Cud - Songs Called That (2022)

Cud was formed in Leeds, England in 1987 by Carl Puttnam on vocals, Mike Dunphy on guitar, William Potter on bass and Steve ‘The Infamous Drummer From Cud’ Goodwin on drums, after the four of them discovered the remains of a drum kit in a rubbish skip. Before they'd even released a single they were invited to record a session for Radio 1 DJ John Peel, after sending him a demo tape, and this led to them being signed to The Wedding Present's Reception Records, who released their first single 'Mind The Gap' in 1987. Their second release was the 12" 'Peel Sessions EP' in February 1988, including a cover of Hot Chocolate's 'You Sexy Thing', which had already featured in John Peel's Festive 50 at number 20. Two further 12" EP's followed in 1988, with 'Under My Hat' appearing on Ediesta Records and 'Slack Time' on Dug Records, before they signed to Imaginary Records in 1989. They released two albums for the label, 'When In Rome, Kill Me' in 1989, and 'Leggy Mambo' in 1990, plus the singles compilation 'Elvis Belt' after they left the label. The band had spent the two years since 'Mind The Gap' building up a small but fanatical following in the north of England, with a comical hybrid of funk and the uglier elements of independent music, helped by their desire to perform absurd versions of Hot Chocolate and Jethro Tull songs. 

However, 1990 brought a new sense of sanity and professionalism to the band, and so they signed to A&M Records in 1991, and their greater spending power enabled Cud to reach the UK top 30 in 1992, with 'Rich And Strange' entering at number 24 and 'Purple Love Balloon' at number 27. Their fourth album 'Asquarius' also hit the top 30 on the UK Albums Chart, and the band were labelled with the proto-Britpop genre label "Lion Pop", though at the time the NME did not further construct a scene around that term, meaning that Cud would miss out on the Britpop fame of the mid-'90s. Nevertheless, a further top 40 single followed in 1994 with 'Neurotica', whilst their last album 'Showbiz' would chart at number 46 on the UK Albums Chart in April 1994. Potter was replaced by Mick Dale in early 1995, and they recorded a number of tracks with him, but the band broke up before they could be commercially released. in 2006 Cud reformed to support the release of a double album of their greatest hits entitled 'Rich And Strange - The Anthology', and they performed a small tour to promote it, while the same line-up again reformed for a short tour early in 2008 to support the expanded re-releases of 'Leggy Mambo', 'Showbiz', and the retitled 'Elvis Belt/Elvis Handbag'. 

At their gig at the Barfly in Liverpool on 6 March 2008, Puttnam suggested, contrary to suggestions on the band's homepage, that the latest tour would be their last, and on 27 April 2008, Cud announced that their final ever gig (entitled "No more Cud!") would take place in Rio's Leeds on 3 May 2008, but two years later they were back again for two gigs during March 2010, held at the Hootananny Club in London, and then in 2012 the band did their "Jubilee tour" in support of their album 'The Complete BBC Sessions' released by 3Loop Music. In 2013, Steve Lamacq premiered Cud's first new single in 17 years, which was a double-A side titled 'Louise' / 'Mexico', and they followed that in 2014 with 'Victoria'. The band have continued to tour since then, and in September 2021 they released a new single entitled 'Switched On', followed in October 2022 by 'Sorry (I Let You Down)'. As so often happened with these 90's indie-pop bands, they treated their fans extremely well, by adding otherwise unavailable tracks to the flips of their singles, and so we are able to compile a four-disc set of non-album recordings, with the first three discs covering their classic period from 1987 to 1994, and the fourth one concentrating on their reunions between 2013 and 2022. 

Track listing

Disc I - 1987-1990
01 You Sexy Thing (promo split single with Electro Hippies 1987) 
02 Mind The Gap (single 1987)
03 You're The Boss (b-side of 'Mind The Gap')
04 Under My Hat (single 1988)
05 Punishment-Reward Relationship (b-side of 'Under My Hat')
06 Art! (b-side of 'Under My Hat')
07 Slack Time (single 1988)
08 Make No Bones (b-side of 'Slack Time')
09 Lola (single 1989)
10 Living In The Past (b-side of 'Only (A Prawn In Whitby Bay)' 1989)
11 Everybody Works So Hard (b-side of 'Only (A Prawn In Whitby Bay)' 1989)
12 Hey!Wire (single 1990)
13 Purple Love Balloon (b-side of 'Hey!Wire')
14 Remember What It Is That You Love (split single with Family Cat 1990)

Disc II - 1990-1992
01 L.O.P.H.E. (from the 'Robinson Crusoe' EP 1990)
02 Plantation Island (from the 'Robinson Crusoe' EP 1990)
03 Backdoor Santa (flexi single 1990)
04 Marjorie (b-side of 'Magic' 1991)
05 Oh No Won't Do (single 1991)
06 Profession (b-side of 'Oh No Won't Do' 1991)
07 Ariel (b-side of 'Oh No Won't Do' 1991)
08 Price Of Love (b-side of 'Oh No Won't Do' 1991)
09 Undoubtedly Thomas (b-side of 'Through The Roof' 1992)
10 Prime Cut (b-side of 'Through The Roof' 1992)
11 Do It Again (b-side of 'Rich And Strange' 1992)
12 A Song Called That (b-side of 'Rich And Strange' 1992)

Disc III - 1992-1994
01 Down Down (from the 'Ruby Trax' compilation 1992)
02 Day By Day (b-side of 'Once Again' 1992)
03 Cud's Ode To Christmas Joy (single 1992)
04 1.W.G.S. (b-side of 'Neurotica' 1994)
05 Juicy Eureka (b-side of 'Neurotica' 1994)
06 Brand Name Skin (b-side of 'Neurotica' 1994)
07 My Need To Hurry (b-side of 'Sticks And Stones' 1994)
08 Ski Bum (b-side of 'Sticks And Stones' 1994)
09 Down The Plug (b-side of 'Sticks And Stones' 1994)
10 My Keyhole Don't Keep Secrets Anymore (b-side of 'Sticks And Stones' 1994)
11 Look On Up At The Bottom (b-side of 'One Giant Love' 1994)
12 Find It (b-side of 'One Giant Love' 1994)

