Blue Aeroplanes - Staring At The Future (2024)

For anyone who enjoyed the recent post from The Blue Aeroplanes, here is a treat for you. In 2023 the band released the follow-up to 2017's 'Welcome Stranger!', with 'Culture Gun' making a belated appearance. It was written, and in part recorded, over three years, and was much delayed, mainly due to vocalist Gerard Langley being hospitalized with cancer. It was finally released on 28 April 2023 on the Art Star label, to almost universally positive reviews, and the following year the band surprised fans at a gig at Lafayette, London on 27th July 2024, by selling a specially pressed CDr of unreleased tracks from the 'Culture Gun' sessions. It included the track 'Tyger! Tyger!', which is poetry by William Blake and William Butler Yeats set to an arrangement of Mud's 'Tiger Feet', and was limited to just 100 copies. It came housed in a gatefold sleeve and a plain, white paper inner, with a resealable, clear, outer protective cover, and obviously has since become one of the band's most collectible items. In case you didn't manage to get your hands on a copy, here it is for your enjoyment.  

Track listing

01 Tyger! Tyger!
02 Inherit
03 Bad Angel
04 Loyalty Cards / Unreliable Narrator
05 Cops
06 Album Of The Year
07 Underground Rocketship
08 Better

Stacie Orrico - Say It Again (2002)

Stacie Joy Orrico was born on 3 March 1986 in Seattle, Washington, and grew up influenced by a wide range of musical styles, becoming a member in the church choir where she often accompanied on the piano as the family sang Christian hymns. She got her start in music at the age of 12, by attending a Christian music festival, Praise in the Rockies, held in her then-home state of Colorado. Orrico inadvertently entered a high-stakes talent competition, where she won, and a ForeFront Records executive was on hand and approached her for a record deal. She later signed with them, and in 2001 she toured with Destiny's Child as their opening act on select dates of their Survivor tour in the United States. She recorded her first album when she was just 14 years old, and 'Genuine' was released in 2000, selling over 13,000 copies in the first week, the highest debut week sales ever for a female Christian artist. The album produced the hit single 'Don't Look At Me', which topped Christian charts for ten consecutive weeks, and all five singles from it went top ten in the charts. In 2001 she released a Christmas EP, consisting of six tracks made up of a mix of Christmas songs and carols. In 2002 she started recording her next album, which was intended to be a more mainstream record, titled 'Say It Again'. A track listing was put together and promo CD's distributed, before it was decided to scrap the album and start again. The songs 'Truth', 'Until I Find You', the cover of Billy Preston's 'That's The Way (God Planned It)', and 'Star Of My Story' were dropped and replaced with new recordings, and the ones which were kept were significantly different. The spoken intro to 'Bounce Back' was removed from the single version, 'Maybe I Won't Look Back' has a slightly different track from what would eventually be released, including the bridge being performed as a rap verse by Orrico, and 'Security' contained a rap verse from an uncredited Mat Kearney that was omitted from the released version. A couple of the scrapped tracks were later included on some Japanese editions of her album, while others have remained unreleased. The revamped 'Stacie Orrico' album was released in 2003, and charted in the US, the UK, and Australia, and the first mainstream single from this album was 'Stuck', which became a worldwide hit, reaching the Top 5 on the majority of the world's charts, followed by '(There's Gotta Be) More To Life', which reached number 12 in the UK. For any fans who are interested in hearing the album as it was originally intended, then here is 2002's 'Say It Again', the precursor to 2003's 'Stacie Orrico'. 

Track listing

01 Tight
02 Hesitation
03 Bounce Back
04 That's What Love's About
05 Truth
06 Intil I Find You
07 Maybe I Won't Look Back
08 That's The Way (God Planned It)
09 Star Of My Story
10 Security (feat. Mat Kearney)

The Dodos - Music From The Funhouse (1967)

