Melanie Martinez - Zzzz (2015)

Melanie Adele Martinez was born on 28 April 1995 in Astoria, Queens, moving to Baldwin, New York, on Long Island, when Martinez was four. She attended Plaza Elementary School, crediting her teacher Mr. Nadien with teaching her how to sing, and in kindergarten she began writing poetry. At fourteen she taught herself how to play guitar by studying chord diagrams of songs she enjoyed, and she wrote her first song by adding her poetry to one of the chord diagrams. In 2012, during her junior year of high school, she participated in the MSG Varsity Talent Show, a televised talent competition, but was eliminated in the second round. She then auditioned for the third season of 'The Voice' in an untelevised open call, held at Javits Center, and several months after the initial audition, while at Roosevelt Field Mall, she received word that she had advanced to the second round. After multiple callbacks she was finally selected to audition on the show itself, singing Britney Spears' 'Toxic', with three of the four judges hitting their "I Want You" button, and Adam Levine being chosen to be her coach. After working her way through the Battle Round, the Knockout Round and the the Live Rounds, she was eliminated by audience vote in week five. After the show, Martinez began working independently on original material, which she says she spent the majority of 2013 writing, and she released her debut single, 'Dollhouse', in February 2014. In April she signed to Atlantic Records and released her debut EP, also called 'Dollhouse', a month later on 19 May 2014. In June 2015, she released the single 'Pity Party', which sampled Lesley Gore's 'It's My Party', and followed this with 'Soap' and 'Sippy Cup' as tasters for her debut album 'Cry Baby', which was released on 14 August 2015. 

It was received with moderate critical acclaim and debuted at number 6 on the Billboard 200, later being certified Platinum by the RIAA. In May 2016, she released her second EP, 'Pity Party', exclusively in Ireland, Mexico and the UK, and a month later she announced that she had started working on, and recording, her second album. In November 2016 she released her third EP, 'Cry Baby's Extra Clutter', which was a physical vinyl release of the bonus tracks from 'Cry Baby', as well as 'Gingerbread Man', a Christmas-themed single which was initially released in December 2015 on SoundCloud, but later released as a solo single in January 2016. In October 2016, Martinez released a commercial for her fragrance, Cry Baby Perfume Milk, noting that the "idea for this perfume has been cultivating in my brain since the moment I finished writing 'Cry Baby'", and the perfume was directly distributed by her record label, Atlantic, making them the first record label to distribute a fragrance. On 15 May 2019, she released a teaser trailer for her second album, 'K–12', which was eventually released in September 2019, and debuted at number 3 on Billboard 200. However, it turned out that when she was writing and recording tracks for 'Cry Baby', she had written many more songs than could possibly fit on the album, and as she pretty much took 2016 off to concentrate on her perfume and make-up brands, those songs were consigned to the vaults. When she returned to music in 2018 she wrote all new material for 'K12', and so the 'Cry Baby' out-takes remained unheard until they started to leak onto the internet. Most of them are too good to stay hidden, so I've taken the best of them to compile two more albums which could have bridged the gap between 'Cry Baby' and 'K12', and we start with the enigmatically-named 'Zzzz', adorned with a suitably literal cover. 

Track listing

01 Arts & Crafts
02 Blue Knees (Band Aid)
03 Toy Chest
04 Bombs On Monday Morning
05 Run
06 Schizo
07 99¢ Store
08 Psycho Lovers
09 Zzzz
10 Rotten Milk
11 Where Do Babies Come From
12 Seesaw
13 Coloring Book

Force - Endless Voyage Of Dreams (1981)

Force came together in 1979, in Upplands Väsby, Stockholm, and was formed by vocalist Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum, bass guitarist Peter Olsson, and drummer Tony Reno. They started by playing covers in their rehearsal room, in order to learn their instruments, and when Tempest suggested that they should do their own stuff, he brought some of his songs to the rehearsal room, and they started writing their own material. Demos were recorded in 1980 and 1981, and they were sent to several record companies, but they were told that in order to be published they had to cut their hair and sing in Swedish. Two years later, Olsson left the band and was replaced by John Levén, and just a couple of months later, Levén joined Yngwie Malmsteen's band Rising Force, and Malmsteen's former bassist, Marcel Jacob, joined Force. This only lasted for three months, however, as Levén apparently had issues with Malmsteen, so he and Jacob traded places again. In 1982, Tempest's girlfriend entered Force in the Swedish rock talent contest Rock-SM, and competing against 4,000 bands, they won the contest thanks to two songs, 'In The Future To Come' and 'The King Will Return'. Tempest also won the individual award for Best Lead Singer, and Norum won the award for Best Guitarist. The prize was a record deal with Hot Records, and as they had changed their name to Europe just before the contest (taken from the Deep Purple album 'Made In Europe'), they signed to Hot Records under that name. Their self-titled debut album was released the following year, and sold well both in Sweden and Japan, reaching number 8 in the albums chart in the band's home country, while the single 'Seven Doors Hotel' became a Top 10 hit in Japan. It was to be another three years before they made their international break-though with the triple platinum selling album 'The Final Countdown', along with the single release of the title track topping the charts in 25 countries, and which was based on a keyboard riff composed by Tempest back in their Force days in 1981. To hear how they progressed from those early days as a covers band to international stardom with one of the most famous riffs in hard rock, here are the demos that they recorded in 1980 and 1981 as Force.  

