Kirsty MacColl - Real (1983)

I already posted a version of this Kirsty MacColl album back in 2018. But in the next few days, I plan on deleting that version in favor of this one. The reason is, this is a true "lost album" that has finally emerged in full.

In 1983, Kirsty MacColl's music career wasn't going so well. She'd had a minor hit in Berlin in 1981 with the song "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis." That led to a 1981 album, "Desperate Character." But four following singles failed to set the charts on fire. So the release of this album in 1983 was cancelled at the last minute.

Some of the songs came out of the time, especially "Berlin," which was one of those failed singles, in 1983. "Rhythm of the Real Thing" was the B-side. Two more songs, "Annie" and "Roman Gardens," came out on a 1985 compilation. Then, much later, in 2005, two more songs, "Sticked and Stoned" and "Camel Crossing," came out on another compilation. 

So that still left five songs unreleased. Back in 2018, I tried my best to make a version of this album by using some other stray songs she did from around the same time. It wasn't "Real," but at least it was in the ballpark. 

Then, last month as I write this in November 2023, the box set "See That Girl" came out. That included the missing five songs. So the full album can now be properly heard, in the intended song order. 

Actually, "See That Girl" included one more song they said was part of the "Real" album, the extended version of "Berlin." I didn't include that though, because I don't believe that would have been included. This album is already fifty minutes long without it. That would add another six minutes to the album, which is way longer than any album could be made in those days, back before CDs were even a thing. Furthermore, it would have been musically pointless, since the extended version of "Berlin" is just a longer version of "Berlin," which was already on the album.

Anyway, is "Real" some kind of lost masterpiece? No. I would consider it one of her weakest albums. Some of the songs are just okay, and at times it suffers from 1980s production techniques that haven't dated well. But in my opinion MacColl set a high standard. Virtually every song she did was good, so even a "just okay" song from her is pretty good by the standards of the era.

The new version of this album, and other goodies from the box set, means I need to update some of my other MacColl albums. So look for more changes in the next few days.

As mentioned, this album is 50 minutes long.

01 Bad Dreams (Kirsty MacColl)
02 Time (Kirsty MacColl)
03 Sticked and Stoned (Kirsty MacColl)
04 Annie (Kirsty MacColl)
05 Camel Crossing (Kirsty MacColl)
06 Berlin (Kirsty MacColl)
07 Man with No Name (Kirsty MacColl)
08 Lullaby for Ezra (Kirsty MacColl)
09 Up the Grey Stairs (Kirsty MacColl)
10 Roman Gardens (Kirsty MacColl)
11 Rhythm of the Real Thing (Kirsty MacColl)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16003590/KirstyMacC_1983_Reeal_atse.zip.html

The cover here is the cover of the album as presented in the 2023 box set "See That Girl." However, I don't know if this is the actual intended cover from 1983 or if it was something created for the box set. Either way, it's more official than anything I could come up with.

Kirsty MacColl - BBC Sessions, Volume 3: 1994-2000

I recently posted Volume 1 of Kirsty MacColl's BBC sessions. You may notice this skips to Volume 3. That's because it turned out I already posted Volume 2 a while back and just didn't realize it. That's her Glastonbury set from 1992. So that's been renamed Volume 2. This, meanwhile, is another bunch of BBC studio sessions, just like Volume 1. And to add to the confusion, Volume 4 is another concert from 1995 that I recently renamed to make it part of this series.

To help you out, here's what I now call Volume 2, with changed cover art and mp3 tags and so forth:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2022/12/kirsty-maccoll-bbc-in-concert.html

And here's the renamed Volume 4:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2019/09/kirsty-maccoll-london-fleadh-festival.html

Anyway, let's get to this album. Like Volume 1, this is mostly a mix of BBC studio session performances taken from the 20023 box set "See That Girl" (tracks 1, 2, 3, and 8) and the older archival album "What Do Pretty Girls Do" (tracks 4 through 7). However, the last four tracks are genuine BBC studio session songs that somehow were overlooked by both of those releases and remain officially unreleased. 

Note that a version of "Soho Square" also appeared on Volume 1. But that version was with a band and this version is acoustic. In fact, many songs here are done in acoustic mode. A version of "My Affair" also appeared on Volume 1, but that version was six years earlier, and is different. I removed a couple other cases where the same song was played twice, but there were only one or two of those, as I recall.

