The Jam - Session (1976)

The Jam formed at Sheerwater Secondary School in Woking, Surrey, England, in 1972, with a line-up consisting of Paul Weller on bass and lead vocals, along with various friends. The name 'The Jam' was reportedly suggested by Weller's sister, Nicky, and the band played their first gigs at Michael's, a local club. The line-up began to solidify in the mid-1970's with Weller, guitarist/vocalist Steve Brookes and drummer Rick Buckler, and in their early years their sets consisted of covers of early American rock and roll songs by the likes of Chuck Berry and Little Richard. They continued in this vein until Weller discovered the Who's debut album 'My Generation' and became fascinated with mod music, thinking that becoming a mod would give him a base and an angle to write from. Their set list changed from rock'n'roll to Motown, Stax and Atlantic covers, and Weller bought a Rickenbacker guitar, a Lambretta GP 150, and tried to style his hair like Steve Marriott's circa '66. Eventually Brookes left the band, but although they advertised for a new guitarist, he was not replaced, and Weller persuaded the band's second guitarist Bruce Foxton to take over bass duties so that he could swap from bass to lead guitar, and this line-up of Weller, Foxton, and Buckler would persist until the end of The Jam's career. In March 1975 the group decamped to TW studios in Fulham and laid down four demo tracks, and over the rest of the year they recorded a couple of tracks at Bob Potter's Studio in May, and a further four songs in December. In September 1976 they visited Bob Potter again and recorded three more tracks, and with their manager John Weller, Paul's father, hawking around the demos, by February 1977 Chris Parry had signed the band to Polydor Records. In April 1977 Polydor released the Jam's debut single, 'In the City', which charted in the Top 40 in the UK, and in May the band released their debut album of the same name, with their career taking off from that point, to become one of the best and most admired outfits of the punk era. To hear what they sounded like before they hit the big time, give this "Jam session" a listen, and see if you can hear the burgeoning sound of what was to come. 

Track listing

01 100 Ways 
02 Forever And Always
03 I Will Be There
04 Walking The Dog
05 Non-Stop Dancing
06 Takin' My Love
07 Left, Right & Centre
08 Again
09 When I Needed You
10 Please Don't Treat Me Bad
11 Soul Dance
12 I Got By In Time
13 Back In My Arms Again

Monty The Moron - Acorn Beer And Chestnut Wine (1984)

Here's another early offering from Monty The Moron, a decade before he changed his name and joined The Damned. It was recorded two years before the previous post, and rather oddly I think it shows a more mature side of him, with songs like 'Little House By The Sea' and 'Falling Rose' being heartfelt ballads, somewhat at odds with his more off-beat offerings like 'The Dentist Song' and 'Collecting Plastic Monsters'. However, there is much to enjoy on this album, although the distortion on 'The Dentist Song' does seem to be on all copies of the tape, but to make up for it I somehow have a rather lovely untitled extra song at the end of my copy, which might make it a unique item. If that isn't enough I've also enhanced and coloured the picture of a young Monty sitting on a motorcycle in his garden, which makes this version of the album a one-of-a-kind. It's just a shame that this is the only other tape that I own.  

Original full cassette cover

Track listing

01 The Dentist Song
02 Monty's Lament
03 Rocking Horse
04 Little House By The Sea
05 Piano Concerto No. 3
06 Collecting Plastic Monsters
07 Sometimes You Just Can't Win
08 Living My Life Backwards
09 Falling Rose
10 A Gentle Robot (Dedicated To The Soft Machine But You Weren't Listening)

11 Untitled Bonus Track 

Kanye West - In A Perfect World (2025) **UPDATE**

I must admit that I'm not listening to this album as much as some of his others that I've posted, and so I didn't notice the radio station ident at the end of 'Uncle' until today, so that's now been removed and files are updated on Soulseek and Mega.

Track listing

01 WW3
02 Cosby
03 Diddy Free
04 Dirty Magazines
05 Jesus
06 Bianca
07 Cousins
08 Virgil
09 Uncle
10 Free My Kids
11 Heil Hitler
12 Gas Chambers
13 Hitler Ye Jesus
14 Jared
15 Nitrous
16 Bulletproof

17 All The Love

18 Hallelujah

U2 - Salome (1991)

After U2's 1987 album 'The Joshua Tree' and the supporting Joshua Tree Tour brought them critical acclaim and commercial success, their 1988 double album and documentary film 'Rattle And Hum' precipitated a critical backlash. Although the record sold 14 million copies and performed well on music charts, critics were dismissive of it and the film, labelling the band's exploration of early American music as "pretentious" and "misguided and bombastic". Despite their commercial popularity, the group were dissatisfied creatively, and reacting to their own sense of musical stagnation, U2 searched for new musical ground. During this period, Bono and the Edge began increasingly writing songs together without Larry Mullen or bassist Adam Clayton, and the group recorded demos at STS Studios in Dublin, which later evolved into the songs 'Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses', 'Until The End Of The World', 'Even Better Than The Real Thing', and 'Mysterious Ways'. U2 hired Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno to produce the album, based on the duo's prior work with the band on 'The Unforgettable Fire' and 'The Joshua Tree'. They chose to record at Hansa Studios in West Berlin, near the recently opened Berlin Wall, where several acclaimed records had been made, including two from David Bowie's "Berlin Trilogy" with Eno, and Iggy Pop's 'Lust For Life'. The initial recording sessions took place at Hansa Studios in late 1990 in the Meistersaal, a former SS ballroom, but morale worsened once the sessions commenced, as the band worked long days, but could not agree on a musical direction. 