Track listing

01 Hold On
02 Give Me A Break
03 The Roses

04 Midnight Show

05 Strange
06 Rock On

07 Black Rose

08 Mystery
09 Endless Voyage Of Dreams
10 Can't Work It Out
11 Power Of Rock

Various Artists - A Dance Album For People Who Don't Really Like Dance Music (2001)

I can't say that dance music is one of my favourite genres, but every now and then a track comes along that piques my interest, and 'Sandstorm' by Darude was one such piece when it emerged in 1999. It was different enough to stand out from the pack and quickly became a favourite of mine if I wanted to blast something out of the stereo while driving. 'Barber's Adagio For Strings' by William Orbit, from the same year, was another track that made me stop and take notice, by using a classical piece of music as the basis for a dance remix, and so suddenly there were two dance instrumentals that I liked. Gradually I heard more tracks that had that something a bit different about them, such as the only two tracks that The Tamperer ever released, one of which had the most ridiculous lyrics, Robert Miles' lovely 'Children', or the classic Basement Jaxx banger 'Red Alert', but the thing that linked them all was that they had a memorable melody, and weren't just a drum and bass workout. I knew that I would never want to buy a dance music album just to own these few recordings, so I collected just the tracks that I liked and compiled them into an album that I could enjoy, even though I would never count myself as a dance music fan. Most of the tracks are fairly well-known, as hearing them on the radio would have been my only introduction to them, and so the collection turned into a sort of 'greatest hits' for me, but it's telling that the majority of these tracks were released in 1998 and 1999, making those years the apogee of the dance music scene as far as I was concerned. Even after revisiting this album some 20 years later, there aren't any more recent tracks that I would have wanted to add to it, so if, like me, there are only about a dozen pieces of dance music that you've ever really liked in the past quarter of a century, then give this a try and relive that productive period for the genre at the end of the last century. All together now....'WHAAAAT's she gonna look like with a chimney on her.....'.   

Track listing

01 Sandstorm - Darude (1999) 

02 On The Beach - York (1999) 

03 Children - Robert Miles (1995)
04 ResuRection - PPK (2001)
05 Feel It - The Tamperer feat. Maya (1998)
06 Sunchyme - Dario G (1997)
07 Red Alert - Basement Jaxx (1999) 
08 Barber's Adagio For Strings - William Orbit (1999) 
09 Phat Planet - Leftfield (1999) 
10 If You Buy This Record (Your Life Will Be Better) - The Tamperer feat. Maya (1998)
11 9pm (Till I Come) - ATB (1998)
12 Ecuador - Sash! (1997)

Sky Ferreira - Cry Baby (2011)

Sky Tonia Ferreira was born on 8 July 1992, in Venice, Los Angeles, and was largely raised by her grandmother, who had been Michael Jackson's personal hairstylist for over 30 years. After she expressed interest in singing as a child and, with Jackson's encouragement her grandmother enrolled her in opera lessons. She began maintaining a Myspace profile where she uploaded demo versions of self-written tracks, and shortly before her 15th birthday, she wrote a letter to producers Bloodshy & Avant requesting that they offer her a recording contract, and in 2009 she signed to Parlophone and began finalizing the debut studio album that she says was first begun when she was 14 years old. In 2010, she ventured into the film and modelling industries after starring in the independent film 'Putty Hill', and also appearing in the magazines Dazed and Interview. After releasing the tracks '17' and 'One', the latter having peaked at number 64 on the UK singles shart, Ferreira announced that her debut studio album would be released on January 11, 2011, and its lead single 'Obsession' peaked at number 37 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. These plans never came to fruition, however, due to Capitol Records believing that the aforementioned singles were not commercially successful enough for an album release. This led to the release of the EP 'As If!', consisting of five songs which would have appeared on the scrapped album, and which received favourable critical reviews. At the same time she was also continuing her modelling career, featuring in the advertising campaign for the Calvin Klein "CK One" product line alongside Cassie Ventura, and the following year she appeared in the Adidas "Originals" commercial with rappers Big Sean and Snoop Dogg. 

In November 2011, Ferreira announced that her debut studio album would be released in 2012, with a lead single planned to precede it that February, later revealing that the title of the album was to be 'Wild At Heart'. After releasing the music video for the track 'Red Lips' in June, she stated that she had renamed the record 'I'm Not Alright', but with her debut studio album still unreleased, she announced that her second extended play 'Ghost' would be released in October, and it peaked at number 71 on the Alternative Albums Billboard 200, with its second single 'Everything Is Embarrassing' being tipped as being the song which could well be her breakout moment. In June 2013, Ferreira starred in the short film 'IRL' playing Angel, and that month, she once again renamed her debut studio album, this time to 'I Will', and stated that it would be released later in the summer. One last name change occurred in October, and 'Night Time, My Time' finally appeared on 29 October on Capitol Records. On its release it received favourable reviews from music critics, and Rolling Stone listed it as the fifth-best debut album of 2013, noting its potent blending of synth-pop elements with a more grunge-inspired indie rock sound. It had been a long, hard road but Ferreira finally had an album to her name, but the previous two attempts weren't just idle rumours, as all the songs had been written and recorded for 'Cry Baby', which was the title of the 2011 record, and for 'Wild At Heart', and the tracks have leaked over the years, enabling us to hear for ourselves the build-up to what eventually became her first official album, 'Night Time, My Time'. I'll start by posting 'Cry Baby', housed in the cover that was shot for the actual album, but not including the five songs that were extracted for the 'As If!' EP as it's already 50 minutes long without them. 

Track listing

01 One
02 First Base
03 Dynamite State
04 Touch & Go
05 17
06 Paper Doll
07 Sick Of You
08 Elevator
09 Too Many Boys
10 American Dream
11 Shiny Toy
12 Whatcha Gonna Do

13 Obsession

Goodbye Mr. MacKenzie - Green Turn Red (1993)

Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie formed in Bathgate in 1984 out of the remnants of local post-punk acts Lipstick and Irrelevant, relocating to Edinburgh shortly after the release of their debut split single with Lindy Bergman 'Death Of A Salesman', which came out on West Lothian College's Scruples label, after they spotted a newspaper advert looking for demos. The band were led by vocalist/guitarist Martin Metcalfe, alongside keyboard player Rhona Scobie, bass player Chuck Parker and drummer Derek Kelly, alongside backing vocalists Shirley Manson and Hilary McLean. Both Jamie Waterson (bass) and Ewan Drysdale (keyboards) had been members prior to the single, and Manson had previously been a member of Autumn 1904 and the Wild Indians, who produced one single and one side of a shared album. A second single, 'The Rattler', was recorded for the Precious label, and although a couple of reviewers detected a Bruce Springsteen influence, Metcalfe was never a huge fan. The single was produced by Wilf Smarties, fresh from recording Wet Wet Wet demos, and who was looking to be involved with a more edgy outfit, and he managed the band for a while, but they parted company over a clash of  their musical tastes. After acquiring new management in 1987, they moved on to Clandestine Records for a limited edition 12-inch, 'Face To Face', with the proceeds going to the Rape Crisis Centre, in keeping with the song's theme. They then signed to Capitol via A&R man Simon Potts in February 1988, and at this stage Big John Duncan (ex-The Exploited) joined on guitar, and Fin Wilson became their bass-player. 