Disc IV - 2013-2022
01 Louise (single 2013)
02 Mexico (b-side of 'Louise')
03 Victoria (single 2014)
04 Superstar (b-side of 'Victoria')
05 Justin O'Shea Situation (b-side of 'Victoria')
06 Switched On (single 2021)
07 I Like It Better (When You're Not Around) (b-side of 'Switched On')
08 Sorry I Let You Down (single 2022)
09 ABCD (Loving Is The Glue) (b-side of 'Sorry I Let You Down')
10 (I Can't Take Back) What I Said To You (b-side of 'Sorry I Let You Down')

A-ha - Rendezvous (1984)

A-ha (often stylised as a-ha) were formed in Oslo in 1982, and consisted of lead vocalist Morten Harket, guitarist Paul Waaktaar (then known as Pål Waaktaar), and keyboardist Magne Furuholmen. Shortly after getting together, they left Norway for London in order to make a career in music, and they named themselves A-ha after Harket spotted a song called 'A-ha' in Waaktaar's songbook, and although he thought it was a terrible song, it was a great name. In April 1983, with funds running low, they booked themselves into a small Sydenham studio, Rendezvous, run by a man called John Ratcliff. The band ended up at Rendezvous almost by accident, allegedly booking it because it had a Space Invaders machine, but Ratcliff proved a generous patron when the band were at a low ebb, paying for them to make additional demos of the songs he thought were strongest, and renting them a flat at 221 Dartmouth Road, about 200 metres from the studio. Ratcliff introduced them to his manager, Terry Slater, and A-ha enlisted Ratcliff as a manager as well, with Slater and Ratcliff forming TJ Management, in which Ratcliff dealt with technical and musical aspects and Slater acted as the group's international business manager. One of the demo tracks recorded at Rendezvouz was called 'Lesson One', but before long it had been reworked into their breakthrough hit 'Take On Me', and with Ratcliffe's help in getting them a record deal with Warner Bros Records, it became their first single in 1984. 

After it failed to chart, the song was re-recorded again with production by Alan Tarney, and when this also failed to chart it was finally re-released in 1985 with a new, ground-breaking video, and this time the song peaked at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and at number two on the UK Singles Chart. The video used a pencil-sketch animation/live-action combination called rotoscoping, in which individual frames of film are drawn over or coloured, and it became one of the most instantly recognizable and most enduringly popular music videos in the US. It was nominated for eight awards at the third annual MTV Video Awards in 1986, winning six, including Best New Artist in a Video, Best Concept Video, Best Direction, Best Special Effects, Viewer's Choice and Best Video of the Year. A couple of other tracks demoed at Rendezvous were later re-worked for the band's debut album, 'Hunting High And Low', but many of the songs remained unheard until they were included on a free CD with the audiobook edition of the band's book 'The Swing Of Things' in 2004. Even then, not all of the Rendezvous demos were included, and so I've tracked down the missing songs, and we now have all of the tracks that the band recorded at the studio in 1983 and 1984. 'Days On End' features guitarist Waaktaar on piano and Harket on trombone, with the original title being 'If You Do', while 'Presenting Lily Mars' was inspired by the 1943 film of the same name, and was intended as a possible b-side or album track, and a couple of lines from these demos were later used in the songs 'And You Tell Me' and 'Dream Myself Alive'. So here are all these rarities now collected together on one album, titled after the studio where they were recorded. 

Track listing

01 Take On Me
02 Days On End
03 Never Never
04 Monday Mourning
05 The Love Goodbye
06 Go To Sleep
07 Umbrella
08 Hunting High And Low
09 And You Tell Me
10 I've Been Losing You
11 Love Is Reason
12 The Swing Of Things

Soulseek hint - a-ha aiwe (all lower case)

Jay-Z - Black Gangster (2000)

Following the release of 'Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life' in 1998, and it's general critical acclaim, Jay-Z collaborated with Mariah Carey on 'Heartbreaker', a song from her seventh album, 'Rainbow', which was released in 1999. The song became Jay-Z's first chart-topper in the U.S., spending two weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and in that same year, he released his fourth album, 'Vol. 3... Life And Times of S. Carter'. This was another hit record, selling over three million copies, and the most successful single from it was 'Big Pimpin', featuring UGK, which peaked at number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2000 he released 'The Dynasty: Roc La Familia', which was originally intended to be a compilation album for Roc-A-Fella artists, but Def Jam decided that it was to be a Jay-Z album. It did, however, help to introduce newcomer producers The Neptunes, Just Blaze, Kanye West, and Bink, all of whom have gone on to achieve notable success. This is also the first album where Jay-Z utilizes a more soulful sound than on his previous albums, and while not quite as successful as '..'Life And Times...', it's still sold over two million units in the U.S. alone. This third post from Jay-Z features mostly unreleased tracks recorded between 1998 and 2000, and includes the 'Heartbreaker' single, which never appeared on one of his own albums, plus collaborations with Lil Kim and Mya. 

