Normani - Black Woman (2023)

While Normani's management struggle to release her debut solo album, having postponed it so many times since 2018 that fans are seriously doubting that it will ever appear, here is my attempt at her sophomore release, comprising songs recorded in the last few years. It includes a solo rendition of 'Wild Side' without Cardi B, and I've titled it 'Black Woman', not only after one of the tracks from the album, but also as a tribute to Normani's achievement at being listed on BET's "Future 40" list as a young woman who is "redefining what it means to be unapologetically young, gifted & black".  

Track listing

01 Used To
02 Parade
03 Black Woman
04 Candy Paint
05 Fair
06 Make Me Feel
07 Go Deep
08 Eh Yo
09 Touch Myself
10 Wild Side
11 Waiting For You
12 Cest La Vie
13 Disconnected
14 Ocean Club

Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign - Vultures Volume 2 (2024)

'Vultures 1' is the first collaborative studio album by rapper Kanye West and singer Ty Dolla $ign, and it was released independently through West's YZY brand on 10 February 2024. The album features uncredited guest vocals from West's daughter North, Freddie Gibbs, YG, Quavo, Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, Bump J, Lil' Durk, Rich the Kid, and Chris Brown, and production was primarily handled by West himself, alongside Digital Nas, JPEGMafia, Chrishan, 88-Keys, Wheezy, Ojivolta, DJ Camper, Timbaland, No I.D., Wax Motif, the Legendary Traxster, and Anthony Kilhoffer, among others. It sustained multiple delays and changes to its tracklist before its final release, and several listening events to promote it, including a multi-stadium listening event and a concert in Reggio Emilia, were cancelled. The title track was released on 22 November 2023 and served as its lead single, and a set of listening events titled 'Vultures Rave' preceded the release of the second single, 'Talking/Once Again', which features uncredited guest vocals from his daughter North West. On 15 February  2024 the business-to-business music distributor FUGA started to remove the album from streaming and download services, because it had been published using their platform's automated processes after they had explicitly declined to publish it, but it was redistributed the same day through Label Engine. In contrast to West's previous two albums, it finds him mostly forgoing religious themes, and received mixed reviews from critics, with many criticizing the album's unoriginality and lyrics, namely those addressing West's rhetoric towards preceding controversies. This didn't stop it debuting at the top of the US Billboard 200, though, becoming West's eleventh number-one album, and Ty Dolla $ign's first. Recording sessions had been taking place since the summer of 2023, and so it's no surprise that many tracks had to be removed from the final track listing, including 'Everybody' and 'New Body', after the Backstreet Boys and Nicki Minaj respectively refused permission to use samples of their work. As usual with West's work, it didn't take long for them to appear online, and so here are the offcut's from 'Vultures 1', which you won't be surprised to learn that I've called 'Vultures Volume 2', and it's housed in an updated version of the original scrapped artwork. 

Track listing

01 Everybody (feat. Charlie Wilson & Lil' Baby)
02 Time Moving Slow

03 Timbo Freestyle
04 Slide
05 New Body (feat. Nicki Minaj)
06 Promotion (feat. Future) 
07 Lifestyle (feat. Lil' Wayne) 
08 Drunk (feat. Kodak Black & Bad Bunny)
09 Worship (feat. North West & Charlie Wilson)
10 River (feat. Young Thug)
11 Gun To My Head (feat. Kid Cudi)
12 Unlock
13 North's Song (feat. North West & James Blake)
14 Once Again
15 Forever Rollin' (feat. Lil' Baby)
16 All This Money On The Floor (feat. YG)
17 IG Models (feat. Future & Lil' Durk)
18 Don't Kill The Party (feat. Tyga)
19 Work Done/Diablo

Leslie Carter - Like Wow! (2001)

Leslie Barbara Ashton (née Carter) was born on 6 June 1986 in Tampa, Florida, and at the age of 13 she signed a record deal with DreamWorks Records, where she began recording her debut album. This was set for release in June 2000, but it was delayed because DreamWorks wanted to test her fanbase before releasing the record in order to ensure its success. Her single 'Like Wow!' appeared on the 'Shrek' soundtrack and received minor radio airplay, peaking at No. 99 on the Billboard Hot 100, and her debut album of the same name was set for release on 10 April 2001. However, following a number of reported problems from the set of her debut music video, Dreamworks cancelled the album and dropped her from the label, although promo copies later became available online, and "Metal Mike" Saunders of The Village Voice described it as "the best bubblegum album of the entire '97–Y2K era." She started a small club tour in Canada in December 2005, and had a showcase in New York City in January 2006, with hopes it would lead to a new record deal, showing that she'd abandoned her bubblegum pop roots for a more mature, pop rock-oriented sound. In late 2006 she founded the band The Other Half, which included her backup musicians, with the final line-up consisting of Carter on vocals, Mike Ashton on drums, Jason Eldon on electric guitar, and Sean Smit on bass and back-up vocals, but in September 2009 they mutually decided to split up. On 31 January 2012 Carter was found unresponsive at the home of her father and stepmother while she was visiting them. She'd fallen asleep after she fell in the shower and did not wake up. She was just 25 years old. She only released the one single in her way too short career, and so to show that she wasn't just a one-hit wonder, here is her shelved album from 2001. Fans of B*Witched should love this record. 