The Edge had been listening to electronic dance music and to industrial bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, Nine Inch Nails, the Young Gods, and KMFDM, and he and Bono advocated new musical directions along these lines. In contrast, Mullen was listening to classic rock acts such as Blind Faith, Cream, and Jimi Hendrix, and he was learning how to "play around the beat". U2 returned to Dublin for Christmas, where they discussed their future together and all recommitted to the group. Listening to the tapes, they agreed their material sounded better than they originally thought, and they briefly returned to Berlin in January 1991 to finish their work at Hansa. In February 1991, U2 moved the album's recording sessions to the seaside manor Elsinore in the Dublin suburb of Dalkey, renting the house for £10,000 per month. Although the sessions there were more relaxed and productive, the band did struggle with one particular song, which was later released as the b-side 'Lady With The Spinning Head', although three separate tracks, 'The Fly', 'Ultraviolet (Light My Way)' and 'Zoo Station', were derived from it. In April, tapes from the earlier Berlin sessions were stolen after the band reportedly left them in a hotel room, and they were subsequently leaked before the album was finished. The recordings were bootlegged into a three-disc collection dubbed 'Salome: The [Axtung Beibi] Outtakes', named after the song 'Salome' that was prominently featured in the collection but which didn't make the album's final cut. The bootleg was mastered directly from the DAT's that U2 produced as working tapes during the recording sessions, and consequently the recording quality is outstanding. 

Many of these songs are early versions of 'Achtung Baby' tracks, while others are unique and unreleased songs, or musical ideas, as the band at that time were writing primarily through jam sessions. The final album represents a deviation from the sound of their past work, with the songs being less anthemic in nature, and their musical style demonstrates a more European aesthetic, introducing influences from alternative rock, industrial music, and electronic dance music. The album's first single, 'The Fly', was released in October 1991, a month before the album, and although sounding nothing like U2's typical style, it was a critical and chart success, reaching number 1 in the UK. When 'Achtung Baby' appeared in November 1991, it received acclaim from critics and fans alike, re-establishing U2 as one of the most popular and critically acclaimed musical acts in the world. For this look behind the scenes of the making of the album, I've picked the best versions of the multiple takes of some of the songs, and although many of them later appeared officially on the actual record or on b-sides, these are all radically different versions, with alternate titles and lyrics. 'I Feel Free' later morphed in 'Until The End Of The World', 'Don't Turn Around' became 'Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses', 'Back Mask U2' was used for 'So Cruel', and 'Take You Down' was an early version of 'Lady With The Spinning Head'. I've made some subtle edits, removing Bono's stammer on the beginning to 'Sweet Baby Jane', fixing the drop-out in 'Doctor Doctor, and toning down the distracting vocalisations on the bridge of 'I Feel Free', but the rest of the music is as it was recorded at the time. 

Track listing

01 Where Did It All Go Wrong
02 Doctor Doctor
03 I Feel Free
04 If You Want To Take Tomorrow
05 She's Gonna Blow Your House Down
06 Sweet Baby Jane
07 Take You Down
08 Heaven And Hell
09 Don't Turn Around
10 Back Mask U2
11 Salome

Lyric - Episode (2002)

Lyric was an American R&B girl group, which comprised Brooklyn native, Farrah "Fendi" Fleurimond, Jackie (a.k.a. Baby J) from Los Angeles, and Thema "Tayma Loren" McKinney from Detroit, and they would later be recognized as the first female trio to be signed by Clive Davis to his J Records imprint. They released their first single, 'Young And Sexy', in 2002, which was the lead single from their debut album 'Episode', which was scheduled for a November 2002 release, and this was followed by 'Episode' and then 'Hot & Tipsy' in 2003. The album was to have featured production from Hennessy, Kenny Whitehead, Steve Estiverne, Jack Knight and Thema's brother Carlos "Pryceless" McKinney. However, the album was cancelled and has been locked away in the vaults since 2002, and although the trio attended the Grammy Week Songwriters luncheon with Patti LaBelle in 2003, they disbanded shortly afterwards after leaving J Records. Advance sampler copies were issued to the press before the record was cancelled, and so we are able to hear what the album would have sounded like if the record company had allowed it to be released. 

Track listing

01 Afterparty (Hot 'n' Tipsy Remix)
02 Episode (deat. Shells)
03 Somebody
04 Young & Sexy (feat. Loon)
05 Love 101 (Part 1)
06 Hot 'n' Tipsy
07 Sunny Days
08 I Like
09 Little Did You Know
10 Bananas
11 Love 101 (Part 2)

Neil Young - New Ways (1985)

