Regarding an earlier discussion point - this CD-R was bought by some of the admins on DenDen forum (RIP x). I seem to remember that the seller mentioned that it had been salvaged during an office clear out.
When it arrived, there was a lot of discussion about what to do with it. I was a mod on there so I saw their discussions, although I wasn't directly involved. They were very concerned about potential legal troubles. Eventually they decided to make some changes - such as altering the track lengths, changing some titles, rejigging the track list, excluding some songs, and also giving it the name of "Open Your Eyes". Then it was leaked in September 2006. The admins managed to pull this off in a way that it didn't link back to them at all, so it was mission accomplished!
I think most fans were initially in the dark about the above CD-R, and certainly the media/the general public had no clue about it. So the newspapers reported on it as though this really was a finished but scrapped studio album called Open Your Eyes, when really it's a demos/work in progress disc. A couple of the tracks on that CD-R have vocals by a session singer. Sometimes I wonder if Victoria was bemused by the reports about specifically having scrapped studio albums called Open Your Eyes and Come Together given that these are fan-created.
I wonder how close Victoria got to ironing out the details of which tracks would be on her second album, before the plug was pulled on the project? Even with all of those tracks across the two CD-Rs, it seems they weren't hearing a potential second single out of any of those sessions, considering that My Love Is for Real was recorded. It makes me wonder if she recorded any other songs in 2004, that we don't know about. Or if it's the case that future recording sessions were planned, but never happened because of Telstar folding?
It's truly a fascinating era! Apparently the earliest work on it began in late 2002? Evidently she was still working on it a few months into 2004... so that was quite a lot of time and effort put into recording so much music that didn't end up seeing the light of day commercially.
It's a shame how things turned out (as a fan of her musically, I mean - of course things turned out very well for Victoria otherwise!). I think she'd found her groove (pun intended) as a solo popstar during the promotion of the This Groove/Let Your Head Go single. To me she came across as being very self-assured in the music videos and performances, she was great. I would have loved to have seen and heard more from her beyond that single, but alas. (Such a pity that they've never been available digitally either).
I also really would have loved a Victoria interview about all of this, but I honestly feel like there's more chance of her rejoining the Spice Girls for a world tour than for her to sit down for a deep dive discussion about her solo music career!
