Rock Archeologia

Walter Egan - The Lost Album 2000 Renaissance Records

Artist: Walter Egan
Album: The Lost Album
Label: Renaissance Records, inc.
Catalog#: 236
Release Date: Oct. 10, 2000
Country: USA
Genre: Rock, Pop-Rock
Total Time: 00:55:30

• Album "The Lost Album" was actually recorded in 1984 and 1985, after Walter Egan was dropped from Backstreet/MCA. The idea was to record the album and then shop it around to record labels. Somehow that never quite happened and many of the songs on the album remain unfinished.
• It's quite a shame that this would not see the light of day until some 15 years after its recording. The music is just as strong and catchy as any of Egan's other material and many of the tracks even feature guest performances by well known artists - including: Randy California of the band Spirit, Jackson Browne, and Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac. Favorites Songs this album include "Only Love is Left Alive," "Silvery Sleep," and "The Loneliest Boy."

• Like his genius cohort Lindsey Buckingham, who again helps out here, Egan is an infinitely talented oddball, but also such a consummate professional that his lofty tunes sometimes slide right through the public consciousness. Thus, his songs are more successful covered by other acts (Gram Parsons, Night), just as Buckingham benefits from the contrast of Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie (who also makes an appearance). Musically, the '80s are not very fondly remembered, and West Coast class fell out of vogue in the '70s, but this unreleased record from 1985 delivers well-crafted sophisti-pop which is, of course, very easy to digest. The term "Spielberg sky" from the very cool "Invisible Man" descries the inaccessibility of Egan's almost too-perfect ditties: high quality but sometimes too deceptively clear. This tune also drops an autobiographical Dangerfield reference. The remainder of the release renders further study in the cynical Californication of this former East-Coaster. Besides Egan's disdain for label politics snaking subtly through the lyrics, a weary personal disenchantment creeps to the surface. Egan dedicates The Lost Album to the spirit of Randy California, and one cut, "Silvery Sleep" (an Elvis Presley anagram), laments a friend's suicide. In "Loneliest Boy," Buckingham cannibalizes his own acoustic finger-work from "Never Go Back Again," as Egan did indeed drop out for more than a decade (excepting a singular, unobtrusive return to his surf roots on A Malibu Kind of Christmas). ~ Doug Stone

 • Tracklist:

01. Hard Love 02:22
02. Only Love Is Left Alive (Ft Christine McVie) 03:00
03. Jean (Ft Lindsey Buckingham) 03:01
04. The Faces People Make 04:03
05. Silvery Sleep (Ft Christine McVie) 05:13
06. Someone Like You (Ft Lindsey Buckingham) 03:03
07. Invisible Man (Ft Randy California) 03:47
08. Loneliest Boy (Ft Chris Darrow & Lindsey Buckingham) 04:08
09. Pistols of Power 03:55
10. Challenger (Ft Jackson Browne) 03:36
11. Stop Don't Stop 03:44
12. Sisters of the Moon 05:32
  Bonus Tracks:
13. Magnet & Steel 03:25
14. Hot Summer Nights 04:12

   Recorded at Mad Dog Studio, Venice, California
   from December 1984 to February 1985.

Members:

All Instruments & Vocals by Walter Egan
and The Professional Band except:
Lindsey Buckingham - Guitar on "Jean" and "The Loneliest Boy,"
and Piano on "Someone Like You," and Harmony Vocal on "Jean"
Christine McVie - Backing Vocals on "Silvery Sleep" and "Only Love is Left Alive"
Chris Darrow - Fiddle, Squeezebox, and Ocharina on "The Loneliest Boy"
Jackson Browne - Vocal on "Challenger"
Randy California - Guitar on "Invisible Man"
David Woodford - Horns

-----  ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ ----- 

---