Track listing

01 So Right (remix) (feat. The Lox) 
02 Love Is Love 
03 What The Game Made Me (feat. Memphis Bleek & Sauce Money) 
04 From Marcy To Hollywood (feat. Memphis Bleek & Sauce Money)
05 Heartbreaker

06 4 Alarm Blaze (feat. Mop)
07 Love For Free (feat. Rell) 
08 Black Gangster
09 Queen Bitch (remix) (feat. Lil Kim)
10 Is That Your Chick (The Lost Verses) (remix) (feat. Memphis Bleek & Twista) 
11 Best Of Me (remix) (feat. Mya)

Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion III (1991)

The 'Use Your Illusion' albums represent a turning point in the sound of Guns N' Roses, as although the band did not abandon the aggressive hard-rock sound it had become known for with 1987's 'Appetite For Destruction', 'Use Your Illusion I' demonstrated a more diverse sound, incorporating elements of blues, classical music, heavy metal, punk rock, and classic rock and roll. This is exemplified by the use of piano on several tracks by singer Axl Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed. Another factor in the different sound compared to the band's earlier work is the addition of former The Cult drummer Matt Sorum, who replaced Steven Adler, after he was fired from the group due to his heroin addiction. Besides the stylistic differences, another new aspect in 'Use Your Illusion I' was longer songs, with the epic ballad 'November Rain' clocking in at nearly nine minutes, and 'Coma' being more than 10 minutes long. A few songs were even sung by other members of the band, with Izzy Stradlin taking lead vocals on 'Dust N' Bones', 'You Ain't The First', 'Double Talkin' Jive', and '14 Years', while 'So Fine' was sung by Duff McKagan. The band had some difficulty achieving the final sound they wanted, and after mixing 21 tracks with engineer/producer Bob Clearmountain, the band decided to scrap the mixes and start from scratch with engineer Bill Price of Sex Pistols fame. Released at midnight on 17 September 1991, the albums were among the most anticipated in rock history, although despite expectations of sales reaching the likes of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' or Bruce Springsteen's 'Born In The U.S.A.', they ultimately underperformed domestically, but were still commercially successful enough to become the first albums by one band or artist to enter the US charts at the number one and two spots.

Reception to 'Use Your Illusion I' was mainly positive, and it is regarded as the heavier-sounding album of the two, due in part to the influence of Izzy Stradlin, although some critics bemoaned the amount of filler on the record, while 'Use Your Illusion II' was the slightly more popular of the two, selling a record 770,000 copies in its first week, against 'Use Your Illusion I's first-week sales of 685,000. Both albums have covers courtesy of Estonian-American artist Mark Kostabi, which consists of a detail from Raphael's painting 'The School of Athens', with each using a different colour scheme for the same picture. Because they were recording songs for two albums at the same time, they over-estimated how much material would be needed, and so after the final track-listings were finalised there were a number of tracks left over, which have leaked inline over the years. There are currently enough reasonable recordings out there to compile a third album in the series, and so here is 'Use Your Illusion III' to complete the trilogy. 'Sentimental Movie' features a Slash vocal, 'Cornshucker' was written and demoed by Steve Adler, while 'The Plague' was originally just a 54 second snippet, but it's been remixed by Youtuber 5agge into a full length song by adding in segments of other tracks, and as it sounded pretty good I've included it here. 

Track listing

01 Ain't Goin' Down
02 Just Another Sunday
03 Bring It Back Home
04 Crash Diet
05 Too Fast To Live
06 Shallow
07 The Plague
08 Sentimental Movie
09 Cornshucker

10 Too Much Too Soon
11 It Tastes Good, Don't It

'The Plague' audio sources:
'The Plague' (1986)
'Welcome To The Jungle' (1987)
'Ain't Going Down' (1990-1991)
'Back Off Bitch' (1991)
'Down On The Farm' (1993)

Charlotte Church - I Can Dream (2014)

If you know the name Charlotte Church at all, it's almost certainly as the pre-teen singing sensation who won 'The Big, Big Talent Show' in 1997, and then went on to sign a contract with Sony Music, and to release her first album, 'Voice Of An Angel' in 1998, when she was just 12 years old. The collection of arias, sacred songs, and traditional pieces sold millions worldwide, and made her the youngest artist to have a No. 1 album on the British classical crossover charts. In 2000 she released 'Dream A Dream', an album of Christmas carols, and in 2001 she added pop, swing, and Broadway into her repertoire with her album 'Enchantment', which in turn led to her first all-pop album in 2005, with 'Tissues And Issues'. Four singles were released from it, with the most successful being 'Crazy Chick', which reached number two in the UK charts. In November 2006, it was announced that she and Sony had parted ways, which according to her publicist was a mutual decision reached after a series of meetings throughout the year, although there was speculation that her pop releases' chart performance contributed to the decision. Although she announced that she would be working on new music in 2008, it was to be another two years before we heard from her again, when she appeared on 'Friday Night With Jonathan Ross' on 13 March 2010, and confirmed that she had already begun writing and recording her sixth studio album. 'Back To Scratch' was duly released on Dobby Records in the UK on 25 October 2010, together with the title track preceding it as the lead single. However, in March 2011 it was announced that she had ended her US$3 million deal with Power Amp Music over promotional disputes, and consequently 'Back To Scratch' never received a US release. 

The main reason for this post is that I have just listened to a podcast interview with Church, speaking with comedian Richard Herring, and she discussed the real reason for leaving her US contract, which was that they refused to let her record an album of the music that she loved, which was nu-soul and R&B, and in particular the music of Jill Scott. She therefore left the label and set up her own studio in her garage, where she was able to record the music that she wanted, and to release them independently on her own label, Alligator Wine Records. The result was four CD-EPs, with 'One' coming out in 2012, followed by 'Two' and 'Three' in 2013, and 'Four' in 2014, and the music contained on them is very different to anything that had been heard from her in the past, with scything electric guitars evident on songs from 'Three' and 'Four', and burbling keyboards throughout, while her vocals range from the ethereal to the dynamic. All four EPs are extremely rare, and were almost impossible to locate, but I really wanted to hear them after listening to the interview, and so when I did finally track them down it was a no-brainer to post some of the music on the blog. To my mind, 'Three' and 'Four' contain her most impressive songs, and so this album is made up of most of the tracks from those two EP's, with the rest of them following later on a more ballad-orientated disc. The cover might seem a bit edgy for an album from a former child star, but it is the actual cover for the 'Two' EP, with just her name and the title added, which seemed to fit the image perfectly.   

