Sugababes

[Main Pop Girl]

On 12/8/2022 at 10:26 PM, Dax Diameter said:

Interviewer:

“What would you like to achieve, what’s the goal”?

Siobhan:

.. “We’ve got things in the pipeline that we’re not discussing publicly at the moment”.

+ Keisha’s facial expression at that moment.

Idk what was going on with the lighting at the beginning there, but Keisha definitely drew the tall end of the stick. That hair, makeup and lighting is really working for her. She looks beautiful!

[genetonic]

[Heartbreak Anthem]

Glad they're continuing to be able to tour. Maybe some kind of new music will come sometime next year, too!

[Dax Diameter]

 

[Main Pop Girl]

On 12/16/2022 at 3:18 PM, genetonic said:

I'll be at the Sydney show!

[Heartbreak Anthem]

On 12/19/2022 at 11:51 AM, Leaving said:

I'll be at the Sydney show!

Jealous!

[Bleach Blonde Stereotype]

Sugababes - The Lost Tapes comes out at midnight local time. 13 tracks including Flatline.

[Dax Diameter]

A revised track-listing/ presentation as “The Lost Tapes” for a 2022 release by the girls & Whitney. (The commercial license to use the Kendrick Lamar Sample having long since expired).

01, Drum
02, Flatline
03, Love Me Hard
04, Summer of ‘99
05, Boys
06, Metal Heart
07, Beat Is Gone
08, No Regrets
09, Today
10, Victory
11, I’m Alright
12, I Lay Down
13, Back in the Day

Going live midnight (Christmas Eve), U.K. time.

Edited December 23, 2022 by Dax Diameter
Syntax

[Main Pop Girl]

4 hours ago, Dax Diameter said:

A revised track-listing/ presentation as “The Lost Tapes” for a 2022 release by the girls & Whitney. (The commercial license to use the Kendrick Lamar Sample having long since expired).

01, Drum
02, Flatline
03, Love Me Hard
04, Summer of ‘99
05, Boys
06, Metal Heart
07, Beat Is Gone
08, No Regrets
09, Today
10, Victory
11, I’m Alright
12, I Lay Down
13, Back in the Day

Going live midnight (Christmas Eve), U.K. time.

Exciting news! I wonder if there's anything we haven't heard!

[sunshineslave]

19 hours ago, Dax Diameter said:

A revised track-listing/ presentation as “The Lost Tapes” for a 2022 release by the girls & Whitney. (The commercial license to use the Kendrick Lamar Sample having long since expired).

01, Drum
02, Flatline
03, Love Me Hard
04, Summer of ‘99
05, Boys
06, Metal Heart
07, Beat Is Gone
08, No Regrets
09, Today
10, Victory
11, I’m Alright
12, I Lay Down
13, Back in the Day

Going live midnight (Christmas Eve), U.K. time.

This is such a nice and unexpected surprise. I'm so overjoyed because that album really deserved to be officially in their discography. It's so weird but epic to have this sit just after Sweet 7. 

Hearing the songs in their full mixed/mastered glory is so overwhelming. 

Having Drum as an opener is such a bold move  I never knew where to put it in my tracklists as it never fit but it reigns supreme as an opener.

The whole tracklist works really well and elevated the whole work in something cohesive. The only downside is that Flatline kinda feels flat after Drum while it worked well as an opener. I guess it was one or the other. I'll probably get used to it. 

Hearing the finished album in full makes me realize how beat driven it is. Appart from Flatline and Love Me Hard, the beats are really hard and prominent which contrasts really well with the pop melodies and the heaven sent R&B harmonies. Even their midtemoo and ballads have strong hip-hop beats or even Breakbeat. 

It's amazing how I don't even miss Love in stereo from the collection even if it was one of my favorites. This is such a strong body of material. A nice continuation of the One Touch sound with a bit of their strongest 2.0 sounds. 

The downsides are very few. I've been disapointed by the changes in Summer of 99 (I miss those guitars in the chorus but also on Siobhan's middle 8 that sounded more ehtereal on the demo) but I do get that it probably fits better on the album this way. I just need to adjust. Also I believe Keisha's verse in I'm alright was stronger and more emotional. All of this is only nitpicking when everything sounds so good. 

All the other songs sound better and I was surprised I liked Victory so much when it bored me before. I think it is intelligently placed and the mixing really makes it work. I'm also glad Metal Heart and Beat has gone are now officially on the tracklist and not just bonus tracks because they are essential. Both are really quintesseentially Sugababes songs with strong emotions attached with such a powerful deliveries. (Keisha's chorus is beat is gone kills me everytime). 

The cover they used is the one that I used so it really comes full circle. I'm so happy that this finally got released especially with the Sugababes name. It is some kind of deserved justice. I hope that the fact that they released this independently will help them get more coins. It would have deserved to have the real album treatment with singles and promotion but that time has been gone for a while so I'm very happy with that surprise.  This year has been full of surprised.

I hope this will allow them to have more 0.1 tracks on their setlists. I think tracks like Boys and Summer 99 will work with the general public. 

Anyway, I think this low-key release probably means they will put forward new music songs "SOON".

How do you guys/gals feel about this ?

[Dax Diameter]

I get why bad feeling between them and Polydor would be a reason they took a stand and changed the Polydor master sequence. Though, it is understandable why they would feel motivated to try it - given the loss of “Love In Stereo” and “Too In Love”.  (It is most obvious “Beat Is Gone” is now out of sequence).

It would be ironic if “The Lost Tapes” ended up selling more than Bananarama’s “In Stereo” album, as the girls and Richard X would then have ended up generating more cash profit by holding on to that track for longer.

I understand why Richard did not have the patience to hold on and chill, after all there was no way of knowing this release would ever happen.

I think several of the finished versions (I won’t call the old versions ‘demos’ because these are later mixes of the same tracks) .. sound overcooked.

Various vocal lines have been switched out (cut & pasted) with less emotional, later vocal takes of the same lines which sounds strange as they segue directly into sections of the exact same vocal takes we already know as the songs transition and progress into different sections.

Some of the new ad-libs (at least to me) sound a bit extra and detract from the actual songs. Listening to these from start to finish on headphones has been quite strange and I miss the ‘rawness’ of the less processed vocals and production in various places.

its definitely interesting to hear these changes, knowing their intention was to make the music as commercially appealing as possible.

However, I think I’m always going to prefer the more organic, less processed early mixes.

Edited December 24, 2022 by Dax Diameter
Grammar

[Heartbreak Anthem]

 

[Main Pop Girl]

I'm really happy for their fans that they released this but I feel like none of the other songs match the brilliance of Flatline...Most of them sound pretty demoy and all kind of blend into one for me, although I do think No Regrets, Today and Victory all sound finished and nice. There's other good songs on there but I just think the production needed more work to make an album out of them. I hope we get new music soon!

[ashura776]

Deluxe Edition of The Lost Tapes coming tomorrow. Available in NZ just now. 
 

New Tracks: Only You, Breathe Me, Back to Life !

[Dax Diameter]

Interesting that out of every track under their control they chose “Breathe Me” and “Back to Life”.