As the title suggests this is a collection of home recordings and demos for songs that never made it onto the albums Pete made with The Loft, The Weather Prophets or solo during the 40 years of his career in music. They are the unpolished gems Pete found when going though old cassettes, reels, dats or hard drives.
The album opens with Three Score Years that has a synth rhythm track and keyboards for Pete's song about the biblical idea of a full life being Three Score Years And Ten, it has great observances on life and casually lifted phrases, we all hope we get our full measure of life.
Stop Go has a chorus that seems to have been designed to sing along too in a huge crowd, only he is concerned about how you end up in the graveyard before your time over the sparse synth pop backing.
John Jonah is a message he wanted to send to someone's boss, about whatever it was that brought down John Jonah, carefully picked acoustic guitar adds feeling and cadence to this tale along with a jangly guitar solo hoping Spiderman doesn't get him.
When Vincent Started To Play is hushed reverent folk in praise of seeing and hearing exactly what Vincent played live that changed his whole world. The Nothing Box takes us back to the 1960's coffee bar scene, giving us a strummed history lesson on various parts of pop culture.
Kevlar Heart is a slow strummed song of the strength of his heart that's totally impervious to everything you try to break it. Every Happy Day has synth strings on a low-fi chamber pop evocation of young love and how he aches and yearns for your love.
Time Turns Tail takes a Mungo Jerry Rhythm and adds some strings and memories of things past and how you can never get back to that magical place again, perfect for singing round the campfire.
Uncrowned sounds angry and bitter, he wants out and the jangly guitars have some synths underneath that sound like they could have been fleshed out into a dark grunge epic, before it breaks down and goes all hippy folk, he looks at the clock and wonders why he hasn't left yet.
Deadpan Man is the sort of guy who answers any question without emotion, unlike the emotive jangling guitars that accompany this tune. The Good Ship is in praise of the now long-gone venue around the corner from here, this was written to try to save that cool little music pub, I still miss going there to see among others Attila The Stockbroker, The Dirty Strangers and John Otway none of whom are the people Pete sings about. I miss having music venues within walking distance of home.
Another Perfect Day uses the 96 Tears tune to liberally sprinkle it with new ideas about Pete's idea of a Perfect Day that isn't as smashed on smack as Lou Reed's one. Broken Hearts A Go Go does what it say it will, over some woodblock percussion, an acoustic guitar and organ, Pete pours out his heart for all those Broken Hearts he sees strewn all around.
When Did You Die asks the question for an old friend who he didn't hear had left the party, we've all done it asked a friend about someone you've not seen in a while to find out they died years ago, you had just lost touch with them. Rags are apparently hanging from the bushes tonight as the organ and acoustic guitar help keep the emotions in check at all the drama that happens when you get home far too late. The album closes with My Little World is in praise of having everything in its rightful place, an ode to an ordered life among the madness we are often surrounded by.
Find out more at https://shop.tapeterecords.com/pete-astor-unsent-letters-home-recordings-1984-2024-4359 https://peteastor1.bandcamp.com/album/unsent-letters https://www.facebook.com/peteastor http://www.peteastor.com/