Track listing

01 House Upon The Sea
02 Love Alone
03 Magician's Assistant   
04 Remains
05 Like A Fool
06 I Can Dream
07 Little Movements
08 Hood Shade
09 Entanglement
10 Water Tower  
11 Love

If you'd like to listen to the whole interview then you can find it here.

Bridgit Mendler - Skeleton (2015)

Bridgit Claire Mendler was born on 18 December 1992 in Washington, D.C., moving with her family to Mill Valley, California, at the age of eight. It was there where she first expressed an interest in acting, and when she was eight years old she began taking part in local roles in both dramatic and musical theatre, becoming the youngest performer in the San Francisco Fringe Festival. In 2004 she got her first voice acting role in the animated Indian film 'The Legend Of Buddha', in which she portrayed young Buddha, and the next year she got her first acting role as a guest star on the soap opera 'General Hospital'. In 2007 she made her film debut in the film adaption of the Alice series, titled 'Alice Upside Down', starring alongside Disney Channel actress Alyson Stoner and Lucas Grabeel. In 2009 she became a recurring character in the Disney Channel series 'Wizards Of Waverly Place', appearing in a total of eleven episodes, spanning from 2009 to 2012, when the series ended. In 2011 she starred as Olivia White, the lead role in the Disney Channel Original Movie 'Lemonade Mouth', for which she performed numerous songs for the film's soundtrack, which was released on 12 April 2011 by Walt Disney Records. Two singles were released from the soundtrack, with 'Somebody' peaking at number 89 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and 'Determinate' managing to reach number 51. On 31 March 2011 it was confirmed that Mendler had signed with Hollywood Records, and had begun working on her debut album, while at the same time starring in the Disney Channel Original Movie 'Good Luck Charlie, It's Christmas!', featuring the song 'I'm Gonna Run To You', which was released as a promotional single on 12 November 2011. In Summer 2012, she confirmed that the title of her official debut single was her own co-write 'Ready Or Not', which peaked at number 49 in the United States, but which reached the top twenty of a number of European countries. 

Mendler's debut album, 'Hello My Name Is...', was released on 22 October by Hollywood Records and all the songs were written by Mendler with collaborators, as well as her being involved in its production. The album charted in several countries including Poland, Australia, United Kingdom, France and Spain, and her vocals have been compared to Lily Allen, Cher Lloyd, and Jessie J. A second single was extracted from the album, with 'Hurricane' hitting the number 1 spot on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100. On 25 November 2014, Mendler was announced as a member of the main cast of the NBC comedy series 'Undateable' in season two, and she stayed with the show until its cancellation after the third series. Having left Hollywood Records in 2015 and signed to Black Box Records, she began working on new music the following year, and her 'Atlantis' single was released in August 2016, followed by the EP 'Nemesis' in November. In October she was was cast as Ashley Willerman on the fifth season of the CMT television series 'Nashville', and then the next year she landed the lead role in the Fox comedy television pilot 'Thin Ice', although the network ultimately passed on the pilot in May. Her acting work during this period didn't leave much time to work on her music, and so after one last single 'Diving' in August 2017, her second album was shelved, and her music career was put on hold. So for any fans who would like to hear more from her, here is her unusually titled shelved second album from 2016, with artwork that she says she wanted to represent some of the more soul-bearing songs on the album. 

Track listing

01 How To Do
02 I Fought The Love
03 Deeper Shade Of Us
04 Catalyst
05 Dedication
06 Coins In The Air
07 Timeless
08 Flowers
09 Cold
10 Snap My Fingers
11 Library
12 While You Were Sleeping

Trevor Rabin - 90124 (1981)

Trevor Charles Rabin was born on 13 January 1954 in Johannesburg, South Africa, into a family of musicians. His mother, Joy, was a painter, ballet dancer, actress, and classical pianist, and his father, Godfrey, was a lawyer, musician, conductor, and the lead violinist in the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra. With this background it's no wonder he took up the piano at the age of 6, and at twelve he started to teach himself the guitar using piano exercise books, never having had a formal lesson in the instrument. A year later he played in The Other, before forming Conglomeration, and later joining Freedom's Children for a one-year stint until 1973. At sixteen, he was discovered by a local record producer and became a session musician, playing a variety of styles including jazz, fusion, country, classical, conga, and kwela. In 1972, Rabin reunited with his bandmates in Conglomeration to form the rock band Rabbitt, with drummer Neil Cloud, bassist Ronnie Robot, and singer, keyboardist, and guitarist Duncan Faure, releasing their debut album 'Boys Will Be Boys' in 1975. This included a re-recording of the band's 1972 single, a cover of Jethro Tull's 'Locomotive Breath', and Rabin won an award for his orchestral arrangements. Rabbitt's second album, 'A Croak And A Grunt In The Night', was released in 1977, while Rabin was still pursuing a career as a session musician, and he released two albums under the pseudonym Trevor Terblanche. 

