As a sequel to a post I wrote up last year, here's five more albums by various artists in Strawberry Peppers: The Second Coming! Like the previous post, all albums are sorted by artist rather than by release date.
Side A (17:42)
1. Sweet Hitch-Hiker - 2:59
2. Lookin' for a Reason - 3:28
3. Mystic Isle Avalon - 2:27 (Zephyr National)
4. Comin' Down the Road - 2:57 (non-album single)
5. What are You Gonna Do - 2:42
6. Back in the Hills - 3:09 (non-album single)
Side B (17:58)
7. Joyful Resurrection - 3:37 (Zephyr National)
8. Ricochet - 3:30 (non-album single)
9. Hello Mary Lou - 2:14
10. Door to Door - 2:09
11. You Don't Owe Me - 2:27 (non-album single)
12. Someday Never Comes - 4:01
Credence Clearwater Revival fell apart following Tom Fogerty's departure, and after six well-acclaimed albums, their unlucky seventh, Mardi Gras, spelled the end for the band in 1972. Since then, despite a few reunions, Doug Clifford and Stu Cook have bitched about John Fogerty and vice-versa; whoever's side you're on, it was a pretty ugly breakup.
In this scenario, Tom doesn't leave CCR, but the band agrees to take a sabbatical to sort out their differences, and they reunite in late 1972 to record their comeback album. I'm still debating as to whether or not they record another album for 1975, taking the place of John Fogerty's 1975 eponymous album, but I'm almost certain that they would've completely broken up anyway.
1. Butterfly, How Long It Takes to Die - 6:37 (Strobo Trip)
2. Drug Chart - 5:16 (Gummy Song Skull)
3. In Our Bodies, Out of Our Heads - 4:43 (Gummy Song Skull)
4. Enthusiasm for Life Defeats Existential Fear Part 2 - 5:05 (Gummy Song Fetus)
5. Walk with Me - 5:39 (Gummy Song Skull)
6. Steven's Moonbow - 1:26 (Gummy Song Fetus)
7. Hillary's Time Machine Machine - 9:03 (Gummy Song Skull)
8. Squishy Glass - 5:59 (Gummy Song Fetus)
9. Two Blobs Fucking - 3:39 (12-track mix)
10. Evil Minds - 3:59 (Strobo Trip)
Total length: 51:26
The Flaming Lips released some of their most interesting music throughout 2011, with some of it coming out in the most unconventional ways imaginable! So what if they put it all together onto a single album rather than a few extended plays? The release dates for all that crazy music were in February, April, June and September, with the only cut song being the six-hour "I Found a Star on the Ground". Perhaps that could be a standalone album in and of itself?
1. Praying for Time - 4:41
2. Freedom! '90 - 6:30
3. Too Funky - 5:39 (Listen Without Prejudice/MTV Unplugged)
4. They Won't Go When I Go - 5:06
5. Something to Save - 3:18
6. Do You Really Want to Know? - 4:49 (Listen Without Prejudice/MTV Unplugged)
7. Cowboys and Angels - 7:15
8. Happy - 4:09 (Listen Without Prejudice/MTV Unplugged)
9. Waiting for That Day - 4:49
10. Mother's Pride - 3:59
11. Crazy Man Dance - 6:00 (Listen Without Prejudice/MTV Unplugged)
12. Heal the Pain - 4:41
13. Soul Free - 5:29
14. Fantasy - 5:02 (Listen Without Prejudice/MTV Unplugged)
15. Waiting (Reprise) - 2:25
Total length: 73:52
George Michael had intended for Listen Without Prejudice to be a double album, but then he later changed his mind to release two volumes instead. However, he ended up only releasing Vol. 1 while three of the remaining songs ("Too Funky", "Do You Really Want to Know", "Happy") all came out on Red Hot + Dance, while a fourth ("Crazy Man Dance") was released as a B-side, and the last one ("Fantasy") remained unreleased until 2017, in three different forms.