Track listing

01 Be Mine
02 Like Wow
03 They Don't Know
04 I Need To Hear It From You
05 Too Much Too Soon
06 Shy Guy
07 I Wanna Be Your Girl
08 True
09 Boy Like That
10 Mine

Camila Cabello - Unforgettable (2017)

Karla Camila Cabello Estrabao was born on 3 March 1997, and is best known for being a member of the girl group Fifth Harmony, which became one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. She auditioned for the TV talent competition show The X Factor in Greensboro, North Carolina, with Aretha Franklin's 'Respect', but her audition was not aired because the series did not get the rights for the song. After elimination during the "bootcamp" portion of the process in Miami, Florida, Cabello was called back to the stage along with other contestants Ally Brooke, Normani, Lauren Jauregui, and Dinah Jane to form the girl group that would later become known as Fifth Harmony. After finishing in third place on the show, they signed a joint deal with Simon Cowell's Syco Music and Epic Records, and released the EP 'Better Together' to some acclaim (see previous 5th Harmony post here). Two albums followed, with 'Reflection' coming out in 2015, followed by '7/27' the following year. In November 2015, Cabello collaborated with Canadian singer Shawn Mendes on a duet titled 'I Know What You Did Last Summer', a song they wrote together, charting at number 20 in the US and number 18 in Canada, and in 2016 American rapper Machine Gun Kelly released a joint single with Cabello called 'Bad Things', which reached a peak of number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. On 18 December 2016, Fifth Harmony announced Cabello's departure, with both sides giving contradictory explanations of the circumstances for her exit. After her departure she appeared on songs from Norwegian DJ Cashmere Cat and rappers Pitbull and J Balvin, and later she announced the future release of her first studio album, at the time titled 'The Hurting. The Healing. The Loving.'. 

Her debut solo single 'Crying In The Club' was released in May 2017, followed by a performance at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards, and then new writing and recording sessions for her album were undertaken following the success of her 'Havana' single, in order to capitalise on it's success. The single became Spotify's most-streamed song ever by a solo female artist in June 2018, with over 888 million streams at the time, and so she wanted the album to go in that musical direction. This postponed the album's original release date, and 'Camila', her debut album, was eventually released on 12 January 2018. It was a pop record containing Latin-influenced songs and ballads, and debuted at number one in the United States with 119,000 album-equivalent units. In April 2018 she embarked on the Never Be the Same Tour, her first headlining concert tour as a solo artist, and by May she was performing as the opening act for American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift in her Reputation Stadium Tour. In October 2018, Cabello announced she would start working on new music in the new year, and in April 2019 it was announced that she would star in an upcoming film adaptation of 'Cinderella', directed by Kay Cannon for Sony Pictures. Because her debut album was drastically revised after the success of 'Havana', a number of songs were dumped from it in order to make room for the new 'Havana'-influenced tracks, and so there were quite a few demos and out-takes left over when it was released. Enough, in fact, to make up a perfectly acceptable companion album to 'Camila', which could have been released shortly afterwards to tide fans over until her next single was released in 2019. 

Track listing

01 Be Right Here
02 Love Life
03 Come When I Call (feat. Pharrell Williams)
04 Must Be Love
05 Cleopatra
06 OMG (feat. Quava)
07 Scar Tissue
08 Curious
09 The Middle
10 Unforgettable
11 Died
12 Thinkin' Bout One
13 Knows Me
14 Witness
15 Just Like You
16 The Boy (feat. Ed Sheeran)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Joni Mitchell (2014)

