Lyres - We Sell Soul (1995)

Lyres were the creation of vocalist, keyboard player, songwriter, and uncontested leader Jeff Conolly, who formed them in 1979 shortly after the demise of his like-minded group DMZ. Lyres quickly became mainstays on the Boston rock scene and were one of the key bands on the garage rock revival scene of the '80s, on the strength of the albums On Fyre (1984) and Lyres Lyres (1986). Conolly was nicknamed "Monoman" partly because of his love of monophonic recordings of the 60's, and in part because of his monomaniacal obsession with vintage rock & roll. He was born in Albany, New York, moving first to a town near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then to Darien, Connecticut, by which time he'd already began playing keyboards, and had developed a taste for the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Paul Revere and the Raiders. He fell in with a group of musically minded peers in his teens, and hoped to attend music school, but his parents had other ideas, and in 1976 he enrolled at Boston University, although he soon dropped out to play rock & roll. One of his friends at BU, Adam Schwartz, was singing in a band called DMZ, whose style blended raw 60's sounds with the speed and attitude of the burgeoning punk rock movement. Conolly saw DMZ play at a party, and was impressed by them, but Schwartz was soon bounced from the line-up for seeming too mannered, and seeing an opportunity, Conolly volunteered to take his place, and became their lead singer while also playing electric piano. Following the release of an EP on the esteemed independent rock & roll label Bomp! Records in 1977, Sire Records offered the band a major label deal, but their 1978 self-titled debut album, produced by Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of the Turtles and Flo & Eddie, didn't capture the full impact of their live show, and by the end of that year, DMZ had split. 

By January 1979 Conolly had put together Lyres, who eased back on the 70's punk facets of their music to focus on 60's-style material, with Conolly moving from piano to a Vox Continental organ, and featuring just one guitarist instead of DMZ's two. The first Lyres performances featured the final DMZ rhythm section of Rick Coraccio on bass and Paul Murphy on drums, with Rick Carmel on guitar, and this line-up cut the first Lyres single, 'How Do You Know' b/w 'Don't Give It Up Now', for Sounds Interesting Records in 1979. By August the band has splintered, and Conolly recruited guitarist Alex Kronos, bassist Scott Parmenter, and drummer Bob Mackenzie for live work, but the final line-up of Peter Greenberg on guitar, Mike Lewis on bass, and Howie Ferguson on drums didn't finalise until mid-1980. This line-up would record the first Lyres release for Boston's Ace Of Hearts Records, a four-song EP that came out in 1981 called 'AHS-1005', with the record winning the group attention outside of Boston. The single 'I Really Want You Right Now' b/w 'Help You Ann' followed in 1983, but that line-up of Lyres soon disintegrated, and Dan McCormack came aboard to play guitar, while the initial rhythm section of Rick Coraccio and Paul Murphy returned to the fold. This was the band that recorded the first full-length Lyres album, 1984's 'On Fyre', which was a powerful set that featured five original tunes and five covers, with the band sounding solid enough that it was hard to tell which tunes were which. The album earned great press and good sales for an indie release, and this line-up of the group stayed together until the dawn of 1986. After Johnny Bernardo replaced Paul Murphy on drums, Lyres returned to the studio to cut their second album, 'Lyres Lyres', released by Ace Of Hearts in 1986, which was a more contemplative set than the debut, with a greater number of Conolly originals, and it was once again successful, with the band touring North America extensively. 

1988 saw the release of their third album, 'A Promise Is A Promise', which included guest appearances from Stiv Bators of The Dead Boys and Lords Of The New Church, and Wally Tax of Dutch beat-era heroes The Outsiders, alongside another Lyres line-up, with Conolly, Murphy, Jack Hickey on guitar, and Matt Milkos on bass. This line-up played shows in North America and Europe, while in 1988 they also recorded a version of Love's 'Signed D.C.', later used for an Arthur Lee tribute album, with Judd Williams taking over on drums. In 1989, Conolly decided he'd grown tired of Boston, and moved to San Diego, California, assembling yet another version of the band, with three members of the group the Nashville Ramblers, guitarist Carl Rusk, bassist Tom Ward, and drummer Ron Silva, but by 1991 he'd returned to Boston, and re-formed the Carmel/Coraccio/Murphy line-up. This edition of the group cut the 1993 album 'Happy Now', which was released on their new label, Taang! Records. From the mid-90's onward, Conolly continued to perform with Lyres, often in lineups featuring Rick Coraccio and Paul Murphy, but the group's recording activities were limited to singles for various specialist labels, including Telstar, Feathered Apple, and Living Eye. In 2015, Conolly began work on a new Lyres album, and launched a crowdfunding campaign to help finance the project, although to date the record has not appeared. Lyres are the perfect band for this type of post, as they released a lot of stand-alone singles, each with two new songs on them, and so this two-volume set collects all the non-album tracks from those releases into one place. There have been a number of compilations released over the years, but they all omit some of these songs, so this should be the definitive collections of rarities from the band. 