If 'Sgt. Pepper...' cracked the egg of psychedelic pop earlier this year, 'Music From The Funhouse' by The Dodos smashes it on the floor, paints a moustache on the yolk, and invites you to dance to its surreal ride through the acid-drenched annals of time. The album opens with 'The Big Parade', a brassy, clattering number that marches out of the gate like a ragtag circus. It’s a dizzying overture, complete with luscious strings, marching band drums, and cryptic lyrics. It's as much a declaration of artistic intent as it is a giddy sonic prank. 'Funhouse Mirrors' slows things down but doesn’t let up on the weird, with the layered vocals and psychedelic sounds giving it an otherworldly feel. 'Crystalline Ballroom' is a shimmering ballad with fairy-tale lyrics, which ends wit a cacophony of sound effects, while 'Cotton Candy Tears' is actually quite a jaunty number, with some nice guitar-work. 'Up In The Air' is a buoyant track that filters early Kinks through a trapeze act, with a playful tempo and rich harmonies, giving it a sense of wonder that's impossible to resist. 'Did I Forget' harks back to their earlier work, and is a welcome break from the rampant psychedelia on offer so far, but we're soon back to the strangeness with 'The Clowns Scare Me', which is a deceptively catchy piece with paranoid lyrics and a great backwards guitar solo. The album closes with 'Hypercolour Kaleidoscope Cavalcade', which is six and half minutes of layered drones, backwards guitar loops, and heavily flanged vocals dripping with echo. 'Music From The Funhouse' has the makings of a cult classic, and with half of the twelve tracks hovering around the six-minute mark, it also gives the boys the chance to experiment, and play around with new sounds. It’s unafraid to be bizarre, and yet it’s filled with real melodic beauty and emotional depth. The Dodo's may be extinct in the mainstream, but in the funhouse of rock history, their music echoes on.

Track listing

01 The Big Parade 

02 Funhouse Mirrors

03 I Bumped My Head 

04 Time Flows So Slow

05 Why Wake Me? 

06 Crystalline Ballroom

07 Walk Through The Midway

08 Cotton Candy Tears 

09 Up In The Air

10 Did I Forget?

11 The Clowns Scare Me

12 Hypercolour Kaleidoscope Cavalcade

Mike Solof - Off The Beatle Track - Episode 73 (2019)

I think its about time for another episode of Mike Solof's excellent Beatles-O-Rama radio show, and this one is a bit of a departure from the usual in depth exploration of the Fab Four, as it looks at the political history of the 60's, with choice musical interludes which help explain what was happening during this period, and what the musicians of the time though of it.

 

Track listing

01 Episode 73 - Off Track With Just 4 Guys

U2 - Songs Of Ascent (2010) **UPDATE **

Listening to this album once more, I noticed that the guitar intro to 'Mercy' seemed extremely loud compared to the rest of the song, so I've toned it down a bit to blend in with the rest of the track. Soulseek and Mega updated, and link to the track on its own is in the comments. 

pj

Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb (2023) **UPDATE**

Since discovering this epic track on Youtube, I've probably played it about once a week, and while I'm in awe at the seamless edits, one little thing that niggled was the slight change in the fullness of the sound on a couple of the solos. I've therefore extracted them and boosted the bass on them a touch so that they blend in more with the music on either side. Hopefully it fractionally improves your enjoyment of this superb piece of music. Soulseek/Mega updated.

Track listing

01 Comfortably Numb

Frank Zappa - Chalk Pie (1982)

'Chalk Pie' was a live album planned for release in 1982, featuring music recorded on Frank Zappa's  1981 tour. When it was delivered to the folks at his label it was not greeted enthusiastically, as the previous year Zappa had released two double albums and one triple, and so not wanting to overload his fans with product they asked for a single album instead. Zappa capitulated, and presented them with 'Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch', which they released in 1982. Almost all of the material that makes up 'Chalk Pie' ended up being released on various Zappa albums throughout the 1980's, although there are quite a few things which you will only find on this version. Some fans have found it a much better album than '...Drowning Witch', as it contains some of Zappa's more enjoyable difficult compositions of the time, as opposed to the 'silly songs' that make up side one of that album. The first side of 'Chalk Pie' is the same as side two of '...Drowning Witch', but with a different mix of the title track, incorporating the group vocal section from a Santa Monica gig, Zappa's vocal section from the Chicago late show, the first guitar solo from The Ritz, and the second solo from the Chicago late show. As well as that, it all contains studio overdubs, some of which render the basic tracks almost unrecognizable. 

