Ian Bairnson - ...and on guitar (1993) R.I.P.

John Bairnson was born on 3 August 1953 in Lerwick in Shetland, and was named John as were all the men in his family, but when he joined Pilot he used the opportunity to change his name to Ian. He grew up in Levenwick, also in Shetland, before his family moved to Edinburgh, Midlothian, when he was nine years old, following the death of his father. He learned how to play the guitar when he was six, but was also proficient on keyboards and saxophone, and following stints with a few bands in his youth, such as East West and Ears, by the early 70's he was earning his living as a session musician. In 1974 he joined former Bay City Rollers musicians David Paton and Billy Lyall to record some tracks for their band Pilot's debut album 'From The Album Of The Same Name', contributing the harmony guitar parts to their hit single 'Magic', and adding his guitar to 'High Into The Sky'. By the time they came to record their follow-up album 'Second Flight', Bairnson was a full-time member of the band, and their hit single 'January' was taken from the album, topping the UK singles charts in 1975. During this time with Pilot, he first collaborated with record producer Alan Parsons on his debut album 'Tales Of Mystery And Imagination - Edgar Allen Poe', and it was this relationship that helped incorporate most of Pilot's members (bassist/lead singer Paton and drummer Stuart Tosh) into the Alan Parsons Project. As a guitarist, he was featured on every Alan Parsons Project album, including the 1984 side project Keats and Eric Woolfson's rock opera 'Freudiana', contributing the distinctive guitar solo on the track 'I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You' on their 'I Robot' album in 1977. 

In 1978 Bairnson played the guitar solo on Kate Bush's hit single 'Wuthering Heights', going on to play on her first four albums, and in 1981 he started a collaboration with Eurovision winners Bucks Fizz, playing guitar on their 1981 eponymous record, and co-writing two of their Top 20 hits, 'If You Can't Stand The Heat' in 1982, and 'Run For Your Life' in 1983. His session work continued after Pilot took a break in 1977, and during this part of his career he played on more than a hundred albums in different styles, for artists such as Yvonne Keeley, Joe Cocker, Jon Anderson, Chris DeBurgh, Mick Fleetwood, and Neil Diamond, as well as playing live with Sting, Eric Clapton, Beverley Craven, and even appearing on Paul McCartney's 'Mull Of Kintyre' single. When anyone from The Project needed a hand, you could be sure that he would help out, and so Andrew Powell called him up for both the 'Ladyhawke' film soundtrack, and also his own 'Best Of The APP' album. When The Alan Parsons Project came to an end and Parsons was looking to start over, Bairnson was instrumental in helping write the next chapter of Parsons' sound, and on the 1993 'Try Anything Once' album, he not only played, but contributed four songs including 'Siren Song', and the live concert favourite 'Turn It Up'. He lived in Spain from 2003 to 2013, where he had a recording studio, and continued working as a session guitarist, but in 2018 his wife Leila announced that he had been diagnosed with a progressive neurological condition that affected his communication skills, so he would no longer play in public. On 7 April 2023 Bairnson passed away at the age of 69, following a long battle with dementia. I've always thought that Pilot were a very under-rated band, and am particularly fond of Bairnson's guitar-work on their 1976 album 'Morin Heights', and so I hope that this collection of his work for other artists throughout his musical career will serve as a fitting tribute to a guitarist who was well known amongst his peers for his fluid guitar style, but who never seemed destined to reach the heights of some of his contemporaries.

Track listing

Disc One
01 High In The Sky (from 'From The Album Of The Same Name' by Pilot 1974)
02 The Raven (from 'Tales Of Mystery And Imagination' by The Alan Parsons Project 1976)
03 Solo Casting (from 'Solo Casting' by William Lyall 1976)
04 95 In The Shade / Daylight (from 'Daylight' by Hudson-Ford 1977)
05 Kite (b-side of 'Wuthering Heights' by Kate Bush 1978)
06 I Wish It Would Rain (from 'Hobo With A Grin' by Steve Harley 1978)
07 Carry On (from 'Crusader' by Chris De Burgh 1979)
08 White Trails (from 'White Trails' by Chris Rainbow 1979)
09 Hear It (from 'Song Of Seven' by Jon Anderson 1980)
10 Maximum Penetration (single by Maximum Penetration 1980)