They were initially subject to substantial backing, both from Capitol and the press, culminating in a session for the Janice Long show and appearances on The Tube and The Chart Show. Three singles preceded the release of their debut album , with a re-recording of 'The Rattler' breaking the UK Top 40, and 'Good Deeds And Dirty Rags' was released in 1989, reaching the UK Top 30. The band proved unable to sustain this commercial success, however, and although 'Goodwill City', a biting condemnation of the rising AIDS problem affecting Edinburgh, was excellent, its commercial performance was disappointing after their breakthrough with 'The Rattler'. The lack of chart success led to them moving sideways within EMI to Parlophone for the follow-up singles 'Love Child' and 'Blacker Than Black', and sessions commenced in Berlin at the end of 1989 for their second album. Although 'Hammer And Tongs' was completed quite quickly, it was not issued until March 1991, when MCA subsidiary Radioactive bought the band out of their EMI contract and released the album. When it did emerge the critics were impressed, with Nick Terry writing in Select that "while Marti Pellow of Wet Wet Wet favours sweetness, smiles and Beatles covers, Martin Metcalfe of Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie prefers snarls, Iggy Pop, Nick Cave and a few bars of David Bowie's 'Heroes'". 

A new song was recorded on a return trip to Berlin, with the 1991 single 'Now We Are Married' being the band's attempt at perfect pop, and despite most people thinking it would be a great song to walk down the aisle to, it was really about Metcalfe's opposition to marriage, feeling that marriage was not about making a commitment to each other, but it was more like making a pact with the devil. Rhona Scobie left during the European tour to promote 'Hammer And Tongs', and the band were forced to move to their own Blokshok imprint, with the 1993 releases on the label, the live album 'On The Day Of Storms', and their next studio record 'Five', both failing to revive interest outside of the band's existing fanbase. By 1995 they had trimmed down to Metcalfe, Kelly and Finn, alongside guitarist Neil Duncanson, but ongoing problems with drug and alcohol rehabilitation meant that by 1998 Goodbye Mr. MacKenzie were no more, leaving us with one final studio album 'The Glory Hole'. Shirley Manson went on to form Garbage with Butch Vig, Steve Marker and Duke Erikson, while Metcalfe and Kelly are now part of the Isa And The Filthy Tongues project, alongside Portland born singer Stacey Chavis. Goodbye Mr. MacKenzie were yet another under-rated and mostly forgotten band of the late 80's that should have been able to capitalise on the success of their brilliant single 'The Rattler', but they just never got the breaks, and so this collection of rare singles and b-sides can give us an idea of what they could have achieved. 

Track listing

Disc I - 1984-1989

01 Death Of A Salesman (split single with Lindy Bergmann 1984)
02 The End (We Never Got The Way That We Should Go) (b-side of 'The Rattler' 1986)
03 Face To Face (single 1987)
04 Green Turn Red (b-side of 'Goodbye Mr. MacKenzie' 1988)
05 Stars And Bars (b-side of 'Goodbye Mr. MacKenzie' 1988)
06 Pleasure Search (b-side of 'Open Your Arms' 1988)
07 Here Comes Deacon Brodie (b-side of re-recording of 'The Rattler' 1989)  
08 I'm Sick Of You (b-side of 'Goodwill City' 1989)
09 What's Got Into You (b-side of 'Goodwill City' 1989)
10 Insidious Thing (b-side of 'Goodwill City' 1989)

Disc II - 1989-1993
11 Strangle Your Animal (bonus track with vinyl edition of 'Good Deeds And Dirty Rags' 1989)
12 Somewhere In China (out-take from 'Good Deeds And Dirty Rags' 1989)        
13 Heroes (b-side of 'Love Child' 1990)
14 Green Green Grass Of Home (b-side of 'Blacker Than Black' 1990)
15 Mad Cow Disease (b-side of 'Blacker Than Black' 1990)
16 Friday's Child (b-side of 'Now We Are Married' 1991)
17 Candlestick Park (II) (b-side of 'Now We Are Married' 1991)
18 Candy Says (b-side of 'Now We Are Married' 1991)
19 Mystery Train (b-side of 'Goodwill City Live' 1993) 
20 Working On The Shoo-Fly (b-side of 'Goodwill City Live' 1993) 

Dinosaur Jr. - The Little Baby (2018)