'Old Ways' was Neil Young's fifteenth solo album, and for this one he wanted to record a country record, which had been his intention for some time. His first attempt at a country album was in January 1983, when he recorded several songs at producer David Briggs' Nashville recording studio, with long-time collaborators Ben Keith, Tim Drummond, Karl T. Himmel, Spooner Oldham and Rufus Thibodeaux, who had all previously backed Young on 'Comes A Time' from 1978. The songs 'Old Ways', 'Depression Blues', 'California Sunset', 'My Boy', 'Are There Any More Real Cowboys?' and 'Silver And Gold' all date from these sessions, but after turning in 'Trans' and the unreleased 'Island In The Sun' in 1982, Young's record label, Geffen, objected to a country album, asking Young for a "rock 'n roll" record, which he gave them in the form of 1983's 'Everybody's Rockin''. His label were so against Young recording a country album that they even sued him for playing that type of music, but that just made him more determined to do it. He saw country music and his adopted country music persona as a respite from his then-waning career in rock music, the demands of his record company, and his struggles to record the rock album that would become 'Landing On Water', and so in 1984 he toured with the band from the 1983 sessions. In Spring 1985 he returned to the studio to record his country music album, and during sessions at various Nashville studios over a dozen new songs were recorded with both his long-time collaborators and local studio musicians, along with special guest Waylon Jennings. The sessions featured many of the musicians from the earlier 'Harvest' and 'Comes A Time' albums, while Willie Nelson added vocals and guitar to the 1983 recording of 'Are There Any More Real Cowboys?'. Many of the songs on the album reflect a sense of contentment with family life, with 'Once An Angel' being a tribute to his wife, Pegi, while 'My Boy' is an ode to his son, Zeke, and 'Amber Jean' celebrates the birth of his new-born daughter. Despite the label's reluctance, most reviews were favourable, and fans appreciated the relaxed set of songs, full of good feelings and superb playing. Most of the 1983 recordings were tucked away in the vaults, and so they are resurrected here, along with some 1985 outtakes, in a companion record that I've titled 'New Ways'. 

Track listing

01 Time Off For Good Behaviour
02 Your Love Again

03 Depression Blues
04 This Old House
05 Your Love Is Good To Me
06 California Sunset
07 Leavin' The Top 40 Behind
08 Interstate
09 Amber Jean
10 My Boy
11 Let Your Fingers Do The Walking
12 Hillbilly Band

Various Artists - The Drugs DO Work (2018)

The concept of this album is pretty obvious, and it came about because I was listening to J. J. Cale's 'Cocaine', closely followed by The Velvet Underground's debut, including the classic 'Heroin', and I realised that both songs had something in common, and before long I'd recalled over a dozen more songs celebrating a wide variety of illegal substances, and this album was born. There isn't much else to say about it, so enjoy this varied collection of drug-inspired songs, which is closed by The Verve's assertion that none of them actually work anyway.    

Track listing

01 Cocaine - J. J. Cale
02 Heroin - The Velvet Underground
03 Weed Party - Band Of Horses
04 In The Opium Den - Paul Roland
05 Novocaine For The Soul - Eels
06 Crack Rock - Frank Ocean
07 Ketamine - Mark Lanegan
08 Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow - The Strawberry Alarm Clock

09 Golden Brown - The Stranglers
10 Codine - The Charlatans
11 You And Your Crystal Meth - Drive-By Truckers
12 Amphetamine Annie - Canned Heat
13 Mother I've Taken LSD - The Flaming Lips

14 Sister Morphine - Marianne Faithful
15 Spice - Sam Fender
16 Animal Nitrate - Suede
17 Take Ecstasy With Me - The Magnetic Fields
18 Hippy Crack - Beans On Toast
19 The Drugs Don't Work - The Verve

Grateful Dead - Days Between (1995) **UPGRADE**

While putting together the Dylan And The Dead post, it reminded me of a previous Grateful Dead album that I'd posted, which was the reconstruction of what would have been their final album in 1995. I used live and rehearsal takes of the songs, but at the time I didn't have the MVSEP programme to remove the crowd noise from the recordings, so I listened to it again to see if there was any noticeable noise that needed removing. As it happens, I must have been lucky with the chosen tracks as I couldn't hear any distractions on the songs, but what I did find was that the album seemed to drag on a bit, and on checking I found that the version that I'd posted was an hour and 11 minutes long. As well as that there were a couple of tracks that didn't seem to be up to the quality of the others, and so I wondered if I could trim a few minutes here and there to make it easier to listen to. I had a look online for suggestions or alternate recordings, and found a review of the proposed songs on the ManRoy Music blog, which chimed very much with what I had just heard. He said of the following songs: 
Easy Answers first appeared on the Rob Wasserman record 'Trios' where it featured Wasserman, Weir and Neil Young. The Dead’s version replaces Neil Young’s distorted guitar with Garcia’s auto-wah sound and Vince Welnick’s synth horns. I would have the Dead version more closely follow the Trio’s version with Garcia dialing up his distorted sound and losing the faux horns (and don’t try overdubbing a real horn section either, didn’t you learn anything from 'Terrapin Station').
Wave To The Wind is another Lesh song that features instrumental sections reminiscent of 'Eyes Of The World' but a vocal melody that just seems to meander. This would definitely fall into the filler category of the album.
Samba In The Rain is one of the two Vince Welnick songs in this collection. How do I put this kindly? It sucks. Enough said. (I never included this track anyway).
If The Shoe Fits is the third Phil Lesh song in the group. Lesh was never the most prolific of song writers so it’s ironic that he had three songs in the final years of the Dead. Sadly, none of these song are comparable to 'Unbroken Chain' or 'Box Of Rain'. At best, their quality level is more akin to something like 'Passenger' from the album 'Terrapin Station'. Not necessarily bad but let’s face it, no serious Deadhead thinks of 'Passenger' when discussing their favourite Lesh tune. 