In 1977, Rabin recorded and released his first solo album, 'Beginnings', for RPM Records, playing all the instruments except the drums, for which he used session player Kevin Kruger. Also in 1977 Rabbitt agreed to a distribution deal with the US label Capricorn Records, but they were unable to tour abroad due to the international disapproval of South Africa's apartheid policies, and restrictions on South Africans obtaining visas. The situation became a catalyst for Rabin to leave the country, and in 1978 he arrived in London to continue his solo career. By July he'd struck a recording deal with Chrysalis Records, and in September 1978 they reissued a remixed and re-ordered version of his debut solo album under the name 'Trevor Rabin'. In 1979, he released his second solo album, 'Face To Face', promoting the album with a UK tour as an opening act for guitarist Steve Hillage. Rabin's third solo album for Chrysalis was 'Wolf', released in 1980 and co-produced with Ray Davies at his Konk Studios in London, with Rabin providing lead vocals, guitars, and keyboards, and using other musicians for the parts he didn't play, including drummer Simon Phillips, bassists Jack Bruce and Mo Foster, keyboardists Manfred Mann and John Bundrick, and Chris Thompson and Noel McCalla on additional vocals. Following its release, Rabin severed ties with Chrysalis as he felt the label did little to promote the album, and he moved to Los Angeles in 1981 to begin to develop material for a fourth solo album for his new label Geffen. 

During this time David Geffen also put him in contact with musicians that went on to form the supergroup Asia, but at an early rehearsal he felt his songs were not suitable for the group, which led to the label dropping him. Rabin then sent a tape of his new songs to various labels, including Clive Davis at Arista Records, who praised his vocals but deemed his songs unsuitable for the Top 40 format. RCA Records executive Ron Fair was impressed enough to offer Rabin a solo deal, which was declined after Rabin decided to work with bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White, formerly of the progressive rock band Yes, after his demos were discovered by producer Mutt Lange and Phil Carson of Atlantic Records. In late 1982, Rabin, Squire and White formed Cinema, which included original Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye, and they recorded '90125' with former Yes singer Trevor Horn as producer. Based mostly on Rabin's demos, the album displayed a more commercial and pop-oriented direction, much different than their progressive rock-themed albums in the 1970's, but during the mixing stages in mid-1983, former Yes singer Jon Anderson returned to sing on the album, which led to the group becoming a reformed line-up of Yes. 

Rabin was uncomfortable with the decision, feeling the new music did not represent what the band had become popular for, and wished for the album to be judged on its own merits as by the band Cinema. '90125' was released in 1983, and remains the band's highest selling album, with three million copies sold in the US alone, helped by its Rabin-penned lead single 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart', which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Before Anderson returned to the fold and Cinema became a Yes reunion, Rabin was very much in charge of the recording, with half the songs being his own, augmented by other members of the band. In fact, the demos that Lange and Carson heard could easily have been polished into an extremely good rock album under his own name, and as one of his demos has since appeared on a re-issue of '90125', and others on his own 2003 compilation, then we can now hear what a Rabin-helmed version of '90125' could have sounded like. This album includes his demos of four songs that Yes took on, as well as 'Fools' which was a precursor to 'Hearts', while 'I'm With You' was developed by Yes, but along with 'Would You Feel My Love' were both left off the final track-listing. Other tracks were demos for Cinema that remained unreleased, and so I've salvaged them from the vaults to make up Rabin's own version of '90125', which as it's essentially a preview of that album, is titled '90124'. 

Track listing

01 Owner Of A Lonely Heart  
02 Hold On  
03 It Can Happen           
04 Changes  
05 It's Over  
06 Would You Feel My Love   

07 Fools             
08 I'm With You
09 Don't Give In

Jay-Z - HOVA (1997)

Following the critical success of 1995's 'Reasonable Doubt', which was later included in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time at No. 248, Jay-Z struck a distribution deal with Def Jam Records in 1997, and they released the follow-up 'In My Lifetime, Vol. 1', featuring production by Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, DJ Premier, and Ski, and which went on to earn platinum status in the United States. In 1998 he released 'Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life', which spawned the biggest hit of his career at the time, 'Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)'. This relied more on flow and wordplay, and he continued with his penchant for mining beats from the popular producers of the day such as Swizz Beatz, an upstart in-house producer for Ruff Ryders, and Timbaland. Other producers included DJ Premier, Erick Sermon, The 45 King, and Kid Capri, and other charting hits from the album were 'Can I Get A...', featuring Ja Rule and Amil, and 'Nigga What, Nigga Who', featuring Amil and Jaz-O. 'Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life' would eventually become Jay-Z's most commercially successful album, selling over five million copies, and winning a Grammy Award. During the making of these two albums, he recorded a number of tracks with artists such as Sauce Money, Horace Brown, Lord Tariq & Nas, Jaz-O, and Tone Hooker, none of which have ever been officially released, and so for the second post in this look back at the career of Jay-Z, here are some of those tracks that he recorded between 1995 and 1997. 'Dead Presidents' is the 1995 promo release with the original verses which were removed from 'Dead Presidents II' when it appeared on 'Reasonable Doubt', and 'In My Lifetime' is the original Ski Street version.   

 

Track listing

01 Reach The Top
02 Dead Presidents
03 In My Lifetime
04 HOVA
05 Dead Or Alive Pt. 1 (Sauce Money)
06 Things You Do For Love (feat. Horace Brown)
07 Analyze This (feat. Lord Tariq & Nas)
08 If You Want It (feat. Tone Hooker)
09 Foundation (feat. Jaz-O, Sauce Money & Tone Hooker)
10 Dead Or Alive Pt. 2 (feat. Sauce Money)
11 Bring Back Your Love (feat. Christion)

The Cardigans - Rise & Shine (1992)

As a follow-up to my recent post from The Cardigans, the demo that I mentioned that the band recorded in their flat was eventually released as two limited edition EP's, 'In Search Of Pooh' and 'The World According To...', both consisting of four tracks each, and being released in Sweden in 1992 on the appropriately named Flat Records label. This left three recordings which were not available for general consumption, but luckily the whole demo is available if you know where to find it, and so here is the very first appearance on tape of The Cardigans, recorded in late 1992, and with Nina Persson providing lead vocals on about half of the tracks. It might not sound very much like the band that we know and love today, but it was good enough to get them a record deal, and so we should be thankful that A&R man Ola Hermanson heard something in them that he liked.     

