(2020) Al Stewart - 24 Carrots [40th Anniversary Edition]


Review:
Scottish singer-songwriter Al Stewart released his first album in 1967 but didn’t break into the lucrative American market until 1974’s Past, Present, and Future (released 1973 in the U.K.).  While that LP only peaked within the second half of the Billboard 200, the history-themed concept album paved the way for what was to follow. Stewart made the upper echelons of the Billboard chart with 1975’s Modern Times (No. 30), setting the stage for the following year’s Year of the Cat (No. 5 U.S./No. 38 U.K.) and its 1978 follow-up Time Passages (No. 10 U.S./No. 39 U.K.). With that pair of releases, Stewart’s move from folk-rock to mainstream pop paid off and he finally attained international stardom. Both yielded hit title tracks (No. 8 U.S./No. 31 U.K. for “Year of the Cat,” No. 7 U.S. for “Time Passages”) and heavy radio airplay. Stewart’s ninth album, 1980’s punningly-titled 24 Carrots, built on the foundation laid by its two predecessors while establishing a sound of its own.  It’s recently been reissued in a 3-CD 40th anniversary deluxe edition by Cherry Red’s Esoteric Recordings imprint. Whereas Year of the Cat and Time Passages had both been produced by studio auteur Alan Parsons, Stewart opted to self-produce 24 Carrots with engineer Chris Desmond.  He enlisted his touring band, known as Shot in the Dark, to join him on the LP and in fact introduced some of its songs on the road.  The group consisted of Stewart’s frequent collaborator Peter White on keyboards and guitar; Adam Yurman on electric guitar; Robin Lamble on bass and violin; Brian Savage on saxophone and flute; Robin Marlette on keyboards; Mark Sanders on drums; and Krysia Kristianne on background vocals.  Additional musicians were brought into the sessions, too, including Lenny Castro on congas, Russ Kunkel and Jeff Porcaro on drums, and The Incredible String Band’s Robin Williamson on mandocello, a plucked string instrument in the mandolin family.  Concurrently with the 24 Carrots sessions, Stewart and Desmond produced a self-titled LP for Shot in the Dark which would be issued on the RSO label.  24 Carrots was released in May 1980 on RCA (U.K.) and Arista (U.S.). Once again, Stewart was able to meld slick commercialism with individual, distinctive, and unusual lyrical material. The urgent “Running Man” was inspired by the stories of Nazi war criminals escaping to South America; “Merlin’s Time” wasn’t about the Camelot-era wizard but about a Scottish warrior of centuries past; “Murmansk Run/Ellis Island” was named for the dangerous WWII route in which Canadian seamen sailed into the Arctic to deliver war materials to Russia as well as for the U.S.’ immigration gateway.  Stewart earned another U.S. top 30 hit and a top 20 AC entry with “Midnight Rocks,” featuring the by-now-trademark of a saxophone solo following “Year of the Cat” and “Time Passages.”  Stewart was eager to drop that practice much as Arista chief Clive Davis, as ever, urged him in a commercial direction.  In reissue producer Mark Powell’s liner notes, Stewart even recalls Davis presenting him with outside material much as he had with other singer-songwriters on his roster including Barry Manilow and Melissa Manchester.  Stewart resisted.  24 Carrots performed respectably, reaching No. 37 in the U.S. and No. 55 on the U.K. Albums Chart. 24 Carrots has been reissued twice before in expanded editions.  Razor and Tie’s 1994 iteration appended three previously issued live tracks, and Collectors’ Choice Music’s 2007 release added three studio tracks.  Esoteric’s new reissue adds two single versions to the remastered original album (“Running Man” and “Paint by Numbers”) and two (mostly) previously unissued bonus discs.  First is The Demo Sessions, featuring Stewart and Shot in the Dark’s August 1979 Davlen Studios demos that led directly to the creation of 24 Carrots.  The demo here of the outtake “Ringing of Bells” was included on the Collector’s Choice disc in a slightly different version.  The third CD has the eight-song Live at Hammersmith Odeon from Stewart’s December 10, 1980 performance at that London venue including renditions of “Year of the Cat,” “Time Passages,” and 24 Carrots’ “Mondo Sinistro” and “Running Man.”





Tracklist:
CD 1
01.Running Man
02.Midnight Rocks
03.Constantinople
04.Merlin’s Time
05.Mondo Sinistro
06.Murmansk Run – Ellis Island
07.Rocks in the Ocean
08.Paint by Numbers
09.Optical Illusion
10.Running Man (Single Version)
Paint by Numbers (Single Version)

CD 2: The Demo Sessions
01.Midnight Rocks
02.Murmansk Run - Ellis Island (Demo Version)
03.Running Man (Demo Version) [Instrumental]
04.Paint By Numbers (Demo Version)
05.Jackdaw (Demo)
06.The World Goes to Riyadh (Demo Version)
07.Merlin's Time (Instrumental Demo)
08.The Ringing of Bells (Demo)

CD 3: Live at Hammersmith Odeon (previously unreleased)
01.Running Man (Live)
02.Time Passages (Live)
03.Broadway Hotel (Live)
04.Mondo Sinistro (Live)
05.Roads to Moscow (Live)
06.On the Border (Live)
07.Year of the Cat (Live)
08.If It Doesn’t Come Naturally, Leave It (Live)

Media Report:
Genre: soft rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits