening in late 2009 to begin work on their third studio album, announced on their website as being titled 'The Runaway', and it was released on 26 July 2010. In 2012, Michele Stodart released 'Wide-Eyed Crossing' as her first solo album, accompanying herself on guitar on the country music influenced songs, and in 2016 she released her second solo album, 'Pieces', on One Little Indian Records. The Magic Numbers, in the meantime, had announced their first-ever acoustic gigs, with the five-week tour seeing the band play in the intimate surroundings of some of the most beautiful theatres, churches and live music venues across the UK and Ireland, supported by British act Goldheart Assembly. Their fourth studio album 'Alias' appeared in 2014, with 'Outsiders' following four years later, in 2018, and since then it's been fairly quiet on the band front, but there's plenty of music out there to tide us over until they re-appear, as right from that very first single the band have included non-album tracks on their singles, so here is a comprehensive collection of rare singles and b-sides from their first decade as a band. 

Track listing 

Disc I - 2004-2006
01 Anima Sola (split single with HAL 2004)           
02 Oh Sister (b-side of 'Hymn For Her' 2004)
03 Cold Fingers (split single with The Webb Brothers 2005)
04 Idea Of A Feeling (b-side of 'Forever Lost' 2005)
05 I Hope You Don't Mind (b-side of 'Forever Lost' 2005)
06 Drunk On Your Words (previously unrleased) 
07 Watersong (bonus 7" single with vinyl copies of 'The Magic Numbers' 2005) 
08 Delphina's Song (b-side of 'Love Me Like You' 2005)
09 Travelling Souls (b-side of 'Love Me Like You' 2005)
10 Last Night I Fell (b-side of 'Love's A Game' 2005)
11 Keep It In The Pocket (b-side of 'Love's A Game' 2005)
12 There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (b-side of 'I See You, You See Me' 2006)
13 Crazy In Love (b-side of 'I See You, You See Me' - Radio 1 Live Lounge Session 2006)
14 Everytime (b-side of 'Take A Chance' 2006)

Disc II - 2007-2014
01 Steal Me A Dream (b-side of 'This Is A Song' 2007)
02 Take Me Out (b-side of 'This Is A Song' 2007)
03 Fear Of Sleep (from the 'Undecided' EP 2007)
04 The Shooter (from the 'Undecided' EP 2007)
05 Tonight (from the 'Undecided' EP 2007)
06 Sissy & The Silent Kid (from the 'Undecided' EP 2007)
07 Dub So Good (b-side of 'Hurt So Good' 2009)
08 This Isn't Happening (b-side of 'The Pulse' 2010)
09 Dead Mirrors (b-side of 'The Pulse' 2010)
10 Cryin' Eyes (b-side of 'Why Did Tou Call?' 2010)
11 Empty Chalices (b-side of 'Shot In The Dark' 7" 2014)
12 End Of The World (b-side of 'E.N.D.' 2014)

Michelle Branch - West Coast Time (2011)

Following the truncated release of the 'Everything Comes And Goes' album as a six-track EP in 2010, Michelle Branch commenced work on her follow-up album to 2003's 'Hotel Paper'. It was to be a return to her pop/rock roots, and by April 2011 the album was complete, with only the mixing and mastering remaining. In May she previewed her new single 'Loud Music' on a live webchat, which was released to the iTunes store on 14 June 2011, with the song being co-written and produced by British writers Jim Irvin and Julian Emery, who collaborated with Branch on several songs on the album. In the webcast, she also mentioned songs on the record called 'Mastermind' and 'The Story Of Us', and added that 'Through The Radio' would be a hidden track on the CD. In a previous webcast, she premiered a song from the album called 'Spark', and so it all seemed to be coming along nicely and was being readied for release. Other new songs were either premiered or announced during the rest of 2011, until 'If You Happen To Call' was made available for free download on her official website in December. By April 2012, it had been a year since Branch had announced that her album was complete, but 'West Coast Time' continued to be delayed for, as yet, unknown reasons, with release dates of September 2012 stretching to December, and then finally to Spring 2013, but to date the album has never made an appearance. For much of 2013, Branch wrote new songs, and moved on from the unreleased 'West Coast Time', re-locating to London to start recording with Martin Terefe, and then to Nashville to complete those recordings. With 'West Coast Time' consigned to the vaults, Branch's music career seemed to be put on hold, releasing just one more single with Rihwa in 2013, before making a comeback in 2017. As the cancellation of 'West Coast Time' could be seen as being responsible for this hiatus, let's give it a listen to see if we can work out why it was never released. Only one track has remained elusive, with just a live recording of 'The Story Of Us' being available, but as the quality is less than perfect, with much audience chatter throughout, I've left it off as it's still a perfectly acceptable 45-minute album without it. 

