Following a landmark year that saw his seminal 1980s band, The Loft, finally release their debut album, Everything Changes Everything Stays the Same, indie icon Pete Astor delves deeper into his personal archives with Unsent Letters (Home Recordings 1984-2024). Released on July 25th via Tapete Records, this new collection offers an intimate and unvarnished glimpse into a forty-year songwriting journey, a perfect companion piece to his band’s recent forward-facing return. Tapete have also shared a short documentary (watch below) that charts The Loft’s dramatic history.
Where The Loft’s new record bridges past and present, Unsent Letters is its charmingly unpolished counterpart. Described as the “weird cousin” to his extensive discography, this album compiles tracks that never left the home studio. From songs penned for The Loft that the band never played, to hidden gems from a career spanning Creation Records, Matador, and Heavenly, these are the forgotten treasures found “down the back of the sofa.” The collection, drawn from analogue and digital drawers, emerges blinking into the daylight, a little rough around the edges but full of stories to tell.
The album’s profound beauty lies in its raw authenticity. As Astor explains, these were “private recordings… made without thinking about them ever appearing.” Freed from the pressure of aiming for studio “perfection,” the songs possess a unique “openness, vulnerability and unguardedness” that is often lost in the formal recording process. This isn’t a polished retrospective but a candid series of snapshots, capturing the initial spark of creation across the decades.
For longtime admirers of the songwriter who helped define the emerging indie genre and has continued to evolve through numerous projects, Unsent Letters is an essential document. It’s a rare opportunity to hear an artist’s private thoughts, unfiltered and direct, finally delivered.
Unsent Letters (Home Recordings 1984-2024) is out on July 25th. Pete Astor has live dates in August and September (including a couple with KLOF favourite Emma Tricca).
Order Unsent Letters: https://peteastor.bandcamp.com/album/unsent-letters-home-recordings-1984-2024
Watch a Short Doc on The Loft’s debut album
Pete Astor’s forthcoming live dates
Sheffield Bishops House – 30th August (with Emma Tricca)
Sutton Sound Lounge – 31st August (with Emma Tricca)
Swansea, The Bunkhouse – 26th September
Bristol, Knowle Constitutional Club 28th September