zaynphallic

I know I've said this many times, but I think Bonnie's problem is that she's stuck in 2013 and will forever compare herself to her peers at that time and the success of the songs that she wrote with/for them. She still thinks that she needs a monster lead single (she keeps bringing up going viral on TikTok) and a big album campaign with lots of momentum around it to release new music. This couldn't be further from the truth in 2023. Now, the only way to build momentum is by releasing music consistently. We know Bonnie is sitting on 1000's of unreleased songs. There's no reason why she couldn't be dropping a song a month on Spotify to build a fanbase back up. She has 175K monthly listeners on there. Odds are, any of her new releases will show up in many of their Release Radar's, and she's had lots of luck with getting her independent releases places on Editorial Playlists in the past. Epic kept pushing back the release of "SLAY" in 2014, and Bonnie said she decided to go independent so she could release music more frequently. Cut to almost a DECADE later and we've had the (incredible) 4-track Bombastic EP, a Christmas song, two stand-alone singles and a couple features. She needs to let go of this idea of the stars needing to align perfectly before releasing anything. I know she's been done dirty by the industry, but she's a brilliant mind and talent and I wish she'd share her art more frequently and stop second guessing herself so she can get the respect and admiration she deserves. Whether or not the full unreleased Epic project ever materializes, I hope she can at least release "SLAY" and it's music video (which we know has been done for a while now) to close that chapter and finally move on. The vault concept was so cool, and it'd be such a shame for "SLAY" to get shelved yet again.

So is it safe to assume that Bonnie's given up on the Epic album release entirely? When the leaks started to trickle out she was very quick to have them removed from YouTube (especially "SLAY" in particular), but I just noticed the entire album has been up since August?! Knowing her personality and how inconsistent she can be when it comes to following through with releasing things, I wouldn't be surprised if she feels like the moment has passed. It's incredibly frustrating as this is genuinely one of the best pop albums of all time and it deserves a proper polished release. I hope I'm wrong and hope she's still working on things behind the scenes, but she's been super quiet as of late. I still, for the life of me, can't understand why she hasn't released SOMETHING in the past few years (not counting random Christmas and Halloween features 👻). It's been almost 4 YEARS since her last proper single release. She still has a strong monthly listener base on Spotify. She should be drip-feeding tracks from that 2019 album while she sorts the Epic stuff out. Remember when she said she was going independent so she could release music more frequently?! Anyway, end rant. The life of a Bon Bon is truly a cursed existence.

Same. That chorus!!! Does anyone know if a full version is out there?

No unfortunately. 😭 She said she never recorded the whole thing.

Well, this thread has been a ghost town lately! Did anyone listen to the live podcast that Bonnie did with Lindsey Stirling (whoever that is) yesterday? I didn't listen myself (and I can't find a recording of it) but someone on another forum posted that Bonnie said she does NOT own the masters to the Epic songs – despite saying many times that she did acquire them – and she is still in negotiations to release them. Y'all I'm so tired. Anyway, looks like she has a new Christmas song coming out tomorrow with Lindsey Stirling (who?)

Does anyone have "Wings" in decent quality that they can share? The full version I have sounds terrible, but I have a 45 second snippet in much better quality.

Listening to the final version of IWFCY rn

Thank you so much!!

Same.

Does anyone know any more info about "Tanlines"? I know Phangs released their (supremely subpar) version in 2020. Was it a leftover from her (still unreleased 🙄) 2019 album? It's definitely giving me darker "Thorns" vibes... but SO MUCH BETTER. Ugh. It's so frustrating that she won't just release something.

Tanlines literally has me SHOOK. Thanks so much for sharing. The bop that got away...

Based on the clips that Bonnie posted from her house party a couple months back, the final version of Hot City didn't really sound any different than the one we already have. Can y'all just do us a solid and leak the final versions of IWFCY and Electric Heaven so we can finally wake up up from this never-ending nightmare? 😩😭

Thank you soooooo much!

I hate to be a wet blanket, but if Bonnie has had this much trouble acquiring the rights to release "S.L.A.Y." (her own damn song that was never even released to begin with), there's no way she's going to put out songs like "Hit Me Up" or "Waking Up Diagonal" that were already commercially released by other artists (not like this album is ever coming out anyway).

Me every time Bonnie says "it's coming u guys!!" "sooner than u think!!" "polishing it up 4 u right now!!" "responding to the bop signal!!" whitney(1).mp4

https://krakenfiles.com/view/rr7E7g47Pz/file.html

I thought the same thing. In that 90 second clip that leaked (which is obviously a very rough demo) it almost sounds like she's saying "Show Me Your Love" at 1:07. (She's actually saying "Show me... hello" lol, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was just a rough demo and it was reworked).