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 Can't Stop Killing You (Kirsty MacColl)
02 Soho Square (Kirsty MacColl)
03 Miss Otis Regrets (Kirsty MacColl)
04 Caroline (Kirsty MacColl)
05 Free World (Kirsty MacColl)
06 A New England (Kirsty MacColl)
07 He's on the Beach (Kirsty MacColl)
08 In These Shoes (Kirsty MacColl)
09 Nao Esperando (Kirsty MacColl)
10 England 2 Colombia 0 (Kirsty MacColl)
11 My Affair (Kirsty MacColl)
12 Celestine (Kirsty MacColl)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15998484/KirstyMacC_1994-2000_BBSessonsVolum3_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from a concert at the Forum in London, on May 23, 1995. The red lighting was in the original.

Kirsty MacColl - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1981-1994

One month ago as I write this in November 2023, a Kirsty MacColl box set called "See That Girl" was released. It was a big one, consisting of eight CDs. I'm going to have to make some minor changes to a bunch of her albums I've posted here due to newly released songs on that.

Thanks to that box set, I feel this is a good time to post all her BBC material. It turns out that two concerts I've already posted were broadcast by the BBC, so I'm renaming them as Volume 2 and 4 in this series. That leaves this one and Volume 3 for all the BBC studio sessions.

In 2003, a compilation album of BBC studio sessions was released, called "What Do Pretty Girls Do." That's pretty much made obsolete by the box set. However, there are a few performances on that album that didn't make it to the box set. Most songs here are from the box set, but three are from "What Do Pretty Girls Do." In addition, one song here, "Soho Square," was done on a BBC TV show but was somehow overlooked by both of those albums.

This album is 50 minutes long.

01 I Don't Wanna Play House (Kirsty MacColl)
02 Queen of the High Teas (Kirsty MacColl)
03 You Can Have My Husband (Kirsty MacColl)
04 Don't Come the Cowboy with Me (Kirsty MacColl)
05 What Do Pretty Girls Do (Kirsty MacColl)
06 Don't Run Away from Me Now (Kirsty MacColl)
07 Still Life (Kirsty MacColl)
08 A New England (Kirsty MacColl & Billy Bragg)
09 There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis (Kirsty MacColl)
10 Walk Right Back (Kirsty MacColl)
11 Darling, Let's Have Another Baby (Kirsty MacColl & Billy Bragg)
12 Soho Square (Kirsty MacColl)
13 Angel (Kirsty MacColl)
14 My Affair (Kirsty MacColl)
15 Bad (Kirsty MacColl)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15984074/KirstyMacC_1981-1994_BBSessonsVolum1_atse.zip.html

The cover is a publicity photo from 1981.

Kirsty MacColl - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: In Concert, Glastonbury Festival, Worthy Farm, Pilton, Britain, 6-26-1992

In searching for more BBC material, I keep coming across tons of great music that I'd otherwise missed. One thing I've discovered is the music of Britain's yearly Glastonbury Festival. This festival has been taking place every summer since 1970. Since around the start of the 1990s, the BBC has been broadcasting most or all of it, usually after the festival is over. So expect many more Glastonbury Festival posts in the future. Here's one.

Kirsty MacColl was shy about performing in public, and didn't tour that much. There are only a few live recordings by her with excellent sound quality. So it's a lucky thing that the BBC recorded this Glastonbury Festival performance in 1992. It finally got officially released as part of a box set in 2023.

The song selection for this concert is about what one would expect. However, she did surprise with a cover of the Clash song "Train in Vain (Stand by Me)."

The main concert is 38 minutes long.

UPDATE: On November 26, 2023, I changed the album title and cover art. The music of the concert is still the same, but I've made this Volume 2 in a series of BBC albums. I also removed the last two songs, because they weren't part of the concert. They were from a BBC TV show, so they've been moved to a different BBC album in this series.

01 A New England (Kirsty MacColl)
02 Innocence (Kirsty MacColl)
03 talk (Kirsty MacColl)
04 You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby (Kirsty MacColl)
05 Fifteen Minutes (Kirsty MacColl)
06 Happy (Kirsty MacColl)
07 Don't Come the Cowboy with Me, Sonny Jim (Kirsty MacColl)
08 Tread Lightly (Kirsty MacColl)
09 Train in Vain [Stand by Me] (Kirsty MacColl)
10 Walking Down Madison (Kirsty MacColl)
11 Free World (Kirsty MacColl)
12 talk (Kirsty MacColl)
13 There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis (Kirsty MacColl)
14 Soho Square (Kirsty MacColl)
15 Angel (Kirsty MacColl)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15260616/KirstyMacC_1992_BBinConcertGlastonuryFestivl__6-26-1992_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is undated, but I'd guess it comes from the early 1990s. The lettering of her name comes from one of her albums, but with the color changed.