After reading this critique I realised that he was talking about exactly the tracks that I felt let down the album, and so I decided to remove them completely. 'Childhood's End' seemed to me to be the least worst of Phil Lesh's contributions, although the vocals do still detract from it, so I decided to keep that but to re-jig the running order so that the album no longer ends on that track. As most of the remaining songs are fairly lengthy, including the lovely title track which clocks in at nearly eleven minutes, then we are still left with a perfectly acceptable and concise 54-minute record, so see what you think of this drastic revamp of an earlier post.

Track listing

01 Liberty
02 Corinna
03 Lazy River Road
04 Eternity
05 So Many Roads

06 Childhood's End
07 Days Between
08 Way To Go Home

Dylan And The Dead - Dead Man, Dead Man (1987)

Towards the tail end of the 1980's, Bob Dylan was somewhat disillusioned with the direction of his own music, and so began trying to regain it through his fandom for the Grateful Dead. To him, they represented a clear exit door for this growing world of artistic commercialism, which began to subtly taint his work in the latter part of the decade. Both intrigued and fearful of this necessary change, Dylan decided to join the band on tour in 1987 as a third guitarist, before putting his name to an immortal project with the band. That spirit of live show magic that had clearly struck a rod of lightning in Dylan’s career was captured on their 1989 live album 'Dylan & The Dead', which consisted of seven songs written and sung by Dylan, with the Grateful Dead providing accompaniment. Rattling through a string of Dylan hits, the album showcases the unlikely synergy between these two artists, unshackled by the expectations of artistic commercialism, they indulge themselves as they descended into spiralling renditions of 'All Along The Watchtower' and 'Slow Train'. A clear, unspoken agreement existed between both Dylan and The Dead on this record, that ensured the songs they played would be nothing more than loose blueprints for a plan of musical spontaneity. But while the Grateful Dead might have, on paper at least, seemed like a rather bizarre and esoteric choice to return Dylan to a state of glory, there is a transcendental crossover that exists between the two artists that is showcased on the album. It was recorded during a successful stadium tour known as the Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead 1987 Tour, featuring the two artists performing separately and together, but although it achieved strong initial sales, the album was poorly received by critics, although they did have some kind words for several of the tracks. Despite this, the album initially sold well, reaching No. 37 on the Billboard charts in the U.S., No. 38 in the UK, and earning a Gold certification in the U.S. Prior to embarking on the tour the two artists rehearsed nearly fifty different songs together, mostly Dylan compositions, but also including Buddy Holly's 'Oh Boy', Paul Simon's 'The Boy In The Bubble', and Kris Kristofferson's 'They Killed Him'. I've taken the very best of these recordings and compiled a double-disc set of nineteen of those rehearsals, of which only three eventually appeared on the live album. 

Track listing

Disc I

01 When I Paint My Masterpiece

02 Man Of Peace

03 I'll Be Your Baby Tonight

04 I Want You

05 Dead Man, Dead Man

06 Queen Jane Approximately

07 In The Summertime

08 If Not For You

09 Gotta Serve Somebody

10 Tomorrow Is A Long Time

Disc II

01 John Brown

02 The Wicked Messenger

03 Watching The River Flow

04 They Killed Him

05 All I Really Want To Do

06 John Hardy

07 Pledging My Time

08 The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest

09 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Rapid Eye Movement - δ Waves (1981)

In 1981 Rapid Eye Movement were still touring, despite not having released any records to promote, and 16 May 1981 saw them play at the Théâtre Victor Hugo, Bagneux, near Paris in France. Like some of their previous gigs, their performance was recorded, and much of the material was new, making this a very different set list to their concert in France a year earlier. With a little subtle editing, we therefore have enough unique material to make up a second "studio" album from the band, which geofmcm has titled 'δ Waves'. 

Track listing

01 Let's Get The Day Underway
02 This Is Not What I Want
03 I'll Stand On My Own
04 Ingmar Bergman On The Window Sill  
05 Straining Our Eyes 
06 Delta Waves
07 'Ullo Darling, I Work On The Fair
08 Waking Up Is Hard To Do 

Thanks to geofmcm for the music and to AI for the cover. 

Three Friends - Three Friends (2026)

In October 2008, Gary Green, one of the founders of Gentle Giant, and later member of the band Malcolm Mortimore planned to form a new group called Rentle Giant, consisting of five members, and with the intention of performing a repertoire dedicated to the mighty Gentle Giant. They where soon joined by one of the other founders of GG, Kerry Minnear, and that resulted in a change of name, to what else but Three Friends. Since 2009 they have toured the world, bringing the music of one of the most important groups in the history of prog to a wider audience, and in particular playing songs that the original band didn't tend to include in their concerts. The arrangements of the songs respect the originals, and the playing showcases the excellent musicianship of all the members. In late 2009 Minnear left the band for personal reasons, and was replaced by keyboardist Gary Sanctuary, and with the addition of Lee Pomeroy on bass, Mick Wilson on vocals and Charlotte Glasson on violin, they have played a series of well-received concerts around the world, some of which have been recorded for posterity. What better way to introduce the band to a wider audience than with a recording of the complete 'Three Friends' album as performed by Three Friends, the band.  