I don't know if a track listing for the original double album exists, so I went with the original running order with the new songs slotted in wherever necessary, making sure to spread them out as evenly as possible. At nearly 74 minutes, it'll all fit onto a single CD without issue. Even if you included George's mashup of "Killer" and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" (recorded live in March 1991) at the end as a bonus track, there's still just enough room for inclusion.
1. Holler - 4:15 (Forever)
2. Lift Me Up - 3:52 (Schizophonic)
3. If It's Lovin' on Your Mind - 3:42 (1999 outtake)
4. Right Back at Ya - 4:09 (Forever)
5. W.O.M.A.N. - 3:30
6. Bag It Up - 3:46 (Schizophonic)
7. Pain Proof - 3:26 (1999 outtake)
8. Free Up Your Mind - 3:24 (Pokemon: The First Movie)
9. Sophisticated Lady - 2:44 (Word Up! single)
10. A Day in Your Life - 4:14 (1999 outtake)
11. Goodbye - 4:35 (Forever)
Total length: 41:37
Geri Halliwell's departure from the Spice Girls marked the beginning of the end for their golden era, and their third album, Forever, disappointed greatly. A combination of creative differences, burnout and poor management contributed to Ginger Spice leaving the group, and the remaining girls carried on without her. In 1999, Geri released her first solo album, Schizophonic, with three singles reaching #1 in the United Kingdom.
I've imagined that, for a third Spice Girls album with Ginger Spice, things played out differently behind the scenes, and she's less inclined to want to leave, but the band still chooses to go in a different direction, with some of the members having solo spots. From Schizophonic, from which this re-imagined album gains the title, I've picked "Lift Me Up" and "Bag It Up". Both were big hits under Geri's name, so perhaps they'd still be big under the Spice Girls banner as well?
Speaking of whom, out of the Forever tracks, I picked "Holler", "Right Back at Ya" and "Goodbye", all of which were performed during the Spice Girls' Christmas in Spiceworld Tour, suggesting that they would likely remain. Also performed live was an outtake, "W.O.M.A.N.", which has never been released in any capacity. I also threw in three outtakes - "If It's Lovin' on Your Mind", "Pain Proof" and "A Day in Your Life".
Two more songs were needed to bring this re-imagined album up to length, and the first of these comes from the soundtrack to Pokemon: The First Movie, "Free Up Your Mind" by Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) featuring songwriting contributions from Melanie Chisholm (Sporty Spice). The final addition is "Sophisticated Lady", the non-album B-side to Melanie Brown's (Scary Spice) cover of "Word Up" for the Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack, in which Emma provides backing vocals.
The resulting Schizophonic will sound disjointed, what with it combining actual Spice Girls songs with solo songs, but see if you can imagine Geri having increased involvement and the others contributing a lot more to her songs! After all, isn't the whole better than the sum of its parts?
Side A (18:48)
1. Wordy Rappinghood - 6:27 (Tom Tom Club)
2. My Big Hands (Fall Through the Cracks) - 2:45 (The Catherine Wheel)
3. Slink - 4:20 (The Red and the Black)
4. Big Business - 5:16 (The Catherine Wheel)
Side B (21:10)
5. What a Day That Was - 5:32 (The Catherine Wheel)
6. Big Blue Plymouth (Eyes Wide Open) - 4:45 (The Catherine Wheel)
7. Genius of Love - 5:34 (Tom Tom Club)
8. Popsicle - 5:19 (Popular Favorites 1976-1992: Sand in the Vaseline)
Although the Talking Heads were together during 1981 and 1982, there was no album released between 1980's Remain in Light and 1983's Speaking in Tongues. So imagine that they pooled together the best of their solo projects during that time to create a whole new album, plugging in that gap.
Putting it together was surprisingly easy; the first seven songs were all performed live by the Talking Heads in 1982 and 1983, so it was a no-brainer to include all of these. The final song, "Popsicle", was an outtake from Speaking in Tongues and left unreleased until 1992. There is another outtake from that era, "Two Note Swivel", but I opted to leave it off, feeling that less is more, keeping the album close to a succinct 40 minutes.
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