Kirsty MacColl - Acoustic Radio Shows (1993-2000)

First off, note that I've made changes to all the Kirsty MacColl stray tracks albums that I've posted so far. For some of them, I merely improved the volume balance between songs, and updated the mp3 tags to the new format I'm using. But for three albums, I've added songs that I only recently became aware of. For the album "Sun on the Water," I added two songs from an obscure various artists compilation that I'd previous missed. For "You Still Believe in Me," two unreleased songs emerged in 2021. And for "Real," four more unreleased songs emerged in 2021. So, if you're a fan of her music, don't miss those.

Moving on to this album, there is a nice but little known official album called "What Do Pretty Girls Do" that compiles MacColl's BBC appearances from 1989 to 1995. All of the songs on that were done in an acoustic format, so I find those versions a nice contrast to the fully produced album versions. But it turns out MacColl did some other acoustic versions for radio appearances in the 1990s. They all remain unreleased since they weren't done for the BBC. This collects them. Many of the songs here are also on "What Do Pretty Girls Do" in similar acoustic versions, but there are a good number of songs that are unique here.

The songs here are compiled from six radio shows. with five of those in the US. There were a few cases where the same songs were played on more than one of these shows, although not that many. In cases where there were two or more versions of one song, I only included one version. 

I'm especially delighted to include the last two songs, "Nao Esperando" and "England 2 Colombia 0." These are from her 2000 album "Tropical Brainstorm," which is my favorite album of hers. That album is heavily influenced by music from Latin America, especially Brazil. As such, one would think the songs wouldn't work in a solo acoustic format. But that's how she plays those two songs, and they work well, with the help of a bit more instrumentation, though no drums.

The song "Miss Otis Regrets" has "[Edit]" in the same because I edited it. This version was almost acoustic, but had some drumming on it. I used the X-Minus audio editing program to remove the drums.

This album is 49 minutes long.

01 Can't Stop Killing You (Kirsty MacColl)
02 Bad (Kirsty MacColl)
03 Children of the Revolution (Kirsty MacColl)
04 My Affair (Kirsty MacColl)
05 Last Day of Summer (Kirsty MacColl)
06 There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis (Kirsty MacColl)
07 Don't Come the Cowboy with Me, Sonny Jim (Kirsty MacColl)
08 Fifteen Minutes (Kirsty MacColl)
09 Still Life (Kirsty MacColl)
10 Miss Otis Regrets [Edit] (Kirsty MacColl)
11 Free World (Kirsty MacColl)
12 Caroline (Kirsty MacColl)
13 They Don't Know (Kirsty MacColl)
14 Roll Um Easy (Kirsty MacColl)
15 Nao Esperando (Kirsty MacColl)
16 England 2 Colombia 0 (Kirsty MacColl)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15260706/KirstyMacC_1993-2000_AcoustcRadioShws_atse.zip.html

Since this is an acoustic album, I wanted a cover photo showing MacColl playing an acoustic guitar. I found a good one, which I used here. But it so happens it's from the Fleadh concert in London in 1995. I've posted that concert in full. If you compare the cover photo of that one to this one, you'll see she's wearing the same outfit.

Kirsty MacColl - Moving Out (Edited Song) (1994)

Today, while searching YouTube for something else, I happened upon a Kirsty MacColl song that I'd never heard of before. It's a good song that appears to be an original, and given that she died in 2001, those are rarer than hen's teeth.

But I've also created this post about it so more people can know about it, and also to explain the edits I did, since they were significant.

The song was the theme song for a short-lived 1994 British TV show called "Moving Stories." The YouTube video I found was really two clips put together: a 45-second long section of the song played at the start of the show, and then another 45-second long section of the song played at the end credits. Both parts had a verse and a chorus, with the verses being different.

So my first task was to merge the two parts together to make one seamless whole, which I did easily, since the first part ended with the same riff that the second part began with. The second part faded out in a non-ideal manner, while the first part let a final chord ring out and fade away. So I took the ending for the first part and added it to the very end. The song also faded in in a non-ideal manner, so I patched in part of the opening riff from when it was repeated later in the song to have a better beginning.