'Envelopes' and 'Teenage Prostitute' are also live with studio overdubs, while 'The Dangerous Kitchen' is the same recording as on 'The Man From Utopia' but mixed differently, giving more prominence to Steve Vai's guitar. 'Chalk Pie' is a different mix to that on the 'Guitar' album, and 'We're Turning Again' is a combination of recordings from Santa Monica and Salt Lake City. 'Alien Orifice' is an unreleased version from Salt Lake City, and 'The Jazz Discharge Party Hats' is the same mix as on 'The Man From Utopia'. 'The Torture Never Stops' guitar solo is a previously unreleased take, and 'What's New In Baltimore?' is a different mix to that on 'Frank Zappa Meets The Mothers Of Prevention', as the guitar solo is longer, and it has fewer studio overdubs. 'Moggio' is the same recording as used on 'The Man From Utopia', but a different mix, and it's followed by a previously unreleased take of the guitar solo from 'The Black Page #2'. 'Clownz on Velvet' is an unreleased recording from The Ritz in November 1981, with Al Di Meola guesting on lead guitar, and 'Frogs with Dirty Little Lips' features Zappa's son Ahmet. It's a shame that 'Chalk Pie' went unreleased, as the continuity is excellent, as is the track selection, and while this may not be for newcomers to Zappa's music, it's certainly an essential listen for fans of the great man. 

Track listing

01 Drowning Witch
02 Envelopes
03 Teen-Age Prostitute
04 The Dangerous Kitchen
05 Chalk Pie
06 We're Turning Again
07 Alien Orifice
08 The Jazz Discharge Party Hats
09 The Torture Never Stops - guitar solo 
10 What's New In Baltimore?
11 Moggio
12 The Black Page #2 - guitar solo 
13 Clownz On Velvet
14 Frogs With Dirty Little Lips

Sonny & Cher - This Good Earth (1970)

As 1967 became 1968, with two hit records and one flop movie, 'Good Times', representing Sonny & Cher's accomplishments for the year, Sonny Bono decided that movie stardom was the obvious future for Cher, with himself as auteur. As he threw himself into the film 'Chastity', recording output dwindled, with the duo cutting just two tracks in 1968. The first, 'Circus' was Bono's dump on psychedelic culture, with an atomic explosion for the record's finale, while the brassy 'You Gotta Have A Thing Of Your Own' was an improvement, but did no better in the charts than 'Circus'. As a business plan, there's some wisdom in diversifying into movies and general entertainment, and Bono was correct about Cher's potential as a superstar, but he bowdlerized the script of 'Chastity' to suit his opinions about modern girls, and despite some praise for Cher's acting, the resulting film was a flop. 1969 began tenuously, with Cher migrating to Atco as a solo artist with hopes of a musical revival, and she was taken to Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama, with an album green-lighted for an April release. Sonny & Cher's next single, the passably commercial duet 'You're A Friend Of Mine', failed to chart, and featured a solo Bono song on the flip, and to finalize their contract with Atco, Sonny & Cher once again reunited at Gold Star studios in early 1970 for 'Get It Together', which followed their last few singles in failing to bother the charts. Rumour has it that around this time Bono wanted to create an album which would repeat the success of 1965's 'Look At Us', and they decided to call it 'This Good Earth'. It was planned to be released after 1967's 'In Case You're In Love' album, maybe in 1970 or 1971, but their new record label Kapp Records issued 'Sonny & Cher Live' in 1971 instead, followed by 'All I Ever Need Is You' later the same year, and 'This Good Earth' was quietly forgotten. We know the names of six of the possible tracks, most of which were released as singles, and by adding a couple of stand-alone single releases from 1967, and some contemporary b-sides we have enough material to put together an approximation of what this album could have sounded like.   

Track listing

01 Circus  
02 You're A Friend Of Mine  
03 You Gotta Have A Thing Of Your Own  
04 Get It Together 
05 Hold You Tighter  
06 You And Me
07 Good Combination
08 I Would Marry You Today
09 She's No Better Than Me 
10 Just A Little
11 Gentle Foe
12 Plastic Man

Bruce Springsteen - Electric Nebraska (1982) **FINAL UPGRADE **

I can't seem to leave this post alone, and although I was 95% happy with what I'd done, I still felt that 'My Father's House' could be better, and so I listened to every version that I could find on Youtube until I found one from East Rutherford in 1984 which not only had an introduction, but was also superb sound quality. So in what I hope is the final upgrade to this post, here is the definitive version of 'My Father's House' to slot into your album. As before, both Soulseek and the main download have been updated, and the link for the single track is in the comments.    