Track listing

01 Prologue
02 Schooldays
03 Working All Day
04 Peel The Paint
05 Mr Class And Quality
06 Three Friends

Thanks to geofmcm for the idea and the music, and AI for the cover.

Melissa Lefton - Melicious (2001)

Melissa Janis Lefton was born on 13 August 1975, and began playing keyboards at the age of 10. After finishing high-school she moved to New York to study communications at New York University, though decided to also focus on a career in music while studying. She joined the punk rock band Product after answering an ad in The Village Voice seeking a "theatrical female frontperson" who "wanted to be a star." Product played at venues including CBGB, and were signed and recorded an album, although its release was cancelled. In 2001 she signed to Jive Records and recorded her debut solo album 'Melicious', which was slated for release on 21 August 2001. 'Melicious' took on topics like pollution, date-rape, occultism and murder, with tongue in cheek, with her once being referred to as the "anti-Britney". It was slated for release in Spring 2002, and a couple of songs from the it were commercially released, with 'I Love Life' appearing on the soundtrack to 'The Princess Diaries', and 'My Hit Song' being featured on the soundtrack to 'On The Line', while her cover of 'He Blinded Me With Science' appeared on the soundtrack to 'Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius'. The month before it was due for release, the Seattle Weekly gave a favourable review of the album, as did the Autumn 2001 edition of Elle Girl, but first it was delayed, and then cancelled completely. In an attempt to salvage her career, the label set her up with a manager who sent her to Los Angeles to become an actress, but discouraged with the roles she was offered she returned to New York City, and spent several years working professionally as a commercial jingle writer. By 2006, Lefton was in a sunshine pop band named Hello, who released a self-titled album on the Frisbie Records label. So that 'Melicious' isn't lost forever, here it is for us to enjoy. 

Track listing

01 My Hit Song  
02 ...Now I Got Punk Rock Fever 
03 Radio Rainbow  
04 Ozone  
05 Last Summer  
06 Sugar Daddy  
07 Bionic Man  
08 Sunnyville  
09 I Love Life 
10 Who Shot Jennifer  
11 I Know You Want Me (How Can I Blame You)

Eric Clapton - Higher Power (1989)

'Journeyman' was Eric Clapton's eleventh solo studio album, and when it was released in 1989 it was heralded as a return to form, following his struggles with alcohol addiction. The album has a 1980's electronic sound, but it also includes blues songs like 'Running On Faith', and covers of Bo Diddley's 'Before You Accuse Me' and Ray Charles' 'Hard Times'. 'Bad Love' was released as a single, reaching the No. 1 position on the Album Rock Chart in the United States, and being awarded a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance in 1990. 'Pretending' had also reached the No. 1 position on the Album Rock Chart the previous year, remaining at the top for five weeks. Although 'Journeyman' suffers from an overly slick production, Clapton sounds more convincing than he has since the early '70s, and not only is his guitar playing muscular and forceful, but his singing is soulful and gritty. Furthermore, the song-writing is consistently strong, alternating between fine mainstream rock originals like 'Pretending' and covers such as 'Hound Dog'. The album was re-issued in a deluxe format in 2025 with bonus tracks, but that still left a number of outtakes stuck in the vaults, and so this post gathers together all the previously unreleased songs to make up a companion album to 'Journeyman', which includes an alternate take of 'Hard Times', which many fans prefer to the one that made it to the record. In 1990 Clapton filmed an advertisement for Honda cars in Japan, where he is seen overdubbing extra guitar onto the song 'Bad Love', and so that alternate version is also featured, along with an instrumental which could have been intended for one of his soundtrack outings of the period.  

Track listing

01 Forever
02 Don't Turn Your Back
03 Breaking Point (Instrumental)
04 Hard Times
05 Something About You
06 Border Song
07 Bad Love
08 Higher Power
09 Murdoch's Men (Instrumental)
10 That Kind Of Woman

The Flys - Me And My Buddies (1980)

The Flys evolved from Coventry band Midnight Circus, which comprised Dave Freeman on guitar and vocals, Joe Hughes on bass, Neil O'Connor on guitar and keyboards, and a string of unnamed drummers. In 1976 their manager's brother, Pete King, joined on drums, and following a name change to The Flys they found themselves regularly opening for Manchester punks Buzzcocks. In late 1977, with Lyn Dobson on saxophone, they self-released the 'Bunch Of Five' EP, and the record caught the attention of EMI Records, in particular the track 'Love And A Molotov Cocktail', leading to a record deal with the label. Their initial release on EMI featured two tracks from the 'Bunch Of Five' EP, 'Love And A Molotov Cocktail' and 'Can I Crash Here?"' along with new track 'Civilisation', and the record garnered some positive reviews. In April they released 'Fun City' as a single, with another new track, 'E.C.4.', on the flip, and this was followed in October by the release  of their debut album 'Waikiki Beach Refugees'. The group spent early 1979 sharing the bills with such acts as The Psychedelic Furs, The Pretenders, and Black Slate, and it was around this time that Pete King left the band and was replaced on drums by Graham Deakin. Their second LP, 'Own', was released on 11 October 1979 and contained fourteen new tracks, but it was their last release on EMI, as the lack of chart success for any of their records prompted a move to Parlophone Records. In 1980 they released the EP 'Four From The Square', which included two songs from the last album plus two tracks from an aborted single release of 'Energy Boy', and then a final single, 'What Will Mother Say?' came out before they disbanding later in the year. Although they were rooted in the 1970's British punk scene, and influenced by The Damned and Buzzcocks, their music always had a power-pop element to it, and so they didn't really fit in either the punk or the new wave scene, and consequently are often overlooked. Hopefully this collection of non-album singles and b-sides will bring them to the attention of a wider audience. 