Track listing

Disc I - 1981-1991
01 Buried Alive (from the 'AHS 1005' EP 1981) 
02 In Motion (from the 'AHS 1005' EP 1981) 
03 High On Yourself (from the 'AHS 1005' EP 1981) 
04 What A Girl Can't Do (from the 'AHS 1005' EP 1981) 
05 I Really Want You Right Now (b-side of 'Help You Ann' 1983)
06 Someone Who'll Treat You Right Now (single 1985)
07 You've Been Wrong (b-side of 'Someone Who'll Treat You Right Now' 1985)
08 I'll Try Anyway (b-side of 'Someone Who'll Treat You Right Now' 1985)
09 Stacey (b-side of 'How Do You Know?' 1987)
10 Jezebel (b-side of 'Touch' 1988) 
11 Go-Go-Girl (b-side of 'Touch' 1988)
12 Signed D.C. (from the Arthur Lee tribute EP 'Unloved', recorded 1988, released 1994)
13 We Sell Soul (single 1991)
14 Busy Body (b-side of 'We Sell Soul')

Disc II - 1992-1995
01 How Can I Make Her Mine (b-side of 'Nobody But Me' 1992)
02 Gettin' Plenty Lovin' (b-side of 'Baby (I Still Need Your Lovin')' 1992)
03 Boston (single 1993) ‎
04 Shake It Some More (b-side of 'Boston')
05 Self-Centered Girl (single 1993)
06 What's A Girl Like You Doing In A Place Like This? (b-side of 'Self-Centered Girl')
07 Stay Away (single 1994) 
08 Grounded (b-side of 'Stay Away')
09 Don't Tell Me Lies (single 1994) 
10 Baby It's Me (single 1994)
11 I'll Make It Up To You (b-side of 'Baby It's Me')
12 "7" (single 1995) 
13 Feeling No Pain (b-side of '"7"')
14 Give Your Love To Me (Come On) (single 1995)
15 Security (b-side of 'Give Your Love To Me')

Alesha Dixon - Fired Up (2008)

Alesha Dixon launched her solo career after Mis-Teeq's break-up in 2005, signing a £500,000, three-album deal with Polydor Records. She spent a year writing and recording her solo debut album, working with a wide range of producers including Richard X, Xenomania, Johnny Douglas, Brian Higgins, Estelle and Paul Epworth, and during this period she performed mononymously, known simply as "Alesha". In June 2005, she announced her first solo single was to be 'Superficial', but at the last minute it was replaced by 'Lipstick' as the lead single from her debut album. It charted at number 14 on the UK Single Charts, and so a second single 'Knockdown' was released on 30 October 2006, only managing to peak at number 45 on the UK Singles Charts, and then falling down to 68 the following week. Work was completed on her album 'Fired Up', which she had worked on with a variety of producers, including the afore-mentioned Douglas, Higgins, Epworth and Xenomania, alongside Peer Åström, Anders Bagge, and Richard Stannard. Initially scheduled for a 6 November 2006 release through Polydor and Victor Entertainment in the United Kingdom, it was postponed indefinitely after Dixon was dropped by Polydor several days before its release. 'Fired Up' eventually received a physical release in Japan and Taiwan in 2008, where it was issued along with new artwork, a re-worked listing order, and additional tracks, including two remixes and the previously unreleased song 'Voodoo'. It was never officially released in the UK or the US, although Dixon later exclusively sold it in the UK as merchandise on her tour, The Alesha Show, supporting the album of the same name. With the new series of 'Britain's Got Talent' bringing her name back to the public's attention, now is the perfect time to re-acquaint ourselves with the beginning of her successful solo career.   

Track listing

01 Hypnotik
02 Lipstick
03 Fired Up
04 Knockdown
05 Superficial
06 Ting-A-Ling
07 Free
08 Everybody Wants To Change The World
09 Let It Go
10 A Lil' Bit Of Love
11 Turn It Up
12 Everywhere I Go

Lana Del Rey - Children Of The Bad Revolution (2010)

And for the final collection from 2010, one of my favourite albums from these 2010 recordings. 