J Mascis (drums) and Lou Barlow (guitar) played together in the hardcore punk band Deep Wound, formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts. After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, the Replacements, and Neil Young, while Mascis's college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to psychedelic-influenced pop bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn played to Barlow. Cosloy had dropped out of University to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and he promised Mascis that if he were ever to make a record, Homestead would release it. After Deep Wound broke up in mid-1984, Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position, and he then enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy (otherwise known as Murph) to complete the band. They were initially named Mogo, and they played their first show on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in the first week of September 1984, but Nakajima used the performance to launch an extended anti-police tirade, and Mascis was so appalled by Nakajima's behaviour that he disbanded the group the next day. A few days later, Mascis invited Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima, and the trio named themselves Dinosaur, with Mascis and Barlow taking over lead vocal duties. Mascis took Cosloy up on his offer to release an album on Homestead, and Dinosaur recorded their debut record for $500 at a home studio in the woods outside Northampton, Massachusetts. 'Dinosaur' was released in 1985, with all the songs written by Mascis and sung in his trademark nasal drawl, which was often compared to Neil Young. 
The album didn't make much of an impact commercially or critically, only selling about 1,500 copies in its first year, and being largely ignored by the majority of the music press. Dinosaur often played shows in New York City, where they were spotted by the New York-based alternative rock band Sonic Youth, who invited them to join them on tour in the American Northeast and northern Midwest in September 1986. The band recorded much of their second album, 'You're Living All Over Me', with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York, but tensions emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for Murph's parts. Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on California-based SST Records, as Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead. 'You're Living All Over Me' was released in 1987, and early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the 'Weed Forestin'' tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut, and for this record  Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced 'Lose' and an acoustic sonic collage entitled 'Poledo', that anticipated his work with Sebadoh. Immediately following the release of 'You're Living All Over Me', a supergroup called Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued Dinosaur over the use of the name, prompting the addition of the "Jr.". 

Dinosaur Jr. had a major breakthrough in the United Kingdom in 1988 with their debut single for Blast First, 'Freak Scene', with a version with censored lyrics being issued for radio consumption. It reached number 4 in the UK independent chart, staying there for 12 weeks, and the band's third album, 'Bug', followed shortly afterwards, reaching number 1 on the UK independent chart and spending 38 weeks there, while their first UK singles chart placing came in 1989, with their cover of The Cure's 'Just Like Heaven'. 'Bug' was similar in musical style to 'You're Living All Over Me', with the contrast between the extremely distorted instruments and the melodic vocal parts intact, but this time there was even more melody, and the song structures were more conventional. Barlow only had one lead vocal, on the album's final track, featuring an overdriven, noise-rock backing track and Barlow screaming "Why don't you like me?". Despite the album's success, tensions between Mascis and Barlow began interfering with the band's productivity, and in 1989 Barlow was kicked out of the band, allowing him to focus all of his attention on his former side-project Sebadoh. Dinosaur Jr. embarked on an Australian tour with Donna Dresch filling in for Barlow, and in 1990 they released a new single, 'The Wagon' on Sub Pop, their first release since Barlow's departure. Despite the ongoing line-up turmoil, Dinosaur Jr. signed with Sire Records in 1990, and made their major-label debut with 'Green Mind' in 1991. In fact, the new record was virtually a J Mascis solo album, with Murph playing drums on only a few songs, as well as minimal contributions from temporary members Don Fleming and Jay Spiegel, who were out of the band by the time the album was released. 

Following some well-received live shows, the group decided to record some new material with a revised line-up, with Murph still on drums, but being joined by Mike Johnson on bass. This material represented the peak of the band's commercial success, with the single 'Start Choppin'' reaching the top 20 in the UK, and the album that followed, 'Where You Been', reached the UK top 10 and the US top 50. Murph left the band after touring for 'Where You Been' and was replaced for live shows by George Berz, leaving Mascis as the sole remaining original member. In the studio, he was, in effect, the band, playing everything except for the bass and some of the harmony vocals, which continued to be handled by Mike Johnson. Commercial success continued with 1994's 'Without A Sound', which placed well in both the US and UK album charts, and after 1997's 'Hand It Over', Mascis finally retired the Dinosaur Jr. name, with the group's final live performance being an appearance on the American talk show The Jenny Jones Show. Mascis and Barlow has begun to meet up in the mid-90's, with Mascis attending shows by Sebadoh, and by 2002 this had led to the two of them sharing a stage for two shows in London. Mascis regained the master rights to the band's first three albums from SST in 2004 and arranged for their reissue on Merge in early 2005, and later that year, he and Barlow shared the stage at a benefit show for autism at Smith College, resurrecting Deep Wound to play a set at the end of the gig. Following the reissues in 2005, Mascis, Barlow, and Murph finally reunited to play on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on 15 April 2005, and in June they kicked off a tour of Europe. 

In 2007, the original members of Dinosaur Jr. released 'Beyond' on Fat Possum Records, their first album of new material as a trio since 'Bug' in 1988, and it was met with critical acclaim from the music press as a whole. In February 2009, the band signed with indie label Jagjaguwar, with their first release on the new label being 'Farm', which appeared in June, and which marked a return to the heavier 'Where You Been' era. A second album for the label followed, with 'I Bet On Sky' appearing in 2012, once again to favourable reviews, and in 2015 it was announced that the band had entered the studio to begin working on their follow-up, with 'Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not' being released in 2016. They are still around, and in February 2021 they announced their 12th album 'Sweep It Into Space', which was released in April, and singles 'I Ran Away' and 'Garden' were extracted from the record. Dinosaur Jr. was one of the first, biggest, and best bands among the second generation of indie kids, influencing many other musicians such as Kurt Cobain, Billy Corgan, Black Francis, Graham Coxon, and Henry Rollins, and bands like Tad, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Swervedriver, and Teenage Fanclub. I'll be the first to admit that they are an acquired taste, and if you aren't into heavy rock then you won't find much to enjoy, but hearing them at the time was a breath of fresh air after living through the turgid heavy metal of the late 70's and early 80's, and so for fans of the band here is a feast of rare singles, b-sides, out-takes and soundtrack contributions, in a massive four-volume collection from this unique group.   