Track listing

01 Loud Music
02 Mastermind
03 Spark
04 If You Happen To Call
05 For Dear Life
06 Another Sun
07 Don't Feel Like Dancing
08 Here We Go Again
09 Jack And Jim
10 Smoke And Feathers
11 What Don't Kill You
12 Sunset Cigarette
13 Through The Radio

Lindsay Lohan - Spirit In The Dark (2010)

Lindsay Dee Lohan was born 2 July 1986 in New York City and raised on Long Island, and was signed to Ford Models at the age of three. Having appeared as a regular on the television soap opera 'Another World' at age 10, her breakthrough came in the Walt Disney Pictures 1998 film 'The Parent Trap', and the film's success led to appearances in the television films 'Life-Size' in 2000 and 'Get A Clue' in 2002, followed by big-screen productions 'Freaky Friday' in 2003 and 'Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen' in 2004. Lohan's early work won her childhood stardom, while the 2004 teen comedy sleeper hit 'Mean Girls' affirmed her status as a teen idol, and established her as a Hollywood leading actress. In an attempt to start a music career she signed with Casablanca Records, and released two studio albums, the platinum-certified 'Speak' in 2004, and the gold-certified 'A Little More Personal (RAW)' in 2005. Her reported behaviour during the filming of the film 'Georgia Rule' in 2006 marked the start of a series of personal struggles that would plague her life and career for most of the next decade. She became a fixture in the tabloid press for her frequent legal issues, court appearances and stints in rehabilitation facilities, and this period saw her lose several roles, negatively impacting her career and public image. By 2010 her career was so dead that it was hard to remember a time when she had the world at her finger tips, with number one movies, a Platinum selling recording career, and a stint as an aspiring fashion designer, all at the age of 21, until alcohol, drugs, and numerous lawsuits and arrests killed her credibility. She attempted a musical comeback, and between 2008 and 2010 she spent time in the studio recording tracks for a third album, tentatively titled on various press releases as 'Spirit In The Dark', and she revealed that it would be a lot more adult, as opposed to her previous two records which were aimed directly at the teen market. A promotional single titled 'Bossy' was released in summer 2008, but failed to chart anywhere due to her reputation overshadowing it, but the album was still scheduled to be issued on 4 November, with 'Playground' being the first single from the project, destined for a September release. However, following the lack of success of the 'Bossy' single, it all went quiet, and as it stands the album has yet to see the light of day, and seems unlikely to do so after being locked away for over a decade. As only seven songs have leaked online, this album has been fleshed out with two tracks from the soundtrack of her 2004 film 'Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen', and one from 'The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement' from the same year.  

Track listing

01 Bossy
02 I Wanna Be Bad
03 Walka Not A Talka (feat. Snoop Dogg & Mya)
04 Stuck
05 Stay
06 Too Young To Die (feat. Britney Spears)
07 Can't Stop Won't Stop
08 What Are You Waiting For?

09 Drama Queen (That Girl)

10 I Decide

11 Bossy (Reprise)

It was particularly tricky to put this album together, as some people seem to think it's hilarious to post songs on Youtube and pretend that are by someone else, so if you are a fan of Lohan, and you stumble on some rare recordings from her on Youtube, just be warned that 'Playground' is actually 'If This Is Love' by The Saturdays. 'In The Night' is really called 'Lost', both 'Hide' and 'Someday' are really titled 'Something', and while 'Blue' is the correct title, all three songs are actually by Belgian singer Lasgo.  

Beth Orton - SuperPinkyMandy (1993)

Elizabeth Caroline Orton was born on 14 December 1970 in Dereham, Norfolk, but moved to Dalston, East London, at age fourteen. She studied A-levels at City College Norwich, and after the death of her mother when Orton was 19, she travelled to Thailand for a short period, living with Buddhist nuns. On returning to London, she worked at jobs such as a waitress at Pizza Hut, and she even briefly owned her own catering company. She was an actress before becoming a musician, initially enrolling at the Anna Scher Theatre School, and she toured in an experimental stage adaptation of 'Une Saison en Enfer' with a theatre company touring throughout the UK, Russia and Ukraine, playing Rimbaud's lover. In 1993 Orton began working with William Orbit on an LP together as Spill, entitled 'Burn Blind', but 'Don't Wanna Know 'bout Evil' was the first of their collaborations that ended up being released in just Orton's name. The album that it was taken from was called 'Superpinkymandy', after a rag doll which she bought at a jumble sale at the age of six, and it was only granted an extremely limited release in Japan, with reports of as few as 5,000 copies being pressed. The sound is very much Orbit's, but all of the songs, with the exception of John Martyn's 'Don't Wanna Know 'Bout Evil', were Orton/Orbit co-writes, with some tracks later being recycled in very different versions, such as 'She Cries Your Name' on 'Trailer Park', and 'Yesterday's Gone' becoming 'Montok Point' on 1995's 'Hinterland'. These days Orton largely passes over the release when interviewed, citing 1996's 'Trailer Park' as her first album, and while it has more of a dance influenced style than the folktronica of her subsequent albums, it's still a very enjoyable record in its own right, and I can't see why she hates it so much that she's tried to expunge it from her discography.  