Track listing

01 Kinda Outta Luck
02 Dangerous Girl
03 Children Of The Bad Revolution
04 Prom Song (Gone Wrong)
05 Us Against The World
06 Meet Me In The Pale Moonlight
07 You Can Be The Boss
08 Is It Wrong
09 Playground
10 On Our Way
11 Tired Of Singing The Blues
12 Resistance

A gift from PowerPopTOM - Part 3

PowerPopTOM has been busy again and has produced another batch of CD covers for use if you decide to burn any of these albums to CD. Here's a recap of what we have so far, with the new batch at the end.

Bad Company - Easy On My Soul
Big Brother & The Holding Company - Misery

Brian Eno - Textures

Bryan Ferry - Horoscope

Caravan - Looking Left, Looking Right

Cockney Rebel - Another Journey

The Cure - Plastic Passion

The Cure - Mansolidgone

The Cure - Out Of Mind

The Cure - Scared As You

The Cure - The Exploding Boy

The Cure - Listen

Curved Air - Thinking On The Floor

Dave Davies - Lincoln County

David Bowie - Silhouettes And Shadows

Deep Purple - Coronarias Redig

Emerson Lake & Palmer - A Time And A Place

The Faces - A Fifth Of The Faces

Fleetwood Mac - Kiln House

Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart - Bondage

Free - Songs Of The Free

Kraftwerk - K4

Kraftwerk - Techno Pop

Lemmy - Lemmy Write You A Song

Roxy Music - The Pride And The Pain

The Sex Pistols - Spunk

Soft Machine - Rivmic Melodies

Soft Machine - Soft Machine's Little Red Records

The Stalk-Forrest Group - Hidden Mirrors

Status Quo - Tune To The Music

U2 - The Desert Songs

The Velvet Underground - The Sceptre Studio Sessions

Yes - Works

Mott The Hoople - The Saturday Gigs

Jimi Hendrix - Mosaic

Nazareth - Storm Warning

Van Halen - The Warner Brothers Years

Mick Ronson - ...and on guitar

Mick Ronson - Just Like This

and the new ones

Canned Heat - Blues

Canned Heat - Poor Moon

Chicken Shack - Andalucia Blues

The Doors - Whiskey, Mystics And Men

Fanny - IDEM (Canadian Edition)

Fanny - No Deposit, No Return

The Housemartins - Themes For The Well-Dressed Man

The Kinks - Four More Respected Gentlemen

The Stone Roses - Garage Flower

The Yardbirds - A Yardbirds-Eye View Of Beat

The Yardbirds - Featuring Eric Clapton

and some from Paul's site

The Who live at The Young Vic Theatre 1971

Fanny - Live on TV

The Flying Burrito Brothers

The Byrds - (Untitled) Studio

Alan Bown with Robert Palmer - BBC Sessions Volume 2

The link to the complete folder is in the comments. 

Grace Jones - Force Of Nature (2001)