Track listing 

Disc I - 1985-1991

01 Bulbs Of Passion (b-side of 'Repulsion' 1985)

02 Keep The Glove (b-side of 'Freak Scene' 1988)

03 Show Me The Way (b-side of 'Little Furry Things' 1987)

04 Just Like Heaven (single 1989)

05 Throw Down (b-side of 'Just Like Heaven')

06 Chunks (A Last Rights Tune) (b-side of 'Just Like Heaven')

07 The Little Baby (b-side of 'The Wagon' 1990)

08 Pebbles + Weeds (b-side of 'The Wagon' 1990)

09 Not You Again (b-side of 'The Wagon' 1990) 

10 Quicksand (Wagon Reprise) (b-side of 'The Wagon' 1990)

11 Better Than Gone (b-side of 'The Wagon' re-issue 1991)

12 Whatever's Cool With Me (single 1991)

13 Sideways (b-side of 'Whatever's Cool With Me')

Disc II - 1992-1995

01 Hot Burrito #2 (b-side of 'Get Me' 1992) 

02 Quest (acoustic) (b-side of 'Get Me' 1992) 

03 Turnip Farm (b-side of 'Start Choppin'' 1993)

04 Forget It (b-side of 'Start Choppin'' 1993)

05 Keebin' (b-side of 'Out There' 1993)

06 Missing Link (from the soundtrack of the film 'Judgement Night' 1993)

07 Get Out Of This (No Words Just Solo) (b-side of 'Feel The Pain' 1994)

08 Blah (from the soundtrack of the TV series 'Melrose Place' 1994)

09 What Else Is New (b-side of 'I Don't Think So' 1995)

10 Sludge (b-side of 'I Don't Think So' 1995)

Disc III - 1997-2009

01 I Misunderstood (b-side of 'I'm Insane' 1997)

02 Take A Run At The Sun (single 1997)

03 Don't You Think It's Time (b-side of 'Take A Run At The Sun')

04 The Pickle Song (b-side of 'Take A Run At The Sun')

05 What We Do In Secret (previously unreleased 1997)

06 Never Bought It (from 'Recovery' TV show, ABC Australia 1997)

07 Sure Not Over You (from 'Recovery' TV show, ABC Australia 1997)

08 Yer Son (b-side of 'Crumble' 2007)

09 Whenever You're Ready (bonus track on Japanese edition of 'Farm' 2009)

10 Creepies (bonus track on Japanese edition of 'Farm' 2009)

11 Show (bonus track on Japanese edition of 'Farm' 2009)

12 Houses (b-side of 'Pieces' 2009)

13 The Backyard (from 'Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs Of Mark Mulcahy' tribute album 2009)

Disc IV - 2012-2018

01 Now The Fall (single 2012)

02 Richocet (b-side of 'Now The Fall')

03 The Only Other Way (single 2013)

04 Don't Pretend You Didn't Know (single 2013)

05 Entertainment (single 2013)

06 Two Things (single 2016)

07 Center Of The Universe (b-side of 'Two Things')

08 Black Betty (b-side of 'Two Things')

09 Solo Extractions (b-side of 'Two Things')

10 Hold Unknown (single 2018)

Janelle Monáe - The Audition (2003)

Janelle Monáe Robinson was born on 01 December 1985 in Kansas City, and was raised in Quindaro, a working-class community of Kansas City. She was raised Baptist and learned to sing at a local church, and she dreamed of being a singer and a performer from a very young age, citing the fictional character of Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz as a musical influence. As a teenager she was enrolled in the Coterie Theater's Young Playwrights' Round Table, which began writing musicals, one of which was inspired by the 1979 Stevie Wonder album 'Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants"', and which was completed when Monáe was only around the age of 12. After high school she moved to New York City to study musical theatre at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, but after a year and a half she dropped out and relocated to Atlanta, enrolling in Perimeter College at Georgia State University. She began writing her own music and performing around the campus, and in 2003 she self-released a demo album titled 'The Audition', which she sold out of the trunk of a Mitsubishi Galant. During this period she worked at an Office Depot, but was fired for answering a fan's e-mail using a company computer, an incident that inspired the song 'Lettin' Go', which in turn attracted the attention of Big Boi of OutKast. In 2006 she appeared on the tracks 'Call The Law' and 'In Your Dreams' from OutKast's 2006 album 'Idlewild', and when Big Boi told his friend Sean "Puffy" Combs about her, Combs visited her MySpace page, and was so impressed that he signed her to his Bad Boy Records label. The label's chief role was to facilitate her exposure on a broader scale rather than developing the artist and music, taking its time to build her profile organically and allowing the music to grow. 

In 2007, Monáe released her first solo work, 'Metropolis', which was originally conceived as a concept album in four parts, or "suites", which were to be released through her website and mp3 download sites. After the release of the first part of the series, 'Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase)' in mid-2007, these plans were altered, and Bad Boy Records gave an official and physical release to the first suite in August 2008, which was retitled 'Metropolis: The Chase Suite (Special Edition)' and included two new tracks. The EP was critically acclaimed, garnering her a Grammy nomination for Best Urban/Alternative Performance for the single 'Many Moons', which then led to festival appearances, and touring as opening act for band No Doubt on their summer 2009 tour. In 2010 she released her first full-length studio album, 'The ArchAndroid', a concept album and sequel to her first EP, following this in 2013 with her second concept album 'The Electric Lady', which debuted at number five on the Billboard 200, and served as the fourth and fifth instalments of the seven-part 'Metropolis' series. Her third studio concept album, 'Dirty Computer', was released in 2018 to widespread critical acclaim, and it was chosen as the best album of the year by several publications. She has also branched out into acting, featuring in both 'Moonlight' and 'Hidden Figures' in 2016, and in April 2022, Harper Voyager published her first book, 'The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer', which explores how different threads of liberation — queerness, race, gender plurality, and love — become tangled with future possibilities of memory and time in a totalitarian landscape. Monáe has always been very focussed on her career, and this was evident from the very beginning, when she pressed up 500 copies of her demo album and hawked them from the back of her car, and so for anyone who wants to hear what the fledgling singer sounded like back in 2003 on those thirteen mostly self-penned songs and one instrumental, then here is 'The Audition' - a perfectly named album if ever there was one. 

