Don’t be fooled by the washed-out cover image of a gray-haired guitar player from Northern India wearing shades and a black tank top, singing into a microphone that appears to be planted on a beach. This isn’t an album of fun, summer party songs. In fact, TU -- a solo album from Clive Robin Sarstedt that, technically, could be considered the follow-up to his 1980 release, You Must Remember This -- is a rather dark singer-songwriter record with barely more instrumentation than an acoustic guitar. And Sarstedt’s laid-back vocals recall a slightly higher-voiced version of Neil Diamond and a more coherent Bob Dylan.
The subject matter can be bleak and some of the arrangements sound repetitive. But there’s something rewarding about (re)discovering an artist from yesteryear who's still making music that sounds relevant today.
Sarstedt -- whose older brother, Richard, transformed himself into teen idol Eden Kane -- became a beat-group sensation in Europe, eventually taking a cover of Hoagy Carmichael’s “My Resistance is Low” to No. 3 on the British charts. He also worked with the diverse likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber, ABBA’s Benny Andersson, future Kink Mick Avory and David Bowie producer Tony Visconti.
From blues (Dylan's "Thunder on the Mountain”) to ballads (“Song for Tessa”), Sarstedt doesn’t sing like a man in his mid-70s. He sounds even more formidable when backed by Michael Storey on keyboards and harmonica -- and drums on the dark and anxious “Shelby Farm.”
While Angel Air Records specializes in reissues, it’s good to see the Suffolk, England-based label also releasing new material -- especially when it sounds like this.
Track Listing:
1. Love Can Hurt
2. Back Again
3. Mellowed Out
4. Shelby Farm
5. Beirut
6. I Just Want to Rock ‘n’ Roll
7. Song for Tessa
8. Kiss the Children
9. Thunder on the Mountain
10. Losin’ End
11. Doggone
12. Forever Young
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