Following the release of Grace Jones' 1989 album 'Bulletproof Heart', she made several comeback attempts throughout the 1990's, including the aborted 'Black Marilyn' project in 1994, but her next full-length record would not appear until almost two decades later. In 1996 she released the 'Love Bites' single, which was taken from the Sci-Fi channel's Vampire Week special, and in 1997 she started a collaboration with trip-hop producer Tricky and his Durban Poison label, recording tracks for an album to be called 'Force Of Nature', with a proposed release date of 1998. The first results of the partnership were 'Cradle To The Grave' and 'Clandestine Affair', but due to heavy disagreements between Jones and Tricky, the album was never completed, and only a scarce white label 12" single featuring two DJ Emily mixes of 'Cradle To The Grave' slipped out. To date, these are the only tracks to ever have surfaced of the three or four that they had apparently finished (Jones once said three, Tricky reportedly alleged four) from their sessions, and 'Cradle To The Grave' was later to be re-recorded as the title track to her 2008 album 'Hurricane'. Tricky himself had also previewed another version – one which he had remixed himself on a radio show that he hosted in September 1999. Despite the apparent demise of her partnership with Tricky, there still seems to have been some resurgent interest in Jones' career at the turn of the millennium, as she appeared with Lil' Kim on 'Revolution' from her album 'Notorious K.I.M', while a remix of 'Pull Up To The Bumper' by Funkstar De Luxe became a top 5 hit on the Billboard Club Charts in November 2000. In 1998 she'd re-recorded the classic 'Walking In The Rain' from her 'Nightclubbing' album, but of all the one offs she did during this time, her finest would have to have been 'Storm' from the soundtrack of the ill-received 1998 'Avengers' movie. With its epic orchestration and Jones' larger-than-life cinematic presence, 'Storm' sounded like the the Bond theme that she had never been given. Having signed a record deal in 2000 with an emerging web-based company, MCY.com (with planned distribution by EMI), things seemed to be looking hopeful once again. A prominent press interview with The Independent gave hints to an imminent album release, with appearances being cited by the likes of Roni Size, Stevie Wonder, and P. Diddy (or Puff Daddy, as he was known then). Around mid-2001, there were also some reports mentioning that 'Storm' producer, Marius De Vries had been enlisted as a co-producer on the project, but not long afterwards hopes of an album release seemed to be dashed with the project appearing to be all but scrapped. She did issue the single 'The Perfect Crime' in 2000, which was featured in the Danish crime thriller 'Rejseholdet', and in 2001 two performances from her character Christoph/Christine were included on the soundtrack to the TV film 'Wolf Girl' (a.k.a. 'Blood Moon'), but it was to be another seven years before she released the 'Hurricane' album, to generally positive reviews. Much of her music which was recorded during this fairly quiet period of her career is too good to be forgotten, and so by taking the best of her singles, collaborations, lost sessions and soundtrack offerings, we can piece together a pretty good album from just before to just after the millennium, with another earlier soundtrack contribution tagged on the end as it seemed to fit the loose 'vampire' concept.    

Track listing 

01 Cradle To The Grave (from the 'Force Of Nature' sessions 1997)
02 Love Bites (from Sci-Fi Channel's 'Vampire Week' 1996)
03 World Of Wonders (from the soundtrack of the film 'Wolf Girl/Blood Moon' 2001)
04 Revolution (from 'Notorious K.I.M.' by Lil' Kim 2000)
06 Storm (from the soundtrack to the film 'The Avengers' 1998)
06 Clandestine Affair (from the 'Force Of Nature' sessions 1997)
07 Walking In The Rain 1998 (re-recording 1998)
08 The Perfect Crime (from the Danish TV show 'Rejseholdet' 2000)
09 Two Sides To Every Story (from the soundtrack of the film 'Wolf Girl/Blood Moon' 2001)
10 Vamp (from the soundtrack of the film 'Vamp' 1986)

theaudience - Quiet Storm (1999)

theaudience were founded in 1996 by guitarist Billy Reeves, formerly of the indie group Congregation, and he was joined by vocalist by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, drummer/producer "Patch" Hannan (ex-The Sundays), keyboard player Nigel Butler (ex-The Bridge), guitarist Dean Mollett (ex-Porcupine), and bass guitarist Kerin Smith. After the release of a couple of well-received singles on the Elleffe albel, the band issued their eponymous debut album in 1998, which received critical acclaim and reached No. 22 in the UK Albums Chart. Four singles were released from the album, but shortly after it came out, their main songwriter Reeves left the band due to "extreme frustration", and subsequently their label Mercury opted not to release any more singles from the record. The remaining members cobbled together some music of their own, destined for an unreleased second album which was rejected by Mercury, and then they  disbanded in late 1998. Ellis-Bextor signed a solo deal with Polydor, but before she released any of her own music, her vocals were featured on Spiller's 'Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)' single in 2000, after which she carved out an extremely successful solo career for herself. Fans of her solo work soon discovered her old band, which led to a couple of the former members of theaudience giving around thirty second album demos to a fan, who uploaded fourteen of them to the internet as a bootleg CD, and it turns out that the lost second album, now titled 'Quiet Storm', is well worth a listen. 

Track listing

01 The Greatest Gift
02 How It Should Be Done
03 Day And Night
04 Headcase
05 Wisdom (Out With The Old School)
06 The Fool Will Rise Again
07 So Clever
08 Twilight Of The Teenage
09 Grey With Dusty Rain
10 You Will Do For Now
11 King Of Action
12 Repetition Kills
13 Two Way
14 Sanctuary Hill

Thanks to the sophierazzi blog for the remastering and for the original cover, which I've colourized.

Lana Del Rey - Baby Blue Love (2010)

We're almost at the end of the albums from 2010, with this penultimate collection.