Track listing

01 Don't Wanna Know 'bout Evil
02 Faith Will Carry
03 Yesterday's Gone
04 She Cries Your Name
05 When You Wake
06 Roll the Dice
07 City Blue
08 The Prisoner
09 Where Do You Go
10 Release Me

Hole - Over The Edge (1999)

In her mid-20's Courtney Love had been living a nomadic life, immersing herself in numerous music scenes, and living in various cities along the West Coast. After unsuccessful attempts at forming bands in San Francisco and Portland, she relocated to Los Angeles, where she found work as an actress in two Alex Cox films, 'Sid And Nancy' and 'Straight To Hell'. In 1989 she placed an ad in The Recycler saying that she wanted to start a band, and Eric Erlandson answered and was invited to join her in her new band, to be called Sweet Baby Crystal Powered By God, although the name was later changed to Hole instead. Hole's first official rehearsal took place at Fortress Studios in Hollywood with Love, Erlandson and Lisa Roberts on bass, and initially the band had no percussion until Love met drummer Caroline Rue at a Gwar and L7 concert in Long Beach. The band subsequently recruited a third guitarist, Mike Geisbrecht, but by early 1990, Geisbrecht and Roberts had both left the band, which led to the recruitment of bassist Jill Emery. Hole released their no wave-influenced debut single 'Retard Girl' in April 1990 on Sympathy For The Record Industry, and followed it with 'Dicknail' in 1991 on Sub Pop. That year, the band signed with Caroline Records to release their debut album, and Love sought Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth to produce it, sending her copies of the band's early singles and  mentioning that the band greatly admired Gordon's work. Gordon was impressed enough to agree to produce the album, and in September 1991 'Pretty On The Inside' was released to positive reception from underground critics, who branded it loud, ugly and deliberately shocking. 

The album spawned one single, 'Teenage Whore', which entered the UK Indie Chart at number one, and the band embarked on a European tour in the fall of 1991 supporting Mudhoney. In mid-1991, they began to get the attention of the major labels, but an offer from Madonna's label Maverick was turned down as Love didn't think the label would understand her. Love and Erlandson began writing new material for a second Hole album in 1992, in the midst of Love's pregnancy with Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, but her desire to take the band in a more melodic and controlled rock format led bassist Emery to leave the band, followed by drummer Caroline Rue, who was replaced by Patty Schemel after an audition in Los Angeles, although the band spent the remainder of the year without a bassist. Hole signed to Geffen's subsidiary DGC label with an eight-album contract in late 1992, and in the spring of 1993 they released their single 'Beautiful Son', which was recorded in Seattle with producer Jack Endino as a fill-in bass player. It wasn't until the spring of 1993 that Love and Erlandson managed to recruit Janitor Joe bassist Kristen Pfaff, and the band then toured the UK in the summer, mainly performing material from their upcoming major label debut, 'Live Through This'. The album was released on 12 April 1994, one week after Love's husband, Kurt Cobain, was found dead in his Seattle home. In the wake of Love's family tragedy, 'Live Through This' was a critical success, and spawned several popular singles, including 'Doll Parts', 'Violet', and 'Miss World', going multi-platinum and being hailed as album of the year by Spin magazine. Despite the critical praise for 'Live Through This', rumours circulated that Cobain had actually written the majority of the album, though the band vehemently denies this, and Patty Schemel has confirmed that Love and Erlandson wrote 'Live Through This'. 