Track listing

01 Love And A Molotov Cocktail (from the 'Bunch Of Five' EP 1977) 
02 Can I Crash Here (from the 'Bunch Of Five' EP 1977) 
03 Me And My Buddies (from the 'Bunch Of Five' EP 1977) 
04 Just For Your Sex (from the 'Bunch Of Five' EP 1977) 
05 Civilization (b-side of 'Love And A Molotov Cocktail' 1978)
06 E.C.4 (b-side of 'Fun City' 1978)
07 Name Dropping (single 1979)
08 Fly V. Fly (b-side of 'Name Dropping)
09 We Are The Lucky Ones (single 1979)
10 Living In The Sticks (b-side of 'We Are Lucky Ones')
11 Lois Lane (from the 'Four From The Square' EP 1980)
12 Today Belongs To Me (from the 'Four From The Square' EP 1980)
13 I'll Survive (John Peel session 1979)
14 What Will Mother Say? (single 1980)
15 Undercover Agent Zero (b-side of 'What Will Mother Say?')

Kanye West - In A Perfect World (2025)

This might turn out to be something of a controversial post, with everything that's being going on in Kanye West's life in the last couple of years, but the blog is all about the music, and this album will certainly never be officially released in its original form. In February 2025, West met American rapper Dave Blunts and they started working on an album together, with the two spending hours talking to each other, and Blunts would then write three songs a day based on their conversations. On a June 2025 episode of the Dope As Usual podcast, Blunts elaborated that West asked him to write the entirety of the album only a day after they met, and that he usually spent 20–30 minutes on each reference track, but once rewrote a track upwards of twenty times at West's request. Blunts repeatedly denied that the lyrical content is antisemitic, describing the album as being "about one man going between hurt, betrayal and pain and he's putting that shit down". On 2 April DJ Akademiks announced that the album, initially titled 'WW3', would be released the next day, following 'WW3' appearing as a single the previous week, but when the album failed to drop, West revealed the album cover, which depicts a male and female Klan member wearing white and red KKK-inspired outfits, posing in front of a stack of hay bales. The album cover is an edited version of a 2015 photo of the wedding of two members of the KKK in a barn in rural America by Peter van Agtmael, who claimed that West's use of the photograph was unauthorized. 

On 21 April, West announced that he was changing the title of the album to 'Cuck' (in popular culture, short for cuckold), and stylised as 'CUKKK', and he released the music video for the second single called 'Cousins' the same day in a tweet. The track contains lyrics discussing West's experience having an incestuous relationship with a male cousin as a child, and his recreational use of nitrous oxide. On 7 May, West stated on Twitter that he was uploading the third single called 'Heil Hitler', but after it was banned by all digital streaming platforms, an instrumental version titled 'The Heil Symphony' was uploaded in its place on 14 May. On 22 June, West posted to X that he was thinking about changing the album's name from 'CUKKK' to 'In A Perfect World', but by then the album had been leaked in its entirety on 18 May, after a $999 charity group buy for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum via the messaging site Discord. The leaked album files contained derogatory messaging towards West in its media and metadata as a form of protest, including listing Blunts as the song artist instead of West, listing "AI" and "1945" as its genre and date respectively, and replacing the cover with a 1994 picture of West wearing an antifascist shirt with the title "Fuck Nazis", and a subtitle "50 year old loser promoting fascism and hate speech" overlaid onto it. West acknowledged the leak on Twitter, clarifying that the song 'Uncle' was no longer part of the album, and its lyrics were not related to his wife Censori. 

On 13 September 2025, Blunts took to Instagram to announce that he was cutting ties with West and would no longer work on the album, urging him to "find God", and alleging that West "groomed" him into writing the album's antisemitic lyrics. In November 2025, 'WW3', 'Cousins', and 'Heil Hitler', along with their alternate versions 'Hallelujah' and 'Hit Symphony', were removed from all streaming services following his apology to Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, and the song 'Gas Chambers' was repurposed for his 'Bully' album under its alternate title 'All The Love', appearing in the tracklist for that album. In January 2026, West published an open letter in The Wall Street Journal in which he apologized for his antisemitic remarks and behaviour, stating his outbursts stemmed from manic episodes in which he "gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika", as he refused to accept his bipolar disorder diagnosis. West said he was "deeply mortified by his actions" and pledged to take "accountability, treatment, and meaningful change". Whether you believe that his apology was genuine or not, there are still fans out there who would want to hear this album, and so that's why I'm posting it in its original form, with just a couple of tracks updated with later, better versions, and an out-take added to the end to bulk up the running time. I've also included the alternative recordings of 'All The Love' and 'Hallelujah', in case you don't want tracks called 'Gas Chambers' and 'Heil Hitler' on the album.