That riff only played once each time. But I decided it would sound better if it played twice each time, especially since the song was so short. So I did more editing to repeat the riff at the beginning, in the middle, and then again at the end.

After all that, the song grew from a minute and a half to exactly two minutes, mostly due to repeating the riff three times, since it lasts about ten seconds each time. The song is still on the short side, and I could have repeated the chorus or something like that, but I think I did enough tinkering already.

I've added the song to the most fitting stray tracks collection, called "Perfect Day," which you can find here:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2019/01/kirsty-maccoll-perfect-day-various.html

Kirsty MacColl - Boxed Set, Scottish Television Studio, Glasgow, Britain, 3-14-2000

In my opinion, most musical artists have ten or less prime years towards the beginning of their career (but after they "make it"), and then have a long slow decline. But Kirsty MacColl was different. Her recorded career started quite good way back in 1979, and then slowly but steadily got better. I think this was because she was very serious about songwriting and was always improving her craft.

In my opinion, her best album is her last one, 2000's "Tropical Brainstorm." She'd spent the previous few years absorbing Latin American music in a deep way. She was primed to start an entire new and exciting phase of her career, only to die later in 2000 in a tragic boating accident.

This concert comes from 2000, right before "Tropical Brainstorm" was released. Most of the songs on it are from that album. It's the recording of an hour-long TV show called "Boxed Set" (not to be confused with a recorded box set). The music is about 45 minutes - I assume that's the hour minus commercials and such.

The best thing about this concert is the sound. The sound quality is excellent, as good as you'd expect from an official live album. There isn't much talking between songs, and the versions aren't that different from the studio album versions. But MacColl had been shy for most of her career, not performing concerts at all until the 1990s. It's nice to see that she totally nails these songs on stage. It also serves as a kind of greatest hits, with the best songs from "Tropical Brainstorm," plus a smattering of her best songs from earlier in her career.

01 In These Shoes (Kirsty MacColl)
02 England 2 Colombia 0 (Kirsty MacColl)
03 Walking Down Madison (Kirsty MacColl)
04 Celestine (Kirsty MacColl)
05 Us Amazonians (Kirsty MacColl)
06 Wrong Again (Kirsty MacColl)
07 Head (Kirsty MacColl)
08 Here Comes that Man Again (Kirsty MacColl)
09 My Affair (Kirsty MacColl)
10 A New England (Kirsty MacColl)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15260766/KirstyMacC_2000a_BoxdSetScottshTelevisionStdio__3-14-2000_atse.zip.html

I could have used a screenshot from the actual Boxed Set performance for the cover art, but that would be too low resolution for my tastes. Instead, this photo comes from the 2000 Fleadh music festival in London, in June 2000.

Kirsty MacColl - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: London Fleadh Festival, London, Britain, 6-10-1995

Kirsty MacColl isn't well known for her live performances. She never released a live album, and there aren't even many popular bootlegs for her. She was a naturally shy person and didn't tour that much. But she also was an excellent vocalist, and she could "bring it" in a live setting, as she did here. The setlist pretty much serves as a "best of" for her career to that point.

It seems most of her shows were less than an hour long, and that's the case here. When I first posted this, I used an excellent soundboard bootleg source. In 2023, it was released as part of a box set, but the sound quality was basically unchanged.

The last song actually wasn't part of MacColl's set. The concert was part of a festival with lots of artists, and one of the other artists was Shane MacGowan and the Popes. Since MacColl had a hit duet with MacGown and the Pogues a few years earlier with the song "Fairytale of New York," it made sense that she would join MacGowan's set for that song, which she did. (MacGowan can also be heard at the very start of this album as the one who introduced MacColl's set.) MacGowan was clearly drunk and barely able to get to his lines sometimes, but that should come as no surprise to those who have followed his career.

I believe all the songs are MacColl originals except for "Miss Otis Regrets" (by Cole Porter), "I Wanna Be Sedated" (by the Ramones), "A New England" (by Billy Bragg), and "Fairytale of New York" (by the Pogues).

This concert is only 47 minutes long. 

UPDATE: On November 26, 2023, I updated the album title and the cover art. I found out this concert was broadcast by the BBC, so I've made it "Volume 4" in my BBC series. However, the music remains the same.