Track listing

01 Caught You Boy (I Want You)
02 Dum Dum
03 Match Made In Heaven
04 Push Me Down
05 Be My Daddy
06 Never Let Me Go
07 Summer Of Sam
08 Off To The Races
09 Coca Cola
10 Other Woman
11 Baby Blue Love
12 True Love On The Side

Foxy Brown - Black Roses (2006)

Following the disappointment in the cancelled promotion of her studio album 'Ill Na Na 2: The Fever', Foxy Brown left Def Jam Records, and in 2004 she began recording new material, later reuniting with Jay-Z and performing dates on the Best of Both Worlds Tour. After signing back to Def Jam under his regime, Brown and Jay-Z began work on her new album 'Black Roses', with production by The Neptunes, Kanye West, Timbaland, Trackmasters, and Dave Kelly. Guest appearances were confirmed from Barrington Levy, Dido, Luther Vandross, Mos Def, Baby Cham, Spragga Benz, Shyne, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, KRS-One, Roxanne Shante, and Jay-Z, although it was uncertain whether all would make the final cut for the album. In November 2004, Brown confirmed that the title for her upcoming album would be 'Black Roses', explaining that her best friend Barrington Levy has a song called 'Black Roses', and while he'd been traveling all over the world he'd never seen a black rose in any other garden, so when he found his black rose, he knew that shit was special. Brown identified with this, saying "you can have all the female rappers in the world, but there's only one black rose. I feel that's me." Brown also announced that she would be the first artist signed to Jay-Z's upcoming imprint record label S. Carter Records, although rather than launching the imprint, Jay-Z became the new president and CEO of Def Jam Records, where he signed Brown as one of the first artists on his new roster. 

On 08 December 2005, Brown announced she had experienced severe and sudden hearing loss in both ears and she had not heard another person's voice in six months, and so 'Black Roses' was put to one side while her health issues were investigated. In June 2006, she announced that her hearing had been restored through surgery, and that she was planning to resume recording, and although her label did not set a release date, she hoped the album would be out by the end of 2006. It was unsure if the title 'Black Roses' would be retained, but in the end that turned out to be the least of her worries, as in November 2006 there was speculation that Jay-Z was disappointed in Brown's "lack of productivity on the album", and was planning to drop her from the Def Jam label, and so the planned December 2006 release of 'Black Roses' was cancelled. In May 2007, Black Hand Entertainment announced a management deal with Brown, and although she confirmed that the album was nearly complete, the release would be six months later, on 06 September. On August 16, Black Hand Entertainment announced that Brown would leave Def Jam to launch an independent record label, Black Rose Entertainment, distributed by Koch Records, but despite the name of the label, 'Black Roses' would not be the first album to appear on the label. A brand new record titled 'Brooklyn's Don Diva' was eventually scheduled with a release date of December 4, although it was delayed until the following year, coming out on 13 May 2008, after many delays triggered by Brown's prison sentence, after she was jailed for a year in September 2007 for violating the terms of her probation after she was accused of hitting a woman with a cell phone. 'Brooklyn's Don Diva' included two previously unreleased songs from her shelved album 'Ill Na Na 2: The Fever', but none from 'Black Roses', which became yet another legendary unreleased record from the rapper, and although no definitive track listing circulated like that for 'The Fever', most reconstructions agree on about two thirds of the intended songs, and so I've added in the best of the rest to make up this version of this second cancelled album from Foxy Brown. 

Track listing

01 Intro/Dem Don't Like Me
02 That Dude/That Chick (feat. Mos Def)
03 In A Trap (feat. T.I.)
04 X-Clusive (feat. Stacy McKenzie)
05 Hennesey & Bacardi
06 Come Fly With Me (feat. Sizzla)
07 Mr. DJ (feat. Barrington Levy)
08 Boss (feat. Young Gavin & Mousey Baby)
09 Drugz
10 Too Ill (feat. Loon, Coke & Exo)
11 Ride Ya Bike (feat. Ron Browz)
12 All Night (feat. Lady Saw)
13 Why You Hating (feat. Red Handed, Young Gavin & Curtains)
14 Art Of War
15 Up Jumps The Boogie
16 I Don't Need Nobody

The Dream Machine - Mountain For My Head (2023)