Roberta Joan Anderson on 7 November 1943, in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada, and moved with her family to Saskatoon, which she considers her hometown, at age 11. She wanted to play the guitar, but as her mother associated the instrument with country music and disapproved of its hillbilly associations, she initially settled for the ukulele, although she eventually taught herself guitar from a Pete Seeger songbook. She started singing with her friends at bonfires around Waskesiu Lake, northwest of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and after dropping out of school after a year at age 20, she started to play gigs as a folk musician on weekends at her college and at a local hotel. In 1964, at the age of 20, she told her mother that she intended to be a folk singer in Toronto, and wrote her first song 'Day After Day' on the three-day train ride east to Ontario. In February 1965 she was playing gigs again around Yorkville, often with a friend, Vicky Taylor, and was beginning to sing original material for the first time, written with her unique open tunings. In March and April she found work at the Penny Farthing, a folk club in Toronto, where she met New York City-born American folk singer Charles Scott "Chuck" Mitchell, from Michigan. Chuck was immediately attracted to her and impressed by her performance, and he told her that he could get her steady work in the coffeehouses he knew in the United States. She left Canada for the first time in late April 1965, travelling with Mitchell to the US, where they began playing music together, and they later married, with Joni taking his surname, although the marriage and partnership ended with their divorce in early 1967. Following this, she moved to New York City to follow her musical path as a solo artist, and while she was playing one night in 1967 in the Gaslight South, a club in Coconut Grove, Florida, David Crosby walked in and was immediately struck by her ability and her appeal as an artist. She accompanied him back to Los Angeles, where he set about introducing her and her music to his friends, and soon she was signed to the Warners-affiliated Reprise label by talent scout Andy Wickham. 

Crosby convinced Reprise to let Mitchell record a solo acoustic album without the folk-rock overdubs in vogue at that time, and 'Song To Seagull' was released in March 1968. She toured steadily to promote the album, creating eager anticipation for her second LP, 'Clouds', which was released in April 1969. This contained her own versions of some of her songs already recorded and performed by other artists, such as 'Chelsea Morning', 'Both Sides, Now', and 'Tin Angel', and the covers of both albums were designed and painted by Mitchell herself.  In April 1970 Reprise released her third album, 'Ladies Of The Canyon', and her sound was already beginning to expand beyond the confines of acoustic folk music and toward pop and rock, with more overdubs, percussion, and backing vocals, and for the first time, many songs composed on piano, which became a hallmark of Mitchell's style in her most popular era. 'Ladies Of The Canyon' was an instant smash on FM radio and sold briskly, eventually becoming Mitchell's first gold album, but she made a decision to stop touring for a year and just write and paint. The songs she wrote during the months she took off for travel and life experience appeared on her next album, 'Blue', released in June 1971, which was an almost instant critical and commercial success, peaking in the top 20 of the Billboard albums chart in September and also hitting the British Top 3. The lushly produced 'Carey' was the single at the time, but musically, other parts of 'Blue' departed further from the sounds of 'Ladies Of The Canyon', with simpler, rhythmic acoustic parts allowed a focus on Mitchell's voice and emotions, while others such as 'Blue', 'River' and 'The Last Time I Saw Richard' were sung to her rolling piano accompaniment. With the music now so much more than just folk songs, they were soon picked up and recorded by a variety of artists in other fields, such as soul rendition of 'All I Want' by The Supremes, or the hard rock of 'This Flight Tonight' by Nazareth. The songs from 'Blue' have continued to be covered ever since, with Linda Ronstadt tackling 'River' in 2000, and Wilson Phillips taking on 'California' in 2004. 'Blue' is often cited as one of the best albums of all time, being rated the 30th best album ever made in Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and so here is a unique interpretation of it by a variety of artists who appreciate the quality of her song-writing.   

Track listing

01 All I Want (The Supremes 1972)  
02 My Old Man (Sandbloom 2011) 
03 Little Green (Blue Tapestry 2002) 
04 Carey (Goldie Hawn 1972)  
05 Blue (Sarah McLachlan 1994)  
06 California (Wilson Phillips 2004) 
07 This Flight Tonight (Nazareth 1973) 
08 River (Linda Ronstadt 2000)  
09 A Case Of You (Phoebe Snow 1998)  
10 The Last Time I Saw Richard (Clare Maguire 2014)

Demond - Street Tales (1997)

R&B singer Demond was signed to 550 Music/Epic Records, and recorded his debut album 'Street Tales' for them around 1997. Two singles were released from it, with 'AllIWannaDo' reaching #24 on the Billboard Bubbling Under chart, and 'Ooh La La' just breaking the top 60 on the R&B chart, but neither of these charting records were enough to stop the cancellation of the album. It's a great shame, as this record has some really interesting experimentation, especially on the two longer tracks - 'Beamer' and 'Warm Embrace'. Luckily it was not completely scrapped, and so with a subtly coloured version of the cover, here is one of my favourite unreleased R&B albums from the last 25 years.