In 1994, bassist Kristen Pfaff went into a drug treatment facility to treat her heroin addiction, and was contemplating leaving the band for health reasons, but in June 1994 she was found dead of a heroin overdose in the bathroom of her Seattle home. Hole put their impending tour on hold, pulling out of the upcoming Lollapalooza festival, but after recruiting bassist Melissa Auf der Maur over the summer, they commenced their world tour on 26 August at the Reading Festival in England, giving a performance that John Peel described as "teetering on the edge of chaos". In September 1995 the band released their first EP, titled 'Ask For It', which featured 1991 Peel session recordings, as well as covers of songs by Wipers and The Velvet Underground. In 1996 they released a cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'Gold Dust Woman' for the soundtrack to the film 'The Crow: City of Angels', which was the first studio song to feature Melissa Auf der Maur on bass. In 1997, the band entered Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles after attempts to write new material in Miami, New Orleans, London, and New York, and Hole's third studio album 'Celebrity Skin' was released in 1998. It was a completely new sound for the band, incorporating elements of power pop, and had Love drawing influences from Fleetwood Mac and My Bloody Valentine. According to Erlandson, Love was more focused on song-writing and singing than playing guitar on the record, and also enlisted the help of Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan to perfect five of the album's twelve songs. Although Schemel is listed as drummer in the liner notes of the record, her drumming does not actually appear on the record, as she was replaced by session drummer Deen Castronovo, under pressure from producer Michael Beinhorn. This led to her quitting the band, and although Love and Erlandson had agreed to Schemel being replaced on the record, they both expressed regret in retrospect, with Love stating later that Beinhorn was notorious for replacing drummers on sessions. 

Schemel was replaced by Samantha Maloney for their upcoming tour and music videos. 'Celebrity Skin' was a critical success, with strong sales and successful singles, including the title track, 'Malibu' and 'Awful', and peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200. In the winter of 1998–99, Hole went on tour to promote 'Celebrity Skin', joining Marilyn Manson, who was promoting his album 'Mechanical Animals', but they dropped out of the tour nine dates in, due in part to the fact that the majority of the fans were Manson's. After leaving Manson's tour, Hole carried on touring, and on 17 June 1999, during Hole's set at the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden, a 19-year-old girl died after being crushed in the mosh pit behind the mixing board. Hole played its final show at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver on July 14, 1999. In October Auf der Maur quit the band and went on to become a touring bassist for The Smashing Pumpkins, with Samantha Maloney also quitting a few months later. The band's final release was a single for the 1999 movie 'Any Given Sunday', with the 'Celebrity Skin' out-take 'Be A Man' coming out in March 2000. In Spring 2002 Love announced via the band's website that she and Erlandson had officially disbanded Hole. Love began a solo career, releasing her debut, 'America's Sweetheart', in 2004, while Melissa Auf der Maur also embarked on a solo career, and released her self-titled debut album the same year. The twelve years of Hole's existence was a roller-coaster ride for all involved, but they did manage to produce some great music, and as well as their three albums, their singles and b-sides are all worth hearing, so here they all are collected together in one place for you to enjoy. 

Track listing

Disc I - 1990-1994
01 Retard Girl (single 1990)
02 Phonebill Song (b-side of 'Retard Girl')
03 Johnnies In The Bathroom (b-side of 'Retard Girl')
04 Turpentine (previously unreleased from the 'Retard Girl' sessions)
05 Drown Soda (b-side of 'Teenage Whore' 1991)
06 Dicknail (single 1991)
07 Burnblack (b-side of 'Dicknail')
08 Beautiful Son (single 1993)
09 20 Years In The Dakota (b-side of 'Beautiful Son')
10 Old Age (b-side of 'Beautiful Son')
11 Do It Clean (b-side of 'Miss World' 1994) live
12 Over The Edge (b-side of 'Miss World' 1994)

Disc II - 1995-1999
01 The Void (BBC Live Version) (b-side of 'Doll Parts' 1995)
02 He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss) (b-side of 'Violet' 1995)
03 Whose Porno You Burn (Black) (b-side of 'Violet' 1995)
04 Season Of The Witch (bonus track from 'MTV Unplugged' 1995)
05 Pale Blue Eyes (from the 'Ask For It' EP 1995)
06 Forming/Hot Chocolate Boy (from the 'Ask For It' EP 1995
07 Gold Dust Woman (single from the soundtrack of the film 'The Crow' 1996)
08 Best Sunday Dress (b-side of 'Celebrity Skin' 1998)
09 Drag (b-side of 'Malibu' 1999)
10 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (b-side of 'Malibu' 1999)
11 Be A Man (single from the soundtrack of the film 'Any Given Sunday' 1999)

Michelle Branch - Everything Comes And Goes (2010)