Track listing

01 WW3
02 Cosby
03 Diddy Free
04 Dirty Magazines
05 Jesus
06 Bianca
07 Cousins
08 Virgil
09 Uncle
10 Free My Kids
11 Heil Hitler
12 Gas Chambers
13 Hitler Ye Jesus
14 Jared
15 Nitrous
16 Bulletproof

17 All The Love

18 Hallelujah

Contempo - It's Kicking Off (2000)

Richard Archer is the lead vocalist, guitarist, principal songwriter and main composer of indie rock band Hard-Fi, but before that he was a member of Staines-based band Contempo, which formed in 1997 and lasted for three years. The line-up consisted of Richard Archer on vocals and guitar, his brother Steve on bass, Steve Friend on guitar, Dave Teape on keyboards, and Steve Cutts on drums. In 1998 Contempo's first release was a limited 7" vinyl single on the Blue Dog label, featuring the tracks 'On The Floor' and 'Stronger'. 'My One Way Out' followed in 1999, and in 2000 Mick Jones produced demos that were intended to be released as an album, but whose release was delayed and then eventually cancelled. In November 2000 Contempo announced they had left London Records after months of a mutually tense relationship, and they released the single 'U B Naughty' on their own label Nu-Suburban Sounds, following this in 2001 with the six-track EP 'This Is Contempo', which featured the ska song 'Ain't Going Out Tonight' in two versions. A bootleg CD has since appeared of the 2000 demos, featuring early versions of what would later become the Hard-Fi tracks 'Better Do Better', 'Can't Get Along (Without You)', 'Living For The Weekend', 'Move On Now' and 'Unnecessary Trouble'. When Archer asked his publishers for some money to record new songs that he had written, they terminated his contract instead, and so he went on to form Hard-Fi, and the rest is history. This collection from Contempo includes all their singles and b-sides, plus an original song from their demo tape than wasn't later repurposed by Hard-Fi.

Track listing

01 On The Floor (single 1998)

02 Stronger (b-side of 'On The Floor')

03 My One Way Out (single 1999)

04 Waiting So Long (b-side of 'My One Way Out')
05 Big Time Promotion Man (b-side of 'My One Way Out')

06 It's Kicking Off (single 2000)

07 Twilight Zone (b-side of 'It's Kicking Off')

08 Say It Again (b-side of 'It's Kicking Off')

09 U B Naughty (single 2000)

10 Ain't Going Out Tonight (from the 'This Is Contempo' EP 2000) 
11 My Flat By The Police Station (from the 'This Is Contempo' EP 2000) 
12 London's Burning (from the 'This Is Contempo' EP 2000) 
13 Energy (from the 2000 demo recordings)

JJ72 - Coming Home (2005)

In the notes to my recent post from JJ72, I mentioned that they'd recorded a third album, which was abandoned following disputes with their record label. However, by gathering up various singles, b-sides, promos and demos I've been able to piece it together, and so for long-time fans of the band, and any others that have been picked up by the recent b-sides collection, here is the rejected third album from JJ72. 

Track listing

01 Radio
02 Take From Me
03 Everything
04 June
05 Nothing In This World
06 She's Gone
07 Heat
08 Coming Home
09 We'll Wait For You
10 Someday
11 Tokyo
12 Spires

Keith Sweat - The Legendary (2003)

Keith Douglas Sweat was born on 22 July 1961 in Harlem, New York City, and as a youth he performed at the famous Apollo Theater, which was near his home. He started his musical career as a member of a Harlem band called Jamilah in 1975, and he honed his craft as a lead singer by performing regionally throughout the Tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. After leaving the group in 1984 to begin a solo career, Sweat sang at nightclubs throughout New York City and landed a chance to record for the independent label, Stadium Records. Sweat recorded only two records for Stadium, 'Lucky Seven' in 1984 and 'My Mind Is Made Up' in 1985, but in 1987 he was discovered by Vincent Davis and offered a recording contract with his label, Vintertainment Records, which was distributed by Elektra Records. While crafting his debut album, Sweat pursued fellow Harlem resident Teddy Riley, who was known for writing for and producing hip-hop artists. They collaborated on a number of tracks for the album, and in November 1987, Sweat released 'Make It Last Forever', which sold three million copies. He and Riley co-wrote six songs, and the biggest hit inaugurated the new jack swing era, with 'I Want Her' being nominated for the 1989 Soul Train Best R&B/Urban Contemporary Song of the Year award. 

Sweat reached the charts again with his second album 'I'll Give All My Love To You' in 1990, which hit No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart, and he followed that with his third album, 'Keep It Comin'' in 1991, which debuted in the Top 20 of the album chart. The album's single 'Freak Me' hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on May 1, 1993, and the following year he released his fourth album 'Get Up On It', with his self-titled fifth album appearing in 1996. Both albums reached the top ten on the Billboard 200, and the singles 'Twisted', featuring R&B group Kut Klose, hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and 'Nobody' hit No. 3, which made them Sweat's biggest hits to date. Sweat's sixth album, 'Still In The Game' was released in 1998, hitting No. 6 on the Billboard 200, but his success on the charts started to diminish in 2000, when he released the album 'Didn't See Me Coming', and none of the singles from it reached the top forty. In August 2002, he released his eighth album, 'Rebirth', and this time the single 'One On One fared slightly better, reaching No. 44 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart. In 2003 the started recording a new record, with help from The Neptunes on one track, 'It's On', which featured Dru Hill. The proposed release date was August 2003, but a lead single was never chosen to promote it, and it's thought that because of this delaying the album meeting its deadline, it was cancelled by the label, and the live album 'Live' was released in its stead. Two songs from the unreleased effort would go on to be re-recorded for Sweat's tenth album 'Just Me' in 2008, but the rest of them remain consigned to the vaults. 