Track listing

01 AllIWannaDo
02 Ooh La La
03 Loser
04 Beamer
05 True To The Game
06 Show Me The Money
07 Baby Can I Touch You
08 Warm Embrace
09 Sometimes
10 Anything

Meghan Trainor - Treat Myself (2019)

Meghan Elizabeth Trainor was born on 22 December 1993, in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and she began singing at age six, at a Methodist church with her father, who was a music teacher and organist. Her family encouraged her to pursue her musical interests, and she had told her father she wanted to become a recording artist, so she began writing songs and recording them using the digital audio workstation software GarageBand. At the age of 12, she began performing as part of the cover band Island Fusion, which also included her aunt, younger brother, and father, staying with them for four years, singing and playing piano, guitar, and bongo drums. She and her family left Nantucket when she was in the eighth grade, temporarily relocating to Orleans, Massachusetts, before moving to North Eastham, where she attended Nauset Regional High School and studied guitar, played trumpet, and sang in a jazz band for three years. While she was a teenager, her parents encouraged her to attend songwriting conventions, and at 15, she took guitar lessons from former NRBQ member Johnny Spampinato. During this time, Trainor used Logic Studio to record and produce her compositions, and later worked independently in a home studio built by her parents. Between the ages of 15 and 17, she independently released three albums of material she had written, recorded, performed, and produced, with her debut album 'Meghan Trainor' being released on Christmas Day 2009, followed by the acoustic albums 'I'll Sing With You' and 'Only 17' the following year. Though she'd been offered a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music, she decided to pursue her songwriting career and signed with Big Yellow Dog Music in 2012, starting out as a songwriter-for-hire, because of her ability to compose in a variety of genres, but being unsure about becoming a recording artist herself. 

Throughout 2013 she travelled to Nashville, New York City and Los Angeles, where she wrote and helped produce country and pop songs, singing lead and background vocals on demos for other artists, and her vocals were occasionally used on the final recordings. In June 2013 Trainor met producer Kevin Kadish in Nashville, and they found that they both liked retro style music and began recording together that month, later writing 'All About That Bass' together. The duo offered the song to several record labels, all of which rejected the doo-wop song because it was not "synth-y, pop-y" enough, but she when she performed the song for Epic label boss L.A. Reid, he signed her 20 minutes later. 'All About That Bass' was released as her debut sonhle on 30 June 2014, and it reached number one in 58 countries, and it sold 11 million units worldwide. Her debut EP, 'Title', with songs composed by Trainor and Kadish, was released in September 2014, and peaked at number 15 on the US Billboard 200. Her three self-released albums were removed from sale in the build-up to the release of her major-label debut studio album 'Title', which replaced her EP of the same name on the iTunes Store, and it was released on 9 January 2015, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200. Singles from the record, 'Dear Future Husband' and 'Like I'm Gonna Lose You', reached the Hot 100's top 20, and she began her first headlining concert tour, That Bass Tour, on 11 February 2015, but just before starting her "MTrain Tour" in July, she was diagnosed with a vocal cord haemorrhage, and her medical team ordered her to undergo complete vocal rest, delaying the first two dates of the tour. 

In August she announced the cancellation of the remainder of her North American tour, undergoing surgery "to finally fix this once and for all". In March 2016 she released the first single from her new album, with 'No' peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, which was followed by 'Me Too' in May, the day before her 'Thank You' album appeared, and although it received mixed reviews, it still debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200. In December 2017 Fox announced Trainor as one of the judges on the show 'The Four: Battle For Stardom', along with Sean Combs, DJ Khaled and Charlie Walk, with the show's first two seasons being broadcast in 2018. Her third major-label studio album, 'Treat Myself', was scheduled for release on 31 August 2018, but was delayed because she wanted to write and record more songs for it, and its lead single 'No Excuses' was released in March 2018 and peaked at number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100, followed by 'Let You Be Right', 'Can't Dance' and 'All The Ways', and 'Treat Myself' was given a January 2019 release date, although it was not actually released until 31 January 2020. Trainor wrote enough material for four albums while trying to adapt to new trends in the music industry, and the final track listing was drastically different from the original incarnation, and it received mixed reviews on its release, only reaching number 25 on the US Billboard 200. In the end only four songs from the original track list made it to the actual album, with even the title track being removed, and so this early version of 'Treat Myself' is almost a completely new album for you to enjoy. 

