AL STEWART : BED-SITTER IMAGES

  1. Bed-Sitter Images
  2. Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres
  3. The Carmichaels
  4. Scandinavian Girl
  5. Pretty golden hair
  6. Denise at 16
  7. Samuel, Oh How You've Changed!
  8. cleave to me
  9. A Long Way Down from Stephanie
  10. Ivich
  11. Beleeka Doodle Day
  12. lover man
  13. Clifton in the Rain
    Bonus Tracks :
  14. go your way
  15. my contemparies

Label : Collectors' Choice Music

Release Year : 1967

Length : 49:26

Review (AllMusic) : Bedsitter Images unveiled a promising but tentative folk-rock singer/songwriter. Al Stewart's songs already displayed his talent for observational storytelling, though at this point he was detailing ordinary lives of British people and autobiographical romance, rather than epic historical incidents. Most of the cuts used a full orchestra, and although the folk-baroque approach worked for some folk-rock artists of the era like Judy Collins, here it seemed ill-conceived. The orchestration was twee, which made the already precious songs seem yet twee-er; Stewart has subsequently expressed regret over the decision to use such production. His work would have sounded better with straightforward folk-rock arrangements, or even as solo acoustic tunes. Despite its faults, it's fairly engaging, highlighted by the lengthy "Beleeka Doodle Day." Not only does that track eliminate the orchestration, it's also the best song on the album, with a characteristically haunting melody and more forceful, melancholy lyrics than those heard on most of the rest of the tracks.

Review (Wikipedia) : Bed-Sitter Images is the debut studio album of folk artist Al Stewart, released in 1967, and again in a revised edition with a new cover picture in 1970. The songs were orchestrated by Alexander Faris. Although the cover of both editions spells "Bed-Sitter" with a hyphen, many reviews, and even Al Stewart's official website, spell the title as "Bedsitter Images". The album is commercially available as part of a 2-CD box set To Whom It May Concern, which contains Stewart's first three albums as well as both sides of his first single and the tracks added to the 1970 re-release, which also featured a new cover, and known as The First Album (Bed-Sitter Images). A new CD reissue in 2007 (Collectors' Choice Music) contains all tracks from both versions of the album plus bonus tracks. The album has also been released in Japan as The News from Spain (The First Album), with the addition of some later recordings by Stewart.