Track listing 

01 Kiss Me Girl 
02 It's On (feat. Dru Hill)
03 Think
04 Lay Your Body Down (feat. Athena Cage)
05 Ready To Love
06 Abracadabra
07 Hey Girl
08 The Sexiest Girl
09 With That Somebody
10 Daydreaming
11 Something Is Everything

Yes - Live Tales (1974)

'Tales From Topographic Oceans' by Yes is now 52 years old, and in a somewhat belated 50th Anniversary edition, it has just been re-issued as a 15CD set, including a Steven Wilson 2026 remix, new instrumental mixes, singles edits and works in progress, and live recordings. One of my favourite live bootlegs from that time was their Madison Square Garden gig on 18 February 1974, when they played the whole album as part of the set list, but one of the odd things about the latest re-issue is that none of the three live discs feature the whole album, with each of them missing one or two tracks. The band themselves stopped playing all four sides of 'Tales...' after their Detroit show on 28 February 1974, and although there are a few bootlegs around which include all four tracks, this is generally regarded as the best recording of a complete live performance of the double album. There are actually two recordings of this show: one contains the entire concert except the encore, but it has several cuts in the music, lousy sound quality, and terrible speed problems, while the other recording is this one, which has been remastered to improve the sound quality even more. 'Tales...' has been given something of a rough ride over the years, with this ambitious masterpiece of peak progressive rock dividing listeners, who either love or loathe its sprawling, indulgent four-side-long tracks. While critics often panned its bloat, devoted fans celebrate it as a highly detailed, spiritual, and immersive sonic journey filled with immense musical skill, and as I am one of the latter, then being able to hear all four pieces in a live setting should have been a no-brainer for the compliers of the Anniversary set. As they have failed to deliver, then here is the complete live 'Tales From Topographic Oceans', as performed by Yes at the very peak of their powers. 

  
Track listing

01 Introduction
02 The Revealing Science Of God (Dance Of The Dawn)
03 The Remembering (High The Memory)
04 The Ancient (Giants Under The Sun)
05 Ritual (Nous Sommes Du Soleil)

Frazier Chorus - Little Piece Of Hell (1991)

Frazier Chorus was formed in Brighton, England in 1987, by Tim Freeman (the brother of actor Martin Freeman and musician Jamie Freeman) on vocals and keyboards, Michéle Allardyce on percussion, Kate Holmes on flute, and Chris Taplin on clarinet and programming. Original names for the band included both Fishing For Clouds and Plop!, but the band eventually settled on Frazier Chorus, a phrase they had seen on a jacket for the Frazier College football team's cheerleaders in the United States. The band signed to 4AD Records, where their dreamy, pastoral sound lent itself perfectly to the label, and in 1987 they issued their debut single, 'Sloppy Heart'. For 1988's 'Dream Kitchen' the band jumped from 4AD to Virgin, and a year later they released their first full-length effort 'Sue', with the three melodic pop songs released from it achieving minor chart success. Allardyce was eventually dismissed from the band, who continued as a three-piece, and they recorded their second album, 'Ray', which was released in 1991. Three singles were released from it, and each one was remixed by a number of top remixers, including Paul Oakenfold, Chad Jackson and Youth. Following the album's release, the band was let go from Virgin after the label was purchased by EMI and began purging a number of its artists, and subsequently Holmes and Taplin fired Freeman before ultimately disbanding entirely. Holmes later moved into electronica via the bands Sirenes, Technique, and Client, while Freeman took several years off and re-emerged in the mid-1990s, resurrecting the band name with permission from Holmes and Taplin. In 1995 Freeman released a mini-album as Frazier Chorus, but 'Wide Awake' did not reach the UK Albums Chart, and he later released 'Monkey Spunk', which was a collection of five demos recorded prior to the sessions for 'Wide Awake', and it was available exclusively via the band's website. Like so many indie bands of the 90's, they included non-album tracks on the b-sides of their singles, and although they were only together as a band for five years in their first incarnation, and released just two albums, they included enough exclusive material on their singles to make up this rather fine collection.   

Track listing

01 Typical (EP version) (b-side of 'Sloppy Heart' 1987)    
02 Living Room (demo) (b-side of 'Sloppy Heart' 1987)   
03 Down (b-side of 'Dream Kitchen' 1989)
04 String (b-side of 'Typical!' 1989)
05 Born With A Headache (b-side of 'Typical!' 1989)
06 Anarchy In The UK (b-side of 'Sloppy Heart' 1989)
07 Spoonhead (b-side of 'Sloppy Heart' 1989)
08 Little Piece Of Hell (b-side of 'Nothing' 1990)
09 Blistered (b-side of 'Nothing' 1990)
10 Le Change Est Magnifique (b-side of 'Cloud 8' 1990)
11 The Window (b-side of 'Cloud 8' 1990)
12 Walking On Air (Dub Version) (b-side of 'Walking On Air' 1991)