Track listing

01 Treat Myself 
02 No Excuses 
03 Let You Be Right 
04 Hard To Please 
05 Evil Twin 
06 I'm Down 
07 Foolish 
08 Look At Us 
09 Another Opinion 
10 Don't Think About Leavin' 
11 Can't Dance 
12 All The Ways 
13 After You 
14 Good Morning (feat. Gary Trainor) 

Tracks 01, 03, and 11 released as singles.
Tracks 06, 07, 12 and 14 later released on 'The Love Train' EP.
Tracks 02, 05, 09 and 13 kept for the official album.
Tracks 04, 08 and 10 previously unreleased.

Dua Lipa - Roses & Fire (2017)

This second collection of demos and out-takes from Dua Lipa is another great album which could have been released at the same time as her actual debut in 2017.

Track listing

01 Lot To Love
02 All Or Nothing
03 Berlin Summer
04 Pour Me A Lie
05 Favourite Problem
06 Bad Idea
07 Top Dollar
08 Try
09 Roses & Fire
10 Afterlight
11 Save Someone
12 Wicked And Wild
13 Lose Myself

Mike Solof - Off The Beatle Track - Episodes 48/49 (1992)

You may have seen that Mike has mentioned in the notes to his Beatles Remix albums that he started doing them after hosting a Beatles-themed radio show in the US, and a while ago he sent me a load of these shows to listen to, and after hearing a few I thought they would be a great addition to the blog. The only thing stopping me posting them was the fact that I didn't know much about the background of the shows, but out of the blue I've just received a complete history of how they came about from Mike himself, so I'm now able to start posting them. Here's how it all started...........  
When Mike was around 13, in 1976, he used to listen to NPR, which was a classical station, at the same time as he was just getting into the Beatles, and he realized that 'Yesterday' was basically a classical song but just with Paul singing. He got thinking about all the rock groups that took that idea and ran with it, like, to name just a few, The Moody Blues with 'Nights In White Satin', Elton John's 'Indian Sunset', ELP's 'Pirates' and Peter Gabriel's 'Down The Dolce Vita'. That would make a cool show on the classical station and push its bounds, and so he wrote to them with the idea and they wholeheartedly umm...didn’t agree! Jump to 1988, and Mike's interest in the Beatles had greatly intensified in college, when someone played him the Red and Blue albums, and he suddenly realized that all these songs that he didn’t know were the Beatles, were in fact the Beatles! He wasn't the first person to realise that this exceptional group had gone from 'Love Me Do' to 'I Am The Walrus' in the span of just six years. Around that time he was in his local college Record Store, when suddenly he noticed a back room with a black curtain that said you must be over 18 to enter. One day he jokingly said to the owner "what's back there, porn?", and the owner said no, it's bootlegs. The naive Mike said "what are bootlegs?", and he was led behind the black curtain to a locked case that contained about 40 CDs ranging in price from about $30 each up to about $120. Two of them caught his eye - they were Beatles bootlegs entitled Ultra Rare Trax Volume One and Two and they were $90 apiece (for a single CD), and he decided to take a chance and splurged on them. At the time he had a really phenomenal stereo system set up in his college room, and when he slipped these CD's on and heard 'I Saw Her Standing There (Take Two)' in a quality beyond anything that I had heard before, it was so clear and so stunning that he stood there in shock. It was like the band was right there in the room, and that moment cemented his love for the Beatles and all things bootlegs! 
Soon after that his research into the Beatles led him to a website called Beatles-A-Rama. It was 24 hours a day of beautifully produced Beatles stuff, and it often played many things that he had never heard before. After listening to that station for a couple of years he finally got up the nerve to write to the owner, Pat Matthews. He was a super nice guy and they got along great, so Mike told him about his idea to do a single two hour show based around classic rock and it's influences from classical music, using all sorts of different bands, but grounding it in Beatles songs like 'Yesterday', 'I Am The Walrus' and 'Strawberry Fields', plus a few others where they used classical instruments in the song ('Penny Lane' and 'For No One' come to mind). He said great, send me a show, so Mike bought himself a microphone and learned how to record things on Audacity, and proceeded to create a two hour show, the one that he'd been planning in his mind since he was 13. Once Pat had played the tape his reply was unexpectedly... "Love it. You're on every Saturday at 10.00am". And that was the start of 11 years of his own show called 'Off The Beatle Track' on Beatles-A-Rama, running to over 300 episodes in its 11 year run. 
As I said, Mike has sent me a load of these shows, and of course the first one I listened to was the 'classical music' one which started the whole thing off, so in the first of a sporadic series, here are Episodes 48 and 49 of Mike's 'Off The Beatle Track' radio broadcast. 