Michelle Jacquet DeSevren Branch was born on 2 July 1983, in Sedona, Arizona, and began singing at the age of three, enrolling in voice lessons at Northern Arizona University when she was eight. She received her first guitar for her 14th birthday, and after teaching herself chords, she composed her first song 'Fallen' within a week of receiving her guitar. She initially attended Sedona Red Rock High School, but finished the last two years of her high school education through home schooling so that she could focus on her music career, and to support her interests, her parents helped her book local gigs in Sedona, and later financed her independent album 'Broken Bracelet'. In December 1999, she posted two of her songs on the Rolling Stone website, which caught the attention of both pop rock band Hanson, and former Rolling Stone writer and Los Angeles record producer Jeff Rabhan, eventually leading to two gigs opening for Hanson in 2000. In June 2000, her 'Broken Bracelet' album was released on the independent record label Twin Dragon Records, and by 2001 she had signed to Maverick Records, where she began working with John Shanks to produce her major-label debut. 'The Spirit Room' was released in August 2001, and produced the hit single 'Everywhere', which was a commercial success, winning the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards Viewer's Choice Award. The mainstream success of 'Everywhere' and her other singles helped propel 'The Spirit Room' to double platinum status, selling over two million copies in the United States. In 2002, Branch teamed up with Santana, alongside songwriters Gregg Alexander and Rick Nowels, to produce the song 'The Game Of Love', which went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. Her second major label album, 'Hotel Paper', was released in 2003, and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, although it was met with mixed reviews, despite the lead single 'Are You Happy Now?' being a chart success. The following singles, however, 'Breathe' and ''Til I Get over You', did not match the first single's success, and it was at this time that she branched out into television, appearing in several shows, including 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' and 'American Dreams', and as herself in 'Charmed'. In July 2005, Branch began collaborating with her backup singer and long-time friend Jessica Harp, calling themselves The Wreckers, and released an album in 2006 that attempted to combine their respective genres or pop/rock and country. The Wreckers split in 2007, and in October Branch announced that she was working on a new solo album, to be titled 'Everything Comes And Goes', but when it eventually appeared in July 2010 it had shrunk to a six-track EP. In December 2010, she announced her return to her pop/rock roots for her album 'West Coast Time', and in early 2011 she released three previously unheard songs from the 'Everything Comes And Goes' sessions,  being 'Texas In The Mirror', 'Take A Chance On Me', and 'Long Goodbye'. This meant that we now had nine of the proposed thirteen songs from the album, and so by tracking down the remaining few recordings we can piece together the full album version of 'Everything Comes And Goes' that should have appeared in 2010.

Track listing 

01 This Way
02 Sooner Or Later
03 I Want Tears
04 Crazy Ride
05 Ready To Let You Go
06 Show Me A Sign
07 Long Goodbye
08 Summertime
09 Texas In The Mirror
10 I'm Not That Strong
11 Pretty Little Lyin' Eyes
12 Everything Comes And Goes
13 Take A Chance On Me

Missy Elliott - Block Party (2008)

Melissa Arnette Elliott, better known as Missy Elliott or Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, embarked

on her music career with R&B girl group Sista in the early-to-mid 1990's, and later became a member of the Swing Mob collective along with childhood friend and long-time collaborator Timbaland, with whom she worked on projects for American R&B acts Aaliyah, 702, Total, and SWV. Following several collaborations and guest appearances, she launched her solo career in 1997 with her debut album 'Supa Dupa Fly', which spawned the top 20 single 'Sock It 2 Me'. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, the highest charting debut for a female rapper at the time. Her second album, 'Da Real World', was released in 1999 and produced the singles 'She's A Bitch', 'All n My Grill', and top five hit 'Hot Boyz'. The remix of the latter song broke the record for most weeks at number one on the US R&B chart in January 2000, as well as spending 18 weeks at number one on the Hot Rap Singles chart from December 1999 to March 2000. With the release of 'Miss E... So Addictive' (2001), 'Under Construction' (2002), and 'This Is Not A Test' (2003), Elliott established an international career that yielded hits including 'Get Ur Freak On', 'One Minute Man', '4 My People', 'Gossip Folks', and 'Work It', with the latter winning her a Grammy Award for Best Female Rap Solo Performance. Since 2007, Elliott's seventh studio album has had several different forms with extensive delays. Initially she worked with Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, Danja, T-Pain and DJ Toomp and planned to release the album at the beginning of 2008. In January 2008, 'Ching-A-Ling' was released as the lead single for the soundtrack of the film 'Step Up 2: The Streets', which also featured 'Shake Your Pom Pom', produced by Timbaland. 'Best, Best' was released the same year, and Elliott renamed the album from 'FANomenal' to its new tentative title 'Block Party'. Things went quiet over the next few years, and then in 2012 she released two Timbaland-produced singles, '9th Inning' and 'Triple Threat', exclusively to iTunes. Though the songs managed to chart on Billboard Hot Digital Songs, this was not the impetus that Elliott needed to resurrect 'Block Party', saying in an interview with Yahoo's The Yo Show, that sometimes "Your brain needs time to refresh!". In between the recording of her seventh album, Elliott found success behind the scenes, with her writing and production being involved in hits for Keyshia Cole ('Let It Go'), Jazmine Sullivan ('Need U Bad'), Monica ('Everything To Me'), Fantasia ('Free Yourself'), and Jennifer Hudson ('I'm His Only Woman'). All this extra-curricular work has kept her from completing her own music, and so it's now unlikely that 'Block Party' will ever see the light of day, so it's up to us to piece it together so that we can hear what could well have turned out to be Elliott's final album under her own name. 