Pretty sure she confirmed "Somebody's Gonna Get Hurt" was never going to be the album title, and the producer/engineer who listed that title on their website had just worked on that particular song. She's said many times that she had the entire album "ready to go" before she left Epic. Whether or not she landed on a title or finalized the artwork is another story. I remember back in the day she did an interview saying she had a title in mind but she wasn't sure. I wouldn't be surprised if it was "Don't Get Mad, Get Famous" as that was sort of her mantra and goal at the time. I said this a few pages back, but I really think that if (and it's a BIG IF) the album comes out, she should just call it "American Girl". Even though that song won't be on the album, it's the title that everybody associates that era with, and at least if people search "Bonnie McKee American Girl" in future it'll come up. It would be a nice way to finally close that chapter and move on.

Hopefully this new TikTok is a sign that the wheels are actually in motion again. 🙏

New Podcast: A few highlights: "Teenage Dream" was the most difficult song to write. Bonnie came up with the title. She and Katy talked about working together on the "Witness" album, but Katy wanted to work with a new team, and Bonnie was having a "mental breakdown at the time" (lol) so they ultimately felt it wouldn't be a good fit. She feels like the Epic songs are some of her best work, and that she was in her "peak era of writing pop hits". Said she believed in the album with all of her heart, but the label didn't understand it. She says the people at Epic at the time "were not really confident in themselves as a label", and if something "didn't immediately skyrocket, it was on to the next". Says "American Girl" was doing really well, but as soon as it started to dip a bit they jumped ship. She says she was "livid". Says the label agreed on "S.L.A.Y." being the second single, and so Bonnie landed the opening spot on the Karmin tour herself, and fronted the money for the tour herself, before Epic changed their mind on "S.L.A.Y." and left her to pay for the tour on her own. That's when she called her manager and said she wanted out. She talks about the leaked demos. Says she really appreciates that people give a shit about the songs, and it gives her hope and makes her feel validated, but it's also scary and violating because she doesn't understand how people got her hands on them. Says she's still dealing with shit trying to get the masters cleared. She built a whole set with her bare hands "for the fans" for the "S.L.A.Y." music video. I'm assuming she's talking about the vault she teased on Instagram. She says a couple years after everything fell apart at Epic, she still wanted to put out "S.L.A.Y." and a friend of hers was like "nobody says slay anymore". Lol. (I wonder if this is the same friend who convinced her to release "Thorns"?! I smell sabotage.) However she feels like the word "slay" is making a comeback (😂) and this is the universe telling her "slay bitch, let's go". She is thinking about calling the album "From the Vault" because she wants to be clear that these are old songs and a "walk down pop history lane". She wants to put out "S.L.A.Y." to help get some traction before releasing the new album. The new album is a lot darker, vulnerable and personal "but still BOPS". The Bombastic EP was supposed to be a full album, but her manager at the time convinced her to make it an EP. (🙄) She said she wishes she put more songs on it, and after it was released her manager "didn't love it" anyway. She says a lot of time she listens to people who think they have authority on taste, but they don't. (Lol no kidding). She says she really didn't want to give up "Naked" and "I Don't Care" because they were really personal to her. She wrote a song with Miley for "Bangerz" that didn't make it because it "wasn't that great". She thought about keeping "Let There Be Love" for herself because she knew it was a smash, and was annoyed Xtina didn't really do much with it. She talks briefly about "California Winter" (yasss), and says she tries to push it every year because she believes it will be a classic. She had to do a one-shot video because there was like "two weeks to Christmas" and she didn't have time to edit it. (We love our last minute queen). The host brings up "Stud Muffin" (screams!). Bonnie said her friend worked at Quest Bar and had a budget for a song/music video. 🤣 She says it's "so dumb" but she "loves it". She ends off by naming her Top 5 songs she's written/co-written... #5) "American Girl" #4) "Forever Drunk" by Peach PRC (surprising to see this here, since Bonnie hasn't really promoted it. But she says Peach is a former stripper and sent her a video stripping to "American Girl" lol) #3) "Wide Awake" #2) "Roar" #1) "Teenage Dream" (says the title has really gone on to make it's mark in pop culture history, and "the title was mine.")

So we're all pretty much in agreement that "Forever 21" would have been the third single after "S.L.A.Y." back in the day, right? What an absolute ANTHEM of a song.

I don't know enough about the music industry to know how publishing works, but random thing I noticed / thought of... Two of Dr. L*ke's publishing companies ("Prescription Songs" and "Where Da Kasz At") own publishing rights to S.L.A.Y. I wonder if he found out Bonnie was planning to release it and is trying to block the release? She's low-key dragged him in a few recent-ish podcasts saying she "made a deal with the devil", etc. Obviously they are not on good terms.

Can't wait for the "S.L.A.Y. (2028 Demo)" leak!

Third'ing this! As expected Bonnie's gone quiet again. We're not getting this album any other way. 😭