Track listing

01 Thoughts (Intro)
02 Lettin' Go
03 Party Girl
04 Metropolis
05 Cindi
06 It's Not Fair
07 Time Will Reveal
08 My Favorite Nothing
09 Warm Up (Cloud 9 interlude)
10 Cloud 9
11 Star
12 I Won't Let Go
13 You
14 You Are My Everything

Marina & The Diamonds - die Life (2011)

Following the buzz which was created by her self-released EP 'Mermaids vs. Sailors' in 2007, Marina Diamandis met with fourteen music labels, only being offered one deal, which she also believed was the only one which would not dictate her image. She came to the attention of Neon Gold Records' Derek Davies in 2008, with her debut single 'Obsessions' being released on the label in February 2009, and her first extended play 'The Crown Jewels' EP followed on 1 June. In December 2009, Diamandis was ranked in second place on the Sound Of 2010 poll organized by BBC, behind Ellie Goulding, and by the following year she'd signed a recording contract with 679 Recordings. Her debut studio album, 'The Family Jewels', was released in 2010, and it incorporated indie pop and new wave musical styles, entering the UK Albums Chart at number five, and being certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry. Her second studio album was to be called 'die Life', which was a play on words, as 'die' is the German article for feminine nouns, meaning the album is actually called 'The Life', and it focused on feminism and sex. Marina initially wanted a release to echo Lady Gaga's 'The Fame Monster', where a second album is an extension of the first, which was in keeping with her description of 'Scab And Plaster' being a "'Family Jewels' throw-back". However, by August 2010 she'd decided to completely move on from 'The Family Jewels', with her original idea being for a "dark electronic pop record", jokingly saying it was something "Britney Spears would have made if she were goth". 

She also wanted to work with one particular producer, Greg Kurstin, and she didn't care if there were no singles on it. 'Jealousy' was an out-take from 'The Family Jewels', while two versions of 'Miss Y' have leaked, both produced by Kurstin - the "to be great" demo with more finalised vocals, but no bridge, and the "to become great" demo which includes an instrumental bridge, but unmixed additional backing vocals and harmonies. In an interview she expressed she was enjoying writing the songs for the new album, and had lots of ideas, and that she wanted to release it in July 2011, but her label had told her she wasn't going to manage to fit it all in around her touring schedule, and so the release date would likely be September 2011. When that date passed with no sign of the record, she admitted that  it was not going to be out that year, and that as she "didn't know when she would finish it, it could be one or five years". By 2012 it seemed that 'die Life' was dead in the water, and in April she released the single 'Primadonna' as the lead track from her second studio album 'Electra Heart', which followed a couple of weeks later. Once 'Electra Heart' appeared then that confirmed that 'die Life' had been scrapped, and it has since become part of Marina's mysterious back-story. In order that we can hear the progression from 2010's 'The Family Jewels' to 2012's 'Electra Heart', here is the shelved 'die Life', which would have bridged those two releases in 2011.

 

Track listing

01 Scab And Plaster
02 Starring Role
03 Power/Control
04 Living Dead
05 Free Sex
06 Miss Y
07 Jealousy
08 Radioactive
09 Dirty Sheets
10 Like The Other Girls
11 die Life

The Crosswalk - Venus Loves A Melody (1999)

The Crosswalk were an L.A.-based quartet, formed in 1997 and comprising Cody Chestnutt on lead vocals, guitar and keyboards, Jay Gordon on guitar and keyboards, John Maggio on bass and glockenspiel, and Jaime O'Connell on drums, percussion, vibes and guitar. In late 1996 Chessnutt had been working as a writer and producer for various Death Row Records recording artists, and mentioned to one of the engineers in the studio that he wanted to start a band of his own, and so the engineer set up a meeting with O'Connell and Maggio. They hit it off and formed a trio which they named The Crosswalk, with the name being an allusion to the Abbey Road album cover image. After about a year and a half of writing together and performing in LA, they released the independent '1535' EP in 1997, and then signed with Hollywood Records in 1998, after being rejected by many other record labels. In late 1998 to early 1999 the band, now a four piece with the addition of guitarist Jay Gordon, recorded their album 'Venus Loves A Melody', with the record being mixed by famed rock producer and engineer Bob Clearmountain. After delivering the album to Hollywood Records, they and their manager were given the cold shoulder by the label, who would not commit to a release date, and who spent little time with the band discussing art direction or marketing plans. After forcing their hand to make a decision, Hollywood informed them that they were dropping the project, as it appeared that they had signed a boy band that they wanted to concentrate their efforts on instead. Cody being a black front man of a classic Brit style rock group didn’t help either, and the label was finding a hard time knowing how to market the band, so they just cut their losses. Chessnutt and the band were devastated, and couldn't believe how cold Hollywood Records was towards the album that they just spent so much money on producing, and it caused the band to split up. Chessnutt went on to make a self produced, low budget, independent project called 'The Headphone Masterpiece', that eventually took him around the world. In the end a contract loophole allowed Chessnutt, the band, and their manager to take ownership of the masters of 'Venus Loves A Melody', with the aim of issuing it independently, but to date it remains frustratingly unreleased. To make up your own mind if Hollywood Records were being stupidly short-sighted in rejecting the band, here is 'Venus Loves A Melody', now housed in new artwork which I hope the band will appreciate. 

Track listing

01 All Is All
02 Vile
03 Give In
04 Brand New
05 16
06 Distant Man
07 Lipstick In Red
08 The Show
09 So What
10 Candy Kids
11 Before The Day Breaks
12 Jaded Judy
13 Everything Beautiful
14 Find My Way Back Home

Nicole Scherzinger - Her Name Is Nicole (2008)

