There’s something very special about a good quality demo recording. It can capture a certain moment in time and have an energy that can get buried beneath a fancy production or crushed by the weight of an expensive studio. To quote Gene Simmons, “It’s better to have a little dirt under the fingernails” and that’s exactly what Francis Rossi’s latest album serves up. Featuring 17 previously unreleased demo tracks, The Way We Were Vol. 1 raids the archives to serve up a selection of songs that bristle with energy and offer an intriguing glimpse into the working process of Francis Rossi.
For some people the words “demo recordings” will conjure images of songs recorded on C60 cassettes then rediscovered years later from the bottom of an old shoe box. While such curios have charm and historical importance, they have a whiff of desperation about them, a feeling of scraping the bottom of the barrel. Thankfully, The Way We Were Vol. 1 exists at the other end of the spectrum and the layman would never guess that this was a collection of songs in gestation. Opening shot ‘Gotta Get Up And Go’ is indicative of this and encapsulates all that we love about Rossi’s songwriting chops and the parred back nature of this recording brings it into sharp focus. That jaunty guitar riff is totally addictive and immediately reels the listener in like a fish with hook in mouth. With a cool shuffle and Francis’ lyrics dancing atop, in terms of energy it totally smokes the version that appeared on The Party Ain’t Over Yet. As with most of these tracks which would latter appear on albums, you won’t find them acting in strange, new ways, yet they offer a rare glimpse behind the curtain and allow you to view their inner workings.
The Way We Were Vol. 1 isn’t just a collection of tracks hastily thrown together. It sounds as if a great deal of thought has been put into the sequencing of this album and subsequently it ebbs and flows like an old school record and we get the lively ‘Money Don’t Matter’ (powered by the kind of riff with which The Darkness made a career) sitting next to the whimsical ‘Faded Memory’ which rubs shoulders with the muscular ‘Another Day’ quite effortlessly. Despite the various locations and different sources from which this collection is culled, this album makes for a smooth, seamless listen and it makes for a far more interesting experience that the usual greatest hits/best of compilations record labels usually churn out.
The Way We Were Vol. 1 finds Francis Rossi drawing deep from his personal archive, and I can’t wait for the next instalment.
- The Way We Were Vol. 1 is released on 2nd May 2025.
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Track Listing:
- Gotta Get Up And Go *
- Pennsylvania Blues Tonight **
- Scary Mary ***
- You’ll Come ‘Round ****
- Tongue Tied **
- Electric Arena **
- I Don’t Wanna Hurt You Anymore **
- If You Believe *****
- Tallulah’s Waiting *****
- Money Don’t Matter ******
- Faded Memory *****
- Another Day ******
- Why Am I Walking ***
- Load On My Mind ***
- Strike Like Lightning *****
- Can’t Change The World ***
- Life Has Changed ***
*demo version of track from The Party Ain’t Over Yet
** demo version of track from In Search Of The Fourth Chord
*** unreleased
**** demo version of track from XS All Areas
***** demo version of track from One Step At A Time
****** demo version of track from Heavy Traffic