Track listing

01 Episode 48 - Classical Classics Part 1

02 Episode 49 - Classical Classics Part 2

Normani - 1996 (2019)

Normani Kordei Hamilton was born on 31 May 1996, and she rose to fame as a member of the American girl group Fifth Harmony, which became one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. She auditioned for the second season of The X Factor USA in 2012 with a performance of 'Chain Of Fools' by Aretha Franklin that earned approval from all four judges. She was cut during the second round of boot camp, but was invited back to the show to perform as part of a group with Ally Brooke, Lauren Jauregui, Dinah Jane, and Camila Cabello, who later named itself Fifth Harmony, and made it to the finale, finishing in third place. In October 2013, Fifth Harmony released their first EP, 'Better Together' (see previous post here), followed by their debut album, 'Reflection', in 2015, and their second album, '7/27', in 2016. After Cabello's departure from the group in December 2016, Fifth Harmony released their self-titled album as a quartet in August 2017, and Normani became the quartet's de facto leader, leading solos and choreography. Her onstage confidence in the group caught the attention of executive Tunji Balogun, who founded RCA's imprint Keep Cool, and manager Brandon Silverstein, who began working with Normani in late 2017. On 19 March 2018, the group announced their decision to take an indefinite hiatus to pursue solo careers. Before that, from February 2016 through to January 2017, Normani released covers of several songs, including Tory Lanez's 'Say It' and mashups of Drake's 'Fake Love'/'Sneakin'', and Solange's 'Cranes In The Sky'/'Don't Touch My Hair', with the help of producers The Invaders. 

She competed on season 24 of 'Dancing With The Stars' from March through May 2017, alongside her dancing partner, professional ballroom dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy, and they reached the finals, finishing in third place. In October 2017, it was announced that she'd signed to management company S10 Entertainment as a solo artist, and her duet with Khalid, 'Love Lies', from the soundtrack of the romantic teen comedy-drama film 'Love, Simon' was released the month before Fifth Harmony retired, in February 2018. In April it was announced that Normani had become the first ever artist to sign to Keep Cool/RCA Records, ahead of the release of her debut solo album, as well as signing a modelling contract with Wilhelmina, and a contract with Puma to endorse the brand's RS-0 shoes. In October Normani and Calvin Harris released their EP, 'Normani x Calvin Harris', which features the songs 'Checklist' (with Wizkid) and 'Slow Down', and this was followed by 'Waves' in November, with her album being scheduled to be released in the first quarter of 2019, and its title was hinted to be a number. On 11 January 2019, Normani and Sam Smith released the song 'Dancing With A Stranger', which peaked at number 3 in the United Kingdom and number 7 in the U.S. charts. The song earned her a nomination for Song of the Year at the 2020 Brit Awards, and just one year into her solo career, she became the fastest solo artist (without an album) to surpass one billion combined streams on Spotify. 

In August 2019 she released the single 'Motivation', co-written by Ariana Grande, which was her first truly solo record, without a featured artist. By this time 2019 was almost over, with no sign of her album, and it was announced that it would appear some time in 2020, confirming that it was only a little more than halfway complete. Her next release was when she collaborated with Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj on the song 'Bad To You', for the soundtrack of the 2019 film 'Charlie's Angels', which was released in November. In January 2020, she joined rapper Megan Thee Stallion on the song 'Diamonds', which served as the lead single for the soundtrack of the 2020 superhero film 'Birds Of Prey', and in February she was listed on BET's "Future 40" list, which is a list of "40 of the most inspiring and innovative vanguards who are redefining what it means to be unapologetically young, gifted & black". 2020 passed with still no sign of her debut album, and in July 2021 she released 'Wild Side', featuring Cardi B, which reached number 1 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop chart, and which won her the Best Dance Performance award at the 2021 BET Soul Train Music Awards. In an interview following her win, she was asked if she had a message for her fans, and she responded with "Summer's gonna be lit", referencing when her album will be released. 

In March 2022 she released a new single, 'Fair', and the following month she was announced as the face of Cracker Jill, for which she sang a reimagined version of the song 'Take Me Out To The Ball Game'. The same day she was also announced by Vogue France as the face of AMI Paris' photo campaign for the French brand's L'Accordéon bag. July saw the release of another single with Calvin Harris, Tinashe and Offset, 'New To You', which was taken from Harris's album 'Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2'. In February 2023, she voiced the character Giselle, a member of the fictional '90s music group The Soul Vibrations, on the second season of the animated Disney+ television series 'The Proud Family: Louder And Prouder', and in August she announced that she'd split with the management company S10 Entertainment, and signed a new management deal with managers Brandon Creed and Lydia Asrat. With another year gone and still no sign of that album, could this be the final straw, as music that she'd originally recorded would now be five years old. As her management seems unable to get their act together and release Normani's first solo album, then it's up to us to do it for them, so here is a collection of tracks recorded in the first couple of years of her solo career, and using the 'number' title that was hinted at way back in 2018. 

