No need to apologise! Just thought it was funny we both shared that video. I’m loving the recent resurgence of this topic!
All this VB talk has led me to dust off my iTunes this morning and upload both albums to my phone ahead of a week-long work trip. Ready to indulge in all the greatness!
Last edited:
The Come Together tracks are nowhere near as good as Open Your Eyes. I'll Take You There, Spell on Me and Jealous Ones are my highlights from Come Together though. The lyric changes on the final version of Jealous Ones compared to the demo are interesting, it sort of seems like they tried to get rid of some of the more obvious references to the Spice Girls/make it a bit less personal/aggressive? I actually prefer the structure of the demo ddd
The demo (session singer):
The final version:
As for My Love is For Real, I've always thought it was a bit terrible? Apparently it was recorded in late 2004/early 2005 when she decided to ditch the urban tunes and start working on pop tracks again. But I am baffled that it was apparently going to be released as a single, quite a weak track compared to the material from the Telstar CDR, I don't think it would have done well.
The demo (session singer):
The final version:
As for My Love is For Real, I've always thought it was a bit terrible? Apparently it was recorded in late 2004/early 2005 when she decided to ditch the urban tunes and start working on pop tracks again. But I am baffled that it was apparently going to be released as a single, quite a weak track compared to the material from the Telstar CDR, I don't think it would have done well.
My Lose Is For Real is such an enigma. I remember it being mentioned in a celeb magazine, a source saying it was incredible and ready to be the next release.
But the leaks we have are clearly a demo, and a fan remix?
What I'm super intrigued about is this. What version was this remix made from? Is it actually Armand Van Helden? If so that's a pretty heavy hitting choice, and it does sound like it could be. The vocals in the remix are clearly the same song.
But the leaks we have are clearly a demo, and a fan remix?
What I'm super intrigued about is this. What version was this remix made from? Is it actually Armand Van Helden? If so that's a pretty heavy hitting choice, and it does sound like it could be. The vocals in the remix are clearly the same song.
he/him
I suppose it's how we only have the remix of Geri's 100% Pure Love in HQ and yet the actual song has never shown up. A similar thing happened with an unreleased Britney song called Guilty, we had what turned out to be a remix of it for years until the actual song leaked about a decade later.
Couldn't they have waited to go bust after My Love is For Real? That Johnny B mix is so good.
The remix isn't a fan remix, it is by Lenny B but got renamed when it leaked.
The Armand Van Helden leak was from his website so it is an official remix, though sounds more like a dub than a vocal mix.
The leaked version is a demo, though. Terry Ronald and Ian Masterson were brought on board to make the final mix, similar to Ian producing Ride It for Geri. On the Dannii Minogue forum, Terry once said that the leaked version was completely different to the version they worked on.
It is indeed from her last ever recording sessions as a solo artist in either late 2003 or early 2004 and it was scheduled for a spring release. There were talks of another pop song called Boyfriend if I remember correctly from the same time.
I might be the minority here but I love Victoria's r&b songs. Her version of Resentment is very endearing
A handful of the Open Your Eyes tracks definitely lean into that R&B soundscape so if that record was ever released some of those Come Together tracks could easily have been included/tagged on to make both camps happy.
Something along the lines of
01. Let Your Head Go
02. This Groove
03. Open Your Eyes
04. Be with You
05. Full Stop (feat. Nas)
06. Generate the Flow
07. I'll Take You There
08. The Hustla
09. Should Have Known Better
10. Come Together
11. Resentment (Elvis Song)
12. Freedom
13. Me and You This Time
14. I'd Give It All Away
15. Gone
Also, is it just me or does the melody of This Groove sound incredibly similar to Spice Girls 'Naked'?
Something along the lines of
01. Let Your Head Go
02. This Groove
03. Open Your Eyes
04. Be with You
05. Full Stop (feat. Nas)
06. Generate the Flow
07. I'll Take You There
08. The Hustla
09. Should Have Known Better
10. Come Together
11. Resentment (Elvis Song)
12. Freedom
13. Me and You This Time
14. I'd Give It All Away
15. Gone
Also, is it just me or does the melody of This Groove sound incredibly similar to Spice Girls 'Naked'?
Full Stop (Feat. Nas) has always perplexed me. Surely it's not actually Nas and just some random rapper? I'd love to get some confirmation.
Some of these listed titles are also fanmade, these are the official ones on the leaked CDR (i.e - Gone is Bitter Sweet):
I always wonder if Vicky B was trying to do what Mel C did with I Turn To You and that's why we've got this other version of Let Your Head Go - maybe she wanted to try and bag a club hit.
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!