I was quite pleased with how the two live recordings from the recent U2 post turned out after I removed the crowd noise to make them sound more like studio recordings, and it occurred to me that Bruce Springsteen's 'Electric Nebraska' could do with the same attention. The original post was a perfectly valid idea, in making it sound like a complete live concert using the same running order as the original acoustic album, but what we really wanted to hear was a studio quality version of this legendary album. Once I'd updated the first track I was astounded at the difference that it made, as when the song fades at the end and there is no cheering it really does sound like a studio recording, and so the rest of the tracks soon followed, and we now have as close to a true electric 'Nebraska' as I think we'll ever get. I've used the same live recordings as the original post, apart from a cleaner version of 'My Father's House', as they are generally regarded as the best electric versions of the songs, and I've just tweaked a couple of them to improve introductions, or to EQ them to match the other tracks, so give this a try and see what a real electric version of 'Nebraska' could have sounded like. 

Track listing

01 Nebraska

02 Atlantic City

03 Mansion On The Hill

04 Johnny 99

05 Highway Patrolman

06 State Trooper

07 Used Cars

08 Open All Night

09 My Father's House

10 Reason To Believe

I've left the original post in the links and on Soulseek, but renamed it 'Electric Nebraska Live', so that you can still download that if you don't already have it. 

The Blue Aeroplanes - Kings Of The Soap Box (2010)

The genesis of The Blue Aeroplanes started with the band The Art Objects, who consisted of Gerard Langley, his brother John Langley, and dancer Wojtek Dmochowski, and who were active from 1978 to 1981. The Blue Aeroplanes first performed under that name at the King Street Art Gallery in Bristol in 1981, with the trio augmented by Nick Jacobs, former guitarist and vocalist of Southampton band the Exploding Seagulls. The same line-up played three or four concerts over the next couple of years, either at the gallery or for benefits, including a Karl Marx centenary performance at the Victoria Rooms, with the addition of trumpet and didgeridoo. The band released their first album 'Bop Art' on their own Party Records in 1984, and it was rapidly picked up by Abstract Records in the US and Fire Records in the UK. It contained material that had been considered as a follow-up to Art Objects' only album, 'Bagpipe Music', but which was abandoned when that group split up. Gerard Langley's largely spoken poetic lyrics were combined with a heavily guitar-centric sound, and the band went on to release 'Tolerance' in 1985 and 'Spitting Out Miracles' in 1987, alongside several singles and EPs. In 1990 they released their most critically acclaimed album, 'Swagger', this time on a major label Chrysalis/Ensign, and this was followed by 'Beatsongs' in 1991, which was recorded in the United States and produced by Larry Hirsch. 

This second album on the major label was their highest charting, reaching no. 33 in the UK Albums Chart. The follow-up to 'Beatsongs' was delayed until 1994 after a change of label, and 'Life Model' was eventually released on the Beggars Banquet label, followed the next year by 'Rough Music'. A long break and another label change to Art Star preceded the release of 'Cavaliers' in 2000, and following negotiations with EMI, who now owned the rights to 'Swagger' and 'Beatsongs', The Blue Aeroplanes then made a surprise return to the major label, with EMI re-releasing 'Swagger Deluxe' as a 2-CD version in January 2006. This was followed by an album of new material called 'Altitude' later that year, released on EMI's Harvest imprint, and this prompted the band to record the 'Harvester' album, which consisted of covers of classic tracks that were originally recorded by artists on the Harvest label. The Blue Aeroplanes are still active, releasing their 'Culture Gun' album in 2022, and in their long career they released numerous non-album tracks as b-sides to their singles and on their EPs. Despite releasing two collections of these tracks, titled 'FriendLoverPlane' and FriendLoverPlane2', there are still recordings that remain uncompiled, and so this post aims to correct that by including every non-album track that the band have released between 1985 and 2010.    