In February 2006, while still a founding member of The Pussycat Dolls, Nicole Scherzinger signed a global publishing agreement with Universal Music Publishing Group, which would cover her future song-writing. Her work as lead singer of The Dolls furthered her popularity as she continued to work on her own music, and her first solo recording was to feature on Avant's 'Lie About Us', which was released in July 2006. She later collaborated with Diddy on 'Come To Me', which became her first solo top-ten hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, and in March 2007 she announced that her debut studio album would be titled 'Her Name is Nicole', and it was scheduled for a release in late summer. Four singles were released from the project, but 'Whatever U Like', 'Baby Love', 'Supervillain', and 'Puakenikeni' all failed to make any significant impact on the Billboard charts, although 'Baby Love' was a moderate success in international territories. After a number of push-backs, Scherzinger decided not to release any further singles from the album, and at her request 'Her Name Is Nicole' was eventually shelved, and she shifted her focus to working on the Doll's second album. She had actually recorded more songs between 2006 and 2008 than were needed for the album, and she could easily have released a double album had she wanted, but she threw herself back into her work with The Pussycat Dolls, and their second album 'Doll Domination' was released in 2008. Scherzinger carried on recording solo tracks over the next few years, and her official debut album 'Killer Love' eventually appeared in 2011, but even that omitted at least ten songs that had been recorded in 2010 and were apparently deemed not good enough for inclusion. So that we can decide for ourselves if 2008 was too early to launch a solo career, here is 'Her Name Is Nicole', and we can now hear what could have been her debut solo release had it come out in 2008 as was intended. 

 
Track listing

01 Supervillain 
02 Puakenikeni (feat. Brick & Lace) 
03 Happily Never After 
04 Baby Love (feat. ​will.i.am) 
05 Save Me From Myself 
06 Physical (feat. Timbaland) 
07 Power's Out (feat. Sting) 
08 Just Say Yes 
09 Who's Gonna Love You 
10 Whatever U Like (feat. T.I.) 
11 I M.I.S.S. U (feat. Pharrell Williams) 
12 March 
13 On My Side (feat. Akon) 
14 Feels So Good 

Lewis Taylor - A Little Bit Tasty (2013)

Andrew Lewis Taylor was born on 20 January 1966 in Barnet, North London, and started in the music business as a guitarist touring with the psychedelic rock band Edgar Broughton Band, following a recommendation from his brother to Steve Broughton, who had reformed the band and was looking for a guitarist. In 1986 he began performing as Sheriff Jack, releasing two EPs and two albums of psychedelia music, with 'Laugh Yourself Awake' coming out in 1986, followed by 'What Lovely Melodies!' the following year. As Lewis Taylor he released his self-titled album in 1996 through Island Records, with tracks including 'Bittersweet' and 'Lucky' being released as singles, and this record showcased a significant departure from the psychedelia of the Sheriff Jack era, moving towards neo soul, and it was highly acclaimed by the critics. They were amazed that he sung a bit like Marvin, played guitar like Ernie Isley, bass like James Jamerson and keyboards like Billy Preston, and created his extraordinary angst-ridden compositions in a North London flat on two digital reel-to-reel tape machines, but despite this praise it did become one of those albums that everybody talked about but few bought. His follow-up record was less of a soul record, and included more elements of psychedelia and Brian Wilson-style arrangements, but it was rejected by Island Records, and so Taylor scrapped the whole thing and started from scratch, recording 'Lewis II' in the more commercial style that the record company wanted. Though they released the album in 2000, it too failed to connect, and Taylor was dropped by the label, although the scrapped album was not lost forever, as it eventually appeared as 'The Lost Album' in 2004. His next release was 'Stoned, Part I' in 2002, on his own label named Slow Reality (an anagram of his name), and he followed it up in 2004 with 'Stoned, Part II'. 

In June 2006, Taylor retired from music, although he has since returned as Andrew Taylor, and has been the musical director and bass player for Gnarls Barkley, and guitarist/backing vocalist for the Edgar Broughton Band and The Drivers. In 2016, Caroline Records re-issued his debut album on CD with a bonus disc comprising the b-sides, 'Lucky' remixes and extended version of 'Bittersweet', but these are not the only rarities that lurk in Taylor's vaults, as besides the Sherrif Jack and solo records, he has also collaborated with a number of artists, including Deborah Bond, and The Vicar, contributed his cover of Pete Wingfield's classic '18 With A Bullet' to the soundtrack of 'Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels', and even attempted to cover every track on Captain Beefheart's 'Trout Mask Replica', playing everything himself, but giving up after completing fifteen tracks. There was also a rare 1996 single which included tracks that never made it onto his debut solo album, and his version of 'New York, New York' which he recorded for the 2004 'Strictly Sinatra' film, and so if we collect all these together, plus his great cover of 'Electric Ladyland' and a couple of rare bonus tracks from foreign releases, then we have a superb hour and a quarter of rare and hard to find music from this maverick performer, which more than lives up to its title of 'A Little Bit Tasty'. Now is the perfect time to post this, as some of his early albums are finally being re-released, and eighteen years after his last record, he has just issued a brand new album, titled 'NUMB'. If you like what you hear on this post, then do invest in his new one, so that it isn't another eighteen years before he goes back into the studio. And do check out the Sheriff Jack material if you can find it, as I still have the 'Let's Be Nonchalent' 12" EP and 'Laugh Yourself Awake' album from 1986, and they are  excellent neo-psychedelic music which still get regular plays on the stereo. 

Track listing

01 Pie In Electric Sky / If I Lay Down With You (b-side of 'Whoever' 1996)
02 Waves (b-side of 'Whoever' 1996)
03 Trip So Heavy (b-side of 'Whoever' 1996)
04 Asleep When You Come (b-side of 'Lucky' 1996)
05 You Got Me Thinking (b-side of 'Lucky' 1996)
06 I Dream A Better Dream (b-side of 'Lucky' 1996)
07 A Little Bit Tasty (b-side of 'Bittersweet' 1997)
08 Lewis III (b-side of 'Bittersweet' 1997)
09 Eighteen With A Bullet (from the soundtrack of 'Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels' 1998)
10 Electric Ladyland (bonus track from 'Lewis II' 2000)
11 New York New York (from the 2001 film 'Strictly Sinatra')
12 Carried Away 2 (from the US version of 'Limited Edition 2004')
13 Shame (Live on World Cafe WXPN 2006)
14 If I Didn't Need You (from 'Madame Palindrome' by Deborah Bond 2011)
15 The Girl With The Sunshine (from 'Songbook #1' by The Vicar 2013)
16 Ella Guru (from 'Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica Reborn' 2014)    