Track listing

01 Blessing
02 Motivation
03 1-On-1
04 Runaround
05 Time Waster
06 Last Best Thing (feat. Kiana Lede)
07 Waves (feat. 6LACK)
08 Somebody Else
09 Ride Out
10 Blue
11 Insomnia (Whiskey)
12 Gold
13 Feel Me

The Veronicas - Life On Mars (2012)

The Veronicas is an Australian pop duo from Brisbane, formed in 2004 by identical twin sisters Lisa and Jessica Origliasso. Before that the twins made their first demo recordings with Brisbane producer Stuart Stuart at Analog Heart Records in 2001, firstly in an electronic style and, a year later, a second batch of songs in the pop rock style that the group initially became known for. In 2004 the sisters, who were then performing as The Twins, were introduced by Gabrielle McKinley to Robin Donald Smith, who owned the recording and music publishing company Multiplay Music Australia. After meeting their father/manager and auditioning the girls, Multiplay offered to sign The Twins to their first recording and music publishing agreements, after which Smith took them on several world-wide songwriting trips to Britain, Sweden, Canada and the US in order for them to collaborate with top songwriters in each country to further develop their skills. On their return to Australia in 2005, Smith met with executives at Engine Room and negotiated a contract with Warner Bros. Records in the US, who recognised that Smith had discovered and developed a musical talent. They renamed themselves The Veronicas after Winona Ryder's character in 'The Heathers', and set about recording their debut album, which was released in October 2005, with 'The Secret Life Of...' entering the ARIA Album chart at No. 7, and spending a year in the Australian Top 40. It was released in the US on 14 February 2006, debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, and it was also successful in New Zealand, Belgium and Holland. 

In early 2007, The Veronicas began work on their second album, which was written and recorded in Los Angeles, California, and when 'Hook Me Up' was released in Australia on 3 November 2007 it crashed in at number two on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart. Writing for their third studio album had started in December 2009, and recording began in January 2010, with influences now including classical music, classical rock and pop genres, and bands such as The Subways, The Dead Weather, Mazzy Star, Ladytron and Peaches. In February 2012 it was announced that a release date for the album was "coming soon", with "LOM" being tagged on their Twitter feeds as an important phrase. On 2 June 2012 the band revealed the name of the album would be 'Life On Mars', and that it was to be released in September or October 2012. Warner Music then delayed the release of the album until 2013, but did release a single from it, with 'Lolita' appearing in July 2012. Due to label conflicts, the sisters embarked on a process of making many changes to the album, resulting in the release date being postponed again while the content and theme of the project was being changed. They also explained that 'Lolita' was not an official single promoting the new album, but was "just a single release for our Australian fans, as it's been such a long time since we have had anything new over there". On 26 October 2013, The Veronicas announced via their official Facebook page that they had split from Warner Bros. Records, and 'Life On Mars' was consigned to their vaults. Over the years the songs have leaked online, and following a rough track listing we are able to reconstruct what their third album could have sounded like, so here is The Veronicas' 'Life On Mars' for you all to enjoy. 

Track listing

01 Lolita
02 Runaways
03 Did You Miss Me (I'm A Veronica)
04 Army Of One
05 Stutter
06 Alive
07 101
08 Back To Life
09 Dead Cool
10 Take Me Home
11 Spirits And Sin
12 Sugar Daddy

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Jim Croce (2022)

James Joseph Croce was born on 10 January 1943 in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, right outside of Philadelphia. Graduating in 1960, he studied at Malvern Preparatory School for a year before enrolling at Villanova University, majoring in psychology and minoring in German, and discovering an interest in music when he became a leader of the campus singing group The Villanova Singers. Using a $500 wedding gift from Croce's parents, who set a condition that the money must be spent to make an album as they believed that he would give up music after the album failed, he released his first album, 'Facets', in 1966, with 500 copies being pressed. Despite his parents misgivings, the album proved to be a success, and every copy was sold. Croce married his girlfriend Ingrid Jacobson in 1966, and from the mid-1960's to the early 1970's, Croce and his wife performed as a duo, initially including songs by artists such as Ian & Sylvia, Gordon Lightfoot, Joan Baez, and Arlo Guthrie, but they eventually began writing their own music. In 1968, the Croces were encouraged by record producer Tommy West to move to New York City, and they recorded their first album, 'Jim & Ingrid Croce', for Capitol Records. Becoming disillusioned by the music business and New York City, they sold all but one guitar to pay their rent and returned to the Pennsylvania countryside, settling in an old farm in Lyndell. 