The Dream Machine are a modern psychedelic pop band from The Wirral in Merseyside, and taking their name from a William Boroughs invention that recreates hallucinations similar to psychedelics without taking substances, the band was formed in 2021 after meeting at The Mosslands School in Wallasey. Comprising Zak McDonnell (vocals, acoustic guitar and percussion,), Matt Gouldson (backing vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, lap steel, piano), Jack Inchboard (backing vocals, bass) and Isaac Salisbury (drums), Zak's dad David McDonnell was a former member of Hoylake heroes The Coral, and so music was in his blood. After hearing an album that his dad had made in his bedroom under the name of The Sand Band, Zak started drumming in his first band The Mysterines when he was 13, and by the time he was 16 he'd left them and started to play guitar and write songs, and while working in Parr Street Studios in Liverpool, The Corals' James Skelly encouraged him to start his own band. After recruiting his school-mates and forming The Dream Machine, the band released a couple of EPs in 2021, and a single and a third EP in 2022, and they have just issued their debut album 'Thank God! It's The Dream Machine...' on Modern Sky Records, and it's great stuff. So much so that I delved into their back catalogue to hear their earlier releases, and I found that a lot of the music on them was not on the album, and so for a band who have only been together for a couple of years they already have enough extra material for a second record, and so here it is. If you like what you hear then do check out the album, as I think that they could turn out to be something special.    

Track listing 

01 Introduction (from 'Vol 1: Sacraments' 2021)
02 Jesus Babe (from 'Vol 1: Sacraments' 2021)
03 I Still Believe (In Jim Jones) (from 'Vol 1: Sacraments' 2021)
04 Days Of Heaven (from 'Vol 1: Sacraments' 2021)
05 Oceans Wide (from 'Vol 2: On The Water' EP 2021)
06 Me And My Ghost (from 'Vol 2: On The Water' EP 2021)
07 The Sea Is My Friend (from 'Vol 2: On The Water' EP 2021)
08 Taking The Reins (from 'Vol 2: On The Water' EP 2021)
09 Too Stoned To Die (from 'Vol 3: Pooch Slingers' Wild Round Up!' promo EP 2022)
10 Wild One (from 'Vol 3: Pooch Slingers' Wild Round Up!' promo EP 2022)
11 Om Kring (from 'Vol 3: Pooch Slingers' Wild Round Up!' promo EP 2022)
12 Peregrine (from 'Vol 3: Pooch Slingers' Wild Round Up!' promo EP 2022)
13 Yokozuna (b-side of 'TV Baby/Satan's Child' single 2022)
14 The Blue Rose (from 'Lola, In The Morning' EP 2023)
15 Mountain For My Head (from 'Lola, In The Morning' EP 2023)
16 Song To Betty (from 'Lola, In The Morning' EP 2023)
17 Trip Away (from 'Children, My England' EP 2023)
18 U-Train (from 'Children, My England' EP 2023)
19 Baby Run (from 'Children, My England' EP 2023)

Kitchens Of Distinction - Elephantine (1996)

Drummer Dan Goodwin met guitarist Julian Swales at college in 1980, who already knew bassist Patrick Fitzgerald from a party he attended in 1985, and the trio began rehearsing together, taking their name from a Hygena advert that Swales spotted on the side of a bus. The band's first single, 'The Last Gasp Death Shuffle', featuring Swales on lead vocals and bass, as well as guitar, was recorded in just one day on an eight-track in a Kennington basement, and was released in December 1987 on the band's own Gold Rush Records. It gained a 'Single of the Week' accolade in NME, and this led to the band signing with British indie label One Little Indian Records. It was around this time that Fitzgerald put his career as a medical doctor on hold to devote himself fully to the band, and their first singles for One Little Indian, 1988's 'Prize' and 1989's 'The 3rd Time We Opened The Capsule', both made it onto the NME Writers' '100 Best Indie Singles Ever' list, published in 1992. Their first full-length album, 'Love Is Hell', was released in April 1989, with Fitzgerald's impassioned, wordy, often bluntly personal vocals careening over what sounded like a mass of swirling guitars, even though the band only had one guitarist. Swales' chiming, effects-laden style of playing drew comparisons to the guitarists of the Chameleons, Cocteau Twins, and A.R. Kane, and the group's melodic yet abstract sound was a precursor to the shoegaze scene of the late 1980's/early 1990's. Despite the promising start, the band faced a subdued reception from the mainstream music industry, generally due to their lyrical content, such as 'Margaret's Injection', from the 1989 'Elephantine' EP, being a fantasy about killing then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Fitzgerald was openly gay, and his lyrics were unapologetic, especially on tracks like 'Prize' and 'Within The Daze Of Passion', but for once their label was very understanding, with A&M never asking him to change his words or closet himself in interviews. However, some indie-focused television programs like Snub TV and Rapido failed to give them much coverage, and they were not at first offered a John Peel radio session, although they did eventually did get one after asking Peel personally. 