Amiel - These Ties (2005)

Amiel Muki Daemion (also known as just Amiel) was born on 13 August 1979, in New York City, and was introduced to the world of entertainment at the age of eleven, performing the leading role alongside Russell Crowe in the feature film 'The Silver Brumby'. Her music career began in 1995 when she was hired to do some backing vocals on a song that the Australian producer Josh Abrahams was producing, but instead of just singing the song, she included her harmonies, melodies and lyrics and sang only two takes for Abrahams before he offered her a career in music. They released their first single together called 'Addicted To Bass' in 1998, which peaked in the top twenty on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, and was nominated for two ARIA Awards in 1999. With the success of 'Addicted To Bass', she was then given a solo recording contract with Festival Records in 1998, and decided that Abrahams would be the best producer for her debut album. She was confronted by delays while making the record, but refused to be bothered by the record's slow progress, using this time to write new songs both in Australia and in the United States, and 'Meet Me In The Red Room' was used on the second 'Moulin Rouge!' soundtrack with Marius De Vries, under the direction of Baz Luhrmann. The new songs Amiel worked on changed the direction of the record, and while a couple of the very early recordings remained, demos of her new material replaced much of the rest, and her album became a major priority for her record company, which had merged to become Festival Mushroom Records since she had signed with them. Due to the success of 'Addicted To Bass' in Australia and New Zealand, Abrahams and Daemion collaborated to form the band Puretone to release the song worldwide, with it becoming a number two hit in the UK, with the help of a remix by Apollo 440. Puretone's second single, 'Stuck In A Groove', was a minor hit around the world, and they also wrote the music for a Vodafone television commercial. Amiel released her next solo single in March 2003, with 'Lovesong' becoming one of the most played songs on Australian radio, and it was her first solo top ten single in Australia. Her debut album, 'Audio Out', was released in Australia on 18 August 2003, debuting in the top twenty on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart, and she was nominated for five ARIA Awards in 2003. 

During the promotion of 'Audio Out' in 2004 in London, she went in search of a new producer, and came across Stephen Lironi, an ex-member of the UK band Altered Images. After a few short months of working with Lironi, she felt that her second solo album, 'These Ties', was ready, but just as the album's first single, 'Round And Round', was released, it was announced that the recording assets of the Festival Mushroom group had been acquired by Warner Music, and while staff and artists at Festival Mushroom Records started being dropped all around her, she made the agreement to postpone the release of 'These Ties' until the dust had settled. In the end the album was only released in Japan in 2005, and it failed to equal the top twenty success that 'Audio Out' had received. She passed the time in 2005 by performing the lead vocals on The Blips song 'Green Eyed World', which was featured on the soundtrack of the 2005 film 'Hating Alison Ashley', and releasing an electroclash cover of the Split Enz song 'One Step Ahead' on the Finn Brothers tribute album, until eventually the dust did settle on the Warners takeover. However, the Australian release date for 'These Ties' had to be pushed back many times, and eventually Amiel and Warner Music both agreed that it was no longer her new album, and to try to come back where they had left off halfway through the project would be impossible, so the album was put on hold while she worked on an "in between" project, which was to take the 'These Ties' track 'Be Your Girl', and form it into an EP of remixed songs from the album. She collaborated with some of Australia and New Zealand's best hip hop and dance producers, and the 'Bass Kleph' version of the song was released to Australian radio to promote the EP. This was the final nail in the coffin for 'These Ties', and with only a couple of thousand copies being sold in Japan, it is now extremely hard to locate, and so to save you the trouble, here it is for you to hear.  

Track listing

01 Expectations
02 Be Your Girl
03 Moving On
04 Round And Round
05 On The Outside
06 Under Your Spell
07 These Ties
08 Trouble
09 Storm Blew Over
10 Stars
11 Following The Sun
12 Easier To Lie

Marina & The Diamonds - Give Me The Money! (2007)

Marina Lambrini Diamandis was born 10 October 1985 in Brynmawr in Wales, and is known mononymously as Marina (often stylised as MARINA), and previously by the stage name Marina and the Diamonds. Despite not having a musical background, she had a childhood love of writing, and she first began writing music when she was 18 years old. She moved to London to attend dance school, but quit after two months, and then she studied music at the University of East London, and transferred to a classic composition course in Middlesex University the following year, but dropped out after two months. Knowing that the Spice Girls were formed by an advertisement in The Stage, Diamandis applied for auditions listed in that newspaper, travelling to several unsuccessful auditions, including opportunities with the musical for The Lion King and a boy band organized by Virgin Records. It was during this time that she managed to leave her CV with an A&R representative, but was unable to audition at the time of the appointment as she felt sick. In 2005, she created the stage name "Marina And The Diamonds", even though she was a solo artists, and after she came to prominence she considered "The Diamonds" as a reference to her fans instead of her backing band. Inspired by the example of self-produced outsider musician Daniel Johnston, Diamandis decided to compose her own music and stop going to auditions. She taught herself how to play the piano, and self-composed and produced her earlier demos with GarageBand, independently releasing her debut extended play 'Mermaid vs Sailor' through Myspace in 2007. As well as publishing the 'Mermaid vs. Sailor' EP she also posted demos to her MySpace page, and a further twelve tracks which appear to have been recorded at the same time as the tracks for the EP have since surfaced, and have been compiled into a fan-made album entitled 'Give Me The Money!'. As these are very early recordings then don't expect anything that sounds like her later releases, but I'm sure that fans of her work will be pleased to hear these early works from the idiosyncratic singer.

Track listing

01 Starlight
02 The Common Cold
03 Silver Walls
04 Supermodel's Legs
05 Lonely Bones
06 Perfect-Oh
07 Hubba
08 Hot, Cross Bun
09 Katyb
10 Happy Meal
11 Pancake Karma
12 Where Diamonds Grow