Track listing

01 Ching-A-Ling
02 Shake Your Pom Pom
03 Best, Best
04 Warped (interlude)
05 Talk That Shit
06 All 4 U
07 9th Inning (feat. Timbaland)
08 Swat That Fly
09 Act A Fool
10 Pep Rally
11 Put It On Ya (feat. Teyana Taylor & Pharrell)

12 Triple Threat (feat. Timbaland)

The Frantic Elevators - Production Prevention (1982)

The Frantic Elevators were a punk band who formed in 1976 after the members met each other at a Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester in June 1976 The group consisting of vocalist Mick Hucknall, drummer Kevin Williams, guitarist Neil Smith, and bassist Brian Turner, and their first single, 'Voice In The Dark', was released in June 1979 by TJM records, after which they hopped over to Eric's Records, the label affiliated with the Liverpool club of the same name. 'You Know What You Told Me'  was released near the end of 1980, and by then DJ John Peel heard the band through the TJM record, and on one show from 12 June 1979 he played all three tracks from their 'Voice In The Dark' single, and then offered them a session on his show, which was broadcast in March 1981. Their third single, 'Searching For The Only One' was released on the Crackin' Up label in 1981, and a second Peel session was broadcast in September of that year. After that, an extended recording hiatus ensued, predating what would become their final single, 1982's 'Holding Back The Years' on the No Waiting label. In 1984 The Frantic Elevators disbanded, and Hucknall linked up with manager Elliot Rashman, assembling a band of local session musicians in 1985, who began to attract record-company attention. The band were christened Simply Red, and signed a contract with Elektra in 1985, and after a few low-charting singles they re-recorded 'Holding Back The Years', which became their first major hit. Bit enough about them, we're here to listen to the raucous punk-rock of The Frantic Elevators, with this collection of all their singles, b-sides and exclusive Peel sessions.  

Track listing

01 Hunchback Of Notre Dame (from the 'Hunchback Of Notre Dame' EP 1979)
02 See Nothing And Everything (from the 'Hunchback Of Notre Dame' EP 1979)
03 Don't Judge Me (from the 'Hunchback Of Notre Dame' EP 1979)
04 Voice In The Dark (single 1979)
05 Passion (b-side of 'Voices In The Dark')
06 Every Day I Die (b-side of 'Voices In The Dark')
07 You Know What You Told Me (single 1980)
08 Production Prevention (b-side of 'You Know What You Told Me')
09 Searching For The Only One (single 1981)
10 Ding Dong (John Peel session March 1981)
11 I Am The Man (John Peel session March 1981)
12 And I Don't Care (Nobody Stays Here) (John Peel session September 1981)
13 After Hanging Around (John Peel session September 1981)
14 What To Do? (John Peel session September 1981)
15 I'm Not To See Her (John Peel session September 1981)
16 Ice Cream And Wafers (John Peel session September 1981)
17 Holding Back The Years (single 1982)
18 Pistols In My Brain (b-side of 'Holding Back The Years')

Lyres - We Sell Soul (1995)

Lyres were the creation of vocalist, keyboard player, songwriter, and uncontested leader Jeff Conolly, who formed them in 1979 shortly after the demise of his like-minded group DMZ. Lyres quickly became mainstays on the Boston rock scene and were one of the key bands on the garage rock revival scene of the '80s, on the strength of the albums On Fyre (1984) and Lyres Lyres (1986). Conolly was nicknamed "Monoman" partly because of his love of monophonic recordings of the 60's, and in part because of his monomaniacal obsession with vintage rock & roll. He was born in Albany, New York, moving first to a town near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then to Darien, Connecticut, by which time he'd already began playing keyboards, and had developed a taste for the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Paul Revere and the Raiders. He fell in with a group of musically minded peers in his teens, and hoped to attend music school, but his parents had other ideas, and in 1976 he enrolled at Boston University, although he soon dropped out to play rock & roll. One of his friends at BU, Adam Schwartz, was singing in a band called DMZ, whose style blended raw 60's sounds with the speed and attitude of the burgeoning punk rock movement. Conolly saw DMZ play at a party, and was impressed by them, but Schwartz was soon bounced from the line-up for seeming too mannered, and seeing an opportunity, Conolly volunteered to take his place, and became their lead singer while also playing electric piano. Following the release of an EP on the esteemed independent rock & roll label Bomp! Records in 1977, Sire Records offered the band a major label deal, but their 1978 self-titled debut album, produced by Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of the Turtles and Flo & Eddie, didn't capture the full impact of their live show, and by the end of that year, DMZ had split. 

