The former Loft and Weather Prophets frontman rescues deep cuts from his past and reworks them for a wonderful new album. “Twenty Twenty-Four” marks the 40th anniversary of Pete Astor’s musical career, which started with early Creation Records bands The Loft and The Weather Prophets, and later The Wisdom of Harry (who were signed to Matador) and a long and rewarding solo career. To mark the occasion, he’s gone back through his discography to re-record and rework a few songs. To help him do it, he’s got an amazing band: drummer Ian Button (Death in Vegas, Go Kart Mozart), bassist Andy Lewis (Paul Weller), guitarist Wilson Neil Scott (Felt, Everything But the Girl) and keyboardist Sean Read (Beth Orton, Iggy Pop, Edwyn Collins, etc).
Where most artists would pick their most well-known material, Astor eschews singles like The Loft’s “Up and Down the Slope” and The Weather Prophets’ “Why Does the Rain” in favour of songs that meant more to him and that he felt would benefit from dusting off and getting a new coat of paint. “Throughout this record I was able to revisit the songs,” Astor says in the album’s detailed, thoughtful liner notes, “which allowed me to sit inside what I’d written in a way that I felt I was able to balance the way that they still made sense to me now, looking to the future and that big, new country, the past.”
Astor’s voice has aged like a fine wine, and I don’t think he’s ever made a better-sounding album; rich and warm with inspired production touches like the arpeggiated synths and spaghetti western guitars on one-chord-wonder “Chinese Cadillac” that was originally a Weather Prophets b-side, and the sun-dappled folk of “The Emperor, The Dealer and The Birthday Boy” (originally on his 1991 solo album, “Zoo”). He’s managed to flip a few of his own forgotten properties into something truly special. Sometimes, the best cuts are the deepest.
released March 15th, 2024
The Fat Angel Sings 