Track listing

 
Disc I - 1985-1987
01 Action Painting (from the 'Action Painting And Other Original Works Of...' EP 1985)
02 Le Petit Cadeau De Don Juan (from the 'Action Painting And Other Original Works Of...' EP 1985)
03 Ashtrays From Mt. Etna (from the 'Action Painting And Other Original Works Of...' EP 1985)
04 Police (38 Divinity) (from the 'Action Painting And Other Original Works Of...' EP 1985)
05 I Wanna Be Your Lover (from the 'C85' compilation album 2022, recorded 1985)
06 Who Built This Situation In The Midwest (from the 'Lover & Confidante' EP 1986)
07 Weird Heart (from the 'Lover & Confidante' EP 1986)
08 Breaking In My Heart (from the 'Lover & Confidante' EP 1986)
09 The Couple In The Next Room (from the 'Tolerance' EP 1986)
10 Complete Blessing (from the 'Tolerance' EP 1986)
11 King Of The Soapbox (b-side of 'Bury Your Love Like Treasure' 1987)
12 Vice King's Son (b-side of 'Bury Your Love Like Treasure' 1987)
13 Continually Torn Apart (b-side of 'Bury Your Love Like Treasure' 1987)
14 Days Of 49 (free flexi-disc with 'Spitting Out Miracles' 1987, sung by Rodney Allen)

Disc II - 1988-1991
01 Veils Of Colour (single 1988)
02 Shame (from the 'Janice Long Sessions' EP 1988)
03 You (Are Loved) (from the 'Loved' EP 1990)
04 You're Going To Need Somebody (from the 'Loved' EP 1990)
05 Sweet Jane (from the 'Loved' EP 1990)
06 ...And Stones (The Gangley Bootleg Mix - Part I) (12" single only 1990)
07 Razor Walk (b-side of 'Jacket Hangs' 1990)
08 Different Now (b-side of 'Jacket Hangs' 1990)
09 Big Sky (b-side of 'Jacket Hangs' 1990)
10 Pony Boy (b-side of 'Yr Own World' 1991)
11 Mis-Firing (b-side of 'Yr Own World' 1991)
12 Autumn Journal XXIV (b-side of 'Yr Own World' 1991)

Disc III - 1991-2010
01 Talkin' On The Otherphone (b-side of 'Boy In The Bubble' 1991)
02 Disney Head (b-side of 'Boy In The Bubble' 1991)
03 Stranger (from a flexi-disc given away at a Bristol gig 1992)
04 Trouble, Tell Me I'm Alive (from a flexi-disc given away at a Bristol gig 1992)
05 Bad Moon Rising (from the 'Ruby Trax' compilation album 1992) 
06 Love Is (b-side of 'Broken & Mended' 1993)
07 Jack Of All Hearts (b-side of 'Detective Song' 1994)
08 Jealous Town (b-side of 'Detective Song' 1994)
09 It's Alright (b-side of 'Detective Song' 1994)
10 Stars In Your Crown (from the 'Beautiful Is' EP 2007)
11 China Brilliance Automotive (single 2010)
12 My Good Self (b-side of 'China Brilliance Automotive')

Morrissey - Bonfire Of Teenagers (2023) **UPGRADE**

Following my upgrade of Bruce Springsteen's 'Electric Nebraska', another post that consisted of mostly live recordings was my reconstruction of Morrissey's abandoned 2023 album 'Bonfire Of Teenagers'. Since first posting this in August 2024, Morrissey has now performed another of the missing tracks from it in concert, so we now have eight of the proposed songs in some form or another, and as before, I've replace two of the missing songs with ones from his other unreleased album 'Without Music The World Dies'. The main difference between this upgrade and 'Electric Nebraska' is that I've been able to source much cleaner versions of the live performances, and so as this a real upgrade on the version I posted last year, I've replaced that version with this one, as no-one should need the old one when they can have this.   

