The precious 6 months before a highly anticipated album has music fans in a frenzy. Searching far and wide for any hints of what might feature on your favourite band’s newest LP is one of the things that us music fanatics live for. Whether they release an EP, a single or a demo, music fans will flock to see what is produced. During this magical 6 month period, a band may release a lot of songs but only a handful will ever make the album, and sometimes, you can’t help but feel that they’ve made the wrong decision. That feeling is what inspired this feature; we will indulge in the songs that we think should have have made the album, but didn’t.
Passionate Kisses // Saintseneca
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRZ-RBjwVLw?rel=0]
Saintseneca’s 2014 release Dark Arc was one of my absolute favourite albums of the year, but my favourite Saintseneca song of the year was not on it. Six months after Dark Arc’s release, I had the joy of seeing Saintseneca live, where they played a cover of ‘Passionate Kisses’ by Lucinda Williams. This is at least the third version of this song released with Williams’ original in 1988 and Mary Chapin Carpenter’s Grammy winning version in 1993, but this is absolutely the most fully realized version, in my opinion.
The song isn’t necessarily a total fit for Dark Arc. From the opening drum clicks, it is a rock and roll song. While most of Dark Arc is heavy on folk influences, and relies on acoustic instruments to drive the song, ‘Passionate Kisses’ pushes the electric guitar to the forefront with a bright, shimmery tone. In its instrumentation, this song is reminiscent of the most popular song from Dark Arc, ‘Happy Alone,’ which has a very distinct sound compared to the rest of the album, but still feels at home because of the vocal work on it. Similarly, ‘Passionate Kisses’ still feels like a Saintseneca song through the way in which the melody builds through the verses until harmonies come in for the last phrase and continue into the completely infectious chorus. Despite being a cover, ‘Passionate Kisses’ absolutely should have been on Dark Arc, and probably should have even been a single.
Words by Zachary Evans
Melody Maker // The Kooks
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn7tWUnG_08?rel=0]
Melody Maker featured on The Kooks’ Down EP before the release of their fourth album ‘Listen’.
In a time when everyone’s favourite Brighton four piece were experimenting with hip-hop tempos and dodgy loops, Melody Maker proved to be a heartfelt diamond in the rough; an intimate acoustic number in an overstuffed bed of effects.
The EP as a whole showed a lot of promise for the album to follow, with guitar and soul seeping through each of it’s four tracks, all epitomised by Melody Maker’s finale. The song shows us a cheeky glimpse of the groups’ new sound; with the post-production used on Luke Pritchard’s vocals co-existing with the lovelorn, melodic, Kooks-y essence that every survivor of the mid-2000’s indie boom live for. The Kooks may have had a slippery journey evolving into a band of adults, but this track more than any other shows us that class really is permanent- even if it does fluctuate.
Words by Matt Ganfield
Jeane // The Smiths
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNRghlld8HU?rel=0]
The Smiths have always aimed to tell the truth and ‘Jeane’ is perhaps one of the rawest, but also underappreciated, examples of just that. Whilst the title makes it look like a love song, ‘Jeane’ is nothing but: it’s not only about poverty, but the way it grinds a person down. Morrissey lulls “I’m tired of walking these streets / To a room with a cupboard bare… I’m not sure what happiness means / But I look in your eyes / And I know that it isn’t there”. Somehow though, despite the dejected lyrics, it’s one of the more upbeat songs you’ll hear from The Smiths, and this bizarre contrast is what makes it so likeable; the cheerful air of the track will make you smile, and then you’ll be surprised during a second or third listen by the depth of its lyrics. It has its classic Smiths energy of course, brought by Morrissey’s characteristic voice and repetitive, sing-along lyrics and riffs. The disparity between its tone and its lyrics, which is almost unique in their catalogue, is no doubt one of the reasons it was never included on an album. But, perhaps, that’s precisely why it should have been. An underrated track, but nevertheless a fantastic one.
Words by Amie Bailey
Guillotine // The Wombats
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTZOOohCDa4?rel=0]
There comes a time in life in which you no longer want anything to do with a friend or the person you’re in a relationship with, and no other band sums this up in lesson four minutes and thirty seconds than The Wombats.The trio from Liverpool really outdo themselves on this track with lyrics like: “Drop me like a guillotine sever all ties and give me a clean sheet” it is hard to think why this didn’t manage to get on ‘This Modern Glitch’ epically after Murph said that some of the tracks felt like filler. The song can be found on the ‘Our Perfect Disease’ EP which was released all the way back in a time best known as 2011. With heavy bass lines and one of the best chord progression for a chorus ever this song is by far worthy of the title best B side, well for The Wombats.
