Peter Sarstedt

CD - The Lost Album

Play 90 second soundbite of 'A Way Leading Out' @ 'CD quality'

Well, unless you've followed Peter Sarstedt's musical progress over the last thirty odd years you'll probably be under the misconception that Sarstedt only really ever had one single, 'Where Do You Go To, My Lovely', and then vanished off the face of the earth. Well of course you'd be wrong coz Sarstedt has continued to be a pretty prolific recording artist with impressive worldwide album sales - although from a 'hits' point of view there wasn't much else to write home about I suppose.

Anyway, this album was originally recorded way back in June 1970 and for some strange reason it was never released and consequently never saw the light of day; the master tape was lost and only came to light some thirty or so years later when the album's producer came across some safety master tapes buried in his loft. After restoring the tapes and adding a couple of bonus tracks including a previously unheard version of 'Where Do You Go To, My Lovely', 'The Lost Album' is finally being released to coincide with the release of Wes Anderson's movie 'The Darjeeling Limited' which features 'the' song. And, Sarstedt fans will be thrilled by this great piece of 'memorabilia' from a singer/songwriter that always had a 'gift' for sensitivity and poetic music. Although having been born in India, Sarstedt has that unmistakable Britishness within his beautiful music and generally his poetry-in-music is pretty timeless. Sarstedt is less country than John Denver but similarly descriptive and 'light' in feel - just listen to tracks like 'A way Leading Out', 'Rain', 'Margueritte' and 'Another Day' - great work from a guy who has 'nothing to prove'.

I have to admit to being slightly blown away by this album; considering it's actual age, most of the tracks are just as musically viable now as they would have been in the 70's. Lyrically, Sarstedt's sentimentality shines through and is absolutely typical of his early works and yet, apart from a few 'hip' words here and there, it all still works damn well today. The Sarstedt signature delivery is just as you'd expect and want; precise, crisp, clean and tangible. Compositionally, the music carries its years well and the only really noticeable hark-back to those hazy days of this recording are occasional instrumental naiveties - not in musicianship, I hasten to add, but in the equipment available, the honest playing techniques that such equipment limitations brought about, and the basic recording facilities and gadgetry compared with today's digitally enhanced studios and instrumentation fx etc. With all that in mind, actually, this is a crackin' little album!!

Peter Sarstedt fans will love this work and I can easily see Sarstedt picking up some new followers through this album; there are quite a few tracks which could, even today, be lifted to be used as singles and very successfully methinks! Thoroughly enjoyable, bright, harmless yet as infectious as hell - very tasty indeed!!

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