When Croce discovered that he and Ingrid were going to have a child, he became more determined to make music his profession, and so he sent a cassette of his new songs to a friend who was a producer in New York City in the hope that he could get a record deal. In 1972, Croce signed a three-record contract with ABC Records, releasing two albums, 'You Don't Mess Around With Jim' and 'Life And Times', with the singles of the title track and 'Time In A Bottle' from the first record receiving some airplay. He toured the United States, performing in large coffee houses and college campuses, but his financial situation remained precarious, as the record company had fronted him the money to record, and much of his earnings went to repay the advance. In 1973 he performed in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Zurich and Dublin, and in July the single 'Bad, Bad Leroy Brown' reached No. 1 on the American charts. This propelled his name into the public orbit, and  a few astute artists recorded covers of his early songs, in particular 'Time In A Bottle', which has become something of a classic song for him. Other tracks from 'Life And Times' continued to be picked up and covered over the next 40 years, and every one of them has now been tackled by a wide variety of artists, so here is a re-interpretation of Croce's second album of 1972, with two of his most famous tracks tagged on the end to flesh out a rather short album. 

Track listing

01 One Less Set Of Footsteps (Tom Swift 2011)  
02 Roller Derby Queen (Pat Surface 2022)  
03 Dreamin' Again (Marisa Malvino 2010) 
04 Careful Man (Jerry Reed 1980) 
05 Alabama Rain (Steiner Albrigtsen 2011)  
06 A Good Time Man Like Me Ain't Got No Business (Singin' The Blues) (Randy Howard 1976) 
07 Next Time, This Time (Mary Hopkin 2008) 
08 Bad, Bad Leroy Brown (Justin Tubb 1974)
09 These Dreams (Maggie's Guitar 2008)
10 Speedball Tucker (Nancy Sinatra 2008)
11 It Doesn't Have To Be That Way (Frank Chiafari 2012)

12 I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song (Mary Travers 1974)
13 Time In A Bottle (Glen Campbell 1999)

Destiny's Child - Let's Do Us (2004)

Destiny's Child started life as a four-piece group called Girl's Tyme, comprising Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, LaTavia Roberson, and LeToya Luckett. Over the course of the early years in their career, Girl's Tyme changed their name to Somethin' Fresh, Cliché, The Dolls, and finally to Destiny, under which name they were signed to Elektra Records, but they were dropped several months later before they could release an album. They then signed to Columbia Records in 1997, adding the word 'Child' to their name, as they were unable to trademark the name Destiny. The group was launched into mainstream recognition following the release of the song 'No, No, No' in 1997, and a debut album followed the next year, but it their best-selling second album, 'The Writing's On The Wall', in 1999 which cemented their reputation as a chart-topping group, containing the number-one singles 'Bills, Bills, Bills' and 'Say My Name'. Despite critical and commercial success, they were plagued by internal conflict and legal turmoil, as Roberson and Luckett attempted to split from the group's manager, Beyoncé's father Mathew Knowles, citing favouritism of Knowles and Rowland. In early 2000, both Roberson and Luckett were replaced with Michelle Williams and Farrah Franklin, but Franklin quit after a few months, leaving the group as a trio. Their third album, 'Survivor', was released in 2001, and the title and themes were interpreted by the public as a channel for the group's recent experiences. It produced the worldwide hits 'Independent Women', 'Survivor' and 'Bootylicious', but in 2001 they announced a hiatus to pursue solo careers, reuniting two years later for the release of their fifth and final studio album, 'Destiny Fulfilled' in 2004, after which they officially disbanded in 2006. While writing songs for their records, they often had left-overs which had to be omitted from the final track listings, either due to time constraints, or because they didn't fit the feel of the album. This post collects thirteen of them, recorded between 1997 and 2004, mopping up all the songs that never made it to one of their studio albums.   

Track listing

01 Forever Starts Today
02 I Try
03 Never Had A Love Like Mine
04 Show Me
05 You & Me
06 Life Like This
07 Like Dat
08 Body Rock
09 Heart
10 Let's Do Us
11 Never Enough
12 Sugar Daddy
13 Twirk

Tracks 1-5 'Destiny's Child' out-takes 1997
Track 6 'The Writing's On The Wall' out-take 1999
Tracks 7 'Survivor' out-take 2001
Tracks 8-13 'Destiny Fulfilled' out-takes 2004