11 Far Side Of The Bay (from 'Elaine Paige' by Elaine Paige 1981)

Disc Two
01 Cassiopeia Surrender (from 'The Visitor' by Mick Fleetwood 1981)
02 Getting Kinda Lonely (from 'Bucks Fizz' by Bucks Fizz 1981)
03 Dry Ice (from 'Can This Be Paradise' by Panarama 1982)
04 One Way Out (from 'No Mystery' by Rick Cua 1983)
05 Fight To Win (from 'Keats' by Keats 1984)
06 End Titles (from the soundtrack to the film 'Ladyhawke' 1985)
07 Grand Prix (from 'Computer Energy' by Uwe Buschkötter 1986)
08 The Pages Of Your History (from 'Trouble In Paradise' by Anri 1986)
09 Upper Me (from 'Freudiana' by Freudiana 1990)
10 Lost Without You (from 'Love Scenes' by Beverley Craven 1993)

Nelly Furtado - Lifestyle (2011)

Nelly Kim Furtado was born on 2 December 1978, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, of Portuguese parents, António José Furtado and Maria Manuela Furtado. At age four she began performing and singing in Portuguese, and her first public performance was when she sang a duet with her mother at a church on Portugal Day. She began playing musical instruments at the age of nine, learning the trombone, ukulele and in later years, the guitar and keyboards. At the age of 12 she began writing songs, and after graduating from Mount Douglas Secondary School in 1996, she moved to Toronto to reside with her sister. There she met Tallis Newkirk, a member of the hip hop group Plains of Fascination, and she contributed vocals to their 1996 album 'Join The Ranks', on the track 'Waitin' 4 The Streets', and the following year she formed Nelstar, a trip hop duo with Newkirk. Ultimately, Furtado felt the trip hop style of the duo did not represent her personality or allow her to showcase her vocal ability, so she left the group and planned to move back home. In 1997 a performance at the Honey Jam talent show attracted the attention of The Philosopher Kings singer Gerald Eaton, who then approached her to write with him. He and fellow Kings member Brian West helped Furtado produce a demo, which was shopped around, and this led to her signing to DreamWorks Records in 1999, with her first single, 'Party's Just Begun (Again)', being released that year from the soundtrack album for the 1999 film 'Brokedown Palace'. Furtado continued her collaboration with Eaton and West, who co-produced her debut album, 'Whoa, Nelly!', which was released in October 2000. The album was an international success, supported by three international singles: 'I'm Like A Bird', 'Turn Off the Light', and '...On the Radio (Remember the Days)', and it received four Grammy nominations in 2002. Furtado's work was critically acclaimed for her innovative mixture of various genres and sounds, and the sound of the album was strongly influenced by musicians who had traversed cultures. 

Following appearances with Jurassic 5, Paul Oakenfield, and Colombian artist Juanes, she released her second album 'Folklore' in November 2003, which included the single 'Força', which was the official anthem of the UEFA Euro 2004. The album was not as successful as her debut, partly due to the album's less "poppy" sound, but also due to underpromotion from her label, as DreamWorks Records had just been sold to Universal Music Group. Her third album 'Loose' came out in June 2006, and for this record she experimented with sounds from R&B, hip hop, and 1980's music, with the record receiving generally positive reviews from critics. 'Loose' has become her most successful album so far, producing her first number-one hit in the United States with 'Promiscuous', as well as her first number-one hit in the United Kingdom with 'Maneater'. Her fourth album was a Spanish language record, with 'Mi Plan' being released on her own record label Nelstar, in conjunction with Canadian independent label group Last Gang Labels, winning her the Latin Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Album. Her fifth studio album 'Lifestyle' was to be a collaboation with producers Timbaland and Ryan Tedder, and was scheduled for release in May 2010, but for unknown reasons it was shelved. It was first replaced with the greatest hits compilation 'The Best Of Nelly Furtado', and then later with a revamped version of the record, re-titled 'The Spirit Indestructible', and with some of the tracks intended for 'Lifestyle', such as 'Skylight', 'Soak It Up', 'Cry', and 'Play', appearing in different countries on their issues of 'The Spirit Indestructible'. Other tracks have since leaked, and so we can now hear Furtado's original vision for the album, including a possible lead single in 'Girlfriend In The City', which was produced by Saalam Remi.

Track listing

01 Night Is Young  
02 No Regrets  
03 Time Stand Still  
04 Soak It Up  
05 Play  
06 Stars  
07 Girlfriend In This City  
08 Cry   
09 Skylight  
10 Red Balloons  
11 Morning After Dark by Timbaland (feat. Nelly Furtado & SoShy)  
12 Hot 'n' Fun by N.E.R.D. (feat. Nelly Furtado) 
13 Who Wants to Be Alone by Tiësto (feat. Nelly Furtado)  

The Railway Children - A Gentle Sound (1990)