   
Track listing

01 Rise & Shine
02 Happy Here
03 Wrapped
04 Hard
05 Treasure
06 The Rescue Of The Man Next Door
07 Pooh Song
08 Dig My Earth
09 Simon Says
10 Celebration
11 Fine

The Triffids - Night Of The Triffids (1989)

Perth high school students David McComb (acoustic and bass guitars and vocals) and Alan "Alsy" MacDonald (drums and vocal), formed Dalsy as a multimedia project in 1976, making music, books and photographs. They wrote and performed songs with Phil Kakulas on guitars and vocals, and later all three formed The Blackeyed Susans, then Blök Musik, and finally Logic, just for one day. In May 1978 they renamed themselves The Triffids, after John Wyndham's post-apocalyptic novel 'The Day Of The Triffids', and they were soon joined by Andrew McGowan on guitar and Julian Douglas-Smith on piano, and when Byron Sinclair joined on bass guitar in September, McComb switched to rhythm guitar. The band originally began partly in response to the punk rock movement, with McComb writing over 100 original songs between 1978 and 1981, and the band recorded and independently released them on six cassette tapes over those four years. By 1979, Kakulas and Sinclair had left and were replaced by David's older brother, Robert McComb on violin and guitar, and Will Akers on bass guitar, being joined in 1980 by Margaret Gillard on keyboards. In July 1981 they released their first single, 'Stand Up', on the Shake Some Action label, recorded with Mark Peters briefly replacing MacDonald on drums. Gillard and Akers left in February 1982 and were replaced by Jill Yates on keyboards and a returning Sinclair, and April saw the release of 'Reverie', a four-track EP on Resonant Records. 

By mid-year Sinclair had left again, and Martyn P. Casey joined the band on bass guitar, and the four-piece of Casey, MacDonald and the McComb brothers, signed to Mushroom Records' White Label in Melbourne, and released the 'Spanish Blue' single in October 1982, followed by the 'Bad Timing And Other Stories' EP in March 1983. By this time they'd been joined by Jill Birt on piano, organ and vocals, and after being let go by Mushroom Records following the release of their last EP, they signed with new Australian independent label Hot Records. The band's self-produced debut album on the label, 'Treeless Plain', was released in November 1983 to some critical acclaim, but they decided not to release any singles from it, and so their next 7" was 1984's 'Beautiful Waste', followed by the 'Raining Pleasure' 12" EP in July. By mid-1984, The Triffids had spent so much time travelling between Perth in the west and Sydney on the east coast of Australia that they decided to travel that little bit further and headed to Europe, with the aim of giving themselves three months to make inroads into the UK. In late August 1984 the band relocated to London, where 'Treeless Plain' and 'Raining Pleasure' had been issued by Rough Trade Records to critical acclaim, and in just six months they had graced the January 1985 cover of the influential UK magazine NME. In November 1984, they recorded 'Field Of Glass', a three track 12" EP, performed mostly live in BBC Studio 5 in London, and it was released in February 1985. 

In early 1985, the band acquired their final permanent member, Graham Lee, and this new line-up recorded the 'You Don't Miss Your Water' 12" EP, with the title track being a countrified version of the William Bell classic, and it was released in August by Hot Records. During 1985 the band toured Europe, with their performances being praised by the European press, but they were struggling to get a UK record deal, and so they recorded their next album, 'Born Sandy Devotional', in London with Gil Norton producing, and it was released in March 1986 on Hot Records, with 'Wide Open Road' being taken from it as the lead single. While waiting for 'Born Sandy Devotional' to be released, the band recorded 'In the Pines' in early 1986, using basic eight-track equipment in the shearing shed at the McCombs' family property in Ravensthorpe. It was issued in January 1987 and took The Triffids deeper into folk and country music, with a lo-fi sensibility reminiscent of Bob Dylan's 'Basement Tapes'. Following the critical success of their last two albums, the band were courted by several UK major record labels, eventually signing a three-record contract with Island Records in the UK in November 1986. Between April and August 1987, the band worked again with Norton, to record 'Calenture', their Island Records debut, and the album, which was released in February 1988, saw them explore themes of insanity, deception and rootlessness, with the title referring to a fever suffered by sailors during long hot voyages. 

By 1988, their fame was such that NME invited them to contribute a cover version of the Beatles' song 'Good Morning Good Morning' to a tribute album, 'Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father', alongside songs by Billy Bragg and Wet Wet Wet. The Triffids wanted to record their next album in Australia, but after the 'Calenture' experience Island wanted to keep the band nearby, and so 'The Black Swan' was recorded between September and October 1988 in Somerset, UK, and produced and engineered by Stephen Street. It was well received by critics, but was not a commercial success, and the disappointment which that engendered, plus being tired from the constant travelling and touring, led to The Triffids breaking up. The group travelled to the US in 1989 for a pair of New York dates, before taking a much-needed vacation, which turned out to be permanent. It was the sad end of a much-loved band, and they are rightly regarded as one of the very best groups to come out of Australia, and so as a tribute to them, here are all the non-album tracks that they recorded during their career, and if you don't know the band and you like what you hear, then do try their official albums, as every one of them contains an abundance of superb music.