By January 1979 Conolly had put together Lyres, who eased back on the 70's punk facets of their music to focus on 60's-style material, with Conolly moving from piano to a Vox Continental organ, and featuring just one guitarist instead of DMZ's two. The first Lyres performances featured the final DMZ rhythm section of Rick Coraccio on bass and Paul Murphy on drums, with Rick Carmel on guitar, and this line-up cut the first Lyres single, 'How Do You Know' b/w 'Don't Give It Up Now', for Sounds Interesting Records in 1979. By August the band has splintered, and Conolly recruited guitarist Alex Kronos, bassist Scott Parmenter, and drummer Bob Mackenzie for live work, but the final line-up of Peter Greenberg on guitar, Mike Lewis on bass, and Howie Ferguson on drums didn't finalise until mid-1980. This line-up would record the first Lyres release for Boston's Ace Of Hearts Records, a four-song EP that came out in 1981 called 'AHS-1005', with the record winning the group attention outside of Boston. The single 'I Really Want You Right Now' b/w 'Help You Ann' followed in 1983, but that line-up of Lyres soon disintegrated, and Dan McCormack came aboard to play guitar, while the initial rhythm section of Rick Coraccio and Paul Murphy returned to the fold. This was the band that recorded the first full-length Lyres album, 1984's 'On Fyre', which was a powerful set that featured five original tunes and five covers, with the band sounding solid enough that it was hard to tell which tunes were which. The album earned great press and good sales for an indie release, and this line-up of the group stayed together until the dawn of 1986. After Johnny Bernardo replaced Paul Murphy on drums, Lyres returned to the studio to cut their second album, 'Lyres Lyres', released by Ace Of Hearts in 1986, which was a more contemplative set than the debut, with a greater number of Conolly originals, and it was once again successful, with the band touring North America extensively. 

1988 saw the release of their third album, 'A Promise Is A Promise', which included guest appearances from Stiv Bators of The Dead Boys and Lords Of The New Church, and Wally Tax of Dutch beat-era heroes The Outsiders, alongside another Lyres line-up, with Conolly, Murphy, Jack Hickey on guitar, and Matt Milkos on bass. This line-up played shows in North America and Europe, while in 1988 they also recorded a version of Love's 'Signed D.C.', later used for an Arthur Lee tribute album, with Judd Williams taking over on drums. In 1989, Conolly decided he'd grown tired of Boston, and moved to San Diego, California, assembling yet another version of the band, with three members of the group the Nashville Ramblers, guitarist Carl Rusk, bassist Tom Ward, and drummer Ron Silva, but by 1991 he'd returned to Boston, and re-formed the Carmel/Coraccio/Murphy line-up. This edition of the group cut the 1993 album 'Happy Now', which was released on their new label, Taang! Records. From the mid-90's onward, Conolly continued to perform with Lyres, often in lineups featuring Rick Coraccio and Paul Murphy, but the group's recording activities were limited to singles for various specialist labels, including Telstar, Feathered Apple, and Living Eye. In 2015, Conolly began work on a new Lyres album, and launched a crowdfunding campaign to help finance the project, although to date the record has not appeared. Lyres are the perfect band for this type of post, as they released a lot of stand-alone singles, each with two new songs on them, and so this two-volume set collects all the non-album tracks from those releases into one place. There have been a number of compilations released over the years, but they all omit some of these songs, so this should be the definitive collections of rarities from the band. 

Track listing

Disc I - 1981-1991
01 Buried Alive (from the 'AHS 1005' EP 1981) 
02 In Motion (from the 'AHS 1005' EP 1981) 
03 High On Yourself (from the 'AHS 1005' EP 1981) 
04 What A Girl Can't Do (from the 'AHS 1005' EP 1981) 
05 I Really Want You Right Now (b-side of 'Help You Ann' 1983)
06 Someone Who'll Treat You Right Now (single 1985)
07 You've Been Wrong (b-side of 'Someone Who'll Treat You Right Now' 1985)
08 I'll Try Anyway (b-side of 'Someone Who'll Treat You Right Now' 1985)
09 Stacey (b-side of 'How Do You Know?' 1987)
10 Jezebel (b-side of 'Touch' 1988) 
11 Go-Go-Girl (b-side of 'Touch' 1988)
12 Signed D.C. (from the Arthur Lee tribute EP 'Unloved', recorded 1988, released 1994)
13 We Sell Soul (single 1991)
14 Busy Body (b-side of 'We Sell Soul')