The Railway Children formed in Wigan in the summer of 1984, being fronted by singer and guitarist Gary Newby, alongside Brian Bateman on rhythm guitar, Guy Keegan on drums, and Stephen Hull on bass. They started playing the then buoyant music circuits of Wigan and Manchester, and the buzz created by the band was immediate, resulting in them signing to the enigmatic Factory Records, home of Joy Division and New Order. A mini album 'Reunion Wilderness' was recorded in 1987, and featured their first single 'A Gentle Sound', and the follow up 'Brighter'. Both singles were an instant hit with the thriving indie scene and the critically acclaimed album went straight to number one in the independent charts. A string of tours and radio sessions quickly followed and as the band saw their fan base grow dramatically, inevitably major label interest grew. Virgin America was one such label who saw the chart potential of The Railway Children and signed them, and the the resultant album 'Recurrence' showed the band at their peak. The singles lifted from it, 'Over And Over', 'Somewhere South' and 'In the Meantime', all managed to skirt around the edges of the top forty, but a hit in the UK national charts remained elusive. During the following years the band spread the word, particularly in the U.S, where tours of college towns with The Sugarcubes and The Hearthrobs saw them achieve considerable success, as well as plays on college radio. A support slot with REM across Europe and a UK tour with Lloyd Cole also followed - now all that was missing was that elusive chart hit. 1990 saw the band take a more pop-orientated direction with the release of the 'Native Place' album, which had keyboard textures coming more to the fore than previously. 

The strategy worked, and 'Every Beat Of The Heart' became a top 40 hit in the UK, peaking at No. 24. However at this point the relationship between band and record company deteriorated, as the group became increasingly unhappy with the overly commercial direction the label were pushing them in. Inevitably the next recording session proved to be much more of a band affair, a kind of reaction to the polished pop sound of 'Native Place', and so it was no surprise that the result of the new sessions, the single 'So Right', a raw edgy track and completely different to anything on 'Native Place', failed to repeat the chart success of 'Every Beat Of The Heart'. Around the same time EMI took over Virgin and a number of bands including The Railway Children found themselves without a record label, and following their departure from Virgin, they decided to call it a day. Keegan later had a spell in the Wigan-based folk rock band The Tansads, The Crash Band, and The Ultras, while Hull and Bateman left music for good. After a lengthy hiatus Newby released his next album under the Railway Children name, with 'Dream Arcade' coming out on his own Ether Records label in 1997. It was far more melodic than the 'So Right' sessions, but not as produced as earlier albums, although it does boast many fine moments, and is a must-hear for fans of the band. The Railway Children deserve to be more well-known than they are, but the lack of chart success has resulted in them being consigned to the huge list of also-rans who made some good, but little-known, music at the height of the indie revolution of the 80's. Hopefully this collection of singles and b-sides from their six-year lifespan will bring them to the attention of the wider public. 

Track listing 

Disc I - 1986-1990
01 A Gentle Sound (single 1986)
02 Content (b-side of 'Gentle Sound')
03 Darkness And Colour (b-side of 'Gentle Sound')
04 History Burns (b-side of 'Brighter' 1987)
05 Careful (b-side of 'Brighter' 1987)
06 Second Nature (b-side of 'In The Meantime' 1988)
07 I Caught You (b-side of 'In The Meantime' 1988)
08 You Can't Follow The World (b-side of 'Somewhere South' 1988)
09 Waterfall (b-side of 'Somewhere South' 1988)
10 Union City Blue (live) (b-side of 'Over And Over' 1988)
11 So Right (single 1990)
12 Kinds Of Fuel (b-side of 'So Right')

Disc II - 1990-1991

01 Everybody (b-side of 'Every Beat Of The Heart' 1990)
02 Give It Away (b-side of 'Every Beat Of The Heart' 1990)
03 Strange Attractor (b-side of 'Every Beat Of The Heart' 1990)
04 What She Wants (b-side of 'Music Stop' 1990)
05 Tell Me (b-side of 'Music Stop' 1990)
06 I Feel (b-side of 'Music Stop' 1990)
07 Flight (b-side of 'Music Stop' 1990)
08 Incarnation (b-side of 'Music Stop' 1990)
09 Hours Go By (b-side of 'Something So Good' 1991)
10 After The Rain (b-side of 'Something So Good' 1991)
11 Step Aside (b-side of 'Something So Good' 1991)
12 Go Ahead (b-side of 'Something So Good' 1991)
13 Standing Too Still (b-side of 'Something So Good' 1991)

Nicole Wray - Lovechild (2005)