01 Tread Lightly (Kirsty MacColl)
02 Caroline (Kirsty MacColl)
03 They Don't Know (Kirsty MacColl)
04 Innocence (Kirsty MacColl)
05 Free World (Kirsty MacColl)
06 Miss Otis Regrets (Kirsty MacColl)
07 talk (Kirsty MacColl)
08 My Affair (Kirsty MacColl)
09 Don't Come the Cowboy with Me, Sonny Jim (Kirsty MacColl)
10 Walking Down Madison (Kirsty MacColl)
11 A New England (Kirsty MacColl)
12 I Wanna Be Sedated (Kirsty MacColl)
13 Fairytale of New York (Kirsty MacColl & Shane MacGowan & the Popes)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15987508/KirstyMacC_1995c_BBSessonsVolum4LondnFleadhFstivlLondnBrtain__6-10-1995_atse.zip.html

I'm happy to say that the photo of MacColl actually comes from the concert in question. Note that even though she's holding an acoustic guitar, this is a full-band performance, not a solo acoustic one.

Kirsty MacColl - Sun on the Water - Non-Album Tracks (1996-2001)

Here's the last of my Kirsty MacColl stray tracks albums, going to her untimely murder in late 2000. I have mentioned previously that I think her musical career just got better and better as she got older, in contrast to most musicians who tend to peak early. So out of all of the stray tracks albums, I think this one is the strongest.

In the last few years of MacColl's life, she spent a lot of time in Latin America, and that led her to incorporate Latin musical styles, especially Brazilian musical styles, into her own music. This can be clearly seen on her last (and best) album "Tropical Brainstorm," released in 2000. Not surprisingly, many of the songs here have that same influence. She even covers a song by the great Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim ("Insensitive"), and another by the Brazilian singer-songwriter Gilberto Gil ("Eu So Quero Un Xodo").

But she had many other influences, and those can be seen here as well. She also does covers of songs by the Isley Brothers ("Harvest for the World"), Randy Newman ("Sail Away"), and Ian Dury and the Blockheads ("Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick"). But the rest of the songs were written by MacColl. 

"Sun on the Water" was the last song she ever wrote and recorded, right before her death. I think it's an excellent song. It's such a shame she died when she did, when her songwriting was just getting better and better.

Two songs, "The Great Silence" and "I Believe in Love," were recorded in early 2001, right before her death, but weren't released until 2008, on a very obscure various artists compilation.

This album is 49 minutes long.

UPDATE: On December 10, 2023, I updated the mp3 download file. I added the songs "Eu So Quero Un Xodo" and "Siempre Tu Rosa" from the recently released box set "See That Girl." But I also removed the demos for "Celestine" and "Sun on the Water," as I'll be putting them on a demos album.

01 Eu So Quero Un Xodo (Kirsty MacColl)
02 Siempre Tu Rosa [Always Your Rose] (Kirsty MacColl)
03 Libertango (Sharon Shannon with Kirsty MacColl)
04 Sail Away (Ghostland & Kirsty MacColl)
05 Picking Up the Pieces [Instrumental] (Kirsty MacColl)
06 Golden Heart (Kirsty MacColl)
07 Things Happen (Kirsty MacColl)
08 Harvest for the World (Kirsty MacColl)
09 Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick (Kirsty MacColl)
10 Good for Me (Kirsty MacColl)
11 Manhattan Moon (Kirsty MacColl)
12 Insensitive [Insensatez] (Kirsty MacColl)
13 The Great Silence (Philip Chevron, Ronnie Drew & Kirsty MacColl)
14 I Believe in Love (Kirsty MacColl)
15 Sun on the Water (Kirsty MacColl)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376567/KIRSTYMCCLL1997-2000SnontheWatr_atse.zip.html

For the album cover, I used the cover to the 1995 single "Caroline." I erased the title and changed the text.

Kirsty MacColl - Perfect Day - Non-Album Tracks (1993-1995)

I'm trying to hurry through posting the rest of Kirsty MacColl's stray tracks albums, because I don't want to be posting music from too many different artists at once. I only have one more album to go after this one.

And this is a particularly good one. In my opinion, most musicians peak in their first decade as professionals and have a long, slow decline after that. But MacColl was steadily getting better for the entire duration of her career, until her tragic early death in 2000. This is part of that pattern. Had it actually been released as an album, I think it would have been just as solid as her other albums in the 1990s.