The group had signed with A&M Records in the US in 1990, and went into the studio with producer Hugh Jones, with their second album 'Strange Free World' being released in February 1991, and spawning some moderately successful singles which were very well received by college radio in the US. The band went back into the studio in 1992, again with Jones at the helm, and their third album 'The Death Of Cool' came out in August that year, named in honour of the recent passing of Miles Davis, whose influential album titled 'The Birth Of The Cool' had been released in 1950. A&M were wary of the band's choice of 'Breathing Fear' for the first single, due to its touchy subject matter of gay bashing, so 'Smiling' became the album's initial single in the US, although 'Breathing Fear' was released later in the UK only. The band toured extensively, including a high-profile slot opening for their US label-mate Suzanne Vega, and in late 1993 they began work on their fourth album, co-producing it themselves with engineer Pete Bartlett. Their label rejected the album twice, but eventually both label and band agreed to bring in up-and-coming producer Pascal Gabriel to work on a couple of tracks, as one of the label's complaints about the album  was that it seemed to lack a potential hit single. Gabriel produced the new song 'Come On Now', that had been written after the rest of the record was already recorded, and he also remixed two of the album's other tracks. 'Cowboys And Aliens', was released in the UK in October 1994, and although the band admitted that they enjoyed working with Gabriel, his changes did nothing to help the album's dismal sales. When it was released in the US a few months later, it was largely ignored by the same alternative rock radio and media that had championed them just a few years earlier, and by the end of that year, both A&M and One Little Indian had dropped the band. Shortening their name to Kitchens O.D. and signing to the London-based indie label Fierce Panda Records, they issued the single 'Feel My Genie' in May 1996, but despite being named 'Single of the Week' by Melody Maker, the group officially disbanded that summer after a farewell gig at Kings Cross in London. Although I knew of the band's work, I didn't have any of their albums, and so this collection of non-album b-sides is my introduction to the group, and I must say that I was impressed enough to investigate their other recordings, so if you don't know them either then  give them a try. 

Track listing

Disc I - 1987-1990
01 The Last Gasp Death Shuffle ‎(single 1987)
02 Escape (b-side of 'The Last Gasp Death Shuffle')
03 Concede (b-side of 'Prize' 1988)
04 Innocent (b-side of 'Prize' 1988)
05 Into The Sea (b-side of 'The 3rd Time We Opened The Capsule' 1989) 
06 Elephantine (single 1989)
07 Margaret's Injection (b-side of 'Elephantine')
08 The 1001st Fault (b-side of 'Elephantine')
09 Anvil Dub (b-side of 'Elephantine')
10 These Drinkers (b-side of 'Drive That Fast' 1990)
11 Elephantiny (b-side of 'Drive That Fast' 1990)
12 Three To Beam Up (b-side of 'Drive That Fast' 1990)

Disc II - 1992-1996
13 Goodbye Voyager (b-side of 'Breathing Fear' 1992)
14 Skin (b-side of 'Breathing Fear' 1992)
15 Air Shifting (b-side of 'Breathing Fear' 1992)
16 Glittery Dust (b-side of 'When In Heaven' 1992)
17 Don't Come Back (b-side of 'When In Heaven' 1992)
18 Spacedolphins (b-side of 'When In Heaven' 1992)
19 Jesus Nevada (b-side of 'Now It's The Time To Say Goodbye' 1993) 
20 White Horses (b-side of 'Now It's The Time To Say Goodbye' 1993) 
21 What We Really Wanted To Do (b-side of 'Now It's The Time To Say Goodbye' 1993) 
22 Feel My Genie (single 1996)
23 To Love A Star (b-side of 'Feel My Genie')

The Lilac Time - Tree (1989)