Track listing

Disc I - 1981-1984
01 Stand Up (single 1981)
02 Farmers Never Visit Nightclubs (b-side of 'Stand Up')
03 Reverie (from the 'Reverie' EP 1981)
04 Place In The Sun (original recording from the 'Reverie' EP 1981)
05 Joan Of Arc (from the 'Reverie' EP 1981)
06 This Boy (from the 'Reverie' EP 1981)
07 Spanish Blue (single 1982)
08 Twisted Brain (b-side of 'Spanish Blue')
09 Bad Timing (from the 'Bad Timing And Other Stories' EP 1983)
10 Left To Rot (from the 'Bad Timing And Other Stories' EP 1983)
11 Being Driven (from the 'Bad Timing And Other Stories' EP 1983)
12 Snake Pit (from the 'Bad Timing And Other Stories' EP 1983)
13 Beautiful Waste (single 1984)

Disc II - 1984-1987
01 Bright Lights Big City (from the 'Field Of Glass' EP 1984) 
02 Monkey On My Back (from the 'Field Of Glass' EP 1984) 
03 Field Of Glass (from the 'Field Of Glass' EP 1984) 
04 You Don't Miss Your Water (Till Your Well Runs Dry) (single 1985)
05 Convent Walls (b-side of 'You Don't Miss Your Water (Till Your Well Runs Dry)')
06 Time Of Weakness (b-side of 'Wide Open Road' 1986)
07 Dear Miss Lonely Hearts (b-side of 'Wide Open Road' 1986)
08 Native Bride (b-side of 'Wide Open Road' 1986)
09 Baby Can I Walk You Home (b-side of 'Bury Me Deep In Love' 1987)
10 Region Unknown (b-side of 'Bury Me Deep In Love' 1987)

Disc III - 1988-1989
01 Love The Fever (b-side of 'A Trick Of The Light' 1988)
02 Bad News Always Reminds Me Of You (b-side of 'A Trick Of The Light' 1988)
03 Everything You Touch Turns To Time (b-side of 'A Trick Of The Light' 1988)
04 Good Morning, Good Morning (b-side of 'Holy Water' 1988)
05 You Minus Me (b-side of 'Falling Over You' 1989)
06 Can't Help Falling In Love (b-side of 'Falling Over You' 1989)
07 Go Home Eddie (b-side of 'Goodbye Little Boy' 1989)
08 Shell Of The Man (b-side of 'Goodbye Little Boy' 1989)
09 Rent (b-side of 'Bury Me Deep In Love' re-issue 1989)
10 Into The Groove (b-side of 'Bury Me Deep In Love' re-issue 1989)
11 Jack's Hole (bonus track from the re-issue of 'Black Swan', recordedm1989)
12 How Could I Help But Love You (bonus track from the re-issue of 'Black Swan', recorded 1989)

Kanye West - Thank God For Drugs (2013)

Following the release of the acclaimed 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' in 2010, Kanye West embarked on a couple of collaborative efforts, recording 'Watch The Throne' with Jay-Z in 2011, and releasing the 'GOOD Music (Cruel Summer)' album in 2012. This was the first, and so far, the only collaboration album of West's G.O.O.D. Music label, and featured the main signees from the label, including West himself, Pusha T, Big Sean, Kid Cudi, as well as affiliates 2 Chainz, and the then up-and-coming rapper, Travis Scott. After the release of this record, work began on the follow-up to '...Fantasy', and accelerated in 2013 when more producers were brought on board for the project, although with more people involved, this did result in some of the content leaking online. So much material was produced that up to three and a half hours of an album was made, which was reduced and refined by Rick Rubin before release. The original working title was 'Thank God For Drugs', but this was eventually changed to 'Yeezus' when the album finally appeared in 2013, housed in the iconic sleeve of a picture of a blank CD case with a red square on it. After the recorded material was pared down for official release, much of the remaining music leaked online, and has been compiled by a number of fans into different versions of 'Thank God For Drugs'. The general consensus among fans is that the best of these is by simplejosh, who utilizes the original versions of many of these leaks, and edits them into full versions of songs of which full versions never existed, such as 'No No No No', 'Emotionless', and 'LOUDER!'. Exceptions have been made for 'Talk To Me' and 'Bound 1', as while those tracks have released versions, these ones are distinct enough to be included in this alternative album. Artwork was prepared for 'Thank God For Drugs', which was designed by George Condo, the artist behind the cover for 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy', and it is largely similar to what ended up being used for 'Yeezus'. However, this one had different designs on it, including a figure with pills being plunged into it, while doing the peace sign with its left hand and holding another pill in the other. As this artwork was so similar to the released cover to 'Yeezus', I've gone in a completely different direction and used a fan-made cover that I found online, which I really liked. 

Track listing

01 I Am Not Home
02 WOW (feat. Justxn Paul)
03 Hollywood Be Thy Name (feat. Justxn Paul)
04 Why Feel Bad? (feat. The Weeknd)
05 Can't Get Over Me (feat. Justin Vernon & The-Dream)
06 No No No No (feat. 2 Chainz, Travis Scott & The-Dream)
07 Talk To Me (I'm In It) (feat. Justin Vernon & Assassin)
08 LOUDER! (feat. Pusha T)
09 Perfect Bitch (feat. Justxn Paul)
10 Awesome (feat. Charlie Wilson)
11 Emotionless (feat. Chantal Kreviazuk, Kendrick Lamar & Pusha T)
12 Enjoy The Pain (feat. John Legend)
13 No More Games (feat. Chantal Kreviazuk)
14 Bound 1 (Nobody To Love) (feat. Charlie Wilson & John Legend)

Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee (2024)