Disc II - 1992-1995
01 How Can I Make Her Mine (b-side of 'Nobody But Me' 1992)
02 Gettin' Plenty Lovin' (b-side of 'Baby (I Still Need Your Lovin')' 1992)
03 Boston (single 1993) ‎
04 Shake It Some More (b-side of 'Boston')
05 Self-Centered Girl (single 1993)
06 What's A Girl Like You Doing In A Place Like This? (b-side of 'Self-Centered Girl')
07 Stay Away (single 1994) 
08 Grounded (b-side of 'Stay Away')
09 Don't Tell Me Lies (single 1994) 
10 Baby It's Me (single 1994)
11 I'll Make It Up To You (b-side of 'Baby It's Me')
12 "7" (single 1995) 
13 Feeling No Pain (b-side of '"7"')
14 Give Your Love To Me (Come On) (single 1995)
15 Security (b-side of 'Give Your Love To Me')

Alesha Dixon - Fired Up (2008)

Alesha Dixon launched her solo career after Mis-Teeq's break-up in 2005, signing a £500,000, three-album deal with Polydor Records. She spent a year writing and recording her solo debut album, working with a wide range of producers including Richard X, Xenomania, Johnny Douglas, Brian Higgins, Estelle and Paul Epworth, and during this period she performed mononymously, known simply as "Alesha". In June 2005, she announced her first solo single was to be 'Superficial', but at the last minute it was replaced by 'Lipstick' as the lead single from her debut album. It charted at number 14 on the UK Single Charts, and so a second single 'Knockdown' was released on 30 October 2006, only managing to peak at number 45 on the UK Singles Charts, and then falling down to 68 the following week. Work was completed on her album 'Fired Up', which she had worked on with a variety of producers, including the afore-mentioned Douglas, Higgins, Epworth and Xenomania, alongside Peer Åström, Anders Bagge, and Richard Stannard. Initially scheduled for a 6 November 2006 release through Polydor and Victor Entertainment in the United Kingdom, it was postponed indefinitely after Dixon was dropped by Polydor several days before its release. 'Fired Up' eventually received a physical release in Japan and Taiwan in 2008, where it was issued along with new artwork, a re-worked listing order, and additional tracks, including two remixes and the previously unreleased song 'Voodoo'. It was never officially released in the UK or the US, although Dixon later exclusively sold it in the UK as merchandise on her tour, The Alesha Show, supporting the album of the same name. With the new series of 'Britain's Got Talent' bringing her name back to the public's attention, now is the perfect time to re-acquaint ourselves with the beginning of her successful solo career.   

Track listing

01 Hypnotik
02 Lipstick
03 Fired Up
04 Knockdown
05 Superficial
06 Ting-A-Ling
07 Free
08 Everybody Wants To Change The World
09 Let It Go
10 A Lil' Bit Of Love
11 Turn It Up
12 Everywhere I Go

Lana Del Rey - Children Of The Bad Revolution (2010)

And for the final collection from 2010, one of my favourite albums from these 2010 recordings. 

Track listing

01 Kinda Outta Luck
02 Dangerous Girl
03 Children Of The Bad Revolution
04 Prom Song (Gone Wrong)
05 Us Against The World
06 Meet Me In The Pale Moonlight
07 You Can Be The Boss
08 Is It Wrong
09 Playground
10 On Our Way
11 Tired Of Singing The Blues
12 Resistance

A gift from PowerPopTOM - Part 3

PowerPopTOM has been busy again and has produced another batch of CD covers for use if you decide to burn any of these albums to CD. Here's a recap of what we have so far, with the new batch at the end.

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

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 the new ones

Canned Heat - Blues

Canned Heat - Poor Moon

Chicken Shack - Andalucia Blues

The Doors - Whiskey, Mystics And Men

Fanny - IDEM (Canadian Edition)

Fanny - No Deposit, No Return

The Housemartins - Themes For The Well-Dressed Man

The Kinks - Four More Respected Gentlemen

The Stone Roses - Garage Flower

The Yardbirds - A Yardbirds-Eye View Of Beat

The Yardbirds - Featuring Eric Clapton

and some from Paul's site

The Who live at The Young Vic Theatre 1971

Fanny - Live on TV

The Flying Burrito Brothers

The Byrds - (Untitled) Studio

Alan Bown with Robert Palmer - BBC Sessions Volume 2

The link to the complete folder is in the comments.