In early 1989, the Lilac Time's record company Fontana/Phonogram asked the band to begin recording their second album, which the band had hoped to record at their country retreat in the Malvern Hills, although Phonogram insisted that it be recorded in a modern studio not far from the company's London headquarters instead. It was originally intended to be a double album titled 'Tree', with one album consisting of singer-songwriter Stephen Duffy's songs and the other one of instrumentals, primarily composed by his brother Nick. Fontana refused to release it in that format, and so the record instead became a single album, with the revised title of 'Paradise Circus', and made up of twelve tracks written by Stephen and one by Nick. Many of the instrumentals that were recorded during the sessions instead saw release on the b-sides of the singles taken from 'Paradise Circus' and its follow-up '& Love for All', as well as on the first album by Nick Duffy's spin-off band Bait. The sound that Duffy and engineer/producer Tony Phillips were attempting to achieve on the recordings was later described by Duffy as a "small folky sound without the de rigueur large ambient snare drums of the age", but as the recording sessions progressed, Fontana became unhappy with the music that the band had committed to tape, and insisted that they return to the studio to cut more commercial songs which could be released as singles, while also urging them to "Americanize" their sound - something that was reportedly parodied by Duffy in his song 'American Eyes'. Fontana also insisted that the pedal steel guitar was lowered in volume, as the wife of one of the Phonogram executives didn't like sound of the instrument (!!). As a result of this, which served to both annoy the band and delay the album's release, it didn't appear until October 1989, two years after the release of the band's debut album. When 'Paradise Circus' was reissued in 2006, its bonus tracks included an additional twelve instrumentals from the recording sessions that had been intended for the second disc of the proposed double album, and so I've extracted them and made them into a stand-alone record, with its own cover art of a Peking lilac tree. 

Track listing

01 Ponderosa Pine 
02 Night Mail/Dirty Armour 
03 Shepherd's Plaid 
04 Ounce Of Nails 
05 Spin á Cavalu 
06 Australian Worm 
07 On Milkwood Road 
08 Night Soil 
09 Rubovia 
10 Silver Dagger 

11 November 
12 Paradise Circus (Old Smithy version)

Lana Del Rey - My Best Days (2010)

And another collection from the prolific Lana Del Rey from 2010.

Track listing

01 Dangerous Girl
02 St. Tropez (Party Girl)
03 In The Sun
04 My Best Days
05 Afraid
06 Behind Closed Doors
07 Jealous Girl
08 Butterflies
09 So Legit
10 Dynamite
11 Noir
12 Velvet Crowbar

Nine Inch Nails - Purest Feeling (1988)

While living in Cleveland in 1987, Trent Reznor played keyboards in the Exotic Birds, a synthpop band managed by John Malm Jr., with Malm informally becoming his manager when he left to work on his own music. At the time, Reznor was employed as an assistant engineer and janitor at Right Track Studios, and studio owner Bart Koster granted Reznor free access to the studio between bookings to record demos, and as he was unable to find a band that could articulate the material as he desired, he was inspired by Prince to play all instruments himself, except for the drums which he programmed electronically. In November 1988 Reznor used his free studio time to record nine demos, some of which would later be re-recorded for Nine Inch Nails' debut album 'Pretty Hate Machine'. The first Nine Inch Nails performance, featuring Reznor and Chris Vrenna on drums, took place at the Phantasy Theater in Lakewood, Ohio, on 21 October 1988, with the band later supporting Skinny Puppy, after which Reznor aimed to release a 12-inch single on a small European label, having signed to TVT Records after several labels responded favourably to the demo material. After six of the demos were released in revised form on Nine Inch Nails' first studio album 'Pretty Hate Machine' in 1989, the original demo recordings appeared on a number of unofficial CDs in 1994, released in Germany, Italy and the US. The overall sound of the demos is lighter than that of 'Pretty Hate Machine', with several songs containing more live drumming and guitar, as well as a heavier use of film samples, and both 'Sanctified' and 'That's What I Get' could be considered better versions that those that were officially released. 'Twist' is an early version of 'Ringfinger', featuring different lyrics and less use of sample loops, and some of the songs re-recorded for 'Pretty Hate Machine' had lyrics cut from them, but Reznor chose to print the full lyrics in the 'Pretty Hate Machine' booklet to retain some of the original meanings of his songs. Because of the differences between these demos and the eventual sound of Nine Inch Nails, fan's opinion is divided over them, but newcomers should find them a good introduction to the band, while hard-core fans can now hear Reznor's original vision of his songs before they were re-imagined for official release.   

 
Track listing 

01 Slate (Intro)
02 Sanctified
03 Maybe Just Once
04 The Only Time
05 Kinda I Want To
06 That's What I Get
07 Purest Feeling
08 Twist
09 Down In It