Cindy Lee is the drag queen hypnagogic pop project of Canadian musician Patrick Flegel, former guitarist and lead singer of Women, a brilliant and volatile Canadian post-punk band of the late 2000's, who flamed out quickly after two albums, an onstage fistfight, and the unrelated sudden death of one member. Their spindly guitar lines, asymmetrical rhythms, and surprisingly sweet melodies have remained influential on wide swaths of DIY rock. Following the breakup of Women in 2010, Flegel collaborated with Morgan Cook in the band Androgynous Mind, releasing the EP Nightstalker in 2012, and from there, the project evolved into Cindy Lee, which sees Flegel recording music primarily alone, but continuing to perform with a rotating roster of supporting musicians. The demo cassette 'Tatlashea' was released in 2012, followed by the full-length albums 'Act Of Tenderness' and 'Melenkost' in 2015, and in 2018 'Act Of Tenderness' was re-issued, with 'What's Tonight To Eternity?' following in February 2020, and the project's fifth album, 'Cat o' Nine Tails', appeared just a month later, in March 2020. Four years later, in March 2024, Cindy Lee released the double album 'Diamond Jubilee', but this time it was only available as a download from a geocites site or for streaming on Youtube. Despite this limited availability, it received widespread critical acclaim, including the highest score given out by Pitchfork in four years, and it is a shortlisted finalist for the 2024 Polaris Music Prize. There is no accompanying press or liner notes, no artist bio, no interviews; just a sprawling two-part, two-hour record that has dropped in from nowhere, and because of this it's ignored by the algorithms, playlists and radio stations who have no access to the tracks to promote it. However, the buzz appears genuinely justified, and 'Diamond Jubilee' feels like the work of an artist operating at the peak of their powers, who is able to harness and crystallise all that potency and charge into a record that, on the surface, should be far too large, messy and stretched out to contain such a cohesive body of work. Flegel blurs genres with glee, gliding between '50s doo wop, '60s girl groups, psychedelic pop and lo-fi indie, all delivered with a woozy, dreamy, occasionally crepuscular tone. I must admit that Cindy Lee are a new band to me, but on seeing the effusive reviews for the album I had to give them a try, and after hearing it, it was no-brainer to share it for any one who can't get hold of a copy any other way. 

Track listing

Disc One
01 Diamond Jubilee
02 Glitz
03 Baby Blue
04 Dreams of You
05 All I Want Is You
06 Dallas
07 Olive Drab
08 Always Dreaming
09 Wild One
10 Flesh and Blood
11 Le Machiniste Fantome
12 Kingdom Come
13 Demon Bitch
14 I Have My Doubts
15 Til Polarity's End
16 Realistik Heaven

Disc Two
01 Stone Faces
02 Gayblevision
03 Dracula
04 Lockstepp
05 Government Cheque
06 Deepest Blue
07 To Heal This Wounded Heart
08 Golden Microphone
09 If You Hear Me Crying
10 Darling of the Diskoteque
11 Don't Tell Me I'm Wrong
12 What's It Going to Take
13 Wild Rose
14 Durham City Limit
15 Crime of Passion
16 24/7 Heaven

Christina Aguilera - Just Be Free (1995)

After news that The All-New Mickey Mouse Club would be filming its final season, Christina Aguilera sought out a record deal, and she spent time in Philadelphia recording demo tracks with various producers, hoping to have an album released by the time she had finished high school. She began recording with New Jersey-based producers Robert Allecca and Michael Brown, after the pair gave her the opportunity to use a recording studio, and presented her with demo music. According to biographer Pier Dominguez, they told her that the demo recordings they would produce would be their property, but also that they would never commercially release the material. The tapes were conceived as a way of introducing Aguilera to the music industry, described as a "foot in the door" attempt to build interest in her musical abilities. During the recording sessions, she experimented with different languages, recording songs such as the title track 'Just Be Free' in Spanish, and musically the album generally consists of dance tracks and ballads, the latter of which were created in an effort to showcase Aguilera's vocal talents. Nearly all of the songs on the album were co-written by Aguilera with Bob Allecca and Michael Brown, and they showed that even at the age of fourteen she was first and foremost a talented musician and artist. 

However, the venture actually backfired after the recordings were not very well received among critics, and it was to be another two years before she started to attract the attention of the music industry. Six years after the completion of the album and Aguilera had achieved mainstream success, Brown and Allecca released the record, and after discovering this, Aguilera took steps to sue the pair in an effort to stop the release. She filed a suit against the label Warlock Records, and the affiliates Platinum Recordings and JFB Music for "improper use of her name and license on the upcoming album 'Just Be Free'". In response, Warlock Records filed their own lawsuit in an attempt to ensure the release of the record, and during the proceedings, Aguilera agreed to let Warlock Records release 'Just Be Free' after reaching a settlement with the company and its affiliates. She allowed the release under the condition that the label would have to include a letter written by Aguilera in each album released. The letter stated: 

"'Just Be Free' was recorded when I was 14 and 15 years old. At that young age, I made the recordings as a possible stepping stone to a career in music, which is my ultimate passion. They were made just so that I could get my foot in the door of the music business. I did not intend that the recordings would be widely released, especially after I signed with a major record label. I have not updated or finished the versions recorded in my childhood, and they are being released "as is," although I tried to prevent the release for several years. The recordings do not in any way reflect my current musical taste and where I am as an artist. The growth and vocal development I experienced as I matured into young adulthood is not reflected in the recordings. The album of new recordings that I intend to release this fall will be the album that truly reflects my artistry, my vision, and my passion. The 'Just Be Free' recordings will hopefully be a footnote in a musical career that I dream will last for many years to come." She realised that they were going to put out the album one way or another, and this way she got to make a statement on it, and so she was happy about that. She also chose the photograph that was used on the album's cover, which depicts her at the age the album was recorded. When it was eventually released it received generally negative reviews from critics, with most of them understanding why she tried to stop it appearing, as they thought that it contained dated club tracks, overwhelmed by poor effects and mundane beats. However, it is a historic artefact in her career and so for any fans who can no longer find a copy and want to hear it, here it is for you to try. 

Track listing

01 Just Be Free
02 By Your Side
03 Move It (dance mix)
04 Our Day Will Come
05 Believe Me
06 Make Me Happy
07 Dream A Dream
08 Move It
09 The Way You Talk to Me
10 Running Out Of Time
11 Believe Me (dance remix)
12 Just Be Free (Spanish version)