Track listing

01 I Am Veronica  
02 Rebels Without Applause
03 Kerouac's Crack  
04 Without Music The World Dies  
05 I Live In Oblivion  
06 Bonfire Of Teenagers  
07 Notre Dame  
08 I Ex-Love You    
09 Sure Enough, The Telephone Rings  
10 Saint In A Stained Glass Window

Bruce Springsteen - Electric Nebraska (1982) **UPGRADE**

I was quite pleased with how the two live recordings from the recent U2 post turned out after I removed the crowd noise to make them sound more like studio recordings, and it occurred to me that Bruce Springsteen's 'Electric Nebraska' could do with the same attention. The original post was a perfectly valid idea, in making it sound like a complete live concert using the same running order as the original acoustic album, but what we really wanted to hear was a studio quality version of this legendary album. Once I'd updated the first track I was astounded at the difference that it made, as when the song fades at the end and there is no cheering it really does sound like a studio recording, and so the rest of the tracks soon followed, and we now have as close to a true electric 'Nebraska' as I think we'll ever get. I've used the same live recordings as the original post, apart from a cleaner version of 'My Father's House', as they are generally regarded as the best electric versions of the songs, and I've just tweaked a couple of them to improve introductions, or to EQ them to match the other tracks, so give this a try and see what a real electric version of 'Nebraska' could have sounded like. 

Track listing

01 Nebraska

02 Atlantic City

03 Mansion On The Hill

04 Johnny 99

05 Highway Patrolman

06 State Trooper

07 Used Cars

08 Open All Night

09 My Father's House

10 Reason To Believe

I've left the original post in the links and on Soulseek, but renamed it 'Electric Nebraska Live', so that you can still download that if you don't already have it. 

U2 - Songs Of Ascent (2010)

In 2006 U2 began work on a new album with record producer Rick Rubin, but shelved most of the material from those sessions before beginning work with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois in May 2007 in Fez, Morocco. The exotic musical influences that the group were exposed to in Fez inspired them to pursue a more experimental sound, but as the sessions unfolded, the band decided to scale back the extent of those pursuits. Having grown tired of writing in the first-person, Bono wrote his lyrics from the perspective of different characters, and recording continued at several studios in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland throughout December 2008. 'No Line On The Horizon' had been intended to be released in November, but after composing 50 to 60 songs, they delayed it to continue writing. Prior to the album's release, U2 claimed that their time in Fez, as well as Eno's and Lanois' involvement, had resulted in a more experimental record than their previous two albums, and when it appeared in February 2009 it received generally favourable reviews, although many critics noted that it was not as experimental as previously suggested. The album debuted at number one in 30 countries, but did not sell as well as anticipated, and after expressing disappointment over the relatively low sales of five million copies (!), the band discussed plans to release a meditative follow-up album, 'Songs Of Ascent', which would be a sister release to 'No Line On The Horizon', similar to 'Zooropa''s relationship to 'Achtung Baby'. 

In June 2009, Bono said that although nine tracks had been completed, the album would only be released if its quality surpassed that of 'No Line On The Horizon', with 'Every Breaking Wave' being mooted as the first single. Over time, the album continued to be delayed, and in April 2010 U2's manager confirmed that the album would not be finished by June, but indicated that a release "before the end of the year was increasingly likely". In October 2010, Bono stated that their new album would be produced by Danger Mouse, and that twelve songs had been completed, with the album having a tentative release date of May 2011, although he noted that 'Songs Of Ascent' was no longer the likely title. In the end the 'Songs Of Ascent' project was ultimately abandoned, and after numerous delays, U2 digitally released their thirteenth album, 'Songs Of Innocence', on 9 September 2014 in a surprise release. The band appeared the same day at an Apple Inc. product launch event to announce the album, and reveal it was being released to all iTunes Store customers at no cost, for which they were universally ridiculed. There are several tracks on 'Songs Of Innocence' that were originally slated to be part of 'Songs Of Ascent', such as the original version of 'Every Breaking Wave', which they also performed as a piano ballad. 'Mercy' was originally played live as 'Luckiest Man In The World', while 'Glastonbury' was a punchy rocker that was relatively stripped down, but later became reduced to just a bridge section on 'Volcano', and we also had the instrumental song 'Return Of The Stingray Guitar', which later morphed into the b-side 'Lucifer's Hands'. With these tracks as a starting point, and adding in some rare b-sides, film soundtracks and live recordings of songs that never made it into the studio, we can piece together a credible track-listing for what the album might have sounded like, and so here is U2's follow-up to 'No Line On The Horizon', which should have appeared in 2010.   

Track listing

01 Soon

02 North Star

03 Boy Falls From The Sky

04 Mercy

05 Return Of The Stingray Guitar

06 Are You Gonna Wait Forever

07 Glastonbury

08 Smile

09 Levitate

10 Every Breaking Wave

11 Winter