Following the scrapping of Nicole Wray's 2001 album 'Elektric Blue', she left Goldmind Inc and Elektra Records. Over the next couple of years she kept a low profile, and her only exposure was when gospel duo Pam & Dodi released 'Don't Have To', a gospel and pop song written by Wray, in 2002. In June 2003, she released a single 'Welcome Home' with rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard, and later that year she secured a recording contract with Roc-A-Fella Records, although it wasn't until November 2004 that she issued a record for them, with 'If I Was Your Girlfriend' intended to be the lead single of her forthcoming album 'Lovechild'. The single spent twenty weeks on the R&B chart, but could never rise higher than number fifty-seven, and later that year she experienced a brief roster move from Roc-A Fella to Def Jam Records, and ultimately to the Dame Dash Music Group. 'Lovechild' was scheduled to be released in April 2005, but was shelved after the Dame Dash Music Group became defunct. Fans who have heard it reckon that it is one of Wray’s best works to date, and that you can tell she was very much hands-on with the song-writing, showing her mature side on songs such as 'If I Was Your Girlfriend', 'So Sexy', 'Can't Get Out The Game', and 'Where I'm From'. She also chose some classic soul ballads and classy pop songs to cover, with 'Saturday Love' and 'Destination' among the best of them. The album was mostly produced by 7 Aurelius at his Dream Factory studio, and the sessions were a very creative time of her life, recording at least 70 songs for the 'Lovechild' album. In 2011, Wray and 7 Aurelius released a compilation album called 'Dream Factory Sessions', which featured unreleased songs recorded in 2004, although only one track from this version of 'Lovechild' appeared on it. Other producers on the album included Toby Gad, Damon Dash, Peedi Crakk, Max B, and Boola, who each produced a portion of the album, and it was intended to be her spectacular third album, but sadly it suffered an array of setbacks as time progressed, as was the case with her 'Elektric Blue' album, with industry politics, lack of proper promotion, and lack of charting singles all being blamed for its cancellation. Once again, fans were denied the chance to hear some great music which Wray had spent a considerable amount of time working on, and so to make up for that here is the 'Lovechild' album in full. 

Track listing

01 Walk Right Up
02 If I Was Your Girlfriend
03 Destination
04 Fighting (feat. Boogie)
05 Thug Style (feat. Peedi Crakk)
06 Saturday Love (feat. Rell)
07 I Wanna Kiss You
08 So Sexy
09 Cloud Nine
10 Act A Fool
11 Where I'm From
12 Kiss Of Death
13 Gunz & Roses (feat. Maino)
14 Can’t Get Out The Game (feat. Beanie Sigel)
15 Regrets (feat. Jay Z)

Carly Rae Jepsen - Disco Sweat (2016)

'Disco Sweat' was originally conceived by Carly Rae Jepsen as early as October 2015, during a really prolific writing phase she was going through after the release of that year's 'E•MO•TION' album. The project was envisioned as an understated, dreamy, sexy disco type of sound, inspired by the likes of ABBA, the Bee Gees, Feist, and Donna Summer. In June 2016 Jepsen worked with musician Dev Hynes to record and produce the original demos that she'd written on tour, and later in the year she took a trip to Sweden to work on new material for the project, as she was eager to meet Swedish songwriter and producer Patrik Berger, being a fan of his work on Robyn's 2010 song 'Dancing On My Own'. Whilst in Sweden, she also worked with 'E•MO•TION' collaborators Mattman and Robin, Shellback, and Rami Yacoub, developing seven or eight new song ideas. While working on the project, Berger felt that the disco influence was too constraining, and he advised her to 'open the doors to everything', and after their discussion, Jepsen and Berger wrote 'For Sure' together, alongside fellow Swedish songwriters Pontus Winnberg and Noonie Bao, foreshadowing the new direction that her next album 'Dedicated' would take. In August 2016, she attended a writers camp in Maderas Village, Nicaragua, and this led to her reworking the original 'Disco Sweat' demo of 'Julien' into the version that was included on 'Dedicated', along the way inspiring the new direction that the album would take. From this point on, 'Disco Sweat' was scrapped and work commenced in earnest on what would later become the 'Dedicated' album. Some songs from the initial 'Disco Sweat' sessions would later be reworked for 'Dedicated' and its companion 'Dedicated Side B' albums between 2016 and 2019, such as 'Julien' and 'This Is What They Say', but ultimately 'Disco Sweat' was no more. According to reputable insiders, the album was in a rough state, not making it past initial production, and there are only about three tracks could actually be considered disco in genre, but we know that 'Disco Sweat', 'Disco Darling' (a reworking of 'Hungry Heart'), 'Tenderly', 'Ricochet', and 'No You' were all recorded during the sessions, and there are also leaks of tracks from the albums before and after those 2016 recordings, so by adding in some of those which fit the feel of the other songs we can hear what the album could have sounded like before it was re-worked into 'Dedicated'. 

Track listing

01 Disco Sweat  
02 Very Best Friend (I Woke Up With My Bestfriend) 
03 I Believe You 
04 Still In The Game 
05 Tenderly
06 Bullseye
07 Disco Darling
08 No You

09 Addict
10 Ricochet
11 Black Light
12 Favourite Night
13 Feel Fine

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)