Words by Oliver Childs
Sorrow 16 // Manic Street Preachers
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am1XLWVhmmY?rel=0]
The B-Side to Motown Junk, a song which was being played live as early as 1989 and which also (surprisingly) didn’t make it to the fairly ambitious, politically fuelled and angst driven debut Generation Terrorists, an album which touches on subjects like capitalism, melancholy and “culture, alienation, boredom and despair.”
Sorrow 16 is equally as good as its A-Side. It would’ve been a great track for a debut album amongst the angry socialist ballads, Richey Edwards himself even stating “everybody knows the first album would have been better if we’d left out all the crap.”
In good old Manics fashion it is a song filled with messages of self-destruction and having macabre lyrics disguised with the upbeat rhythm of the song, featuring lyrics such as:
cut your hair in front of business men // kill yourself and censor health // destroy words and ignore their truth // wanna die and have never worked
It’s a shame that neither Motown Junk nor Sorrow 16 made it onto the album but they would’ve been a nice inclusion, not just as album fillers, but stand out tracks.
Word by Olivia Walsh
Tiger Blood // The Vaccines
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMQi0aTm8Ho?rel=0]
B-sides are often deemed as songs not good enough to make the album. It’s as if the band are throwing them in the ‘unwanted pile’ with only the diehard fans left to discover them locked in the archives. However, ‘Tiger Blood’ is no unwanted single, it may be one of the bands best releases to date. Like any other Vaccines song, the lyrics are catchy and easily memorable. The fact this Wetsuit B-side is separate from the bands debut album ‘What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?’ indicates how limited this B-side is.
Lead guitarist of The Strokes, Albert Hammond Jr was put in charge of the single’s production, with the aim of mirroring the band’s sound on the fast and upbeat song often played live. ‘Tiger Blood’ is just one reason why the London band wont just be remembered from the first album hype, instead attracting a growing fan base single after single.
Words by Bill Edgar
Fraternity // Foo Fighters
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbNlgyx0rY4?rel=0]
For a Foo Fighters fan, the music doesn’t stop with just their studio albums. The band are known for their mass of B-sides, songs that never made the cut for the final master. Which is where songs like ‘Fraternity’ come into play. Luckily, this song did see the light of day through appearing on the ‘Generator’ single from There is Nothing Left to Lose, and also on the Australian/Japanese mini LP release of that album. ‘Fraternity’ is one of Foo Fighters hidden gems, fitting the laid-back theme of the album but still carrying that extra punch that ‘Breakout’ and ‘Stacked Actors’ manage to convey. It also manages to do what a majority of Foo tunes do best, the ability to get stuck in your head for days on end. Which isn’t a bad thing at all, especially with the power that ‘Fraternity’ brings.
Words by Sophie McEvoy
Where Angels Play // The Stone Roses
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eG0jWjegJ8?rel=0]
Where Angels Play by The Stone Roses contains one of my favourite choruses of all time. Regardless of other greats from The Stone Roses such as ‘I Wanna Be Adored’ and ‘She Bangs The Drums’, this song never made the two albums The Stone Roses made. Where Angels Play was the B-Side to ‘I Wanna Be Adored’. Compared to I Wanna Be Adored, Where Angels Play is the complete opposite in terms of sounds. Whereas I Wanna Be Adored had the deep, dark sounds Where Angels Play is a happy cheerful song, regardless of the lyrics. “I don’t want you know bang bang bang gone oooooooo”. Where Angels Play defiantly deserved to be on the debut album by The Stone Roses, not because it is a brilliant song but also because it showed a complete opposite side to The Stone Roses.
Words by Brigid Harrison – Draper
The Masterplan // Oasis
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMazI2ROJXM?rel=0]
Arguably the best song that good ol’ Noel has ever written, it is an utter myth that ‘The Masterplan’ didn’t make the final What’s the Story Morning Glory line up. Although it later featured on their album of the same name, ‘The Masterplan’ album was made up of the b-sides from WTSMG so it is still able to make this list, in fact, I could have written about all of the songs from that album, but The Masterplan was the stand out song by a country mile.
Lyrically this is Noel at his best, and with an equally emotive vocal performance, this track is one of Oasis’ most underrated tracks, purely down to the fact that it was a b-side. I’m willing to wager that if this song had of made the album, this would have been one of their biggest hits.
‘The Masterplan’ features everything that’s right about Noel Gallagher’s song writing; lyrics that make little sense and yet still seem profound, an amazingly original yet simple chord progression and a sing-along chorus, truly a classic b-side.
Words by Alex L