The songs here come from all the usual stray track sources: A-sides, B-sides, bonus tracks, and songs from box sets and soundtracks. The vast majority of the songs are written by MacColl, as usual. However, "Perfect Day" is a cover of a Lou Reed song, and "I Wanna Be Sedated" is a Ramones song.

"Moving Out" is an unreleased theme song for a short-lived British TV show. I made major edits to make the two parts I found on YouTube into one cohesive whole.

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 King Kong (Kirsty MacColl)
02 Count on Me (Kirsty MacColl)
03 Dear John (Kirsty MacColl)
04 Touch Me (Kirsty MacColl)
05 Fabulous Garden (Kirsty MacColl)
06 Caroline (Kirsty MacColl)
07 Irish Cousin (Kirsty MacColl)
08 Butcher Boy (Kirsty MacColl)
09 Moving Out [Edit] (Kirsty MacColl)
10 As Long as You Hold Me (Kirsty MacColl)
11 I Am Afraid (Kirsty MacColl)
12 I Wanna Be Sedated (Kirsty MacColl)
13 Perfect Day (Kirsty MacColl & Evan Dando)
14 Roll Em Easy (Kirsty MacColl)
15 Free World [Acoustic Version] (Kirsty MacColl)
16 Caroline [Acoustic Version] (Kirsty MacColl)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693442/KIRSTYMCCLL1993-1995_PrfctDy_atse.zip.html

I made the cover art from the cover of the "Perfect Day" single. But that song was a duet with Evan Dando, so I had to airbrush his name out of the picture.

Kirsty MacColl - One Good Thing - Non-Album Tracks (1990-1992)

Here's the next in a series of stray tracks albums for Kirsty MacColl. This deals with the years 1990 to 1992.

There's not much to say here, except that nearly all the songs are B-sides from the era of her 1991 album "Electric Landlady." There are three other songs at the end, including one unreleased song, a great version of the Clash song "Train in Vain."

In my opinion, MacColl's music is extremely solid and consistent, with her non-album tracks often as strong as her album tracks. So if you like her stuff, you should like this.

This album is 40 minutes long.

01 Other People's Hearts (Kirsty MacColl)
02 Am I Right (Kirsty MacColl)
03 Complainte Pour Ste Catherine (Kirsty MacColl)
04 Miss Otis Regrets (Kirsty MacColl with the Pogues)
05 Just One of Those Things (Kirsty MacColl with the Pogues)
06 All the Tears that I Cried (Kirsty MacColl)
07 Don't Go Near the Water (Kirsty MacColl)
08 Darling, Let's Have Another Baby (Kirsty MacColl & Billy Bragg)
09 One Good Thing (Kirsty MacColl)
10 London Bridge Is Falling Down (Kirsty MacColl)
11 Walk Right Back (Kirsty MacColl)
12 Train in Vain [Stand by Me] (Kirsty MacColl)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693444/KIRSTYMCCLL1990-1992_OneGodThng_atse.zip.html

I made the cover from a photo of MacColl, but I don't know where or when it was taken.

Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York - Non-Album Tracks (1985-1989)

I've posted three Kirsty MacColl albums already, as I move chronologically through her career. Those three all contained many good songs, but this is when she really began to hit her stride.

The highlight here has to be "Fairytale of New York," a duet with the Pogues that is the most played Christmas song of the 21st century in Britain. Incredibly, it hits the charts pretty much every single Christmas season there. It's not nearly as well known in the US, however, but it should be.

That song, plus the first two here, were recorded at a time when MacColl was having a prolonged dispute with her record company. She wasn't really free to put out her own music until 1989, when she released her album "Kite." The remainder of the songs here are B-sides from singles off that album. But I would argue that most of these are just as good as the songs that made the album.

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 He's on the Beach (Kirsty MacColl)
02 Please, Go to Sleep (Kirsty MacColl)
03 Fairytale of New York (Pogues & Kirsty MacColl)
04 Clubland (Kirsty MacColl)
05 Don't Run Away from Me Now (Kirsty MacColl)
06 You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby [Long Version] (Kirsty MacColl)
07 Closer to God (Kirsty MacColl)
08 The End of a Perfect Day (Kirsty MacColl)
09 La Foret de Mimosas (Kirsty MacColl)
10 Happy (Kirsty MacColl)
11 Please Help Me, I'm Falling (Kirsty MacColl)
12 El Paso (Kirsty MacColl)
13 Still Life (Kirsty MacColl)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15158200/KirstyMacC_1985-1989_FairytleofNwYork_atse.zip.html

The cover was found by Peter of the Albums I Wish Existed blog. It's from a rare single of "Fairytale of New York," with the Pogues name removed.

Kirsty MacColl - You Still Believe in Me - Non-Album Tracks (1981-1982)

This is a  Kirsty MacColl stray tracks album that deals with the years 1981 to 1982. MacColl had put out an album in 1981 called "Desperate Character" to get her solo career off the ground, but it didn't have much success. So she released some more singles. 

Most of those didn't make much impact on the charts. But one did, "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis." It reached the Top Twenty in the British charts. A version of that was included on her "Desperate Character" album. However, I've included it here because she released two versions of the song. They aren't that different, but this one is the somewhat more country-styled version.

 

The first six songs here are all A- and B-sides of singles. The rest are all still unreleased studio tracks. That's pretty surprising, considering the number of archival releases she's had.

 

This is all good stuff, showing what a talented singer and songwriter she was even at an early stage. There also are two unreleased demos included that are just as good.

 

This album is 34 minutes long.

UPDATE: On December 16, 2023, I updated the mp3 download file. Thanks to the release of the "See That Girl" box set in 2023, I added a couple of songs from other albums, and moved a couple others to the 1983 album "Real," where they had a better fit.

01 Keep Your Hands Off My Baby (Kirsty MacColl)
02 I Don't Need You (Kirsty MacColl)
03 There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis [Country Version] (Kirsty MacColl)
04 Over You (Kirsty MacColl)
05 You Still Believe in Me (Kirsty MacColl)
06 Queen of the High Teas (Kirsty MacColl)
07 A Boy like That (Kirsty MacColl & Alan Lee Shaw)
08 Don't Ask Me (Kirsty MacColl & Alan Lee Shaw)
09 Love Is Cruel (Kirsty MacColl)
10 Goodnight Paris (Kirsty MacColl)
11 Germany (Kirsty MacColl)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16057496/KirstyMacC_1981-1983_YouStillBlieveinMe_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from a 1981 promo photo session.

Kirsty MacColl - Desperate Character (1981)

I'm a big, big fan of Kirsty MacColl's music. Some women get famous because they're beautiful. Some get famous because they have remarkable voices. Some get famous because they're excellent songwriters. But MacColl was a rare case of a woman was all three of those things. I especially appreciate her songwriting talent. Her murder in 2000 was a particularly great loss, because her last album was her best one in my opinion, and she was just starting down an exciting path of mixing her English pop with Latin music.

"Desperate Character" is MacColl's first album, from 1981. I normally don't post official studio albums, but I'm doing so here for two reasons. One, the album remains unfairly obscure and out of print. And two, I've added four songs at the start which are from two singles she put out in 1979. This makes a big difference, because all four songs are very good, and the first one, "They Don't Know," is an all-time classic (and a good example of her songwriting ability).

Unfortunately, MacColl was half-hearted about her solo career for about the first ten years of it, rarely playing concerts and doing little promotion otherwise. She was shy, and spent more of her time singing backing vocals on dozens of famous records instead. So she helped Tracey Ullman have a top ten hit with "They Don't Know" in 1983. She even re-sang the "Baby!" yell near the end of the song when the music stops for a couple of seconds, because Ullman couldn't sing that high.

I'm also posting this here because it was MacColl's only album until 1989. Once I post the next couple of stray tracks albums, you'll have all of her music prior to 1989, which has never been properly collected in one place.

This album is 42 minutes long.

01 They Don't Know (Kirsty MacColl)
02 Turn My Motor On (Kirsty MacColl)
03 You Caught Me Out (Kirsty MacColl)
04 Boys (Kirsty MacColl)
05 Clock Goes Round (Kirsty MacColl)
06 See That Girl (Kirsty MacColl)
07 There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis (Kirsty MacColl)
08 Teenager in Love (Kirsty MacColl)
09 Mexican Sofa (Kirsty MacColl)
10 Until the Night (Kirsty MacColl)
11 Falling for Faces (Kirsty MacColl)
12 Just One Look (Kirsty MacColl)
13 The Real Ripper (Kirsty MacColl)
14 Hard to Believe (Kirsty MacColl)
15 He Thinks I Still Care (Kirsty MacColl)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16693388/KIRSTYMCCLL1981_DsperteChractrAlternte_atse.zip.html

The cover art is just the official album cover.