Omnivore
's 2020 collection
Something New: Unreleased Gold
unearths demo recordings
Andrew Gold
cut at Clover Recorders with
Chuck Plotkin
during a pair of sessions in 1973 while he continued to lead
Linda Ronstadt
's backing band but had his eyes on a solo career. After he helped turn
Ronstadt
's
Heart Like a Wheel
into a smash hit, he was onto something else by 1975; by that point, had discarded most of the material here in favor of a fresh songbook, leaving
as a sort of prehistory to his career as a recording artist. Much of the album plays like a demo tape, particularly the preponderance of songs where he's supported by no more than a guitar or piano. These unadorned tracks do demonstrate his songwriting chops but it's the full-band demos that display his talent for arrangement and melody. "Something New" and "Prisoner" -- and, on the CD, "A Note from You" -- are the hooks into the rest of the album, which tends to be stronger when he's sitting at the piano delivering stately pop and sprightly trifles such as "Timothy Corey." While these beg to be fleshed out, they're still graceful and clever, the very qualities that flourished once he signed with
Asylum
and put out a series of slick soft rock LPs in the late '70s. Make no mistake,
Something New
is rougher than any of these, particularly when he's strumming a doleful acoustic guitar, but his core signatures are in place, making this collection low-key revelatory in addition to being quite fun. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine